Julian Lee Movies

Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), Wesley (Alexis Denisof), and Gunn (J. August Richards) get on with the business of running Angel Investigations without its founder, taking time out only to squabble about what they should now call the agency. Meanwhile, Angel (David Boreanaz) himself investigates a Wolfram & Hart plot to defraud a shelter for Los Angeles runaways of huge sums of money during a charity event. To foil their plan, Angel pretends to befriend Anne Steele (Julia Lee), the institution's manager, and convinces her that lawyer Lindsey McDonald (Christian Kane) isn't the kind benefactor he seems. Eventually, with the help of an old adversary, Angel tricks Lindsey and Lilah Morgan (Stephanie Romanov) into revealing their plans to the rich guests they're in the process of bilking. The vampire hero and his accomplice make off with the money, but Angel eventually makes sure it goes to Anne's shelter, though not before alienating her with his high-handed methods and apparent immorality. Originally broadcast January 23, 2001, on the WB network, "Blood Money" marked season two, episode 12 of the supernatural comedy drama. Although it's only hinted at in this episode and never revealed to Angel, the character of Anne actually appeared in two episodes of Angel's parent series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the episode "Anne," she was a homeless girl named Lily who befriended Buffy while the Slayer was hiding out under her middle name and eventually took over that selfsame alias: Anne. And in another Buffy installment, "Lie to Me," she briefly used the name Chanterelle when she joined a cult of wannabe vampires. The character would recur again on Angel in "The Thin Dead Line." ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

A police lieutenant searching for answers in her sister's mysterious death joins forces with a martial arts master who has come to America in search of his own missing sibling in director Mark Steven Grove's gritty action thriller. Upon noting that the death of a young Asian girl shares eerie parallels with the death of her sister, Police Lieutenant Dana "Hawk" Hawkins (Barbara Gehring) attempts to convince her superiors that the two cases are somehow connected. When the higher-ups fail to take action on the matter, Lieutenant Hawkins sets out on a one-woman mission to locate her sister's killer. Meanwhile, skilled martial artist Dragon Pak arrives on American shores in search of his missing sister. Shortly after arriving in the U.S. to pursue a modeling career, Dragon's pretty sister vanished without a trace. When Dragon attempts to confront his sister's employers and is viciously attacked for his effort, Lieutenant Hawkins begins to suspect that his sister may have fallen in with the same crowd that murdered her own sister. Now, this unlikely pair will team up to deliver a painful lesson in justice and vengeance to those who seek to exploit the innocent and prey on the weak. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Writer/director Jane Campion's third feature unearthed emotional undercurrents and churning intensity in the story of a mute woman's rebellion in the recently colonized New Zealand wilderness of Victorian times. Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), a mute who has willed herself not to speak, and her strong-willed young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) find themselves in the New Zealand wilderness, with Ada the imported bride of dullard land-grabber Stewart (Sam Neill). Ada immediately takes a dislike to Stewart when he refuses to carry her beloved piano home with them. But Stewart makes a deal with his overseer George Baines (Harvey Keitel) to take the piano off his hands. Attracted to Ada, Baines agrees to return the piano in exchange for a series of piano lessons that become a series of increasingly charged sexual encounters. As pent-up emotions of rage and desire swirl around all three characters, the savage wilderness begins to consume the tiny European enclave. Campion imbues her tale with an over-ripe tactility and a murky, poetic undertow that betray the characters' confined yet overpowering emotions: Ada's buried sensuality, Baines' hidden tenderness, and Stewart's suppressed anger and violence. The story unfolds like a Greek tragedy of the Outback, complete with a Greek chorus of Maori tribesmen and a blithely uncaring natural environment that envelops the characters like an additional player. Campion directs with discreet detachment, observing one character through the glances and squints of another as they peer through wooden slats, airy curtains, and the spaces between a character's fingers. She makes the film immediate and urgent by implicating the audience in characters' gazes. And she guides Hunter to a revelatory performance of silent film majesty. Relying on expressive glances and using body language to convey her soulful depths, Hunter became a modern Lillian Gish and won an Oscar for her performance, as did Paquin and Campion for her screenplay. Campion achieved something rare in contemporary cinema: a poetry of expression told in the form of an off-center melodrama. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The great Venetian explorer's grandson, journeys to Xanadu to return his grandfather's golden medallion of friendship to its rightful owners in this tuneful animated adventure. En route he meets various foes including dragons and pirates. Eventually his medallion is joined with that of a beautiful princess. They fall in love and he helps the helpless lass make it to the throne. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi