Elias Koteas Movies
Stone-jawed and puppy-eyed, Elias Koteas has the enviable ability to call on both his distinctive looks and talent to portray a variety of complex, often troubled characters. Koteas is one of Canada's most prominent and well-respected actors, and during the late '90s, he began to amass international critical attention for his work in a number of high profile films, including David Cronenberg's Crash (1996) and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line (1998).Koteas, who is of Greek ancestry, was born in Montreal on March 11, 1961. His father was a mechanic for the Canadian National Railways and his mother worked as a hatmaker; Koteas himself planned to be an architect until his teenage introduction to acting changed his plans. He was particularly inspired by Nick Nolte's performance in the TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man; little did Koteas know that two decades later, he would be starring opposite Nolte in The Thin Red Line.
After beginning his education at Montreal's Vanier College, Koteas left to study at New York's prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1981. Following his graduation, he went to New York's Actors Studio, where he studied under Ellen Burstyn and Peter Masterson. The actor made his film debut in the Mary Steenburgen drama One Magic Christmas in 1985 and went on to do supporting work in a variety of films that included Francis Ford Coppola's Gardens of Stone (1987), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), and She's Having a Baby (1988). In 1989, he earned a Genie Award nomination (Canada's equivalent of the Oscar) for his portrayal of the title character of Malarek: A Street Kid Who Made It; two years later, he earned additional acclaim for his performance as a voyeuristic insurance adjustor in Atom Egoyan's The Adjuster. It was for his portrayal of an embittered DJ in another of Egoyan's films, Exotica (1994), that Koteas garnered his second Genie nomination; following this critical success, he began to appear in an increasing number of high profile productions.
Koteas was subsequently featured to great effect as the creepy Vaughan in David Cronenberg's controversial Crash (1996), and he invested his brief but pivotal role as Holly Hunter's mystery man in the acclaimed Living out Loud (1998) with memorable charisma. In The Thin Red Line, he managed to stand out from his accomplished co-stars -- who included Nolte, Sean Penn, John Cusack, and Ben Chaplin -- as Captain Storos, an alienated, idealistic soldier who refuses his superior's orders to send his men on a suicidal attack plan. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Australian star Paul Hogan just couldn't seem to come up with a hit comparable to his 1986 international hit Crocodile Dundee. Hogan's Almost an Angel was a nice try, but no cigar. The star plays a lifelong thief who suffers a potentially fatal accident. While "in limbo", Hogan is visited by God (amusingly played by Charlton Heston-well, why not Charlton Heston?). When he recovers, Hogan is convinced that he'd been returned to the land of the living in order to do God's work. He turns over a new leaf, coming to the assistance of wheelchair-bound Elias Koteas and his pretty sister Linda Kozlowski (the real-life Mrs. Hogan). At first suspicious of Hogan, Kozlowski is finally won over by his new-found sincerity. So lightweight that it threatens to float away at any moment, Almost an Angel is held together exclusively by Paul Hogan's star appeal. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to insure a box-office success. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hogan, Elias Koteas, (more)
Bryan Singer directed this Brandon Boyce adaptation of Stephen King's novella about teenager Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro), who discovers Nazi war criminal Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen) living in his California hometown. Fascinated with Dussender's wartime atrocities, Bowden blackmails the former death-camp commandant by promising to keep his identity a secret in exchange for Holocaust horror tales, or, as Todd puts it, "everything they're afraid to show us in school." Dussander complies, and as the weeks pass, their tense confrontations become increasingly malevolent. This is the third film to derive from King's 1982 book of four novellas, Different Season. The others are Stand By Me (1986, from "The Body") and The Shawshank Redemption (1994, from Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, leaving only one remaining unfilmed tale in the book ("The Breathing Method"). Signet felt King's "Apt Pupil" to be so intense and horrifying that editors asked him to leave it out of the 1983 paperback. A 1987 attempt to film "Apt Pupil" (with Rick Schroder and Nicol Williamson) ended when funding ran out. Shown at numerous 1998 film festivals (Venice, Toronto, Chicago, Sitges, Tokyo). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, (more)
Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan explores his Armenian heritage, and how the country's tragic history has touched several generations of the nation's expatriates, in this ambitious drama. Edward Saroyan (Charles Aznavour), a veteran filmmaker of Armenian descent, is in Toronto shooting a film about the Siege of Van, in which invading Ottoman armies forced the evacuation of Armenian communities in 1915, leading to the genocide of over a million Armenian people at the hands of Turkish troops. Twenty-one-year-old Raffi (David Alpay) has been sent to Turkey to shoot background footage for the film; Raffi's mother Ani (Arsinee Khanjian), an author and historian, is also involved in the project as a consultant. Lately Raffi and Ani have been at odds; Raffi has been dating Celia (Marie-Josee Croze), Ani's stepdaughter, who is convinced that Ani is somehow responsible for the death of her father. Ani's first husband, who was Raffi's father, is also dead, after taking part in an assassination attempt on a Turkish political leader. As Raffi attempts to re-enter Canada with cans of exposed film, he's detained by David (Christopher Plummer), a suspicious customs official who has his own tenuous link to Saroyan's film -- David is struggling to come to terms with the gay lifestyle of his son Philip (Brent Carver), whose lover Ali (Elias Koteas) is playing the villain in the picture. Ararat also features Eric Bogosian and Bruce Greenwood. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Alpay, Charles Aznavour, (more)
- 1990
Not to be confused with the oft-filmed Fannie Hurst yarn Back Street, Backstreet Dreams is a contemporary drama of Humanity vs. the Streets. Jason O'Malley plays a New York hoodlum who doesn't trust his wife Sherilyn Fenn as far as he can throw her (and for good reason). The only person O'Malley truly cares for is his autistic son Shane, played by twin children Joseph and John Viezzi. Brooke Shields (who's better than you might think) enters the scene as a PhD candidate who hopes to get through to Shane. Now it is the unfaithful Fenn's turn to seethe with jealousy as Shields applies her "force holding" theory to Shane, she and O'Malley draw closer together. O'Malley is so taken by Shields' compassion that he severs his mob ties--but Big Boss Burt Young won't let him off so easy, and uses Shane as a "bargaining chip." Backstreet Dreams appears at times to be three films jumbled together; every time a story element starts rolling, it is exiled to the back burner in favor of another gratuitous subplot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brooke Shields, Jason O'Malley, (more)
- 1988
Siblings Eric Roberts and Julia Roberts appear in this old-fashioned saga about oppressed Sicilian wine-growers in 19th-century California. Giancarlo Giannini stars as Sebastian Collogero, the robust Italian patriarch who is battling with railroad mogul William Bradford Berrigan (Dennis Hopper) to prevent his land from being taken over by the rail company. Sebastian's spirited son, Marco (Eric Roberts), is in love with Angelica (Lara Harris), the daughter of a rival wine-grower's clan. Marco is not very concerned about the warfare about to erupt between the wine-growers and the railroad until Berrigan's thugs torture and kill Sebastian in front of his daughter Maria (Julia Roberts). Marco then gets his friends together and organizes a revolt against Berrigan and his railroad empire. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Roberts, Giancarlo Giannini, (more)
Jessica Tandy made one of her final screen appearances in this comic road movie. Freda (Bridget Fonda) is a would-be singer and songwriter who would like a career as a performer but lacks the courage; it doesn't help that her husband Vincent (Elias Koteas), a graphic artist, keeps insisting that her interest in music is merely a hobby. Hoping to put some spark back into their marriage, Freda and Vincent take a vacation to Georgia, where they meet Camilla (Jessica Tandy), who lives in the main house near their cottage. Freda discovers that Camilla was once a musician; she claims to have enjoyed a stellar career as a concert violinist in her native Canada, and she knew only the best people (although Freda isn't sure that she believes all Camilla's stories, especially Ghandi's fondness for enemas). While Vincent gets involved in a business deal with Camilla's son Harold (Maury Chaykin), who produces sleazy exploitation films, Camilla regales Freda with stories about her greatest triumph, performing the Brahms Violin Concerto at Toronto's Winter Garden Theater. When Camilla discovers that the Brahms concerto is to be performed soon at the Winter Garden, Camilla and Freda decide that this is something they should see, and the pair hits the road to the Great White North, meeting a remarkable variety of people along the way. Tandy's husband and frequent co-star Hume Cronyn has a supporting role as one of Camilla's former beaus; it was their last picture together. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Tandy, Bridget Fonda, (more)
- 1992
- R
Temistocles Lopez's Chain of Desire, based on Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, plays like an AIDS-era version of The Yellow Rolls Royce, in which a series of unrelated amorous lovers are connected by a "chain of desire." The film begins as Alma D'Angeli (Linda Fiorentino) flees from a lover and runs into a church, where she finds solace and a young Latino worker, Jesus (Elias Koteas). They make love. Then Jesus comes home to his wife Isa (Angel Aviles) and gets intimate with her. The next morning, Isa goes off to see Dr. Jerald Buckley (Patrick Bauchau), with whom she is having an affair. After seeing Isa, Jerald heads off to visit Linda (Grace Zabriskie), a sexy dominatrix. Linda returns home to her husband, Hubert (Malcolm MacDowell), a harried television commentator. After an unsatisfactory interview with women who claim to have had affairs with John F. Kennedy, he relieves his tensions by seeking the arms of Keith (Jamie Harrold), a teenage hustler. And the trail continues on as gay social worker Ken (Tim Guinee) offers Ken a place for the night, followed by Ken's lover David Bango (Dewey Martin) and hot dancer Diana (Holly Marie Combs), who wants David to deflower her. Coming on the scene after that is famed artist Mel (Seymour Cassel), who has a tryst with Diana, but he finds that he has to answer to his vindictive wife, Cleo (Assumpta Serna). At the end, all the characters arrive at a hip nightclub, where Alma, the singer at the club, has learned that the lover she had spurned at the beginning of the film has been diagnosed with AIDS. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Fiorentino, Elias Koteas, (more)
This action-adventure, that features a terrorist plot from The Fugitive (1993), saw its October 2001 release date moved back four months as a result of real-life terrorist attacks on the United States. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Gordon Brewer, a Los Angeles firefighter who witnesses the deaths of his wife and child, innocent victims of a terrorist attack on a motorcade carrying Colombian dignitaries. Responsibility for the deadly explosion belongs to Claudio "The Wolf" Perrini (Cliff Curtis), a terrorist and rebel in Colombia's decade-long civil war. When times passes with no suspect being brought to justice, Brewer rejects the advice of FBI agent Peter Brandt (Elias Koteas) and travels to the jungles of Colombia to find and take revenge upon his family's murderer himself. Encountering a complex web of death squads, right-wing military officials, guerrillas, terrorists and drug-lords, Brewer is aided in his dangerous quest by an unlikely ally, the beautiful Selena Perrini (Francesca Neri), his quarry's wife. Collateral Damage (2002) co-stars John Leguizamo and John Turturro. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elias Koteas, (more)
- 1996
- NC17
After surviving a brutal car wreck, commercial director James Ballard finds himself slowly drawn to a mysterious subculture of people who have transformed automobile accidents into erotic events. Like the J.G. Ballard novel that inspired it, David Cronenberg's study of the sexual dimension of man's relationship to technology was a magnet for controversy, drawing a NC-17 rating and criticism from several sources, including studio owner Ted Turner, who attempted to prevent the film's American release. But though some have leveled charges of pornography, James' descent into this fetishistic underworld is approached with cold, scientific detachment. Characters like Vaughn, the charismatic group leader who stages recreations of celebrity car crashes, seem more like driven researchers than sexual renegades, which is undoubtedly part of the film's point. This impression is reinforced by the pristine cinematography by Peter Suschitzsky, which proves particularly haunting during a crucial accident scene, and Howard Shore's superb score. Far from exploitative, Crash in fact proves less transgressive than the original novel, but is still undoubtedly not for all tastes. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Spader, Holly Hunter, (more)
This sci-fi actioner is set in the year 2074. The story is framed by the war between the two international corporate giants, Pinwheel Robotics and Kobayashi, responsible for manufacturing the cyborgs that 21st century technology has become dependent upon. In fact, most of the world is being run by the sophisticated androids. The conflict turns violent when the Kobayashi cyborgs begin methodically killing their competition. To stop them, the head of Pinwheel, Martin Dunn, creates the perfect computer housed in the body of a beautiful woman. The cyborg, Casella Reese, has a strange fluid flowing within in her that when activated will cause her to literally explode should she have an orgasm; Dunn designed her to infiltrate Kobayashi and assassinate the CEO. The real problems begin when Casella, who is also equipped with human emotions and independent thought, falls in love with her martial arts teacher, Colt Ricks. When she learns of her upcoming suicide mission, she and Colt, with the help of their informer, the cyborg mercenary Mercy, try to reach Mombasa where unlicensed androids can live in peace. Unfortunately, they must first escape their city and the cyborg killers who pursue them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Palance, Elias Koteas, (more)
The personal lives of five exotic dancers go under the microscope in this drama, the first American feature from director Michael Radford. Eddie (Robert Wisdom) is the manager of a strip club in suburban California known as the Blue Iguana, where he keeps an eye on the women who make their living dancing for his customers. Stormy (Sheila Kelley) is an attractive, thick-skinned woman who is getting old enough to realize her days as a dancer may be numbered. Jo (Jennifer Tilly) likes to think of herself as the Blue Iguana's star attraction, though her career may hit a detour now that she's learned she's pregnant. Angel (Daryl Hannah) is a sweet, but immature woman, who tries to deal with her fear of being unloved by adopting a child. Jasmine (Sandra Oh), an aspiring poet, tries not to get settled into a career as a stripper, while being encouraged in her writing by coffeehouse owner Dennis (Chris Hogan), who features spoken word performers. And Jesse (Charlotte Ayanna), the youngest of the performers, expresses her desperate need for approval in her desire to please the customers. Dancing at the Blue Iguana received its world premiere at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Ayanna, Daryl Hannah, (more)
A naïve playboy investigating the suspicious death of his wealthy father finds his charmed life as owner of the hottest nightclub in town suddenly spiraling into disaster in this shadowy film noir fever dream from director Rachel Samuels. Gabriel Mann, Bijou Phillips, Izabella Miko, and Elias Koteas headline the film, which features music by Aaron Neville, Etta James, Dr. John, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, and more. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gabriel Mann, Bijou Phillips, (more)
The action in Canadian provocateur Atom Egoyan's cryptic Exotica revolves largely around the strip club, which lends the film its name, a faux-tropical hothouse where young female dancers cater to their customers' sexual and psychological needs. Among the regulars is Francis (Bruce Greenwood), a troubled taxman haunted by Christina, a young stripper played by Mia Kirshner. As the film hypnotically unfolds, their relationship is slowly explored, the narrative dovetailing with the stories of a gay pet shop owner (Don McKellar), the Exotica's pregnant owner (Arsinee Khanjian), and its embittered DJ (Elias Koteas). Like all of Egoyan's films, Exotica is a riddle, its answers only fostering more questions. The director's recurring themes of family breakdowns, voyeurism and obsession are all in the mix here as well, but essayed with a new clarity of vision and intensity. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Greenwood, Mia Kirshner, (more)
Directed by Gregory Hoblit (Primal Fear), Fallen is a blend of the police drama and supernatural thriller genres. Homicide detective John Hobbes (Denzel Washington) narrates, taking the audience back to "the time I almost died." This sets a flashback in motion, beginning at the prison cell of serial killer Edgar Reese (Elias Koteas), who grabs Hobbes' hand and sings the Rolling Stones' "Time Is on My Side." After Reese is executed, Hobbes and his partner, Jonesy (John Goodman), find a seeming copycat killer, committing murders in a manner not unlike Reese. Hobbes is drawn into the occult after he meets theology professor Gretta Milano (Embeth Davidtz), the daughter of a dead police officer. Hobbes becomes a suspect himself, but he continues his search for the truth. Co-producer Dawn Steel died just as this film was due for release. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denzel Washington, John Goodman, (more)
- 1989
- R
A free-spirited commercial artist loses his girl to a stodgy professor and decides to everything in his power to get her back in this Canadian romantic comedy. When he learns that she and her new love are heading off to the mountains for a cozy weekend, he decides to follow them. En route, the lovers encounter a crazed biker and his nutty chick, and an idiotic bumpkin. In the end, all parties involved converge upon the cabin and merry romantic mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Stern, Sheila McCarthy, (more)
Written by playwright Bill Bozzone, Full Moon in Blue Water stars Gene Hackman as Floyd, the owner of a small bar in a coastal Texas town. Floyd's emotional baggage is awesome: he has never recovered from the death of his wife, he is saddled with his senile father "The General" (Burgess Meredith), and creditors hound him at his fireside. Good-hearted bus driver Louise (Teri Garr) tries her best to offer moral and financial support, as does Floyd's right-hand man, former mental patient Jimmy (Elias Koteas). Strange and unexpected events follow, the upshot of which may leave Floyd even worse off than before. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Teri Garr, (more)
Set in Washington D.C. during the Vietnam War era, Gardens of Stone concentrates on the trials and tribulations of the Arlington National Cemetery home guard. James Caan plays career soldier Sgt. Clell Hazard, who has come to the sad conclusion that Vietnam is unwinnable and that America should withdraw as soon as possible. His attitude is contrasted to that held by Private Jackie Willow (D.B. Sweeney), who wants nothing more in life than to go into battle for his country. Though Hazard cannot officially dissuade Willow from this yearning, he pulls a few surreptitious strings to change the lad's mind, including encouraging a renewed romance between Jackie and his former girlfriend Rachel (Mary Stuart Masterton). After so many big-budgeters, Coppola determined that Gardens would be a deliberately "small" picture, concentrating on personalities rather than opulence; the director's father, Carmine Coppola, supplied the music, while Peter Masterton and Carlyn Glynn, the real-life parents of Mary Stuart Masterton, play Mary's on-screen dad and mom. Gardens of Stone was adapted by Ronald Bass from the novel by Nicholas Proffitt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Caan, Anjelica Huston, (more)
New Zealand screenwriter Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show) made his feature directorial debut with this science fiction drama, set in a future when one's life is determined by genetic engineering rather than education or experience. The wealthy can choose the genetic makeup of their descendants. People are designed to fit into whatever role is decided before birth. But what happens when someone desires another way of life? Citizens in this impersonal future-world are fashioned as perfect specimens, so those in the natural-born minority are viewed as inferior to the pre-planned perfect specimens (aka "Valids") who dominate. One of the natural-borns (aka "In-Valids"), Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), has several defects (poor vision, emotional problems, and short 30-year life expectancy), but he also develops a different outlook on his pre-ordained fate. He yearns to break free from society's constraints, and he dreams of a journey into space as a Gattaca Corp. navigator. To accomplish his goal, he enlists the aid of DNA broker German (Tony Shalhoub) and makes contact with Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), who was paralyzed in an accident and is willing to sell his superior genetic materials. Vincent assumes Jerome's identity and is scheduled for a flying mission. However, a week before his flight, a Gattaca mission director is murdered, and all members of the program are the suspects. Meanwhile, he develops a romantic interest in a beautiful Valid, Irene (Uma Thurman), prevented from going into space because of her heart defect. Tracked by a relentless investigator who is methodically jigsawing all the pieces together, Jerome finds his aspirations dissolving into stardust. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, (more)
French director Elie Chouraqui adapts the novel of the same name into this drama, that, although set in 1991, became tragically topical in the weeks before its release due to the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Andie MacDowell stars as Sarah, a photo editor for Newsweek and the happily married wife of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Harrison Lloyd (David Strathairn). Harrison has been reconsidering his career of covering the world's war zone "hot spots" in order to spend more time with his family, and is accused by his colleague, Kyle (Adrien Brody), of playing it too safe in his risky profession. Harrison elects to accept one more combat assignment to cover the simmering tensions in Croatia, a conflict that quickly erupts into a full-scale, genocidal Civil War. Informed that Harrison is believed to have been killed in the fighting, Sarah refuses to accept her husband's death and becomes convinced that she's seen him, alive, in a news broadcast. She travels to Croatia on a quest to find him, and is eventually aided by Kyle, as well as two of Harrison's other colleagues, Yeager (Elias Koteas) and Stevenson (Brendan Gleeson). The group, armed with cameras instead of weapons, witnesses the horrors and atrocities unfolding in the region, while tracing the elusive path of Harrison, who may well be dead already. Harrison's Flowers was distributed by Universal Focus, the art house division of Universal Pictures that previously released Mulholland Drive (2001) and Billy Elliott (2000). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andie MacDowell, David Strathairn, (more)
Hit Me is a film adaptation of Jim Thompson's crime novel, A Swell-Looking Babe. Sonny (Elias Koteas) lives with his retarded older brother, Leroy (Jay Leggett), and works very hard as a bellhop at a second-rate hotel. This changes when Monique (Laure Marsac) a beautiful, suicidal nut-case checks in. Sonny delivers her room service order and finds her bleeding from the wrists. She and Del (Bruce Ramsay), a male prostitute, draw Sonny into a robbery scheme which quickly begins to unravel. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elias Koteas, Laure Marsac, (more)
- 2006
Don't you just hate days that start like this? While working on a patient with a grotesquely swollen tongue (and, as we will soon learn, several other nauseating symptoms), House (Hugh Laurie) is confronted by Jack Moriarty (Elias Koteas), the husband of one of his previous patients. Before anyone quite knows what's happening, Moriarty pulls out a gun and shoots House--and the motivation for this horrifying act turns out to be almost as perplexing as the act itself! Despite the blood and the pain, House insists upon continuing the job at hand, while his behavior takes a more bizarre turn than ever before. Before long, House finds it impossible to separate reality from fantasy...and that's the state of affairs as this final episode of House's second season reaches its cliffhanger climax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Noted screenwriter Richard LaGravenese made his directorial debut with this dramatic comedy about two unlikely people who find each other while looking for love. Judith Nelson (Holly Hunter) is suddenly single after discovering her husband of fifteen years, a successful doctor (Martin Donovan), has been having an affair with a younger woman. Judith stews, plans, plots and fantasizes, but she can't decide what to do with her life until she goes out to a night club to see singer Liz Bailey (Queen Latifah), who is full of advice on life and love. While out on the town, Judith is suddenly kissed by a total stranger, which opens her eyes to new possibilities ... which is when she notices Pat (Danny De Vito), the elevator operator in her building. Pat's life is in even worse shape than Judith's; his wife has thrown him out for gambling, he's in debt to loan sharks, he's sleeping on the couch of his more successful brother, and his daughter is dying. At first Pat borrows money from Judith, but when the two start talking, they realize they have more in common than they imagined. LaGravenese based his screenplay on a pair of short stories by Anton Chekhov. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Holly Hunter, Danny DeVito, (more)
Amy Heckerling repeats the successful formula of Look Who's Talking in this sequel, with the addition of John Travolta singing "All Shook Up" to a group of nursery schoolers and Mel Brooks cast as the voice of a toilet. The film begins with James struggling to support his family. He stills wants to become an airline pilot, but in the meantime is driving a cab. His wife Molly (Kirstie Alley) is struggling too, as a busy accountant. The strain is showing on their marriage, but then Molly becomes pregnant again, giving birth to a daughter named Julie (voice of Roseanne Barr). When the new baby arrives back home, their son Mikey (voice of Bruce Willis) has to contend not only with the new intrusion but also with Mr. Potty (voice of Mel Brooks). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, (more)
A woman who has survived the touch of ultimate evil must now save one man from the same fate in order to protect the world in this supernatural thriller. Maya Larkin (Winona Ryder) is a devout Catholic who is said to have been possessed by a demon as a child; she now works with Father Lareaux (John Hurt) and John Townshend (Elias Koteas), fellow believers who perform exorcisms on troubled souls they believe are controlled by Satan. While performing an exorcism on a mass murderer, Henry Birdsong (John Diehl), Maya, and her cohorts come in contact with Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin), a journalist and noted authority on the criminal mind who believes the notion of "evil with a capital E" is absurd. Peter is an agnostic despite being raised by a Catholic priest; his uncle, Father James (Philip Baker Hall), raised Peter after the death of his parents while he was still a child. During their failed exorcism, Birdsong tells Maya that Satan will return to Earth, inhabiting the body of a man in order to reclaim this world. As Maya attempts to unravel the code of who the devil's victim will be, she comes to the awful realization that the most likely candidate is Peter Kelson. Lost Souls marked the directorial debut of cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, whose camera credits include Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, and Jerry Maguire. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin, (more)
