Idris Elba

A married couple's (Idris Elba and Beyoncé Knowles) life is thrown into disarray when a temporary office worker (Ali Larter) develops an obsessive crush on the man in this Screen Gems thriller. Cable veteran Steve Shill (Big Love, The Wire) directs from a script by David Loughery, with Beyoncé and her father, Mathew Knowles, acting as executive producers. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

A Los Angeles detective races to bust a group of hip thieves before they can carry out a 20-million-dollar heist in this crime thriller from director/co-screenwriter John Luessenhop and writing partner Avery Duff. Matt Dillon, Idris Elba, as well as entertainers T.I. and Chris Brown star in the Screen Gems production. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels director Guy Ritchie heads back to the London underworld for this hyperkinetic crime comedy concerning a shady land deal that leaves every schemer in the city determined to get rich or die trying. When a Russian mobster orchestrates a lucrative real estate scam, every criminal in London wants a piece of the action. Greed is the universal language, and everyone from unrelenting crime boss Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson) to street-smart criminal One Two (Gerard Butler), corrupt accountant Stella (Thandie Newton), and unpredictable punk rocker Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell) seem to speak it fluently. As the bullets start to fly and the double crosses multiply, there's no telling who will walk away with the fortune after the gun smoke has cleared. Jeremy Piven, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, and Quantum of Solace Bond girl Gemma Arterton co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Anthony Minghella teams with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Richard Curtis to adapt author Alexander McCall Smith's best-selling series of novels in this film concerning Botswana's only female-owned detective agency. The first feature film shot entirely in the south-central African country of Botswana, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency follows seasoned sleuth Precious Ramotswe (Jill Scott) as she investigates cases, assists the locals in solving various personal problems, and falls for the prominent owner of a successful garage. Anika Noni Rose co-stars as Ramotswe's quirky assistant, Mma Makutsi, in a feature intended to spark a full series. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Upon gathering together under one roof for the first time in seven years, an estranged family celebrating Christmas rediscovers long-forgotten bonds in this holiday family reuniondrama starring Delroy Lindo, Regina King, and Mekhi Phifer. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The devastating rage virus that annihilated the British Isles mysteriously resurfaces in Goya Award-winning director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's sequel to the Danny Boyle-directed horror hit that terrified audiences worldwide by offering a breathless new take on the familiar zombie mythos. Six months has passed since the rage virus caused British residents to indiscriminately murder and destroy everything in their paths, and now the U.S. military has declared victory in the war against the rapidly spreading infection. As the reconstruction process gets underway and the first wave of refugees return to British shores, a family separated by the devastation is happily reunited. During the initial outbreak, Don Harris (Robert Carlyle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) sat holed up with a small band of survivors in a remote farmhouse. Their kids well out of harm's way at a remote boarding school, Don and Alice's outlook for the future is decidedly bright until all hell breaks loose in the country and Don just barely manages to escape the clutches of the infected. The joy of later seeing his son Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) and daughter Tammy (Imogen Poots) as repopulation efforts get underway in London is short-lived, however, when an innocent bid to reconnect with the past sets into motion a tragic series of events. Now, just as society struggles to sort through the rubble and rebuild London from the ground up, the virus that nearly destroyed a nation strikes back with a vengeance. Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne, and Harold Perrineau, Jr. co-star in the frightful sequel, which highlights the dangers of declaring victory in the calm before the storm. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Close friends become unexpected rivals as they struggle to keep their spiritual home alive in this musical drama from writer and director Rob Hardy. David (Michael J. Pagan) and Frank (Sean Nelson) are two close friends who are members of the same Baptist church in Atlanta. The teenagers have developed a deep and abiding faith in Christ, and both aspire to become ministers some day; David, who has also become a star vocalist with the choir, is thought to have a head start since his father is the congregation's pastor, Bishop Taylor (Clifton Powell). However, David's faith is shaken when his mother dies while giving birth to another child, and when Bishop Taylor fails to arrive at the hospital in time, David runs away from home, turning his back on his father and his church. Fifteen years later, aging Bishop Taylor has announced he's retiring, and Frank (Idris Elba), now a reverend, seems poised to take his place. However, the church is in dire financial shape, and no one is sure how long Rev. Frank's flock will have a church to call home. Meanwhile, David (Boris Kodjoe) has used his musical talents to become a top-selling R&B singer, and his latest hit record, "Let Me Undress You," suggests he's given up on the faith of his youth. But David has been undergoing a spiritual crisis, and when he learns his father is ailing and the church is in dire shape, he returns to Atlanta in hopes of finding himself and keeping the church afloat. Not everyone regards this as good news, though; Rev. Frank, who sees his position in the church as a stepping stone to bigger things in the gospel music business and establishing a high-profile ministry, is not eager to share the spotlight with David, especially when the prodigal star begins organizing a large-scale fundraiser for the church. The Gospel features musical contributions from a number of leading gospel artists, including Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, and Yolanda Adams. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Baltimore "drug wars" enter a new phase (with a few diversions along the way) as The Wire launches its second season of 12 hour-long episodes. Although he was instrumental in weakening the Barksdale drug empire during the previous season, narcotics-division detective James McNulty (Dominic West) ruffled too many high-ranking feathers in the process, and has been demoted and reassigned to the Baltimore Police Harbor Unit. Swallowing his pride, McNulty is able to unearth a hotbed of corruption and duplicity within the Dockworker's Union, his investigation sparked by the recovery of a woman's body floating in the harbor -- which in turn leads to the recovery of 13 other corpses, all female. This season, the fly in the ointment vis-à-vis the "negotiations" between the good guys and the bad guys is Ziggy Sobotka (James Ransome), the loose-cannon son of the Union's secretary treasurer, Frank Sobotka (Chris Bauer). These new plot developments do not in any way eclipse the Baltimore PD's ongoing campaign to bring the drug-dealing Barksdale family to its knees. In fact, one of the predominant subplots involves the willingness of the Barksdales' main rival, Omar Little (Michael K. Williams), to testify in court...if he lives that long. The season's final episode is titled "Port in a Storm" -- and be assured that this port will be tragically elusive to several of the main characters. ~ All Movie Guide

Setting the tone for all seasons to come, season one of HBO's The Wire divides its attention equally between cops and dealers, offering a fascinatingly objective overview of the Baltimore drug scene. The weekly, hour-long series also pays homage to its spiritual predecessor, Homicide: Life on the Street (both series were created by Tom Fontana), by basing its debut episode (originally telecast June 2, 2002) on the same book (by David Simon) that inspired the earlier program. After drug dealer D'Angelo Barksdale (Larry Gilliard Jr.) beats a murder rap, Detective James McNulty (Dominic West) vows never to let D'Angelo out of his sight, hoping that the criminal will lead him to an even bigger fish -- namely, D'Angelo's uncle, drug kingpin Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris). McNulty's task is complicated by a variety of things, including the corruption and dissension within the police department -- which in turn hampers the effectiveness of the man leading the investigation of the Barksdale empire, Lt. Cedric Daniels (Lance Reddick). Meanwhile, Avon Barksdale and his second-in-command, Stringer Bell (Idris Elba), are likewise bedeviled with their own personal and professional problems as they gear up to do battle against their underworld rivals. Throughout the series' first 13 episodes, police officers and criminals alike are seen to possess their own curious codes of honor and rules of conduct, allowing viewers to empathize with both the hunter and the hunted (without, of course, ever completely siding with the "bad guys"). And though the season finale is titled "Sentencing," it is clear that the story is far from over. ~ All Movie Guide

Who is the worst person you could fall in love with, and what would be the worst moment to fall for them? One possible scenario is presented in the comedy of errors Belle Maman. Antoine (Vincent Lindon) has decided to make an honest woman of his girlfriend, pregnant Severine (Mathilde Seigner), but during the ceremony he sees a beautiful woman and falls instantly in love. The woman in question happens to be Severine's mother, Lea (Catherine Deneuve, and how can you really blame a guy for being infatuated with her? ). Lea seems to be more than a bit interested in Antoine as well, but she already has a boyfriend, Gregoire (Idris Elba), a native of the Caribbean island Lea now calls home. This potentially messy situation just gets sloppier when they all travel to the Bahamas together to celebrate the 70th birthday of Lea's mother, Nicou (Line Renaud), a tart-tongued lesbian with a taste for cigars. Though not especially well received, Belle Maman was a box office success in France, doubtless due to a sharp comic performance by Vincent Lindon and the presence of the always beautiful Catherine Deneuve. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Distraught over the size of her actually quite spacious wardrobe, Edina (Jennifer Saunders) attempts to annex Saffy's bedroom. Saffy (Julia Sawalha) refuses, suggesting that her mother take over long-lost son Serge's room instead. Saf, Eddy, and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) break into the room, which is a virtual museum to the boy even though Eddy can't even remember what her son looks like. They discover an issue of '70s porn rag Razzle -- though not, to Patsy's relief, the issue in which she appeared. Reminded of her own sexual shortcomings, the uptight Eddy agrees to Patsy's plan that they hire a pair of rent boys for an old-fashioned orgy like the ones they used to attend. Unfortunately, though, the only procurer the women know is Eddy's hairdresser, Christopher (James Dreyfus), whose escort acquaintances tend toward the effeminate side. Just as Patsy and Eddy are beginning to loosen up with their "dates," they realize that the blue movie they've rented to get in the mood has gotten mixed up with the videotape for yet another of Saffy's school projects. They rush to the school, trailed by Mother (June Whitfield), Christopher, and his female-impersonator lover (Ian Gelder) -- but not soon enough to prevent the students from viewing the film, which includes footage of an orgy Patsy and Eddy attended in the '60s. Originally broadcast on BBC 1 on April 20, 1995, Absolutely Fabulous: Sex marked series three, episode three of this popular Brit-com. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide