Dale Pollock Movies

Beware of what goes "bump" (and "squeak" and "flap flap flap") in the night. Dr. Sheila Casper (Dina Meyer) is a respected zoologist dispatched by the government to Gallup, TX, a small community suffering from an unusual number of reported bat attacks. Casper finds this news puzzling, since bats are generally placid creatures who avoid contact with humans. The local sheriff, Emmett Kimsey (Lou Diamond Phillips), assures Casper that the reports are on the level and that something needs to be done about swarms of aggressive bats so thick they blot out the moon. Caspar and Kimsey discover that a new breed of genetically altered bats have escaped from a research facility and taken up residence in a cave near Gallup -- but the nocturnal bloodsuckers have no intention of leaving as quickly as they arrived. Bats was written by John Logan, who had two other projects hit the screen within a few months of Bats' release: Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday and Ridley Scott's Gladiator. The supporting cast includes Leon and Bob Gunton. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The sophomore film effort from music video director F. Gary Gray, Set It Off is a crime thriller about four women bank robbers from a housing project in L.A. Ever since her parents' death, Stony (Jada Pinkett Smith) has had to act as a parent to her little brother Stevie (Chaz Lamar Shepard). She works in various capacities to make a future for him at U.C.L.A. Cleo (Queen Latifah) is a butch lesbian who wants nothing more than to customize her classic car. Tisean (Kimberly Elise) is a painfully shy single mother to her son Jajuan, struggling to make ends meet. Frankie (Vivica A. Fox) is the stylish bank teller who gets fired in the opening scene and ends up working with the other three at a janitorial service owned by irritating boss Luther (Thomas Jefferson Byrd). With Frankie upset from her unjust firing, Stony angry from the wrongful killing of her brother, and Tisean losing her baby to the child protective services, the four friends are motivated to rob a bank themselves. Looking for thrills, Cleo gets some guns from Black Sam (Dr. Dre in a cameo role), and they pull off their first job without a hitch. Their success starts a trend and they rob other banks in the area, all the while being investigated by Detective Strode (John C. McGinley). In a romantic subplot, Stony finds romance with wealthy Harvard-educated Keith (Blair Underwood) before the violent chase-scene ending. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Embracing the supposed nihilism and cynicism of the "slacker" generation, S.F.W. (1995) caused nary a blip on the media-saturated cultural radar screen that it criticized. Stephen Dorff stars as Cliff Spab, an aimless, hard-drinking youth. Spab becomes a national hero when he is one of several people held hostage by gun-toting terrorists in a convenience store. He doesn't care much about his own life or anything else, and his attitude of "So f---ing what?" translates into debates with his terrorist captors and gloomy pronouncements that charm viewers. After a month-long siege, a crisis erupts when the store runs out of beer and junk food, so Cliff finds himself a free man whose celebrity image is emblazoned on t-shirts and whose presence is requested at a rock concert where he is required to do nothing other than appear. In the meantime, Spab's girlfriend Wendy (Reese Witherspoon) becomes a ubiquitous talk show guest. Ostensibly a satire of the celebrity-obsessed culture of the 1990s, the film was withheld from distribution for a year because of thematic similarities to Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In Michael Lessac's lugubrious House of Cards, women's intuition beats out psychology in the battle against autism. The story begins in Mexico, where a little girl named Sally Matthews (Asha Menina) lives with her parents, scientists studying ancient ruins. When her father falls to his death, Sally is comforted by a Mayan mystic that tells Sally her father has gone to the moon. When Sally, her mother Ruth (Kathleen Turner), and her brother Michael (Shiloh Strong) return home to North Carolina, Sally begins to retreat into autism. She first stares silently at the night sky. Then she shrieks when Ruth wears a baseball cap the wrong way. Finally she develops the habit of scaling the roof of the house and other tall structures. This makes Ruth realize that there is something seriously wrong, and she takes her to see Dr. Jacob Beerlander, a psychiatrist who is an expert in autism. As Sally retreats more and more into herself, Beerlander and Ruth clash over the scientific approach versus the intuition of a mother. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the Robert Boswell novel, the film focuses on a very troubled family beset from all sides by conflict, arguments and scandal. The father (Peter Coyote) brings his wife (Cindy Pickett) and two sons (Vincent D'Onofrio, Peter Berg) to Washington State to begin a new life, but finds that the same problems have followed them. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

A self-centered womanizer makes a wager that he will be able to propose to three women in a three month time and have each one accept in this romantic Philadelphia-set comedy. His three victims are an icy concert pianist, an innocent blonde receptionist for the Philadelphia Eagles, and a rich, horny hausfrau. The fellow plans to prove his success by videotaping each proposal. Sure enough he succeeds, but things quickly sour when the ladies find out that he's duped them. They then team up to get revenge and teach him a thing or two about real love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In Kevin Reynolds' The Beast, George Dzundza plays a cruel Russian tank commander who gets lost in the wilderness during the war in Afghanistan. As the enemy closes in, the glazed-eyed Dzundza must rely on his survival training to see him through this crisis. Meanwhile, one of Dzundza's men (Jason Patric), abandoned and left to die by his demonic commander, joins the Afghan cause. Filmed in Israel, The Beast (aka The Beast of War) was adapted from a play by William Mastrosimone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide