Peter Berg Movies
Onscreen from the late '80s, actor Peter Berg first made a memorable impression in A Midnight Clear (1992), playing one of a group of soldiers stationed in Germany during World War II. The muscular, strong-jawed actor had his real screen breakthrough with John Dahl's critically acclaimed The Last Seduction (1994), a neo-noir that cast him as Linda Fiorentino's unwitting, hormonally misguided accomplice. Berg's subsequent roles tended to be in films of middling quality, and it was for his work on the popular TV series Chicago Hope that he received the most recognition.In 1998, Berg made his feature directorial debut with Very Bad Things, a black comedy starring Jon Favreau, Christian Slater, Jeremy Piven, Daniel Stern, and Leland Orser as a group of men behaving badly. The film, which was shown at the Toronto and San Sebastian Film Festivals, received a fairly mixed critical reception. Nonetheless, Berg continued to be a presence behind the camera. In 2000, he created Wonderland, an edgy dramatic television series set in an asylum. While the ABC show recieved rave reviews and garnered a cult following, it failed to deliver ratings and was quickly cancelled.
Berg finally found himself with a hit on his hands in 2003 with The Rundown. Starring The Rock and Seann William Scott, the Berg-helmed action comedy was well-received by critics and managed to score well at the box-office. In 2004, Berg began work on his third directorial effort, Friday Night Lights, a football film he also scripted that turned into the biggest ciritical hit of his career, as well as performing solidly at the box office. He followed that up with the military thriller The Kingdom in 2007, and the Will Smith sci-fi film Hancock in 2008. He had a hand in the script for the action revenge film The Losers, and in 2012 he helmed the big-screen adaptation of the beloved board game Battleship. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- 2014
Dwayne Johnson stars as the son of Zeus in this Brett Ratner-directed adaptation of Steve Moore's Radical Comics graphic novel. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dwayne Johnson
Milton Bradley's enduringly popular strategic board game makes the leap to the big screen in Hancock director Peter Berg's epic sci-fi adventure pitting an international naval fleet against an army of invading aliens. When the two forces find themselves evenly matched, each must rely on strategy and cunning in order to emerge the victor. Taylor Kitsch and Alexander Skarsgard head-up a cast also featuring Liam Neeson, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, and Tadanobu Asano. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, (more)
- 2010
- PG13
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Director Phillip Noyce teams with screenwriters Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium) and Brian Helgeland (Mystic River) to craft this thriller starring Angelina Jolie as dedicated CIA officer Evelyn Salt, who is accused by a defector of being a Russian spy. With each attempt Salt makes to prove her innocence, her mentor, Winter (Liev Schreiber), only grows more suspicious of her true motivations. The longer she eludes capture by ambitious CIA agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the higher the stakes get. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, (more)
Director Sylvain White adapts the Vertigo comic about a team of mercenaries who wage war on the CIA after they're double-crossed in the field and left to die. Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Jensen (Chris Evans), Roque (Idris Elba), Pooch (Columbus Short), and Cougar (Óscar Jaenada) were on a black-ops mission in the Bolivian jungle when rogue CIA agent Max (Jason Patric) hung them out to dry. After beating the odds and surviving their ordeal, the team decides to strike back against Max even if it means sacrificing their own lives to do so. Aiding them on their treacherous suicide mission is sexy operative Aisha (Zoe Saldana), who has her own reasons for wanting to see Max get his just deserts. But getting to Max won't be easy, because in addition to having the CIA on his side, he's about to spark a war that could plunge the entire globe into chaos. Their time quickly running out as Max's plan kicks into overdrive, the Special Forces unit that everyone assumed dead arms themselves to the teeth and prepares to strike back with a vengeance. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, (more)
- 2009
A spaceship from Earth is equipped with a virtual-reality device to help those aboard cope with their 10-year mission. But when the system malfunctions, it puts the Phaeton's crew -- and the fate of their planet -- in jeopardy. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi
- 2009
Inspired by the remarkable story of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro -- a horse that seemed to be a serious Triple Crown contender before fatefully shattering one of his hind legs in the Preakness -- Peter Berg's docudrama focuses on the noble efforts made by owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson, trainer Michael Matz, and veterinary surgeon Dean Richardson to humanly stabilize the injury and keep the animal alive against all odds. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2009
Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg writes, directs, and produces this true-life tale of survival set in Afghanistan and involving a Navy Seal whose entire squadron was killed in a Taliban ambush. Marcus Luttrell was a Navy Seal who led a team of soldiers into Afghanistan on a dangerous mission to kill a Taliban leader. One day, while preparing for their mission on the side of a mountain, the team was surprised to encounter an Afghan man, a farmer, and a young boy. Subsequently struggling with the decision whether to kill them and violate the military rules of engagement or to let them go and risk blowing their cover, the team took a vote and found themselves deadlocked at an even split. As the leader of the team, it was up to Luttrell to make the final call. Determining that the three were simple civilians, Luttrell made the call to release them. An hour later, his entire team was wiped out by dozens of heavily armed Taliban. When the smoke cleared, Luttrell was clinging to life -- the sole survivor of the brutal ambush. In the following days Luttrell would use his military experience to stay alive in a hostile landscape and avoid detection by the Taliban. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2009
Directed by Peter Berg, this entry in ESPN's documentary series 30 for 30 explores the changes that occurred in the National Hockey League after the game's biggest star, Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the L.A. Kings. By playing in the United States, Gretzky caused something of a renaissance for the sport there, but in Canada, where hockey is the most popular sport, the trade was met with outrage. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
A hard-drinking lush finds himself thrust into superhero mode in director Peter Berg's unconventional look at the private life of a crime-fighter. Will Smith stars as the embittered do-gooder whose lifestyle is more akin to a rock star than a role model, and who has grown as disillusioned with his once-admiring public as they have of him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Smith, Charlize Theron, (more)
In the aftermath of a deadly attack on American forces in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, diplomats are slow to act, but meanwhile, FBI special agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) assembles a secret team of U.S. counter-terrorism investigators to enter the city and find the criminal behind what has quickly become an international incident. The crew, however, finds their attempt to capture the perpetrators stalled by bureaucracy and their presence unwelcome. Desperate to gain the trust they need to accomplish their mission in just five days, the team enlists the aid of a Saudi Arabian police officer (Ashraf Barhoum), but as the agents infiltrate the dark and complex world of the Saudi crime scene, they find that the perpetrator's next target may be them. Directed by Peter Berg, The Kingdom also stars Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, (more)
Lars (Ryan Gosling) and Gus (Paul Schneider) are the grown children of a father who died recently and a mother who died giving birth to Lars. But as brothers, they couldn't be more different. While Gus lives in the family home and has a loving wife (Emily Mortimer) and a child on the way, Lars leads a more reclusive existence in the family's garage, hiding in plain sight of his small, wintry hometown. Painfully shy and eccentric, Lars fails to recognize that his co-worker Margo (Kelli Garner) has a major crush on him, and he picks up on a casual reference made by his cubicle mate, who mentions a website where you can order life-sized, anatomically correct sex dolls. But instead of seeing a sex object, Lars sees in this doll a potential life partner and the only kind of social "peer" he can relate to. So Lars orders a doll, whom he names Bianca, and begins treating her with utmost gentlemanly respect -- and as though she's his real-life, flesh-and-blood girlfriend. As he begins bringing Bianca with him everywhere he goes, the townspeople have to find just the right balance between supporting Lars' unusual romance and trying to introduce him to a more conventional partner. Lars and the Real Girl was written by Six Feet Under scribe Nancy Oliver and directed by Mr. Woodcock's Craig Gillespie. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, (more)
When a shifty magician turns state's evidence against a Las Vegas underworld heavy, the high price placed on his head sparks a fevered race to rub the snitch out and collect a tidy paycheck in Narc director Joe Carnahan's dark action comedy. Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a small-time scammer who has somehow managed to get the goods on big-time mobster Primo Sparazza. Upon discovering that Buddy is about to deliver the evidence needed to get him thrown in jail for life, Primo takes out a sizable contract on Buddy that entices every two-bit thug, grizzled bounty hunter, deadly vixen, skilled assassin, and ladder-climbing Mafioso within a hundred-mile radius into taking a shot at the prize. Now holed up in his luxurious Lake Tahoe hideout with only two FBI agents (Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta) standing between him from a virtual army of money-hungry rogues, Buddy is about to find out just how far this motley crew of killers is willing to go in order to take him out and hit the jackpot. Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, and Martin Henderson co-star in a bullet-strewn, ensemble crime comedy that never stops to reload. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, (more)
Robert Redford directs this dramatic tale of intersecting lives that weaves together the stories of an idealistic professor's attempts to inspire a privileged student, a former student of the teacher who is wounded behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, and a congressman whose interactions with a seasoned journalist reveal much about the man behind the public persona. Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, and Robert Redford star in a film scripted by Matthew Michael Carnahan. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, (more)
- 2006
- R
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First-time writer/director Scott Burns spins this suspenseful yarn about a nuclear technician who has a curious encounter with a notoriously violent Russian gangster (Nikolaj Lie Kaas). The year is 1995, and Timofey (Paddy Considine) is a nuclear power-plant worker in post-Soviet Russia. After being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation while working to avert a disaster, Timofey discovers that the authorities have deliberately misled him about the severity of his exposure, and that he will likely die in just a few days. Determined to provide for his wife (Radha Mitchell) and young son before he succumbs to the effects of radiation, Timofey absconds with a small amount of weapons grade plutonium, straps the vial to his body, and makes his way to Moscow in hopes of making a quick and profitable sale in the criminal underground. This is the "new Russia," where everything has its price, and Timofey is determined to secure his family's future even if he himself has none. Oscar Issac and Jason Flemyng co-star in a film produced by Section Eight and Beacon Pictures for HBO Films, and distributed by Picturehouse. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paddy Considine, Radha Mitchell, (more)
- 2006
One of two football-themed series of the 2006-2007 TV season (the other was The Game), the NBC dramedy Friday Night Lights was based on the H.G. Bissinger book and the 2004 theatrical film of the same name. Like its predecessors, the series took place in a small Texas town (Odessa in the film and book, Dillon on the show), where high school football was not merely a game but a "religion" -- or more succinctly, a matter of life and death, with literally every person in the community having a personal stake or a heated opinion of the weekly game. Kyle Chandler headed the large cast as Eric Taylor, the newly hired coach of the Dillon Panthers (the role played by Billy Bob Thornton in the film). Also seen were Connie Britton, recreating her film role as Eric's wife, Tami; Scott Porter as star Panther quarterback Jason Street; Minka Kelly as Jason's cheerleader girlfriend, Lyla Garrity; Gaius Charles as running back Brian "Smash" Williams; Zach Gilford as perennial benchwarmer Matt Saracen, forced by fate to take over as quarterback during the playoffs; and Adrianne Palicki as high school vamp Tyra Collette. Unfolding in a semi-serialized fashion, Friday Night Lights kicked off on October 3, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
H.G. Bissinger's best-selling true-life account of a few months in the life of a high-school football team comes to the screen in this adaptation written and directed by Peter Berg. Odessa, TX, is an oil town in the western part of the state that's home to the Permian High School Panthers, the football team with the best winning record in the state. Odessa is a town with more than its share of problems; the decline of the oil business in Texas has set the city's economy into a tailspin, and racial tensions still erupt into violence on occasion. But football is the one thing that brings all the people of Odessa together, and on Friday nights every fall, as many as 20,000 people fill Permian's football stadium to watch Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) and his boys try to lead the team to victory. As Gaines works to build a winning team in a town where victory is prized above all else, however, his players struggle through the emotional trials common to any teenager and ponder the fact that there is little future in their hometown...and that a championship season can be as much a burden as a triumph. Friday Night Lights also stars Lucas Black, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, and country singer-turned-actor Tim McGraw. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, (more)
A taxi driver is unexpectedly taken on the ride of his life in this stylish thriller from acclaimed director Michael Mann. Max (Jamie Foxx) is a cab driver who hopes to some day open his own limo company; one night behind the wheel begins promisingly when he picks up Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith), an attorney working with the federal government who is attractive, friendly, and gives him her business card after paying her fare. Max thinks his luck is getting even better when his next fare, Vincent (Tom Cruise), offers him several hundred dollars in cash if he'll be willing to drop him off, wait, and pick him up at five different spots over the course of the evening. Max agrees, but he soon realizes Vincent isn't just another guy with errands to run -- Vincent is an assassin who has been paid to murder five people who could put the leaders of a powerful drug trafficking ring behind bars in an upcoming trial. As circumstances force Max to do Vincent's bidding, the cabbie has to find a way to prevent Vincent from killing again and save his own skin, a task that becomes especially crucial when he discovers Annie is one of the names on Vincent's hit list. Collateral also stars Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, and Bruce McGill as police detectives hot on Vincent's trail. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, (more)
Beck (The Rock) is a "retrieval specialist" in hock to a powerful and not particularly nice gentleman named Walker (William Lucking). Beck is anxious to retire from his dangerous work and open a small restaurant. Walker tells Beck he'll be free and clear with enough cash to fulfill his dream if he does one more job. He sends Beck into the Brazilian rainforest to bring back his wayward son, Travis (Seann William Scott). Travis is down there looking for a legendary idol, El Gato Diablo, which he could sell for millions if he found it. A pretty local, Mariana (Rosario Dawson), offers Travis the use of her boat in exchange for a cut of the take on the statue. But the powerful Hatcher (Christopher Walken) owns the area's huge mine, where locals work for slave wages, and feels that anything found in the area is his property. He refuses to let Beck take Travis back to the U.S. until the statue is in his hands. Using his estimable fighting prowess (he doesn't like guns), Beck manages to get Travis out of town, but Travis doesn't want to go home, and he ends up getting them stranded in the jungle, where they're confronted with horny monkeys and angry guerrillas. To make matters worse, Hatcher and his thugs are hot on their trail, and Mariana turns out to have her own motives for getting involved. The Rundown, the second film directed by actor Peter Berg (Very Bad Things), features a brief, uncredited cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- The Rock, Seann William Scott, (more)
- 2002
In Vienna on the trail of "The Man," who may or may not have information pertaining to her late mother, Sydney (Jennifer Garner) is unexpectedly reunited with her ex-lover, fellow SD-6 agent Noah Hicks (Peter Berg). Meanwhile, Syd's father, Jack (Victor Garber), consults with CIA psychiatrist Judy Barnett (Patricia Wettig) about his nagging premonition that his wife (and Syd's mom) may still be alive. And what of the Rambaldi Prophecy -- and who will crack the secret behind that prophecy first? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 2002
Sydney (Jennifer Garner) returns to America with her ex-lover and fellow SD-6 agent Noah (Peter Berg), who offers her a way out of the spy game once and for all. But Sydney has to take care of unfinished business: Now convinced that her mother, KGB agent Irina Derevko, is still alive, she will not rest until she finds the woman. Meanwhile, Vaughn (Michael Vartan) puts a tail on an assassin known as "The Snowman" in hopes of tracking down the elusive Khasinau, who may or may not be "The Man" behind all the skullduggery occurring in previous episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Kattan stars in this mob comedy as Corky Romano, a veterinarian with a penchant for pop music from the '80s. As a youth, Corky was kicked out of his Mafia-connected family for being an oddball. Now his long-lost father (Peter Falk) has been indicted and needs Corky to infiltrate the FBI and steal the government's evidence against him. Corky is willing to aid the relatives who so long ago turned their backs on him, but his brothers go overboard when intimidating the computer hacker who gets Corky's bogus application into the FBI academy, presenting him as a super agent named Pissant. Now Corky must live up to his reputation for an eminently qualified top cop while simultaneously trying to get the goods on his dad. Corky Romano co-stars Peter Berg, Chris Penn, Vincent Pastore, Vinessa Shaw, Fred Ward, and Richard Roundtree. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chris Kattan, Vinessa Shaw, (more)
- 2000
This series is a gritty hard-driving look at an insane asylum. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Billy Burke, Joelle Carter, (more)
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