Mark Thompson Movies

Police arrive on the scene to find that Heller (William Devane) and Audrey (Kim Raver) have been taken prisoner by the terrorists, while Richard (Logan Marshall-Green) hides in the house. Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) asks Driscoll (Alberta Watson) to reinstate him, but she wants to detain him for torturing Sherek. Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) confides in Jack, telling him about Driscoll's mishandling of Andrew's call. She calls Andrew, who tells her that everyone in his office has been murdered, and the terrorists are after him. Unaware that a terrorist, Kalil Hasan (Anil Kumar), has cloned Andrew's cell and is listening in, Jack tells Andrew that he'll come to pick him up at Union Station in 30 minutes. Jack confronts Driscoll about ignoring Andrew's call, and demands to be reinstated, or he won't tell her where they've arranged to meet. Driscoll agrees to reinstate him temporarily, but insists that he work under Ronnie (Shawn Doyle). They head to the station, but Kalil gets there first, and pretends to be Jack in order to lure Andrew away. Meanwhile, at the Araz home, Behrooz (Jonathan Ahdout) is still in contact with his American girlfriend, Debbie (Leighton Meester), despite his parents' demand that he break things off. He goes on a crucial errand for Navi (Nestor Serrano), bringing the mysterious briefcase to the compound where (unbeknownst to Behrooz) Heller and Audrey are being held. Debbie, mistakenly thinking he's involved with another girl, follows him and is spotted by one of the terrorists. Behrooz later tells his father that Debbie didn't see anything incriminating, but Navi insists that he invite Debbie over to their house. As the hour closes, the terrorists blast the entire Internet with video of the captured Secretary of Defense, and explain that he'll be publicly tried for his crimes against humanity. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) has caused a riot at the prison, and he and Ramon (Joaquim de Almeida) attempt to escape by knocking out two guards and putting on their uniforms. Unfortunately, they're overtaken by a gang of heavily armed prisoners, and the riot leader, Peel (Lobo Sebastian) forces the two "guards" to play Russian roulette. Michelle (Reiko Aylesworth) learns that Jack is trying to break Ramon out of prison, and orders Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) to search his office for anything pertinent. She finds evidence of his drug use. With Gael (Jesse Borrego) sabotaging their efforts, the CTU team inches closer to finding Kyle. Studying surveillance video, Adam (Zachary Quinto) determines that Kyle (Riley Smith) has been abducted, and Kim discovers the van's license plate number. In an effort to save Linda (Agnes Bruckner), Kyle attempts to kill himself, but she manages to stop him. At the debate, Keeler (Geoff Pierson) makes his accusation against Anne (Wendy Crewson). ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Rich Thorne's Mother Ghost stars Mark Thompson as a man who, as the story begins, is mourning the death of his mother. When he stumbles upon a piece of his mother's jewelry, he starts to take a hard look at his own life. Soon he questions all of the suppositions he has about his marriage and his existence. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

The world finds itself on the brink of nuclear disaster, with the balance point a small diner in Colorado, in the suspenseful political thriller Deterrence. In the year 2008, U.S. President Walter Emerson (Kevin Pollak), who recently took office after the death of the former chief executive, is campaigning for re-election. After winning the Colorado state primary, Emerson finds himself stranded in a roadside diner after a freak snowstorm. Traveling with Emerson are his chief of staff, Marshall Thompson (Timothy Hutton), national security advisor Gayle Redford (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and a network TV crew. While the president exchanges pleasantries with the diner's staff and customers, a new bulletin appears on TV: Udei Hussein, son of the late Saddam Hussein, has invaded Kuwait and butchered several hundred U.S. peace-keeping troops. Outraged, the president announces that if Hussein and his forces do not withdraw and officially surrender, he will begin dropping nuclear weapons on Baghdad. However, Iraq responds that if they are attacked, 23 cities in the United States and allied nations will be immediately destroyed in a counterattack. Emerson, his advisors, and the others trapped in the diner with them debate long and loud about what to do, and what the potential consequences could be. Deterrence was written and directed by former film critic Rod Lurie. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Originally planned as a silly vehicle for Chris Farley, in the hands of director Ben Stiller and star Jim Carrey, The Cable Guy became an opportunity for Carrey to flex some of his darker comedic muscles as stalker Chip Douglas. Matthew Broderick plays Steven, an average Joe who is forlorn over his recent breakup with girlfriend Robin (Leslie Mann). When he moves into a new apartment, Steven comes in contact with Chip, who shows up to hook up the cable. Before he knows it, and whether he likes it or not, Steven has a new best-friend in the obnoxious and clingy Chip. However, Steven soon learns that obnoxious is a walk in the park compared to Chip's behavior when Steven tells him he doesn't want to be his pal anymore. What's worse, no one -- including Robin or his family -- believes Steven when he accuses the seemingly harmless Chip of being a malevolent menace. George Segal and Jack Black also star along with Stiller, who plays twins loosely-based on the Menendez brothers. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

This earnest, intelligent, and well-written romantic comedy is enjoyable and optimistic in classic Hollywood style, even if its idealism doesn't seem quite so credible against the cynical political backdrop of the Nineties. President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas), an unabashedly liberal Democrat, is just gearing up for re-election when he meets an attractive and sharp environmental lobbyist named Sydney Wade (Annette Bening). The two fall in love and the President must soon deal with the political repercussions (Sydney is trying to get legislation through Congress), as well as the cynical machinations of Republican opponent Senator Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss), who attempts to paint Sydney as a radical and use "family values" rhetoric to smear Shepherd. With the attacks affecting his standings in the all-important polls, and his love's legislation causing him headaches in the Capitol, Shepherd must decide whether he can risk continuing his relationship. A rich supporting cast, solid characterizations by Douglas and Bening, and an articulate approach make this an appealing, if not particularly weighty, study of the tensions between public and private life. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

Touted upon its release as the finale of the Rocky saga, this fifth entry in the long-running series of sports dramas reunites star Sylvester Stallone with John G. Avildsen, director of the Oscar-winning original. Stallone is Rocky Balboa, suffering from career-ending brain damage as a result of his punishing bout with Ivan Drago at the finale of the previous film. Upon their return to Philadelphia, Rocky and his wife, Adrian (Talia Shire), discover they are broke, their fortune squandered by an incompetent accountant. Forced to move back to their working-class neighborhood, Rocky finds that his only asset is the run-down gym willed to him by Mickey (Burgess Meredith, who appears in new flashback sequences). Resisting big money offered to him by Don King-like boxing promoter George Washington Duke (Richard Gant), Rocky becomes a trainer and finds a talented comer in Tommy Gunn (real-life boxer Tommy Morrison, nephew of John Wayne). Rocky's son (played by Stallone's real-life son Sage Stallone) feels neglected by his father, who lavishes attention on his protégé, but Tommy ultimately turns his back on his mentor to sign a more lucrative deal with Duke, leading to a street-fight showdown. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

With Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938) as his blueprint, Peter Bogdanovich resurrected and payed homage to 1930s screwball comedy in What's Up, Doc? (1972). When wacky co-ed Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand, in the Katharine Hepburn part) spies nebbishy musicologist Howard Bannister (Ryan O'Neal in bespectacled Cary Grant mode) in a San Francisco hotel lobby, she decides that Howard and his precious igneous rocks are right up her alley. Too bad Howard already has a fiancée, the propriety-fixated Eunice (Madeline Kahn in her film debut). Using all her arcane knowledge from brief stays at numerous colleges, Judy tries to charm her way to a $20,000 grant for Howard, and Howard himself, at a banquet with grantor Frederick Larrabee (Austin Pendleton). Things get even more complicated the next day when Judy's underwear-filled overnight bag gets mixed up with Howard's rock bag, which gets mixed up with Mrs. Van Hoskins' bag of jewels, which gets mixed up with Mr. Smith's bag of top secret government papers. All sides converge at Larrabee's mod townhouse and the chase begins. Retaining Hawks' machine-gun pace (as well as the sly pop culture referentiality of Billy Wilder), Bogdanovich and writers Buck Henry, David Newman, and Robert Benton updated the opposites-attract screwball convention for contemporary times. O'Neal gently parodied not only Grant but also his own Love Story (1970) preppy, while Kahn represents stiff-wigged 1950s manners as opposed to Streisand's long-haired, pants-wearing free spirit. The happy ending, in which Cole Porter-belting youth wins out over old manners, found favor with audiences, as What's Up, Doc? became one of the most popular films of 1972, and the second hit in a row for Bogdanovich after 1971's The Last Picture Show. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi