Curtis Armstrong

Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer director Savage Steve Holland returns to the helm for this comedy concerning a dictator's son who travels to America to attend college. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

California is at the epicenter of a political and environmental disaster that threatens to destroy the world in this ambitious fusion of comedy, drama, dystopian science fiction, and music from writer and director Richard Kelly, his first film after gaining a cult following with Donnie Darko. In the year 2005, a nuclear attack wipes out part of the state of Texas, and three years later America is a virtual police state, with the government taking control of nearly every part of people's lives, supposedly for their own good. A German firm has found a way to generate energy using seawater, but both public and private concerns are desperate to prevent the new technology from being introduced in the gasoline-starved United States. A Marxist underground based on the West Coast is determined to bring down the federal government through violent revolution.

In this midst of this chaos, we follow a number of stories that continually return to three principle characters. Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock) is an actor famous for his role in action films; he's trying to secure financing for a new project, but reality keeps mirroring the events in his script and he struggles to hold on to his identity following a bout with amnesia. Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a porn star who is reinventing herself as a television pundit offering her views on politics, contemporary culture, and teenage sex. And Roland Taverner (Seann William Scott) is an L.A. police officer whose identity has mysteriously split in two, and he struggles to track down his other half. Featuring a massive supporting cast which includes Mandy Moore, Miranda Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Smith, Amy Poehler, and Justin Timberlake, Southland Tales received its world premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival; director Kelly also created an accompanying series of three graphic novels that chart these events and characters prior to this story. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Christmas Eve is drawing near, and when the Plaza's most famous six-year-old vows to put on the best holiday show ever a last minute cancellation threatens to sink the elaborate holiday celebration in an animated tale that offers holiday fun for the whole family. A variety of traditions from various cultures promise to make this year's show the biggest holiday event in Plaza history, but in the ensuing chaos Mr. Salamone is prompted to cancel the show just plans begin falling into place. Now it's up to Eloise to keep the spirit of Christmas alive, and as the kids scramble to save the show and Eloise ponders whether her surprise guest will truly show up, everyone is about to learn the most important holiday lesson of all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The weekly, half-hour cartoon series The Emperor's New School was a spin-off of two Disney animated features, The Emperor's New Groove (2000) and the direct-to-video Kronk's New Groove (2005). Set in pre-Columbian South America, the series, like its predecessors, chronicled the misadventures of spoiled young Incan emperor Kuzco, who was forever learning valuable life lessons en route to the throne. In the TV series, Kuzco was obliged to graduate from school before he could claim the crown. Thwarting the protagonist every step of the way was his power-hungry former administrator Yzma, who had disguised himself as the school's principal, and Yzma's principal stooge Kronk, who posed as a fellow student. Eartha Kitt, Patrick Warburton, Wendie Malick and Bob Bergen, who had provided voices for the original films, repeated their roles on the TV spin-off. In typical Disney "super-saturation" fashion, The Emperor's New School debuted on The Disney Channel, ABC and Toon Disney over a three-day period, from January 27 through 29, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Credit cards and women on skates prove to be a dangerous mixture in this comedy. Frank Hopper (Jon Bon Jovi) is a former lawyer whose career has hit the skids, and he currently lives off the largesse of his more successful sister, Leona (Nora Dunn). Frank has dozens of business ideas, but has no way to finance them, until he heads out with his friend Carl (David Faustino) one evening and fills out a questionnaire in which he jokingly states his income is a million dollars a year. Suddenly Frank's mailbox is flooded with pre-approved credit cards, and with his new line of credit, Frank launches his dream project -- a women's hockey league. But it seems that the world is not yet ready for women playing professional ice hockey, and before long Frank is 300,000 dollars in debt, with a handful of credit agencies taking him to court to get back the money he's spent so far. Frank turns to his former girlfriend Jessica (Estella Warren), now a successful lawyer, to help him stay out of jail, but it seems their work is cut out for them when they learn Jessica's very competitive former beau Norman (Cary Elwes) is prosecuting Frank's case. National Lampoon's Pucked was directed by Arthur Hiller; it was his first directorial project since 1997's An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn, for which Hiller opted not to take credit. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The hospital staff anxiously prepares for the birth of quintuplets, but the delivery is a extremely difficult one and the outlook isn't promising for the undersized infants. Somehow or other Burke (Isaiah Washington) finds time to slip Cristina (Sandra Oh) his apartment key, which temporarily throws her off balance. Elsewhere, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) is shocked and embarrassed when a guy she'd picked up at Joe's bar the night before shows up at the hospital with a painful priapism--and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) is the consulting physician! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Directed by Taylor Hackford, this biopic profiles the life of legendary musician Ray Charles. Despite humble beginnings and the loss of his eyesight due to glaucoma at the age of six, Charles, depicted by Jamie Foxx, would nonetheless become an icon in both the music industry and the civil rights era. While the film delves into his problems with drugs and women, the bulk of the story details his career; among the highlights of that career are 12 Grammy awards and 11 R&B chart-toppers, such as "Unchain My Heart," "Hit the Road, Jack," "Georgia," "Doin' the Mess Around," and "Hallelujah I Just Love Her So." Also among the cast are Larenz Tate as Quincy Jones, as well as Regina King, Kerry Washington, and Clifton Powell. Charles' son, Ray Charles Jr. helped produce the film. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

William Byron Hillman's family comedy Quigley stars Gary Busey as a cold-hearted billionaire. Early in the film he dies. After dying, he learns that he will only get into heaven if he learns lessons about compassion and selflessness. In order to have a chance, he is reincarnated on Earth as a Pomeranian. As a dog, he seeks to undo much of the damage he inflicted on those around him when he was human. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

No one lives through the night in The Hunger: Wicked Dreams. The terror begins when a man checks into an ultra-low budged hotel room with what he thought was one redeeming quality--cable television. It turns out to be quite the opposite, however, once it comes clear that the television not only isn't the inanimate object he had believed, but is bent on killing him by dawn. Meanwhile, a female journalist hitches a ride in hopes of finding the ultimate story, but the freeway has something considerably worse in mind for her. Lastly, a lonely lighthouse keeper gets an unwelcome visit from a murderous sea-creature. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

The first of several sight gag and slapstick-rich comedies he produced without the team of Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, and Jim Abrahams, this lowbrow comedy from executive producer and star Leslie Nielsen suffers by comparison to his work with the "ZAZ" team. Nielsen plays Dick Steele, secret agent WD-40, called out of retirement to stop the world-conquering plans of his old nemesis, General Rancor (Andy Griffith), an armless madman determined to avenge himself upon Steele (who is responsible for Rancor's lack of appendages). With the help of Russian agent Veronique Ukrinsky (Nicolette Sheridan), Steele prepares to battle Rancor at his tropical island lair, where the daughter of Steele's long-ago love is being held captive. Along the way, such films as True Lies (1994), Speed (1994), Jurassic Park (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) are spoofed. Director Richard Friedberg had previously directed Nielsen in a series of automobile rental commercials and goofy "how-to" golf videos. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide