Lewis Colick Movies

Kevin Spacey serves as both director and star for this biopic based on the life and career of legendary entertainer Bobby Darin, which moves back and forth between his childhood and adult selves to tell the tale of his remarkable life. Born Bobby Cassotto and raised in the Bronx, young Bobby (played as a child by William Ullrich) was raised by his mother, Polly (Brenda Blethyn), his brother-in-law, Charlie (Bob Hoskins), and his sister, Nina (Caroline Aaron). At the age of 15, Bobby contracted a severe case of rheumatic fever, which was expected to take his life; while it left him with a weak heart, Bobby beat the odds and survived. Buoyed by a love of music passed along by his mother, Bobby learned to play several instruments and began singing as he recovered. Displaying a confidence and drive which stopped just short of arrogance, he adopted the stage name Bobby Darin and set his sights on becoming a star. After a string of hits as a rock & roll singer, Darin (played as an adult by Kevin Spacey) takes another gamble, and with the help of manager Steve Blauner (John Goodman) he reinvents himself as a supper-club vocalist in the manner of Frank Sinatra. All the more remarkably, he succeeds, and his swinging version of "Mack the Knife" tops the charts. Now a major singing star, Darin decides to take up acting; on the set of his first movie, he woos his female co-star Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth), and despite the stern objections of her mother (Greta Scacchi), Bobby and Sandra wed. But after a string of successful movies for Dee and hit records and an Oscar nomination for Darin, the shifting tastes of the 1960s throw their careers off-track. Bobby cautiously embraces the new sounds of the day, but his old fans don't want to hear him cover Bob Dylan or the Rolling Stones, while the younger audience isn't interested in his new sound, leaving Darin in a difficult place to make his way back to stardom. Kevin Spacey did his own singing for Beyond the Sea, recreating Bobby Darin's vocal style with uncanny accuracy. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This post-modern comic variation on The Defiant Ones concerns Keats (Damon Wayans), an undercover police detective trying to get the goods on crime kingpin Frank Colton (James Caan). Keats poses as a crook to make friends with one of Colton's underlings, a drug dealer and car thief named Archie Moses (Adam Sandler). Keats is using Archie as part of a sting operation to put Colton away; however, Archie doesn't care for this, and when he finds out Keats's true plan and actual identity, it leads to an altercation that ends with Archie shooting Keats in the head. Several months later, Keats emerges from the hospital with a metal plate in his skull, and he has to bring Archie in. However, now Archie and Keats are both on Colton's enemies list, and the two find themselves on the run in Arizona, trying to outwit Colton's team of assassins, but having Archie on hand doesn't do much good in the outwitting department. Bulletproof was directed by Ernest Dickerson, who got his start as a cinematographer for Spike Lee. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

John Travolta stars in this thriller as divorced husband and father Frank Morrison, a boat builder concerned about his son Danny (Matthew O'Leary), a troubled 11-year-old who has shown a tendency to lie since his parents broke up. When his ex-wife Susan (Teri Polo) announces that she's getting remarried to Rick Barnes (Vince Vaughn), a recent arrival in town and a popular, wealthy philanthropist, Frank struggles with jealousy but feels that Rick might be a stabilizing influence for his son. When Danny begins relating unsettling stories about Rick, Frank at first chalks it up to youthful rebellion, but when Danny stridently claims to have witnessed his new stepfather committing murder, Frank's instincts tell him the story is true. As he investigates the new man in his family's life, Frank uncovers alarming facts about Rick, who's not the man he appears to be. Domestic Disturbance (2001) made headlines six months before its release when co-star Steve Buscemi, accompanied by Vaughn and screenwriter Scott Rosenberg, was stabbed and seriously injured in an after-hours bar brawl with locals near the film's North Carolina set. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

In Judgment Night, an action-packed thriller directed by Stephen Hopkins, a group of young middle-class men Emilio Estevez Cuba Gooding Jr. Jeremy Piven and Stephen Dorff on a night out with the boys take a disastrous wrong turn that leads to a run-in with a vicious street gang led by Fallon (Denis Leary). A cold, vicious and frightening criminal, Fallon and his band of thugs threaten to permanently silence the foursome after they witness a murder. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

NASA engineer Homer H. Hickam, Jr.'s autobiography provided the basis for this drama about a teenager coming of age at the dawn of the space race. In 1957, Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a high school student in Coalwood, West Virginia when the Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first man-made satellite. While most of his friends and neighbors react with fear or distrust, Homer is instantly fascinated and begins studying everything he can find on jet and rocket design. While many of Homer's friends are puzzled by his new obsession, several new friends share his enthusiasm, and with the encouragement of his teacher (Laura Dern), Homer and his fellow "Rocket Boys" begin designing and launching their own homemade missiles. However, Homer's father (Chris Cooper) takes a dim view of his son's interest in rockets and is convinced Homer's future should be the same as his own, working in the local coal mines. October Sky mixes the drama of traditional family conflicts with a nostalgic glimpse of life in the mid-50's and a look at the earliest days of our journey into space. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In a rambling, somewhat uneven drama, 14-year-old Jack Simmons (Peter Billingsley) takes it on himself to help his friend, coach Mike (Patrick Collins), save his hot dog and soft drink concession. Mr. Hodgkins (Stuart Pankin) is a greedy, self-serving banker who is determined to raze Mike's hot dog stand and build a new bank on its site. Jack's primary resource in his fight against Mr. Hodgkins is a motorbike that does everything except speak French. With this motorized wonder (which starts itself), Jack tackles a gang of tough bikers and the infamous Mr. Hodgkins, taking him for a ride he will never forget. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi