Paget Brewster Movies

Director Toby Wilkins presents a fresh new take on the age-old urban legend with this darkly comic tale of a man (Ethan Embry) who awakens in a bathtub full of ice with a hazy recollection of the previous evening's antics and a curious line of stitches where his kidneys used to be. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director Peter Levin brings author Richard Paul Evans' heartwarming novel to the small screen in this made for cable drama starring Rob Lowe, Paget Brewster, Frances Conroy, and Christopher Lloyd. Unexpectedly downsized from his once-comfortable job, Robert Harlan (Lowe) decides to finally pursue his dreams of becoming a writer. In order to summon inspiration, Harlan draws on the emotions his wife experienced after losing her father and the book quickly becomes a bestseller. But success has spoiled Robert Hanlan, and now his relationships with both his family and his friends are suffering: In addition to growing further apart from his devoted wife and young daughter, Hanlan barely speaks to the agent who used to be his best friend. When a mysterious stranger makes an ominous prediction about Hanlan's life, the egotistical writer finally receives a much-needed wake-up call. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Ishai Setton's comedy drama The Big Bad Swim concerns the people who sign up to attend a beginner adult swim class. Some of the people involved in the class include Amy (Paget Brewster), whose marriage is on the rocks; Jordan (Jess Weixler), a stripper; and the teacher Noah (Jeff Branson), who eventually experiences romantic sparks with Amy. Another subplot involves a documentary film being made about Jordan. The Big Bad Swim had its world premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

This hastily assembled rehash of the infamous Laci Peterson murder case is based on Amber Frey's book Witness: For the Proseuction of Scott Peterson, which may explain why she comes off as the most sympathetic person in the film. Basically, the script adheres to the facts: The mistress of Scott Peterson (Nathan Anderson), Amber Frey (Janel Moloney) begins to suspect that something is amiss with her sweetheart when, during what is supposed to his trip to Europe, he is suddenly popping up on every TV station and cable service in the country, swearing up and down that he had nothing to do with the disappearance of his wife Laci and their unborn son Connor. Eventually, Amber decides to cooperate with the Modesto Police Department in their efforts to pin a murder rap on Scott, agreeing to wear a wire while conversing with Scott over his domestic travails. In his frenzied efforts to counteract previous lies by cooking up new ones, Peterson effectively puts the noose around his own neck--and Amber rightfully emerges as the heroine of the piece (though not, it is hinted, without putting her own life in jeopardy in process). Somehow, the film manages to work in several plugs for the self-help book "du jour", The Purpose-Driven Life. Produced for CBS, the made-for-TV Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution premiered May 25, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mother Nature's fury clashes with Hollywood has-been determination as a group of down and out filmmakers attempt to resurrect a dying sci-fi franchise by keeping their production afloat long enough to shoot their big climax with the "Big One" as the backdrop. In just seventy-two hours, Los Angeles will finally get the earthquake that folks have been anticipating for decades. The Generic News Network is capitalizing on public panic in typically tacky fashion, and the cast of the hopelessly irrelevant Cyxork sci-fi film franchise is ready to risk their lives for some free special effects. But while square-jawed star Rex Anderson (Ray Wise) just wants to keep his film career afloat and earn enough money so that he and his wife can move out of the public appearance bus they call a home, director Angela LaSalle (Sonya Smith) is seeking to transform schlock cinema into celluloid art. When Rex goes over Angela's head in an attempt to get her fired, the plan backfires and they both end up out of work. The production effectively shut down, Rex and Angela decide that their only hope is to put aside their differences, pretend they are still in production, and work under the radar to finish the film. But who would be foolish enough to try and shoot a film during what promises to be the biggest earthquake in recorded history? As the crew races to get the film finished before the studio finds out, the entire state of California braces for the big rumble and hopes for the best. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Up until the day that a 15-year-old patient committed suicide right in the middle of his office, prosperous L.A. psychiatrist Dr. Craig "Huff" Huffstodt (Hank Azaria) had been sublimely confident that his was the most secure and well-ordered of lives. But as he finds out in the course of Huff's first season on Showtime, our hero is the central figure in a bizarre, often incomprehensible real-life scenario festooned with hitherto untapped neuroses, sexual hang-ups, dysfunctional family members, and jaw-dropping plot convolutions. Just your typical, everyday midlife crisis. Inasmuch as the parents of his unfortunate teenage patient hold Huff responsible for the suicide, Huff's attorney, Russell Tupper (Oliver Platt), would seem to be the "go-to guy" whenever the going gets too rough. Unfortunately, despite his sympathy toward Huff's plight and his pithy words of wisdom, Tupper himself is an angst-ridden mess, as he proves via his weird behavior during a Medical Board hearing. There's worse in store for Tupper when his latest client turns out to be the hooker (Nichole Mercedes Robinson) with whom he'd previously enjoyed a spontaneous one-night orgy. As for Huff's self-absorbed mother, Izzy (Blythe Danner), she had never been a pillar of moral support before, and is even less of one now as she prepares to divorce Huff's long-estranged father, Ben (Robert Forster). Izzy's other son, Teddy (Andy Comeau), wouldn't have been of any help even if he hadn't gotten himself lost in the middle of a field trip. And Huff's own son, Byrd (Anton Yelchin), has begun messing around with illegal substances, much to the dismay of Huff's wife, Beth (Paget Brewster), who already has a big-time cross to bear in the form of the grave illness that is sapping the life from her mother, Madeleine (Swoosie Kurtz). And believe it or not, this litany of misfortune is often played for laughs -- successfully! Adding to Huff's burdens are the ravings of his bipolar patient Melody Coatar (Lara Flynn Boyle), and his brief flirtation with infidelity as he dallies with a sexy pharmaceutical rep. It's not for nothing that the series' holiday offering is titled "Christmas Is Ruined" -- just as the season finale, "Crazy Nuts & All Fucked Up" bears an appropriate moniker, given Huff's anguished response to his mom Izzy's post-menopausal love affair with...well, let's not give away the entire plot! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A pair of former high school sweethearts whose love has never faltered looks forward to a life of marital bliss until, on the eve of the groom's Las Vegas bachelor party, the bride suddenly calls off the wedding with no explanation. Their once promising future together instantly destroyed for reasons unknown to the would-be groom, the pair soon boards an airplane bound for home to pick up the pieces of their fractured lives and attempt to surmise just where it was that everything began to fall apart. Jeremy Sisto and Rashida Jones star in an incisive romantic comedy that proves once and for all that you can never tell where love will lead you. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A satire of comic-book superheroes in the same vein as the 1999 Mystery Men, The Specials is set in a parallel universe where gangs of superheroes regularly compete against one another for glory or, failing that, flattering action-figure likenesses. The Specials are one of these gangs, and not a very good one at that. Composed of the Weevil (Rob Lowe), the group's most popular member, Amok (Jamie Kennedy), a potty-mouthed shape-shifter, group leader Strobe (Thomas Haden Church), and the constantly growing or shrinking Minute Man (James Gunn), the Specials are more concerned with their image than in actually doing anything heroic. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Essentially an updating of Apollo 13, this taut made-for-TV thriller follows the courageous collaborative effort between NASA's Mission control, a space shuttle crew, and their families after an in-space accident endangers their latest mission and forces them to somehow make it back to Earth for an emergency landing. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi