Muse Watson

A romance between a teenage girl and a thirtysomething drifter takes the young woman down a dangerous and unexpected path in this independent drama. Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood) is a pretty 18-year-old whose father, Wade (David Morse), is the sheriff of a town in California's San Fernando Valley. Tobe is driving to the beach with some friends when she stops at a filling station and meets gas jockey Harlan (Edward Norton), who dresses like a cowpoke and claims to have recently relocated to Los Angeles from South Dakota. Harlan is immediately and obviously taken with Tobe, and when she asks him to tag along for the day, he impulsively quits his job to follow her. Tobe and Harlan soon become a couple, but Wade is convinced Harlan is not all he claims to be, and Tobe begins to wonder if her father might be right when Harlan takes her horseback riding and their date is cut short after police inform them the horses have been stolen from an rancher (Bruce Dern) whom Harlan claims is a friend - and who promptly turns up with a gun to confront both of them, insisting that he has never seen Harlan before. Tobe's suspicions grow when Harlan offers to teach her little brother, Lonnie (Rory Culkin), how to shoot using a pair of real .45 revolvers, as his actions become less charming and more worrisome. Leading man Edward Norton also served as producer on this project. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A handful of thieves discover they have more to worry about than the law in this independent horror story, set during the Civil War. William (Henry Thomas) is the leader of a group of runaway Confederate soldiers who, with the help of an escaped slave and an Army nurse, stage a daring robbery at a bank holding a cache of rebel gold. The heist does not go smoothly, and William's associates soon fall into in-fighting as they head toward Mexico with their stolen fortune. Needing a place to rest for the night, the criminals set up camp in a mansion overlooking an abandoned plantation, but it soon becomes obvious that the old house is not as empty as they thought, as a handful of angry ghosts make their presence known while William and his cohorts fight over the gold. Also featuring Isaiah Washington, Patrick Fugit, and Michael Shannon, Dead Birds was the first feature film from director Alex Turner. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When a New York City firefighter and his old military buddy set out for a weekend retreat of bow-hunting in the wilderness, the hunters become the prey for a menacing band of cannibalistic killers in this terrifying cross between The Most Dangerous Game and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Steve (Timothy Gibbs) and Frank (Muse Watson) don't get out of the city much, but despite their urban trappings, their survival skills are in top shape. By the time the ill-fated duo realize that lodge owner Mitch is a member of a flesh-eating tribe that hunts humans for game it's already too late, and if Steve and Frank have any hopes of surviving the night they'll have to put their survival instincts to the ultimate test. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This loosely fact-based oater attempts to mimic the youthful heartthrobs in Western garb formula of Young Guns (1988), as well as the cheeky humor and some plot elements of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Colin Farrell stars as Jesse James, who returns home from the Civil War to his small hometown to find that a crooked railroad baron (Harris Yulin) has been illegally forcing the residents from the homesteads to make way for a new rail line. Enraged, James leads a band of outlaws including his brother Frank (Gabriel Macht), Cole Younger (Scott Caan), and Younger's brothers Bob (Will McCormack) and Jim (Gregory Smith) on a criminal spree of bank robbing. Although their Robin Hood-style tactics soon make them local heroes, the James-Younger gang members find themselves pursued by the dogged Allan Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton), the world's first "private eye." Along the way, Jesse also finds romance with Zee Mimms (Ali Larter), the daughter of a local doctor (Ronny Cox). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Austin Powers -- fashion photographer, denizen of Swingin' London, international espionage agent, and bane of dental hygienists everywhere -- returns in his second screen adventure. Powers (once again played by Mike Myers), a 1960s superspy stranded in the 1990s, discovers that his nemesis, criminal genius Dr. Evil (also Mike Myers), has somehow stolen his "mojo" (the secret to his otherwise inexplicable sex appeal) and traveled back in time to the 1960s as part of his latest fiendish scheme. Powers must also travel back in time to retrieve it, but if Austin doesn't quite fit into 1998, he's been there just long enough not to fit in in 1968 anymore, either. Powers also discovers that Dr. Evil has new allies this time: Mini-Me (Verne Troyer), a clone of Dr. Evil one-eighth his size but just as nasty; Fat Bastard (Myers yet again), whose name describes him just fine; and vixenish assassin Robin Swallows (Gia Carides). Powers' lack of mojo also proves troublesome when he's paired with his new partner, saucy CIA operative Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham). Other characters returning from the first film include Elizabeth Hurley as Vanessa Kensington, Robert Wagner as Number Two, Michael York as Basil Exposition, Seth Green as Scott Evil, and Mindy Sterling as Frau Farbissina. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me also includes cameo appearances from Tim Robbins, Jerry Springer, Woody Harrelson, and Burt Bacharach with his current songwriting partner, Elvis Costello. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

I Know What You Did Last Summer was one of the two teenaged horror movies responsible for bringing the horror genre into the 90's (the other being Wes Craven's Scream). Both of those films came from the pen of screenwriter Kevin Williamson, and both of them generated sequels. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is the continuation of Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a tortured college co-ed who accidentally almost killed a man and left him for dead one night. One year later, that man, named Ben Willis, came back to kill all of Julie's friends. Now, another year later, she still suffers from nightmares over the horrible incidents. When Julie's roommate Kate (Brandy) wins an all-expenses paid trip to the Bahamas on a radio promotion by guessing the capital of Brazil, she decides to take her roommate Julie, her boyfriend (Mekhi Phifer), and their new friend (Matthew Settle) on the retreat. Once there, they discover that besides being the rainy season, they were also followed by Julie's nemesis who is still seeking revenge. Slowly the islanders turn up murdered, leaving Julie no choice but to explain her past actions to her friends and fight to stay alive. It will entail the final showdown between her and Ben Willis once and for all. ~ Chris Gore, All Movie Guide

Rosewood is the true story of an almost unknown incident in a small Florida town, (fictionalized, but faithful to the known facts, as documented in a 1994 report by the Florida Legislature). The town was inhabited almost entirely by quiet, "middle-class" African- Americans (most of them home and land owners and better off than average at the time.) On New Year's day, 1923, the town was wiped off the face of the earth by angry whites from a neighboring community. Based on palpably false testimony by a single white woman against one "Black" stranger, many of the men of Rosewood were hunted down and lynched, or shot, or burned. The rest of the town's residents fled into the swamps and never returned. At the time, official reports stated that two to six people from the black community were slain. Neither the perpetrators nor the victims spoke of the incident again, which was promptly forgotten until 1983 when a reporter stumbled across the old story and began investigating. Interviews with surviving victims indicated that the previous reports were wrong; in reality, between 70 and 250 people were killed in Rosewood during the four-day attack.

The film is a human story, about human envy, greed and lust, about the totally insane psychology of a mob, but also about the courage and decency of common folks facing an unbelievable onslaught of evil. The courage of the black residents is self evident, and the decency on the part of a few white neighbors is reluctant, until they realize that they can't live with themselves if they don't help the woman and children to escape. The most notable black heroes are Sylvester (Don Cheadle) -- a music teacher and the best-educated man in town -- and Mann (Ving Rhames) -- a stranger on horseback with Samson-like strength who becomes the focus of white hatred and black resistance. The penny-pinching, adulterous town grocer John Wright (John Voight), one of the few white residents, also plays a key role in saving lives, but before he does, he must resolve painful racial issues and make a difficult personal choice. Eventually, though, he sees enough of the mob's evil to know what he must do, and with the help of the reluctant owner-operators of the Gainesville railway, he does it. John Singleton's powerful epic film does not present a "comfortable" view of the circumstances of this grim, little-known page from American history. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide

The true story of Abraham Lincoln and the special relationship he had with his son is told in this made-for-television drama. Kris Kristofferson stars as the President, who during the Civil War years was raising his seven year-old son Tad (Bug Hall), with his wife Mary (Jane Curtain). The film shows Lincoln as a devoted father to the energy-filled young boy. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner helms this action-adventure yarn in which Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone), a veteran, burned-out hit man for hire who's looking to leave his profession, meets a younger, crazier, more ambitious competitor, Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas), who is out to best Rath and make him a target in the process. Rath signs on for one last hit, but complications ensue when he falls in love with the mark, a beautiful, mysterious woman named Electra (Julianne Moore). Bain sets out to murder Electra as well, and the chase leads the two assassins into a deadly game of wits that takes them from Seattle to Puerto Rico. Critics and audiences both turned away from this thriller, which was co-scripted by Bound writer/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski and L.A. Confidential screenwriter Brian Helgeland. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

This Americanized remake of the French classic The Return of Martin Guerre (1982) transports the story's setting from the 16th century Gallic countryside to 19th century Tennessee at the conclusion of the U.S. Civil War. Richard Gere stars as Jack Sommersby, a wealthy landowner who returns to his small cotton farming town of Vine Hill three years after the Civil War's end. The defeated Confederate soldier is ready to resume his past life with his young wife Laurel (Jodie Foster). Thinking her husband long dead, however, Laurel has become engaged to Orin Meecham (Bill Pullman), an arrangement she quickly calls off, enraging and embittering Orin. Soon it becomes evident that his experiences have changed Jack thoroughly. A callous and cruel man widely feared before the war, he is now charming and sensitive, offering financial opportunities to an ex-slave and caring for Laurel and his young son. Jack even persuades the town's citizenry that he can rescue their fortunes by pooling resources and switching Vine Hill's chief crop from cotton to tobacco. Jack's scheme works, but Orin becomes increasingly convinced that Jack is in fact an impostor masquerading as the wealthy Sommersby, a suspicion that the smitten and quickly pregnant Laurel secretly shares. When Jack is arrested and charged with a murder he drunkenly committed years before, the court trial leads to some startling revelations about the past. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide