Michael Ferris Movies

The fourth installment of the Terminator series follows an adult John Connor (played by Christian Bale) as he attempts to organize a human resistance force which could prove to be mankind's last true hope in the war against the machines. Opening in the year 2018, Terminator Salvation finds John Connor's certainty about the future shaken by the sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), whose last memory is of sitting on death row and awaiting execution. Unable to determine whether Marcus was sent from the future or rescued from the past, Connor begins to wonder whether there is still any hope left for the human race as the robots grow more powerful and aggressive than ever before. It appears that Skynet is preparing a devastating final attack designed to eliminate the human resistance once and for all, leaving Connor and Marcus with no choice but to strike back at the cybernetic heart of Skynet's operations. Once there, the two battle-scarred soldiers discover a devastating secret regarding the potential annihilation of all humankind. Anton Yelchin fills Michael Biehn's shoes as a young Kyle Reese in the first installment of a planned Terminator trilogy from director McG (Charlie's Angels). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Patience Philips (Halle Berry) seems destined to spend her life apologizing for taking up space. Despite her artistic ability -- she has a more than respectable career as a graphic designer for Hedare Beauty, a Goliath cosmetics company -- Patience is excruciatingly shy, quick to take blame, and, not surprisingly, more than a little depressed at the end of the day. This comes to somewhat of a screeching halt when Patience not only inadvertently lands herself in the middle of a corporate conspiracy of gargantuan proportions, but on the city police force's most wanted list. Newly quipped with a mysterious feline prowess, Patience is a different person come nighttime -- more accurately, a catwoman. Elusive, untamed, powerful, stealthy, and not necessarily prone to erring on the side of good, Patience has gone from doormat to vigilante. Police officer Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt), who has fallen for shy Patience, is determined to apprehend Catwoman and figure out her role in a recent crime spree, though his fascination with her doesn't cease with the end of his shift and it threatens to lead to the downfall of himself, his investigation, and the woman who was once the timid Patience Philips. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Veteran screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris created this X-Files-esque supernatural thriller series about a group of psychics who help the haunted and the doomed. Each of the group has their own metaphysical strengths: Warren (Kevin J. O'Connor) is a high-strung psychic, Mark (Gabriel Macht) is a med student with an innate empathy for suffering, Satori (Melissa) uses trendy occult imagery to connect to the supernatural, and Albert (John Aylward) is both grumpy and blind with a heightened sixth sense. The pilot opens with university student Marian (Julianne Nicholson) freaking out over visions of her dorm room's dead former resident. She is invited to sit with the "others" along with Elmer Greentree (Bill Cobbs), a sage-like medium who has the ability to see the afterlife. Soon Marian joins the group and starts ghost-busting. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Director David Fincher followed the success of his dark and atmospheric crime thriller Seven (1995) with another exercise in stylish film noir, this time lifting the pallid atmosphere a notch to indulge in a fast-paced trip through the cinematic funhouse. Michael Douglas plays Nicholas Van Orton, a Scrooge-like San Francisco investment banker following in his father's Scrooge-like footsteps. On Nicholas's 48th birthday (the age at which his father committed suicide), his younger, free-spirited brother Conrad (Sean Penn) blows into town and gives Nicholas a special gift for "the man who has everything" -- a ticket to CRS (Consumer Recreation Services), a company that constructs games custom-fit for each participant to provide, as CRS salesman Jim Feingold (James Rebhorn) cryptically puts it, "whatever is lacking." Nicholas's secure life begins a downhill slide as CRS masterminds a series of elaborate pranks, harmless at first, that quickly become malicious and life-threatening. Stripped of financial resources and convinced that he can trust no one, Nicholas begins to wonder if CRS is a front for a more covert operation, and if the game is in fact an attempt to steal his fortune and leave him for dead. Determined to fight back alone, Nicholas infiltrates CRS in order to "pull back the curtain and meet the wizard." ~ Anthony Reed, Rovi

The ins and outs of modern lesbian relationships are explored in serio-comic film. It is adapted from a stage play by Laura Hoffman. Loretta is lonely. As she is leaving Girl Bar she encounters a very beautiful woman, Rachel. Impetuously, Loretta bets a friend that she will have Rachel in her car within 10 minutes. Loretta wins the bet and Rachel goes home with her. As they talk, it becomes quickly apparent that while interested in a relationship, neither woman is free. Loretta is still with Annie who is in love with a heterosexual female. Rachel, still involved in a deteriorating marriage, is with Sandy. Loretta and Rachel decide to give it a try anyway, but their relationship is complicated by intrusions from their earlier relationships who present many obstacles. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The Sandlot is sparsely narrated by the main character (now an adult) who occasionally drops in on the action to comment on events or help move the story along. Tom Guiry plays Scotty Smalls, the shy new kid on the block who wants to join the rowdy pickup baseball team that plays every day in the neighborhood sandlot. But he doesn't know how to catch a baseball, and his stepfather (Dennis Leary) is too busy to teach him. He tries out for the sandlot gang anyway, and though he isn't very good, it turns out he's lucky: there happen to be only eight of them, and nine makes a team. The summer passes blissfully as Scotty learns to play ball under the wing of Benny Rodriguez (Mike Vitar), the oldest and best player, as well as Ham, Squints, Repeat, and the rest of the kid-eccentrics. The skies darken, however, when Benny literally knocks the stuffing out of the team's only baseball, a sign of impending doom, or worse, bad luck. Wanting to set things right, Scotty returns home and "borrows" his stepfather's ball, which he promptly uses to hit his first home run, knocking the ball clear out of the sandlot into mean old Mr. Mertle (James Earl Jones)'s junkyard, home to Mertle's legendary guard dog The Beast. Scotty admits that he took the ball without asking, and he naively explains that his stepfather will want it back since it had a woman's name written on it: some lady named Babe Ruth. Horror-stricken, the sandlot gang mobilizes to fetch the autographed ball from the clutches of The Beast, building a series of mechanical ball-retrieval machines which get progressively more complicated and preposterous as The Beast's size grows in their imaginations. ~ Anthony Reed, Rovi

Director John Badham's remake of French action thriller La Femme Nikita moves the action to the U.S., where Maggie (Bridget Fonda) is a strung-out Washington, D.C. drug addict who kills a policeman in a pharmaceutical-induced haze. Sentenced to death, Maggie is rescued by a shady operative, Bob (Gabriel Byrne), who offers to save her life if she'll become a covert government assassin. Maggie agrees and trains for a life as a professional killer under a new name, Claudia. Her classes include weaponry, martial arts, explosives, and even social graces under the tutelage of Amanda (Anne Bancroft). Claudia is transformed into a classy sophisticate and is assigned to Venice, California, where she falls for J.P. (Dermot Mulroney), an attractive photographer who lives downstairs. Claudia's highly dangerous job soon interferes when she's ordered to carry out a series of clever assassinations, including a hit in a restaurant and a hotel bombing. When one particular killing goes horribly wrong, she gets some assistance from Victor the Cleaner (Harvey Keitel), a disposal artist who may have also been ordered to get rid of Claudia. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Jason Alexander stars in this sweet-natured romantic comedy, marred by some overblown stereotypes. Alexander plays shoe salesman Bernie Fishbine. Bernie is lonely and shy and ever conscious about his weight problem. He stills lives at home with his mother Sarah (Lainie Kazan) and grandpa Irving Fein (Lou Jacobi). One night, taking a bus back home, he meets Theresa Garabaldi (Nia Peeples), an attractive graduate student in psychology who works at night as a singer in her uncle's Italian restaurant. Bernie falls in love with her, and he thinks she loves him too. To make her proud of him, Bernie stops eating the chocolate kisses he purchases every day from Frieda's (Eileen Brennan) candy store and, instead, works out at a gym to lose weight. But Bernie is crestfallen to learn that Theresa is being friendly to him because she is using him as the subject of her graduate thesis entitled "The Psychological Study of an Obese Male." ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

When the Bundys' faulty air conditioner causes a huge power blackout in the neighborhood, Al (Ed O'Neill) takes decisive action. No, he doesn't buy a new conditioner: Instead, he moves his family into the cool confines of the local Foodie supermarket. Ordered to leave the premises or risk facing arrest, the Bundys hightail it to the checkout counter--where Peg ends up winning a $1000 shopping spree as Foodie's millionth customer! This is the first episode of a two-part story. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi