Michael Ohoven Movies

A serial killer shifts his focus from hunting female victims to stalking the two detectives attempting to end his reign of terror in this tense crime thriller inspired by actual events. When a secluded Texas marsh becomes the dumping ground for a murderous maniac who preys on young females, local homicide detective Mike Souder (Sam Worthington) teams up with transplanted New York City detective Brian Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to put an end to the vicious killing spree. Meanwhile, the cunning psychopath quickly turns the tables on his pursuers with a tantalizing series of carefully placed clues. But when the elusive killer makes the fateful mistake of abducting a young girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), he severely underestimates the detectives' determination to bring her home alive. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A satirical workplace comedy with a slick action twist, Fouad Mikati's Operation: Endgame explores the violence that erupts when the organization charged with protecting America implodes, and the employees turn their guns on each other instead of their enemies. Somewhere beneath Washington, D.C., an intense rivalry is heating up between two opposing teams of government assassins. The hired killers in the organizations take their names from Tarot cards. The Fool (Joe Anderson) is the latest recruit. Reporting for his first day on the job, The Fool is shocked to find that his boss is dead, and the office is on lockdown. To make matters worse, the building has been rigged with explosives, and it's going to blow soon. Now, in order to get out alive, The Fool will have to root out the killer in his midst, and make a quick escape before his co-workers catch him in their crosshairs. Ellen Barkin, Zach Galifianakis, Rob Corddry, and Jeffrey Tambor star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A college-educated African-American schoolteacher frustrated by his inability to find a job repairs an abandoned recreational pool hall in hopes of starting Philadelphia's first African-American swim team in this inspirational drama that takes its cue from the true-life story of charismatic 1970s-era schoolteacher Jim Ellis. The year is 1973 and the job market is tight. Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard) may have a college diploma, but despite his education he still can't seem to find a job. An aspiring teacher with a lifelong love of competitive swimming, Ellis determines to take his future into his own hands when he discovers a deserted recreational pool hall in the slums of the city. Though he and kindly local janitor Elston (Bernie Mac) do their best to get the crumbling pool hall in working order, the pair find their benevolent efforts thwarted when the building is targeted for demolition. Little do the forces that be know that Jim isn't a man to quietly lie down and admit defeat; despite the racism, violence, and threats made by an unsympathetic city official that all threaten to destroy his vivid new dream, the man who was once without purpose boldly resolves to recruit troubled street teens and transform them into capable swimmers in time for the upcoming state championships. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A hotshot thirtysomething record executive tries to win over the girl who once liked him only "as a friend" in this slapstick comedy. In high school, Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) was an overweight, maladroit teen who spent every waking moment with his co-ed pal Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart). On the verge of graduation, Chris is humiliated when his yearbook confession to Jamie -- that he wants to be more than "just friends" -- is read aloud. Jamie is flattered, but rebuffs his advances, and Chris spends the next decade transforming himself into a buff, callous ladies' man. Assigned by his boss to sign his pop star ex-girlfriend Samantha James (Anna Faris), Chris finds himself stranded in New Jersey for the holidays, where he promptly sets out to find Jamie. But winning back the love of his life proves difficult, as Chris not only has to get back in touch with the sensitive teen he once was, but also fend off competition from another former geek, the guitar-playing Dusty (Chris Klein). ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

The creation of one of the most memorable books of the 1960s -- and the impact the writing and research would have on its author -- is explored in this drama based on a true story. In 1959, Truman Capote (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) was a critically acclaimed novelist who had earned a small degree of celebrity for his work when he read a short newspaper item about a multiple murder in a small Kansas town. For some reason, the story fascinated Capote, and he asked William Shawn (Bob Balaban), his editor at The New Yorker, to let him write a piece about the case. Capote had long believed that in the right hands, a true story could be molded into a tale as compelling as any fiction, and he believed this event, in which the brutal and unimaginable was visited upon a community where it was least expected, could be just the right material. Capote traveled to Kansas with his close friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), herself becoming a major literary figure with the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, and while Capote's effete and mannered personal style stuck out like a sore thumb in Kansas, in time he gained the trust of Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), the Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent investigating the murder of the Clutter family, and with his help Capote's magazine piece grew into a full-length book. Capote also became familiar with the petty criminals who killed the Clutter family, Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) and Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.), and in Smith he found a troubling kindred spirit more like himself than he wanted to admit. After attaining a sort of friendship with Smith under the assumption that the man would be executed before the book was ever published, Capote finds himself forced to directly confront the moral implications of his actions with regards to both his role in the man's death, and the way that he would be remembered. Capote also co-stars Bruce Greenwood as Capote's longtime companion Jack Dunphy, and Amy Ryan as Mary Dewey, Alvin's wife who became a confidante of Capote's. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Tom Ripley (Barry Pepper) and friends cover up the death of a renowned artist in order to continue profiting from his work, but find their ruse threatened by a sharp-eyed art collector who recognizes one of the paintings as fake. Tom Wilkinson, Claire Forlani, Alan Cumming, and Willem Dafor co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

First-time filmmaker Omar Naim wrote and directed the sci-fi drama The Final Cut. Set in the near future, the story concerns a device implanted in the body that is capable of recording a person's entire life. Once it is extracted from the body after death, the footage can be played back on a screen in the form of "rememories." Robin Williams plays Alan Hakman, an editor who cuts together the footage to make pleasant movies for funerals. Tormented by his job and his own memories, Alan also has a troubled romantic relationship with bookseller Delila (Mira Sorvino). While looking through footage for his next project, Alan discovers a man whom he believes is from his own past. Meanwhile, former editor Fletcher (James Caviezel) wants the footage for his own purposes. The Final Cut was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Charles Martin Smith's romantic adventure film The Snow Walker concerns a brave risk-taking pilot (Barry Pepper) and an Inuit woman in frail health who is his passenger. When the pair experience a plane crash, each is forced to learn from and help the other in order to survive the variety of obstacles the harsh landscape throws in their path. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

For his first film since 1998's Twilight, acclaimed director Robert Benton helmed this tense drama written by Fatal Attraction co-scribe Nicholas Meyer and based on the novel of the same name by Philip Roth. Set in the late '90s at the height of the Clinton sex-scandal, The Human Stain stars Anthony Hopkins as Coleman Silk, a respected professor at a New England college who suddenly finds his life unraveling after a comment he makes about some African-American students is misinterpreted as a racial slur. As the scandal heats up, Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise), a writer researching a biography of Silk, begins to dig deeper and deeper into Silk's life. Eventually, matters are made worse when an affair with a young married janitor named Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman) is exposed. But amid the controversy, Silk must struggle to keep his greatest secret, a secret he's held for the majority of his life, from becoming public. Ed Harris, who previously worked with Benton in 1984's Places in the Heart, also stars. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

One man takes on the Irish family law system and the Catholic Church in a bid to be reunited with his children in this drama, based on a true story. In 1953, Desmond Doyle (Pierce Brosnan) was a house painter and decorator who, despite a strong work ethic, had a hard time holding on to steady work. Desmond's wife had grown tired of her marriage and her husband's financial problems, and one day walked away from her home, leaving Desmond to raise their three children on his own. While Desmond struggles to keep body and soul together for his children, his sporadic employment eventually attracts the attention of the law, and a court order sends his two sons and young daughter to separate Catholic orphanages until Desmond can prove he's capable of properly supporting them. However, Desmond discovers merely getting work is not enough to bring his children back to him, and when he learns that his daughter, Evelyn (Sophie Vavasseur), is having a rough time of it at the hands of several stern nuns, he becomes determined to win their custody in a court of law. Through Bernadette (Julianna Margulies), a barmaid who has caught his eye, Desmond meets Michael Beattie (Stephen Rea), a lawyer and Bernadette's brother. While Michael doesn't believe Desmond's case can be won in an Irish court, his partner Nick Barron (Aidan Quinn), an expatriate American who lost custody of his own children in a divorce proceeding, is eager to help, and they agree to take the case. However, they both realize they're fighting an uphill battle, and so they persuade Thomas Connolly (Alan Bates), a former football star who became one of Ireland's most respected barristers, to lend his knowledge and prestige to the case. Leading man Bronson also served a co-producer for Evelyn; Bruce Beresford directed, who previously collaborated with Pierce Brosnan on Mister Johnson. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi