Byron Mann Movies

A struggling Los Angeles actor who has never fully grasped his Chinese roots takes an eye-opening journey to Shanghai after inheriting his grandmother's home in this romantic comedy starring X-Men: The Last Stand's Ken Leung and Heroes's cheerleader Hayden Panettiere. Liam (Leung) is an aspiring Hollywood star who spends the majority of time picking up bar girls with his best friend Joe -- a starving writer who has yet to pen a proper screenplay. While Liam does share an innocent relationship with precocious 16-year-old Adelaide (Panettiere), she often comes off as more mature than he and the age difference between the pair is far too glaring to ignore. Upon receiving notice that he has inherited his grandmother's home in Shanghai, Liam throws caution to the wind and purchases an airplane ticket. Shortly after landing in China, Liam becomes smitten with beautiful local Micky (Kelly Hu) and gradually learns to embrace his Eastern roots. But it's difficult to exist comfortably between two cultures -- much less two women -- and before long Liam finds that in connecting with the past, he is simultaneously laying the groundwork for his future. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Patience Philips (Halle Berry) seems destined to spend her life apologizing for taking up space. Despite her artistic ability -- she has a more than respectable career as a graphic designer for Hedare Beauty, a Goliath cosmetics company -- Patience is excruciatingly shy, quick to take blame, and, not surprisingly, more than a little depressed at the end of the day. This comes to somewhat of a screeching halt when Patience not only inadvertently lands herself in the middle of a corporate conspiracy of gargantuan proportions, but on the city police force's most wanted list. Newly quipped with a mysterious feline prowess, Patience is a different person come nighttime -- more accurately, a catwoman. Elusive, untamed, powerful, stealthy, and not necessarily prone to erring on the side of good, Patience has gone from doormat to vigilante. Police officer Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt), who has fallen for shy Patience, is determined to apprehend Catwoman and figure out her role in a recent crime spree, though his fascination with her doesn't cease with the end of his shift and it threatens to lead to the downfall of himself, his investigation, and the woman who was once the timid Patience Philips. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Upon learning that his father, Lionel (John Glover), has placed him under surveillance, a spiteful Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) schemes to plant a bug in his father's office. Unfortunately, the crooks whom Lex has hired to do the job decide to double-cross him and rob LutherCorp -- taking Lionel and his personal assistant Martha Kent (Annette O'Toole) hostage. Meanwhile, Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) braces herself for a meeting with the wife of Lana's biological father, Henry Small (Patrick Cassidy). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The strong anti-China beliefs of actor and political activist Richard Gere were evident in this Hitchcockian thriller that sought to expose the civil and human rights abuses of that country's legal system. Gere stars as Jack Moore, counsel to a large media conglomerate seeking to open trade relations with China, thereby delivering American television shows by satellite to the largest untapped market in the world. After an evening out at a nightclub and fashion show, Jack goes home with a beautiful model (Jessey Meng), then wakes up the next morning to discover her dead body. To his horror, Jack is accused of murdering the girl, who is revealed to have been the daughter of a high-ranking general. Assigned a court-appointed lawyer, Shen Yuelin (Bai Ling), Jack discovers that the repressive Chinese court system does not grant bail, encourages quick guilty pleas and executions, and looks upon him with disfavor for his Western moral turpitude. Finally persuading Shen that he's innocent, Jack and his lawyer embark on an investigation impeded at every turn by Chinese authorities, eventually uncovering a plot to discredit Jack and his company's entry into China. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Based on a popular Japanese comic, this stylish, romantic French-Canadian actioner features many exciting pyrotechnic effects, elegantly executed murders, and some nifty-doodle gadgets, but very little on-screen bloodshed as it follows the adventures of Yo, one of the world's greatest hit men. Yo works for a mysterious Chinese organization and has been given the dubious honor of being called Freeman, the name the tong gives to its chief enforcer. Yo doesn't want the honor, but there is little he can do; obligation is more important than personal want. Still, after each killing, Yo sheds a few tears for the victims. One day he bumps into Emu O'Hara, a beautiful painter who has avoided people after mobsters killed her father, who was a rigidly honest judge determined to wipe out crime. Emu witnesses Yo's killing three Yakuza on a rugged stretch of California coastline where she is painting. Yo sees her see him, and though they never speak, both know that necessity dictates she be his next victim. Following the police investigation of the killings, Emu goes back to Vancouver, BC. Yo has also been sent there to kill her and a Yakuza don. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Exploitation king Fred Olen Ray was well entrenched in his "Erotic Thriller" phase (typified by films like Inner Sanctum) when he turned out this oddball mix of salacious schemes and demonic possession. When creatively blocked horror writer Howard (Ted Prior) buys an oversized jar containing a silly-looking pickled monster from a tiny shop in Chinatown, he quickly falls under the thing's supernatural influence. Not only can he churn out reams of manuscript pages like never before, he also becomes more sexually aggressive -- a change which troubles his reserved wife Peggy (statuesque Sandahl Bergman), particularly after the arrival of sexy blonde live-in secretary Carol (Shannon Tweed, whose presence had become ubiquitous in films of this kind). The plot thickens when we learn that Carol is also conspiring with her partner Murray (Frank Sivero), Howard's greedy agent, to steal his manuscript. Carol soon becomes the puppet of the thing in the jar as well, playing violent sexual games with the couple, terrorizing Peggy at every turn, and ultimately turning on Murray -- leading to a hyper-violent climax which has nearly every character blasting away at his/her co-conspirator with automatic weaponry. Despite the heftier financial backing of Columbia Home Video, this is still exploitation in the classic Ray tradition, filled with the usual bucketloads of nudity and kinky sex, and featuring cameos from such familiar B-movie faces as Ray Silva and Turhan Bey, as well as Kato Kaelin as a busboy in the restaurant scene with Bey. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Corky (Faith Ford) is depressed over the prospect of turning 30, and never mind that she's still the "kid" of the "FYI" staff. To alleviate her distress, dashing Peter Hunt (Scott Bakula) comes up with a surefire cure for the over-30 blues. As it turns out, this cure involves a great deal of travelling to a great many faraway places--and, it is implied, a bit of fresh romance for the former Mrs. Sherwood-Forrest. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi