Sandra Prosper

A structural engineer (Anthony Hopkins) and an ambitious young district attorney (Ryan Gosling) become locked in a deadly battle of wits when the former is found innocent in the attempted murder of his wife in director Gregory Hoblit's tense tale of courtroom mind games. Ted Crawford (Hopkins) is an engineer who lives with his wife, Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz), in the couple's lavish Southern California home. One day, after carefully planning out the details to ensure that there is no way he can be convicted of murder, Ted shoots his wife in a blatant attempt to kill the woman. When head hostage negotiator Rob Nunally (Billy Burke) arrives on the scene to speak with Ted, he is shocked to find that the victim of the shooting is in fact his longtime lover. Though Jennifer survives the trauma of being shot in the head at close range, she hovers comatose between life and death as star prosecutor Willy Beachum (Gosling) reluctantly accepts the case while preparing to leave the Los Angeles criminal court system behind for a more promising career at a posh private law firm. Though the DA (David Strathairn) vehemently resents Beachum's lofty plan for departure, the hotshot young lawyer remains convinced that he can expedite the apparently open-and-shut case and be on his way to greener pastures in one week's time at the very most. Beachum's swelling ego betrays him, however, as his future boss Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike) begins to turn up the heat and fracture mechanics specialist Ted chooses to represent himself at the trial knowing well that a career spent spotting structural flaws in aeronautical systems has instilled him with just the kind of argumentative skills needed to riddle the swaggering young lawyer's "foolproof" case with doubt. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Working in concert with a death-obsessed alchemist (John Kassir), Zankou (Oded Fehr) begins savagely attacking innocents in order to render the Charmed Ones vulnerable. Zankou's latest victim is Phoebe's fellow grad student Tim (Colin Egglesfield), who drops dead at her feet. Convinced that Tim's demise is entirely her fault (she has in fact been "accused" by the dead man's spirit), Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) asks Daryl (Dorian Gregory) to investigate the phenomenon -- while Zankou mounts his next and even more horrible offense. Meanwhile, Paige (Rose McGowan) senses that her new student Joanna (Laura Regan) has the "wrongest" boyfriend of all time, and Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Leo (Brian Krause) forget their past differences to plan a birthday party for baby Chris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Cleaners, whose job it is to erase all evidence of mortal contact with witches, try to cover up videotaped proof of Phoebe's (Alyssa Milano) and Paige's (Rose McGowan) witchcraft by framing Inspector Daryl Morris (Dorian Gregory) for murder. When the Charmed Ones try to help Daryl, they end up on trial for their lives themselves. Despite the friction between them, Leo (Brian Krause) and Chris (Drew Fuller) join forces to save Daryl and the girls. But there's a fly in the ointment -- namely, the Charmed Ones' perennial nemesis Barbas the Fear Demon (Billy Drago). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first part of Charmed's season-six finale (originally telecast as a single two-part episode), Gideon (Gildart Jackson) makes a last-ditch effort to destroy baby Wyatt. Gideon's scheme involves exiling father-and-son Whitelighters Leo (Brian Krause) and Chris (Drew Fuller) to a bizarre mirror world where evil is good and vice versa. Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) and Paige (Rose McGowan) had better hurry in their rescue efforts: if Chris does not return in time for his "past self" to be born to Piper (Holly Marie Combs), the space-time continuum will be damaged beyond repair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first half of Charmed's fifth-season finale (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), the mythical Titans are released from their eternal prison, whereupon they wipe out all the Whitelighter Elders -- leaving only Leo (Brian Krause) in charge. While Leo is thus occupied, a mysterious Whitelighter from the future is assigned as guardian angel for the Charmed Ones. Somehow, this results in the three girls being transformed into Greek goddesses: Piper (Holly Marie Combs) is the Goddess of Earth, Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) is the Goddess of Love, and Paige (Rose McGowan) is the Goddess of War! ~ All Movie Guide

In this appropriately titled 100th episode of Charmed, the semi-demonic Cole (Julian McMahon) realizes that he will never be able to win back the love of Phoebe (Holly Marie Combs) so long as he is opposed by her half sister, Paige (Rose McGowan). To remedy this situation, Cole links up with the Avatars to make a journey into the past, where he can establish an alternate reality in which Paige never makes the acquaintance of Phoebe and Piper (Holly Marie Combs), and thus never becomes a "Charmed One." The plot thickens when the demons of the past rear their ugly heads, and when Paige suddenly finds herself able to penetrate Cole's alternate reality thanks to a bad cold! ~ All Movie Guide

A nice guy tired of finishing last tries playing on the other side of the fence in this independent comedy. Martin (Mekhi Phifer) and Junnie (Andre B. Blake) are two brothers living in one of Harlem's upscale neighborhoods. In many regards, the two siblings are as different as night and day. Martin is a successful journalist and more than a bit shy, while Junnie mostly gets by on his charm and his bravado. When Martin discovers his fiancée is having an affair with another woman, he immediately calls off the engagement, but he's never been especially good at charming the ladies, and soon turns to his brother Junnie for advice. While Junnie is bad with long-term relationships, he's great at picking up women, and after teaching Martin a few of his tricks, the former nice guy is meeting and disposing of women like a master. When Paula (Tangi Miller), a beautiful and brilliant art historian, moves into Martin's building, he tries Junnie's best lines on her, only to discover she wants someone more refined. So can Martin go back to being his nice-guy self and still have any chance of getting to first base with Paula? The Other Brother was the first feature film from writer and director Mandel Holland. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

South Korean-born Wonsuk Chin, a NYC resident for eight years, made his directorial debut with this hip comedy, shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. With numerous cinematic references and allusions (Bergman, Godard, Woo, Hartley), the tale begins with a black-and-white silent sequence depicting Death chasing a young man through Old Baghdad. The setting shifts to present-day New York, where a Japanese man, Kenji (Takeshi Kaneshiro of Chungking Express) is seen abed in a sparsely furnished apartment. Kinji goes to a local cafe where he chats with several others: Italian friend Fabrizio (Michael Imperioli) who proclaims, "Lubitsch is the god!"; a literary wit, Balzac Man (Jeffrey Wright); and an enigmatic German woman, Pola (Geno Lechner), who hints at a possible sexual liaison with Kinji. Death (Mira Sorvino) drifts about, assuming various forms -- disco gal, Japanese geisha, Chinese woman, devil with a red dress on, and a French-accented figure dressed as a man. The sad and lonely Death informs Kenji that she has no choice in determining her victims, and he also learns from her that he has only 12 hours left to live. She suggests that he make the most of his remaining minutes, so he sets forth on a series of brief adventures. At the cafe, he chides famous artist John Sage (Ben Gazzara) for being involved with a decades-younger girlfriend, the beautiful Korean Anouk (Hye Soo Kim). Sage invites Kenji to dinner at their home, and Death invites herself. Kenji makes the proposal that since he's due to die, he could be allowed sex with Anouk as a final act. This request isn't well received by anyone present, leaving Kenji to his own devices as the darkness closes in. Mira Sorvino wears a virtual fashion show of colorful costumes in this movie, which also provided her with the opportunity to speak Chinese onscreen for the first time. Sorvino majored in Asian studies at Harvard and lived for eight months (1988-89) in Beijing, where she studied Chinese, taught English, and viewed a variety of Chinese films. Too Tired to Die and The Replacement Killers both brought her several steps closer to her announced goal of making a film in Mandarin and working with a Chinese director. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide