John Knox Movies
Gilbert Brown, Jr., Fia Perera and John Knox star in this gritty urban drama. Michael is a young man who dreams of a career as an artist, but he finds little encouragement growing up in New York's Crown Heights district, where crime and drugs run rampant. One day, Michael finds that the drug problem has sunk its claws in even deeper than he imagined - one of his teachers is dealing dope to students. Michael isn't sure if he should expose his teacher's wrongdoings when he meets Judy Burke, a television reporter who could bring this story into the open. However, Judy has issues of her own, and soon she and Michael find they have more in common than they imagined, as they work together to bring positive change to the community. Raising The Heights features a hip-hop score, including tracks from Public Enemy, Method Man and Erik Sermon of EPMD. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gilbert Brown, Jr., Fia Perera, (more)
In a land where cartoon characters and flesh-and-blood people work side by side, one little black duck lands in a big pot of trouble in this comedy, which brings the beloved Looney Tunes characters into the real world. Daffy Duck (voice of Joe Alaskey) has grown tired of his status as Warner Bros.' leading avian second fiddle and demands that if he can't be given equal billing with his rival Bugs Bunny (also voiced by Alaskey), he wants to be released from his contract. Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman), Warners' vice president in charge of comedy, is way ahead of Daffy and orders studio stuntman D.J. Drake (Brendan Fraser) to kick the duck off the studio lot. D.J. soon discovers getting rid of Daffy is no easy task, and the duck is in tow when Drake makes a startling discovery -- his father Damien Drake (Timothy Dalton), a movie star best know for playing ultra-suave secret agents, really is a secret agent, and he's been kidnapped by Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin), the evil leader of the monolithic Acme Corporation. Damien knows the secret hiding place of the priceless Blue Monkey Diamond and Mr. Chairman will stop at nothing to get it, so D.J. and Daffy set out to rescue Damien and save the diamond, one step behind Acme's musclemen and one step ahead of Kate and Bugs, who now realize how important Daffy is to the Looney Tunes franchise. Looney Tunes: Back in Action also stars Heather Locklear as a lounge singer working for Yosemite Sam (voice of Steve Babiar), Joan Cusack, John Cleese, Stan Freberg, and Roger Corman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, (more)
Alice (Emily Grace, in her first feature film role) has run away from her small town, New Hampshire home and hit the road, completely unprepared for the future. She has a wad of ill-gotten cash and a semblance of a plan. She's going to Florida, where she'll crash with a friend who goes to college there. Dolphins have always fascinated her, and eventually she hopes she'll somehow find a way to enroll herself in school and study marine biology. After an unpleasant encounter with a couple of lowlifes on the highway, she pulls into a rest stop. As she's getting ready to hit the road again, Sandra (Judith Ivey) approaches her, warning Alice that she and her husband, Bill (Bill Raymond) saw some guy messing with her car. Sure enough, one of Alice's tires has been punctured. Worried that someone may be planning to ambush Alice out on the roadside, Bill (who, Alice notices, carries a gun) and Sandra ask Alice to follow them in case her car breaks down before she can get it fixed. Sure enough, the old wreck of a car does break down. Sandra and Bill offer to take the wary Alice to a bus station. She hops into their RV, and soon finds herself hitting it off with the loquacious Sandra and her quiet husband. When they offer to save her a few bucks by driving her all the way to Florida, she hesitantly accepts. Soon, they're treating her to meals, and buying her new outfits. But she soon learns the unsavory truth about how Sandra and Bill pay for their freewheeling lifestyle. What Alice Found, written and directed by A. Dean Bell, was shown at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judith Ivey, Bill Raymond, (more)
- 2003
The "D.C. Sniper" case was still very much in the news when this Law & Order episode first appeared in the spring of 2003. Detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) race against time to track down the unknown gunman who has randomly picked off four victims in broad daylight. Once the suspect is in hand, Assistant District Attorneys McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Southerlyn (Elisabeth Rohm) are shocked by the revelations attending the arrest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2004
Their suspicions aroused when a 12-year-old girl named Melanie (Holliston Coleman) lands in the hospital with complications relating to her pregnancy, SVU detectives Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Munch (Richard Belzer) end up confronting a charismatic cult leader named Eugene Hoff (Jeff Kober). At any rate, that's what he's calling himself now: it seems that Hoff is a seasoned scam artist who, under a variety of aliases, has exploited gullible religious fanatics for his own crooked purposes. It turns out that Melanie is not only Hoff's wife, she is one of several of his wives--and this is not the most sinister aspect of the case. Series regular Mariska Hargitay earned an Emmy nomination for her perfomance in this harrowing episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
An overheard conversation leads a woman into a dark world of deadly intrigue in this political thriller. Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) is an African émigré who works as an interpreter at the United Nations. One of the languages she understands is Ku, a dialect spoken in her home country of Matobo. One day, as the General Assembly auditorium is being evacuated for a routine security sweep, Broome overhears a man speaking in Ku, who makes a cryptic statement that could be interpreted as a threat against the life of Zuwanie (Earl Cameron), Matobo's controversial ruler. Secret Service agent Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) is brought in to investigate Broome's story, and it isn't long before he's convinced that she knows more than she's willing to tell. As Keller and his partner, Dot Woods (Catherine Keener), dig deeper into Broome's story as well as her past, they discover a shocking tale of violence and corruption tied to Zuwanie's regime. The Interpreter was directed by Sydney Pollack, who also appears in a brief supporting role. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, (more)
- 2007
- R
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Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, and Marisa Tomei star in director Sidney Lumet's thriller concerning two brothers who hatch a plan to rob their parent's jewelry store. When the job goes awry, the entire family is set on a collision course with tragedy. Andy (Hoffman) is an overextended broker in desperate need of some cash. His brother, Hank (Hawke), isn't much better off, so when Andy hatches a plan to rob their parent's modest jewelry store, it seems like a foolproof way to make a quick buck. But Andy's trophy wife, Gina (Tomei), is secretly sleeping with libidinous younger brother Hank, and when the robbery proves a complete disaster it isn't long before loyalties start to shift. Now Andy and Hank's father, Charles (Finney), is determined to make the unidentified robbers pay for their crime. What's a father to do when he discovers that the ones he loves have become his worst enemies? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, (more)
Estranged from his parents by circumstance and nudged toward a foster family, a young boy seeks out his long-lost folks and discovers prodigious musical talent in this family-oriented drama from Disco Pigs director Kirsten Sheridan. In the aftermath of a passionate night together above New York's Washington Square, a charismatic Irish guitarist named Louis (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) and a reserved cellist named Lyla (Keri Russell) are forced apart by fate. Despite the fact that they do not remain together, however, their fleeting union has created something amazing that neither could have ever anticipated -- a baby. Unfortunately, just after the child's birth, the mother is misinformed that the infant has died. Cut to 11 years later, when the child, Evan, is living in a Gotham-area boys' home and has developed an acute ability to listen to the sounds of the outside world -- hoping against all hope that his biological mother and father will turn up to claim him, while those in charge try to encourage him to open himself up to the possibility of adoption. Unduly rejecting these bids, Evan runs away into the city. Out on the streets, the child falls into the clutches of a manipulative, untrustworthy street person named Wizard (Robin Williams), who renames Evan "August Rush" and opens the boy up to the depth and breadth of his own musical talent even as he smells the opportunity to grow rich off of the foundling. Meanwhile, Evan/August's hope persists that he will be reunited with his folks, and Louis and Lyla, unable to forget their initial night of love, feel themselves being drawn back together by fate. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, (more)
