Chris Bender

Live Free or Die Hard's Len Wiseman brings his dream project to the big screen with this big budget sci-fi film that tells the story of a detective's investigation into a crime ring dealing in immortality for Lakeshore Entertainment and Columbia Pictures. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Vertigo Comics' heralded comic book Y: The Last Man is headed to the big screen from Disturbia's production team of director D.J. Caruso and writer Carl Ellsworth for New Line Cinema. The plot features a lone male survivor in a world where all the male mammals are wiped out by a plague. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

In this comedy from writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, a man wakes up to find his worst nightmare has come true -- his life has become a musical. Marc Shaiman provides the songs for the Mark S. Waters-directed production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by A Simple Plan author Scott Smith, director Carter B. Smith's Yucatan-set thriller follows four American tourists as they unwisely venture off the beaten path while vacationing in Cancun. When a friendly German tourist implores the Americans to help search the jungle for his missing brother, the group becomes hopelessly trapped in a nightmare scenario that seems too strange to be true. Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, Jena Malone, and Shawn Ashmore star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An American clothing designer who has traveled to Thailand with his family to visit a remote factory that produces his garments must struggle to locate his wife and children when the Southeast Asian country is devastated by the 2004 tsunami. Oscar nominee David Strathairn stars in a film scripted and directed by Michael Patwin, and produced by Chris Bender, Ben Katz, and Madeline Ryan. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When a man's girlfriend is killed in a tragic auto accident, his time-traveling attempts to alter her fate have some unexpected effects on the events of the future in director John R. Leonetti's shocking sequel to the 2004 Ashton Kutcher hit. Nick (Eric Lively) and Julie (Erica Durance) were deeply in love, but when death robs the young couple of their lifetime of happiness, Nick isn't willing to say goodbye to his soulmate without a fight. Soon discovering that he has the ability to travel into the past to a point before the time of Julie's untimely death, Nick struggles to find a means of saving his one true love despite the increasingly troubling results that his well-intended heroics seem to have on the future. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Terror rides the night skies in this thriller from horror auteur Wes Craven. Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) is a young woman with more than her share of anxieties about flying. However, when circumstances demand she go to Miami, she gathers her nerves and books a seat on a late-night flight. Sitting next to her is a handsome and charming man named Jackson (Cillian Murphy), whom she already met in the airport, but once their jet is safely in the air, Lisa discovers he's not the pleasant traveling companion she imagined. Jackson is part of a terrorist cell plotting to kill the head of Homeland Security, and he's decided to draft Lisa into helping him. While Lisa has no interest in abetting Jackson's plan, he soon reveals he's holding a trump card -- his compatriots are holding Lisa's father hostage, and will kill him if she doesn't cooperate. Red Eye was the first feature film credit for screenwriter Carl Ellsworth, who previously scripted episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A terrifying legacy haunts a single mother in this sequel to the frightening box-office hit The Ring. Hoping to leave their terrifying experiences in Seattle behind them, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her son, Aidan (David Dorfman), move to the small town of Astoria, OR, where Rachel takes a job writing for the local newspaper. When Rachel learns of an unexplained murder, which occurred after a teenager watched a strange videotape with his girlfriend, she suspects her past is following her and she begins looking into the case. Rachel believes that the otherworldly Samara has come back; however, as she tries to convince others of the young girl's powers, her own son falls ill and is hospitalized, and Rachel's stories fail to convince either Dr. Emma Temple (Elizabeth Perkins), who suspects Rachel is guilty of child abuse, or David Rourke (Simon Baker), one of Rachel's colleagues who fears for Aidan's safety. Also starring Sissy Spacek, The Ring 2 was directed by Hideo Nakata; it was the first English-language project for the Japanese filmmaker, who previously made Ringu, the picture that was the basis for The Ring. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A man with no memory struggles to make sense of the troubling details that are still stuck in his mind in this psychological thriller. Frank (Val Kilmer) wakes up in a small town in the New Mexico desert with a severe head wound and most of his memory wiped away. However, Frank is somehow convinced that someone is planning to assassinate the President of the United States, and that Chloe (Neve Campbell), the woman who is claiming to be his girlfriend, is some sort of imposter. When Frank learns that the president is indeed passing through town that day, he tries to warn Sheriff Kolb (Sam Shepard) that something sinister if afoot; as it happens, Kolb believes him, though he's more than a bit busy dealing with a hard-fought election campaign against former Deputy Cash (Noble Willingham). Blind Horizon was screened at the 2004 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jesse Dylan's American Wedding rounds up the characters from the American Pie films for a trip to the altar. Jim (Jason Biggs) proposes to Michelle (Alyson Hannigan). Hoping to make the wedding day as special as possible for his bride, Jim enlists the help of his friends Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), and the always obnoxious Stifler (Seann William Scott) to help him convince a dressmaker to create the perfect gown, make a good impression on his future in-laws, and assist him in getting out of the embarrassing situations in which he so often seems to find himself. Stifler and Finch battle for the attention of Michelle's younger sister Cadence (January Jones), Jim's Grandmother objects to the wedding because Michelle is not Jewish, and Stiffler's poorly timed surprise bachelor party are just some of the obstacles that must be overcome before the happy event can transpire. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

The horny teen heroes of American Pie (1999) return for further raunchy antics in this comedy sequel written by the first film's creator, Adam Herz. Returning home following their freshman year of college, old friends Jim (Jason Biggs), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Oz (Chris Klein), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), and Stifler (Seann William Scott) rent a summer house on Lake Michigan where they hope to score romantically. However, complications ensue due to Jim's relative lack of experience, requiring an interlude with a fellow student and a visit to his old friend Michelle (Alyson Hanigan), who's now a band camp counselor, all in preparation for the return of Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth). In the meantime, Oz is separated from Heather (Mena Suvari) by a trip abroad, Finch has another encounter with Stifler's mom (Jennifer Coolidge), and Jim's dad (Eugene Levy) is as clueless as ever about his son's love life. Director J.B. Rogers served as first assistant director on the first film and made his directorial debut with Say It Isn't So (2001). ~ Karl Williams, 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