Frank Mancuso, Jr. Movies

Eccentric funeral crasher Enoch (Henry Hopper) finds his ideal soul mate in beautiful but mysterious Annabelle (Mia Wasikowska), who claims to work in a hospital but harbors a sensitive secret. Later, after Enoch opens up to Annabelle about his only friend, an outspoken ghost named Hiroshi, their fledgling romance is put to the ultimate test. Director Gus Van Sant teams with playwright Jason Lew to adapt Lew's play of the same name. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The beautiful people prove just as susceptible to death as their lower-class counterparts in this Butcher Brothers shocker about an upper-crust prank gone horribly awry. It's been a full year since Milan Hastings was killed in an elaborate prank organized by elitist heiress Desiree Cartier and her scheming brother, Blaine, and now the most popular kids in their social set are dropping like flies. No one is safe from the unseen killer who stalks their ranks, not aspiring actress Torrance, gay gossip columnist Charles, self-absorbed beauty queen Barbie, or her Republican fiancée, Peter -- a promising political hopeful. As the body count begins to rise, Desiree suspects that aspiring filmmaker Ryan may be to blame given that he still carries a torch for his beloved Milan. But the reality is much more complicated than that. It would seem that someone out there knows the truth about Desiree's nasty little prank on Milan, and they're willing to go to extraordinary lengths in order to elicit a confession from the scheming heiress. Desiree has been harboring a dark secret ever since that fateful night when Milan died, and this April Fools Day the folks who have since suffered for her greed will finally get to watch as the girl who had it all gets her just deserts. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A brilliant and beautiful college professor makes a terrifying discovery about herself after experiencing a frightening blackout in the latest installment of the shocking Species series. Miranda Hollander (Helena Mattsson) is a genius who is about to discover just how little she truly knows about the universe. Upon awakening from a mysterious blackout, Miranda is horrified to find herself surrounded by a mass of mutilated human bodies. When Miranda approaches her uncle in hopes of discovering an answer to this disturbing development, she is shaken to learn that she is in fact a half-human/half-alien clone. Now, the only hope for Miranda is to flee to Mexico with her uncle and seek out the scientist who created her. But it won't be long before Miranda is unable to suppress the killer instincts boiling up within her, and with an endless horde of murderous hybrids on their trail, it's only a matter of time before planet Earth becomes the ultimate extraterrestrial battleground. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Veteran actor Andy Garcia steps into the director's chair for his first voyage into feature filmmaking with this heartfelt tribute to revolutionary, late-'50s-era Cuba featuring Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, Tomas Milian, and offering the director himself in the starring role. Fico Fellove (Garcia) is the politically neutral owner of the El Tropico nightclub who seeks shelter from the winds of change behind the crowded bar of his flourishing business. Unfortunately for Fico, the blood of the revolution flows deep within the veins of his passionate brothers, and it's only a matter of time before both the club owner, and his distinguished father, are forced to face the prospect of having their lives forever changed despite their indifference to the violence that surrounds them. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Euro screen legends Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil star, respectively, as French cops Denis Klein and Leo Vrinks, in Olivier Marchal's tough-as-steel policier 36 Quai des Orfevres. The story unravels at the titular Parisian police headquarters, where Klein (who heads up the department's anti-crime unit) and Vrinks (who manages the "search and action squad") go head-to-head -- competing with one another not only to succeed their boss, but to be the first to solve an ongoing series of security-van robberies. Ultimately, the men resort to sabotaging one another, and thus set the stage for an ongoing series of twists, turns, reversals, and betrayals. Valeria Golino and Catherine Marchal co-star; Olivier Marchal co-authored the script with Dominique Loiseau, Julien Rappeneau, and Franck Mancuso. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Stigmata is a supernatural suspense story about good, evil, and faith. Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) is a hair stylist in her mid-20s who has no strong religious convictions until odd things start happening to her after she's given a rosary by her mother: she begins speaking with another person's voice; unknown and unseen forces start to attack her; and she develops stigmata, bleeding wounds that spontaneously appear on her wrists, feet, and side, as Christ was wounded at Calvary. Some people believe that a holy miracle has been visited on Frankie, though no one can say why. A Cardinal from the Vatican (Jonathan Pryce) sends a priest, Father Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne), to investigate Frankie and her condition; after getting a first-hand look, Father Andrew finds himself less concerned with whether Frankie's wounds are a legitimate miracle and more concerned with saving her life. Billy Corgan, leader of the rock group The Smashing Pumpkins, composed the score for Stigmata in collaboration with keyboardist Mike Garson. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In the science-fiction thriller Species (1995), Natasha Hentsridge appeared as the beautiful but deadly Sil, a human-alien DNA combo. In this sequel, Hentsridge portrays Eve, a government experiment concocted to gain an understanding of how to combat future aliens, while Michael Madsen and Marg Helgenberger repeat their roles from the earlier film. When astronaut Patrick Ross (Justin Lazard) returns from the first manned Mars expedition, he's infected with the same DNA that spawned Sil and Eve. Hailed as a hero, Ross is pressed into politics by his father (James Cromwell), a senator. Any woman who beds the sexually active Ross is immediately impregnated, with embryos quickly developing and killing the mother. Ross hides the offspring on a family estate, as LA cops begin to detect a pattern in the female deaths. At the lab where scientists are monitoring Eve, Dr. Laura Baker (Helgenberger) realizes that Eve has a telepathic link with Ross, and that these two hybrids hope to couple. Press Lennox (Madsen) and Colonel Burgess (George Dzundza) figure Eve can be used to lead them to Ross. Cleared as a murder suspect, Mars mission astronaut Dennis Gamble (Mykelti Williamson), joins Lennox and Baker and gets in on the action as everyone involved closes in on Ross. Richard Belzer does a cameo as the President of the U.S., while Peter Boyle makes an uncredited appearance as a scientist. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Though serving a prison sentence for using his computer to embezzle from an international corporation, Dodge (Stephen Baldwin) still thinks of himself as an ordinary criminal. His fellow convict, Piper (Lawrence Fishburne), whose basic decency leads him to protect Dodge from an assault by another prisoner, thinks the same. Neither Piper nor Dodge particularly like each other; matters are not improved when they are chained together. When a prison riot transforms into a break-out opportunity, they get to know one another better on the run, and neither is any too thrilled about it. The action soon grows fast and furious when they realize that they are not only on the run from the usual police authorities, but from several different kinds of police and a gang of mobsters, whom Dodge has unknowingly endangered. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Real-life sweethearts and film directors Ken Kwapis and Marisa Silver co-directed this throwback to the silver-screen romantic comedies of the 1940s, examining the different ways men and women view reality. Kwapis takes the male character's point of view, recalling a burgeoning relationship. Silver then takes a crack at the same story, recalling the same events from the woman character's point of view. Unfortunately, both perspectives are not that much different. Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins star as Dan Hanson and Lorie Bryer, two reporters from the Baltimore Sun who are assigned to share space on the editorial page debating opposing viewpoints. Dan is the conservative philanderer. Lorie is the sensitive liberal. The new column becomes a big hit -- a shop owner exclaims, "Hey, it's the people who argue!" Although originally antagonists, Dan and Lorie become lovers. As their relationship grows, so does their popularity, and they end up hosting a popular television program. But Lorie wants commitment, and Dan doesn't. Frustrated, Lorie shies a coffee cup off Dan's noggin live on the air. Their ratings soar. And then the whole routine is played out again. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Innocent Victim is a psychological thriller based on the Ruth Rendell novel Tree of Hands. London based, best-selling author, Benet (Helen Shaver), who has just written a controversial novel, lives alone with her young son. Benet's mother, Marsha (Lauren Becall), visiting from the United States, is a manic-depressive who has psychotic episodes. When Benet's young son dies, Marsha kidnaps a local child to serve as a substitute. Benet believes she should return the child but upon investigation she finds out that the child has been severely abused by his parents. After the child's disappearance, the parents are charged with the murder. A more skillful filmmaker might have dealt, as the novel does, with the moral issues of guilt and responsibility and the terrible moral dilemma faced by Benet. Instead, director Giles Foster presents the film in a rather straightforward, nonjudgmental fashion which allows for little character growth and diminishes the impact of what should be an ironic and disturbing ending. Innocent Victim, while at times compelling, and based on an interesting premise, would have been a memorable film if Foster had taken more chances and pushed his actors to give the performances that they are capable of but here are only hinted at. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

The conflict in question is World War II; even though hostilities have all but ceased, the Germans and the French are not precisely reconciled. German soldier Richard Bohlinger, absent without leave, is befriended by a couple of pre-teen boys (Antoine and Julien Hubert, sons of director Jean-Louis Hubert). Despite the fact that they seem to have found a lasting peace, the adult world doesn't see things the boys' way, and Bohlinger is put to death. Apres le Guerre is the second felicitous collaboration between director Hubert and veteran character-actor Richard Bohlinger; the first was the popular Le Grand Chemin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After a moderately successful first season in syndication, the H.G. Wells-based science fiction series War of the Worlds returns for a second season with several radical changes in place--and not merely the new title, War of the Worlds: The Second Invasion. As we shall see, the series has abruptly taken on the dimensions of two other entertainment properties: the Mad Max movies, and the briefly popular network sci-fi series V. As before, scientist Harrison Blackwood (Jared Martin) and his astrophysicist colleague Suzanne McCullough (Lynda Mason Green) continue to wage war against an army of extraterrestrial invaders, but not precisely the same invaders as in the previous season. It turns out that the dreaded Mortaxians, who had the ability to assume the bodies and identities of humans in order to carry out their dirty work undetected, were actually soldiers in the employ of an even stronger other-worldly race, the human Morthrai. Summarily exterminating the Mortaxians for failing to complete their mission of conquering the Earth, the Morthrai show up to finish the job--which is distressingly easy, inasmuch as the entire infrastructure of earthly society has apparently collapsed between Seasons One and Two, leaving the planet in a chaotic, dysfunctional state, with the "leadership" in the hands of local despots and scoundrels. (So much for Mad Max) Commandeering the Morthrai is the Hitlerlike Malzor (Denis Forest) and his beautiful-but-deadly consort Mana (Catherine Disher). Dictating the progress of the war against the humans is the "Joseph Mengele"-type scientist Ardix (Julian Richings), bent on "purifying" the earth by purging all undesirables. Malzor, Mana and Ardix are guided in their sinister ambitions by a jellyfish-shaped deity called The Eternal. (So much for V) Though he hadn't received much official support during Season One, Dr. Blackwood is almost completely on his own during Season Two in his Herculean efforts to ward off the invaders and save the world. Worse still, two of his former colleagues, computer whiz Norton Drake and Army colonel Paul Ironhorse, have been killed off. Luckily, Blackwood can still count on the help and support of his trusted aide Suzanne McCullough, as well as a newcomer to his team, ex-soldier John Kincaid (Adrian Paul). With their original headquarters destroyed, the alien fighters were forced literally underground, running their resistance movement from their city's sewer system. Sensing that the "improvements" wrought on Season Two of War of the Worlds were more hindrance than help, the producers decided to wrap things up permanently in the 44th and final episode "Knight Time", in which a clear victor in the Earth-Morthrai conflict is declared (as if we're going to tell you who it is!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi