Michael Mailer Movies

Shirley MacLaine stars as a woman who heads off to Las Vegas with her best friend (played by Jacki Weaver) after recieving a Social Security check improperly made out to be hundreds of thousands of dollars, only to make the 'most wanted' list by the authorities. Howard Deutch directs. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Waiting for Dr. MacGuffin director David Ondaatje takes his love for the "Master of Suspense" to the next logical step with this updating of the 1926 Alfred Hitchcock classic which shifts the action from turn-of-the-century London to contemporary Los Angeles. Adapted from the same Marie Belloc Lowndes novel that inspired the early Hitchcock effort, Ondaatje's thriller follows a mysterious lodger suspected of being a vicious copycat killer. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Adapted from Joseph C. Lincoln's best-selling novel Can'n Eri, this gentle tale of three retired sea captains living together and looking to get their house in order features an all-star cast including David Carradine, Rip Torn, Bruce Dern, and Mariel Hemingway. The story begins in turn of the century Cape Cod, where Captain Jerry Burgess (Torn), Captain Perez (Dern), and Captain Zeb (Carradine) decide that the only way to get their house in order is for one of them to get married. When no one jumps at the prospect of taking a bride, they decide to flip a coin and Captain Jerry is selected as the groom-to-be. After placing an ad for a mail-order bride in a big-city newspaper, the trio gets a response from Martha Snow (Hemingway), who hails from nearby Nantucket. The plan seems to be going along just fine until Captain Jerry gets cold feet, prompting Captain Perez to work overtime to keep Martha from leaving. But as Captain Jerry attempts to work up the confidence to propose, a strange thing happens: Captain Zeb falls in love with Martha and proposes. Now, if Captain Jerry can just find it within himself to forgive and old friend, this seafaring trio may find that everything will work out in the end. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

When a former N.S.A. Special Ops Agent-turned private security professional discovers a link between the murder of his sister and her young son and a highly secretive religious cult known as the Shadow of the Cross, he sets out to find the person responsible and uncover the motivation behind the brutal killing in a dark thriller from director Thaddeus O'Sullivan. Joe Lassiter (Samuel L. Jackson) is a man in search of answers, and when a series of clues lead him to an Italian fertility clinic where his sister and twelve other women were artificially impregnated, the discovery that the building has been consumed by fire raises more questions than it answers. It appears that every one of the women impregnated at the clinic, along with their sons, have been murdered by the Shadow of the Cross - every one except one, that is. Famous thriller novelist Candice Banks is the sole surviving member of the group, and a very public figure who Joe had recently relocated in order to help her elude a particularly persistent stalker. When Joe discovers that a fanatical Victorian doctor had impregnated the women with the DNA from an item plundered from the Vatican catacombs and said to contain the blood of Jesus Christ in hopes of bringing about the second coming, his race to protect that child from the Shadow of the Cross, whose members believe the child to be the anti-Christ, finds him facing off against a team of determined killers who believe it their mission from God to see that the child is exterminated. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Make-believe murder becomes all too real in this high-tech tale of terror. Jake Cummings (Jensen Ackles) is a stressed-out college student and computer technician who gets an unusual birthday present from one of his best friends -- an interactive video game called "The Pathway," which allows players to take part even when they aren't at their monitors. However, the nightmarish visions of the game begin haunting Jake's dreams and then taking over his waking hours as the violence of "The Pathway" stops being play and starts becoming reality. Has the game become possessed by malevolent spirits? And how can it be stopped? Devour also stars Dominique Swain and Shannyn Sossamon. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Peter Masterson's Lost Junction stars Billy Burke as Jimmy McGee, a hitchhiker who becomes involved with Missy Lofton (Neve Campbell) after she offers him a ride. He discovers that her husband's dead body is also along for the ride in the trunk. Jimmy has fallen for Missy and helps her get rid of any trace of the body. Her unstable boyfriend (Charles Powell) and Jimmy's handicapped friend (Jake Busey) round out the cast. Lost Junction was screened at the Santa Monica Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Director and screenwriter James Toback used his own experiences as a college student in the 1960s as the basis for this drama about a present-day student athlete who's bitten off more than he can chew. Alan Jensen (Adrian Grenier) is a college sophomore struggling to keep up with an unusually busy schedule -- while studying philosophy as a Harvard undergrad, he's also a point guard on the school's basketball team, and is juggling two girlfriends, cheerleader Cindy Bandolini (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Chesney (Joey Lauren Adams), a professor ten years his senior. As Alan tries to stay on top of his classes and keep his love life sorted out, he receives some bad news from his parents -- a tornado has devastated their home, and they need $100,000 to rebuild. Alan wants to help his parents, and as it happens, Cindy's father is a Mafia boss tied in with a number of powerful bookies. Cindy uses her family's connection to put Alan in touch with Teddy (Eric Stoltz), a bookie who's willing to give Alan $100,000 in exchange for throwing a few games and shaving some points. Cindy also uses her dad's bankroll to place a quarter-million dollar bet on the upcoming Harvard-Dartmouth game, certain Alan can ensure a predictable outcome. But when the games don't go quite the way Alan expected, despite his best worst effort, he finds himself in dutch with the Mafia, while also attracting the attention of FBI agents who've been investigating Teddy and his associates. Amidst this chaos, Alan hops a jet home to give his parents the ill-gotten $100,000, and on the flight back decides to relax mid-flight by dropping a heroic dose of LSD, which turns out not to be one of his better ideas. Harvard Man was originally intended to star Leonardo DiCaprio as Alan, but after the project was put on hold in 1994, DiCaprio rocketed to fame in Titanic, which priced himself out of the project by the time James Toback was able to return to it years later. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The inner workings of the New York hip-hop scene, and the fascination of white observers with rap music and hip-hop culture, set the stage for this drama written and directed by James Toback. Rich Bower (Power) is a mover and shaker in the world of rap music (he's involved with a number of other licit and illicit business ventures as well), and his apartment is a favored meeting place for musicians, hangers-on, and hipsters who want to seem cool, including a clique of white kids who want to be on the inside of whey they consider the coolest scene of the day. Sam (Brooke Shields), a filmmaker, is making a documentary about Rich and his circle, with the help of her husband Terry (Robert Downey Jr.), a closeted homosexual who doesn't feel at home in this milieu. Dean (Allan Houston) is a talented college basketball player and Rich's friend since childhood who is offered a deal by a bookmaker, Mark (Ben Stiller) to throw a few games for a price. Dean takes the money against his better judgment, and he soon realizes how much of a mistake he made when Mark turns out to be a cop hoping to dig up dirt on Rich. Rich in turn discovers that Dean might be forced to tell what he knows to stay out of jail, and he decides that Dean has to be killed; however, rather than murder his friend himself, Rich asks one of the white kids who hangs out with him, who seems especially eager to prove himself, to do it for him. The kid, however, is actually the son of the District Attorney. Also contributing to Black and White's supporting cast are controversial boxing legend Mike Tyson, musician Bijou Phillips, Wu Tang Clan rapper Raekwon, model Claudia Schiffer, and Donald Trump's former spouse Marla Maples. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Religion, Inc. was originally -- and very briefly -- released as A Fool and His Money. While watching TV, ex-adman Morris Codman (Jonathan Penner) receives a message from God. Advised by the Almighty to go into business for himself, Codman inaugurates his own religion, founded on a philosophy of selfishness. Two distinguished men of letters appear in Religion Inc -- George Plimpton (as God!) and Jerzy Kosinski -- but that's not why this loser is currently available on video shelves. It seems that a pre-Speed Sandra Bullock shows up fleetingly as a long-suffering public defender. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi