Frank De Curtis Movies

Expert assassin for hire Marcus Jones (Wesley Snipes) is on the run from CIA agents, an international weapons dealer, and billionaires after being framed for a murder he didn't commit. He must find whoever is responsible before they find him first. Directed by Giorigo Serafini. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Bad Lieutenant director Abel Ferrara takes the helm of this allegorical drama concerning an actress locked in the throes of a profound spiritual crisis, and the affect that it has on both the director of her latest film and a New York journalist. Marie Palesi (Juliette Binoche) is a major European screen star who has just finished shooting her latest film, a revisionist religious drama directed by maverick American film director Tony Childress (Matthew Modine). In the film, Palesi portrayed the character of Mary Magdalene not as a common prostitute, but a full-fledged disciple whose power struggle with Peter set the stage for centuries of controversy. But the role has had a greater impact on Palesi than anyone could have foreseen, and after the shoot wraps, she makes the decision to remain in the Middle East and make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. A year later, New York investigative journalist Ted Younger (Forest Whitaker) is producing a week-long network series examining the historical facts about Jesus Christ. After attending a screening for Childress' film, Younger contacts the director about the possibility of interviewing both himself and Palesi for the project. Unfortunately for Younger, Palesi has disappeared and Younger has no idea how to track her down. But while married journalist Younger is currently having an affair with an actress (Marion Cotillard) who just happens to know Palesi's number in Jerusalem, convincing the elusive starlet to appear on his special will pose a whole new set of challenges. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Cult favorite Abel Ferrara directed and co-wrote this story set in New York City in 1993, before Mayor Rudy Giuliani's much-publicized crusade against street crime put a dent in semi-public drug dealing in the city. It's a few days before Christmas, and a Latin American couple living on the city's Upper East Side (Lillo Brancato Jr. and Drea de Matteo) are watching their daughter (Lisa Valens) perform in her school's holiday pageant. Afterward, the couple drop the child off with a babysitter and set out to run some errands. They have two items on their agenda: get their daughter the doll she's been asking for (a nearly impossible task, since the toy has become the must-have item of the season), then head to their work space uptown, where they prepare and package heroin for street distribution. While the wife has her qualms about the ethics of drug dealing, both she and her husband know there's plenty of money to be made in heroin -- more than most Hispanic immigrants could make working legitimate jobs in New York -- and the business has been highly lucrative for them. The couple discovers one of their lower-level dealers may be talking to the police, but they soon have a bigger problem to deal with when the husband is lured to the Bronx by a fence who can get him the toy he's been looking for. The husband finds he's been lured into a trap, and a kidnapper (Ice-T) gives the wife less than a half hour to collect and pay a huge ransom, or her husband will be killed. As in Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, the audience never learns the names of most of the major characters in 'R Xmas; also like Bad Lieutenant (as well as King of New York and The New Rose Hotel), Ferrara invited pioneering gangster rapper Schooly-D to contribute to the film's score. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi