Mark Amin

Abducted by two men and forced into child prostitution when she was just eight years old, a homeless San Diego street teen is finally reunited with her family only to find that the traumas of the past may have scarred her for life. Leslie (Ryan Simpkins) was walking to school when her neighbors Alex (Tom Arnold) and Frank (Kevin Zegers) pulled up alongside her and asked for help finding their missing dog. After scouring the neighborhood with the young girl to no avail, the men offer Leslie a ride to school so she won't be late for school. Along the way, the men tell Leslie that they work for her father. After school, Leslie is surprised to find the two men waiting to drive her home. Claiming that her parents have been called away on urgent business, Alex and Frank coerce Leslie into the car and give her a drink. Later, after dozing off in the backseat, Leslie awakens in a tiny bedroom with eight year-old Donnie. Like Leslie, Donnie had been drugged and kidnapped. Donnie is led to believe that his parents have sold him for drugs, while Leslie is told that her parents want nothing to do with her anymore. Now, as the two innocent children are forced into prostitution, they use their imaginations to escape into a wondrous world of light where anything is possible.

Years later, Leslie and Donnie are struggling to rebuild their lives on the streets of San Diego. Donnie is deeply in love with Leslie, but Leslie's perception of love has been completely destroyed by her harrowing experience. One day, Leslie walks into a children's shelter and begins the painful process of reconnecting with the past. Though she is soon reunited with her parents, everything is different now and it gradually becomes apparent that any hope she had for a normal life evaporated the fateful day she placed her trust in two monstrous strangers. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Jeepers Creepers director Victor Salva takes a break from the horror to offer an inspirational tale about the remarkable power of the human spirit as the pages of Dan Millman's best-selling autobiographical novel come to life onscreen in this life-affirming film starring Nick Nolte, Scott Mechlowicz, and Amy Smart. A talented college gymnast with serious Olympic aspirations, Dan Millman (Mechlowicz) leads a charmed life of first-place trophies, fast girls, and rowdy parties until a career-threatening injury and a chance meeting with a mysterious stranger named Socrates (Nolte) show him how little he truly knows about living. In the months that follow his tragic injury, both Socrates and elusive beauty Joy (Smart) impart to the growing young man the wisdom that he needs to leave the past behind and follow the path of destiny and fulfill his transformation into the peaceful warrior. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Joey Curtis' highly stylized Streets of Legend tells the story of a love triangle set in the world of street racing. Derek (Robert Beaumont) is a Caucasian young man who is an up-and-coming street racer with the nickname Quattro. His likeability wins over a young woman named Noza (Brihanna Hernandez), whose devotion to her no-good boyfriend, Chato (Victor Larios), wavers after Chato violates his parole and must go back into prison. The project was shot on digital video. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

After being attached to a number of actors, directors, and producers, this long-gestating biography of one of Mexico's most prominent, iconoclastic painters reaches the screen under the guiding hand of producer/star Salma Hayek. Hayek ages some 30 years onscreen as she charts Frida Kahlo's life from feisty schoolgirl to Diego Rivera protégée to world-renowned artist in her own right. Frida details Kahlo's affluent upbringing in Mexico City, and her nurturing relationship with her traditional mother (Patricia Reyes Spindola) and philosophical father (Roger Rees). Having already suffered the crippling effects of polio, Kahlo sustains further injuries when a city bus accident nearly ends her life. But in her bed-ridden state, the young artist produces dozens upon dozens of pieces; when she recovers, she presents them to the legendary -- and legendarily temperamental -- Rivera (Alfred Molina), who takes her under his wing as an artist, a political revolutionary, and, inevitably, a lover. But their relationship is fraught with trouble, as the philandering Rivera traverses the globe painting murals, and Kahlo languishes in obscurity, longing to make her mark on her own. Frida was directed by Julie Taymor, whose Broadway production of The Lion King won her international acclaim. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

In this comedy-drama, a teenage boy gets a crash course in the mysteries of love and sex. Lydia Callahan (Jennifer Jason Leigh) had her son Sam when she was only 14 years old. Now 14 himself, Sam (Bug Hall) finds himself in the small community of GroVont, WY, after his mother is run out of town by her own father (R. Lee Ermey). While Lydia is helped through her transition by Hank Elkrunner (Michael Greyeyes), Sam doesn't fit in at school and runs afoul of bully Dothan Talbot (Brad Renfro). But he soon makes friends with classmate Maurey Pierce (Mischa Barton), who makes an unusual proposal: since she doesn't want to seem inexperienced when she loses her virginity, perhaps Sam could help her practice the finer points of sex. While Sam is more than willing to help, this arrangement creates complications that his fantasies about his Dream Girl (Drew Barrymore) have not prepared him for. Skipped Parts is based on the novel of the same name by Tim Sandlin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Adapted from an Ernest Hemingway story by Hemingway's longtime friend and associate A. E. Hotchner, After the Storm spent years in development before filming of the movie version began in 2000, several years after Hotchner's death. Set in the Bahamas in 1936, the story concerns a young fisherman on the lam from gangsters, who stumbles upon a fortune in jewels from a yacht sunk in a recent storm. This sudden windfall results in nothing but unhappiness and betrayal for the fisherman -- and for everyone else who embarks upon the treasure hunt that consumes most of the action. When After the Storm failed to secure a theatrical release, it was licensed to the USA network for its first American TV showing. The R-rated video version was released on May 29, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this action thriller, Steve Mitchell (Peter Weller) is an American agent sent to Bucharest to defuse a bomb located in the U.S. embassy. He's pleasantly surprised to find that Erica Long (Daryl Hannah), his colleague and former girlfriend, will be his assistant for this project, but the fun part of the reunion is cut short when Serbian terrorists attack the embassy and take most of the staff hostage. While Steve and Erica manage to escape, Steve's 14-year-old son is still inside, and he must find a way to get him out before Gen. Buck Swain (Tom Berenger), who was once a schoolmate of the terrorist leader, executes his raid to liberate the embassy, which could prove bloody. Enemy Of My Enemy manages to season its traditional action scenario with moments of dry humor and a dash of romance. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Stand-up comic Carrot Top is usually seen with his wacky inventions, such as a bald-head blowdryer and an anatomically correct fanny pack. Similar goofy gimmicks are combined with physical humor and stunt work in this comedy about the plight of Venice Beach inventor-surfer Edison (Carrot Top) and his roommates Ty (Mystro Clark) and Zak (Jack Plotnick) as they all near eviction. For rent money, Edison tries (unsuccessfully) to sell his dopey devices, including his Glo Gunk and his bug-killer helmet. A la Melvin and Howard, Edison offers a roadside assist to wealthy tycoon Armand McMillan (Jack Warden), who dies and wills controlling shares of his business to Edison, putting Edison at odds with McMillan's mean-spirited nephew (Larry Miller) and McMillan's closest corporate competitor Grace Kosik (Raquel Welch). In the Big tradition, Edison gets positive reactions to such inventions as TV dinners with real TVs and his Bull Shirt lie-detector -- while schemes and intrigue lurk around every corner of the corporate corridors. The comedian received a satirical jab from Mike Myers in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) when the words "Carrot Top movie" are seen on a document of villainous "evil schemes." ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Christopher Walken, Jared Harris and Alison Elliott star in this supernatural tale of terror about a beautiful Ireland-born American young woman who has been suffering from terrible headaches and memory blackouts. On a trip to her ancestral home in the Irish countryside, she discovers that the key to her problems is neither physical nor psychological -- it is the curse of a druid witch that is slowly destroying her. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The trajectories of two opposing romantic relationships are fodder for this African-American screwball comedy from co-writer, star, and director Rusty Cundieff. Montel (Cundieff) and Clyde (Joe Torry) stars as friends who couldn't be less alike. An introverted photographer, Montel wants to meet the one right girl for him and settle down to build a family, while Clyde is a flamboyant womanizer just out for a good time. At a party, they meet Adina (Paula Jai Parker), a sexy golddigger seeking a wealthy husband with robotic determination, and her shy law clerk friend Brandy (Tisha Campbell). The couples pair off in predictable combinations, but while the brief encounter between Clyde and Adina quickly implodes when she discovers that Clyde's success is an act and his Porsche is borrowed, the relationship between Montel and Brandy blooms into a true romance. Eventually, they decide to marry, leaving Clyde and Adina to reunite in a selfish scheme to break their best friends up using whatever treacherous means they can employ. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this supernatural chiller, a small community is utterly terrorized when a fleet of driverless trucks rolls into town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this Quentin Tarantino-style blood-drenched pseudo-film noir, Denis Leary plays a hood named Johnny who, after getting out of prison, dedicates himself to exacting revenge on mobsters who brutally injured his father. Ned Lynch (Larry Bishop, who wrote the screenplay) attacked Johnny's father, causing him to become permanently brain-dead. Johnny travels in a limousine and targets those who he believes may be responsible in a series of killings that take place on Father's Day. His main target is Frank (Joe Mantegna), but he is not certain that Frank is responsible for what happened to his father. Johnny, who has taught himself psychology in prison, takes Frank to a sex therapist, Dr. Diane Leah (Annabella Sciorra), as part of his cat-and-mouse game, in hopes of eventually learning the identity of his father's attacker. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide