Ron James Movies

The world's most famous team of astronauts-cum-superheroes returns in the effects-heavy sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. As the story opens, Sue Storm (aka The Invisible Girl [Jessica Alba]) and Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic [Ioan Gruffudd]) prepare for their upcoming, superhero-studded wedding celebration. But Reed cannot stay focused on the nuptials -- he's distracted by wire reports of a bizarre, comet-like object hurtling toward the Earth with tremendous force, triggering brownouts, blackouts, tropical storms, and various other climatological disasters. When the said object hits the island of Manhattan, destroying much of the city in its wake, its identity becomes resoundingly clear. "It" is actually a "he" -- a psychotic villain known as The Silver Surfer (voice of Larry Fishburne) who intends, for some unascertainable reason, to destroy much of the Earth, just as he obliterated dozens of planets before it. Feeling compelled to rally their old gang and save the day, Sue and Reed summon Ben Grimm (aka The Thing [Michael Chiklis]) and Johnny Storm (aka The Human Torch [Chris Evans]) to take on the Surfer -- and end up battling not only him, but an obnoxious Army general (Andre Braugher) and the cantankerous Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), who has broken out of his icy prison that held him captive at the end of the first movie. Tim Story returns to direct this sequel. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Director Christopher Nolan follows up his breakthrough sophomore film Memento with this remake of a stylish Norwegian thriller. Al Pacino stars as Detective Will Dormer, a Los Angeles Police Department legend who temporarily escapes an internal affairs investigation that may ruin his career by traveling to Nightmute, AK, the remote site of a murder that has the local authorities flummoxed. Along with his partner, Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan), and the small town's wide-eyed rookie investigator, Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank), the exhausted Dormer probes the brutal slaying of a teenage girl who was rumored to have a secret lover. A clever ruse quickly lures the killer into a police trap, but the suspect escapes and a tragic accident at the scene leaves Dormer at the mercy of the murderer, a pulp crime novelist named Walter Finch (Robin Williams). As Finch plays a dangerous game of extortion with Dormer, the detective's mental health deteriorates rapidly from guilt over his complicity in a crime and sleep deprivation compounded by the lack of darkness in the land of the midnight sun. Meanwhile, the bright and dogged Ellie continues putting the pieces of a complex puzzle together despite Dormer's skillful attempts to lead the investigation toward the right suspect, but away from his own malfeasance. Insomnia co-stars Paul Dooley, Nicky Katt, Maura Tierney, and Jonathan Jackson. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Ernest P. Worrell (Jim Varney) inadvertently finds the long-missing British crown jewels (the tower of London contains fake jewels, according to the film) after he stumbles over a half-buried cannon from the Revolutionary War on the campus of the university where he works. This dim-bulbed comedy (the fifth in the Ernest film series) chronicles his bungling adventures. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The eponymous team consists of four residents of a New Jersey psychiatric hospital: ex-postal worker Henry Sikorsky (Christopher Lloyd), who fancies himself a doctor; one-time ad agency exec Jack McDermott (Peter Boyle), suffering from a Messiah/martyr complex; writer Billy Caulfield (Michael Keaton), who cannot abide the "idiots" in the world (namely, everyone but himself); and TV-obsessed Albert Ianuzzi (Stephen Furst). Permitted a field trip to a baseball game, the four unfortunates wander off when psychiatrist Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris) is waylaid by two corrupt police officers after he witnesses them killing a third cop. The innocent inmates are accused of attacking Dr. Weitzman, but it is they who team up to bring the actual culprits to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Josh Wheeler has it good these days as the entertainment director at a golf resort in the Bahamas, but he used to be a pretty active criminal. He owes his freedom to the fact that one of his compatriots went to jail in his stead when he bungled their getaway attempt after a robbery. Now that same man is asking him to do him a favor by arranging free stays for a group of gangsters. In order to explain their presence at the resort, he tells his boss that they're golfing big-shots, and as a result he has to stage a phony tournament for the golfing-impaired thugs to be involved in. What's more, he has to make sure the results of the tourney are profitable to the gangsters, or else... ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The tense WWII submarine drama Das Boot morphs into a European sex comedy before our very eyes, courtesy of screenwriters Bob Clark, Wolfgang Petersen, and Harold Ramis. The cast includes such continental favorites as Walter Slezak (James Hemphill), Fritz Feld (Eugene Levy), Pee Wee Reese (Martin Short), Helmut Schmidt (John McAndrew), Eric Hoffer (Ron James), and rising starlet Marina Zadora (Andrea Martin). Also: Melonville councilman Max Lansky (Levy) returns from a swingin' three-month vacation to host the call-in show "You're On"; and showbiz historian Brock Linehan (Short) narrates the life story of Señor Wences' hand puppet. (DVD alert: The "You're On" sketch has been removed from the 30-minute syndicated version of this episode.) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Purporting to be loosely based on Hamlet, Strange Brew is about an evil braumeister at the Elsinore Brewery who has discovered an additive that when guzzled in beer, allows the drinkers to be easily controlled. Braumeister Smith (Max von Sydow) has a plan to take over the world with his new brew, and only the Great White hosers of the North, Bob and Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) -- with their plaid shirts, ski toques, fur-lined parkas, and addiction to beer -- can stop the dastardly plan, sober or not. There are several jabs at "hoseheads" and the business of movie-making, including an epilogue that critiques the film itself. Strange Brew found a cult audience with fans of the Second City comedy troupe, of which Moranis and Thomas were members. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

As a sequel to the first Boogey Man, the horror of Boogey Man II lies in the script itself which adapts so much of the footage from its predecessor that this is really a half a movie in one. A fragment of the "possessed" mirror that caused the damage in the Boogey Man is brought to Los Angeles by the heroine Lacey (Suzanna Love) and takes over a hapless butler. He goes on a rampage, but then other appliances get into the spirit of the thing, as animated garden hoses, corkscrews, electric toothbrushes, and hedge trimmers wreak havoc with the "house appliance" horror genre. In-between the madness, Mickey Lombard (Ulli Lommel -- the director playing a director) lambasts Hollywood for pandering to commercialism -- a case of someone biting the hand that is not feeding him. For the record, the term "boogeymen" comes from the Bugi men of Indonesia, feared pirates of the high seas. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Fassbinder protegee Ulli Lommel directed this moody, atmospheric but ultimately derivative horror film about a dark family secret and the broken mirror which releases that secret's malignant spirit. The film's prologue opens in the 1960s, when a young boy conspires with his sister to murder their mother's cruel and abusive lover. Flash forward to the present, with both siblings scarred by the emotional demons of their past: the boy has remained mute since that fateful day, and his sister (Suzanna Love, aka Mrs. Lommel) is tormented by nightmares. If that weren't enough, a literal demon is released when the old mirror which paid witness to their deed is shattered, releasing their victim's enraged spirit to seek bloody revenge... and he's not too particular about who he takes it out on. Released on the coattails of Halloween, this film retains many elements of John Carpenter's seminal work (brooding piano/synthesizer score; 20-years-later supernatural revenge motif) and borrows heavily from The Exorcist for its demonic-possession climax, but retains none of those films' well-crafted suspense, choosing instead to rely on shock effects and shots of sharp objects plunging into throats, eyes, mouths and abdomens. Lommel's use of rich colors and inventive camera angles lends a suitably creepy mood, but a better script might have elevated this one to true cult-classic status. Followed by a tired sequel constructed mainly of reused scenes from its predecessor. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi