Carla Fry Movies
In this teenage horror film, a young man avoids the hand of death, only to find that he can't get away from it so easily. On the way to Paris with his high-school French club, Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) has a vivid premonition of the plane crashing and killing all its passengers. After Alex and some other passengers demand to be let off the flight, his premonition turns out to be true, and the jet explodes during takeoff. While the FBI is convinced that Alex was involved in some kind of foul play, the passengers who got off the flight are all dying in horrible ways, as if whoever determined that the passengers would perish is punishing those who cheated death. Final Destination marked the feature directorial debut of James Wong, a producer and director for the TV series The X Files. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Devon Sawa, Amanda Detmer, (more)
In this drama that explores greed and corruption in American business, Giovanni Ribisi plays Seth Davis, an intelligent and ambitious college dropout who runs a casino in his apartment. Eager to show his father that he can succeed, Seth lands a job with a small stock brokerage firm. He is given a space in the company's "boiler room," where he makes cold calls to prospective clients. As it turns out, Seth has a genuine talent for cold calling, which gains him the approval of his superiors, the admiration of his father, and the attentions of one of his co-workers, Abby Hilliard (Nia Long). However, the higher up the ladder Seth rises, the deeper he sinks into a quagmire of dirty dealings, until he's breaking the law in order to keep his bosses happy and his paychecks coming. The Boiler Room also features Tom Everett Scott, Scott Caan, Jamie Kennedy, Nicky Katt, and Ben Affleck in a cameo as the headhunter who brings Seth into the firm. Ribisi and Scott also appeared together in That Thing You Do; Ribisi was the drummer replaced by Scott, who then led The One-Ders to fictional pop stardom. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, (more)
This $90 million science fiction adventure is adapted from the television series, created by Irwin Allen, which originally ran on CBS from 1965 to 1968. The original series employed a Swiss Family Robinson in outer space premise; sent to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, the Robinson family was thrown off course by a stowaway and was left wandering from planet to planet (and changing along the way from a black-and-white series to a color series). The 1998 remake is set in the year 2058, when the United Global Space Force sends Professor John Robinson (William Hurt) and family -- wife Maureen (Mimi Rogers), daughter Judy (Heather Graham), teen Penny (Lacey Chabert), and 10-year-old Will (Jack Johnson) -- on a promotional space jaunt to herald the "offshore" future for the human race (now saddled with eco problems on Earth). Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc), more accustomed to fighting menacing Global Sedition forces, is reluctant to sign on as the Jupiter II pilot but quickly changes his mind after he gets a good look at Judy in her fetish-fashioned space togs. Space spy Dr. Smith (Gary Oldman), hired to sabotage the mission, programs in problems but winds up aboard the craft unconscious. Once awake, he summons the Robinsons from suspended animation, and they save the ship just in time, passing through hyperspace to arrive near an Earth ship where they encounter space-pet Blawp and hordes of teethy spiders. A spider bite makes the villainous Smith mutate, one of some 750 special effects, from animatronics (Jim Henson Creature Shop) to CGI, and other adventures await throughout the galaxy. Cameos include actors from the original series, including June Lockhart and Robot Voice Dick Tufeld. In a curious coincidence, the TV series took place in the future of 1997, the year this movie was produced. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, (more)
Just when you thought the game was over, along comes the second movie inspired by the popular video game Mortal Kombat. While Liu Kang (Robin Shou) led his warriors Princess Kitana (Talisa Soto), Sonya Blade (Sandra Hess), Rayden (James Remar), and Johnny Cage (Chris Conrad) to victory, and the safety of the world seemed certain, no one counted on the treachery of Shao-Kahn (Brian Thompson), the evil Emperor of the Outerworld, who has a new plan to overtake the Earth. Shao-Kahn has discovered a portal between Earth and Outerworld, and if it stays open for seven days, the two worlds will merge, with Shao-Kahn controlling both planets. Rayden and Sonya set out to find his colleague Jax (Lynn Red Williams), while Liu Kang and Kitana are on the trail of Nightwolf (Litefoot) as they race against time to defeat Shao-Kahn, who has brought Kitana's mother Queen Sindel (Musetta Vander) back from the grave to aid his evil scheme. Mortal Kombat II: Annihilation marked the directorial debut of cinematographer John R. Leonetti. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Shou, Talisa Soto, (more)
An ordinary woman discovers that her life was not always ordinary in this action thriller. Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) is a typical, well-mannered single mother working as a schoolteacher when she isn't looking after her children. Nothing on the surface would seem to be remarkable about Samantha's life, but every once in a while she has vague memories and unexplained impulses that don't add up with her current life experience; she has scars but no idea of how they got there, she suddenly displays a deadly talent for knife-throwing while chopping vegetables for dinner, and when she sees a deer, she suddenly attacks it with her bare hands. When an auto accident and a television news broadcast stirs some more uncomfortable memories, Samantha hires private investigator Mitch Hennessey (Samuel L. Jackson) to look into her past and see what he can find. Mitch learns that Samantha isn't really Samantha after all -- her name is Charley and she used to be a professional assassin with a secret government intelligence program. After a severe head injury, Charley developed a case of amnesia, and in time she developed her new personality as Samantha. However, her old boss has kept tabs on her, and now that it looks as if the old Charley is starting to come out again, he sends a pair of hit men after her to see to it that she doesn't remember anything else; soon Samantha and Mitch are on the run, trying to outdistance the killers as they get to the bottom of Charley's secret life. The Long Kiss Goodnight was directed by Renny Harlin, husband of leading lady Geena Davis; this was their second project together, following Cutthroat Island, released the previous year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, (more)
This romantic historical drama is based on the diaries of Agnes Von Kurowsky, who while serving as a nurse during World War I had a love affair with a young man who would later become one of the great literary figures of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway. In 1918, 18-year-old Hemingway has volunteered to fight in the great war; while he goes into battle imagining it to be a lark, he soon discovers that the realities of warfare are far more grim, and during a shelling attack in Italy, his leg is severely wounded. Hemingway has taken a great deal of shrapnel, and the doctors at the field hospital decide that amputation would be the quickest and most effective way to deal with the injury. However, the idea of losing a leg horrifies Hemingway, and he pleads with Agnes (Sandra Bullock), the Austrian nurse looking after him, not to let the doctors cut off his limb. Moved by Hemingway's concern, Agnes convinces the doctors to pursue other treatments, and she looks after him during his long and difficult convalescence. Love and passion bloom between the young and naive soldier and the 26-year-old nurse, but while he's eager for her to return home with him as he follows his muse as a writer, she regards him not as the love of her life but as a passing fling and thinks that he's too young to marry. Agnes eventually sends Hemingway a "Dear John" letter; later Hemingway would use her as the basis for several characters in his novels and short stories, not always flatteringly. In Love and War was directed by Richard Attenborough, previously an Academy Award winner for Gandhi. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Chris O'Donnell, (more)
Hyperactive mayhem results when a mild-manned banker discovers an ancient mask that transforms him into a zany prankster with superhuman powers in this special-effects-intensive comedy. The wildly improvisational Jim Carrey plays Stanley Ipkiss, a decent-hearted but socially awkward guy who one night finds a strange mask. Carrey's trademark energy reveals itself after Stanley puts on the mask and the banker transforms into The Mask, a green-skinned, zoot-suited fireball. The rubber-faced Mask possesses the courage to do the wild, fun things that Stanley fears, including romancing Tina Carlyle (Cameron Diaz). In addition to Carrey's physical talents, the film makes effective use of digital visual effects that bestow the Mask with superhuman speed, insane flexibility, and popping eyes out of a Tex Avery cartoon. The larger narrative, involving the efforts of Tina's gangster boyfriend to destroy Stanley and use the mask's powers for evil, prove less interesting than the anarchic comic set pieces, including a particularly memorable dance number to "Cuban Pete." The film delivered enough laughs to become a surprise hit and, along with the same year's Dumb and Dumber, establish Carrey's status as a comedy superstar. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, (more)
A has-been wrestler (Hulk Hogan) spends most of his time fishing, but decides to become a bodyguard to make some money. He is hired by a rich professor (Austin Pendleton) to supervise his children, but the wrestler finds that the kids are more than he bargained for. An evil scientist (David Johansen, aka Buster Poindexter) decides to kidnap the professor's children as a blackmail scheme to gain control of a microchip capable of taking over the world. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hulk Hogan, Sherman Hemsley, (more)

















