Jacob Vargas

The exciting world of rollerblading provides the basis of this tale of a young teen who tries to inspire the affection of a pretty girl with his skating prowess. The lad is 15-year-old Mitchell Goosen who is sent from sunny southern California to snowy Cincinnati to live with relatives while his parents go on a long trip to Australia. The boy comes to the Ohio city clutching his surfboard and meets his goofy cousin who quickly becomes his friend. Naturally his laid back West Coast ways make him the subject of ridicule in his new high school. His biggest foe is the school jock. The pain of his new life is eased a bit after Mitchell meets perky blond Nikki. They talk and then he is forced to play in a hockey game. Mitchell has no idea what hockey is about but still manages to score the winning goal causing him to be the victim of more ostracism. In the spring, he begins rollerblading and the other kids are amazed by his many stunts. Eventually, he uses his skills to win the respect of his enemies and Niki's heart, but not without a lot more daring skating escapades. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Twenty-two people become unwitting participants in a tragic and defining moment of the 1960's in this period drama from actor and director Emilio Estevez. It's early June in 1968, and the California presidential primary elections are occupying the minds of many in the Golden State, with Robert F. Kennedy in a close race against Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey. The Kennedy campaign staff has set up camp at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, while the staff and guests become observers as the brother of fallen president John F. Kennedy sets out to pick up where his sibling left off. Paul (William H. Macy) is the manager of the Ambassador, and his wife Miriam (Sharon Stone) is a hairdresser who runs's the hotel's beauty salon. Angela (Heather Graham) is a receptionist working the hotel's switchboard who has been sleeping with Paul behind Miriam's back. Timmons (Christian Slater) is in charge of the hotel's restaurant and catering department, and makes no secret of his dislike of the African-Americans and Latinos under his employ. Miguel (Jacob Vargas) and Jose (Freddy Rodriguez) are two young Chicanos on the kitchen staff who have it in for Timmons, while Robinson (Laurence Fishburne) is an older black man who counsels them on dealing with their rage. Virginia Fallon (Demi Moore) sings in the hotel's cocktail lounge and has a serious problem with alcohol; her husband Tim (Emilio Estevez) is a Kennedy supporter and also her manager, and he's nearing the end of his rope in dealing with her problem. William (Elijah Wood) is a young man desperate to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam; Diane (Lindsay Lohan) is a pretty young woman dating William's brother who agrees to marry him so William can avoid being drafted, though William is clearly infatuated with her while she considers this a marriage in name only. John Casey (Anthony Hopkins) is one of the owners of the Ambassador, and Nelson (Harry Belafonte) is an old friend who works at the hotel. And Jack (Martin Sheen) is a wealthy Kennedy campaign financier who is married to Samantha (Helen Hunt), an attractive but much younger woman. Bobby also features Joshua Jackson, Nick Cannon and Shia LaBeouf as young Kennedy campaign volunteers, while Ashton Kutcher, Joy Bryant, Kip Pardue and Mary Elizabeth Winstead also highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A drama involving the world of inner-city drug dealing, Crack House concerns two students (Gregg Gomez Thomsen, Cheryl Kay) trying to attend school while living with the pressures of ghetto life. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In this supernatural thriller, Kevin Costner plays Joe Darrow, a physician mourning the death of his wife Emily (Susannah Thompson) in a bus accident in South America, where she was providing medical outreach. Wracked by grief, Joe works extra shifts at the hospital to take his mind off the tragedy, but the intense workload triggers his short temper and some careless mistakes. His officious boss (Joe Morton) forces Joe to take time off, but Joe feels obligated to check in on his wife's pediatric patients, fulfilling a promise he made before she left. Visiting the ward, Joe starts to believe that Emily is using the near-death experiences of her terminal patients to communicate with him, through images the children report seeing in their dreams, and symbols they are inexplicably compelled to draw. While the children see Joe as a kindred spirit, the hospital staff worries about how these interactions are agitating them. At home, Joe begins finding other ethereal evidence of his wife's attempt to contact him from beyond the grave, some of it featuring the image of a dragonfly, which was the shape of the birthmark on her shoulder. His friends and a caring neighbor (Kathy Bates) worry that Joe is losing his marbles, especially as his quest becomes more frantic, putting his job in jeopardy. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

Ernest (Jim Varney) gets a job as a fix-it man at a summer camp for troubled boys, but what he really wants to be is a counselor. This juvenile comedy, filled with potty humor and slapstick, chronicles his campaign to get a promotion. A consummate bungler, he ends up causing all kinds of comical chaos. Fortunately, he also ends up helping many of the campers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Elleston Trevor, director John Moore's The Flight of the Phoenix is a remake of a 1965 film of the same name starring film icon James Stewart. The story revolves around the plight of Captain Frank Towns (Dennis Quaid), a pilot whose C-119 cargo plane full of oil workers could not withstand the violent winds of a desert sandstorm. Stranded in the harsh terrain of Mongolia's Gobi Desert (a departure from the original, in which the plane crashed in the Sahara), Frank and his navigator face an equal challenge in maintaining order among the survivors. The group of oilmen had planned on an uneventful trip to shut off a group of rigs falling below their productivity expectations -- not fending for their very lives. Before long, some men are revealed as cowards, while others exhibit a surprising show of strength, all the while hoping that the wreckage of the original plane can be salvaged before a Lord of the Flies situation occurs. Miranda Otto is featured in a supporting role, as well as Giovanni Ribisi and Tyrese Gibson. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Richard Peck called Don't Look and It Won't Hurt, Allison Anders' melodramatic coming-of-age tale Gas Food Lodging takes place in Laramie, NM, a small town right off the highway. Nora (Brooke Adams) is a truck-stop waitress who lives in a trailer park with her two teenaged daughters, Trudi (Ione Skye) and Shade (Fairuza Balk). While Trudi sleeps around and defies her mother, Shade spends her time at the local cinema and wishes she could have a dad like a normal family. One day, Trudi hooks up with a visiting geologist (Robert Knepper) and spends a magical evening in a cave with him. However, he turns up missing and Trudi finds herself pregnant. Meanwhile, Shade's romantic advances are rejected by Darius (Donovan Leitch), but she finds something new with film projectionist Javier (Jacob Vargas). Shade's attempts at finding a husband for her mom are unsuccessful, but Nora ends up meeting satellite TV installation man Hamlet Humphrey (David Lansbury). Features a cameo appearance from Dinosaur Jr. frontman J. Mascis, who also wrote the original music. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Series creator Peter Murrieta based the weekly, half-hour sitcom Greetings From Tucson on his own experience growing up in a multicultural household. When he received a promotion on his job, Mexican-American patriarch Joaquin (Julio Oscar Mechoso) moved his family into a slightly more upscale Tucson neighborhood. Despite his new surroundings, the rule-bound Joaquin remained loyal to the "old values" passed down from his homeland, and tended to keep his children -- son David (Pablo Santos) and daughter Maria (Aimee Garcia) -- on very short leashes. Slightly more liberal in her parental behavior was Joaquin's feisty Irish-American wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Creskoff), while Joaquin's peppery mother Magdalena (Lupe Ontiveros) and indolent brother Ernesto (Jacob Vargas) could easily be described as overraged hippies. Much of the humor was of the culture-clash variety, with Joaquin's Mexican traditionalism, Elizabeth's Irish pragmatism, and daughter Maria's self-imposed Spanish nationalism all brought into play. After a bit of pre-release script tinkering (including changing the family's name from Campos to Tiant and changing the series' title from Just for You), Greetings From Tucson finally premiered on September 20, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a teenager is killed in a robbery, Hunter (Fred Dryer) discovers that the kid was working for his old enemy Hector "El Gallo" Rivas (Trinidad Silvas). Determined to circumvent the law, El Gallo has assembled a gang of teens who are too young to prosecute as adults to do his dirty work. Secure in the knowledge that they'll beat any rap imposed upon them, the kids are willing to commit murder on behalf of El Gallo--and it is this aspect of the case that nearly pushes Hunter off the deep end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Widely touted as NBC's answer to The Sopranos, the six-episode series Kingpin also drew heavily from the British mini-series Traffik. The nominal protagonist in this seamy, violent tale of a Mexican drug-trading family was Yancey Arias as Miguel Cadena, the Stanford-educated heir apparent to the Cardena criminal dynasty. Together with his icy, coke-addicted wife, Marlene (Sheryl Lee), Miguel coolly guided the destinies of his worldwide family business, eliminating enemies, friends, and loved ones alike to maintain his empire. Others in the cast included Bobby Cannavale as Miguel's vicious "enforcer" brother, Chato; Ruben Carbajal as Miguel and Marlene's disillusioned eight-year-old son, Joey; Angela Alvarado Rosa as relentless DEA agent Delia Flores; Brian Benben as the Cardenas' personal plastic surgeon, Dr. Heywood Klein; and Shay Roundtree as Texas-born torpedo Junie Gatling, who acted as a sounding board for the other characters. Among the creative contributors to the series was Allen Coulter, who direct several episodes of The Sopranos. Originally slated for a March 2003 debut, Kingpin was moved up to February 2, 2003 to take advantage of a traditional network "sweeps week." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Christian Slater comes back for another round of that old True Romance in this tale of two young lovers who set out on the lam after discovering a substantial cache of dirty money. Duke is a hapless Iraq War veteran who just can't seem to pull his life together after returning home. While his love for pretty girlfriend Amber runs deep, there seems to be something just beyond reach that's keeping him from making the transition from soldier to civilian. When Duke stumbles onto the scene of a botched drug deal and notices a large duffel bag overflowing with cash, he picks up Amber, stops off for a quick wedding, and hits the road with a bag full of bills and a beautiful new bride. At first it seems like nothing can stop this young couple from conquering the world, but someone is missing that money, and he's determined to get it back. Pollen (Slater) is a corrupt DEA agent who is willing to kill in order to reclaim the cash he believes is rightfully his, and chances are he'll slay this young couple even if they agree to give it back. With time running out and Pollen closing in, Duke and Amber will be forced to outrun and outwit a madman that has all the resources needed to track them anywhere they run to. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In his 1961 speech to the National Association of Broadcasters Newton Minnow claimed that television had become a "vast wasteland," and with this comedy the warped folks at National Lampoon prove that Minnow's so-called "vast wasteland" has since been flooded by a festering cesspool of filth and depravity. Absolutely nothing is sacred as Jackass stars Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy, and Jason "Wee Man" Acuna skewer small screen conventions by targeting everything from reality television to talk shows. For viewers looking to find out just how far the bar has been lowered, who better to turn to than the satirical minds at National Lampoon? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this sequel to the urban comedy Friday, rap music star Ice Cube returns as Craig Jones, a streetwise man from South Central Los Angeles who has a knack for getting into trouble. This time out, Craig is still trying to outsmart neighborhood bully Debo (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.); after Craig gets the better of Debo in a fist fight, Debo is determined to flatten Craig in a rematch. Looking to stay out of Debo's way, Craig decides that it would be a good time to visit his cousin (Mike Epps) and uncle (Don "DC" Curry), who have recently won the lottery and moved into a spacious new home in the suburbs. Like Friday, Next Friday was written by Ice Cube and his frequent musical collaborator DJ Pooh; music video director Steve Carr made his feature debut with this film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide