James DeBello Movies

First time filmmaker Eric Amadio offers a honest, sexy, and occasionally crude take on modern relationships in this comedy that uses the act of sex as a springboard to explore larger issues of intimacy and vulnerability. Beginning at the earliest stages of romance, following through to the final goodbyes, and tenderly exploring every area in between, the relationships shared by eight separate couples serve as the heart of this enlightening and entertaining take on human emotions and vulnerability. From Neil and Bob's conversations about who is the "femme" in their relationship and who is the "butch" to David and Jordy's quest to understand why their relationship failed, Kristy and Sam's first time, and Alana and Marco's struggle just to remember each other's names, this lively relationship comedy looks all kinds of relationships from a variety of unique perspectives. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The rowdy students of Billingsley University arrive in Mexico on a study-abroad trip in this sequel to the collegiate comedy that left viewers in stitches. The Surveyor has left stateside port and set sail for Mexico. Now, as the spring heat flares and the azure waters beacon the ship ashore, the inhibitions and clothes of these randy students are both quickly shed. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The lowbrow side of higher education returns to the screen in this purposefully tasteless comedy brought to you by the folks at National Lampoon. It's a few days before Christmas vacation, and a mood of giddy enthusiasm is in the air at a coed college dormitory. However, one of the students, a freshman, is despondent over his lack of success with the ladies during his first term at school. His older brother decides the lad needs to lose his virginity before he can make any real progress with his classmates, and hires a prostitute named Dominique (Boti Bliss) to give his brother some experience in the ways of physical love. However, it turns out that more than one Dominique is on her way to the dorm -- a French foreign-exchange student with the same name and almost no working knowledge of the English language (Marie Noelle Marquis) also shows up, and much confusion and comic hijinks ensue. Shot under the title Dorm Day Crazy, National Lampoon Presents: Dorm Daze was produced independently, but was later picked up by the National Lampoon organization, who in turn arranged a distribution deal for the picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Five college buddies retreat to the woods for a little R & R and end up getting a horrific lesson in infectious disease in this low-budget shocker. Cabin Fever stars Rider Strong as the geeky Paul, who hopes to settle in around the campfire with his brash buds Jeff (Joey Kern) and Bert (James DeBello), and make the moves on the nubile-but-shy Karen (Jordan Ladd). Unfortunately, a wayward, forest-dwelling vagrant (Arie Verveen) stumbles into their lives, his skin badly desiccated by a mysterious virus. Fearing for their own lives, the quintet decide to do away with the man, with little success: He stumbles away from the campsite and into a nearby stream, where his disease quickly infects the local water supply. It isn't long before the oblivious co-eds get a taste of the man's illness, and in their desperation, each learns that he or she will stop at nothing to survive. Cabin Fever premiered at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival, where it was snapped up by Lions Gate for a fall 2003 release. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Recalling both The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and American Beauty (1999), this teen drama recounts the trials and tribulations of one very dysfunctional family. Roseanne Skolnik (Monica Keena) is a popular high school student who is dating Jimmy (James DeBello), the football captain. She also lives in a family where her embittered mother Maggie (Ellen Barkin) is plotting to murder Roseanne's violent drunken stepfather Fred (Michael Ironside). After a smashed Fred rapes her, Roseanne starts plotting her stepfather's demise too. She ropes her boyfriend into doing the deed, and soon she finds herself under arrest and on trial for the crime. With all of her friends shunning her, she confides in her creepy voyeuristic neighbor. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

It's said that most American men think about sex once every two or three minutes, but this statistic would seriously underestimate the horniness of Jim (Jason Biggs), a high school senior in suburban Michigan. Jim is thoroughly obsessed with sex, a fact of which his parents become aware when they discover him performing the sin of Onan with a gym sock while watching scrambled pay-per-view porn. Jim's buddies Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), and Oz (Chris Klein) are no less anxious to relieve themselves of their virginity, so they all make a pledge: they will go to bed with a woman in the three weeks before senior prom or die trying. Kevin appears to have the advantage, since he already has a girlfriend, Vicky (Tara Reid), but before he ventures into the Final Frontier, Kevin is urged to consult "The Bible," a hand-written how-to manual possessing erotic wisdom passed down through the ages. Oz is a good-looking jock who is actually a nice guy -- which is part of the problem, since he has his heart set on a nice girl, Heather (Mena Suvari), who does not seem the type to leap into bed within 21 days. Finch has no immediate prospects, though Jessica (Natasha Lyonne) is in a position to know if those rumors about him are true. And Jim is a truly hopeless case -- after his attempted seduction of beautiful Czech exchange student Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) turns out to be a disaster, he ends up going to the prom with Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), an annoyingly chatty band geek who does, however, have a fascinating story about a flute. American Pie was the directorial debut of Paul Weitz, who, along with his brother Chris Weitz (who served as producer), previously wrote several screenplays, including Antz and Madeline (where they presumably worked all their wholesome ideas out of their system). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Originally aired as a two-part miniseries on NBC, The 60's follows two families whose lives mirror much of the political and social tumult of that decade. The Herlihys are a working class family from Chicago whose three children take wildly divergent paths: Brian (Jerry O'Connell) joins the Marines right out of High School and goes to Vietnam, Michael (Josh Hamilton) becomes involved in the civil rights movement and after campaigning for Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy becomes involved in radical politics, and Katie (Julia Stiles) gets pregnant, moves to San Francisco and joins a hippie commune. Meanwhile, the Taylors are an African-American family living in the deep South. When Willie Taylor (Charles S. Dutton), a minister and civil rights organizer, is shot to death, his son Emmet (Leonard Roberts) moves to the city and eventually joins the Black Panthers, serving as a bodyguard for Fred Hampton (David Alan Grier). The 60's incorporates much newsreel footage from the era in an attempt to give the proceedings a greater realism, as well as a soundtrack of many popular songs of the era, including a new recording of Bob Dylan's Chimes Of Freedom by Dylan and Joan Osborne. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide