Brian Witten Movies

Veteran Saw franchise helmer Darren Lynn Bousman continues his foray into the macabre with this remake of the 1989 Troma B-film classic Mother's Day. The revamp will still center on a demented mother (Rebecca De Mornay) and her two sons, but will focus on them terrorizing a couple that is residing in their old home rather than the original's theme of a group of hikers being tortured in the woods. Jaime King, Shawn Ashmore, Briana Evigan, and Deborah Ann Woll topline the cast. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

A man in search of his missing sister stumbles across a deadly secret in the woods surrounding Crystal Lake as Texas Chainsaw Massacre redux duo Michael Bay and Marcus Nispel resurrect one of the silver screen's most feared slashers -- machete-wielding, hockey mask-wearing madman Jason Voorhees. The last time Clay heard from his sister, she was headed toward Crystal Lake. There, amidst the creaky old cabins and moss-coated trees, an unstoppable force of evil lies quietly dormant, patiently waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Though the police and locals all warn Clay to stay as far away from Crystal Lake as possible, it's the only lead he has, and he isn't willing to give up until he finds his sister. Clay isn't the only one inhabiting these woods either, because a group of thrill-seeking college students have just arrived at Crystal Lake hoping for a wild weekend of fun in the sun. Later, as Clay and one of the recently arrived revelers search for clues, the infamous Jason Voorhees emerges to show them just why the locals have avoided these woods for years. Could it be that Clay's sister has already met a grim demise at the end of Jason's razor-sharp machete, or is she still out there somewhere in the woods, waiting for her brother to come to her rescue? Freddy vs. Jason scribes Damian Shannon and Mark Swift pen the screenplay for a remake executive produced by Sean S. Cunningham (producer/director of the original Friday the 13th). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A big score goes wrong in a big way for a bunch of aspiring gangsters in this crime comedy. Matty Demaret (Barry Pepper) is the son of a mid-level Brooklyn mob boss, Benny "Chains" Demaret (Dennis Hopper). When Matty was 12 years old, Benny and Uncle Teddy (John Malkovich) decided to see if Matty had what it took to be in the mob; they gave the boy a gun and ordered him to shoot a longtime enemy of the family. Matty lacked the nerve to do it, and ever since, Benny has been convinced his son is a coward. As an adult, Matty is stuck between a rock and a hard place; he'd like to work as a sports agent, but his family's criminal ties make that all but impossible, and his dad won't give him a chance in the family's operations. Uncle Teddy decides to give Matty a chance to make good by asking him to pick up a payment of $500,000 in Spokane, WA. Matty puts together a crew of three friends, all sons of mob guys, to help him out: muscle bound Taylor (Vin Diesel), ladies' man Chris (Andrew Davoli), and cocaine-addled would-be pilot Johnny (Seth Green). Getting the money goes just fine, but during a refueling stop in Montana, Johnny has to hide the money to keep it from being discovered. It's then promptly stolen by a pair of burnouts. When Matty and his crew discover the money is missing, they head back to Montana, but before long, they find out that the sheriff (Tom Noonan) is onto them, and that he has his own plans for the cash; they also learn that Uncle Teddy has some plans he didn't tell them about. Knockaround Guys marked the directorial debut for the screenwriting team of Brian Koppelman and David Levien. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The youngest child of the family often has the most problems -- so why should things be different for the Prince of Darkness and his offspring? Satan (Harvey Keitel) is considering retirement, and is pondering which of his sons should take over the family business -- ambitious Adrian (Rhys Ifans), strapping Cassius (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.), or Nicky (Adam Sandler), an accident-prone demon who prefers to stay in his room playing his favorite heavy metal tunes. When Satan decides to stay on for another 10,000 years, Adrian is outraged, and leaves Hell to go to New York, where he and Cassius attempt to round up enough souls to vote Satan out of power. Satan, understandably upset, sends Nicky to bring Adrian and Cassius back home, but Nicky finds life on Earth is more complicated than he expected. Things don't get any easier when he develops a crush on Valerie (Patricia Arquette), a good-hearted mortal woman. Little Nicky also features Michael McKean as a city official trying to put Nicky behind bars, Kevin Nealon as Hell's gatekeeper, Rodney Dangerfield as Satan's father, Robert Smigel as the voice of Beefy -- a talking dog who is Nicky's guide on earth, Allen Covert as Todd -- Nicky's new roommate, and Peter Dante and Jonathan Loughran as a pair of metalheads who dig Satan. Jon Lovitz and Reese Witherspoon play cameo roles, and Regis Philbin and Ozzy Osbourne appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Are you ready for the hottest band in the land? It's 1978 in Detroit, and pretty much any teenager who isn't a total wimp is totally stoked for the upcoming Kiss concert (as anyone who ever listened to Kiss Alive! knows, Detroit has always loved this band). But four proud members of the Kiss Army find themselves without tickets to the show, and one has to deal with a mother who is convinced that Kiss and their music are evil incarnate. Will they be able to foil scalpers, security, and paranoid parents to witness the fire-spitting, blood-puking, hard rock frenzy that is Kiss on stage? Detroit Rock City stars Edward Furlong, Sam Huntington, Natasha Lyonne, Giuseppe Andrews, and James DeBello as the representative members of the Teenage Nation; the original four members of Kiss (Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss) play themselves, and Simmons also co-produced. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Alex Proyas (The Crow) directed this noir-styled futuristic thriller, scripted by Proyas, Lem Dobbs (Kafka), and David S. Goyer (The Puppet Masters). Separated from his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly), amnesiac John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to learn he is wanted for a series of brutal killings -- but he can't remember if he did or didn't commit these murders. Indeed, most of his memories have completely vanished, and he becomes the focus of interest for both mad genius Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) and sympathetic detective Frank Bumstead (William Hurt). Attempting to unravel the twisted riddle of his identity, Murdoch encounters a group of ominous beings known as the Strangers, shadow-like figures who have a collective memory and possess the ability to stop time and alter physical reality through a process called The Tuning. Focusing their minds, they are able to change the size and shape of the material world. Murdoch manages to stay a step ahead of his adversaries as he slowly jigsaws together the puzzle of his past-bittersweet memories of his childhood, his love for Emma, and the key to the murders -- while following a labyrinth leading to the Strangers' Underworld, a set inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Rufus Sewell commented on the Underworld: "When Alex first sent me the sketches for that set, I was more excited than I had been when I read the script. The Underworld was truly remarkable -- a little bit scary, very thrilling, and full of hundreds of bald people." At the Fox Film Studios in Sydney, Australia, where 50 sets were built, three months were spent constructing the set for the Underworld, the largest indoor set ever built in Australia. The production design by George Liddle (Rapa Nui) and Patrick Tatopoulos (Godzilla, Space: Above and Beyond) is a composite of different styles and eras, combining the look of 1940s Manhattan with German Expressionism. The music is by Trevor Jones (G.I. Jane). The film's dedication reads: "In Memory of Dennis Potter with gratitude and admiration." ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

One of the most popular independent comic books of its decade was transformed into this dark, bloody adventure intended to launch a profitable superhero franchise. Michael Jai White stars as Al Simmons, a corrupt assassin betrayed and murdered by his evil government supervisor, Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen). Sent to Hell, Simmons is offered a chance to return to the earthly plane if he will become a "Hellspawn" ("Spawn" for short), one of many super-powered creatures assigned to encourage living souls along the path to damnation. Simmons hastily agrees to this deal and becomes a twisted, scarred version of his former self, living in a dingy alleyway, with no hope of regaining his life, as several years have passed and his wife Wanda (Theresa Randle) has married his best friend, Terry Fitzgerald (D.B. Sweeney). Despite the best efforts of his mentor, a demonic clown (John Leguizamo), Spawn performs mostly heroic acts, though he is not above seeking revenge on Wynn. Despite the film's middling box office take, plans for a sequel were announced. The same summer that Spawn was released, the comic was also the basis of a well-received cable TV series. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide