Mark Amin Movies

It's always tough to move to a brand new school, especially when the year is already half over. This is exactly the spot Chrissa is in after finding herself the newest kid in the fourth grade and a prime target for the popular girls known as the "Mean Bees". When the biggest, meanest bully of the bunch becomes Chrissa's biggest competition on the swim team, Chrissa must find a way to stand her ground and end the bullying. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Russell DeGrazier makes his feature debut with this dark tale of four twentysomethings and the destructive relationships between them. Originally titled Stalk, the film concerns the decidedly ungentlemanly behavior of Matthew (The In Crowd's Matthew Settle), part-time alternative-newsweekly columnist, part-time rude-boy radio talk-show host, and full-time torch-carrier for ex-girlfriend Liz (Gretchen Mol). In keeping with her "been there, done that" stance on their relationship, Liz objects to Matthew's obsessive displays of affection (parking his car outside her apartment for hours on end, attempting to break down her door). Luckily, two forces intervene: her friend Corey (Samantha Mathis) and her current boyfriend, Matthew's editor Garrett (Tom Everett Scott). In a chance meeting at a local watering hole, Corey befriends the tortured Matthew, and the two begin an intensely carnal relationship that not only distracts him from stalking Liz but also -- as an added bonus -- makes Liz jealous. Unfortunately, Garrett is still worried that Liz's loose-cannon ex might still be hung up on her, so he begins his own cat-and-mouse game with Matthew. Attraction premiered at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, 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

A teenager wins an interactive robot that plays shooting games. Soon it starts loading with real ammo and hunting down other kids. This film is a stupid thriller but still manages to be occasionally fun. ~ Sean D. MacLaggan, All Movie Guide

Based on Dean R. Koontz's novel Twilight, Servants of Twilight is a made-for-cable horror film about a Christian cult that plots the assassination of a young boy who their leader believes is the Antichrist. A private detective (Bruce Greenwood) is hired to save the boy and his mother from the terrorization of the religious cult. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Europeans (and Americans) have a horror of their citizens "going native" in non-Western counties. It is considered to be a form of insanity, demonstrating a lack of character in those who do it. In this story, Anton (Tim Roth), an English writer, visits Ethiopia with his girlfriend Julie (Marie Matheron), and chances upon a house once inhabited by the French decadent poet Rimbaud. Soon enough, he has abandoned her and taken up with the daughter of the impressive old wise-woman who owns the house. He is growing ever more interested in local customs and ways. Despite urgent pleas from Julia, Anton progressively divests himself of his western lifestyle and manners, and eventually heads out into the desert. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

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 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 has 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

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

In this sequel to 1996's The Dentist, Corbin Bernsen returns as Dr. Feinstone, the obsessive-compulsive dentist whose wife's infidelities left him a deranged monster. Picking up on the IRS audit subplot of the original film, The Dentist II tracks Feinstone after his escape from a mental institution to Paradise, a sleepy little town where he's been socking away his assets and leading a double life under an assumed name. Pretending to have retired from his big-city dental practice, "Dr. Caine" rents a house from the lovely Jamie Devers (Jillian McWirther), but soon finds himself drawn back into the exam room after the local dentist's working habits don't pass muster. Killing the old guy for incorrectly gluing one of his own capped teeth, Feinstone/Caine sets up shop himself, starts dating Jamie, and soon grows homicidally jealous over her friendship with another man. As the killing continues, Feinstone remains unaware that a detective is on his trail. Soon, a toothless, tongueless woman from the dentist's past shows up in Paradise, interrupting his killing spree. In addition to the original The Dentist, Brian Yuzna previously directed such horror films as Return of the Living Dead 3 and Bride of the Re-Animator. ~ Brian J. Dillard, 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 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

We've all heard of the luck of the Irish, but no one feels very lucky in Las Vegas when the Leprechaun visits Sin City in this, the third feature in the Leprechaun franchise. A Las Vegas pawnbroker buys a statue of a leprechaun from a hobo, but then makes the mistake of taking the gold medal hanging around the statue's neck. Turns out it's no statue after all, and taking away the charmed necklace brings the leprechaun back to life. The mean-spirited little man (played, once again, by Warwick Davis) kills the pawnbroker and sets out to find his pot of gold. However, he forgets that he's left behind a magic coin and when he returns to get it, he discovers it's gone, having been taken by a college student named Scott (John Gatins) who happened upon the shop. While the coin brings a bit of good luck to Scott, things change when he discovers he has a murderous leprechaun on his trail. Leprechaun 3's Las Vegas adventure was followed a year later by the even more unlikely Leprechaun 4: Leprechaun in Space. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide