Jeff Balsmeyer Movies
- 2009
Remember the old saying "That's so crazy it might just work"? Two guys bet their futures on a notion that cliché seems to have been created to describe in this comedy-drama from director Jeffrey Balsmeyer. Matt (Dallas Roberts) and Sam (Jeremy Renner) are a pair of dreamers living in Tucson, Arizona who have a strong imaginative streak and a notion that they're going to strike it rich some day by inventing a gadget that will take the world by storm. Unfortunately, they lack both luck and business savvy; when Matt and Sam come up with a salable idea for a dog watch, it gets swiped from under them by Newkin (Richard Kind), a salesman who is seriously short on scruples, and it's only the latest in a long series of schemes that have gone wrong for them. Matt's wife Gina (Ayelet Zurer) has decided she's had enough, and he and Sam are looking bankruptcy in the eye when Matt hatches one last brainstorm he's convinced has promise. But who's really going to buy a talking beer opener? Also starring Eddie Jemison and Marguerite Moreau, Lightbulb was written and produced by Mike Cram, who based the story on his own experiences as one of the inventors of the talking bottle opener. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
A ragtag group of juvenile delinquents assigned the task of cleaning up an abandoned hotel find out just how deadly community service can be when they are stalked by a monstrous, four-hundred-pound maniac with a grudge in director Gregory Dark's wrestling-infused survival horror flick. It was a mere four years ago that seven-foot menace Jacob Goodnight (WWE superstar Kane) was shot in the head and left for dead by a local police officer. But Jacob wasn't going down that easy. With a steel plate subsequently attached to his skull and ten razor-sharp fingernails ready to scrape grey matter from the skulls of his victims, Jacob retreated to the abandoned Blackwell Hotel, where he resided in the darkened, rotting hallways while planning his ultimate revenge. As fate would have it, Jacob wouldn't have to go far to satiate his raging bloodlust, though, and as the unsuspecting teens make their way through the crumbling corridors of the once-luxurious inn guided by the very same policeman who fired that misguided bullet years earlier, the notorious killer sharpens his nails, stalks his prey, and prepares for a little payback. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kane, Glen Jacobs, (more)
Jeff Balsmeyer makes his writing and directing debut with the Australian romantic comedy Danny Deckchair. Rhys Ifans plays Danny Morgan, a building tradesman living in the Sydney suburbs with his upwardly mobile real-estate agent girlfriend, Trudy (Justine Clarke). When she chooses to postpone their vacation together in order to show a house to TV personality Sandy Upman (Rhys Muldoon), Danny takes matters into his own hands by fastening helium balloons to a chair and sailing over the city. Landing in the small town of Clarence, he meets and falls in love with parking cop Glenda (Miranda Otto). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rhys Ifans, Miranda Otto, (more)
The true story of Anna Leonowens' experiences as a governess to the children of an eccentric Asian king has been adapted into a book of memoirs, a biography, a stage play called Anna and the King of Siam -- which was adapted into a 1946 film, a stage musical called The King and I -- made into both the live-action The King and I (1956)) and the animated The King and I (1999) feature films, and a short-lived 1972 TV series. Now the story is brought to the screen yet again, as Jodie Foster stars as Leonowens, hired by the king of Thailand (Chow Yun-Fat) in the 19th century to help care for his children. The king wants the best for his children, but Anna soon discovers that he is a strong-willed but quixotic leader, and her stay in Thailand becomes a struggle for power with romantic overtones, as they decide who will have authority over the royal youngsters. Anna and the King was directed by Andy Tennant, best known for his 1998 variation on the Cinderella story, Ever After. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jodie Foster, Chow Yun-Fat, (more)
