Mike Elliott Movies

Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, and Alec Baldwin star in this romantic comedy about a man (Cook) who makes his living convincing women to run back into the arms of the men they have recently dumped by taking them on the worst possible dates imaginable. The nightmare lothario's lucrative scheme hits an unexpected hitch, however, when he is hired by his best friend (Jason Biggs) to take out the beauty he longs to win back. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Queen Latifah, and Terrence Howard star in a film concerning a young girl who implores a department-store Santa to find a new husband for her divorced mother for Christmas. Single mother of three Nancy (Union) has been putting the needs of her three children ahead of her own for as far back as she can remember, and lately her youngest daughter, Emily (Khail Bryant), has become acutely aware of her mother's palpable sadness. As Christmas draws near, Nancy takes her kids to the mall for a cheerful visit with jolly old Saint Nick. When it comes time for Emily's turn to sit on Santa's lap and make her Christmas wish, she selflessly remembers her mother's recent comment that a compliment from a man would be the best gift of all. Determined to make her mother happy again even if it means sacrificing her own wish, Emily relays the message to Santa (Chestnut), not realizing that the man beneath the beard is actually an office-supply salesman and ambitious singer/songwriter named Benjamin. Recognizing the daughter's love for her mother and sensing something truly special in Nancy, Benjamin cheerfully obliges the young girl, setting into motion a series of events that promise to make this the most memorable holiday in quite some time. Lance Rivera directs a film produced by Shakim Compere and Latifah through Flavor Unit Entertainment. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Four college students take a trip to the Florida Everglades in hopes of earning some extra credit for biology class, and instead find themselves locked in a battle to the death against a genetically modified super-eel created by their own professor. They thought they were going out into the field to conduct some standard research on the common eel, but what these students didn't realize is that their scheming professor has been playing God behind closed doors. Now, in order to make it out of the wilderness in one piece, these students will have to capture and kill the perfect predator. But as the hunt gets underway, the desperate group realizes that an old friend of the professor's is also on the hunt for the very same fish. As if dueling scientists weren't enough to contend with, the local sheriff shows up gunning for two escaped convicts who will stop at nothing to ensure they remain free men. As the struggle for survival gets underway, it quickly becomes apparent that mankind may have just moved down a peg on the food chain. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The "Stiffmeister" legacy lives on in this installment of the wildly popular teen comedy series that finds Steve Stifler's younger brother Matt (Tad Hilgenbrinck) sentenced to a summer at band camp after a wild school prank goes awry. It seems that mischief runs in the family, and when Matt is told that he has to spend the entire summer surrounded by trombones and clarinets, he plans a serious of outrageous pranks in a bid to make the best of his nerdy new surroundings. As the summer and the hormones heat up, Stifler sets up a series of hidden cameras in hopes of catching some revealing images of the nubile "bandies." When Stifler reconnects with his long-lost childhood sweetheart, Elyse (Arielle Kebbel), while serving out his sentence, the blossoming romance between the pair forces the perpetual prankster to consider the prospect of curbing his bad-boy ways. Original American Pie star Eugene Levy returns to offer some helpful advice for the band-camp bound Stifler sibling. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Three loosely interrelated stories of dysfunctional relationships are played for edgy laughs in this dark comedy drama from writer and director Don Roos. An unexpected assignation between stepsiblings Mamie and Charley results in Mamie becoming pregnant, with the child being put up for adoption shortly after birth. Twenty years later, Mamie (Lisa Kudrow) is approached by Nicky (Jesse Bradford), an aspiring filmmaker with an abrasive personality who claims to know where her long-lost son is living. However, there's a catch -- Nicky wants to shoot the reunion for the student film he's working on, and won't tell her about her child unless she agrees, though her lover, Javier (Bobby Cannavale), attempts to work out a compromise. Meanwhile, Charley (Steve Coogan), now out of the closet, has a longstanding relationship with Gil (David Sutcliffe), and the couple are involved in a legal battle over whether or not Gil's donated sperm produced a baby who has been adopted by a lesbian couple they know (Laura Dern and Sarah Clarke). And finally, Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a bohemian malcontent who becomes involved with Otis (Jason Ritter), a sexually ambiguous rock musician. Otis has a difficult relationship with his father, Frank (Tom Arnold), but when Jude meets Frank, she likes him fine -- in fact, she soon falls in love with him and leaves Otis for his dad. Happy Endings had its world premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jason Scott Lee portrays the title character in Stephen Boyum's time-traveling action film Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision. The film follows the timecop as he jumps from various eras in history in an attempt to stop criminal Branson Miller (Thomas Ian Griffith) who has been manipulating history for his own personal gain. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Fresh from Iowa, Holly (Melissa Joan Hart) and Calvin (Ryan Browning) arrive in New York, there to pursue careers as actors. Alas, money is mighty tight for the new arrivals, and decent housing is well night impossible to find. Eventually, Holly is forced to move in with her eccentric, cat-crazy Aunt Agatha (Lynne Marie Stewart), who lives in a rent-controlled apartment in the middle of an upscale neighborhood. When Aunt Agatha dies of natural causes, a desperate Holly hits upon a brilliant idea: she and Calvin will pretend that Auntie is still alive, the better to remain in the apartment for a minimal price. The couple enlist the apartment building's feckless elevator operator Dennis (Andrew Kavovit) as their co-conspirator, then spend much of the rest of the movie trying to keep their landlord's suspicious son Vincent (Joseph D. Reitman) from stumbling upon the truth. Filmed in 2002, Rent Control did not make its ABC Family Channel debut until September 9, 2005, by which time the made-for-cable film had been extensively re-edited to accelerate its pace. The film has since been released abroad under its working title Aunt Agatha's Apartment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The titular "final ascent" in this made-for-cable thriller begins as a group of inexperienced backpackers are shepherded through a particular treacherous stretch of the Rockies by an experienced pair of guides. Among the "greenhorns" is a pack of thieves who are searching for money they had stolen and lost. Once the villains are revealed, it becomes obvious that they aren't about to allow the guides or the other tourists to return from the mountain alive, and thus a deadly cat-and-mouse game develops between two of the main characters, played by Antonio Sabato Jr. and Patrick Muldoon. The striking similarities between this film and the Sylvester Stallone theatrical feature Cliffhanger are underlined by a subplot involving a climber who cannot get over the fact that he caused the death of his daughter in previous ascent. Hampered by too much dialogue and too many blatantly obvious studio "exteriors", Final Ascent was first telecast November 11, 2000 on the Lifetime network, where it has since been rerun under the all-purpose title Final Descent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After months of unemployment, young MBA Jenny Morgan (Heidi Noelle Lenhart) applies for what she thinks is an administrative position with the firm owned by handsome business executive Oliver Caldwell (Gregory Harrison). Unforutnately, someone's signals have gotten crossed, and Jenny finds she has been hired as nanny for the widowed Caldwell's spoiled-brat kids Kate (Katie Volding) and Alex (Jake Dinwiddie). Despite her daunting lack of experience as a surrogate mom, Jenny manages to bond with the kids, who behave badly mainly because their dad doesn't spend any time with them. During a trip abroad, Kate and Alex decide to play matchmaker for Oliver and Jenny, even though both adults already have fiancés. But taking into account that Kate's boyfriend Charlie (Michael Woolson) is an aimless dork and Oliver's intended Vivian (Jane Sibbert) is a bitch on wheels, it isn't hard to figure out how things will turn out. And if there are any doubts, just ask Caldwell's wry, all-knowing chauffeur Nigel Kent (John Rhys-Davies). Set in Paris (but actually filmed in Budapest!), the made-for-cable Au Pair originally aired August 22, 1999, on the Fox Family Channel; its open-ended finale enabled the producers to dash off a sequel, Au Pair II, in 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this light-hearted adventure a lonely young girl befriends a runaway baby elephant and a magician. They have great fun until the elephant is captured by a cruel circus ringmaster. Now the girl and the magician must somehow find a way to save their little buddy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide