Max Perlich Movies
Character actor Max Perlich spent many years playing bit parts on television and in teen films such as Can't Buy Me Love (1987) and Lost Angels (1989); his roles usually were of the slacker or juvenile delinquent variety. As he outgrew the teen genre, his later performances, although still minor, were distinguished by eccentricity and twitchy, nervous energy, fully realized in the film Drugstore Cowboy. He has excelled in supporting roles in films such as Rush (1991) and Georgia (1995). Along with his continuing work in films, he has had recurring roles in television shows such as Homicide: Life on the Streets (1997) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1998).~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide
Producer/writer/director and stepbrother to Elvis Presley, D. Edward Stanley relays just what it was like to protect the King of Rock and Roll in an intensely personal biography that offers rare personal insight into one of the music world's most revered figures. Stanley was only sixteen at the time he went to work for The King, yet in his experiences the teen would learn more about the way the world works than he would have in any classroom. Of course the highs were just as intense as the lows, and from the sex to the drugs and the violence, this is one story that is simply too strange to be fiction. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Barr, Peter Dobson, (more)
Trained to kill but determined to cheer their school's team to the championship game, three lethal cheerleading ninjas must put down their pom poms and pick up their katanas when their sensei is abducted by the mob. April, Courtney, and Monica may just be college freshmen, but they can take out an army of ninja assassins with the skill of an ancient master. Schooled in the ancient martial arts by the esteemed Sensei Hiroshi (George Takei), these three beauties spend their days in the classroom and their nights in the strip club - where they work the poles to pay for their college tuition. Then one day, Sensei Hiroshi is abducted and their lives are suddenly turned upside down. Now, in order to rescue their master, April, Courtney, and Monica will have to summon the skills he once taught them and take on a virtual army of mob assassins. With a nosy cop closing in on one side and suspicious parents asking questions on the other, these girls will have to work overtime in order to keep anyone from finding out what kind of destruction they're truly capable of. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Trishelle Cannatella, Ginny Weirick, (more)
Two rebellious young lovers set out on a crime spree in hopes of finding a better life together in this tender, modern-day fairy tale from director Nick Lyon. Sarah (Emma Bing) is a fifteen year-old girl from a small papermill town. Bored by the fact that nothing ever happens in her town and hungry for the love that she can't find at home, Sarah falls in love with Spike - an ambitious, drug addicted rocker who longs to join a band and break big. In order to support themselves along the way, Sarah and Spike collaborate on a series of small-time con jobs. When Spike has a successful audition, he clings to the dream that things can only get better for the hapless couple. But just as it begins to seem as if Spike's dreams are about to become a reality, fate deals the aspiring rock star and his girlfriend a devastating blow. Their future looking especially grim, man-child Spike and vulnerable Sarah must rely on their unconditional love for one another if they hope to overcome the odds and break the vicious cycle of despair. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chad Lindberg, Emma Bing, (more)
When a San Francisco homicide detective with a keen eye for criminal profiling is fired for botching the arrest of a notorious serial killer, his subsequent effort to reinvent himself as an insurance claims case-investigator leads him to study a series of perplexing wrongful deaths in this comedy starring Joseph Fiennes, Winona Ryder, Tim Blake Nelson, and Wilmer Valderrama. Michael Burrows (Fiennes) isn't your typical detective. Though Detective Burrows is a paranoid obsessive-compulsive who faints at the sight of blood, his remarkable insight into the criminal mindset has nevertheless made him a valuable asset to the San Francisco Police Department. When Detective Burrows' idiosyncrasies allow the feared "North Beach Killer" to elude capture, however, he is fired by his superiors. Upon offering his unique skills to a doubting insurance company, Burrows is given 30 days in which to prove he can sort out the legitimate claims from the false ones. Now, as Burrows makes for the Midwest in the company of hard-nosed field agent Siri Tyler (Ryder), the film student (Valderrama) who has been following the former detective for his thesis follows the pair as they investigate a series of forehead-slapping deaths, including that of a powerful executive who attempts to prove that his high-rise window is unbreakable and a pair of English tourists who fatally misinterpret the "cruise control" function on their rented RV. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Winona Ryder, (more)
- 2005
In order to find out if a future world ruled by the Avatars will indeed be a utopia as they claim it will, Piper (Holly Marie Combs) trades powers with Phoebe (Alyssa Milano). Unfortunately, the demon Zankou (Oded Fehr) interrupts the transference process -- and as a result, the girls' powers are dispersed to a wide variety of mortal "innocents," who wreak considerable havoc with their ill-gotten magic skills. Elsewhere, Brody's (Kerr Smith) true intentions are revealed in a violent fashion, prompting Paige (Rose McGowan) to glean "firsthand" information regarding Brody's tortured past. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Krause, Dorian Gregory, (more)
- 2005
The Avatars' new utopian world seems to be working, and the citizens of Earth seem happy. Unfortunately, those who are not happy are instantly "purged," and the rest are in danger of turning into Stepford-like automatons. Now realizing that the Avatars' vision is not the way things should be, the Charmed Ones and Leo (Brian Krause) attempt to return the world to its previous status quo -- but this requires our heroines to align themselves with the all-powerful demon Zankou (Oded Fehr). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Krause, Dorian Gregory, (more)
- 2005
The Avatars proceed with their plan to create a utopian society by subjecting the entire world, and its population, to a complete makeover. With the help of Leo (Brian Krause), this transformation is imposed upon the Charmed Ones as well. But can it be that the Avatars' vision of the future is not as rosy as it seems? Meanwhile, Zankou (Oded Fehr) takes control of Brody's (Kerr Smith) body in order to wreak havoc on the girls' sense of security. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Krause, Dorian Gregory, (more)
Mummies stars Danny Trejo, Max Perlich, and Billy Worth as members of a group of criminals who set out to find a cache of gold hidden in Mexico. The group soon discovers that mummies are in charge of protecting the valuable commodity. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Told from the vantage point of two young runaways who are forced to sell their bodies in order to survive on the streets, director Glenn Klinker's somber drama follows the grim plight of Cat and Nolan as they become hopelessly ensnared in a dangerous world of sex, drugs, and violence. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tamara Hope, Reiley McClendon, (more)
"It feeds on fear!" read the advertising tagline for this Roger Corman-produced shocker. What could be scarier than a rogue crocodile, except maybe a rogue dinosaur? How about a combination thereof -- a DinoCroc? Hoping to create a cheap alternative to expensive prescription medicines, the greedy Gereco Corporation genetically manipulates a small supply of DNA from a prehistoric creature called the Sarcosuchus. Suddenly revived and very hungry, this ancient "DinoCroc" kills indiscriminately (in some very gory scenes that border on the grotesquely hilarious), but has a special fondness for human flesh. Professional herpetologist and crocodile hunter Dick Sydney (Costas Mandylor) is brought in from Australia to stop the rampaging beast, with the grudging assistance of female scientist Paula Kennedy (Joanna Pacula) and the more willing cooperation of Sheriff Harper (Charles Napier) and his ever-imperiled daughter, Diane (Jane Longnecker). Along the way, the viewer is treated to gratuitous dollops of sex and bad language, which along with the excessive violence earned the film an R rating in its original form. The climax is right out of the movie Them, with a bit of urban legend-spinning thrown in. Filmed under the title PrimeEvil, DinoCroc was given a very, very limited theatrical release before it aired over the Sci-Fi Channel on April 24, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Costas Mandylor, Charles Napier, (more)
Director Ron Howard turns to the Western genre in this tale of a father and daughter who are brought together under difficult circumstances. Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones) is a man living in New Mexico in the 1880s. He had abandoned his family years before to live and travel with a band of Apaches, but his conscience has finally gotten the better of him and he's decided to return home. Jones, however, does not receive a warm welcome upon arrival -- his wife has died and his daughter Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett), now grown and raising two children with her husband Brake (Aaron Eckhart), has no desire to see the man who left her mother to fend for herself. As Jones prepares to depart on a note of bitterness, a band of ruthless bandits, let by Army deserter Chidin (Eric Schweig), descends upon the homestead, murdering Brake and kidnapping his 15-year-old daughter Lily (Evan Rachel Wood). While Maggie feels no desire to forgive her father, she realizes he's her best hope to track down the criminals who took her child, and Jones and Maggie team up to find the bandits before they can disappear into Mexico. The Missing was based on the novel The Last Ride by Thomas Eidson. Val Kilmer and Jenna Boyd highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, (more)
This gang warfare drama is from director Scott Kalvert, whose previous film was the controversial and violent The Basketball Diaries (1995). In the sweltering summer of 1958, Leon (Stephen Dorff) and Bobby (Brad Renfro) are leaders of the Brooklyn street gang known as the Deuces. When their brother Alley Boy died from an overdose, the two toughs vowed to keep narcotics out of their turf, but now they're being muscled by a new and more powerful gang called the Vipers, fueled by drug money and led by mobster Fritzy Zennetti (Matt Dillon). As a vicious gang war heats up that will determine Brooklyn's future, a romance develops between Bobby and Annie (Fairuza Balk), the leader of a girl gang. Deuces Wild co-stars Frankie Muniz, Balthazar Getty, Max Perlich, Drea de Matteo, Deborah Harry, Vincent Pastore, Joshua Leonard, James Franco, and Johnny Knoxville. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Dorff, Brad Renfro, (more)
- 2001
The detectives at the 15th precinct go to great lengths to avoid meeting their new skipper, the notorious by-the-book disciplinarian Lt. Susan Dalto (Denise Crosby). Also new to the precinct is Lt. Tony Rodriguez (Esai Morales), whose impact will not be felt until the next episode. In other developments, a cash-register thief (Max Perlich) tries to get a lighter sentence by offering to lead the detectives to the dead body of a teenaged crack whore. And Eddie Gibson (John F. O'Donohue) doesn't like being in the middle of the romantic intrigues between his niece Cynthia and Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz). With this episode, James McDaniel makes his final appearance as Lt. Arthur Fancy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Following the life of cocaine-trafficking pioneer George Jung in a way that recalls Martin Scorsese's Casino, Blow recounts the man's days from his 1950s childhood in Boston to his downfall in the 1980s. George (played by Johnny Depp) begins his life as the son of Fred (Ray Liotta), an earnest breadwinner, and Ermine (Rachel Griffiths), who frequently walks out on them in pursuit of a more fulfilling life. When George moves west to California in the late '60s, accompanied by best pal Tuna (Ethan Suplee), he becomes an entrepreneur in the marijuana business, which soon spreads to the East Coast as well, with girlfriend Barbara (Franka Potente) smuggling the product during her stewardess shifts. George is arrested in 1972 -- at which time Barbara dies of cancer -- but George finds a new ally in Diego (Jordi Molla), who proposes the idea that he become the American conduit for Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis). George flourishes in the heyday of the disco era, and falls for Mirtha (Penelope Cruz), a self-serving bombshell who eventually has a daughter with him. Trouble escalates as the FBI threatens to bring George and his crew down, while he desperately tries to be a stable parent to his young offspring. Blow also features Paul Reubens and Max Perlich in featured roles. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, (more)
- 2001
This tongue-in-cheek ABC adventure series used the basic premise of the old Robert Wagner starrer It Takes a Thief, but with an attractive addition to the formula. John Stamos and Melissa George starred as Johnny and Rita, a brace of good-looking professional cat burglars (in an amusing twist, he was the brains and she was the brawn!). Caught in the act, Johnny and Rita were approached by the FBI and made an offer they couldn't refuse. If they hoped to avoid jail time, they would have to assist the authorities by using their larcenous talents to "recover" stolen or missing government property. Though Johnny and Rita insisted that they could not abide each other's company, the viewer knew better. Assigned to supervise the two not-quite-reformed crooks was harried FBI special agent Shue (Robert Knepper). Filmed in Toronto by Warner Bros./Kopelson Entertainment, the weekly, one-hour Thieves made its first network appearance on September 28, 2001 (its original September 21 debut date was pushed forward by ongoing coverage of the World Trade Center disaster). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Stamos, Melissa George, (more)
An aging hipster finds that there may be more to life than good looks and fast cars in this introspective comedy from first-time director Danny Comden. Twenty-something Los Angeles womanizer Sol Goode (Balthazar Getty) has been gliding through life thanks to solid genes and a quick wit, but when his car is trashed and the shadow of eviction forces him to consider getting a real job, he slowly begins to realize that some soul searching is in order. Eschewing his unfulfilling ways in a bid to find true happiness, Sol finds himself increasingly attracted to his best friend Chloe (Katharine Towne), who is all too aware of Sol's loose interpretation of the word "relationship." Will Sol ever be able to convince Chloe that he has truly changed and his feeling for her are genuine, or will his past remain a roadblock to the only means of happiness he knows? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Balthazar Getty, Katharine Towne, (more)
- 2000
Some six months after the cancellation of the popular, hard-hitting TV cop series Homicide, most of the cast members were reunited for a two-hour TV movie, which deftly (and somewhat surprisingly) combines stark, raw realism with Sartre-esque flights of fantasy. Several members past and present of the Baltimore Police Department's homicide squad are brought back together when their former skipper and current mayoral candidate, Al "G" Giardelli (Yaphet Kotto), is gunned down by a would-be assassin. As former partners Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher) and Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor) conduct their own personal search for the perpetrator, the comatose "G" discovers that not all police review boards are conducted by the living. Like its weekly predecessor, Homicide: The Movie was co-produced by Baltimore native Barry Levinson. The film made its first NBC network TV appearance on February 13, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Baldwin, Ned Beatty, (more)
- 2000
- R
Imaginary Z-grade 1960s exploitation film producer Morty Fineman (Jerry Stiller), who was responsible for such faux-works as Buddy Cops V: Hayseed and Toughnut, sci-fi blaxploitation flick The Foxy Chocolate Robot, and, of course, Heil Titler , is the focus for this mockumentary co-written and directed by Stephen Kessler). While Fineman struggles to make his latest effort, Ms. Kevorkian, about a gun-toting babe who's passionate about assisted-suicide, the bank wants to foreclose on his hallowed studio and sell his film archive for $8 a pound. In absolute desperation, he reaches out to his estranged daughter Paloma (Janeane Garofalo), who grudgingly agrees to be the president of his production company in spite of numerous moral qualms. Along the way, the film features interviews with such real-life luminaries as Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman, and blaxploitation stalwart Fred Williamson, that paints a picture of a relentlessly gung-ho producer whose work somehow manages to rise above nothing budgets and lackluster talent. They also highlight Fineman's penchant for hitting on his leading ladies; Karen Black recalled one incident by noting, "It helped to be drunk." This film was screened at the 2000 South By Southwest Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerry Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, (more)
- 1999
- R
Despite the efforts of her sleazy attorney, Mr. Butz (David Alan Grier), teen drug dealer/car thief Crystal (Natasha Lyonne) is sentenced to a 25-year prison term, the first segment of which will be served in a youth correctional facility where she will be treated for her rampant bulimia. There, in-between binge/purge marathons with her fellow eating-disordered inmates and relentless harassment of the hapless authorities, she fends off the lesbian advances of her psychotic cellmate, Cyclona (Maria Celedonio), a serial killer who's just received a life sentence. The two escape together and embark on a cross-country road trip in search of Sister Gomez (Vincent Gallo), the beneficent nun who protected Cyclona from the sexual predations of her family during her troubled childhood south of the border. Where writer/director Matthew Bright's original Freeway was a modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, Freeway 2 riffs on Hansel and Gretel; it borrows only the trailer-park trappings of the earlier film, making the titular allusion to automobiles somewhat tenuous. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natasha Lyonne, Maria Celedonio, (more)
- 1999
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In the seventh and final season of Homicide: Life on the Street, Baltimore detectives Pembleton (Andre Braugher) and Kellerman (Reed Diamond) have resigned in the wake of the bloody shoot-out between the homicide cops and the minions of criminal mastermind Georgia Rae Mahoney (though Kellerman will return in a later episode as a private detective). Seriously wounded in the fray, detectives Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and Ghary (Peter Gerety) eventually return to work, but it is clear that some emotional scars will never heal. Former recurring character Det. Terri Stivers (Toni Lewis) has become a regular, while new cast members include Michael Michele as Detective Rene Sheppard, a former beauty queen, and Giancarlo Esposito as FBI agent Mike Giardello, the long-estranged son of homicide lieutenant Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto). Before the year is out, Mike will make Al a grandfather; Detective Munch (Richard Belzer) will finally propose to his long-suffering girlfriend, Billie Lou McCoy (Ellen McElduff); detectives Det. Laura Ballard (Callie Thorne) and Falsone (Jon Seda) will enter into a romance so torrid that Giardello is forced to warn them to cool things down or they'll be suspended; and Rene Sheppard will endure both a serious injury and a humiliating suspension. Episode highlights include yet another crossover with Law & Order, this one involving an investigation conducted by a Kenneth Starr-like special prosecutor and appropriately titled "Sideshow," and the devastating "Line of Fire," in which the homicide cops try and fail to negotiate with a reluctant murderer. Homicide caps its seven-season run with good news for Giardello; the unauthorized shootdown of a killer who has managed to slip through the legal cracks; and a literal "full circle" for Bayliss (Kyle Secor), whose career with the Baltimore PD began with the series' first episode...and ends with the last one. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1999
In this frantic comedy, Lily (Christine Taylor) is thrilled when Jonathan (John Corbett), a good-looking man she's had her eye on for some time, asks her to attend a friend's wedding reception with him. But Lily's joy is short-lived when, on the day of the wedding, she misplaces her invitation and is unable to reach Jonathan on the phone. Even though she can't find Jonathan and can't recall the location of the reception, Lily is not about to let her dream date go without a fight, so she enlists the help of her best friend Frances (Paget Brewster), a good-time gal who can smell a party a mile away. Together, they make the rounds of the Los Angeles social circuit, hoping that they'll somehow stumble upon either the reception or Jonathan. Desperate But Not Serious also stars Claudia Schiffer, Joey Lawrence, and Henry Rollins. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Taylor, Paget Brewster, (more)
In this remake of William Castle's campy 1958 classic, an eccentric millionaire named Steven Price invites a diverse group of people to a reputedly haunted mansion that was formerly the site of an insane asylum. Steven offers his guests $1,000,000 each if they can spend the entire night at the old house without fleeing in terror. It sounds simple enough, but when those stories about ghosts haunting the mansion turn out to be true, the guests may no longer opt to stick around. In this version, Steven is played by Geoffrey Rush, and his guests include Jeffrey Combs, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, and Bridgette Wilson; Famke Janssen plays Evelyn Price. Sadly, this remake does not feature the original's memorable special-effects gimmick, "Emergo," an inflatable plastic skeleton that rolled on wires through the theater during showings. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, (more)
- 1998
For her second feature, Canadian director Kari Skogland (The Size of Watermelons) treads Tarantino turf with the violent visuals of this crime drama. Small-time hoods Eddie (Donal Logue) and Lucas (Gregory Sporleder) go to a rural area to collect a debt but instead get a dose of sexual humiliation from thugs they encounter there. With stoned Mamet (Callum Keith Rennie) accompanying them, they return to the farm, battle it out, and leave with a big cocaine stash, property of druglord Horace Burke (Paul Sorvino). Soon the trio is pursued by both criminals and cops. Skogland made TV commercials and music videos before her first feature. Her Men With Guns is not to be confused with John Sayles' Men With Guns, released the same month. Shown at the 1998 Rotterdam Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donal Logue, Gregory Sporleder, (more)
- 1998
- R
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Adapted from characters created by Stephen King, Sometimes They Come Back ...For More is set in Antarctica, where a remote government outpost has been the scene of a horrible disaster, leaving only two survivors - medical officer Jennifer Wells (Faith Ford) and technical officer Shebanski (ax Perlich). Two military investigators, Sam Cage (Clayton Rohner) and Callie Wilson (Chase Masterson) are sent out to uncover the truth about what happened. They are soon confronted by evil forces that steal away Callie and lead them all into a terrifying nether world with a horrible secret. Sometimes They Come Back ...For More was also screened under the titles Frozen and Ice Station Erebus. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clayton Rohner, Faith Ford, (more)
