John Littlefield
Inspired by the epic Old English poem of the same name, director Robert Zemeckis's digitally rendered film follows the Scandinavian hero Beowulf (Ray Winstone) as he fights to protect the Danes from a ferocious beast named Grendel (Crispin Glover). Though at first Grendel seems invincible, Beowulf eventually manages to defeat him in a desperate battle to the death. Devastated by her son's violent demise at the hands of Beowulf, Grendel's mother (Angelina Jolie) sets out in search of revenge. Later, Beowulf faces the biggest challenge of his life when he attempts to slay a powerful dragon. Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, Alison Lohman, John Malkovich, and Brendan Gleeson co-star in an epic fantasy adventure penned by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, (more)
A structural engineer (Anthony Hopkins) and an ambitious young district attorney (Ryan Gosling) become locked in a deadly battle of wits when the former is found innocent in the attempted murder of his wife in director Gregory Hoblit's tense tale of courtroom mind games. Ted Crawford (Hopkins) is an engineer who lives with his wife, Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz), in the couple's lavish Southern California home. One day, after carefully planning out the details to ensure that there is no way he can be convicted of murder, Ted shoots his wife in a blatant attempt to kill the woman. When head hostage negotiator Rob Nunally (Billy Burke) arrives on the scene to speak with Ted, he is shocked to find that the victim of the shooting is in fact his longtime lover. Though Jennifer survives the trauma of being shot in the head at close range, she hovers comatose between life and death as star prosecutor Willy Beachum (Gosling) reluctantly accepts the case while preparing to leave the Los Angeles criminal court system behind for a more promising career at a posh private law firm. Though the DA (David Strathairn) vehemently resents Beachum's lofty plan for departure, the hotshot young lawyer remains convinced that he can expedite the apparently open-and-shut case and be on his way to greener pastures in one week's time at the very most. Beachum's swelling ego betrays him, however, as his future boss Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike) begins to turn up the heat and fracture mechanics specialist Ted chooses to represent himself at the trial knowing well that a career spent spotting structural flaws in aeronautical systems has instilled him with just the kind of argumentative skills needed to riddle the swaggering young lawyer's "foolproof" case with doubt. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, (more)
A Los Angeles defense attorney discovers that in order to marry the love of his life, he'll first have to convince her rugged father that all lawyers aren't sharks. James White (Jeremy London) is a successful young lawyer who will soon be happily married if all goes as planned. Deeply in love with country-bred doctor Sadie Ryder (Dorie Barton), James plans on asking for his true love's hand in marriage when the pair head back to rural Pine Gap to celebrate Christmas with her family. Trouble is, Sadie's gruff father Karl (James Gammon) doesn't care much for city boys, and the less said about his opinion of lawyers the better. Over the course of the next week, James is prepared to do everything in his power to win Karl over, whether it be baling hay with the good old boys or heading out for the hunt despite the fact that he's never fired a gun. All the while, Sadie's well-meaning Aunt Trudy (Sally Struthers) does her best to convince her niece to date a real man, like the girl's rough-and-tumble high school sweetheart Clint (John Littlefield). Later, when a group of environmentalists hatch a plan to turn the county into a national park, it appears that the days of Ryder Ranch may be numbered. While James realizes that a good lawyer to help get the family out of their current jam, he realizes that Sadie's father isn't willing to listen to reason. Still determined to impress Karl and win Sadie's hand in marriage, James hastily sets out into the wilderness in order to prove that he can live off the land with the best of them. By the time the rescue team is called, few will doubt that James' love for Sadie is genuine. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy London, Dorie Barton, (more)
- 2003
- PG13
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Ang Lee directs the live-action feature film The Hulk, based on the Marvel comic book created by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby. Emotionally stunted Dr. Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) is part of a research team at the University of California at Berkeley. Corporate hustler Glenn Talbot (Josh Lucas) takes notice of the lab and makes plans to take it over. Then Bruce accidentally gets hit by an experimental ray and grows into a huge beast, destroying the lab in the process. A creepy janitor who claims to be his real father, Dr. David Banner (Nick Nolte), starts to secretly use the experimental ray on himself. He creates some mutant dogs and sends them after Bruce's lab mate and ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly). After Bruce saves her life in the form of the Hulk, she lets her distant father, General Ross (Sam Elliott), take him to an abandoned army base in the desert. However, Glenn Talbot takes over the operation and wants to patent the creature's superpowers for his own profit, so he holds Bruce unconscious in an isolation tank. When provoked, Bruce turns into the Hulk and makes a break for San Francisco, leading to a desert chase sequence involving military aircraft, tanks, and bombs. Only the sight of Betty can make him turn back to his human form. When he is eventually captured, Dr. David Banner shows up for a final confrontation with his son and his old adversary, General Ross. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, (more)
Ross Partridge directed this unconventional American indie flick that starts as a mystery but soon unfolds into an existential tale of life and faith. Joe Weldon (Jon Littlefield) is a hard-drinking cop working the beat in a small town in upstate New York. His life is in utter shambles: his wife dumped him, his kids are afraid of him, and he regularly blacks out from drinking too much. Yet when he learns of an unknown dead man recently dragged out of the Hudson River, Joe tries to find redemption by finding out more about the case. Carrying only a Bible, a telephone number, and a toothbrush, the corpse possessed few clues as to his life. Later, the dead man's past is uncovered; his name was Hap (Joel Garland), a corpulent idiot savant who lived in the backwoods and had the mysterious habit of waiting on a bridge that spans Interstate 84. But for whom? The search leads to a pair of shady characters: Vinny (Kevin Dillon) is a feckless family man and a sleazy hustler who befriends the hulking giant and then coerces him into working for his low-rent wrestling outfit; Freddy (Harley Cross) is a young punk who harassed Hap. As the film unfolds, all three of these desperate souls are changed, and in some sense redeemed, by Hap's death. This film was screened in the new filmmakers' section of the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Dillon, John Littlefield, (more)
- 1999
Director Tim Bridwell debuts with this far-flung travel drama. Randall (John Littlefield) is a bumptious American with a plan to smuggle a truck from Morocco to Nigeria. Along the way, he takes not only his girlfriend Cecile (Marie Ravel) but also two Japanese hitchhikers, Atsuko (Tsuyu Shimizu) and the cancer-stricken Yumi (Miho Nikaido). Amid the dunes of the Sahara, things go from bad to worse, leading up to the film's emotional climax. Rendezvous in Samarkand was screened at the L.A./AFI Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Littlefield, Marie Ravel, (more)
