Jennifer Baxter Movies
Directed by Walter Salles Jr., this remake of Hideo Nakata's supernatural psychological drama Honogurai Mizuno Soko Kara revolves around the plight of a single mother (Jennifer Connelly) whose messy divorce and subsequent battle for the custody of her five-year-old daughter is taking a heavy toll on her emotional well-being. Ultimately, the mother and daughter are able to relocate to an apartment, which, despite its excessively dilapidated interior, seems to be an adequate location for beginning a new life. Before long, however, what appears to be the spirit of a young girl begins to haunt them. No stranger to mental illness, the wary young woman brushes the visions aside as part of the inherent stress of making the transition from housewife to working, single mom. As time goes by and the apparent haunting does not subside, the apartment's new residents are forced to examine the history of its former tenants. Dark Water also features performances from John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, and Dougray Scott. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, (more)
George A. Romero, who revolutionized the American horror film in 1968 with the instant classic Night of the Living Dead, returns to his dystopian zombie cycle with this horror thriller. In Land of the Dead, the zombies whose numbers had been slowly but steadily growing through Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead now dominate the streets of most American cities, while urban skyscrapers have been taken over by surviving humans, usually greed-addled opportunists who allow the living to stay in their fortified compounds for a price. Guarding the buildings are rough-and-tumble mercenaries who have learned to do battle with the zombies, making use of powerful weapons to gain advantage. But as the zombie civilization grows, the creatures have begun to slowly evolve, with their dormant thought processes beginning to awaken, and as unrest begins to ferment among the mercenaries and the entrepreneurs who pay them, the ghouls may have found a way to defeat the last stronghold of humanity. Land of the Dead stars Dennis Hopper as arch capitalist Kaufman, and Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Robert Joy, and Asia Argento as some of the mercenaries; Asia Argento's father, Dario Argento, served as a producer on one of the earlier films in the series, Dawn of the Dead. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, (more)
Persistence makes up where talent is lacking as two aspiring actors cling to the elusive dream of stardom despite receiving little encouragement and precious few callbacks. The world of showbiz can be a cruel one, especially when you're an actor with no clue about your lack of talent. Richard and Barry are two such actors, yet despite the fact that there isn't a single ounce of onscreen charisma between them, their persistence is what keeps them going. But how much humiliation can an aspiring actor endure before they finally call it quits? As Richard and Barry endure humiliating auditions, calamitous television shoots, and embarrassing stints as animal mascots, the answer to that pressing question finally may be closer than either had hoped. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mike Beaver, Jason Jones, (more)
- 2004
Though Lloyd Rockwell (Rob Lowe) and Susie Wilding (Anna Friel) both work for the same international advertising agency, they have never met: Lloyd lives in New York, while Susie is headquartered in London. New developments in their professional lives compel Lloyd and Susie to trade places, with Lloyd moving into Susie's cluttered suburban-London cottage, and Susie relocating to Lloyd's streamlined Manhattan apartment. Whenever domestic or job-related problems arise, Lloyd and Susie contact each other by phone--a painful process, inasmuch as they don't like each other. But this situation reverses itself after Susie comes to Lloyd's rescue when he is sabotaged by a duplicitous coworker. Only oe problem remaining: Lloyd is already engaged to be married. Filmed in Toronto and London, the made-for-TV Perfect Strangers was based on the book by Robyn Sisman) and produced by the same team responsible for Bridget Jones' Diary: the film debuted October 17, 2004, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rob Lowe, Anna Friel, (more)
- 2003
- Add America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story to QueueAdd America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story to top of Queue
Originally titled America's Son, this cable-TV biopic of John F. Kennedy Jr. begins at the end, with the plane crash of July 19, 1999, that took the lives of Kennedy, his wife Caroline, and his sister-in-law. From this tragic vantage point, the film segues into flashbacks detailing the very public life of J.F.K. Sr.'s only son, of whom it was once said, "The world knew his name before he did." Based on The Day John Died, a book by George Andersen, the film intimates that "John-John" would have been happy charting his own course in life, but was instead channelled into following in the Kennedy tradition by his iron-willed mother Jacqueline (played by Jacqueline Bisset, who'd previously essayed an à clef version of Jackie O. in the theatrical feature The Greek Tycoon). Thus, John enters law school, where he is twice humiliated by failing to pass the bar exam. Finally, as editor of the high-profile George magazine, John can stand on his own merits and not as an adjunct of the Kennedy mystique. Naturally, the film devotes time aplenty to J.F.K. Jr.'s well-publicized romances, notably his lengthy association with actress Daryl Hannah (here played by Tara Chocol) and his ultimate marriage to Caroline Bessette (Portia de Rossi). Somewhat undercutting the credibility of the restaged scenes is the producers' utilization of interviews with the actual friends and associates of John Jr. -- not to mention film clips of the "real" Kennedy, employed as bridges between scenes. America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story debuted January 12, 2003, on TBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kris Polaha, Jacqueline Bisset, (more)
Call it "Die Hard in a School," director Sidney J. Furie's Detention stars Dolph Lundgren as Sam Decker, a teacher who gets more than he bargained for on his last day on the job. Monitoring an after-school detention class filled with a ragtag bunch of young ruffians, Decker suddenly discovers that the school has been taken over by a gang of terrorists. Little do they know, Decker is a former Marine. With the odds stacked against them, Decker and his students attempt to thwart the bad guys' plans and make it out of the school alive. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolph Lundgren
- 2000
Produced for Canadian television by Alliance-Atlantis, the weekly half-hour series Drop the Beat (aka In That Mix) zeroed in on Canada's urban music industry, with special attention afforded the hip-hop school. Repeating their roles from the earlier series Straight Up, Merwin Mondesir and Mark Taylor starred as Dennis and Jeff, a pair of college students who ran their own program on a campus radio station. While the series was essentially a drama with comedic undertones, there was time aplenty to feature some of the top hip-hop acts of the era as guest stars. Drop the Beat made its first Canadian TV appearance on October 2, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
