John Moore Movies
For bluegrass music fans who want to do more than just listen to their favorite music, multi-talented bluegrass guitarist Dennis Caplinger is joined by fellow musicians Bill Bryson, John Moore, and Kenny Blackwell in offering an easy-to-follow lesson in the basics of the style, specially designed with the beginning-level musician in mind. Beginning with the classic bluegrass guitar techniques, Caplinger offers instruction on left-and-right-hand techniques before instructing viewers on the finer points of composing back-up parts, solos, and performing with a band. Revealing camera angles offer a clear and concise look at playing techniques, and the option to performing with two separate play-along tracks help to instill the confidence needed to play with other musicians and continue developing crucial skills. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Four men are changed forever by an act of mercy -- changes which have a profound impact many years later -- in this blend of horror and science fiction based on a novel by Stephen King. Jonesy (Damian Lewis), Henry (Thomas Jane), Pete (Timothy Olyphant), and Beaver (Jason Lee) were four friends who, as schoolboys, rescued a boy with Down's Syndrome, Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg), from a savage beating at the hands of bullies. Their experience with Duddits left the boys profoundly changed, as they discovered they had developed psychic powers which allowed them to wordlessly communicate with one another, read the minds of others, and see events in the future. The four remained close friends into adulthood, and meet every year for a weekend get-together at a remote hunting lodge. However, one year Jonsey is approached by the spirit of Duddits, which leads him into a severe auto accident, though his wounds heal with mysterious speed and are gone by the time he and the guys get together a few months later. As the guys drink and swap stories, a desperately ill hunter makes his way into the cabin, whose body has become the host for a horrible wormlike creature, which breaks free and soon goes on a killing spree, leaving only Henry alive. In the wake of this attack comes a massive snowstorm, and Henry learns that these events are the first signs of a major attack by a powerful alien force which can assume any form it wishes. As duplicitous military leader Col. Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman) comes in to quell the menace, Henry finds himself in communication with the late Jonsey, whose previous near-death experience gives him an unexpected advantage in stemming the alien tide. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, (more)
In this science fiction thriller, a spaceship is transporting a disparate group of people to a far-away galactic outpost called New Mecca. Mechanical failures cause the craft to crash-land on an abandoned planet that has three suns and no night. The only member of the crew to survive is junior pilot Carolyn Fry (Radha Mitchell), while the passengers who climb from the wreckage include a police officer (Cole Hauser) and the prisoner he's transporting, Riddick (Vin Diesel). As Fry and the other survivors survey the abandoned dwellings of the desert world while trying to decide what to do next, one of them is killed by a mutant creature living in an abandoned mining site. The vicious and bloodthirsty mutants, who live underground, have killed all previous inhabitants of the planet; they cannot stand sunlight, but research reveals that the planet has a total eclipse every 22 years, and the latest one is due any moment. Pitch Black was directed by David N. Twohy, who also made the sci-fi cult item, The Arrival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Radha Mitchell, Vin Diesel, (more)
In this black comedy, a criminal discovers a market for murder in the suburbs. After doing time in prison, mobster Jimmy the Tulip (Bruce Willis) moves to a suburban neighborhood. But Jimmy's new neighbors (Rosanna Arquette and Matthew Perry) soon figure out who he is. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, (more)
Recalling Peter Weir's Last Wave (1997), Manuela Alberti directs this thriller about Monsignor Tommaso (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), who dreams that an Australian aborigine is trying to tell him something. When he learns that his daughter is missing and that the part of the country in which she lives is terrorized by a serial killer, Tommaso hops on the first plane. He soon encounters Willie (David Ngoombujarra), the aborigine of his dreams. The duo search the outback looking for the missing girl before running into city-born aborigine cop Sutherland (John Moore). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fabrizio Bentivoglio, David Ngoombujarra, (more)
In this lighthearted Australian comedy-thriller, an Aborigine becomes a detective after his beloved VW Kombi van is stolen. Harry Dare, after a troubled youth during which his father mysteriously disappeared, is seen as a young married man watching as the wrecked old van is hauled from Adelaide Harbor. He acquires it and becomes so obsessed with restoring it that his wife leaves him. When it is finally finished, he drives it to work where it is promptly stolen. So begins his quest to find it. Harry is assisted by Jim, his estranged son. Together they end up getting entangled with a drug ring and with the people who were with Harry's father the night he so mysteriously disappeared. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Imagine, if you will, the plight of poor inner-city youths in crime and gang-ridden neighborhoods, combined with the problems that many native Americans experience off the reservation in terms of divided loyalties and separation from their culture and families. That is a pretty fair approximation of the situation many Australian Aborigine young people experience today in large cities. This stark drama is based on a book by Aborigine writer Archie Weller. Doug (John Moore) has already had some run-ins with the law, and is just getting out of prison. He wants to remain law-abiding, but the pull of his old family and friends (who are deeply embroiled in a life of crime) is very strong. When he is asked to help a friend pull off a robbery, he knows it's a bad idea but he goes along anyway, with tragic results. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
It is a simple thing that police officer Tony Bourke has to do to regain his detective status. All he has to do is go to a remote outback town and clear the local police of any wrongdoing in the shooting of an Aboriginal suspect. After all, he himself recently suffered from being demoted because of an accidental shooting he committed while on the job. Nothing could be easier, except for one irritating little fact, which his superiors have ignored: Tony actually believes in the laws of the land. He is not prepared to whitewash the white cop's misdeeds (if that's what they are) just because they have been committed against a person of color. In this painful social drama, the tensions caused by discrimination in Australia are skillfully highlighted. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerome Ehlers, Frank Gallacher, (more)















