Patrick McGaw Movies

Speed kills, but not as fast as malevolent ghosts, in this edgy horror/suspense opus. Thuggish Hector (Brad Hunt) and his girlfriend Dorena (Cyia Batten) are a pair of low-level drug dealers who are looking for a big score that will allow them to get out of the business. Hector has noticed that there's a big demand among his customers for "crystal meth," a powerful amphetamine; Dorena has learned how to make the stuff, so the couple steal the ingredients for a massive supply of crystal, and go into partnership with Hector's friend Merle (Patrick McGaw), who has found a big old house in the woods where they can "cook" and avoid the prying eyes of the police. Dorena decides it's prudent to make up all the crystal in one marathon cooking session, so she gets to work and Hector stands watch, using their own product when their energies begin to flag. However, Merle happens to mention a local legend that the house where they're cooking is haunted, and after several days of speed-fueled sleeplessness, Hector and Dorena aren't sure if they're hallucinating, or if there really are evil spirits ready to do them in. Cookers marked the feature film debut for director Dan Mintz. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Very loosely based on the memoir of the same name, The Basketball Diaries transposes the late '60s adolescence of writer/artist Jim Carroll to some unspecified time period at least 15 years later, further confusing the timeframe with three decades of rock music, some by Carroll himself. Jim (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his Catholic school chums are on the hottest basketball team in New York, but their friend Bobby (Michael Imperioli) languishes in the hospital with leukemia. In-between typically boyish adventures, Jim scribbles in his notebook and experiments with sex and drugs. His group of friends begins to disintegrate after coach Swifty (Bruno Kirby) not only makes a pass at Jim, but also catches him and his pals using drugs on the court and kicks them off the team. Out of school and on the streets, Jim turns tricks, betrays friends, robs stores, and deals drugs to feed his heroin addiction. Not even the efforts of former addict Reggie (Ernie Hudson) can cure Jim. Mark Wahlberg appears as one of Jim's basketball and drug buddies, while Carroll himself makes a memorable cameo as an addict who describes the almost Catholic rituals of shooting heroin. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

This violent crime drama has its dramatic roots in old spaghetti westerns. It is set in a small southwestern town on the US-Mexican border. The ordeal begins as a lone Frenchman hitchhikes. He is boorish, misogynistic actor Denis Brabant who was dumped there by his lover after he informed her of his wife's pregnancy. Meanwhile, all-around good guy Zac Cross is on a phone trying to convince his lover, Beth, to return to him. Denis asks for a ride. Zac, who is low on cash decides to take him in provided he pay his way. They load up Zac's convertible and set off. Soon they end up entangled with Astor, a drug dealer, and the non English-speaking Mexican girl Nadia, who hit the travelers up for a ride across the border. Along the way, they encounter a variety of self-serving characters. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Director Robert K. Weiss gives a good accounting of himself in his first feature-length effort Amongst Friends. The film is set in an affluent Long Island neighborhood, the home of boyhood chums Patrick McGaw, Steve Parlavecchio, and Joseph Lindsey. With too much time on their hands, the kids turn to crime for "kicks". Events snowball into a climactic life-or-death drug deal, which threatens to end in disaster when one of the boys capriciously pulls a double cross. Barely released in 1993, Amongst Friends will probably get more play in future years thanks to the presence in the cast of Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi