Michelle Lombardo Movies

A wannabe chef and an unrepentant womanizer team up to start a detective agency, and quickly realize they've gotten in over their heads when their first job lands them smack in the middle of a massive government conspiracy. Anthony and his best friend, Julian, have yet to live up to their full potential. When Anthony realizes he's never going to become a five-star chef and Julian grows weary of playing the constant lothario, the two lifelong pals turn to sleuthing to make ends meet. Their first client is a smoldering top-dollar escort with evidence of a high-profile cover-up. At first they do their best to keep control of the situation, but when a shady U.S. senator comes knocking, the mob shows up guns blazing, and a most unusual assassin gets them locked in her sights, the only way to survive is to run like the devil and never look back. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

If nothing else, quarterlife represented an historical watershed between over-the-air television and the Internet: for the first time, a live-action network TV program was fashioned from an entertainment series originally produced for on-line consumption. Described as a "new internet series and social network", quarterlife debuted November 11, 2007 on MySpaceTV.com. Produced by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the same people responsible for the 1990s network hit thirtysomething (note the lower-case titles in both instances), the original Internet version--which had initially been shopped to ABC--consisted of 36 eight-minute serialized vignettes. These were offered in the form of a blog created by "twentysomething" magazine employee Dylan (Bitsie Tulloch, who also served as narrator). Allegedly, none of Dylan's friends or coworkers were aware that she was maintaining an on-line chronicle of their lives and adventures, allowing her to embellish and editorialize to her heart's content. Among those with whom Dylan networked were would-be filmmaker Danny (David Walton and his business partner Jed (Scott Michael Foster, the latter preferring to be identified by his e-mail moniker "jebberland"; Danny's girlfriend Debra (Michael Lombardo), for whom Jed harbored a hopeless yearning; and Lise (Maite Schwartz), a wannabe actress who worked as a bartender and canoodled with practically every guy she met. By MySpace.com standards, quarterlife was a slick and polished effort; less so was the 30-minute NBC network series of the same name, which was comprised of highlights from the on-line version and as such did not quite come up to the high production values of the network's other offerings. The NBC edition of quarterlife premiered February 26, 2008. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A medical student with mounting debts draws on her formidable poker skills in order to stay afloat in this gambling drama starring Dominique Swain and Michael Madsen. As a young girl, Alicia "Ace" Anderson (Swain) frequently accompanied her card shark father (Madsen) to clandestine gambling rooms for tense rounds of Texas Hold 'Em. As a result of her childhood spent watching her father fleece his opponents, Alicia became a fairly exceptional card player herself. These days Alicia has left behind the world of gambling in order to focus on medical school, but education doesn't come cheap and the tuition fees are fast piling up. Of course the one way that Alicia knows how to make a quick buck is to fall back on her old skills, and now with a bottomed out bank account and few options on the table the savvy student gambler enlists the aid of some fellow students in hitting it big at the local casino. Though her cohorts may be well schooled in the art of the bluff, this team will need much more than a good poker face if they truly intend to win out over some of the world's best card players. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A workaholic architect, frustrated in his job but determined to make a better life for his family, is bestowed with a powerful universal remote that allows him more control over his life than he ever knew possible in director Frank Coraci's high-concept fantasy comedy. On the surface, Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) seems to have it all, yet with all the demands forced upon him by his ungrateful boss (David Hasselhoff), Michael finds that setting aside time to spend with his loving wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale), and two picture-perfect children, Ben (Joseph Castanon) and Samantha (Tatum McCann), has grown increasingly difficult. When a frustrating bout with the television remote leads the overworked husband and father to a nearby Bed, Bath & Beyond in search of a universal remote with the power to control all of his electronic devices, a curious peek into the back room leads Michael into the company of eccentric employee and talented inventor Morty (Christopher Walken). It seems that Morty has created a device that will not only allow Michael complete control over his television and stereo, but his entire life as well. As Michael discovers that the remarkable device has the power to muffle the barks of the family dog, zoom himself past an irritating quarrel with his wife, and even allow him to travel back and forth through time to different points in his life, the rush of being able to skip straight to the good parts in life soon leaves him feeling as if he's missing out on the total experience. Only when Michael begins to realize that the he has lost control of his life and the remote is now programming him does he finally learn that life is as much about the moments he'd rather forget as it is the moments he will always remember. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi