Becky Ann Baker Movies

Adapted from author Nicholas Sparks' popular romance novel, director George C. Wolfe's Nights in Rodanthe tells the tale of a doctor (Richard Gere) en route to reconcile with his estranged son when his benevolent mission is sidelined upon checking into a North Carolina beach-town inn. When the doctor arrives at the inn, he enters into a passionate affair with an unhappily married woman (Diane Lane) who is currently considering divorce. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Your friendly neighborhood web-slinger is back, only this time his sunny outlook has become partially overcast in the third chapter of director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man saga. Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco return to reprise their roles from the previous two installments, with Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, and Bryce Dallas Howard making their first appearances in the series as Flint Marko (aka Sandman), Eddie Brock (aka Venom), and Gwen Stacy, respectively. Peter Parker (Maguire) has finally leaned to walk the middle ground between being the superhero that his city needs and the man that Mary Jane (Dunst) loves. All is well in New York City until one night, as Peter and M.J. sit gazing at the stars, a falling comet streams across the sky and crashes into the ground close by. But this isn't any ordinary shooting star, and upon impact the mysterious space rock is split open to reveal a shape-shifting symbiote with the power to overtake anything that it comes into contact with. Later, as Harry Osborn (James Franco) acquires his late father's flying board, engineers a powerful new Goblin outfit, and takes to the sky to avenge dad's death, the mysterious space sludge infects both Peter's Spider-Man suit and ambitious street photographer Eddie Brock (Grace). Peter's strange new suit gives him a newfound sense of power as it gradually overpowers his personality, and he discovers that escaped convict Flint Marko was in fact the man responsible for the death of Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). Unfortunately for Peter, Marko has recently acquired the power to morph at will and quickly completes his transformation into the dreaded Sandman. As the Sandman gives in to his darkest criminal instincts and the slithering space symbiote transforms Eddie Brock into the nightmarish fanged villain known as Venom, the citizens of New York City must once again call on Spider-Man to fend off destructive forces that are far too powerful for the likes of mortal man. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A geek girl can't help falling for boys who are even bigger losers than she is in this independent comedy from writer and director Steve Collins. Gretchen Finkle (Courtney Davis) is a 17-year-old high school student who has been going through an awkward phase for most of her life. Gretchen has a lamentable fashion sense, she's socially inept, and she has a habit of falling head over heels for the greasiest and most burnt out guys at her school. Gretchen's latest romantic obsession is Ricky, a particularly notorious local hesher, and her mother becomes so concerned about Gretchen's crush that she ships her daughter off to an in-patient emotional therapy clinic to sort out her confused and unstable emotional condition. Gretchen tries to go along with therapy, but decides she needs to set out on a journey of self-discovery if she's going to get to the bottom of her neuroses and her obsession with loser guys in time for the senior prom. Gretchen received the award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

On the streets of New York City, where the fine line between the desperate and the successful can be decidedly blurred, a homeless man and a struggling band are about to find out the difference that a stranger can make in one's life under the right circumstances. Inspired by actual events in the life of sage sidewalk sleeper Harold "Chopper" Jones, writer/director James Furino's film focus on a struggling Manhattan glam rock band who receives some career advice from a most unlikely source. When the workday is over, word processor James, college professor Parker, and research scientist Michael all take the stage to rock the city into the wee hours of the morning. But lately things haven't been going so well for the trio with high hopes of a successful musical career. Upon meeting the man they call "Chopper" things soon begin looking up, yet sometimes in the midst of things it's difficult to determine who is truly helping whom. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

At first glance, it is assumed that a murdered woman was a professional escort. But a clue found in the corpse's pocket leads the detectives to a "swingers party," where the victim had been in a fight with another woman. It is then revealed that the dead woman was a doctor who had been writing fraudulent prescriptions for the illegal painkiller Oxycodone. The outcome of the case is determined by an apparent betrayal within the ranks of a mob family. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though it didn't even make it through its inaugural season on NBC, this 1999-2000 cult hit helped launch the career of many a fine young actor and attracted a huge new audience upon its elaborate DVD release in 2004. An ensemble comedy drama about a group of misfits growing up in the Detroit suburbs in the early '80s, Freaks and Geeks was the brainchild of executive producer Judd Apatow. With a writing staff that included indie-film mainstay Mike White, Apatow set out to chronicle those twin crossroads of adolescence: the move from junior high to high school, and the choice between stoner antics and goody two-shoes academics. To unite his two titular cliques into a single fictional framework, Apatow created the Weir family: Lindsay (Linda Cardellini), a brainy "mathlete" newly turned on to the thrill of rebellion; Sam (John Francis Daley), her swooningly romantic pipsqueak brother; and their rock-solid if painfully earnest parents, Harold (Joe Flaherty) and Jean (Becky Ann Baker). James Franco, soon to find movie stardom in the Spider-Man flicks, portrayed freak king Daniel Desario, a charismatic layabout and the object of Lindsay's secret affections. Busy Philipps, a future Dawson's Creek star, played his volcanic girlfriend, Kim Kelly, while Seth Rogen and Jason Segel played beta-male losers Ken Miller and Nick Andopolis. As for the geeks, young Sam found himself joined at the hip by asthmatic Bill Haverchuck (Martin Starr) and dapper, if tiny, Neal Schweiber (Samm Levine). With storylines that bounced back and forth between both groups and broke down the mythic high-school hierarchy developed in the '80s oeuvre of John Hughes, Freaks and Geeks earned plenty of critical praise upon its inaugural run. Despite its rich, character-driven humor and nostalgic, retro setting, the series dealt with all sorts of weighty issues: domestic violence, drugs and alcohol, single motherhood, and simple adolescence. NBC declined to air one episode, "Kim Kelly Is My Friend," deeming its family psychodrama too disturbing. The series was soon canceled, leaving several unaired episodes. But thank to Internet fandom and growing word of mouth, Freaks and Geeks cemented its status as the coulda-been hit that was snuffed out too early, and the clamor for a DVD release reached a deafening roar. By the time the complete series, including unaired episodes, was released in 2004, the show's reputation had grown to the point where a deluxe edition -- including a fake high-school yearbook -- could be released and even the regular edition boasted more commentary tracks than there were episodes. Since the show's cancellation, star Cardellini has gone on to greater fame in the Scooby-Doo movies and on ER, while her cast mates have turned up in all sorts of unexpected places. But for a large contingent of obsessive Freaks and Geeks fans, the actress will always be identified with her character's signature green jacket. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

For his fifth effort as a feature-film director, one-time cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld brought his cartoonish visual style and darkly humorous sensibilities to this adaptation of, appropriately enough, a tongue-in-cheek sci-fi comic book. Will Smith stars as James Darrel Edwards, a New York City cop with an athletic physique and a flippant, anti-authoritarian attitude toward law enforcement. After chasing down a mysterious perpetrator one night who turns out to be an alien, James is recruited by "K" (Tommy Lee Jones), a veteran of a clandestine government agency secretly policing the comings and goings of aliens on planet Earth. Nicknamed the "men in black" for their nondescript uniform of black suit, shoes, tie, and sunglasses, the agents are assigned to recover a bauble that's been stolen by an intergalactic terrorist (Vincent D'Onofrio). It seems the item is none other than the galaxy itself, and its theft has plunged humanity into the center of what's shaping up to become an interstellar war, unless K and his new wisecracking partner, now renamed "J," can stop the bad guy. On their side but somewhat in the dark is a pretty, unflappable city medical examiner (Linda Fiorentino) who has been zapped one too many times by K's ingenious memory-sapping device. Men in Black was a box office smash, inspiring an animated children's television series and a hit soundtrack album that featured a performance by star (and rapper) Smith. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Frasier's son, Frederick Crane (Luke Tarsitano), makes his annual Yuletide visit to Seattle. Eagerly looking forward to the educational toys that Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) has promised him -- including a "Living Brain" -- Frederick is crushed when a mistake is made in shipping and he receives nothing but girl's playthings. Thus it is that Frasier, who despises crowds even in the best of time, must claw his way from one mall to another in a hectic last-minute shopping excursion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A remake of a 1954 Billy Wilder romance, this updated version of the play Sabrina Fair was directed by Sydney Pollack. Julia Ormond stars as Sabrina Fairchild, the daughter of a kindly chauffeur (John Wood) at the Long Island estate of the upper-crust Larrabee family. Sabrina has grown up enchanted from afar with the Larrabees' sparkling world of privilege and wealth, but she's especially enamored of younger Larrabee brother David (Greg Kinnear), a charming womanizer. After the once-plain Sabrina returns from a sojourn in Paris transformed into a remarkably poised and attractive young woman, she at long last catches David's eye. In a calculated effort to manipulate David away from her and into a more financially advantageous marriage, older brother Linus (Harrison Ford) pretends to woo Sabrina himself, but finds himself unintentionally falling in love. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte give brilliant performances as parents trying to save the life of their son in George Miller's harrowing and heartbreaking Lorenzo's Oil. Based on a true story, the film begins as bright young Lorenzo (Zack O'Malley Greenburg) is leading a pleasant life on the Comoro Islands. But things start to go wrong with him -- he collapses, he raves, and he loses his hearing -- so his concerned parents, Augusto (Nick Nolte) and Michaela Odone (Susan Sarandon), take him to a doctor. The diagnosis is a death warrant; they are told that Lorenzo has been diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), an rare and incurable nerve disease that is always fatal. When Augusto and Michaela are told to be patient as they watch their son sink further into the debilitating illness, they take matters into their own hands and start their own investigation of the disease. Using rapeseed oil, they find their own treatment for ALD. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

One of the few American films to deal with the tragic story of the internment of Asian-Americans during World War II, Come See the Paradise opens in the late 1930s, as Jack McGurn (Dennis Quaid) is working as a union organizer in New York City. Jack finds himself on the wrong side of the law after he gets involved in an ill-advised bombing of a scab shop, and he flees to Los Angeles, where Hiroshi Kawamura (Sab Shimono) gives him a job as a projectionist in L.A.'s Little Tokyo. Jack soon meets Hiroshi's beautiful daughter Lily (Tamlyn Tomita) and it's love at first sight. Jack and Lily decide to get married, but Hiroshi opposes the match and California law prevents mixed-race couples from obtaining a marriage license. Jack and Lily move to Seattle, where they are wed and soon have a daughter. Jack, however, begins working with the union again, which puts a strain on their marriage; Lily takes their child and returns to Los Angeles. But before long the United States enters World War II, and the Kawamura family is sent (along with all other Americans of Japanese descent living in California) to an internment camp, as it is believed they will become traitors against America if left to their own devices. Jack, ironically, is drafted into the Army and soon goes AWOL to return to California, where he tries to find his wife in the camps. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi