Ray Baker Movies

Stretching from the 1970s to the 1990s, The Trip chronicles the often turbulent romance between two gay men. One night in 1973, teenagers Tommy (Steve Braun) and Alan (Larry Sullivan) meet at an L.A. party. While Tommy is openly gay and organizes for gay civil rights, Alan, an aspiring journalist, is a repressed, button-down member of the Young Republicans who is working on his first book, a thick volume about the evils of homosexuality. On the pretext of interviewing him for his book, Alan invites Tommy to his house for dinner, where the sexual tension between the two is so throbbingly blatant that Alan's girlfriend makes a hasty exit. An intense romance between the two men follows. When we next see them, it's 1976, and Alan's book has been published anonymously and is being used by right-wingers who are supporting Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" campaign in Florida. Unfortunately, Tommy finds out that Alan wrote the book and leaves him, and subsequently takes up with Peter (Ray Baker) an affluent closet case. It isn't until the '90s that Alan and Tommy meet again, and are confronted by the romance they thought they had long left behind. The Trip was screened at the 2002 Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

This romantic melodrama reunites The Devil's Advocate (1997) co-stars Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron, and is directed by Irish filmmaker Pat O'Connor (Circle of Friends). Sara Deever (Theron) is a beautiful young woman who begins a new romantic relationship with a man each month, then helps him to evolve into a better and kinder human being before she moves on to the next partner. Although she's remained friendly with some of her former lovers, she's never broken her one-month rule. November's candidate is a particularly heartless business exec named Nelson Moss (Reeves), who takes a while to come around. Once he does, however, Nelson falls deeply in love, hoping to woo Sara for good; eventually, her resolve weakens. What Nelson doesn't know is the tragic secret behind the brevity of Sara's romances. A remake of a 1968 Sandy Dennis film by the same name, this contemporary version of Sweet November is less comedic and emphasizes more of its story's tearjerker qualities than the original. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

While Josh (Bradley Whitford) and Sam (Rob Lowe) deal with the political fallout from the attacks on Leo's (John Spencer) previous addictions, Toby (Richard Schiff) matches wits with elected officials who have attempted to stifle the Public Broadcasting Corporation. The entire staff must figure out the proper response to a recently released sexual education study, as well as figure out how to uninvite the father of a hate-crime victim to an important bill signing upon learning that he was apparently not sympathetic toward his gay son's sexual orientation. C.J. (Allison Janney) continues her flirtation with reporter Danny Concannon (Timothy Busfield). ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

As with his earlier film The Joy Luck Club (1993), Chinese director Wayne Wang tackles mother-daughter relationships in this coming of age comedy-drama. Susan Sarandon stars as Adele August, a Bay City, Wisconsin, mother who longs for a more exciting and glamorous life in Beverly Hills, California. So she leaves her husband (Ray Baker) and packs her reluctant daughter Ann (Natalie Portman) into a gold Mercedes Benz, heading for L.A. When they arrive and move into an apartment they can't really afford, it becomes clear that Ann is the mature half of the duo, while Adele, a dreamer, is not firmly grounded in reality. Her plans include Ann's future career as an actress (a profession in which the girl has no interest) and landing a rich and handsome husband for herself, such as a dentist (Hart Bochner) who never calls Adele again after a one-night stand. When a family tragedy provokes a crisis between mother and daughter, the irresponsible Adele is forced to become a traditional mom for once. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Throughout her life, young gymnast Andie Burton (Amy Jo Johnson) has dreamed of going to the Olympics, and there isn't anything she wouldn't do to achieve that goal -- even if it means wreaking havoc upon her health. Reprimanded by her coach for being on the "heavy" side, Andie goes to great lengths to lose weight. Finally, her teammate Leslie (Tara Boger) clues Andie in on a surefire method to drop pounds: eat all you want, then purge yourself. As a result, Andie develops a serious eating disorder, fluctuating wildly between anorexia and bulimia -- and there seems to be no way to reverse the damage, nor halt the pressures brought to bear by those supposedly looking out for her best interests. Real-life gymnast Cathy Rigby makes a brief appearance in this cautionary TV movie, which first aired September 8, 1997, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this action thriller, a group of Islamic terrorists, led by Nagi Hassan (David Suchet), highjacks a 747 jetliner with 400 passengers aboard, but Lt. Col. Austin Travis (Steven Seagal), a United States intelligence agent, is convinced that this isn't an ordinary case of air piracy. His suspicions are soon confirmed; Hassan's men have obtained a large cache of stolen Soviet nerve gas, and they are using the 747 to smuggle the deadly gas into the United States, where they intend to use it to wipe out Washington D.C. and possibly the entire East Coast. As the jet approaches the U. S., engineer Dennis Cahill (Oliver Platt) designs a plan in which a military plane will be able to transfer U.S. soldiers onto the 747 and regain control of the plane and its deadly cargo. However, when Travis dies in the course of the mission, intelligence agent Dr. David Grant (Kurt Russell) is forced to take his place alongside explosives expert Cappy (Joe Morton), commando Rat (John Leguizamo), and stewardess-turned-anti-terrorist Jean (Halle Berry). Executive Decision was the first directorial assignment for veteran film editor Stuart Baird; he cut the film as well. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this high-energy direct-to-video actioner, a retired bomb expert is called back to duty to find out who has been planting terrorist bombs in Seattle. While he investigates, more bombs explode and it becomes frighteningly clear that the terrorist is targeting bomb-squad members. Matters get more intense when the prime suspect suddenly disappears. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This action thriller tells the story of Jonah, a daring cop with a hair trigger finger who finds himself suspended by Internal Affairs after he shoots a psycho-killer. His girlfriend Lisa is also in trouble as she tries to deal with the constant harassment of her boss, a dishonest city councilman. When her boss accepts a bribe for $3 million from the mob, Lisa decides to get her revenge and steal it. Jonah readily agrees to assist in the heist. Also involved is Dr. Chandler, a man with a genius for electronics. Problems ensue when Lisa finds herself attracted to Chandler. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A mix of political satire and a modern take on 1930's-style screwball comedy, this romance from director Ron Underwood was assumed by many to be based on the real-life relationship between liberal political consultant James Carville and conservative commentator Mary Matalin. Michael Keaton stars as Kevin, an insomniac who meets Julia (Geena Davis) in a store late one night as they haggle over the last bottle of sleeping pills. After spending a romantic evening together, Kevin and Julia each discover to their chagrin that the other is a rival speechwriter in a nasty New Mexico senatorial campaign. As the senate race heats up, the bickering pair tries to keep the relationship alive, but then Julia's ex-fiance Baghdad Bob Freed (Christopher Reeve), a network news foreign correspondent, shows up with the intention of renewing their relationship. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

The manic writing-directing comedy team of Tom Stern and Alex Winter (the latter of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) followed up their deranged short-film collaborations and the short-lived MTV series The Idiot Box with this comic fantasy, which amounts to a virtual car crash of anarchic, mind-blowing weirdness. The brain-damaged plot follows self-centered sitcom actor Ricky Coogin (Winter), official spokesman for the E.E.S. (Everything Except Shoes) corporation, into the jungle-bound South American nation of Santa Flan. Coogin has been sent as an emissary on behalf of E.E.S. to placate the media uproar over a substance called Zygrot-27, a chief ingredient in many E.E.S. products which has been decried as a fatal environmental toxin. Accompanied by his friend Ernie (Michael Stoyanov) and environmental activist Julie (Megan Ward), Ricky takes a detour into the jungle to a bizarre amusement park overseen by bombastic barker/inventor Elijah C. Skuggs (Randy Quaid), who specializes in the display of "Hideous Mutant Freekz" (the film's original title). The trio soon discover that Skuggs manufactures his oddities himself, and they find themselves at the mercy of his hideous freakmaking factory -- which coincidentally uses Zygrot-27 as a catalyst. Once he has the hapless heroes strapped down, Skuggs reveals his intention to transform Coogin into an evil mega-freak who will destroy all the others in a slam-bang, standing-room-only closing event. Miffed at the notion of sustaining an acting career as a spine-covered, pus-gushing monster, Coogin joins a rebellion within Skuggs' captive stable of other man-made freaks -- whose ranks include such monstrosities as effete human worm; a bearded lady (Mr. T in a frilly dress); a man with a sock-puppet for a head (voiced by Bob Goldthwait); and Ortiz the Dog-Boy (an uncredited Keanu Reeves). Their plans to turn Ricky into a zygrot-powered superhero go astray, however, leading to a hilariously apocalyptic finale. Doomed to home-video status by lethargic distribution from Twentieth-Century Fox, this unappreciated gem deserves a second look; packed with hilarious visual gags, ultra-gross setpieces and body-function jokes, Freaked is a hallucinogenic funhouse of a movie. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

When a San Diego socialite is convicted of murdering her ex-husband and his new bride, truth is stranger than fiction as she hires a public relations firm in an effort to keep the media in her corner. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

In Paul Verhoeven's wild sci-fi action movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a 21st-century construction worker who discovers that his entire memory of the past derives from a memory chip implanted in his brain. Schwarzenegger learns that he's actually a secret agent who had become a threat to the government, so those in power planted the chip and invented a domestic lifestyle for him. Once he has realized his true identity, he travels to Mars to piece together the rest of his identity, as well as to find the man responsible for his implanted memory. Verhoeven has created a fast, furious action film with Total Recall, filled with impressive stunts and (literally) eye-popping visuals. Though the film bears only a passing resemblance to the Philip K. Dick short story it was based on ("We Can Remember It For You Wholesale"), the movie is an entertaining, if very violent, ride. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi