Dexter Fletcher Movies

Across the Lake details the final two months in the life of British "speed king" Donald Campbell, here played by the ubiquitous Anthony Hopkins. Haunted by the spectre of his equally famous father, who years earlier had set the world land speed record, Campbell is determined to carve his own niche by challenged the water speed record in his own personal motored vessel, the Bluebeard. Alas, this undertaking proves to be the headstrong Campbell's undoing. Verteran stage and screen actress Phyllis Calvert makes a rare TV appearance as Donald's mother, Lady Campbell. Across the Lake was telecast by BBC1 in 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Angelo (Dexter Fletcher) and two of his buddies set out to rob a Swiss bank, and from the start things don't go well. The man driving the getaway car packed up and left before anyone could connect him with the crime, and Angelo's other partner got shot and killed. The best he can do is grab someone's cash-filled briefcase and take a car and its driver hostage. It turns out that the driver is the daughter (Fabienne Babe) of the bank director, so he figures that she's good for ransom money and begins negotiations for that. Meanwhile, the briefcase he took at the bank turns out to have belonged to a man who is willing to hire killers to get it back for him. The situation grows increasingly perilous for him, and he decides to flee the scene -- but not before he has won the heart of his lovely hostage. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Here's the basic "shtick" of Bugsy Malone: it's a gangster picture enacted by children. Acted out before scaled-down sets, the film details the career of Bugsy Malone (Scott Baio), who rises to the top of the criminal ladder in 1920s New York. Whenever gunfire is called for, the kiddie crooks substitute whipped cream for bullets. Paul Williams contributes several songs, which are performed by adult singers and lip-synched by the pint-sized actors. The cast includes John Cassisi as diminutive Capone clone Fat Sam, and then-13-year-old Jodie Foster as the sultry nightclub thrush Tallulah. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most popular and influential video games ever makes its way to the big screen in this sci-fi thriller. A coalition of Earth's scientific and military interests have established a research colony called Olduvai on the planet Mars, but one day all communication from the outpost stops and no one can tell what has happened -- though the final messages suggest it's not good. Believing foul play may have overtaken Olduvai's crew, the Rapid Response Tactical Squad, a team of specially trained military personnel, are deployed to investigate the situation and, if necessary, eliminate the invaders. But Sarge (Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock) and Reaper (Karl Urban), leaders of the RRTS team, soon discover the situation is far more grim than they could have imagined. An experiment on Olduvai has very literally opened a portal to Hades, and a variety of savage and demonic creatures have overtaken the colony. Now the RRTS must seal off Olduvai, close off any access to Earth, and exterminate the satanic beasts before they can kill again. Doom also stars Rosamund Pike (as Dr. Grimm), Dexter Fletcher, Ben Daniels, and Deobia Oparei. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director Ken Russell applies his trademark excess to this surreal, experimental examination of the creative dementia which shaped Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein. The story is embellished from events which allegedly took place at the Swiss villa of Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne) on the night of June 16, 1816. Byron's guests include poet Percy Shelley (Julian Sands) and his future wife Mary (Natasha Richardson); Mary's half-sister Claire (Myriam Cyr) and Byron's leech-happy personal physician Dr. John Polidori (Timothy Spall). Byron promises them a night of horror like only a mad poet can deliver -- after partaking of laudanum and other hallucinogens, the guests tell ghost stories while exploring the dark corridors of his home. From here, Russell dives headlong into madness, discarding plot structure in favor of fever-dream setpieces in which the guests confront living manifestations of their own fears and insecurities -- creative, mortal and sexual, among others. The raging Romantics are also given to lengthy discourse on the nature of fear and the fine line between creative genius and insanity; by the film's end, viewers may find themselves wondering the same thing about the director. Those who may prefer a more subdued speculation on the same theme should seek out Ivan Passer's Haunted Summer. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

A man with the power to glimpse the future in dreams seeks the aid of an amateur sleuth in discovering the secret of his power and preventing an approaching tragedy in this quirky romantic comedy starring Dexter Fletcher and Linda Hamilton. When Albert Ross (Fletcher) lies down to dream, the future appears before his eyes. If Dexter's visions are correct, a sexy bombshell will soon appear to liberate him from his boring life while fulfilling his every sexual fantasy. But recently, Dexter has been dreaming of death, and in order to keep that vision from becoming a reality the sleepy clairvoyant seeks out the help of an investigator (Hamilton) who may have the power to change the future. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A novice knight and his unlikely allies lead a crusade against evil in this adventure set in 12th century France. Robert Nerra (Eric Stoltz) is a young knight who, after the death of his older brother, abandons the struggle to defend his father's property in a skirmish over land rights and instead sets out to offer his services to King Richard the Lionhearted. As Nerra makes his way through a France racked with poverty and sickness, he encounters a group of orphans who are trying to flee from the Black Prince (Gabriel Byrne), a dark-clad rogue knight who steals children and sells them to Arab slave merchants. At first thinking him to be King Richard himself, the children follow Nerra, and he tries to protect and organize them as best he can. As they march through France, the orphans' numbers grow, and soon Nerra finds himself leading a crusade of children as he at once leads them to safety and fights off the Black Prince's forces. Lionheart was one of the final films from veteran director Franklin J. Schaffner; the film received an unfortunately short-lived theatrical release and went largely unseen until it was released on home video in 1990, a year after Schaffner's death. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Writer and director Michael Mann updates the groundbreaking television crime series he created in the 1980s with this stylish thriller. Ricardo Tubbs (Jamie Foxx) and Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) are two police detectives working undercover in Florida; Tubbs is smart, cool, and resourceful, while Crockett has his own way of doing things, though he stays close enough to the rules to stay out of trouble. Their latest assignment is to get the goods on Arcangel de Jesus Montoya (Luis Tosar), a local drug kingpin whose men are believed to be responsible for a handful of recent murders. In order to infiltrate Montoya's operation, Tubbs and Crockett pose as powerboat racers willing to use their talents to pilot drug-smuggling ships for the right price. The detectives' ruse works, but as they dig deeper into Montoya's inner circle, they become involved in a dangerous operation that will take them to Haiti and Cuba, where neither the Miami Police Force nor the United States government can help them if things go wrong. Crockett also begins walking a risky path when he begins an affair with Isabella (Gong Li), a woman high up in Montoya's organization. Miami Vice marked Michael Mann's third consecutive directorial effort with Jamie Foxx after Ali and Collateral. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This period drama about the American Revolution has an overlay of rhetoric that thwarts the action, flattening out the story about a man and his loved ones caught up in the events of the time. Tom Dobb (Al Pacino) falls in love with Daisy McConnahay (Nastassja Kinski), an aristocrat who deserts her class to fight alongside the rebels. Tom teaches his son Ned (Dexter Fletcher) everything he needs to learn, though the growing rebellion consumes most of his attention. Eventually, the Redcoats are mowed down in large battle scenes, as the ragtag Colonialists go to war. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A charmingly naïve boy from the English village of Wall travels to a magical, mythical world in search of the falling star that will help him win the heart of his true love in this fantasy adventure starring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ricky Gervais, and Sienna Miller. For hundreds of years the massive cobblestone barrier that surrounds the sleepy English hamlet of Wall has kept the citizens of the village safe and secure from the malevolent supernatural forces that stir just outside its perimeter. When dashing Tristan Thorne (Cox) promises the fairest girl in the village, Victoria (Miller), that he will prove his love by bestowing her with a genuine falling star, his daring mission sends him on an adventure far outside the comfortable confines of Wall. In order to find the fallen star, Tristan will have to ascend the wall and venture deep into the forbidden heart of the fantastical realm known as Stormhold. Upon discovering that the meteorite he sought was in fact a beautiful girl named Yvaine (Danes), who has stumbled though space and is now being pursued by the King of Stormhold's (Peter O'Toole) sons (who long to use her cosmic powers to lay claim to the throne), Tristan vows to protect the otherworldly visitor at all costs. But the king's sons aren't the only ones in search of the luminous Yvaine; fearsome witch Lamia (Pfeiffer) has become convinced that the young girl's power can help her to achieve eternal youth and beauty. As Tristan makes his way through Stormhold on a mission to bring the star back to Wall, he will encounter a series of spectacular characters and creatures that will lead him to a fate he never imagined. Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn serves as director and co-screenwriter for this tale of witches and pirates adapted from the novel by fantasy icon Neil Gaiman, who also produces. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

British director Stephen Frears' political docudrama The Deal was originally broadcast on Channel 4. The film is based on the real-life events that elevated Tony Blair to the seat of Prime Minister. The film shows how the hard-working, but not head-turning, Gordon Brown (David Morrissey) and the flashy Blair (Michael Sheen), two very opposite personalities, forged a working relationship while opposing Margaret Thatcher's government. When the Labor leader, John Smith, dies of a heart attack, on May 13, 1994, everyone believes Brown will ascend to the top of the party. But that isn't what happens.
The film supposes what happened at a historic dinner meeting between Brown and Blair, at Islington, that led directly to Blair's appointment. This film is loosely based on The Rivals, written by James Naughtie. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

John Mackenzie's masterfully directed British crime drama features a star-making performance by Bob Hoskins as Harold Shand, a successful London gangster whose world falls apart over the course of one weekend. Shand controls the London docks and is planning a big real estate deal, financed by money from the American mob and given the okay by the London organization. His world is sweet -- he lives in a fancy penthouse, he owns a yacht, and has a sensitive and intelligent mistress. But suddenly a bomb explodes inside his Rolls Royce, another bomb destroys a pub he owns, and a third is found inside his casino. Shand can't understand who would suddenly want him dead, particularly over the Easter weekend, when representatives from the American mafia are coming into town to discuss investing in Shands's real estate project. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide