Leslie Hope

An outsider teen acclimating to a new school finds a home in a reclusive teenaged fight club in this drama from Cry_Wolf director Jeff Wadlow. Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) has just moved with his family to Orlando, FL. While Jake isn't exactly comfortable being the new kid in town, his younger brother, Charlie (Wyatt Smith), is an aspiring professional tennis star who might just have what it takes to break big. But Charlie isn't the only talented athlete in the family, because Jake used to be something of a hotshot on the gridiron -- at least back home. Here in Orlando, Jake is considered something of a hothead thanks to his penchant for brawling. In an attempt to better fit in with his new classmates, Jake accepts flirtatious classmate Baja's (Amber Heard) invitation to a raucous party. There, the short-fused newcomer is lured into a fight and badly beaten by local bully Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet). But a beam of hope shines through the humiliation when a classmate who sees potential in the defeated fighter informs Jake of a local MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) program run by Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou). Despite Jake's preconceived notions regarding MMA, he quickly discovers that it's not just another form of street fighting but a rich new art form that he longs to master. As Roqua takes Jake under his tutelage, it soon becomes apparent that in order to become a true MMA champion, Jake will have to learn patience, discipline, willingness, and reason. This isn't just a quest for revenge, but an opportunity for Jake to finally find out what kind of man he truly is. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A homeless, unidentified woman (Leslie Hope) collapses during a run-in with the police, then suffers a seizure at the clinic. Foreman (Omar Epps) thinks that the woman is faking illness to get free room and board, while Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) insists that she has ovarian cancer. Typically, House trumps them both with a theory of his own, and as a bonus figures out the woman's true identity--much to the fascination of two wide-eyed medical students who've been following House around all day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paul Johansson's The Incredible Mrs. Richie stars Gena Rowlands as the title character. The film stars Kevin Zegers as Charlie Proud, a young man on the path to juvenile delinquency. Having had enough of Charlie's troublemaking, school principal Mr. Dewitt issues the boy an ultimatum. Charlie must begin working for Mrs. Richie or be expelled from the school. She puts him to work in her garden, a place she believes is home to the spirit of her late husband. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Detective Ed Delongpre (Dennis Hopper) is challenged by the mayor of Burman City to make an arrest in a one-day series of child slayings within 48 hours. With no clues to work with, Delongpre and his longtime partner McGivern (Frederic Forrest) and their team of investigators stake out just about every place in town where kids are at play. Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to the cops (with one notable exception), the mayor has also made a deal with a notorious mobster to also find the killer, pitting the good guys against the bad guys to stop a sicko. Also meanwhile, Delongpre's relationship with his estranged adult daughter Leslie (Leslie Hope) is torn open after a decade -- Leslie is the mayor's pushy assistant. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

Horror-meister George Romero directs this thriller about a 99-pound weakling who strikes back at everyone who has wronged him in the past. Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) works at a fashion mag called Bruiser for the short-fused, dictatorial Miles Styles (Peter Stormare). Henry spends much of his day fantasizing about killing himself and killing others, particularly his nagging wife Janine (Nina Garbiras). After learning that Miles is shagging his wife and that his stockbroker best friend swindled him out of a stack of money, Henry wakes up the following day to learn that his face has mysteriously been rendered white and featureless. Soon, like a mime with bloodlust, Henry violently dispatches with everyone in his life, save Miles' wife, whose paintings may be responsible for his sudden transformation. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

The ghosts of two daring pilots help a troubled young girl in this fantasy for the family. In 1927, a pair of French air aces, Charles Nungesser (Lothaire Bluteau) and Francois Coli (Michel Monty) hop into a single-engine biplane and take off for New York City with the intention of becoming the first pilots to cross the Atlantic non-stop. However, they fail to arrive in New York and are never heard from again. 70 years later, 12-year-old Katie Penhallow (Juliana Wimbles) and her brother are sent to Newfoundland to visit their grandmother, Lydia (Marsha Mason). Both Katie and her brother have had a difficult time dealing with the death of their father, a pilot who lost his life while testing a plane several years before. One night, while exploring at a pond near Grandmother's house, Katie encounters Nungesser and Coli, who look remarkably alive and healthy for two men who have been dead for seven decades. The flyboys tell Katie they are actually the spirits of the lost aviators, and they will not be able to rest until they can rescue their wrecked aircraft from the pond. While Katie has a hard time convincing anyone of what she saw, for the first time since her father's death she has a focus and purpose in life that takes her mind off her feelings about her dad. Shown on premium cable in the United States under the title Restless Spirits, Dead Aviators was shown under its original title in 1999 at Sprockets, the Toronto Film Festival for Children, and on CBC television in Canada. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this romance, a lonely lady architect discovers that if only she would pay attention, true love is as close as the man next door. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A son is left in a dangerous situation as he struggles to deal with his father's legacy, in this made-for-television drama. After his father dies, Chris King (Andrew Lowery) is left to figure out why some determined thugs are interested in getting their hands on a suspicious package that his father may have had. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

A man must decide how long can he hold onto his dream in this drama. Tiff Wood (Colin Ferguson) is a world-class amateur rower whose dream is to compete in the Olympic games. While competition is fierce and Wood suffers more than his share of disappointments, in 1980 he makes the U.S. Olympic team and is thought to be a sure thing to bring home a gold medal in the Moscow games. Political tensions heat up between the United States and Russia, however, and President Jimmy Carter announces that America will be boycotting the Olympics. Crushed, Tiff sees only one option available to him -- to train himself to beat younger and stronger rowers so he can make the team in 1984. Based on the book The Amateurs by David Halberstam, Rowing Through was jointly produced by Japanese and Canadian production companies; the supporting cast includes Leslie Hope, Helen Shaver, and Peter Murnik. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Justin Louis, Eugene Lipinski and Andrew Miller star in this gritty thriller from Canada about the owner of an after-hours club who finds himself pursued by a obsessive undercover policeman. Also features Jan Rubes and Kenneth Welsh. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Bonnie (Alicia Witt) and Hillary (Renee Humphrey) are two seemingly average California teenagers who have some very heavy emotional baggage to lug around. Bonnie was abandoned by her mother years ago, and Hillary was sexually assaulted by her father, who is now behind bars. Bonnie and Hillary have enough in common that they strike up a fast friendship and head out one day in search of "fun." However, by the end of the day, their pursuit of happiness has taken them from typically meanspirited teenage pranks, such as dropping pennies onto cars from an overpass, to an abrupt and shocking extreme -- the murder of an elderly woman who has done them no harm. Jane (Leslie Hope), a social worker assigned to work with Bonnie and Hillary, finds it all but impossible to get through to them and is dealing with her own precarious emotional state (which she treats with alcohol), while tabloid journalist John (William R. Moses) tries to wring a juicy, sensational story out of the girls' crime spree. Meanwhile, Bonnie and Hillary wonder out loud about their sudden "celebrity" and who will play them in the inevitable TV movie about their crimes. Alicia Witt and Renee Humphrey both won awards for their performances at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, though the film didn't find a distributor until 1996, after the release of the thematically similar Heavenly Creatures. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide