John Benjamin Martin Movies

Just how far will some guys go to pay off a debt? Frank (Jason Lee) and Eddie (Crispin Glover) are a pair of inept would-be wise guys trying to scare up enough money to get out of the small Texas town they call home. They think their ship may have come in when Spider (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a local crime boss, offers them a big payday to drive a truck full of bootlegged cigarettes into Mexico. Frank and Eddie jump at the chance, but soon discover they're been made patsies in a scam when the truck turns out to have been booby-trapped, and by the end of the day they owe Spider a quarter-million dollars. Desperate to raise the cash, Eddie, a part-time gravedigger, hears that an exotic dancer with a rich sugar daddy has recently died, and was buried wearing a valuable diamond necklace. Frank and Eddie then hatch an elaborate scheme to exhume the stripper, swipe the necklace, and hold her remains for ransom. Drop Dead Sexy was the first directorial credit for writer and producer Michael Philip. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A string of bizarre homicides tied to the death of her best friend 15 years ago leads a determined forensics detective to look into her past for answers in this nail-biter from director Jeff Beesley. It's been over a decade since the tragic death of forensic detective Lisa Monroe (Gabrielle Anwar)'s former best friend Jenny Rand, but upon hearing that a series of unsolved murders have been plaguing her former hometown, Lisa returns home to work alongside former-boyfriend-turned-detective Joe O'Connell (Max Martini) in catching the murderer. Soon discovering that each one of the victims had testified against the recently paroled killer at his trial 15 years ago, Lisa and Joe must put an end to the murderous rampage before the crafty killer turns the tables on the determined cops. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Alison Eastwood, daughter of actor/director Clint Eastwood, stars in this made-for-TV nailbiter as Patricia Collins, a TV journalist who is summoned to the city morgue to look at the body of a young female murder victim. Patricia is shocked to discover that the dead girl is her exact double -- suggesting that she was killed in a case of mistaken identity by an unknown assailant. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that this disturbing incident is linked with the supposed death ten months earlier of Patricia's own father, whose body disappeared along with 200,000 dollars he had pulled out of the bank. And what has all this to do with a demented stalker who is plaguing Patricia via fax messages? Or, for that matter, with a shady fertility clinic, the specialty of which is in vitro fertilization of twins? From the "smart heroine isn't smart enough not to confront the villain alone" school of murder mysteries, Mary Higgins Clark's I'll Be Seeing You (based on a novel, as if there were any doubt) premiered December 19, 2004, on the PAX network. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When Frederica Dumay (Cynthia Gibb) inherits her father's winery, she has no idea of the sort of intrigue that awaits her at her dad's fabulous estate. A murder occurs soon afterward, and Frederica's best friend is the victim. She suspects that the culprit is the beautiful but spiteful Arabella Young (Alexandra Kamp-Groenveld), but cannot determine if the crime was the result of passion or greed. This being a Mary Higgins Clark adaptation, not everything is as obvious as it seems -- except for the fact that Frederica herself is the number one candidate to be the murderer's next victim. One of several two-hour Clark adaptations broadcast by the PAX network A Crime of Passion was originally slated to air on April 11, 2003, but was bumped back to May 9 of that same year. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A young boy and a brilliant scientist attempt to thwart an evil cyber-villain's attempts to take over the world in this inferior sequel to the 1992 sci-fi adventure The Lawnmower Man. Former Max Headroom star Matt Frewer replaces Jeff Fahey in the title role of Jobe, the mentally challenged gardener transformed into a brilliant, computerized megalomaniac by a series of virtual reality experiments. Though destroyed at the end of the first film, Jobe finds a way to return to digital life, and he sets out in search of an important computer chip that will grant him frightening levels of power. A group of young hackers, led by Peter (Austin O'Brien), discovers this nefarious scheme and turns to retired virtual reality pioneer Ben Trace (Patrick Bergin) for help. Chase scenes and gunfights follow, both in the virtual world and the real world, as Trace and the boys try to figure out how to defeat Jobe. Despite a more blatantly futuristic setting, the sequel's special effects fail to match the standards of the first film, and the confused storyline proves more illogical than suspenseful, limiting the film's appeal to die-hard genre aficionados. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi