Michael De Luca Movies
With his name attached to some of the most successful films of the 1990s, film producer Michael De Luca built a career while teaming with some of the biggest names in the business. The Brooklyn native's electrician father fed his son's love of film early on by sneaking him into local movie theaters, and soon after skipping the eighth grade, De Luca enrolled in the N.Y.U. film studies program at the age of 17. Inspired by such filmmakers as George Lucas and Martin Scorsese, De Luca abandoned his education just four credits shy of graduation to accept an unpaid internship at New Line Cinema, where he was taken under the wing of New Line founder Robert Shaye. De Luca had the good fortune to be involved with A Nightmare on Elm Street -- the film that would ultimately put the fledgling production company on the map -- and he was soon promoted to director of development at New Line; by the age of 29, he was a production executive.New Line was acquired by Ted Turner and Time-Warner shortly thereafter.De Luca gained a reputation for using his funds efficiently, and his subsequent involvement in the production of The Mask finally established him as a true Hollywood player. Such films as Dumb and Dumber (1994) and Seven (1995) launched both his career and New Line's, reputation, but subsequent failures, including Last Man Standing and The Island of Dr. Moreau (both 1996) -- and his ejection from an industry party for public indecency -- threatened to sidetrack him. Though he was teetering on oblivion, De Luca was soon back on track after friends and co-workers voiced concerns about his erratic behavior. It wasn't long before he was once again reliving the success of his prime, and with such releases as Boogie Nights (1997), Pleasantville (1998), and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, the studio was more successful than ever. In 2002 and 2003, De Luca made Premiere magazine's "Power 100" list, and, in 2003, he left New Line to become the president of production at DreamWorks Pictures. In addition to his work as a producer, De Luca wrote screenplays for such films as Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
A man's brief fling threatens to ruin what he values most in life in this drama. Max Carlyle (Wesley Snipes) lives in California, where he has a successful career directing television commercials and is happily married to Mimi (Ming-Na Wen), with whom he has two children. While visiting New York City, Max meets Karen (Nastassja Kinski) by chance after missing a flight; circumstances keep bringing them together over the course of the evening, and they end up spending the night making love. When he returns home, Max seems distant and unhappy, though Mimi can't tell why and Max won't say. A year later, Max and Mimi fly to New York to visit his close friend Charlie (Robert Downey, Jr.), who is in the last stages of an AIDS-related illness. Max meets Charlie's brother Vernon (Kyle MacLachlan) and is introduced to his new wife -- Karen. Facing Karen sends Max into an emotional tailspin, and he realizes that he must tell Mimi the truth about his indiscretion. Writer/director Mike Figgis adapted One Night Stand from a screenplay by Joe Eszterhas, though Figgis' changes were so extensive that Eszterhas chose to remove his name from the project. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wesley Snipes, Nastassja Kinski, (more)
In this broad fish-out-of-water comedy, Nisi (Halle Berry) and Mickey (Natalie Desselle) are African-American women with two ambitions -- marry rich men who will give them lots of money, and open the world's first combination hair salon and soul food restaurant. However, eligible bachelors and business opportunities are in short supply in Decatur, Georgia, so when Nisi hears rapper Heavy D is auditioning dancers in Los Angeles for an upcoming video and concert tour, the pair hit the road for California. They fail the audition but are approached by a man named Antonio (Luigi Amodeo) with a business proposition. Antonio is the chauffeur for Mr. Blakemore (Martin Landau), a millionaire in poor health. As a young man, Mr. Blakemore was in love with a black maid who worked in his household; Antonio and Blakemore's nephew Isaac (Jonathan Fried) think Nisi bears a resemblance to the girl Blakemore once loved, so they offer her a hefty payment plus room and board to pose as the granddaughter of Blakemore's lost love. Nisi and Mickey believe that this ruse is intended to make Blakemore feel better, but in fact Isaac wants to get his hands on his uncle's fortune, and he hopes that Nisi's presence will make him easier to manipulate. Meanwhile, Nisi and Mickey look like a hurricane that hit a cut-rate clothing store, so manservant Manley (Ian Richardson) teaches them social graces and gives them advice on how to dress. In time, Manley and Mr. Blakemore become friends with Nisi and Mickey; the men learn to be less stuffy and enjoy life, while the ladies become more respectable. B.A.P.S. stands for "Black American Princesses." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Halle Berry, Martin Landau, (more)
An ordinary woman discovers that her life was not always ordinary in this action thriller. Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) is a typical, well-mannered single mother working as a schoolteacher when she isn't looking after her children. Nothing on the surface would seem to be remarkable about Samantha's life, but every once in a while she has vague memories and unexplained impulses that don't add up with her current life experience; she has scars but no idea of how they got there, she suddenly displays a deadly talent for knife-throwing while chopping vegetables for dinner, and when she sees a deer, she suddenly attacks it with her bare hands. When an auto accident and a television news broadcast stirs some more uncomfortable memories, Samantha hires private investigator Mitch Hennessey (Samuel L. Jackson) to look into her past and see what he can find. Mitch learns that Samantha isn't really Samantha after all -- her name is Charley and she used to be a professional assassin with a secret government intelligence program. After a severe head injury, Charley developed a case of amnesia, and in time she developed her new personality as Samantha. However, her old boss has kept tabs on her, and now that it looks as if the old Charley is starting to come out again, he sends a pair of hit men after her to see to it that she doesn't remember anything else; soon Samantha and Mitch are on the run, trying to outdistance the killers as they get to the bottom of Charley's secret life. The Long Kiss Goodnight was directed by Renny Harlin, husband of leading lady Geena Davis; this was their second project together, following Cutthroat Island, released the previous year. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, (more)
The traditions of the western and the gangster film meet head-on in this dark crime drama. Jericho is a small town in Texas that in the 1920s looks much like it did in the 1860s, except that two violent gangs of rival bootleggers have driven away nearly all of the citizens not involved in the booze racket. Strozzi (Ned Eisenberg) leads a gang of Italian rum-runners with the help of his right-hand-man Giorgio (Michael Imperioli), while Doyle (David Patrick Kelly) is the head of an Irish mob, with Hickey (Christopher Walken) serving as his enforcer; the town's sheriff, Ed Galt (Bruce Dern) is powerless to stop the crime in Jericho, and he mainly tries to stay out of the way and keep an uneasy peace between Strozzi and Doyle. John Smith (Bruce Willis) is a ruthless and amoral gunman on the run from the law who passes through Jericho on his way to Mexico. Sizing up the situation, Smith quickly hatches a scheme by which he'll sell his services first to one of the gangs, and then the other, eventually turning the two sides against each other while he stays in the middle and takes the profits generated by both sides. Writer and director Walter Hill based his screenplay on Akira Kurosawa's classic samurai picture Yojimbo, which also inspired Sergio Leone's ground-breaking spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, (more)
A violent, effects-heavy science fiction adventure, Judge Dredd depicts a nightmarish future in which overcrowded cities are terrorized by brutal gun battles and policed by "Judges," law officers who act as judge, jury, and executioner. Sylvester Stallone stars as Judge Dredd, a punishing enforcer with an unswerving dedication to law and order. Little does Dredd know that a nasty villain (Armand Assante) and a corrupt Judge (Jurgen Prochnow) are plotting to take over the city and plan to frame Dredd for murder in order to prevent him from interfering. Dredd winds up in prison, but he fights back with the help of Judge Hershey (Diane Lane), his partner and romantic interest, and Fergie (Rob Schneider), his friend and comic relief, developing a plan to clear his name and stop the bad guys. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, (more)
A psychiatrist treats a most unusual patient, only to find that the doctor is the one who gains the most from their sessions in this philosophical romantic comedy. A young man in a mask and cape (played by Johnny Depp) is standing atop a billboard, threatening to jump. When the potential suicide is finally talked down, he's brought to a psychiatric facility where after one doctor washes his hands of the case, he's placed under the supervision of Dr. Jack Mickler (Marlon Brando), an aging psychiatrist soon to retire. The patient informs Mickler that he is actually the great lover Don Juan, who has seduced over 1,500 women, but has fallen into a deep depression after being unable to win the hand of the woman of his dreams. Mickler has ten days to work with "Don Juan," after which he will either be released on medication or committed to a long-term stay in a mental hospital. As Mickler talks with the young man, who speaks rapturously of the art of love, the doctor finds that his philosophies are helping to kick start his failing relationship with his wife (Faye Dunaway), and he slowly becomes convinced that his patient might really be Don Juan after all. Don Juan DeMarco's theme song, "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman," became a major hit for singer and songwriter Bryan Adams; after working with Marlon Brando on this film, Johnny Depp cast the legendary actor in a key supporting role in his directorial debut, The Brave. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp, (more)
Hired to help locate a missing author, an insurance investigator discovers to his terror that the nightmarish events depicted in the writer's best-selling horror novels are coming true. Wishing to be both a horror film and a parody of the genre, John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness combines supernatural thrills with winking references. For instance, the vanished author, Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), is modeled on writers like Stephen King and Howard Phillips Lovecraft, from his great popularity to his obsession with small-town New England. Indeed, it is to one such hamlet that investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) and Cane's female editor (Julie Carmen) travel, discovering a town filled with terrifying scenes right out of Cane's books, from random axe murders to far worse. Have Cane's fans gone psychotic and begun imitating his writings, or are Cane's stories of an otherworldly evil invading the earth actually true? In the Mouth of Madness's mix of self-referential satire and real frights anticipates the later Scream (1996). ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, (more)
Hyperactive mayhem results when a mild-manned banker discovers an ancient mask that transforms him into a zany prankster with superhuman powers in this special-effects-intensive comedy. The wildly improvisational Jim Carrey plays Stanley Ipkiss, a decent-hearted but socially awkward guy who one night finds a strange mask. Carrey's trademark energy reveals itself after Stanley puts on the mask and the banker transforms into The Mask, a green-skinned, zoot-suited fireball. The rubber-faced Mask possesses the courage to do the wild, fun things that Stanley fears, including romancing Tina Carlyle (Cameron Diaz). In addition to Carrey's physical talents, the film makes effective use of digital visual effects that bestow the Mask with superhuman speed, insane flexibility, and popping eyes out of a Tex Avery cartoon. The larger narrative, involving the efforts of Tina's gangster boyfriend to destroy Stanley and use the mask's powers for evil, prove less interesting than the anarchic comic set pieces, including a particularly memorable dance number to "Cuban Pete." The film delivered enough laughs to become a surprise hit and, along with the same year's Dumb and Dumber, establish Carrey's status as a comedy superstar. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, (more)
- 1993
- PG13
- Add National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 to Queue Add National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 to top of Queue
The Lethal Weapon series and the rest of the buddy-cop genre receives the parody treatment in this low-brow comedy. Emilio Estevez stars as Jack Colt, the Mel Gibson-like loose cannon, while Samuel L. Jackson assumes the Danny Glover role as Wes Luger, his exasperated partner. Together, Colt and Luger investigate the murder of Luger's former partner (Whoopi Goldberg) and discover a criminal conspiracy led by the nefarious General Mortars (William Shatner). Hoping to mimic the success of the Naked Gun films, director Gene Quintano (of Police Academy 4 fame) loaded the film with broad visual gags, deadpan slapstick, and gratuitous parodies of The Silence of the Lambs, Basic Instinct, and other movies. The attempt to mimic successful parodies proved ineffective, however, as critics and viewers alike found the parody stale and the juvenile humor dreary. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Emilio Estevez, Samuel L. Jackson, (more)
Laurence Fishburne plays no-nonsense LAPD narc Russell Stevens, Jr., who has worked all his life to expunge the memory of his dope-addict father, whom he saw die in a liquor-store robbery. DEA agent Jerry Carver (Charles Martin Smith) orders Stevens to work as an undercover operative on a major case. The cop is to pose as a dealer in order to get the goods on South American drug lord. Stevens is so convincing as a dealer, that he fast works his way up through the ranks and gains the trust of lawyer and narcotics dealer David Jason (Jeff Goldblum) and his sinister associates, all lackeys to the kingpin who is the target of Stevens' assignment. Through a series of fantastic but credible circumstances, Stevens eliminates the lower echelon, getting closer to his quarry, but in the process he finds himself so deep into the sinister and seductive world of the drug trade that he may never get out. In a surprise move, and just when he is about to bring the ringleader down, the DEA pulls the plug on his assignment, because the top dealer, an influential Latin American politician, may someday be useful to the State Department. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Laurence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, (more)
- 1991
- R
- Add Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare to Queue Add Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare to top of Queue
The producers insisted that this sixth entry in the Nightmare on Elm Street series marked the last; no points for guessing that additional sequels followed. This time, homicidal wraith Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) decides to extend his reign of terror past Elm Street. His agent-on-earth is his own long-lost daughter Maggie (Lisa Zane, sister of Phantom star Billy Zane). Securing a job as a dream therapist for troubled teens, Maggie is able to "open up" the minds of her patients so that Freddy can exercise his usual bloody prerogative. In a garish, 3-D climax, Freddy himself becomes the victim of the vengeful Maggie. Since what happens in this picture is laid out in the title, we can't possibly be accused of giving the ending away. Watch for cameos from Roseanne and her then-husband Tom Arnold, Alice Cooper, Elinor Donahue, and Johnny Depp, one of the stars of the very first Nightmare. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Englund, Lisa Zane, (more)
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