Avi Lerner

A hard-drinking, hard-living cop assigned the task of transporting a small-time criminal to the nearby courthouse finds that a simple, 16-block drive can be the longest ride of his life in director Richard Donner's urban action thriller. Hung-over, has-been cop Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) has seen better days, and all that the force expects out of him these days is to stay out of trouble while he's on the clock. Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) is set to testify before a grand jury at 10:00 a.m., and it's up to Mosely to make sure that Bunker makes it to the courthouse in one piece -- a job that Mosely estimates will take a maximum of 15 minutes. A black van has been trailing the pair unnoticed, though, and after stopping off at a nearby liquor store to pick up some breakfast, Mosely emerges from the store just in time to save Eddie from the lethal bullet of a determined assassin. When backup arrives in the form of Detective Frank Nugent (David Morse), Mosely quickly realizes that the detective on Nugent's team is the same cop that Bunker is set to testify against. Now faced with the tough task of dodging bullets and eluding a massive onslaught of corrupt cops, Mosely must keep Bunker alive long enough to get him before the judge and ensure that justice is served. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by William Boyd (who also wrote the film's screenplay), this darkly witty drama explores the political, social, and sexual gamesmanship of a group of British and African politicians. Morgan Leafy (Colin Friels) is a British diplomat who, for the past three years, has been assigned to the British High Commission of Ninjana, an African nation slowly divesting itself of colonial rule. Leafy is an arrogant and frequently confused alcoholic romantically involved with an African woman named Hazel (Jackie Mofokeng). Arthur Fanshawe (John Lithgow), a new High Commission appointee who wants nothing more than to be promoted and moved out of Africa, brings some interesting news to Leafy: massive reserves of oil have been discovered in Ninjana, and if the British want to reap the full profits of this windfall, they will want to stay on the good side of Sam Adekunle (Louis Gossett Jr.), who in all likelihood will be the next president of Ninjana. However, something of a diplomatic crisis has come up; a native woman was struck by lightning in the courtyard of the High Commission's compound, and the locals insist that she cannot be moved until certain time-honored rituals have been performed. At a loss for advice, Leafy turns to Dr. Alex Murray (Sean Connery), a Scottish doctor who has been in Africa for 23 years and is one of the few people equally at ease with both the British colonials and the natives. However, Leafy doesn't seem so eager to seek out assistance in his romantic problems; while he's involved with Hazel, Leafy also finds himself dallying with Adekunle's wife Celia (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) and Fanshawe's wife Chloe (Diana Rigg). By the way, don't bother looking for Ninjana on a map -- it doesn't really exist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Who else but a California Valley Girl could stumble down a hole in the ground and end up in the lost city of Atlantis: "Ooooh, and the buildings are sooo spiffy..." The Atlanteans are quite sure she's on their side, so they decide she's gotta' go and send out the death squads. The "Alien" in this film is played by model Kathy Ireland. ~ All Movie Guide

After receiving a mysterious gold piece, Quatermain travels to Africa to find his brother, who is searching for a lost white tribe. In his search, Quatermain discovers a lost civilization. This film is a follow-up to King Solomon's Mines. ~ All Movie Guide

Infinitely superior to the original American Ninja, American Ninja 2: The Confrontation spotlights Michael Dudikoff and Steve James as a pair of combustible U.S. Army Rangers. Dudikoff and James are ordered to find out why so many Marine guards have been disappearing from their posts at the US Embassy in a mythical Carribean country. Turns out that villain Gary Conway has been kidnapping the Marines and forcing an abducted engineer to reprogram the captive Leathernecks so that they'll join Conway's army of zombielike assassins. Naturally, the scientist has a beautiful daughter (Michelle Botes) whom Conway uses as leverage. Battling not only Conway's minions but the corrupt local authorities, martial arts experts Dudikoff and James effectively lay waste to the villain's previously impenetrable stronghold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fourth (and final!) entry in this kick-boxing series, sees the return of Michael Dudikoff as the leading foot flinger. Here a scheming sheik trains a bevy of ninja marauders that he's hoping can help him in his plan to hold the world ransom by holding hostage none other than the city of New York. ~ All Movie Guide

A man becomes the unwitting last barrier between terrorists and nuclear holocaust in this action thriller. Rod Armstrong (Frank Zagarino) is a former Navy SEAL who travels to Moscow with his old friend Bob (Charles Napier) and Bob's wife Susan (Kimberly Kates) on a vacation. However, Armstrong soon discovers fun and games is not the first thing Bob and Susan have in mind; it seems that the happy couple is also working with U.S. Intelligence, and they've been sent to Russia to crack open a ring of illegal arms dealers selling stolen nuclear weapons to terrorists with cash in hand. However, shortly after Bob reveals this secret to Armstrong, he is killed. Now Armstrong and Susan are on the run from the Russians as they try to find the kingpin and bring him to justice before terrorists with nuclear weapons can destroy the world. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

William S. Burroughs' ill-fated performance of his "William Tell act" -- resulting in his wife Joan Vollmer getting a bullet in the brain with a shot glass atop her head -- soon became the stuff of Beat legend. This film, directed by Gary Walkow, traces this doomed romance from its inception to its bloody end. The movie opens in 1944 New York, where Columbia journalism student Vollmer is already living a bohemian life filled with pharmaceuticals and a host of future beatniks, including hunky Jack Kerouac (Daniel Martinez), a young Allen Ginsberg (Ron Livingston), and of course, Burroughs (Kiefer Sutherland). Also frequenting Vollmer's pad is Lucien Carr (Norman Reedus) whom everyone is enamored with, especially Dave Kammerer (Kyle Secor), who winds up dead after trying to jump the object of his affection. Seven years later, Joan and William have married in spite of Burroughs' obvious homosexual predilections. Their domestic bliss is strained when the two have to flee to Mexico City after they get slapped with a drug rap. Ginsberg and Carr, now correspondents for the UPI, visit the couple only to discover that Burroughs split town with his lover-for-hire. Vollmer and the boys decide to go on a road trip that is brimming with heterosexual tension. William eventually returns from his sex-binge suspecting that Joan had a fling with Carr. During that fateful night, Burroughs pulls out a gun that he was going to sell for drug money and performs one of the most spectacularly botched party-tricks in literary history. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

An ambitious young woman (Jessica Simpson) attempting to navigate her way through the cutthroat corporate world becomes the unwitting pawn of two unscrupulous executives seeking to topple and replace the powerful head of an international conglomerate. Penelope Ann Miller, Luke Wilson, Andy Dick, Rachel Leigh Cook, and Jamie Kennedy co-star in director Scott Marshall's loose remake of the Mike Nichols' 1988 comedy Working Girl. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Edward Delacorte (Robert Vaughn) is the director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency who incurs the wrath of the Paradorian dictator General Belmondo (Oliver Reed) when the general's drug-dealing son is arrested. The irate dictator orders a plane carrying students from Loyola Marymount to be hijacked and flown to his South American country. Ten young women including Edward's daughter Lucy (Lisa Rinna) are held prisoner. Belmondo threatens to torture and kill them all unless his son is released within 72 hours. Piranhas feast on human flesh and the femmes create quite a stir themselves when they prove to be adept at handling semi-automatic weapons to fight the forces of the despotic dictator. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A woman discovers becoming attracted to the wrong man can have deadly consequences in this tense erotic thriller. Linda (Nastassia Kinski) is a woman whose life would seem ideal on the surface: she runs a thriving business and is happily married to Phil (Jeff Fahey), a psychiatrist. But a faint air of discontent has begun to creep into her relationship, and when Phil arranges for Linda to hire Sean (Josh Holloway), one of his patients, as an assistant, she finds herself seriously tempted for the first time. Linda impulsively sleeps with Sean one night, but the next day decides she made a mistake and tries to break off her affair. Sean, however, is not willing to give her up so easily, and his attraction to her soon becomes a dangerous obsession. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Burly British actor John Rhys-Davies forsakes the good-guy motions he'd gone through in Raiders of the Lost Ark and TV's The Untouchables to play the villain in 1993's Cyborg Cop. If you've guessed that this is Robocop redux, you're on the money. The title character has been converted from man to machine on a remote Caribbean island. Unfortunately, Cyborg Cop is as evil as his mentor (Rhys-Davies), so it's up to the mechanical man's DEA-agent brother to straighten him out. Lovely scenery, some exciting scenes, lots of grade-A ham from the redoubtable Rhys-Davies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this action drama, an American mining engineer is deceived into returning to a civil-war-torn East African nation and forced into finding a missing plutonium shipment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide