Mark Joy Movies

A highly trained assassin uncovers evidence of a vast U.S. conspiracy that reaches to the upper ranks of government in this action thriller starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. Paramilitary operative David Wolfe (Gooding, Jr.) is on a mission to kill one of the most notorious terrorists in the Middle East when he discovers that the top members of the administration are deeply corrupt. A target of his own country due to the volatile knowledge he now possesses, Wolfe attempts to stay out of the crosshairs long enough to expose the truth and ensure that justice is served. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An FBI agent finds himself crossing the gender line again in the name of national security in this sequel to the comedy hit Big Momma's House. Tom Fuller (Mark Moses) is a computer whiz who is under investigation by the FBI, who suspect he may be the man behind a dangerous piece of underground software that would allow terrorists and criminals to access secured intelligence files online. The Bureau is looking for a way to get inside Fuller's home to find out what he's doing when a golden opportunity presents itself -- Fuller and his wife, Leah (Emily Procter), are in the market for a nanny to help look after their three children. The FBI sends in Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence), who will once again impersonate feisty septuagenarian Hattie Mae Pierce, better known as "Big Momma." "Big Momma" gets the job, but while trying to dig up the truth about Fuller's possible criminal connections, Malcolm also finds himself developing a close relationship with the suspect's wife and kids. Malcolm also finds himself offering unlikely romantic advice to his new partner, Kevin (Zachary Levi), and developing a new appreciation of the day-to-day travails of his wife, Sherrie (Nia Long). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Mainstream Hollywood filmmaker Hugh Wilson teams up with screenwriter/author John Grisham for the independently produced sports drama Mickey. Harry Connick Jr. stars as a widowed father in trouble with the law who runs away to Las Vegas with his 12-year-old, baseball-loving son (Shawn Salinas). They change their names in order to avoid a federal tax investigation. When the talented son starts playing Little League, the locals can't help but notice him. Soon his talents attract unwanted national attention. The film also stars Michelle Johnson and Mike Starr. Though made in 2001, the release date was pushed back several years due to an unrelated, real-life Little League scandal. Mickey was briefly released in 2003 in the Little League headquarters town of Williamsport, PA. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Screenwriter Callie Khouri makes her directorial debut with this adaptation of a pair of popular novels by author Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Altars Everywhere. Sandra Bullock stars as Sidda Lee Walker, a New York playwright who opens a can of emotional worms with her estranged, boozy mother, Vivi (Ellen Burstyn), when she discusses her painful childhood and particularly Vivi's less-than-enviable mothering skills in a Time magazine article. The eccentric Louisiana drama queen Vivi has already been barred from her daughter's oft-delayed wedding to her fiancé, Connor (Angus Macfadyen), so the article sends her into a rage. Coming to the rescue of the relationship are Necie (Shirley Knight), Caro (Maggie Smith), and Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan), a trio of bickering women, who, along with Vivi, formed a secret society of feminist empowerment and friendship 60 years earlier that they dubbed the "Ya-Ya Sisterhood." The Ya-Yas kidnap Sidda and bring her home to Louisiana, where they reveal to Sidda via a carefully maintained scrapbook her mother's painful past (with Vivi portrayed in flashback by Ashley Judd), effecting a rapprochement between mother and daughter. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood also stars James Garner. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

John Waters wrote and directed this $6.5 million satire on the Manhattan art world, a rags-to-riches comedy about 18-year-old amateur photographer Pecker (so named because he pecks at his food). Pecker (Edward Furlong) is a blue-collar kid who works in a Baltimore sandwich shop and takes snapshots of family, friends, and customers. His mom, Joyce (Mary Kay Place) runs a thrift shop where she offers fashion advice to the homeless, while sis Tina (Martha Plimpton) recruits go-go boys to dance at the local Fudge Palace. Pecker's younger sister, Little Chrissy (Lauren Hulsey), has a sugar addiction, and his grandmother, Memama (Jean Schertler), the "pit beef" queen of Baltimore, conducts prayer meetings with her talking statue of Mary. After hip Manhattan art dealer Rorey Wheeler (Lili Taylor) becomes fascinated with Pecker's photos, a big exhibition is in the offing, followed by overnight fame as the young man becomes the new darling of the New York art scene. Soon Pecker discovers that fame has its price. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an adolescent awakens from a coma to discover herself in the bosom of her family. This troubles her deeply because before she became comatose, she had run away from them. Matters become worse as she slowly starts remembering the events that led to her current condition. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A blend of screwball farce and whodunit murder mystery, this madcap period piece was the brainchild of executive producer George Lucas. In 1939, Penny Henderson (Mary Stuart Masterson) is the harried general secretary and de facto manager of a new fourth radio network, WBN. On the night that the Chicago station goes live on the air, a mysterious voice interrupts, and a series of murders soon follows, each one described by the same sonorous phantom. While Penny and her staff desperately try to keep WBN's roster of shows afloat during the unfolding crisis, her estranged husband Roger (Brian Benben), a staff writer, becomes the chief suspect. Roger is forced to dodge a detective, Lieutenant Cross (Michael Lerner), find the real killer, win Penny back, and perform last-minute script rewrites for an unhappy sponsor. As the backstage hysteria reaches a fever pitch, the show goes on with real-life radio-era pros such as George Burns and Rosemary Clooney. Although never explicitly pointed out in the film, Radioland Murders (1994) was a pseudo-prequel to an earlier Lucas feature -- Roger and Penny are the future parents of Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss) from American Graffiti (1973). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

This made-for-cable drama relates, via two Mohawk friends, the historic events that took place when the Iroquois Confederacy faced off with the French in the American Northeast during the wars of the 1700s. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

A tough congresswoman tries to keep her family together after her son-in-law dies in a car crash. This Emmy-nominated made-for-television drama follows her efforts and her reaction when she learns that drugs were involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director Michael Mann based this lushly romantic version of the James Fenimore Cooper novel more on his memory of the 1936 film version (starring Randolph Scott) than on Cooper's novel (in fact, Philip Dunne's 1936 screenplay is cited as source material for this film). Set in the 1750s during the French and Indian War, the story concerns Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), the European-born adopted son of Mohican scout Chingachgook (Russell Means). Hawkeye and his party, which also includes the Mohican Uncas (Eric Schweig), joins up with a group of Britons who have recently arrived in the Colonies. The group consists of Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe) and her younger sister, Alice (Jodhi May), who are rescued from a Huron war party by Hawkeye. Hawkeye's band accompanies them to the British Fort William Henry, which is being besieged by a French and Huron force. The fort falls to the French, and Colonel Munro (Maurice Roeves) surrenders to French General Montcalm (Patrice Chéreau). The terms of the surrender are that the British merely abandon the fort and return to their homes. However, the French's bloodthirsty ally, the Huron warrior Magua (Wes Studi), has made no such agreement, and, as the British retreat from the fort, he plans to massacre them in a terrible Huron attack. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Guilty Until Proven Innocent is a TV-movie dramatization of a an actual miscarriage of justice. Young Bobby McLaughlin (Brendan Fraser) is accused of murder when a teenager is killed during a Brooklyn drug deal. The arresting cop knows that Bobby didn't do it, but is so eager for a conviction in this otherwise unsolvable crime that he strongarms an eyewitness into fingering Bobby. The boy's foster father Martin Sheen is assured by the defense attorney that the truth will out in court. When Bobby is convicted, Sheen continues through legal channels to secure the boy's release, confident that someone will be willing to open their eyes to the facts. But despite common knowledge that he is innocent, Bobby languishes for years in prison. Featured in the cast of Guilty Until Proven Innocent is Martin Sheen's daughter Renee Estevez. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dudley Moore stars as Emory Lesson, an advertising genius whose finds himself committed to an insane asylum in Tony Bill's Crazy People. Emory becomes tired with creating phony ad campaigns and decides to create his own campaigns that tell the brutal truth. Since sex sells, Emory designs an explicit ad campaign consisting of unadorned sexuality. The campaign is so offensive that his colleagues have Emory put in a mental institution. At first Emory resists, but under the tutelage of a concerned psychiatrist, Dr. Liz Baylor (Mercedes Ruehl) and the tender love of Kathy (Daryl Hannah) a beautiful patient, Emory begins to like it in the mental home. Befriending the cute and lovable patients in the mental ward, Emory discovers that the crazy people are natural-born advertising geniuses and Emory utilizes their genius for a new ad campaign. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this thriller a married woman in an unhappy marriage takes off to get some time alone and finds herself entangled with professional killers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide