Billy Bates Movies

James Keach and Jane Seymour, husband and wife in real life, are teamed in this direct-to-cable update of Johann David Wyss' classic adventure tale The Swiss Family Robinson. While on a boat bound from Singapore to Sydney, the Robinson family is besieged by pirates, who set them adrift. Landing on a remote island in the company of a handful of other survivors, the family manages not only to survive but to flourish -- though their efforts to escape their new surroundings are continually thwarted by their pirate tormentors. Ultimately, the Robinsons save themselves with the considerable assistance of their new-found animal friends. Originally intended for a theatrical release, the PG-rated The New Swiss Family Robinson made its American bow via the Disney Channel cable network in 1999, nearly a full year after its completion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Near the end of The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey, in his Oscar-winning performance as crippled con man Roger "Verbal" Kint, says, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." This may be the key line in this story; the farther along the movie goes, the more one realizes that not everything is quite what it seems, and what began as a conventional whodunit turns into something quite different. A massive explosion rips through a ship in a San Pedro, CA, harbor, leaving 27 men dead, the lone survivor horribly burned, and 91 million dollars' worth of cocaine, believed to be on board, mysteriously missing. Police detective Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) soon brings in the only witness and key suspect, "Verbal" Kint. Kint's nickname stems from his inability to keep his mouth shut, and he recounts the events that led to the disaster. Five days earlier, a truckload of gun parts was hijacked in Queens, NY, and five men were brought in as suspects: Kint, hot-headed hipster thief McManus (Stephen Baldwin), ill-tempered thug Hockney (Kevin Pollak), flashy wise guy Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), and Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a cop gone bad now trying to go straight in the restaurant business. While in stir, someone suggests that they should pull a job together, and Kint hatches a plan for a simple and lucrative jewel heist. Despite Keaton's misgivings, the five men pull off the robbery without a hitch and fly to Los Angeles to fence the loot. Their customer asks if they'd be interested in pulling a quick job while out West; the men agree, but the robbery goes horribly wrong and they soon find themselves visited by Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), who represents a criminal mastermind named Keyser Soze. Soze's violent reputation is so infamous that he's said to have responded to a threat to murder his family by killing them himself, just to prove that he feared no one. When Kobayashi passes along a heist proposed by Soze that sounds like suicide, the men feel that they have little choice but to agree. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Wind is set in the world of competitive yacht racing, where a young sailor (Matthew Modine) is intent on winning the America's Cup, as well as regaining the affections of his ex-girlfriend (Jennifer Grey). As the film opens, Modine chooses to race the America's Cup instead of staying with Grey. She leaves him and his team loses the race, leaving him devastated. Modine tracks Grey down, finding her with a new boyfriend, who happens to be an engineer. He persuades her and her new boyfriend to help him build a new yacht, which he plans on using in his pursuit to regain the America's Cup. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Stephen Frears' Hero is a contemporary re-working of a Frank Capra-styled fable about a two-bit criminal named Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) who saves several passengers from a plane crash and leaves the scene without being identified, leaving only a lost shoe for identification. One of the passengers happens to be news-reporter Gale (Geena Davis) who is intent on finding her savior, and offers a million dollars to the "hero" of the crashed flight. Bernie has since given his remaining shoe to a homeless man named John (Andy Garcia) who decides to cash in on the offer. A handsome, charming man, John wins the hearts of the entire city. Soon, Bernie realizes that he's been cheated out of a million dollars, and he begins an effort to get his proper recognition--and his money. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

In this undistinguished parody of the sci fi genre, Robert Urich is Jason who leads a band of pirates in redistributing the wealth of the few to the coffers of the needy. He also joins up with Princess Karina Mary Crosby in searching for her father and a possible source of water in the next galaxy. Meant to be a campy romp through the sci fi genre, the film stops short of achieving a goal that should have been effortless. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi