Nancy Klopper Movies

A principled thief seeks vengeance against the gang of criminals who left him for dead following a major heist as author Donald E. Westlake's pulp anti-hero returns to the screen under the assured direction of Hollywood veteran Taylor Hackford (The Devil's Advocate, Ray). When veteran thief Hurley (Nick Nolte) assembles a crackerjack crew for a big heist at the Ohio State Fair, his fiercely independent protégé Parker (Jason Statham) is the perfect man to take the lead on the job. Together with Melander (Michael Chiklis), Ross (Clifton Collins Jr.), Hardwicke (Micah Hauptman), and Carlson (Wendell Pierce), Parker successfully pulls off a daring daytime heist that nets the crew more than $1 million. But when Parker respectfully declines Melander's offer to invest their take in an ambitious diamond heist with a massive potential payday, he is unceremoniously shot and left for dead. Unfortunately for Melander and his gang, Parker is still very much alive, and he's determined to have his revenge. With the help of Hurley and Hurley's daughter Claire (Emma Booth), Parker manages to learn that the heist will take place in West Palm Beach, FL, and he travels there to pose as a wealthy Texan seeking to purchase a new home. Meanwhile, astute real-estate agent Leslie Rodgers (Jennifer Lopez) quickly sees through Parker's game and asks to get a cut of the action. Now a team, Parker and Leslie figure out that the gang is planning to hit a high-profile jewelry auction. All they have to do is wait until Melander and his men have pulled off the heist. Once the jewels are secure and the thieves are lying low at a local house, the stage will be set for Parker to take his revenge and make a small fortune in the process. ~ Rovi

Director Taylor Hackford explores the rift that opens between Grace and Charlie Bontempo -- the husband-and-wife owners of Nevada's first legal brothel -- after ambitious entrepreneur Charlie attempts to expand his dominion by inviting South American heavyweight boxer Armando Bruza to train at the ranch. When passions ignite between Grace (Helen Mirren) and Armando (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), Charlie's jealousy threatens to be the wrecking ball that brings his entire empire crumbling to the ground. Mark Jacobson adapts the screenplay based on a true story that ended with the death of boxer Oscar Bonavena at the Mustang Ranch in 1976. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Jon Avnet's thriller Righteous Kill stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as a pair of Big Apple police officers investigating a series of murders committed by a serial killer. Carla Gugino co-stars as a crime-scene investigator who has romantic ties to De Niro. 50 Cent, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy, and John Leguizamo co-star. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A girl plays Cupid for her mom, but has to invent the right man to woo her in this romantic comedy. Jean Hamilton (Heather Locklear) is a single mother with two daughters, teenaged Holly (Hilary Duff) and grade-school-aged Zoe (Aria Wallace). Fortysomething Jean has stumbled in and out of a number of bad relationships in her lifetime, and is desperate to find a good man; however, Holly has grown a bit tired of Jean's favored means of therapy after a bad breakup -- packing up the family and moving to a new city. Once Jean and her girls settle in Brooklyn, Holly thinks they should stay for a while, and when Jean's romantic prospects begin to look less than rosy, Holly and her new friend Amy (Vanessa Lengies) decide to invent a secret admirer for her. Needing advice on what the "perfect man" would say and do, Holly and Amy turn to Ben (Chris Noth), Amy's uncle, who talks a very good game when it comes to romance. But convincing Jean that there's a real man behind the steady stream of letters and e-mails from her new admirer isn't as easy as Holly imagines, and it looks as if her imaginary suitor might get in the way of a flesh-and-blood Mr. Right. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Directed by Taylor Hackford, this biopic profiles the life of legendary musician Ray Charles. Despite humble beginnings and the loss of his eyesight due to glaucoma at the age of six, Charles, depicted by Jamie Foxx, would nonetheless become an icon in both the music industry and the civil rights era. While the film delves into his problems with drugs and women, the bulk of the story details his career; among the highlights of that career are 12 Grammy awards and 11 R&B chart-toppers, such as "Unchain My Heart," "Hit the Road, Jack," "Georgia," "Doin' the Mess Around," and "Hallelujah I Just Love Her So." Also among the cast are Larenz Tate as Quincy Jones, as well as Regina King, Kerry Washington, and Clifton Powell. Charles' son, Ray Charles Jr. helped produce the film. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

In this comedy, a cop assumes a new identity in his valiant battle against crime: an elderly grandmother! Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence) is an FBI agent who is a master of disguise and will stop at nothing to get his man. When a bank robber escapes from prison and goes on a violent crime spree, Malcolm is assigned to bring him in. The thief's girlfriend Sherry (Nia Long), who is also the mother of his child, lives in a small Southern town, and Malcolm plans to set up a stake-out in the house across the street from Sherry's. However, the house is owned by Big Momma (Ella Mitchell), an older woman with a sharp tongue and no patience for back talk, and when Big Momma has to leave town, it leaves her house suspiciously empty. Determined to maintain his cover, Malcolm disguises himself as Big Momma, and now has to convince Sherry (and everyone else in the neighborhood) that Big Momma's still in town. Big Momma's House gained considerable pre-production publicity when Lawrence fell into a coma while jogging in a heat wave before the film's start date; Lawrence claimed that he was trying to lose weight to fit more comfortably into his character's "fat suit." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a computer programmer working for Initech in Houston. Every day, he and his friends Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (David Herman as not THAT Michael Bolton), suffer endless indignities and humiliations in their soulless workspace from their soulless boss, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). For Peter, stuck in his cookie-cutter apartment with paper-thin walls and IKEA furniture, every day is worse than the one before it -- so every day is the worst of his life. To cap it off, Initech has hired a pair of "efficiency experts" to downsize the company. One Friday night, Peter's soon to be ex-girlfriend Anne (Alexandra Wentworth) forces him to go to an occupational hypnotherapist to relieve work stress. While Peter is under hypnosis, the therapist keels over and dies. As he never snaps out of his hypnotic state, Peter has a new outlook on life. If something annoys him, he just ignores it or walks away from it. He is completely relaxed and enjoying life for the first time in a long time. On Monday, Peter skips work and sleeps in. He gets up for lunch and drives down to a restaurant next to his office and asks the waitress he's had a crush on, Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), on a date. When Peter stops into the office to pick up his organizer, he's called in to talk to the efficiency experts. Relaxed and friendly, Peter charms them as he describes everything wrong with the office, including his boss. Even as Peter now appears at work only as the mood strikes him, the experts decide he's management material and give him a promotion even as they lay off the hardworking Samir and Michael. Peter then convinces his friends to exact revenge on Initech based upon an idea from Superman III. Not everything works out quite as planned. Office Space originated from writer/director Mike Judge's first animated short of the same name, created in 1991. The short was about Milton (reproduced in the film by Stephen Root), a damaged office drone whose complaints and threats about his sufferings go unheeded. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi

Supernatural forces hover over the courtroom in this devilish drama adapted from the novel by Andrew Neiderman. Attorney Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) doesn't heed the Bible-based warnings of his mother (Judith Ivey), who views New York City as "the dwelling place of demons." Instead, he leaves Gainesville, Florida, with his wife Mary Ann (Charlize Theron) to put his legalistic skills to the test at a leading Manhattan law firm run by John Milton (Al Pacino). It all goes smoothly -- with Milton urging them to stay, putting Kevin on a $400-per-hour salary, and moving the couple into a luxurious apartment in his own building on Fifth Avenue -- where Mary Ann falls under the influence of neighbor Jackie (Tamara Tunie). After Kevin defends a weird animal sacrificer (Delroy Lindo, uncredited), he moves up to an important case with an apparent murderer, real-estate tycoon Alexander Cullen (Craig T. Nelson). Ignored by Kevin, the troubled Mary Ann has some disturbing experiences, verging on the occult, while Kevin, at work, becomes attracted to redhead Christabella (Connie Neilsen). Dazzled by his entrance into paradise, Kevin doesn't grasp who handed him this Big-Apple success. Could it be...Satan? The film features demonic creatures by Rick Baker. Cameos (Senator Alfonse D'Amato, Don King, others) add to the ambiance of ambition and power in the canyons of Manhattan. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This is a domestic thriller in the Hitchcock mode with a legalistic twist involving that modern invention, the prenuptial agreement. Halle Berry stars as Josie Potenza, the unhappy wife of alcoholic, philandering executive Tony Potenza (Christopher McDonald). Josie is unfaithful too, but she wants to salvage her marriage and proposes an alcohol-free vacation in a remote backwoods location. Tony agrees, but soon after they arrive, he's called back to work. Angry and lonely, Josie goes to a nearby bar, where she meets sympathetic Cole Wilson (Peter Greene), who's actually a psychotic ex-con. After hearing Josie's tale of marital woe, Cole proposes that he kill Tony. Appalled, Josie refuses, but soon Tony is murdered in a carjacking, leaving Josie the possible inheritor of millions. A prenuptial agreement that would've left her penniless in a divorce puts the LAPD on Josie's scent, while Wilson blackmails her and both her lover Jake (Clive Owen) and his cuckolded wife Nora (Clea Lewis) scheme to profit from Josie's loss. Of course, it's also possible that Josie manipulated the events to transpire exactly as they did. Writer-director Amy Holden Jones also wrote the screenplays for Mystic Pizza (1987) and Indecent Proposal (1993). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

In a change-of-pace role designed to prove that she could carry high-concept genre films as well as character-driven dramas, Meryl Streep headlined this fast-paced adventure as Gail, a whitewater rafting guide. For a vacation, Gail is accompanying her son Roarke (Joseph Mazzello) and workaholic husband Tom (David Strathairn) on a river trip. Gail and Tom are experiencing marital troubles and contemplating divorce, but their problems take a back seat when they encounter some menacing rafters led by Wade (Kevin Bacon). After Tom saves Wade from drowning, they discover that the men are murderous fugitives using the river as an escape route. Kidnapped by the killers, Gail's forced to leave her husband stranded on shore and guide the villains through the "Gauntlet," a raging confluence of rivers that few rafters ever survive. Meanwhile, Tom proves to be wilier than anyone suspected, following the raft on foot and plotting his family's rescue. Following a quartet of popular B-grade thrillers, director Curtis Hanson attempted to break partially out of the genre with The River Wild, which, despite the presence of a psycho killer, played as more a stunt-filled action movie than a murder mystery. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Alec Baldwin stars in this thriller as Dr. Jed Hill, a brilliant young trauma specialist who begins to believe he can do no wrong after he saves the life of a patient given up for dead by another doctor. Jed runs into an old classmate, Andy Safian (Bill Pullman), who is now a college dean. Andy invites Jed to stay with him in the attic bedroom of a house he is renovating with his wife Tracy (Nicole Kidman). Tracy takes a dislike to Jed, whom she thinks is a psychotic egomaniac. In the mean time, Andy has to deal with a serial killer on the loose among the campus dorms. While Andy is helping belligerent law enforcement officials with the murder investigation and Jed is drinking straight shots at the local saloon, Tracy begins to have abdominal pains and is rushed to the emergency room. Jed comes directly from the bar and slices her open, removing more from her body cavity than he should. The allegations fly fast and furious between Tracy, Andy, and Jed. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Everybody's All American covers 25 years in the life of college football hero Gavin Grey (Dennis Quaid). When he marries campus sweetheart Babs Rogers (Jessica Lange) and is picked up by the pros, a happily-ever-after denouement is predicted by friends and family. It is clear from the outset, however, that Grey is going to have to do a lot of growing up over the next few decades. Babs does her best to keep in step with her husband's career and mood swings, and in so doing becomes the "parent" in the family. John Goodman also stars as Grey's best buddy, and Timothy Hutton is on hand for a romantic-triangle subplot. Everybody's All American is based on the novel by longtime Sports Illustrated scrivener Frank Deford. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When speaking of Laurel and Hardy's first feature film Pardon Us, Stan Laurel described it as "a three-story building on a one-story base"-in other words, a 2-reeler stretched and bloated into 6 reels. Much the same could be said of Blake Edwards's Blind Date, though one wonders if Stan Laurel could have even gotten two reels out of its wafer-thin premise. At the outset, yuppie Bruce Willis is warned not to let his blind date, southern belle Kim Basinger, drink anything stronger than lemonade. So what does Willis do the first chance he gets? That's right, kids; he plies poor Basinger with champagne. And then he wonders why his life rapidly goes to hell in a handbasket. In his first starring movie role, Bruce Willis manages to find all sorts of nuances in his one-note role, while Kim Basinger is very funny when she's blotto-at least, for the first five minutes or so. John Laroquette costars as a character straight out of a 1920s bedroom farce; he's also pretty good, even though his dialogue is numbingly unamusing. Blake Edwards is famous for his ability to make a lot out of a little...but there has to be a limit somewhere. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi