Mike Pniewski Movies

A beloved high-school teacher empowers a group of vigilantes to exact revenge against the criminal who attacked his wife, but he begins to regret his decision when the clandestine crime fighters demand that he kill a man in return. Will Gerard (Nicolas Cage) and his wife Laura (January Jones) were just a typical happy couple until the night a shocking act of violence left them feeling victimized and vulnerable. Later, as Laura begins her slow recovery in the hospital, a concerned stranger (Guy Pearce) approaches Will with an offer to save them the suffering of a drawn-out trial by promptly dispatching his wife's assailant. Though the help he offers is free of charge, the stranger makes it clear that he may call on Will to repay the favor sometime in the future. When that day comes and Will realizes the true price of revenge is too high for him to pay, the men who once agreed to help him suddenly become his worst enemies. Jennifer Carpenter and Harold Perrineau Jr. co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A kid from the projects scores the jackpot in the lottery and fights to protect his ticket over the course of a treacherous holiday weekend in this all-star comedy featuring Ice Cube, Charlie Murphy, Terry Crews, and Loretta Devine. With the Fourth of July fast approaching, Kevin Carson (Bow Wow) purchases a pair of lottery tickets and settles down in front of the television to catch the winning numbers. When Kevin realizes he's just won 370 million dollars, he knows his neighbors will all come knocking the moment word of his massive windfall gets out. And he's right, too; before long, the local thugs are looking to take the ticket by force, and the sexiest girls in the neighborhood are begging to bear his children. Unfortunately for Kevin and his grandma, the lottery-claims office doesn't open until Monday, and over the next 72 hours there are more than a million ways the winning ticket could fall into the wrong hands. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A true story of tragedy, hope, and resilience comes to the screen in this sports drama. Huntington, WV, is home to Marshall University, a school where college football is a way of life. Huntington is also a town that learned to deal with tragedy in the fall of 1970 when Marshall's "Thundering Herd" boarded an airliner to return home after a football game in North Carolina. The jet crashed into a hill due to bad weather, and 75 members of Marshall's football squad and athletic staff died that night. The accident dealt a crippling blow to the city of Huntington, as well as Marshall's faculty and student body, and university president Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) considered abandoning the school's football program. But instead Coach Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) was recruited from Ohio's College of Wooster to rebuild Marshall's football program. Lengyel was not naïve about the task ahead of him, and working beside Red Dawson (Matthew Fox), an assistant coach who narrowly missed the doomed flight and was one of the program's only survivors, he came to understand his job was not just to put a team on the field, but help a college and a community heal their wounds from the tragic accident. Together Lengyel and Dawson turned a handful of rookies and second-string players into a competitive team who in 1971 showed the world what they could do in a legendary game against Marshall's rivals, Xavier University. Produced with the cooperation of Marshall University and filmed in part on their campus, We Are Marshall also stars Ian McShane, Anthony Mackie, and January Jones. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Directed by Taylor Hackford, this biopic profiles the life of legendary musician Ray Charles. Despite humble beginnings and the loss of his eyesight due to glaucoma at the age of six, Charles, depicted by Jamie Foxx, would nonetheless become an icon in both the music industry and the civil rights era. While the film delves into his problems with drugs and women, the bulk of the story details his career; among the highlights of that career are 12 Grammy awards and 11 R&B chart-toppers, such as "Unchain My Heart," "Hit the Road, Jack," "Georgia," "Doin' the Mess Around," and "Hallelujah I Just Love Her So." Also among the cast are Larenz Tate as Quincy Jones, as well as Regina King, Kerry Washington, and Clifton Powell. Charles' son, Ray Charles Jr. helped produce the film. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

A high school football coach finds himself fighting for stakes much higher than the State Championship in this drama based on actual events. In 1971, a court order forces three high schools in Alexandria, Virginia (two white, one African-American), to integrate their student bodies and faculties for the first time. As a result, Coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), longtime head coach of the T.C. Williams High School football team, is asked to step down, and Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) is appointed to replace him as the school's first black faculty member. The new coach is hardly welcomed with open arms, either by the school's staff or the students, and the newly integrated team is full of players (both black and white) who have little trust or respect for one another. But Boone is determined to put a winning team on the field -- it's how he approaches the game, and his future depends on it. Against long odds, Boone helps his team overcome distrust and misunderstanding of their coach (and each other) as they become a gridiron force to be reckoned with. Remember the Titans also features Nicole Ari Parker, Kate Bosworth, and Jerry Brandt, and was produced by action-film kingpin Jerry Bruckheimer. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi