Marc S. Fischer Movies

Kiefer Sutherland stars as an NYPD detective-turned-security guard who discovers something sinister lurking in the mirrors of a fire-damaged department store in Haute Tension writer/director Alexandre Aja's menacing study in the origins of evil. It's been just about a year since mercurial police detective Ben Carson (Sutherland) was suspended from the NYPD for the fatal shooting of an undercover officer, and ever since that fateful day he's been locked in a self-destructive spiral of anger and alcoholism. Increasingly isolated from his wife and kids, Ben spends most nights crashed-out at his sister Angela's (Amy Smart) apartment in Queens. But Ben hasn't given up hope just yet, and in order to get his life back together and prove that he's still capable of supporting his family he takes a job as the night watchman at the Mayflower department store. The Mayflower used to be a lavish symbol of inner-city prosperity, that is, until a raging inferno gutted the building while claiming numerous lives in the process. These days, the Mayflower is a scorched reminder of human misery, the ornate mirrors therein reflecting a suffering so profound that it begins to wear on Ben's already-fragile psyche. Not only that, but whatever force dwells behind the shimmering glass seems to have gained the power to alter reality as well.

After Ben gazes into the mirrors and sees a vision of himself being relentlessly tortured, he is horrified to experience violent convulsions, spontaneous bleeding, and frightening asphyxiation. And while his sister is always willing to lend a sympathetic ear, she chalks the anomalies up to an unusually potent mix of stress and anxiety. Unfortunately for Ben, his estranged wife, Amy (Paula Patton), isn't nearly as forgiving. A prosaic NYPD medical examiner who has seen her fair share of tragedy, Amy fears that Ben's erratic behavior could be placing their children in danger. Later, as Ben begins to draw connections between his increasingly gruesome visions and a former Mayflower security guard who vanished without a trace, he begins to suspect that an unimaginable evil is using the mirrors as a gateway into the real world, and that his family is in mortal danger from forces beyond their realm of understanding. Perhaps if he Ben can manage to convince Amy that their children's lives are at risk, he can summon the courage to face the greatest evil he has ever known. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A teenager with a penchant for tall tales becomes tangled in his own complex web of deceit upon transferring to a new school in this cautionary comedy of little white lies starring Craig Kilborn, Carmen Electra, Teri Polo, and Ryan Pinkston. Sam Leonard (Pinkston) is the new kid at Bridgeport High. A few inches shorter and a little less athletic than his new classmates, Sam is sent knocking on the door of high-school guidance counselor after a particularly embarrassing locker room mishap. Upon determining that the only way to win over his skeptical new classmates is to convince them just how cool he truly is, the scheming student quickly begins to concoct a series of outlandish lies about his background. In Sam's new world, his father is a rock star and his mother a successful avant-garde artist. When Sam wakes up the following morning to discover that his vivid exaggerations have seemingly manifested themselves in reality, his priorities begin to shift as he discovers that there's much more to life than just being popular. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Nick Hornby's acclaimed memoir about one man's struggle to balance his love of a woman and his love for soccer was the basis of a well-reviewed British film in 1997, and now gets a Americanized rewrite with this picture, in which the game is changed from soccer to baseball. Ben (Jimmy Fallon) is a high-school teacher who meets Lindsay (Drew Barrymore), who has a successful career in business. Ben and Lindsay don't appear to have much in common on the surface, but they hit it off and are soon involved in a serious romance. But when spring rolls around, Lindsay becomes aware of the true love of Ben's life -- the Boston Red Sox. Despite the team's lamentable record, Ben has been a fiercely loyal Red Sox fan since childhood, and Lindsay finds it hard to compete with his passion for baseball, while Ben is forced to choose between the obsessions of his youth and the enthusiasms of a responsible adult. Fever Pitch was shot in part in Boston during the 2004 baseball season, which to the surprise of the filmmakers saw the Red Sox winning baseball's world series for the first time since 1918. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After tackling schizophrenia, obesity, and the inner workings of the vascular system (as represented by an animated Chris Rock), Peter and Bobby Farrelly set their comedic sights on a set of conjoined twins in this broad comedy. Written and directed by the non-twin Farrellys, Stuck on You stars Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon as, respectively, Walt and Bob Tenor, brothers who are so close, they're quite literally joined at the hip. While life in their sleepy, welcoming Martha's Vineyard burgh is comfortable -- the Tenor brothers are the quickest short-order chefs in town, unstoppable hockey goalies, and the most unlikely pair of dinner-theater thespians -- Walt longs to make good on his lifelong dream of becoming a professional actor. The shy, reticent Bob acquiesces to his self-assured brother's wish to move to Hollywood, in part to meet his longtime Internet romantic interest, May (Wen Yann Shih). The twosome finds Tinseltown to be less accommodating than life back east, however, as Walt and Bob come up against flea-ridden apartments, surly bar patrons, and a paucity of roles for actors with an extraneous person attached to them. Things begin to look up when they run into Cher on a studio backlot: Eager to end her commitment to star in a cheesy detective show, she casts Walt as her co-star, hoping the program will fail. When her plan backfires, however, the brothers find themselves on the cusp of fame and fortune -- and consider undergoing the risky surgery that could separate them forever. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Television star Tom Green makes his directorial debut with this gross-out comedy. Green stars as Gord Brody, a 28-year-old slacker who aspires to be an animator of Hollywood cartoons. After his dreams of working for studio mogul Dave Davidson (Anthony Michael Hall) temporarily wash out, along with his thankless job at a cheese factory, Gord returns home to live with his parents, Jim (Rip Torn) and Julie (Julie Hagerty). Jim wishes that Gord would simply grow up, move out of the basement, and get a real job like his younger brother Freddy (Eddie Kaye Thomas), who works in a responsible position at a bank. When the battle of wills between Gord and Jim heats up, Gord devises various stunt-like schemes to drive his father bonkers, including the bogus charge that their father molested Freddy as a youngster. Marisa Coughlan co-stars as Gord's wheelchair-bound, nymphomaniac, amateur rocket-scientist girlfriend Betty, while comedian and Green's fellow Canada native Harland Williams plays Gord's oddball neighbor Darren. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this action-laced comedy, a cop on the verge of a nervous breakdown finds love at the least convenient time. Charlie Mayo (Liam Neeson) is an undercover agent with the DEA who was nearly killed when a sting set up to nail a gang of drug dealers went horribly wrong. The accident left Charlie shaken, and he's gone into therapy to hold himself together as he struggles through one final case before retiring. Charlie's superior (Mitch Pileggi) has set him up on another undercover assignment as he tries to bring in two Colombian drug kingpins and a low-level Mafiosi with delusions of grandeur (Oliver Platt). As Charlie makes his way through therapy, he's referred to a nurse (Sandra Bullock) interested in New Age healing techniques; now he has love on his mind as he tries to keep himself out of harm's way under increasingly dangerous circumstances. Gun Shy marked the feature directorial debut of television veteran Eric Blakeney. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

What do you do when you've loved someone literally all their life? As Music From Another Room opens, five-year-old Danny is with his father, a U.S. Army doctor, when Dad is faced with an emergency. It seems Grace Swan (Brenda Blethyn), an old friend of the family, is in the last stages of labor and there's no time to get her to the hospital. Danny ends up helping his father deliver the infant, and moments after birth, Danny is holding the baby in his arms, convinced this is the girl he will marry someday. 20 years later, Danny (played as an adult by Jude Law), now an artist educated in England after the death of his father, is back in the States to help restore a church, and he meets Anna Swan (Gretchen Mol), the girl he helped deliver now all grown up and very beautiful. However, she's also become cold and cynical, and has a fiance to boot, so while Danny's attraction to her hasn't dimmed in two decades, it's clear winning her heart will be an uphill battle. The increasingly eccentric Swan family isn't much help either, including sweet but dizzy Grace, eggheaded father Richard (Bruce Jarchow), angry feminist Karen (Martha Plimpton), shy and blind Nina (Jennifer Tilly) and self-centered lout of a doctor Billy (Jeremy Piven). Screenwriter Charlie Peters steps up to the directors chair for this romantic comedy with a superb supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Chris Farley stars as an unusual ninja fighter in this over-the-top comedy. An elite society of Japanese warriors have prophesied that one day a blonde-haired, fair-skinned child will come to their village and lead them as a fighter of remarkable skill and bravery. So when an American child who fell overboard on an ocean liner washes up on their shores, they adopt him as one of their own and patiently instruct him in the ways of a ninja. Trouble is, the child, whom they name Haru (Chris Farley), grows up to be fat, clumsy, not especially bright, and startlingly inept as a warrior. Undaunted, Haru struggles on with his ninja training, and when Alison (Nicolette Sheridan), a beautiful woman from America, requests a ninja fighter to return with her to the States and protect her from her criminal-minded boyfriend and his Yakuza associates, Haru eagerly accepts the assignment. Haru's minders see trouble brewing, so they secretly send along a fellow ninja, Gobei (Robin Shou), to watch his back, although this hardly prevents Haru from posing a deadly menace to inanimate objects everywhere. Jackie Chan was at one time announced to co-star in this film, which would prove to be the last Chris Farley vehicle released before his death in late 1997, though two other films he completed before his passing were released in 1998. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Mike Figgis' grim drama documents a romantic triangle of sorts involving prostitute Sera (Elisabeth Shue), failed Hollywood screenwriter Ben (Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage), and the constant flow of booze which he loves more dearly than life itself. Arriving in Las Vegas with the intention of drinking himself to death, Ben meets Sera, and they gradually begin falling for one another. From the outset, however, Ben warns Sera that no matter what, she can never ask him to quit drinking, a condition to which she grudgingly agrees. A darkly comic tragedy, Leaving Las Vegas charts the brief romantic convergence of two desperately needy people who together find a brief flicker of happiness. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Makeup wizard Tom Savini's color remake of George A. Romero's 1968 classic follows the original almost shot-for-shot, so quality comparisons are somewhat pointless. The film was clearly made for younger viewers who refuse to watch black-and-white films, no matter how good they may be. The result is passable, but the very fact that the original was made 22 years before makes this version seem almost dated in its restraint. By the time of its release, Romero had already geometrically raised the gore quotient with Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985), so Savini's starting back at square one further lessened the impact of this pointless retread. If this version has anything to offer, it is Patricia Tallman's engaging lead performance as a gun-toting independent woman, one of this film's few elements not lifted wholesale from Romero. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide