Jeff Roop Movies
His career hinging one all-important screenplay, a desperate scribe with a killer case of writer's block locks himself away for eighteen grueling days in order to meet the deadline that could ultimately make or break him. But this is no ordinary script, because it prominently features a haunting collection of characters from the writer's past - including a clown that would make even Pennywise running for the cover of the sewer. Now cabin fever is fast setting in, leaving the increasingly delirious screenwriter unable to differentiate between the reality that surrounds him, and the fantasy that consumes him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Van Der Beek
- 2005
Although the made-for-cable drama Widow on the Hill was based on a true story, the film bears a strong resemblance to the 1947 Joan Crawford theatrical feature Possessed. Natasha Henstridge stars as Linda Dupree, an ambitious hospice nurse who marries Hank Cavanaugh (James Brolin), the very wealthy widower of one of Linda's former patients. Hank enrages his grown daughters by quickly installing Linda in the family's luxurious Virginia mansion, and even more so when he gives his new wife the most precious possessions of his former spouse. Not long afterward, Hank himself falls seriously ill and dies, leaving Linda one of the richest women in Virginia -- and also arousing suspicions that she not only knocked off Hank, but his first wife as well! More questions than answers are offered in this heavy-breathing melodrama, which made its Lifetime network debut on January 24, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natasha Henstridge, James Brolin, (more)
Produced for cable's ESPN network, Codebreakers dramatizes a real-life cheating scandal that rocked the foundations of West Point in 1951. Cadet Brian Nolan (Zachery Ty Bryan) is the roommate of varsity football players George Holbrook (Jeff Roop) and Bob Blaik (Corey Sevier), the latter being the son of West Point's colorful football coach Earl "Red" Blaik (Scott Glenn) -- the man who, according to legend, coined the phrase "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" (significantly, Blaik's assistant coach was Vince Lombardi). Through casual conversation, young Nolan discovers to his horror that several of Blaik's players have taken the coach's philosophy literally, to the extent of cheating on exams to keep up their required GPAs. Their assumption -- not borne out by fact, as it turns out -- is that the coach will never find out, and if he does, he won't care. The ensuing scandal plays right into the hands of West Point's hard-nosed Commandant Paul D Harkins (Jude Ciccolelle), who, long resentful of the prominence of football at the academy, has eagerly awaited the opportunity to topple Coach Blaik from his throne. Ultimately, 83 cadets, including Bob Blaik, are implicated in the scandal -- and the penalty for breaking the Point's sacred Honor Code is a terrible one indeed. The most intriguing aspect of the film is the portrayal of whistleblower Brian Nolan, who though he has technically done the Right Thing is not a particularly likable person; indeed, certain viewers may well be swayed to the side of the disgraced football players as they make Nolan's life Hell on earth for telling what he knows. Filmed in Toronto, Codebreakers was first telecast on December 9, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Glenn, Zachery Ty Bryan, (more)
The low-budget, direct-to-video thriller Jekyll + Hyde updates Robert Louis Stevenson's seminal 1886 novel to the Twenty-first century. Jeff Roop and Bree Turner star as medical students Jay and Mary, whose undying experimentation with an ecstasy-like drug yields a complete loss of behavioral control, followed by a sudden descent into unbridled madness, and Mary's death. As Jay begins to gradually alter the formula with the hope of saving himself, he instead becomes more and more controlled by the substance, with little recognition of the extent to which it is reshaping his life and personality. Meanwhile, he captures the entire experience on a series of video diaries that will tell the tragic story to the rest of the world. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bree Turner, Jeff Roop, (more)
- 2003
Erin (Dina Meyer) is a young actress who has enjoyed little success in her profession and even less in her love life. Seeking out some easy money, Erin occasionally hires herself out to a detective agency as a "decoy", employed to lure married men into compromising positions so that their wives can establish grounds for divorce. All goes smoothly until someone begins making threatening phone calls to Erin. Can her stalker be an ex-client, her sex-hungry boss, or her new boyfriend--or someone that no one, but no one, would ever suspect? Filmed in Quebec under the title Decoy, Deception was released directly to video in 2003, then had its American TV debut the following year, courtesy of the Lifetime cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
