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Jay Rifkin Movies

2010  
PG13  
Add Freakonomics to Queue Add Freakonomics to top of Queue  
Inspired by authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner wildly popular best-seller Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, this documentary teams such acclaimed filmmakers as Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side), and Seth Gordon (The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters) to look at human behavior from a perspective of incentives and statistics. Conventional wisdom gets caught in the crosshairs when Jesus Camp co-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady explore how underachieving kids respond when they're rewarded for hard work with greenbacks; Gibney throws open the curtain on sumo wrestling; Spurlock examines how baby names can affect a child's development; and Why We Fight director Eugene Jarecki offers a troubling hypothesis on why the early-'90s saw some of the lowest crime rates of the latter 20th century. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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2005  
R  
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Learn why you should never send your food back and other valuable lessons in this over-the-top comedy set in the food service industry. Dean (Justin Long) and Monty (Ryan Reynolds) are two longtime friends who work as waiters as Shenanigan's, a self-consciously "fun" chain restaurant. Both have been working at the restaurant since they graduated from high school; it's only recently occurred to Dean that he has nothing to show for the last four years of his life but a community college diploma and his name tag from work, and he's developed a sudden urgency to make something of himself. Monty, on the other hand, is more interested in making time with the women on the wait staff at work than accomplishing anything, though his recent relationship with fellow employee Serena (Anna Faris) has rather dramatically crashed and burned. Over the course of an evening at Shenanigan's, Dean and Monty confront obnoxious customers and train timid new employee Mitch (John Francis Daley) while dealing with wildly eccentric chef Raddimus (Luis Guzman), control-freak manager Dan (David Koechner), and a kitchen full of crazed cooks, prep workers, and dish-washers. Waiting was the first feature film from writer and director Rob McKittrick. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Ryan ReynoldsAnna Faris, (more)
 
2004  
PG13  
Add Incident at Loch Ness to Queue Add Incident at Loch Ness to top of Queue  
A handful of filmmakers looking for the fabled sea serpent of Loch Ness get a look at another sort of monster in this witty mock documentary. Under commission from producer and screenwriter Zak Penn, notoriously eccentric German filmmaker Werner Herzog travels to Scotland to shoot his latest film, a documentary called "The Enigma of Loch Ness" which examines the myth of the Loch Ness monster and its role in the collective unconsciousness of the Scottish people rather than attempting to capture and photograph the creature itself. As Herzog is shooting his film, another filmmaker, John Bailey, tags along to shoot a film about Herzog shooting a film using the provisional title "Herzog in Wonderland." While Herzog and Bailey ruffle one another's feathers, Herzog begins to suspect Penn hired his crew more for their ability to generate "real life drama" on camera rather than their skills, especially Kitana Baker, a supposed "sonar engineer" who happens to have been a model for Playboy. As the production falls into chaos, neither Herzog or Bailey are able to complete their projects, and a pair of editors are brought in to combine footage shot by both crews into a coherent whole. Incident at Loch Ness received its North American premier at the 2004 Seattle Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Werner HerzogKitana Baker, (more)
 
2002  
G  
Add Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron to Queue Add Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron to top of Queue  
Screenwriter John Fusco returns to the Western themes of his previous films Young Guns and Thunderheart with this animated children's adventure from Dreamworks. Matt Damon supplies the voice of Spirit, a wild Mustang stallion living free in the Old West of the late 19th century, where he's captured by human horse traders and sold to a cavalry regiment at a frontier outpost. There, a cruel colonel (voice of James Cromwell) nearly succeeds in breaking the willful horse, but not quite. Spirit escapes in the company of another captive, Little Creek (voice of Daniel Studi), a Native American youth that tries to possess the magnificent animal by more humane means, but Spirit refuses to bend to human will even when he makes the acquaintance of Little Creek's beautiful and fiercely loyal mare, Rain. After he saves Little Creek's life in an Army raid, Spirit believes that the gravely injured Rain has perished after a tumble over a waterfall. Despondent, the horse is captured again by humans, enslaved this time for work in a pack team on the transcontinental railroad. Undaunted by the tragedies that befall him, Spirit manages to escape for a reunion with Little Creek, Rain, and his long-lost brethren. Featuring songs by rock singer Bryan Adams, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron departs from other examples of its genre in that the horse protagonists do not speak or sing; only Spirit's voice is heard as voice-over narration. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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Starring:
Matt DamonJames Cromwell, (more)
 
2000  
R  
Add King of the Jungle to Queue Add King of the Jungle to top of Queue  
Martin Scorsese's seminal 1975 drama Taxi Driver informs this tale of a neglected, Upper West Side outcast who slowly devolves into a potential murderer. John Leguizamo stars as Seymour, the mentally-challenged self-proclaimed "king" of the film's title. He's still in the care of his mother Mona (Julie Carmen), who is a protest organizer against their neighborhood's corrupt police practices. Although Mona lives happily with her lover Joanne (Rosie Perez), her ex-boyfriend Jack (Cliff Gorman) often shows up to antagonize the household, Seymour in particular. His assertion that the unstable young man is faking his malady only sends Seymour into an unpredictable rage. Shortly after the film's production, writer-director Seth Zvi Rosenfeld married his rambunctious star Perez; their friend Annabella Sciorra shows up in a supporting role. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

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Starring:
Julie CarmenCliff Gorman, (more)
 
1996  
 
Add Pterodactyl Woman From Beverly Hills to Queue Add Pterodactyl Woman From Beverly Hills to top of Queue  
The Hollywood wife of a noted paleontologist finds herself afflicted with an angry shaman's curse after her husband offends the magical man during a desert exploration in this off-beat comedy. As soon as the curse is sent, poor Pixie Chandler finds herself with an insatiable craving for raw fish, a liking for hanging in trees and a propensity for laying eggs. She is also beginning to change physically and if her husband Dick doesn't do something soon, she is going to become the film's title. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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