Neal H. Moritz Movies

Disaster visits jaded L.A. in the form of an underground volcano, not the big earthquake all the citizens expect. Shot on the largest set ever constructed in the U.S., in nearby Torrance, California, Volcano is a big-budget, special-effects-laden disaster movie with a standard plot. Tommy Lee Jones plays Mike Roark, a by-the-book emergency management director who is spending the weekend with his daughter, Kelly (Gaby Hoffmann), when the previously-unknown volcano blows. Sassy, brainy scientist Dr. Amy Barnes (Ann Heche) is the first to warn of the threat, which begins by sucking one of her co-workers into a steaming fissure. As the lava starts to spurt in red-hot fireballs, Kelly is injured, and Mike sends her to the hospital in order to attend to his duties, rescue citizens, and run the city's emergency response. Eventually, Roark and Barnes team up to battle the eruption while sparks of romantic attraction fly. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

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, Rovi

Australian director Jamie Blanks helmed this teen horror film set at Pendleton University. Campus legend has it that 25 years earlier Pendleton was the site of a mass murder by a demented abnormal psych instructor who killed six students and then himself. However, no proof of the prof's deed remains. Urban legends are the subject of a course in American folklore taught by Professor Wexler (Robert Englund). When a series of bizarre deaths occur on the campus, assertive student Natalie thinks they are murders based on urban legends, but classmates Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart), ambitious journalism major Paul (Jared Leto), and practical joker Damon (Joshua Jackson) claim it's just a coincidence. Then Natalie begins to realize that she's the next victim. Since Joshua Jackson is a co-lead on TV's Dawson's Creek, an inside joke surfaces when a radio plays a bit of the Dawson's Creek theme (Paula Cole's I Don't Want to Wait). ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

In an adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) are step-brother and step-sister living in Manhattan. With their absent parents travelling in Europe, the wealthy pair have the family penthouse to themselves as they while away their summer break before beginning senior year at a private high school. Sebastian, bad-boy lothario, has apparently slept with all the girls in town and appears numb to it all. Kathryn, who appears to be the good girl class president, is actually far more amoral and malicious than Sebastian, but maintains appearances to the contrary. When she is dumped by her boyfriend, Court Reynolds (Charlie O'Connell), for the innocent Cecile Caldwell (Selma Blair), she schemes revenge by destroying Cecile's reputation. She challenges Sebastian to deflower Cecile and transform her into a tramp to humiliate Court. Sebastian isn't as interested as Cecile -- she's spent her whole life in a Catholic girl's school and presents no challenge. The girl who has caught his attention is Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon), the new headmaster's daughter. Annette had written an article for Seventeen Magazine on her plans to stay a virgin until she finds her one true love. Kathryn makes a wager. If Sebastian fails to lure Annette into bed before the summer is over, Kathryn gets his car. If he succeeds, Sebastian gets Kathryn, whom he wants anyway. Sebastian accepts the bet, but Annette turns out to be more than either of them bargained for. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi

In this direct-to-video prequel to the 1999 feature Cruel Intentions, Kathryn Merte (Amy Adams) is the manipulative, cold-hearted daughter of social climber Tiffany Merte-Valmont (Mimi Rogers). Tiffany has just married again, and Kathryn is not getting along well with her new stepbrother Sebastian (Robin Dunne), who is just as skilled in the venomous art of social gamesmanship as Kathryn. Together they negotiate the tricky paths of sexual and personal power at their upscale private high school, Manchester Prep. Cruel Intentions II began life as Manchester Prep, a TV series for the Fox network that was spun off from the hit film by director and screenwriter Roger Kumble. However, the show's portrayal of sexually voracious teens sparked a controversy in the press, and Fox opted to cancel the series before the two episodes that had been completed ever aired. The footage from the completed shows was combined with new material created by Kumble to make this feature. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Tall tales turn into chilling reality in this sequel to the 1998 horror hit Urban Legend. Amy Mayfield (Jenny Morrison) is a film student at Alpine University who for her thesis project (which will also be her entry to a prestigious competition for young directors) has decided to make a horror film about urban legends that suddenly and disturbingly come true. However, as Amy and her student cast and crew begin filming staged murders for the project, members of her team begin dying for real, and the survivors have to track down the killer before they become the next victims. And where do Travis (Matthew Davis), Graham (Joey Lawrence), and Toby (Anson Mount), three other students vying for the same prize as Amy, fit into this scenario? Urban Legends: The Final Cut marked the directorial debut for John Ottman, who previously distinguished himself as an editor and composer (he also performed both of those functions for this film). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A magazine article about real-life car racing gangs for Vibe becomes this fast-paced automotive thriller from director Rob Cohen. Paul Walker stars as Brian O'Conner, a youthful FBI agent investigating a series of hijackings by going undercover with a street gang led by charismatic Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). Caught up in Toretto's world of gang conflict that is resolved in late-night car races, Spindler starts to sympathize with his chief suspect and falls in love with Toretto's younger sister Mia (Jordana Brewster). In the meantime, Spindler initially suspects the wrong gang of complicity in the crimes he's probing, while Toretto remains involved in a forbidden romance, à la Romeo and Juliet, with his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). The Fast and the Furious co-stars Ted Levine, Rick Yune, and Matt Schulze. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

This entry in the perennially popular teen horror genre is from writer/director Steve Carpenter and the producers of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Urban Legend (1998). Melissa Sagemiller stars as Cassie, a college freshman trying to get over the death of her boyfriend Sean (Casey Affleck) in an auto accident. Making matters worse is that ever since the car crash, which also nearly claimed her own life, Cassie has seemed to hover in a netherworld between the living and the dead, where she believes she's hallucinating some spooky, emotional visitations from Sean. In the meantime, she's also coming under the sway of her mysterious friends Matt (Wes Bentley) and Annabel (Eliza Dushku) as well as an androgynous acquaintance (Angela Featherstone) of theirs. Unsure whom she can trust, Cassie turns for aid to an enigmatic young priest, Father Jude (Luke Wilson), but the ultimate truth about her condition and state of mind may come as a shocking revelation. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Former MTV executive Joel Gallen makes his feature directorial debut with this broad spoof of the popular teen comedy genre, lampooning dozens of movies including American Pie (1999), American Beauty (1999), Bring It On (2000), Clueless (1995), She's All That (1999), Road Trip (2000), Can't Hardly Wait (1998), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Never Been Kissed (1999), and even the teen films of an earlier era such as The Breakfast Club (1985). At the aptly titled "John Hughes High School," aspiring artist Janey Briggs (Chyler Leigh) is an outcast because of her plain, bespectacled looks and paint-splattered overalls. Football hero Jake Wyler (Chris Evans) makes a bet that he can transform Janey into a gorgeous prom queen, a wager he may come to regret as he discovers Janey's true inner beauty. As their relationship blossoms, several other characters are limned, including a Nasty Cheerleader (Jaime Pressly), a Token Black Guy (Deon Richmond), a Stupid Fat Guy (Ron Lester), an Obsessed Best Friend (Eric Jungmann), an Undercover Reporter (Beverly Polcyn), the Cruelest Girl in School (Mia Kirshner), a Cocky Blonde Guy (Eric Christian Olsen), and several others. A nod to the multiple films that inspired it, Not Another Teen Movie (2001) was originally to have been entitled "Ten Things I Hate About Clueless Road Trips When I Can't Hardly Wait to Be Kissed." ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

After establishing herself as a bankable star with the fish out of water comedy Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon returns in what could be described as a "fish back in water" comedy. Melanie Carmichael (Witherspoon) is a successful New York fashion designer who is dating Andrew Hennings (Patrick Dempsey), a wealthy socialite whose mother, Katherine Hennings (Candice Bergen), is the Big Apple's mayor. One day, Andrew pops the big question and asks Melanie to marry him; Melanie is overjoyed, but unknown to Andrew, Melanie has some unfinished business to take care of first. Despite her polished uptown image, Melanie grew up poor in the deep South, and as a teenager she married her high school sweetheart Jake Perry (Josh Lucas). Things went sour and Melanie moved East, reinventing herself along the way, but Jake never bothered to legally end their marriage. Now Melanie has to return to her hometown of Pigeon Creek, AL, to tell her parents (Fred Ward and Mary Kay Place) the news and convince Jake to grant her a divorce; however, the more time she spends with her old flame, the more she feels sparks flying between them again, while she also learns her Eastern affectations don't fly with everyone back home. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Three lifelong cheaters wise up in this gross-out college comedy, which marks the second feature role for Rushmore star Jason Schwartzman. It's the last semester of senior year for roomies Dave (Devon Sawa), Sam (Jason Segel), and Jeff (Michael C. Maronna), a trio of twenty-somethings whose enthusiasm for higher learning is matched only by their enthusiasm for root canals performed without the aid of anesthesia. As such, their entire collegiate existence has been an elaborate series of cons and scams designed to plagiarize essays, skip midterms, and covertly manipulate bell curves. When deranged geek Ethan (Schwartzman) -- who harbors a psychotic fixation for a flaxen-haired co-ed named Angela (James King) -- gets wind of their scheming, he blackmails Dave and the gang into contriving a date between him and his crush. But as Dave cozies up to Angela, he realizes that no amount of scheming can hide the fact that he's the one that's truly in love. Slackers went by a number of working titles while in production at the ill-fated upstart Destination Films; when Destination went belly-up, the film sat on the shelf for over a year before being picked up for release by Sony's Screen Gems division. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Director Carl Franklin and actor Denzel Washington team up again (following 1995's Devil in a Blue Dress) for the crime thriller Out of Time. Washington stars as Matt Lee Whitlock, the well-respected chief of police in a quiet Florida community. While in the process of getting a divorce from fellow detective Alexandra (Eva Mendez), Matt engages in an affair with his high school sweetheart Anne (Sanaa Lathan). Unfortunately, Anne is married to the extremely jealous Chris (Dean Cain), a former pro football player who works as a security guard. After a major murder occurs in the community, Matt finds himself the main suspect. With the help of his medical examiner pal Chae (John Billingsley), Matt must solve the case before he is found guilty himself. Out of Time premiered at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi