Sam Ingraffia Movies

A twisted cremator and a teenage misfit strike up an unusual relationship in this independent thriller starring Brad Dourif. Fast approaching 60, Stan (Dourif) has few friends, and earns his living by offering budget cremation services out of his own home. But Stan has a dark secret; little do his neighbors realize, the outwardly frail recluse has taken to stuffing anyone he perceives to be a bully into the incinerator, and lately the fires have been burning particularly bright. Meanwhile, Stan finds a kindred soul in the form of Jarod (Jeremy Sumpter), a local adolescent from a broken family. For Jarod, getting pushed around is just another part of the daily routine - until he goes to work for Stan. Before long, Stan and Jarod are both working overtime to rid their small town of the rougher element. But when local detective Matt Fairchild (Scott Elrod) begins to suspect foul play, Stan must decide whether to make his young employee a full partner, or make sure that he's never heard from again. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

"Greed is Good." This is the credo of the aptly named Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), the antihero of Oliver Stone's Wall Street. Gekko, a high-rolling corporate raider, is idolized by young-and-hungry broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen). Inveigling himself into Gekko's inner circle, Fox quickly learns to rape, murder and bury his sense of ethics. Only when Gekko's wheeling and dealing causes a near-tragedy on a personal level does Fox "reform"-though his means of destroying Gekko are every bit as underhanded as his previous activities on the trading floor. Director Stone, who cowrote Wall Street with Stanley Weiser, has claimed that the film was prompted by the callous treatment afforded his stockbroker father after 50 years in the business; this may be why the film's most compelling scenes are those between Bud Fox and his airline mechanic father (played by Charlie Sheen's real-life dad Martin). Ironically, Wall Street was released just before the October, 1987 stock market crash. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Schlesinger directed this fact-based drama - adapted from Robert Lindsay's bestseller of the same title -- about two Californians, friends since boyhood, who are caught selling government secrets to the Soviet Union. Christopher Boyce (Timothy Hutton) is an all-American boy, studying for the priesthood in a seminary. But Boyce decides to drop out of school, and with the help of his father (Pat Hingle), a FBI agent, he gets a job working for the CIA in a message-routing center. While reading the messages, Boyce is shocked to learn that the CIA is involved in fixing Australian elections. Watching the Watergate hearings on television, he feels an ever-mounting sense of outrage at the arrogance of the U.S. government and decides to do something about it. Deciding to supply the CIA messages to the Russians, he enlists his childhood friend Daulton Lee (Sean Penn) to help him. Lee is to deliver the CIA secrets to a Russian operative (David Suchet) at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. But Lee is an unreliable drug dealer, and his sloppy spy trail leads the two old friends into more trouble than they bargained for. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi