Marco Weber Movies
Samuel L. Jackson stars as a overt operations interrogator who teams with an FBI agent in order to find a string of nuclear weapons held by a terrorist in this Gregor Jordan-helmed Senator Entertainment production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Samuel L. Jackson
A collection of Bret Easton Ellis' short stories are adapted for the screen by Ellis and Nicholas Jarecki and helmed by Gregor Jordan in The Informers, a Senator Entertainment ensemble film featuring Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, and Winona Ryder. The film observes the goings-on during a week in Los Angeles in 1983, with many intersecting characters including a kidnapper, movie executives, rock stars, and other freewheeling, morally loose individuals. Austin Nichols, Jon Foster, and Amber Heard co-star. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, (more)
An average American family suffers from a grave and unexpected loss that forces its members to confront past issues in this all-star ensemble drama from acclaimed director Dennis Lee (Jesus Henry Christ). Julia Roberts stars as Lisa Taylor, the wife of a college professor, Charlie (Willem Dafoe), living in the Midwest. As the tale opens, the aging couple are proud parents of two grown and reasonably successful children, Michael (Ryan Reynolds) and Ryne (Shannon Lucio). Then tragedy strikes: not long after Michael arrives in town (visiting from Manhattan), Lisa perishes in a fatal car accident, leaving the family bereft of its matriarch. As the devastated Taylors feebly attempt to cope with their loss, tensions resurface that have long boiled beneath the surface between Charlie and Michael; meanwhile, Michael's estranged wife, Kelly (Carrie-Anne Moss), turns up at the funeral to pay her respects to Lisa and gradually begins making amends with Michael. When Michael announces to the family that he's planning to publish a memoir about his childhood, Lisa's younger sister, Jane (Emily Watson), grows horrified that it will unearth devastating long-buried skeletons from the family's past; moreover, it seems that prior to her death, Lisa was guarding one major secret of her own that lingers just out of view and threatens to destroy everyone's sense of familial security when it finally comes to light. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, (more)
A young woman finds herself becoming obsessed with a violently disturbed man in this gruesome thriller inspired by actual events. Katie Armstrong (Keri Russell) is an American college student who is majoring in criminal psychology while studying abroad in Germany. Needing to explore a notorious murder case for a class project, Armstrong begins looking into the life and crimes of Oliver Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann), who had been convicted of murder after killing and eating another man. Hartwin's crime was unusual in that he posted a message in an internet chat room asking for a male volunteer between the ages of 21 and 40 who would be willing to be murdered and cannibalized afterwards. While Hartwin did find a man willing to die and be eaten, this did not make matters safe or simple for the German cannibal. As Armstrong digs deeper into the horrible facts of Hartwin's crimes, she finds her reserve beginning to crack as she can no longer control her feelings about the killer. Also shown under the titles Grimm Love and Rohtenburg, Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story was inspired by the true story of Armin Meiwes, who was convicted of the 2001 death of a man he killed and partially ate who he met through a posting on the internet, in which he asked for a volunteer willing to be slaughtered. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Kretschmann, Keri Russell, (more)
The cynical son of an upper-class New York family bedeviled by booze, pills and mental illness strikes out on his own in this caustic, darkly comic drama. Igby Slocomb (Kieran Culkin) and his older brother, Oliver (Ryan Phillippe), are are in the process of killing their mother, Mimi (Susan Sarandon). Flashbacks delineate Igby's troubled childhood: Speed-freak Mimi and her depressed husband, Jason (Bill Pullman), snipe at each other endlessly until Jason attempts suicide before Igby's very eyes and takes up residence in a mental hospital. Igby grows into a rebellious youth, gets kicked out of several boarding schools and ends up in a hellish military academy. After one failed escape attempt, he heads to New York City and hides out in the apartment of Rachel (Amanda Peet), the heroin-addled mistress of his godfather, D.H. (Jeff Goldblum). Oliver locates the young scoundrel and informs him that Mimi is suffering from cancer. Unperturbed, Igby continues his slacker existence -- and his romance with Sookie (Claire Danes), a hipper-than-thou undergraduate who finds herself torn between Igby and Oliver. As Igby gets drawn further into the mind games and hypocrisy of the adult world, his already jaded outlook grows even darker. He takes to dealing smack and hanging out with a cross-dressing performance "artist" (Jared Harris). Ultimately, though, Mimi's impending death draws him back into the family fold for unexpected revelations and realizations. Written and directed by first-time filmmaker Burr Steers, Igby Goes Down features Rory Culkin, Kieran's brother, as the young Igby. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kieran Culkin, Susan Sarandon, (more)
A few good men are sent on a secret mission as a few good women in this comic tale of wartime espionage, loosely based upon a true story. Steven O'Rourke (Matt LeBlanc) is an American intelligence agent who, during World War II, has been assigned to obtain an Enigma machine, a special encoding-and-decoding device that Axis forces have developed to transmit their most sensitive secret information. A working Enigma machine would be invaluable to the Allied cause; O'Rourke is able to obtain a machine, but Col. Aiken (Edward Fox), a British officer whose stiff upper lip sometimes overwhelms his common sense, mistakes O'Rourke for a plunderer and destroys the previous gadget, which is hidden in a typewriter. An altercation with Aiken lands O'Rourke in military prison, but he's released in time to carry out a new plan to obtain an Enigma for Allied use. A small factory has been set up in rural Germany to build the machines, which is entirely staffed by women, so O'Rourke, communications expert Johnno (David Birkin), and veteran intelligence man Archie (James Cosmo) are to infiltrate the plant disguised as women, with Tony (Eddie Izzard), an agent who moonlights as a drag performer, giving the men a crash course in looking and acting like women. All the Queen's Men also features Nicolette Krebitz as Romy, a double agent working at the Enigma plant, and Udo Kier as Lansdorf, a Nazi general. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt LeBlanc, Eddie Izzard, (more)
The increasingly blurry lines between what is real and what is an artificial construct - both physically and philosophically - are the point of focus in the science fiction drama The Thirteenth Floor. In 1937, a man named Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) gives a note to Ashton (Vincent D'Onofrio), the bartender at a swank hotel, that's addressed to Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko). Fuller tells Ashton it's crucial that no one else sees the note, and that the information enclosed is of great importance. Moments later, Fuller transports himself to 1998. He's soon found murdered, and a shirt stained with Fuller's blood is found in Hall's apartment. Fuller and Hall both work for Intergraph Computer Systems, a cutting edge artificial intelligence firm, and the "past" Fuller was visiting was actually a stunningly realistic recreation of Los Angeles 50 years ago, complete with people you can meet and places you can visit, that exists only in a microchip. The message he left with Ashton, however, is real. Some people, including LAPD detective Larry McBain (Dennis Haysbert) believe Hall murdered Fuller to assume his position of leadership at Intergraph. Jane (Gretchen Mol), Fuller's daughter, soon arrives on the scene, and Hall finds himself infatuated; Hall is determined to clear his name, so with the help of Whitney (also played by (Vincent D'Onofrio), he into the virtual 1937 in hopes of discovering just what happened. The Thirteenth Floor makes copious use of digital effects technology to allow its characters to travel between 1937 and 1998 - ironically using computer technology to create a world that exists inside a computer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Bierko, Armin Mueller-Stahl, (more)
Strongly recalling the film noir feel and labyrinthine plot twists of The Usual Suspects (1995), this German production featuring an all-English cast is a madcap caper flick about a quartet of dull-witted would-be bank robbers. The film opens with the police surveying the bloody aftermath of a botched robbery. The sole survivor, Jo Simpson (Claire Skinner), is carted off not by the cops -- to the surprise of Inspector Badger (John Benfield) -- but by the ultra-secret Cyclops Institute, where she is interrogated. Piece by piece, the investigators learn about her three accomplices, Eddie (Rhys Ifans) and Ian (David Schneider), two young losers who were obsessed with becoming famous, and the older, more experienced con man Michael (John Hurt). The investigators also learn about the mysterious way in which the criminals get caught up in schemes not of their own making, by way of an anonymous package containing a videotape and blueprints of the bank. It is eventually revealed that Simpson's memory is not as reliable as it might appear. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Hurt, Rhys Ifans, (more)
A reporter discovers both his writing and his sexual appetites can have deadly consequences in the thriller No Strings Attached. Vincent Spano plays Mark Demetrius, a journalist who is pressuring his editor, Elliot (Michael McKean), to run an investigative piece he's written on a psychiatrist with some very nasty habits. It seems one Dr. Singer (David Ackroyd) has a history of getting female patients addicted to drugs and then abusing them sexually. Elliot is reluctant to run the story, fearing legal reprisals, but agrees under the condition that Mark help him out by writing a puff piece on women's sexual fantasies. The magazine has set up a phone line for women to call in and discuss their desires, and one day Mark takes a call from Nicole (Cheryl Pollak). Mark becomes fascinated with Nicole, and is obsessed with meeting her, despite a happy, long-term relationship with his fiancée Sarah (Traci Lind). Mark eventually meets Nicole and she seduces him (not that he minds), but Mark soon discovers Nicole is not all she seems to be as his life and career are both placed in grave danger. Displaying a bit more style and smarts than the average erotic thriller, No Strings Attached was directed by Josef Rusnak, who later went on to make The Thirteenth Floor. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Spano, Cheryl Pollak, (more)
The secret longings of three young, hip L.A. couples provides the impetus of the conversations in lightweight drama which focuses upon the issue of commitment. One member of each couple, Suzanna and Dodger, Alicia and Robert, and Michelle and Charles secretly carries a torch for former lovers. It seems that while Suzanna begs for Dodger's attention, he is still attracted to Alicia, who's pregnant with Robert's child but hesitates to tell him because Robert is attracted to Michelle who is with Charles who still yearns for Suzanna. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heather Graham, James LeGros, (more)
In this political comedy, a right-wing political party is looking for a suitable spokesman to make their ravingly eccentric positions acceptable to the general public. They find an out of work actor (Harald Juhnke) to serve as their "parrot," and at first it looks as though they have chosen well, as their popularity is now on the rise. However, they hadn't counted on the poor man having something they themselves apparently lack: a conscience. This made-for-television movie was so well received during its scheduled airing that it was later released as a movie. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harald Juhnke, Dominic Raacke, (more)




















