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Keram Malicki Sanchez Movies

2002  
PG13  
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A national health care crisis in the United States yields this tense drama from screenwriter James Kearns and director Nick Cassavetes, who experienced a real-life dilemma with his daughter's congenital heart disease that mirrors the one in this film. Denzel Washington stars as John Q. Archibald, a factory worker facing financial hardship as a result of reduced hours in his workplace. When his young son, Michael (Daniel E. Smith), is stricken during a baseball game, John and his wife, Denise (Kimberly Elise), discover that their child is in need of an emergency heart transplant. Although the Archibalds have health insurance, they are informed by hospital administrator Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche) that their policy doesn't cover such an expensive procedure. Unable to raise the money himself, John persuades the hospital's compassionate cardiac surgeon, Dr. Raymond Turner (James Woods), to waive his lofty fee, but is still left with too much of a financial burden to bear. With no recourse but to take his son home to die, John snaps and holds the staff and patients of the hospital's emergency room hostage at gunpoint. John is soon a media hero, the focus of intense news coverage, even as police chief Gus Monroe (Ray Liotta) and hostage negotiator Frank Grimes (Robert Duvall) try to resolve the situation before it leads to bloodshed. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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Starring:
Denzel WashingtonRobert Duvall, (more)
 
2001  
PG13  
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The Romeo and Juliet story has been modernized to a high school setting previously, but this romance from director John Stockwell turns the tale inside out. Jay Hernandez stars as Carlos Nunez, a poor but athletically gifted Latino teenager who endures a two-hour bus ride every day from East L.A. to attend the posh, wealthy Pacific Palisades High School in Los Angeles on a football scholarship. A straight-A student, Carlos is focused and driven, but his future is cast in doubt when he becomes the flirtation target of spoiled, self-destructive bad girl Nicole Oakley (Kirsten Dunst), who's the daughter of a prominent congressman (Bruce Davison). When his friends, family, and even Nicole's own father oppose the romance for Carlos' sake, he chooses to ignore their advice and stubbornly pursues his relationship with Nicole, whose feelings grow from simple physical attraction to something much deeper. Crazy/beautiful is directed by writer, actor, and director John Stockwell, who also penned the same year's Rock Star. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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Starring:
Kirsten DunstJay Hernandez, (more)
 
2000  
R  
A serial killer with a difference is on the prowl in a small Virginia town in this darkly comic horror story. Brent Marken (Michael Biehn) is the sheriff of the city of Cherry Falls, a quiet community that suddenly has a big-city problem to contend with when Marken discovers a murderer is on the loose. The killer is targeting teenage girls who attend the local high school -- and his victims are all virgins. This causes no small amount of anxiety for Brent's teenage daughter Jody (Brittany Murphy), who is not as ready for intimacy as her boyfriend Kenny (Gabriel Mann). Brent has personal problems of his own to deal with; his relationship with his wife Marge (Candy Clark) has hit an impasse, and he shares a dark secret with Tom Sisler (Joe Inscoe), the principal of the high school. Cherry Falls marked the American directorial debut for Australian filmmaker Geoffrey Wright; the cast also includes Jay Mohr, Caroline Perreyclear, and Rick Forrester. Cherry Falls enjoyed its first theatrical engagements in the United Kingdom, several months after it was first slated to open in the United States, thanks in part to the difficulty the producers had with the MPAA in securing an R rating for the picture. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Michael BiehnBrittany Murphy, (more)
 
1994  
 
Tattooing is the focus of this Canadian lesbian drama. The film also examines artistic ambition. The protagonist is Alex a filmmaker whose reputation in the alternative art world is well established. She is getting ready to make a feature film. She puts out an advertisement and receives a letter from Chris, a woman pretending to be a man. In the letter, Chris describes, in delicious detail, the sexual pleasure involved with getting a tattoo. Intrigued, Alex hires Chris as her production assistant. She is interested in more than Chris's skills; she also wants her input in the film. Alex's lover tries to warn her that Chris is extremely unstable, but Alex doesn't listen, and allows Chris's crush upon her to run unchecked. This leads to disaster. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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