Rhoda Griffis Movies

An entrepreneur with a world-class ego has to rebuild his empire and his family relationships from scratch in this comedy. Robert Axle (Kevin Spacey) built a multi-million-dollar business out of selling household gadgets through television infomercials, and managed to alienate nearly everyone around him when fame and wealth turned him into an arrogant loudmouth. When one of Axle's products turns out to be dangerous and causes several thousand customers to lose a finger, he loses his fortune and spends eight years in prison for gross negligence. Back on the street, Axle is broke but determined to find a way back to the top, though he's just a bit more humble than he used to be and wants to win back the love of his daughter, Claire (Camilla Belle), whom he neglected as a child, and his ex-wife (Virginia Madsen). Things go badly for Axle on his first day working at a big-box discount store, and he's left with little alternative than to ask Claire to let him stay with her; she and her roommate, Fibbi (Heather Graham), aren't so sure this is a good idea, but they grudgingly agree and end up helping Axle in his bid to redeem himself. Father of Invention also stars Johnny Knoxville, Craig Robinson, and Michael Rosenbaum. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Jack Black and Michael Cera headline Harold Ramis' Biblical comedy about a pair of misfit hunter-gatherers who embark on a wild journey through the ancient world after being banished from their primitive village. Zed (Black) and Oh (Cera) may lack in the skills that their chieftain is looking for, but they have plans to make it big. Zed has a gut feeling that God has "chosen" him, and so he leads his buddy on a trip through the unknown countryside in search of bigger and better things, bumping into several weird characters along the way -- like a feuding pair of brothers named Cain and Abel (David Cross and Paul Rudd). Unfortunately, their quest for greatness hits a few snags, like being sold into slavery, and later becoming the object of interest to a very amorous, very hairy high priest (Oliver Platt) in the opulent city of Sodom. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Shannyn Sossamon and Ed Burns star in director Eric Valette's remake of Takashi Miike's frightful tale about a cell-phone call from the future that foreshadows one's own death. Beth Raymond (Sossamon) is a college student whose friends have all been dying in droves, and the one connecting factor between all of the incidents is that just before their deaths, each of the victims received a message in which they heard themselves being murdered. Upon receiving her own frightening phone call, Beth has only three days to solve the mystery and cheat death. Burns co-stars as a detective who is deeply troubled by the recent spate of deaths. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Zach Gray helms the Gaelic-flavored, spiritually charged mystery Secret of the Cave -- one of the first major cinematic productions of Southern Adventist University. The story unfurls on the idyllic, rocky coasts of Ireland, where a young boy, Roy Wallace (Kevin Novotny), is spending the summer with his Irish dad (Patrick Bergin of Love Crimes and Sleeping with the Enemy). Soon, inexplicable, otherworldly events befall the village, and rumors swirl through its streets of strange spirits and hauntings. Initially, Roy tries to tie these events to any number of locals -- everyone from an oddball hermit to an eccentric fisherman. He also notices that each event impacts the hamlet in a beneficial way. In time, Roy traces the events to their origin -- a strange sea cave characterized by many as a source of enchantment -- and vows to unveil the grotto's mystical secrets. Joseph Kelly and Sean Murphy co-star; Gray, Scott Fogg, David George, and Aaron Adams co-adapted Arthur S. Maxwell's children's novel. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

James Mangold's Walk the Line tells the life story of country music legend Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix), focusing primarily on the long courtship he had with June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). The film is structured as an extended flashback opening with Cash readying to take the stage at his historic Folsom Prison Concert. The film touches on his childhood, relating a horrific early incident from his life and establishing the troubled relationship he would have with his father (Robert Patrick). Cash joins the military and leaves home. During his time in the armed services he begins writing songs and romances a hometown girl (Ginnifer Goodwin). After the end of his duty he settles down and attempts to begin a music career, but his wife has trouble adjusting to his dreams. Cash auditions for Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts), signs to Sun Records, and soon finds himself on tour with a roster of young soon-to-be legends that includes Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton) and Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Malloy Payne). On this tour he meets June Carter, the daughter of the famous Carter family, and they take a liking to each other, although she refuses any serious advances from him. Cash gains world-wide fame thanks in part to the inspiration he gets from June, but eventually his marriage crumbles and he develops a serious drug addiction. The film is based on Cash's autobiographies. Phoenix and Witherspoon performed all of their own singing in the movie, just as Sissy Spacek and Beverly D'Angelo did in Coal Miner's Daughter a quarter-century before. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

The directing debut of actor Cameron Watson, Our Very Own chronicles the daily hopes and dreams of high schoolers and their parents in a small Tennessee town, circa 1978. Shelbyville is the real-life birthplace not only of Watson, who wrote the script from his own recollections, but also of actress Sondra Locke -- or as the townspeople know her, "our very own Sondra Locke." The events take place in the days leading up to the town's annual horse show, where it is rumored Locke will return as a special guest. Melora (Autumn Reeser) has dreams of following Locke's path to stardom from meager beginnings, and hopes to meet the actress to pick her brain/get discovered. Her best friend, Clancy (Jason Ritter), has enough real-world problems to worry about, between falling in love with Melora and watching his parents (Keith Carradine and Allison Janney) fight over their impending bankruptcy and his father's drinking problem. Their friends Ray (Derek Carter) and Bobbie (Hilarie Burton) just want to get a car to find something to do in Nashville, while musical theater aficionado Glen (Michael McKee) begins wondering if he is coming of age differently than his friends. As the town starts to buzz with the excitement of the festival, the characters must face the decisions that will affect their futures. Cheryl Hines and Beth Grant also appear in supporting performances. Janney was nominated for a 2005 Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

The tyranny, cruelty, and sheer hell of high-school peer pressure and teen bullying has seldom been so vividly realized as in this made-for-cable drama, which some critics have likened to the theatrical feature Mean Girls. Alexa Vega heads the cast as Vanessa, a popular straight-A student who enjoys the friendship of campus queen Stacey (Leah Pipes). But when a quarrel fomented by a couple of Stacey's envious hangers-on results in a rift between Stacey and Vanessa, the latter girl suddenly finds herself persona non grata. Treated as a leper by her schoolmates, Stacey is not only exiled from the "cool" lunch table and subjected to vicious insults and accusations in the hallway, but she is also victimized by a "Hate Stacey" website -- but when her mom, Barbara (Lisa Vidal), complains to the principal, she is bluntly told that the school has no authority over any non-school activities, no matter how odious they may be. Driven to desperation by this onslaught of hostility, Vanessa becomes dangerously self-destructive, and it takes the combined efforts of her mother and her fellow "outcast" Emily (Shari Dyon Perry) to restore our heroine's pride and self-esteem...and, ultimately, to get her real priorities back on track. Director Tom McLoughlin, hitherto a specialist in horror films, invests this adaptation of Rachel Simmons' novel with just the right amount of foreboding and subliminal evil. First telecast by the Lifetime channel on April 4, 2005, Odd Girl Out obviously struck a nerve with viewers, if the incredible outpouring of audience response in both print and on the Internet is any indication. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Three people attempt to bend justice for their own purposes in this drama based on the best-selling novel by John Grisham. After a man dies in a shooting incident, his wife files a lawsuit against the company that manufactured the gun, with her lawyer, Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), arguing that the firm in question knew the shop which sold the weapon was not following federal regulations pertaining to the sale of firearms. As the case goes to trial, the firearm manufacturer is taking no chances on the outcome of a potentially devastating case, and they hire as part of their legal team Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman), a "jury consultant" who makes it his business to see that he knows enough about the jurors to be able to guarantee the result of the trial. Fitch and his team have learned incriminating secrets about nearly everyone hearing the evidence, but Fitch discovers two factors he wasn't counting upon -- Nick Easter (John Cusack), the jury member who appears to have an agenda all his own, and Marlee (Rachel Weisz), a mysterious woman who has her own plans regarding bending the jury to her will. Bruce Davison, Jeremy Piven, and Bruce McGill round out the supporting cast. Incidentally, in John Grisham's original book, the case was filed against a cigarette manufacturer, but the producers opted to adjust the story after several real-life trials against tobacco companies. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Three rich, pretty people befriend their poor, mousy classmate and live to regret it in this teen-centric thriller. Alicia (Mia Kirshner), Hadley (Meredith Monroe), Julianne (Rachel True), and Sydney (Dominique Swain) are four students enrolled in the same sociology class at Colby University, an exclusive and respected college in the Carolinas. Alicia is a local girl born into modest circumstances who struggles to make ends meet and rarely gets a second look from the male students on campus, while Hadley, Julianne, and Sydney are close friends who all come from wealthy families and seem more concerned with partying than their studies. Alicia and Hadley are paired up to work on their semester project for the class, which is to be centered around the theme "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way." As part of the project, Hadley decides to befriend Alicia, and brings her into her social circle. At first, Alicia seems more than grateful for the attention of her new friends, and blooms under the influence of Hadley, Julianne, and Sydney. But it isn't long before Alicia's personality begins to shift; she develops a powerful appetite for drugs and alcohol, and soon begins taking advantage of her new friendships. Things come to a head when Alicia seduces Sydney's boyfriend, Josh (Oliver Hudson), and soon Alicia ends up in the hospital after OD'ing on drugs. Artie Bonner (Taye Diggs), a local sheriff, begins looking into Alicia's case, convinced that her near-fatal accident with drugs was no accident at all. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Janet McTeer follows up her Oscar-nominated performance in Tumbleweeds (1999) with this period drama set during the 1910s. Dr. Lily Penleric (McTeer), an uptight musicologist, is furious after getting denied tenure again at an elite all-male East Coast university. She promptly quits out of protest, and having nowhere else to go, she joins her sister in a remote mountain school. Her high-minded, refined ways quickly clash with the locals, yet her academic interests are peaked when she realizes that this bucolic mountain culture is thoroughly infused with music that harkens back to traditional English and Scottish folk ballads. After retrieving some tools, including a primitive recording device, from the East Coast, she sets out collecting songs. The locals react with a mixture of amusement, bafflement, and suspicion. Meanwhile, a mining company is strong-arming the impoverished residences into selling their coal-rich land for a pittance. Lily soon realizes that the culture she's seeking to preserve is quickly being torn asunder. Aidan Quinn and David Patrick Kelly also appear in this film, which was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

The Rage: Carrie 2 is set in a small town high school, where the members of the football team set the social order. Emulating the "Spur Posse" from Lakewood, California, the boys on the team compete to see who can seduce the most girls, rating them on a point system, and then discarding them as pathetic losers. The story opens with Lisa (Mena Suvari), a victim of this game who responds by jumping off the school to her death. Lisa turns out to be the only friend of Rachel Lang (Emily Bergl). Intelligent but a social outcast, Rachel lives with foster parents; her father is unknown and her mother has been institutionalized. Rachel plans to go after Lisa's victimizer, Eric (Zachery Ty Bryan), but becomes attracted to smart football star Jesse Ryan (Jason London). While this forces the keepers of social order to partially accept her, they secretly plan her downfall. But unknown to them, Rachel's recently arrived hormones have brought on something else -- telekinesis. The one person who recognizes what's happening is guidance counselor Sue Snell (Amy Irving), a lucky survivor of the telekinetic massacre perpetrated by Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) in the original film. Sue wants Rachel to get the help she needs (perhaps as Irving did in her other Brian DePalma film, The Fury) but it's already too late as the stage is set for another showdown at the prom. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi

In this action thriller, the only things standing in the way of world destruction are two guys in an ice cream truck. On a remote island in the South Pacific, a secret weapons project (code name "Elvis") goes wrong, and a new chemical weapon, safe when frozen but deadly when thawed, is allowed to escape. Eighteen soldiers are killed, leaving behind only the scientist who created the formula and the officer in charge of the project, who is saddled with most of the blame. Ten years later, Tim Mason (Skeet Ulrich) is working at a diner in Montana when an old friend, Dr. Richard Long (David Paymer), is seriously wounded by Maj. Andrew Brynner (Peter Firth). It seems that Dr. Long helped create Elvis and Maj. Brynner was the officer who took the fall for the disaster ten years ago. Near death, Long gives Elvis to Mason and tells him that it has to be kept solidly frozen and delivered to Fort Magruder, 90 miles away. But how to keep it at zero degrees until then? A logical solution presents itself when Arlo (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who drives an ice cream truck, makes a delivery to the diner. Mason drafts Arlo into helping him transport Elvis to safety, and before long Brynner's men are hot on the trail of the icy chemical weapon. First-time director Hugh Johnson learned his craft in part through his work as a cameraman for Ridley Scott: he was the cinematographer for White Squall and G.I. Jane. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi