Anne Kopelson Movies

A detective pursues a serial killer through a Victorian city populated by fairies, elves, vampires, and humans in a phantasmagorical psychological thriller from critically-acclaimed writer/director Neil Jordan. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Diane Lane is a wayward wife and Richard Gere is her suspicious husband in Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful. Connie (Lane) leaves her suburban home on an errand, venturing into Manhattan during a wicked windstorm. On a trash-strewn Soho street, she literally runs into Paul Martel (Olivier Martinez), a handsome young Frenchman carrying a huge stack of books. Connie has a bad scrape on her knee, and is unable to get a cab, so Paul invites her up to his apartment. Paul is quietly flirtatious as he gives Connie some ice and a bandage for her knee. Connie phones home and explains to her son, Charlie (Erik Per Sullivan), that she's running late. Before she leaves, Paul gives her a book of Persian poetry, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. She mentions the encounter in passing to Edward (Gere), her husband, but it's clear that she's obsessing about Paul, and soon she's back in the city, with a pretext for calling him up. Soon, they are lovers, and they grow bolder and bolder in their passion. Edward begins to suspect, and eventually gets a private investigator (Dominic Chianese of The Sopranos) to follow Connie. His worst fears confirmed, Edward decides to confront Paul, a decision that will come to haunt him. While the screenplay for Unfaithful is credited to Alvin Sargent (Ordinary People) and William Broyles Jr. (Cast Away), the inspiration for Lyne's film came from Claude Chabrol's acclaimed 1969 film La Femme Infidele. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Following their television series Home Improvement and the features The Santa Clause (1994) and Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), the actor/director team of Tim Allen and John Pasquin collaborate once again on this high-concept comedy. Allen stars as Joe Scheffer, a nice guy video specialist for a Minneapolis pharmaceutical company who's plodding through both his thankless job and an unhappy divorce from his ex-wife Callie (Kelly Lynch). When Joe brings his daughter Natalie (Hayden Panettiere) to the office with him on Take Our Kids to Work Day, he's humiliated in a spat with company bully Mark McKinney (Patrick Warburton) over a parking space. It's the last straw for the mild-mannered Joe, who challenges McKinney to a rematch, hires a has-been action movie star (Jim Belushi) to instruct him in martial arts, and pays a stylist to make over his wardrobe and hair. As Joe's image improves and the big day approaches, he finds his new self-respecting stance has positive effects in both the workplace, as he lands a long-overdue promotion, and in his romantic life, as both Callie and a cute "wellness coordinator" (Julie Bowen) start warming up to him. The levelheaded Natalie, however, seems to prefer the previously non-confrontational dad she already loved. Joe Somebody (2001) is the feature debut of screenwriter John Scott Shepherd, who actually worked as a corporate filmmaker in Minneapolis. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

A remake of the popular 1960s TV series of the same name (which had previously spawned a smash-hit 1993 theatrical feature), CBS' The Fugitive stakes out the old familiar ground. This time out, former Wings star Timothy Daly is cast as Dr. Richard Kimble, who was falsely accused of murdering his wife. Despite his protestations that he'd seen a "one-armed man" fleeing the murder scene, and apparently lacking the financial wherewithal to hire a lawyer like Alan Dershowitz or Johnny Cochran, Kimble was found guilty and sentenced to the electric chair. En route to prison, Kimble managed to escape during a train wreck, and he spends the rest of the series traveling from town to town, adopting a variety of aliases and professions, and helping those whose lives he touches. All the while, Kimble pursues the elusive One-Armed Man (Stephen Lang), even as he himself is being pursued by dogged, single-minded Police Lieutenant Gerard (played by Mykelti Williamson, best known as Bubba Blue in the 1994 Oscar-winner Forrest Gump). Infinitely more expensive and special-effects-laden than its TV predecessor, this "retro" series makes up in energy and high-tech visuals what it lacks in originality. The Fugitive revival began (literally) running on October 6, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tommy Lee Jones returns as United States Marshall Sam Gerard, the role that earned him an Academy Award, in this sequel to the 1993 blockbuster The Fugitive. Gerard has been assigned to escort a federal prisoner to a maximum security prison in Missouri. On the same flight is Mark Sheridan (Wesley Snipes), who has been arrested and charged with the murders of two Federal agents, though he insists he's innocent. The plane is involved in an accident leading to a crash, and after helping to rescue some of the passengers, Sheridan escapes. The State Department informs Gerard that finding Sheridan and putting him back behind bars is a top priority, and Gerard sets out on his trail, with the very much uncalled-for assistance of eccentric FBI agent John Royce (Robert Downey Jr.). However, Gerard soon begins to wonder just how Sheridan became such an important man in the eyes of the government, while Sheridan is determined to find out who turned him in to the authorities. U.S. Marshals also features Joe Pantoliano, Daniel Roebuck, and Kate Nelligan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Investigative TV journalist Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) suffers setbacks and winds up filing routine reports from Madeline, California. Max and his eager intern Laurie (Mia Kirshner) are doing a story at the local Museum of Natural History when a bigger story erupts. The Museum's director, Mrs. Banks (Blythe Danner), refuses to talk to former museum security guard Sam Baily (John Travolta) about his firing due to budget cuts. Angered, Sam shoots a shotgun, accidentally hitting another security guard. Realizing he's in the middle of breaking news, Max phones his supervisor (Robert Prosky) and goes to live coverage. A class of young children is visiting the Museum, and Sam holds them hostage. Sam's link to the outside world is the opportunistic Max, who manipulates the situation, telling Sam what to say on camera. Within hours, as the event escalates to national interest, vendors arrive to hawk products at the museum grounds, while the entire country tunes in the ongoing coverage. The screenplay by Eric Williams and Tom Matthews (former managing editor of Boxoffice) is a technological updating of the 1951 Billy Wilder classic Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival) about a scheming journalist (Kirk Douglas) who delays the rescue of a man trapped by a rockfall in order to continue his newspaper reports. Acknowledging the Wilder film, the name "Brackett" is an obvious nod to Charles Brackett, Wilder's long-time collaborator. Filmed in Los Angeles and San Jose, where the San Jose Athletic Club served as the museum location site. Shown at the 1997 Denver Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Top-notch action sequences and exciting stunt work highlight this fast-moving thriller. John Kruger (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a top agent in the U.S. Marshalls' Witness Protection Program; it's his job to "erase" the pasts of Federal witnesses under his watch and deal with anyone who tries to hurt them. Kruger's latest assignment is to protect Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams), who while working for a major weapons manufacturing firm discovered evidence that the company was selling new, high-tech weapons to intentional terrorists groups with the cooperation of a faction of enemy agents within the United States government. However, when Kruger discovers that the Witness Protection Program has a rat in the house -- and that rat is his boss, U.S. Marshall Robert Deguerin (James Caan) -- Kruger has to guard his own life while trying to protect Lee's. The supporting cast is highlighted by James Coburn, Robert Pastorelli, and James Cromwell. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director David Fincher's dark, stylish thriller ranks as one of the decade's most influential box-office successes. Set in a hellish vision of a New York-like city, where it is always raining and the air crackles with impending death, the film concerns Det. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a homicide specialist just one week from a well-deserved retirement. Every minute of his 32 years on the job is evident in Somerset's worn, exhausted face, and his soul aches with the pain that can only come from having seen and felt far too much. But Somerset's retirement must wait for one last case, for which he is teamed with young hotshot David Mills (Brad Pitt), the fiery detective set to replace him at the end of the week. Mills has talked his reluctant wife, Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), into moving to the big city so that he can tackle important cases, but his first and Somerset's last are more than either man has bargained for. A diabolical serial killer is staging grisly murders, choosing victims representing the seven deadly sins. First, an obese man is forced to eat until his stomach ruptures to represent gluttony, then a wealthy defense lawyer is made to cut off a pound of his own flesh as penance for greed. Somerset initially refuses to take the case, realizing that there will be five more murders, ghastly sermons about lust, sloth, pride, wrath, and envy presented by a madman to a sinful world. Somerset is correct, and something within him cannot let the case go, forcing the weary detective to team with Mills and see the case to its almost unspeakably horrible conclusion. The moody photography is by Darius Khondji; the nauseatingly vivid special effects are by makeup artist Rob Bottin, best known for more fantasy-oriented work in films like The Howling (1981). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide