Manuel Cauchi Movies

A second honeymoon in Malta turns into a life-altering experience for a bored Seattle librarian and her unadventurous, insurance salesman husband in this mature romantic comedy starring Juliet Stevenson, Tchéky Karyo, and Daniel Stern. Twenty-five years ago, Julia (Stevenson) and her passionate French lover Alex (Karyo) made a promise to meet up in the romantic Mediterranean hot spot where they exchanged their first glance. Now stuck in a marriage with a man who seems more interested in assembling jigsaw puzzles than pleasing his neglected wife, Julia takes her husband Jack (Stern) on a trip to Malta under the guise of celebrating a second honeymoon. But the truth is that Julia has been fantasizing about Alex for years, and she's determined to make good on her promise to meet him, perhaps rekindling their old flame in the process. When Alex shows up with his sexy young girlfriend (Kate Miles) in tow, Julia can't help but wonder if she and her lover have been leading the wrong lives all these years. Later, when Alex storms their holiday villa declaring his devotion to Julia for the whole world to hear, Jack makes his mission to become the lover his wife has always longed for. In order to make that transformation Jack will take lessons in dancing and loving from a passionate ex-chorus girl (Valerie Mahaffey), but when the time comes for Julia to decide between the husband she's never known and the lover she's always longed for, will his noble efforts be enough to save a failing marriage? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

"The face that launched a thousand ships" was the centerpiece of this two-part TV miniseries, which invoked affectionate memories of the overblown Cecil B. DeMille epics of years gone by. Set in the 13th century B.C., the series starred Sienna Guillory as Helen, the Olympian-born, dazzlingly beautiful trophy wife of Sparta's King Menelaus (James Callis). Unhappy in her "marriage of state," Helen yearned for the companionship of the gorgeous young man whom she had seen only in a vision: Paris (Matthew Marsden), the Prince of Troy. As luck would have it, Paris managed to "abduct" Helen and spirit her off to his homeland, where she was welcomed by his father, King Priam (John Rhys-Davies), despite the portents of doom from Paris' foresighted sister, Cassandra (Emilia Fox). Meanwhile back in Sparta, King Menelaus, his honor besmirched, declared war on Troy, thus beginning a ten-year conflict that would culminate disastrously in the incident of the Trojan horse. All of which greatly pleased Menelaus' covetous brother, Agamemnon (Rufus Sewell), who cannily exploited the war in order to emerge as King of the Aegean. Far more elaborate than any of the previous cinematic treatments of the Helen legend, this one was also a bit more sensational, with a number of gratuitous but enjoyable nude scenes. Filmed on location in Malta and Greece, Helen of Troy was seen over the USA cable network on April 20 and 21, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi