Gary Barber Movies

Filmmaker Peter Berg adapts Radical Publishing's comic series Hercules: The Thracian Wars for Universal Pictures with this big-screen adventure. Ryan Condal provides the script, with Berg handling producing duties. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

When an American tourist (Johnny Depp) realizes that a female Interpol agent (Angelina Jolie) is using him to flush out the elusive criminal with whom she once had an affair, the stage is set for a game of international intrigue that threatens to turn deadly in this Spyglass remake of Jérôme Salle's 2005 thriller. ~ Leo Charney, All Movie Guide

Susan Seidelman directed this made-for-cable comedy drama about a few days in the lives of a group of "working girls" in Reno, NV. "The Ranch" is a legally operated brothel that operates under the careful watch of state health inspectors (who insist on weekly medical checkups) and the semi-benevolent leadership of Mary (Amy Madigan), the manager. While the women on staff don't have to dodge the law like their comrades elsewhere, that doesn't mean they don't have their problems, as moms juggle parenthood with the world's oldest profession, some of the prostitutes struggle to keep their work a secret from their boyfriends, and others try to escape the mistakes of the past that brought them to Nevada. Originally created as a pilot for a possible cable series, The Ranch was released in R-rated and "uncut" editions; the supporting cast includes Samantha Ferris, Jessica Collins, Paige Moss, and Nicki Micheaux. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

European locations (UK, France, Netherlands) highlight this romantic thriller set in the art world. In New York, top forger Harry Donovan (Jason Patric) is hired by British art dealers to fake a $500,000 Rembrandt, despite pressure from his ill father (Rod Steiger) to use his talent on originals rather than fakes. Harry plans to re-create a Rembrandt lost 350 years earlier when it was shipped from Rotterdam to San Sebastian, Spain. Off to research in Paris, Harry meets art student Marieke (Irene Jacob), uses her to acquire necessary scrapings from a real Rembrandt, sleeps with her in a hotel on the Seine, and then heads for an Amsterdam attic where he fabricates the "masterpiece." When he delivers the painting, he finds his clients won't pay until they are sure they've tricked the London experts. On the scene is Marieke, revealed as no student at all but a respected Rembrandt authority. When she rejects the painting as phony, the situation turns tense, guns go off, and Harry retreats -- with Marieke his hostage. At midpoint, this film features a sequence that reveals the specific details involved in forgery, including canvas aging, precise paints, and other deceptions. For a related film, see Orson Welles' "film essay," F for Fake (1973) with a segment on famed forger Elmyr de Hory. Shown at the 1997 London Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Night Watch director Timur Bekmambetov helms his first English-language feature film with this big-screen adaptation of Mark Millar's action-packed graphic novel. Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is a cube-dwelling hypochondriac whose uneventful life has become a mundane blur of terminal boredom. Repeatedly humiliated by his boss and constantly cuckolded by his cheating girlfriend, weakling Wes seems to be living right down to everyone's expectations that he would never amount to anything in life. However, upon discovering that the father he never knew has been brutally murdered, the spineless, clock-punching pushover is recruited into a secret society of assassins known as the Fraternity. During the course of his training, the man who was once an office-bound wimp develops lightning-fast reflexes and superhuman dexterity courtesy of his skilled mentor Fox (Angelina Jolie). Upon completing his training, Wes is assigned the task of dealing out death to the mythological Fates, who possess the ability to alter the lifelines of mortal men. It isn't long before the nebbish nerd-turned-agile assassin is erasing the bad guys with surprising efficiency, yet as Wes begins to carry the mantle passed down to him by his father, he gradually begins to suspect that his wise tutors are not the crime-fighting enforcers they present themselves to be. Now, with everything he ever wanted in life finally within his grasp, Wes is about to find out that the only thing more difficult than ending the lives of others is summoning the courage to take control of his own. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A former high-school hockey star handicapped in a tragic car accident becomes an unlikely ally to a crack team of determined bank robbers in this thriller starring Jeff Daniels and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. When his promising career on the ice is suddenly cut short, former athlete Chris Pratt (Gordon-Levitt) goes to work as a janitor in a local bank. Cleaning floors soon gives way to criminal enterprise when the onetime puck-slinger is recruited to help clean out the very bank that employs him. Screenwriter Scott Frank (Out of Sight and Minority Report) makes his directorial debut, working from his own original screenplay. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic French thriller gets a Hollywood makeover in this glossy remake. Guy Baran (Chazz Palminteri) is the dull, loutish headmaster of a private school that has seen better days. While Guy oversees the day to day operations, the school is actually owned by his wife Mia (Isabelle Adjani), whose spirit has been crushed by Guy's casual cruelty and whose health is frail. Guy has been openly having an affair with one of his teachers, Nicole Horner (Sharon Stone), who has almost as much contempt for Guy as Mia. Mia and Nicole eventually join forces against their common enemy and plan to murder him and conceal the evidence. However, while the killing goes as planned, Guy's body mysteriously disappears from the carefully chosen spot where it was dumped, and when a chatty detective, Shirley Vogel (Kathy Bates) begins asking questions, both women begin to wonder who knows what about their murderous scheme. This was the third remake of Les Diaboliques, following two made-for-TV adaptations, Reflection of Murder and House of Secrets. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This by-the-numbers psychodrama about a child psychologist trying to discern the truth behind a pair of murders stars Richard Dreyfuss as Dr. Jake Rainer, a child psychologist living in an upscale community. Rainer retired when a patient committed suicide, but the local sheriff (J.T. Walsh) calls him to the scene of a double murder. In a lavish home, Rainer meets Tim Warden (Ben Faulkner) and his sister Sylvie (Liv Tyler, in her feature film debut), whose parents have been brutally slain. Sylvie hid in a closet and didn't see the killer, but Tim, who is autistic and cannot communicate, witnessed the crime. Rainer starts the complicated process of reaching Tim through gentle psychological techniques based on his theory that autistics think in sequences, while a colleague (John Lithgow) simply wants to drug the child into revealing the killer's identity. The real-life son of child psychologists who worked with autistic children, Silent Fall screenwriter Akiva Goldsman had better success with his first film, an adaptation of The Client (1994), a drama with a similar plot and themes. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In director Dennis Hopper's comedy reminiscent of The Last Detail, Rock Reilly (Tom Berenger), a gruff naval veteran who plays by the rules, arrives at a Marine base, in tow with his wheeler-dealer companion Eddie Devane (William McNamara), and finds himself assigned to escort the voluptuous Toni Johnson (Erika Eleniak) to military prison, Toni being sentenced from seven to ten years for assault and going AWOL. As in The Last Detail, the three service-persons get to know each other (in the case of Toni and Rock, they get to know each other intimately) as they make their way across the Southeastern seaboard to deliver Toni to prison. As they travel on, Toni repeatedly tries to escape from the two men as the trio encounters an array of guest-star cameos (Gary Busey, Seymour Cassel, Crispin Glover, Dean Stockwell, Frederic Forrest, and Marilu Henner -- among others). Even Hopper himself makes an appearance -- as a dirty old man with an inflatable date. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Quentin Tarantino scripted this wild and wooly blend of action and dark comedy, which reached theaters a year before his breakthrough hit Pulp Fiction. Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) is a well-meaning but socially unskilled comic-shop clerk whose idea of a big night out is catching a Sonny Chiba triple-feature at a downtown grindhouse. Clarence is celebrating his birthday in just such a manner when he meets a beautiful girl named Alabama (Patricia Arquette), and it's love at first sight for both of them. Clarence's enthusiasm isn't dampened much when he discovers Alabama is actually a prostitute who was paid by his boss to bump into him; she's only been in the business for a few days, and is more than eager to give up streetwalking to be with Clarence. However, Alabama is certain her pimp, Drexl (Gary Oldman), will not be happy; he's an ill-mannered sort with mob connections and a fondness for violence. Chivalrous Clarence offers to break the news to Drexl and collect her belongings, but he doesn't tell her he also plans to kill Drexl while he's there; a melee breaks out that leaves Drexl and his henchmen dead. Clarence grabs a suitcase that he thinks contains Alabama's clothes, but he discovers it instead holds five million dollars' worth of cocaine. The couple hits the road for California, planning to sell the dope and enjoy the good life in South America with the proceeds, but soon a group of very unhappy underworld characters are after them, as well as the police. True Romance also stars Dennis Hopper as Clarence's father, Christopher Walken as a mob boss who wants his cocaine back, Brad Pitt as a cheerful stoner, and Val Kilmer as the ghost of Elvis Presley. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A suicide found in the desert with 500,000 dollars cash stuffed in a briefcase makes Sheriff Ray Dolezal (Willem Dafoe) curious. What was the dead man up to? Sensing that if he follows the money, he'll find crime at the end of the trail, Dolezal assumes his identity. He soon discovers the dead man was a paid informant for an FBI agent (Samuel L. Jackson) trailing an arms dealer (Mickey Rourke) who works with an intermediary (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). Dolezal begins to suspect that he's being set up to take a big fall when the money is stolen from him and the dead man's girlfriend (Maura Tierney, in an early role) gets killed after she tells him that her beau had a partner in a scheme to steal the money from the FBI. Will his enemies discover his real identity? Will the FBI agent turn on him? Will he get back the money? ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide

Adapted by Whitley Strieber from his book about his alleged contacts with aliens, Communion dramatizes a story all the more compelling for the author's insistence that it is true, complemented by Christopher Walken's enigmatic performance as Strieber. The film begins in October 1985, as Strieber is living in New York City with his wife Anne (Lindsay Crouse) and son Andrew (Joel Carlson). He is hunting for new book ideas without making much headway. He spends his days pacing around his apartment, thinking out loud or videotaping himself as he improvises bits of dialogue. It is soon decided that a vacation is in order, so, with their friends Alex (Andreas Katsulas) and Sara (Terri Hanauer), the Striebers head for their cabin in Upstate New York. In the middle of the night, an illumination descends on the cabin and surrounding forest, causing Strieber to wake up abruptly. In the semi-darkness of the cabin, he is able to make out a long face with narrow, tear-shaped eyes quietly observing him from a corner of the room. The next morning, he has forgotten -- or been made to forget -- the whole experience. He even shrugs off Alex's and Sarah's concern about "seeing lights" outside their bedroom window, claiming to have slept through the event. Back in New York, it becomes evident to Strieber and his family that something unusual did happen. He begins to have powerful hallucinations, and, after an inconclusive medical examination, he is encouraged by his wife to seek professional help from psychiatrist Janet Duffy (Frances Sternhagen). During hypnotic regression therapy, Strieber's lifelong contact with the "visitors" is brought to light, as well as the details of his more recent encounters. Still unable to accept these revelations, he returns to the cabin alone and finally communicates with the visitors, discovering that, although they are unable to reveal their true identity, their purpose may be to act as agents of personal transformation for himself and for others. An interesting and uneven film, Communion is bolstered considerably by Christopher Walken, whose role in the film, though appropriate for the subject matter, quickly transforms into a thesis on his own eccentricities as an actor. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide

Actor Morgan Freeman portrays anti-apartheid activist and former South African president Nelson Mandela in this Clint Eastwood-helmed political drama adapted from author John Carlin's book The Human Factor: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed the World. Set just after the fall of apartheid and during Mandela's first term in office, The Human Factor explores how the political prisoner-turned-president used the 1995 Rugby World Cup -- which was hosted by South Africa -- as a means of bringing blacks and whites together after decades of violence and mistrust. Matt Damon co-stars in the Warner Bros. production as rugby player Francois Pienaar. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide