Pam Dixon Movies

One of the oldest epic poems in the English language gets a robust visual interpretation in this historical epic shot on location in Iceland. Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgård) is a Danish king who murders a troll that has been terrorizing his countryside. But Hrothgar spares the life of the troll's strange young son, who with the passage of years grows to become Grendel (Ingvar Sigurdsson), a fearsome warrior intent upon avenging his father's death. As Grendel begins his slaughter of the king's closest confidants, Hrothgar realizes his life is in danger, and he calls upon the brave and fearless Beowulf (Gerard Butler) to track down and kill Grendel. As Beowulf and his band of warriors search for the vicious and elusive Grendel, he crosses paths with Selma (Sarah Polley), a beautiful and sensuous witch whose alliances are divided between Beowulf and his archenemy. Produced by Canadian, British, and Icelandic concerns, Beowulf & Grendel was a major box-office success in Canada before crossing south to American theaters in the summer of 2006. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A terrorist couple is pitted against each other when the female counterpart is captured by C.I.A. agents. She is convinced to help them bring down the dangerous group in this violent actioner. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Two men attempt to investigate a diamond heist in this suspenseful actioner. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

In 2003, respected filmmaker and screenwriter Paul Schrader was hired to direct a prequel to the 1973 box-office smash The Exorcist. However, when Schrader turned in his film to executives at Morgan Creek Productions, the producers felt the film was not marketable, and they opted to remake the picture with director Renny Harlin, who brought a more visually aggressive approach to the story than Schrader's more contemplative vision. In 2004, Harlin's film, Exorcist: The Beginning, was released to middling critical and financial response, while the following year, Schrader's version went into limited release following film festival screenings. In Schrader's Exorcist: The Prequel, Father Lankester Merrin, the aging exorcist from the original story (played here by Stellan Skarsgård) is introduced in 1944, as he serves a flock in Holland during the Nazi occupation. After Nazi officers force Merrin to choose ten members of his congregation for immediate execution, Merrin is left an emotionally broken man, and he takes a leave of absence from his duties. Three years later, Merrin is taking part in an archeological project in East Africa, and he and his crew -- including priest Father Francis (Gabriel Mann), Major Granville (Julian Wadham), and Rachel Lesno (Clara Bellar) -- discover that a church from the fifth century has been buried in the desert. As Merrin and his associates discover that that a porthole to evil is located in the church, Cheche (Billy Crawford), a local boy Merrin has taken under his wing, begins showing signs of having fallen under the spell of Satanic forces. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This violent drama chronicles the downfall of a star-struck, naive Chicago boy who goes west to Tinseltown to seek his fortune and ends up involved in a terrifying world involving his new streetwise girl friend, drug trade and death. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Director Ron Underwood follows up his crowd-pleasing hit City Slickers (1991) with this likable, feel-good comedy drama about a selfish businessman who discovers that he's permanently being followed by a group of ghosts. In 1959, a bus accident links the spirits of four fatally injured passengers to a newborn baby whose birth is caused by the crash. For 25 years, Milo (Tom Sizemore), Harrison (Charles Grodin), Penny (Alfre Woodard) and Julia (Kyra Sedgwick) remain bound to Thomas Reilly (Robert Downey Jr.), who believes the quartet to be imaginary childhood friends that have long since disappeared. When the four spooks suddenly realize that they are meant to use Thomas as a conduit to bring closure to their unfinished corporeal lives, they reemerge, causing Thomas to think that he's gone insane. As he becomes reattached to his supernatural companions, however, Thomas' innate decency asserts itself and he begins helping them to right the wrongs in their lives, allowing them to possess his body to achieve their goal of settling accounts and moving on into the afterlife. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

In this made-for-video thriller, an undercover policewoman (Pamela Dixon) makes it a personal vendetta to hunt down the drug dealers and pimps who make their money by exploiting women. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Ex-football great Jim Brown co-stars in this blood-filled police actioner with former Welcome Back Kotter "Sweathog"Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs. In the story, Jon Chance (Jacobs) is a police detective with a very active fantasy life, who must be spurred into action by his captain (Brown). The case at hand involves a super-violent drug-dealer who is giving the police the run-around, and Jon's task is to bring him in. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A brother and sister who are sent to visit their uncle in Los Angeles go on a wild adventure. It seems that good old uncle owes some money to gangsters, and the children inevitably get tangled up in the chase. ~ John Bush, Rovi

This crime thriller concerns three cops (Jason Carver, Sam J. Jones, Sherrie Rose) and their quest to stop a criminal kingpin (Richard Lynch) and the corrupt chief of police (Mickey Rooney). ~ John Bush, Rovi

A resourceful teenage super-sleuth finds her investigative skills put to the ultimate test as director Andrew Fleming and screenwriter Tiffany Paulsen revive the character originally made famous by author Carolyn Keene. Upon leaving her quaint hometown of River Heights and arriving in Los Angeles with her father, Carson (Tate Donovan), precocious small-town teen Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts) enrolls in Hollywood High and discovers just how different life on the West Coast really is. A true original in the land where Rodeo Drive dictates what's "in" at any given moment, Nancy stands apart from the pack as much for her penny loafers as for her sincere, non-acerbic attitude and keen study skills -- all of which make the non-ironic goody two-shoes an object of scorn for fashion-conscious mean girls Inga (Daniella Monet) and Trish (Kelly Vitz). Concerns about how to fit in soon take a back seat to more pressing issues, however, when Nancy, having previously promised her worried father that she would give up sleuthing, stumbles across a series of clues that may lead her to find out what caused the death of beautiful Hollywood movie star Dehlia Draycott -- who perished years ago under particularly mysterious circumstances. Upon discovering that she and her father are currently residing in the very same mansion that Draycott once called home, the prospect of solving one of Hollywood's biggest mysteries simply proves too tantalizing for the brilliant young detective to resist. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A ruthless drug lord must be stopped, pronto. Three able-bodied cops go undercover to bring the drug dealer to justice -- or, preferably, to kill him. Once in a while, the bad guys call a halt to the film's bloodshed to allow a sex scene to play itself out. Otherwise, this is essentially cable-TV stuff, blown up (sometimes literally) for the Big Screen. A good cast, headed by Michael Nouri and John Saxon, is the film's most tangible asset. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi