Luke Vitale Movies
- 2008
- R
A woman will go to any lengths to protect her wayward son in this thriller from South African filmmaker Darrell James Roodt. Stephanie (Melissa Leo) is a middle-aged woman living in Tennessee, where she waits tables to help her family make ends meet. Her son Steven (Renier Basson) has fallen in with a gang of ruthless drug dealers, and while she's still willing to do anything for her son, he often takes advantage of her unconditional love for him. Stephanie hasn't heard from Steven for several months when she gets a call from T-Boy (Joey Dedio), a dope dealer and pimp living in Johannesburg; T-Boy is holding Steven hostage, and won't set him free unless someone pays him off. Scraping together the last of her life's savings, Stephanie flies to South Africa to come to Steven's rescue. Stephanie discovers the go-between in the payoff is Steven's girlfriend Tina (Lisa Marie Schneider), who is also a prostitute in T-Boy's stable. As Tina makes Stephanie jump though hoops before leading her to T-Boy and her son's captors, Stephanie refuses to give up or give in until she sees that Steven is safe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melissa Leo, Joey Dedio, (more)
The 8th Plague director Franklin Guerrero, Jr. draws on a terrifying tale of true life horror to craft this blood-soaked yarn concerning a group of vacationing twenty-somethings stalked by a backwoods filmmaker who lives to capture death on celluloid. There was a time when the remote mountain town of Halcyon Ridge was a camper's paradise, but these days the scenic campsite sits nestled in the wilderness under an eerie blanket of sunny silence. It seems that the Carver family has been hard at work slaughtering unsuspecting vacationers and immortalizing their final moments on camera. One day, a small group of campers show up in Halcyon Ridge show up looking for a place to pitch a tent. Little do the clueless nature lovers realize that they're all about to become bona fide screen stars. Unfortunately for them, their screen debuts will also serve as their gore-drenched swan songs. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristyn Green, Neil Kubath, (more)
Lots of people have misgiving about their in-laws, but in this offbeat comedy, a man discovers that his new son-in-law's father is significantly stranger than he's able to deal with. Jerry Peyser (Albert Brooks) is a well-meaning but slightly anal-retentive podiatrist who doesn't much care for surprises in his life. When his daughter Melissa (Lindsay Sloane) announces she's going to marry her boyfriend, Mark Tobias (Ryan Reynolds), Jerry figures that helping his wife plan the wedding and getting through the ceremony is as much excitement as he needs or wants. However, when Jerry and his wife, Katherine (Maria Ricossa), meet Mark's father for the first time, Steve Tobias (Michael Douglas) ends up taking Jerry on the ride of his life. Both Mark and Steve's ex-wife, Judy (Candice Bergen), seem to have a decidedly ambivalent attitude about Steve, and Jerry finds out why -- Steve is actually an undercover agent for the CIA. In the guise of doing Steve a favor, Jerry gets dragged into a strange and dangerous episode involving international arms dealers, French super-villains, heavily armed men's room attendants, and a stolen private jet belonging to Barbra Streisand, as well as several less-than-pleasant encounters with Angela (Robin Tunney), Steve's colleague in espionage who doesn't trust Jerry. The In-Laws was adapted from the memorable 1979 comedy of the same name, in which Alan Arkin and Peter Falk played the mismatched fathers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Albert Brooks, (more)
