Jsu Garcia Movies
For the follow-up to his feature debut, 1999's The Big Split, filmmaker Martin Hynes took on this bittersweet road movie about a teenager responding to the untimely death of his mother. Overcome with grief that he's unequipped to deal with, Mercer (Lou Taylor Pucci) decides to steal a car and hit the open road. Along the way, he discovers himself with the help of a seductress (Jena Malone) and the owner of the car (Zooey Deschanel). The Go-Getter had its premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lou Taylor Pucci, Zooey Deschanel, (more)
An aspiring musician looking to break big finds the singer who may finally be able to make his dreams come true in director Renee Chabria's musical drama starring John Leguizamo and Elizabeth Peña. There's nothing that Antonio (Leguizamo) wants more out of life than to be standing on the stage with the spotlight shining down on him. Soon after purchasing a bus ticket to Los Angeles and leaving his Mexican border town behind, Antonio falls for aspiring young doctor Nina (Ana Claudia Talancon). When Antonio discovers that his new neighbor Mirabella is a gifted former singer who has fallen on hard times, he convinces the struggling single mother to put her faith in her abilities and prepare for the upcoming talent contest that may just lead the pair to a future full of prosperity and creative freedom. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Leguizamo, Ana Claudia Talancón, (more)
Screenwriter John Hamburg directs his second film (since his 1998 debut Safe Men) with the romantic comedy Along Came Polly. Ben Stiller plays Reuben Feffer, a professional risk assessor who never takes chances in any aspect of his life. When his new bride Lisa (Debra Messing) leaves him for a European scuba instructor named Claude (Hank Azaria), he finally decides to a risk of his own. At a party, he meets free-spirited Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston), whom he remembers from his seventh-grade Model U.N. Unlike the control-freak Reuben, she's spent her life living on the edge. They reluctantly begin a romance and Polly introduces him to a new world of spicy food and suggestive dances. Along Came Polly also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as Reuben's washed-up best friend Sandy Lyle and Alec Baldwin as the obnoxious insurance company boss Stan Indursky. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, (more)
A thief gains an unlikely fan in a security specialist in this independent comedy. Emily (Meredith Bishop) is a young woman who isn't sure what she wants to do with her life; while she has fuzzy goals of becoming an artist, she's most concerned with convincing her mother (Leigh Taylor-Young) and her analyst (Michael Nouri) that everything is just fine. But Emily has discovered a way to take her mind off of her anxieties -- shoplifting. She steals for enjoyment rather than necessity, and her graceful work at a department store has earned her the admiration of Nick (Jsu Garcia), head of the store's security team. Nick is sick of his job and wants to start his own business; however, a seemingly foolproof get-rich-quick scheme has backfired, leaving him deep in debt to a Russian gangster (Henry Czerny). Rather than have Emily arrested, Nick persuades her to go out with him, and as a tentative relationship grows between the two, they decide to team up for a raid on the store after Nick is fired from his job. Klepto was the first feature film from director and screenwriter Thomas Trail. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meredith Bishop, Jsu Garcia, (more)
Screenwriter Randall Wallace, a specialist in sweeping historical epics, steps behind the camera for this fact-based Vietnam War drama that reunites him with his Braveheart (1995) star Mel Gibson. Gibson is Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, the same regiment fatefully led by George Armstrong Custer. As part of the Pleiku Campaign of late 1965, Moore is assigned to an action at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Drang Valley, an area that would come to be known as the "The Valley of Death." Moore soon finds himself and his men contained to an area about the size of a football field, surrounded by more than 2,000 enemy troops and engaged in the first major battle of the war. Heroism becomes the order of the day as men like Moore, chopper pilot Bruce Crandall (Greg Kinnear), and Lt. Henry Herrick (Marc Blucas) refuse to yield, in spite of heavy losses of life. The film co-stars Madeleine Stowe, Chris Klein, Keri Russell, and Sam Elliott. We Were Soldiers is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (retired) and UPI reporter Joe Galloway (played in the film by Barry Pepper). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Gibson
This action-adventure, that features a terrorist plot from The Fugitive (1993), saw its October 2001 release date moved back four months as a result of real-life terrorist attacks on the United States. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Gordon Brewer, a Los Angeles firefighter who witnesses the deaths of his wife and child, innocent victims of a terrorist attack on a motorcade carrying Colombian dignitaries. Responsibility for the deadly explosion belongs to Claudio "The Wolf" Perrini (Cliff Curtis), a terrorist and rebel in Colombia's decade-long civil war. When times passes with no suspect being brought to justice, Brewer rejects the advice of FBI agent Peter Brandt (Elias Koteas) and travels to the jungles of Colombia to find and take revenge upon his family's murderer himself. Encountering a complex web of death squads, right-wing military officials, guerrillas, terrorists and drug-lords, Brewer is aided in his dangerous quest by an unlikely ally, the beautiful Selena Perrini (Francesca Neri), his quarry's wife. Collateral Damage (2002) co-stars John Leguizamo and John Turturro. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elias Koteas, (more)
One of the more difficult high school students in cinematic history moves on to college in this sexy thriller. Debbie Strand (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, in the role Rose McGowan played in the first film) was sentenced to a mental institution for the criminally insane after her previous murder spree, but she manages to escape, and while making her getaway by hitchhiking, she's picked up by Sydney Hollings (Christiana Frank), a student on her way to start classes at an upscale college nearby. Debbie murders Sydney and assumes her identity in hopes of avoiding the police, but Debbie's obsession with older men starts causing problems again when she becomes interested in Sam Decker (Jsu Garcia), one of her professors. Debbie soon learns that she has a rival for Sam's affections in Carla (Katherine Kendall), Sam's girlfriend, and this proves to be bad for the long-term health of all parties concerned. Debbie also finds she doesn't get along especially well with her new roommate, Laney (Jeanette Brox). Devil in the Flesh 2 was also screened under the title Teacher's Pet. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Katherine Kendall, (more)
