Trevor Peacock Movies

Santa's black-sheep brother gets a much-needed shot at redemption in this holiday comedy reuniting actor Vince Vaughn and director David Dobkin (Clay Pigeons, Wedding Crashers). It's not easy being the brother of a benevolent and beloved saint, and no one knows that better than Fred Claus (Vaughn). After struggling for years to live up to the example set by his younger sibling Nicholas (Paul Giamatti), Fred has finally given up. These days Fred is working as a repo man taken to stealing the items he repossesses, and his shady tactics have just landed him in jail. While Mrs. Claus vehemently insists that Fred fend for himself, Nicholas refuses to sit idly by as his brother rots in jail and agrees to set bail if Fred will repay the debt by coming to the North Pole and help make toys for the upcoming Christmas season. But Fred isn't nearly as productive as your average elf, and he's got quite an attitude to boot. With Christmas fast approaching and Fred threatening to sideline Nicholas' entire finely tuned operation, the brother that always struggled to get out from under his sibling's substantial shadow finds out just how far the patience of a saint can be pushed before jolly old Santa reaches his breaking point. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Patrick Stewart stars as Ebeneezer Scrooge in this made-for-TV adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic holiday fable. Scrooge is a skinflint businessman who loathes the Christmas season and begrudges having to give time off to his best employee, Bob Cratchit (Richard E. Grant). On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his late friend and partner, Jacob Marley (Bernard Lloyd), who in the afterlife has come to see the error of his ways. Marley arranges for Scrooge to be visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Joel Grey), Christmas Present (Desmond Barrit), and Christmas Yet to Come (Tim Potter) in hopes of teaching Scrooge of the importance of embracing the joy of the holiday season. A Christmas Carol was produced for the TNT cable television network. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The fortunes of a family of Hungarian Jews are followed over the course of nearly 150 years in this epic historical drama, with leading man Ralph Fiennes playing three different roles. The story begins in the late 18th century, as Aaron and Josefa Sonnenschein (the name means "Sunshine" in German) die in an explosion while making an herb tonic for sale in their village. Their son Emmanuel (David de Keyser), the only survivor of the tragedy, travels to Budapest, carrying the recipe for the medicine with him. He's able to parlay the formula into a successful business, and Emmanuel and his wife Rose (Miriam Margolyes) raise two sons, Ignatz (Ralph Fiennes), who becomes a successful lawyer, and hot-tempered Gustave (James Frain). The Sonnenscheins also make room in their home for Valerie (Jennifer Ehle), but Emmanuel and Rose become furious when Valerie becomes romantically involved with Ignatz. Eventually, Valerie and Ignatz raise two children, Istvan (Mark Strong) and Adam (Ralph Fiennes), and the family changes its name to Sors in hopes of avoiding the anti-Semitism sweeping Europe. In time, Adam goes so far as to convert to Catholicism, and he marries another Catholic, Hannah (Molly Parker). He soon begins an affair with his brother's wife, Greta (Rachel Weisz), who is unable to persuade Adam to leave as the Nazis rise to power. Adam and Hannah have only one son, Ivan, who is fated to watch his father die in a concentration camp; as Ivan grows to adulthood (now played by Ralph Fiennes), he swears revenge on the forces of fascism and embraces Communism. Ivan throws in his lot with Communist leader Andor Knorr (William Hurt), but a liaison with the wife of a party official (Deborah Kara Unger) leads Ivan to tragic consequences and a jail term. In time, Valarie and Gustave are reunited at the family's estate as the only two members of the Sonnenschein clan who survive to witness the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. Hungarian director Istvan Szabo co-wrote Sunshine's original screenplay in collaboration with American playwright Israel Horovitz. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A man trying to honor the last wish of his beloved wife has to keep an entire city alive in this bittersweet romantic comedy. Marcello (Jean Reno) is the owner of a restaurant in a small village in Italy. His wife Roseanna (Mercedes Ruehl) has received some awful news: she has learned that her weak heart has gotten worse, and she has only a few weeks to live. Roseanna has given Marcello a final request: she wants to be buried next to her daughter, who died some years before. Marcello wants nothing more than to comply with her wishes, but there's a problem; the town's cemetery is quite small, and right now funeral plots are on a first-come, first-served basis. The spot next to Roseanna's daughter does happen to be open, but she'll only get it if no one else dies first. So Marcello suddenly becomes the village's watchdog of health and safety, trying to make sure no one needlessly dies, and even shuffles around a few bodies of people who do happen to pass on. Meanwhile, Roseanna is worried about both Marcello and her sister Cecilia (Polly Walker) and would like them to marry after her death so they won't have to be alone. However, Marcello and Cecilia don't always get along very well, and besides, Cecilia is in love with Antonio (Mark Frankel), whose father has prevented the town's cemetery from expanding. For Roseanna was filmed under the title Roseanna's Grave and was briefly publicized as For the Love of Roseanna. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Throughout history, Immortal Nicholas Ward (Jeremy Brudenell) has covered his murderous tracks by capitalizing on current superstitions and hysterias. Back in the 1840s, for example, Ward killed several people in Paris but arranged the evidence so the authorities were convinced that the carnage was the work of vampires. It is now 1994, and Ward is back in Paris once again targeting helpless young women -- and once again escaping detection. But Duncan (Adrian Paul) sees through this latest "vampire plague" and intends to stop Ward before he can kill again. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Franz Kafka's classic tale of Josef K., a bank clerk who is placed on trial for an unnamed, unknowable crime, is given a faithful, if not overly literal, treatment in this drama. Knowing only that he has been charged, Josef naturally sets out to defend himself, but soon finds himself deeply mired in a battle against an incomprehensible government bureaucracy. Following Orson Welles's adaptation of the book by some three decades, director David Jones chooses to avoid the earlier film's expressionistic approach. Instead, he sets Josef's travails against a realistic background that specifically recalls Eastern Europe during the early 20th century, the time of the book's writing. Similarly, the screenplay by famed British playwright Harold Pinter, whose own darkly absurd vision owes much to Kafka, hews closely to the original text. This faithful approach helps ground the story in historical reality, and allows for a good use of brooding Prague locations. However, many critics have found this approach less effective than the low-budget abstraction of Welles' version, which is more successful at highlighting the universality and symbolic nature of the tale. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

The made-for-cable Bejewelled stars Emma Samms as a museum curator. Entrusted with collection of valuable jewels, she heads to London. Here she is obligated to fend off any number of potential thieves. It is also up to her to determine whom she can trust and whom she can not. Dennis Lawson, Jade Maigri, Aeryk Egan, Dirk Benedict costar. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Franco Zeffirelli directs his third Shakespeare adaptation (after Romeo and Juliet and Otello) with this film version of the tragedy Hamlet. The titular prince of Denmark (Mel Gibson), returns home to his family's castle of Elsinore after years of attending school in Germany to find out his father has died and his uncle Claudius (Alan Bates) is the new king. To make matters worse, Claudius has married Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude (Glenn Close), whom he has unusually strong feelings for. Hamlet is visited by his father's ghost (Paul Scofield), who asks him to seek revenge for his murder. In order to find out who the real killer is, Hamlet stages a theatrical scene resembling his father's death. Claudius is upset by the production and leaves to arrange for Hamlet's murder. In the ensuing confusion, Hamlet accidentally kills Polonious (Ian Holm) instead of Claudius; Hamlet's lover, Ophelia (Helena Bonham Carter), goes mad and commits suicide; and eventually Hamlet and Claudius both meet their fate. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Part of the TV series entitled "The Shakespeare Plays," this is one of the subtlest and most enjoyable of the Shakespearian plays. Portraying the different types of love, it is set in a country house of aristocrats and there are practical jokes, poetry and songs that make this a most entertaining view. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

Dick Clement directed this late-in-the-game spy thriller, starring Kirk Douglas. Douglas plays Andrej, a drone that smuggles books out of communist countries. Unfortunately for Andrej, he is mistaken for a spy and gets into a series of convoluted situations. Fabienne (Marlene Jobert), who lives with Sir Trevor Dawson (Trevor Howard), a randy British minister, is the slinky sex-bomb who finagles Andrej into the heart-thumping predicaments. Also on hand is Tom Courtenay as Baxter Clarke, an inept counter-espionage agent, who manages to make Andrej's already bad situation worse. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Tom Bell stars in this tight little British thriller as a mercurial cat burglar. So long as things are going his way, Bell is calm and collected. Let anything upset his equilibrium, and he's an accident waiting to happen. Bell's one chance at redemption is his romance with pretty social-worker Judi Dench. When she rejects him, Bell returns to his crime spree, telling Dench to get lost when she offers to give him a second chance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, a writer tries to scare up some quick cash by writing a book about the Loch Ness monster. Unfortunately, none of the publishers will buy it. The writer and his bohemian friends then create a mock monster, photograph it, and head for Scotland to convince the locals of the picture's veracity. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi