Justin Louis Movies

This Canadian production stars Gordon Currie as a charming but awkward vampire who is awakened from a decades-long nap by a runaway golf ball and eventually tries to readjust to life in the '90s with the help of a nutty, philosophical cab driver (Justin Louis) and the lovely proprietor of an all-night downtown donut shop (Helene Clarkson). The prospect of a relationship with the smart and spunky pastry wrangler is hindered, however, by the presence of Currie's former lover (Fiona Reid), to whom the last 25 years have been somewhat less kind. Director Holly Dale gleaned a surprising amount of humor from this premise, including a cameo from Toronto's duke of dementia David Cronenberg as a sleazeball gangster who constantly berates his underlings. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Soon after being taken in by a loving new mother and father, two young former orphans do their best to keep their furry, four-legged friend - a loveable Great Dane named Chestnut - a secret from their adoptive parents and save him from a grim fate at the city pound. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The first new TV-movie of 1988 (it debuted January 1st), Drop-Out Mother is a belated follow-up to the 1983 Dick Van Dyke vehicle Drop-Out Father. Valerie Harper plays a busy executive who decides one day to turn her back on the business world to become a full-time mom. Problem is, her husband and kids have pretty full lives, thus they can't quite accommodate her. Wayne Rogers plays hubby, Danny Gerard and Alyson Court are the kids, and Carol Kane is the obligatory Best Friend. Drop-Out Mother passes the time, but it's a far cry from its consistently entertaining 1983 predecessor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marc Forster directs this chilling psychological drama about a young mother trying to come to terms with the loss of her first born. Angie (Radha Mitchell) and her husband Russ (Justin Louis) live a quiet suburban life. At the film's opening, Angie, along with her best friends Judith (Catherine Lloyd Burns) and Barbie (Megan Mullally), who also happen to be pregnant, gleefully discuss morning sickness and baby showers. After her textbook delivery to a healthy boy, the doctor pulls Russ aside and whispers something in his ear. Angie's worst fears are confirmed when she learns that her child suddenly died, a victim of sudden infant death syndrome. In spite of loving support from her husband and friends, Angie quickly spirals into a deep depression and begins developing morbid obsessions, such as going to morgue to examine her baby, visiting the place where her child's toys are buried, and watching children at play in the park. Shot on digital video, the film features an intense emotionally immediacy. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Though not a true sequel to Paul Lynch's derivative slasher-dud Prom Night, this Carrie-flavored horror film begins in 1957 with the fiery death of bitchy prom queen Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Schrage) courtesy of a backfired stinkbomb stunt pulled by her jealous ex-boyfriend. Thirty years later, her killer has become the school principal (Michael Ironside), and sweet, innocent Vicki (Wendy Lyon) is a contender for the prom-queen title. Mary Lou's vengeful spirit spies the perfect opportunity to reclaim her crown once and for all. The rest of the film involves Vicki adopting Mary Lou's less-than-reputable habits and messily destroying anyone who stands between her and the coveted title. High points include a telekinetic "Tutti Frutti" locker-room squashing and a swirling demonic blackboard, all courtesy of FX wizard Jim Doyle, who worked previously on A Nightmare on Elm Street, to which this film bears some stylistic similarities. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This cinematic/literary hybrid fuses motifs from Beat writer William S. Burroughs's novel of the same name with elements of the author's biography and plenty of the cerebral alienation and biomorphic special effects fans of creepy cult director David Cronenberg have come to expect. Bill Lee (Peter Weller) wants to write, but he exterminates bugs to pay the bills. His wife, Joan (Judy Davis), becomes addicted to Bill's bug powder dust, and soon he joins her in a world of unorthodox hallucinogens; he visits the kindly yet sinister Dr. Benway (Roy Scheider) and walks away with his first dose of the black meat -- a narcotic made from the flesh of the giant aquatic Brazilian centipede. Soon, monstrous beetles are whispering conspiracy theories in Bill's ears and his nebbish writer friends Hank (Nicholas Campbell) and Martin (Michael Zelniker) are sleeping with Joan under his nose. When a party trick involving a liquor glass and a gun goes awry, killing Joan, Bill flees to Interzone, a Mediterranean city full of talking insectoid typewriters, double agents, offbeat aesthetes, and plots within plots. As he navigates this paranoid landscape, Bill begins ingesting another drug called mugwump jism and writes fragments that Hank and Martin soon assemble into a novel under the title Naked Lunch. As beat literature aficionados know, Interzone is based on Tangiers -- the city where Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch. The incident in the film in which Hank and Martin appropriate Bill's writing and have it published closely approximates the real-life circumstances of the novel's publication, although it was Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac who helped out the real-life Burroughs. The William Tell incident that kills Bill's wife is also drawn from the author's real life. "William Lee" is both Burroughs' literary stand-in and the name under which he published his first autobiographical novel Junky. Ian Holm, who plays Joan Frost's husband, Tom, would appear in Cronenberg's similarly experimental eXistenZ several years later. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

A radio talk-show host's voice appears to lead listeners to commit suicide in this 1993 mystery thriller from director Matthew Patrick. Jennifer Beals (Flashdance) stars as Julia a woman who notices the deaths and suspects they're somehow tied to the radio program. She soon fears that if her intuitions are accurate, her husbnd might be the next to succumb. James Wilder and Justin Louis also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Just when audiences thought they'd heard the last of the demented killer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), here comes Saw IV, continuing his trap-filled legacy -- this time, targeting the last remaining officer who has touched the case, SWAT Commander Rigg (Lyriq Bent). As FBI agents Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Perez (Athena Karkanis) begin to dig through the remains of Jigsaw's crime-scene hideout, a new puzzle presents itself, with Rigg as the pawn in another deadly game filled with moral quandaries and torture-filled traps. At stake is the life of his superior officer Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) as well as his friend and fellow cop Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg), whose abduction by a now-dead Jigsaw triggers an obsession in Rigg that will haunt him til the grisly end. Director Darren Lynn Bousman returns to the series after helming both Saw II and III, with a script penned by Feast writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Bette Midler stars as Stella Claire, a working class, fun-loving barmaid in northern New York State. A brief affair with handsome Stephen Dallas (Stephen Collins) produces a daughter, Jenny (Trini Alvarado), who Stella insists upon raising alone, despite Dallas' marriage offer. As the years pass, Stella and Jenny are a happy pair. Stella gives up bartending to sell cosmetics, supported by her friend Ed (John Goodman), a bartender developing a crush on her and a problem with alcohol. Dallas has stayed involved with his beloved daughter from afar and is now a urologist in New York City, engaged to a book editor (Marsha Mason). As Jenny reaches adulthood, Stella becomes aware that life with her father would provide her daughter with opportunities that she'd never have otherwise, so she devises a painful, self-sacrificing scheme to drive Jenny from the nest. Although functional as a tearjerker, many of the themes in Stella simply don't make as much sense in a modern age of healthy, fractured families, muting the drama of the tale's earlier versions, specifically Stella Dallas (1937). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Written and directed by John Bradshaw, The Big Slice stars Casey Siemaszko and Justin Louis as a pair of aspiring mystery novelists. Knowing next to nothing about crime, the two writers decide to "live" their adventures. Venturing out into the Big Bad World, the boys pose as a cop and a criminal-and, not surprisingly, get in way over their heads. Heather Locklear makes a token "femme fatale" appearance in this frenetic farce. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide