Michel Perron Movies
A dark cloud of death descends upon a small town when a swarm of genetically modified wasps take to the sky in this sci-fi shocker featuring A Nightmare on Elm Street star Robert Englund. Devin Hall (Sebastien Roberts) has seen his fair share of hostile insects. An exterminator who specializes in ridding the world of household pests, Devin gets the fright of his life when he witnesses a homeless man attacked by a swarm of particularly aggressive wasps. Convinced that something sinister is afoot, the rattled exterminator enlists the aid of new Deputy Sheriff Jane Kozik (Sarah Allen) and associate professor of entomology Katherine Randall (Jayne Heitmeyer) in stopping the swarm before it gets stronger. Later, when Jane's curious daughter Kelsey strikes up a conversation with eccentric wasp keeper Eli (Englund), an already troubling situation becomes absolutely terrifying. It seems that the mutant wasps are turning their victims into drones. Is there any hope of stopping this government-created weapon before everyone in Black Stone becomes human incubators for the next wave, or has the initial swarm already grown too powerful to defeat by conventional means? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sebastien Roberts, Sarah Allen, (more)
Peter Masterson's Lost Junction stars Billy Burke as Jimmy McGee, a hitchhiker who becomes involved with Missy Lofton (Neve Campbell) after she offers him a ride. He discovers that her husband's dead body is also along for the ride in the trunk. Jimmy has fallen for Missy and helps her get rid of any trace of the body. Her unstable boyfriend (Charles Powell) and Jimmy's handicapped friend (Jake Busey) round out the cast. Lost Junction was screened at the Santa Monica Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Neve Campbell, Billy Burke, (more)
A woman is taken on a voyage to the other side of sanity in this moody thriller. Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a clinical psychologist who works alongside her husband, Dr. Doug Grey (Charles S. Dutton), in the mental ward of a top security prison, where Miranda has been devoting much of her attention to a clever but deeply disturbed murderer named Chloe (Penélope Cruz), who shares gruesome tales of torture and violence that may or may not be based in fact. One night, Miranda has a hideous nightmare in which a chance meeting with a strange young girl leads to a terrifying journey into madness. Once she wakes, however, Miranda discovers that the real horror has just begun -- Doug has been brutally murdered, and the evidence points to Miranda as the prime suspect. She soon finds herself a patient in the same facility where she once treated others, and finds that her claims of innocence and sanity do little to convince Dr. Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.), the psychologist assigned to her case. Gothika marked the American debut of acclaimed and controversial French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Halle Berry, Robert Downey, Jr., (more)
- 2002
- PG13
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In the fourth of the Hallmark Channel's feature-length "Sherlock Holmes" tales, Holmes (Matt Frewer) and Watson (Kenneth Welsh) investigate a series of savage murders apparently committed by a vampire -- and all occurring in the same Whitechapel district previously terrorized by Jack the Ripper. Holmes' services have been engaged by Brother Marstroke (Shawn Lawrence), who years earlier had lost an entire mission in British Guyana to an invading horde of rabid bats. Can it be that those long-ago bats and the current wave of killings are the handiwork of the legendary demon vampire Desmondo? The ever-logical Holmes doubts this theory...or at least he doubts it at the beginning of the story. The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire debuted October 27, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Frewer, Kenneth Welsh, (more)
A boy learning the lessons of the Torah wonders if they can be used to avenge an attack on his best friend in this drama based on the novel by Pete Hamill. Michael (Peter Tambakis) is an 11-year-old boy growing up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1947. While looking for a place to get out of the weather in the midst of a freak snowstorm, Michael meets Judah Hirsch (Stephen Rea), a rabbi from Czechoslovakia, and the two become unlikely friends. Judah fascinates Michael with tales from Jewish folklore, and Michael gives Judah a crash course in the finer points of baseball. But not everyone in Michael's neighborhood is as open-minded as he is, and Judah is attacked by a gang of anti-Semitic toughs. As Judah's life lies in the balance, Michael wonders if Judah's tales of magic and mysticism might hold a key to getting justice for his friend. Snow in August also features Lolita Davidovich as Michael's mother. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Rea, Lolita Davidovich, (more)
An ailing criminal and his excitement-starved nurse decide to knock over a bank for fun and profit in this comic suspense story. Legendary bank robber Henry Manning (Paul Newman) pushes his luck too far and ends up in prison, where he suffers a massive stroke. He is transferred to a nursing home, in the care of Carol Ann McKay (Linda Fiorentino), a high school prom queen who married her boyfriend Wayne (Dermot Mulroney), the star of her school's football team, and whose glamour days are well behind her. After a few of her personal effects mysteriously disappear, Carol Ann starts to suspect that Henry isn't as sick as he seems, and she and Wayne are soon working with Henry to plan his last and greatest score. The title comes from the remark attributed to the outlaw Willie Sutton, who when asked why he robbed banks, replied, "Because that's where the money is." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Linda Fiorentino, (more)
This big-budget science fiction adventure centers on a final battle between good and evil for control of the world. In the year 3000, Earth is ruled by the Psyclos, a vicious alien race of which Terl (John Travolta) is a member, that has laid waste to the planet, killed the majority of the population, and stripped Earth of its valuable resources. Pockets of resistance remain among the surviving humans; Jonnie "Goodboy" Tyler (Barry Pepper) is one such rebel, living in hiding in the mountains near Boulder, CO. Eventually, Johnny begins organizing like-minded humans for a final stand against the Psyclos. The film is based on the novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction author also known as the founder of the Church of Scientology; it covers only the first half of the book, saving the remainder for a possible sequel. Battlefield Earth also stars Forest Whitaker, Kim Coates, and Kelly Preston. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Travolta, Barry Pepper, (more)
A man who fails to respect the dead pays a high price for his arrogance in this horrifying thriller. For decades, the city of New York has buried the bodies of the unknown and the destitute on Hart Island, a tiny slip of land near the Big Apple's harbor, with inmates from a nearby prison on hand to do the labor. Now, multi-millionaire land developer Mr. King (Malcolm McDowell) has decided to buy the island and build a resort. King scoffs when he's told it's bad luck to disturb the resting place of the dead, but he soon learns there's a kernel of truth in their warnings -- Hart Island is also home to huge swarms of disease-carrying flies, and when King, his associates, and a crew of prisoners are trapped on the island, there's no telling if they'll make it out alive as the insects try to claim the humans as their prey. Island of the Dead also stars Bruce Ramsay, Talisa Soto, and hip-hop artist Mos Def. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Talisa Soto, Bruce Ramsay, (more)
In this thriller, Judge Richard Miller (Ryan O'Neal) is put in a highly precarious position when he is assigned to preside over the trial of Gabrielle Mitchell (Madchen Amick), a high-priced call girl with an exclusive clientele. Gabrielle, who has arranged her own arrest in order to blackmail her better-known customers, presents Miller a list of her regular clients -- as well as an incriminating videotape. Miller is put in the difficult position of either making the information public and destroying the careers of trusted colleagues, or risking his own prosecution by keeping it a secret. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Mädchen Amick, (more)
Part high-tech spy thriller and part psychological study, Eye of the Beholder was Ewan McGregor's first feature film following his mainstream breakthrough performance in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The Eye (Ewan McGregor) is an agent of the British Secret Service, equipped with the latest in high-tech crime fighting gadgetry and assisted by his indefatigable collegue, Hilary (k.d. lang). The Eye's latest assignment is a surveillance project; the son of a well-known politician has been spending a great deal of money on someone, and they would like to know who and why. A little sleuthing reveals that the mysterious person taking the cash is a woman named Joanna (Ashley Judd), but the trail gets much stickier when the Eye witnesses Joanna pulling a knife and killing the politician's son. Normally, he'd take the shortcut to putting her behind bars, but some time ago he lost contact with his daughter when his wife left him; Joanna reminds the Eye of his daughter, and he's too fascinated with her to bring her to justice. The Eye now follows Joanna obsessively, and discovers that she's also involved with a blind man (Patrick Bergin) and has a history of emotional instability from being abandoned by her father at a young age. Eye of the Beholder was directed by Stephan Elliott, best known for the comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewan McGregor, Ashley Judd, (more)
- 1992
- R
This is the third in the Scanners series of films, where people have acquired telepathic powers (due to drugs taken by their mothers during pregnancy). This time a brother combats his adopted sister in a telepathic show-down when the sister takes an experimental drug that turns her toward evil. She schemes a plan to take over the world using her psychic powers and must be stopped. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Parrish, Liliana Komorowska, (more)
- 1989
- PG
The gloom-laden Canadian/French Double Identity stars Nick Mancuso as a sedate college professor residing in the small university town of New Hope. Not given to talking about himself much, Mancuso's past is a mystery to his friends, colleagues, and new lady friend Leah Pinsent. The film's noir-ish title is the tip-off that once Mancuso's previous life comes to the forefront, it will be no picnic. In fact, it's a killer. Filmed in 1989, Double Identity was released in 1991; director Yves Boisset remains on target while dealing with the film's "present", less so when he indulges in confusing flashbacks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
To fully appreciate Boy in Blue, it's helpful to know a little bit about the sport of "sculling"-or competitive rowing. Nicolas Cage stars as the real-life Ned Hanlan, who at the turn of the century was Canada's foremost sculling champ. A wild, uncontrollable youth, Hanlan is "adopted" by a gambler named Bill (David Naughton), who promotes the boy on the sculling circuit for his own monetary gain. Ruthlessly businessman Knox (Christopher Plummer) assumes control of Hanlan's career, but when Ned discovers just how ruthless Knox can be, he casts his lot with the first honest man he's met, inventor-speculator Walter (Sean Sullivan). Hanlan's professional success is capped by his marriage to Margaret (Cynthia Dale), Knox's previously unattainable niece. The by-the-numbers Boy in Blue was given an R rating due to a few disposable sex scenes, thereby cutting its potential audience (hero-worshipping youths) in half. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Cynthia Dale, (more)
