Alan Moloney Movies

A massive bird of prey stalks a group of young adults en route to their high school reunion in this SyFy Channel original movie. Their high school reunion fast approaching, siblings Kate and Joel load their five best friends into an RV, and begin the cross-country trek to their hometown. The voyage takes a gruesome turn of events, however, when the driver accidentally runs over a gypsy who places a mysterious hex on them before dying in the middle of the road. Soon, an enormous bird known as the Simuroc has begun snatching the terrified travelers up one-by-one, and there is seemingly no escape from its bloody talons of death. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A team of researchers and observers are plunged into a terrifying alternate dimension filled with horrendous creatures when a demonstration by a respected physicist goes horribly awry. The device was supposed to allow humans to gain a glimpse into the hidden worlds all around us. But when it malfunctions, the survivors of the incident go where no human before them ever has. Now, in order to get back to where they belong, they must avoid becoming prey to the creatures that are eager to get their first taste of human flesh. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Financially limited newlyweds (Marla Sokoloff, Mark Webber) plan to buy each other expensive gifts for Christmas, but the sacrifices they make to obtain the items end up putting a strain on their marriage. ~ Brie Hearn, Rovi

A career criminal seeks redemption for himself, his family, and his friends by busting out of a penitentiary in this intelligent thriller. Frank (Brian Cox) is a criminal who was forced to leave his wife and six-year-old daughter behind when he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Frank openly acknowledges he was guilty and has made his peace with life behind bars, but when he learns that a drug overdose has left his daughter seriously ill, he feels a powerful need to reconnect with his family, and his only option is to escape. Knowing he can't do it alone, Frank assembles a team from various factions of the prison population, including Viv (Seu Jorge), who makes and deals drugs from his cell; Lenny (Joseph Fiennes), a wiry tough guy who doesn't speak if he can avoid it; and Lacey (Dominic Cooper), Frank's new cellmate who is a white-collar criminal not cut out for prison life. Frank soon realizes if his plan is to work, he'll have to bring aboard some of the more dangerous and unpredictable members of the prison's community, including vicious and corrupt brothers Rizza (Damian Lewis) and Tony (Steven Mackintosh). The Escapist was the first feature film from writer and director Rupert Wyatt. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Part of the "Beckett on Film" series, this adaptation of Samuel Beckett's 1961 absurd tragi-comedy is essentially a very long monologue punctuated by brief interruptions from a secondary character. Considered by many to be Beckett's most cheerful piece, Happy Days opens with the character of Winnie, a fifty-ish woman, buried up to her waist in a mound of earth. This immobility does not seem to bother the optimistic Winnie, who may miss the use of her legs but opts to concentrate on what she can still do with her arms and hands -- brush her teeth, use her mirror, etc. In the second half, Winnie has become buried up to her neck, but even the fact that she can no longer use her arms does not dissuade Winnie, whose motto is summed up with "Ah, well, what matter, that's what I always say; it will have been a happy day after all, another happy day." Winnie also professes to be comforted by the presence of husband Willie, who is rarely seen or heard. Beneath her cheerful exterior, of course, Winnie may not believe that all is really as well as she makes it out to be, but her refusal to admit the grim nature of her own reality is at the core of Beckett's play. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

Atom Egoyan directed this film adaptation of Samuel Beckett's single-character play, in which Krapp (John Hurt), an elderly man, sits at a desk and looks back at the events of his life. Every year, Krapp has made a point of recalling the most remarkable events of the past 12 months and reciting them into a tape recorder; as he plays back the tapes and remembers his few pleasures and many regrets, he tries to wipe out his past life and begin again. Krapp's Last Tape was produced as part of the "Beckett on Film" project, an ambitious attempt to bring Samuel Beckett's entire body of work to the screen. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

An embittered ex-IRA soldier and widowed father finds his efforts to keep his family together crumbling due to his own tyrannical approach to parenting in director Tom Cairns' adaptation of the novel by John McGahern. Michael Moran (Tony Doyle) has witnessed enough death and destruction to last a lifetime, and now that his wife is gone Michael is desperate to keep the family together. But Michael's daughters are bound together by fear of their brutal father, and his sons long for the day they will never have to endure another beating. As his children strike out on their own, a failed father is left to deal with his broken heart all alone. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan star in Interview With the Vampire director Neil Jordan's lavish yet decadent tale of a blood-sucking mother/daughter duo whose dark 200-year history threatens to catch up with them at a run-down hotel on the English coast. Their story begins during the Napoleonic Wars, when young Eleanor (Ronan) is abandoned as Clara (Arterton) falls into a passionate love affair. Two centuries later, demure Eleanor and extroverted Clara are on the run when they seek sanctuary in a dilapidated coastal resort. There, Clara sets her sights on a lonely soul named Noel (Daniel Mays), who has just inherited the Byzantium hotel, a once-thriving inn that has fallen into a sad state of disrepair. Before long, the elder vampire has transformed the Byzantium into a makeshift brothel where she and her young companion can quench their thirst for human blood while maintaining a low profile. Meanwhile, Eleanor falls for Frank (Caleb Landry Jones), a charming young waiter who unwittingly draws out the natural storyteller in her. Amidst a string of mysterious disappearances in the sleepy coastal town, Frank realizes that Eleanor's extraordinary tales are much more than simple fantasy. As Clara and Eleanor's sanguinary past slowly comes into focus, it's only a matter of time before the pair will be forced to either flee once again or face their fates with a sense of dark courage. Jonny Lee Miller and Sam Riley co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A man bearing the unseen scars of war struggles to recover amidst a family in chaos in this drama from writer and director Danis Tanovic. Mark Walsh (Colin Farrell) is a photojournalist who has earned a reputation for working in some of the most unforgiving locations on Earth, so when his editor Amy (Juliet Stevenson) asks him to cover the fighting in Kurdistan, Mark takes the assignment and thinks little of it, though his wife Elena (Paz Vega) is considerably more concerned. Mark and his friend and fellow photographer David (Jamie Sives) head off to the war full of confidence, but when Mark comes home alone after being separated from David, he seems like a different person, gaunt and unable to relax. Elena can't get Mark to talk about what he saw that left him so traumatized, so she invites her father Joaquin (Christopher Lee), a veteran psychoanalyst with military experience, for a visit to see if he can help. But as Joaquin struggles to get Mark to open up, the father's presence ignites an old conflict between him and Elena; the doctor was a supporter of Franco during the Spanish Civil War and served under the dictator's regime, and Elena has never been able to forgive him for his actions against the Spanish loyalists. Triage was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In the suburbs of Dublin, more than a dozen strangers find their paths colliding in sometimes violent, sometimes absurd ways in Intermission, the first feature from director John Crowley. Setting the chain of events in motion is Lehiff (Colin Farrell), a small-time crook whose most recent petty theft has him on the run from Jerry (Colm Meaney), a self-aggrandizing police detective who's even more full of himself now that he's being constantly trailed by a TV news documentary crew. Meanwhile, Lehiff's friend John (Cillian Murphy) is going though a trial breakup -- or "intermission," as he calls it -- with his girlfriend, Deirdre (Kelly Macdonald), who has promptly taken up with the older, more conventionally responsible bank manager Sam (Michael McElhatton). When Lehiff suggests that the answer to all of his and John's troubles is to set up Sam and rob his vaults, John's too eager to comply -- and their plan spells dire consequences for everyone in their immediate circle of relations. Also starring David Wilmot, Brian F. O'Byrne, and Shirley Henderson, Intermission had its premiere at the Galway Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award, and secured berths at the Edinburgh, Telluride, and Toronto festivals. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

An ordinary guy gets himself in an extraordinary amount of trouble in this blend of comedy and action from director Ian Fitzgibbon. Michael McCrea (Cillian Murphy) is a regular guy who isn't especially good with money, which leads him to borrow some money from Perrier (Brendan Gleeson), a local loan shark and strong-arm man. Unfortunately, Michael isn't able to pay back the money on schedule, and he quickly learns that Perrier is one man you don't want angry; now there's a price on Michael's head and he needs to pay his debt quickly if he wants to live. Michael accepts a proposal from a small-time hood to do a quick breaking-and-entering job in exchange for part of the loot, but things go very wrong and somehow the neighbor girl Michael is sweet on, Brenda (Jodie Whittaker), ends up shooting someone. Now Michael is on the run from two sets of crooks, has a dead body to deal with, must find an alibi for Brenda, and has to mend fences with his crusty father (Jim Broadbent) before his dad is willing to help. Perrier's Bounty was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi