Joel Schumacher Movies
Born and raised in working-class New York City, versatile Hollywood director Joel Schumacher started out as an art student. After graduating from Parsons School of Design, he worked for several fashion design firms and dressed window displays at a department store. He found work as a costume designer (Woody Allen's Sleeper and Interiors) and screenwriter (Car Wash and The Wiz) before turning to full-time directing. After a few TV movies, Schumacher made his feature-length directorial debut with the Lily Tomlin comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman, followed by the Mr. T vehicle D.C. Cab.Schumacher finally hit mainstream success in 1985 with the Brat Pack classic St. Elmo's Fire, kick-starting the careers of Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Emilio Estevez, among others. This was soon followed by the beloved teen vampire flick The Lost Boys, starring both Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. Schumacher also directed music videos at the end of the '80s, including "Devil Inside" by INXS. With the exception of the Americanized romantic comedy remake Cousins, he seemed to cater almost exclusively to the youth market during this time.
The medical-student thriller Flatliners introduced Schumacher to starlet Julia Roberts, whom he quickly cast in his next movie, the aptly named Dying Young. Both films failed at the box office, so he tried a bit of social commentary with the psychological drama Falling Down starring Michael Douglas. The success of his John Grisham adaptation The Client led to a TV-series spin-off and another Grisham adaptation, A Time to Kill. Unfortunately, Schumacher had already become commonly known as The Man Who Destroyed the Batman Film Franchise with the widely panned Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.
Schumacher tried to make a comeback with the disturbing and brutal crime thriller 8MM starring Nicolas Cage. Fortunately, he made a wiser move back to writing and directing comedy dramas with Flawless, starring Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman. After doing some producing, the director teamed up with action extravaganza producer Jerry Bruckheimer for Bad Company, a box-office dud featuring the odd pairing of Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins. His Vietnam drama Tigerland marked the breakthrough performance of Irish actor Colin Farrell, whom he cast again in his next two features: the crime drama Veronica Guerin and the blockbuster suspense thriller Phone Booth. Schumacher then began work on a film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera. Released with an onslaught of hype in the fall of 2004, the film did little to aid the already-flagging musical revival of the 2000s, and was seen only by the most devout Webber fans.
The director chose somewhat safer ground with the flashy psychological thriller The Number 23 in the winter of 2007, reuniting with his Batman Forever star Jim Carrey. A subsequent trip into Nazi occult horror with Blood Creek excited genre fans while offering sharp-eyed moviegoers a glimpse of celebrated actor Michael Fassbinder just as he was being propelled to stardom in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, and though 2010's Twelve came and went in the blink of an eye, there was no ignoring Nicolas Cage's ferocious scenery chewing in Schumacher's 2012 thriller Tresspass -- a mini-masterpiece of unintentional camp. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
A talented young woman is torn between her dreams and her family in this musical. Sparkle (Jordin Sparks) has been blessed with a beautiful voice and a gift for songwriting, but she's afraid to perform her songs in public, in part because her mother Emma (Whitney Houston), a former entertainer whose career brought her nothing but heartache, refuses to allow her daughters to sing outside of church. But Sparkle persuades her older sibling Sister (Carmen Ejogo) to sing one of her tunes at a talent show, and the reaction proves that Sister has star quality and Sparkle can write potential hits. An ambitious would-be manager, Stix (Derek Luke), persuades Sparkle and Sister to form a singing group with their sibling Dolores (Tika Sumpter), but while the act clicks wit audiences, the sisters have to contend with their angry mother, Sister gets caught up in a destructive relationship with a short-tempered comedian (Mike Epps), and Sparkle finds herself falling in love with Stix. Based on the 1976 musical of the same name, Sparkle proved to be the last major project for Whitney Houston, who died while the film was in post-production; it was also the first feature film for American Idol champion Sparks. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jordin Sparks, Derek Luke, (more)
A wealthy family fight back against a gang of ruthless criminals during a violent home invasion in this relentless nail-biter from director Joel Schumacher (8MM, Phone Booth). Powerful businessman Kyle (Nicolas Cage) lives in a private community with his gorgeous wife Sarah (Nicole Kidman) and their rebellious teenage daughter Avery (Liana Liberato). Though security is tight in their affluent neighborhood, cunning thief Elias (Ben Mendelsohn) has spent months planning the perfect robbery, and his crew have the skills needed to pull it off. Meanwhile, Sarah is overseeing the renovations that Kyle has approved when her gaze begins to drift to the backyard of their sprawling estate and to a handsome worker (Cam Gigandet) as he tends to their pool. Then one night, without warning, a simple knock at the door changes everything. Their home suddenly overrun by a band of ruthless criminals whose polite demeanor masks a terrifying malevolence, the fractured family realize that the only way out alive is to trust one another and fight together to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. Trespass played at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, (more)
- 2010
Director Joel Schumacher heads into action-horror territory with this Paramount production, scripted by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
A privileged, pot-dealing high school dropout heads down a collision course with tragedy after his cousin is slain in Harlem and his best friend is arrested as the prime suspect in the killing. Inspired by author Nick McDonell's critically acclaimed novel, Joel Schumacher's gritty inner-city drama tells the story of White Mike (Chace Crawford), a wayward teen who makes more money selling pot to rich kids from the Upper East Side than he ever would with a high school diploma. Spring break is here, and everyone in Manhattan is looking for a sack. White Mike's spoiled clientele always springs for the good stuff, making this an especially profitable time of the year. When White Mike's cousin winds up on the losing end of a deadly skirmish at an East Harlem housing project, the drug-pushing dropout finds his comfortable existence shaken to the core. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kiefer Sutherland, Chace Crawford, (more)
Two brothers embark on a violent revenge mission and discover that long-standing rumors of occult experiments among the Nazis were in fact rooted in reality. Three years before the onset of World War II, the Third Reich contacted the Wollners -- a poverty-stricken family of German-Americans living in Town Creek, WV -- with a lucrative offer to host visiting scholar Professor Richard Wirth. Completely oblivious to the occult experiments that were being conducted by the Nazis and Professor Wirth, the Wollners accepted. That decision would haunt their family and their town for decades to come. Flash forward to 2007, when Victor Marshall (Dominic Purcell) vanishes into thin air while camping near Town Creek. Determined to discover the true fate of his missing brother, floundering 25-year-old Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) searches for answers. Just when it seems that there are none to be found, Victor suddenly reappears with a claim that he was abducted and then staged a daring escape. He asks Evan to gather some guns, pack the boat, and return to Town Creek with him on a mission to exact justice on his kidnappers. Upon returning to Town Creek, the two brothers come face to face with a terrifying evil born of an unholy union between Hitler's Third Reich and forces beyond human comprehension. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, (more)
Upon acquiring a mysterious book in which the number 23 seems to take on powerful cosmic significance, a once-sane man gradually becomes obsessed with the idea that the frequently recurring number may in fact hold a deadly secret in this intense mystery-thriller starring Jim Carrey and Virginia Madsen, and directed by Joel Schumacher. Walter Sparrow (Carrey) is a middle-aged dogcatcher whose wife Agatha (Madsen) has bestowed him with an obscure mystery novel detailing the investigation launched by a tough-talking gumshoe named Fingerling (also Carrey) whose every move seems to be overshadowed by the enigmatic eponymous number. After noting a series of alarming parallels shared between the fictional detective and himself, Walter is quickly drawn in to the story as the hard-boiled private investigator murders raven-wigged moll Fabrizia (also Madsen) and pins the crime on her unsuspecting lover (Danny Huston). Back in the real world, fiction seems to merge with reality as Walter and Agatha's close friend Isaac (also Huston) begins to ingratiate himself ever deeper into the couple's relationship and Walter begins experiencing a gruesome series of visions in which he violently murders an unfaithful Agatha. His mind fast descending into a dark and violent whirlwind of madness, Walter enlists the aid of Agatha and the pair's adolescent son Robin (Logan Lerman) in seeking out the author of the mysterious tome and uncovering the sinister truth behind the so-called "23 enigma." ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, (more)
Everyone loves a good, two-fanged fright flick, and from the silent screen to the 21st Century, vampire films have drawn moviegoers to theaters in droves. Much like the immortal monsters that stalk the night in search of precious blood, it seems that our fascination with these strange and seductive creatures will never die. In this ocumentary, interviews with a wide array of filmmakers, actors, special-effects artists, writers, and critics combine with a hearty collection of memorable film clips to explore the evil and eroticism that abounds in vampiric cinema. Vampires director John Carpenter, Underworld director Len Wiseman, and The Lost Boys director Joel Schumacher all weigh in on what inspired them to craft films featuring vampires, while Kristanna Loken and Stuart Townsend reveal what it was like to assume the persona of a creature that so many viewers fear, yet embrace at the same time. Additional interviews with Stan Winston and Greg Nicotero highlight how creative vampires can be tons of ghoulish fun, while writers Marv Wolfman and David Goyer discuss understanding their motivations and critics Leonard Maltin and Harry Knowls explain just why these monsters are so compelling to watch up on the big screen. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Carpenter, Len Wiseman, (more)
Nearly anyone who performs in public on a regular basis is familiar with the notion of the audience member who makes their opinions loudly and clearly known during the show, and like most comedians Jamie Kennedy has dealt with his fair share of hecklers over the course of his career. However, when Kennedy moved from stand-up comic to actor, he encountered a new breed of heckler -- the on-line film critic who posts angry rants on the internet, taking Kennedy to task for nearly every aspect of such critically drubbed movies as Son Of The Mask and Malibu's Most Wanted. Kennedy teamed up with director Michael Addis to make the documentary Heckler, which explores the increasingly combative relationship between artists and their audience. Heckler features interviews with a number of comics and musicians discussing their experiences with loud-mouthed spectators (including Bill Maher, David Cross, Louie Anderson, Rob Zombie, Joe Rogan and David Allen Grier), but Kennedy goes a step further, confronting a number of the writers who've bad-mouthed his work and questioning their role in the creative process. Kennedy and Addis also talk with filmmaker Uwe Boll, who went so far as to challenge his critics to a boxing match. Heckler received its world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jamie Kennedy, Louie Anderson, (more)
- 2006
They're called trailers, because originally they trailed the feature presentation. But before long, movie marketers learned there was a better chance of grabbing the audience's attention before the film. Trailers have since gone on to become one of the quintessential elements of movie-going, as illustrated in this documentary from Michael J. Shapiro and Jeff Werner. Featuring interviews with Joe Dante, Leonard Maltin, voice-over artist Don LaFontaine and several others, Coming Attractions: The History of the Movie Trailer traces a century of movie previews. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Osborne, Joe Dante, (more)
One of the most popular stage musicals in the history of Broadway and London's West End makes its long-awaited arrival on the motion-picture screen in this lavish adaptation directed by Joel Schumacher. Christine (Emmy Rossum) is a beautiful and gifted young woman who longs to join the company of the Paris Opera House. During rehearsals for one of the opera's grand productions, a backdrop falls and crashes to the floor, nearly crushing leading lady Carlotta (Minnie Driver). When several members of the company suggest this could be the work of the "Phantom of the Opera," a spectral presence said to haunt the building, Carlotta drops out of the show, and the fates permit Christine to step in as her replacement. Christine's performance is a triumph, and on opening night she becomes reacquainted with Raoul (Patrick Wilson), a former childhood friend who is now a wealthy and well-known nobleman. Christine soon finds herself smitten with the handsome Raoul, but the same evening she makes a startling discovery -- the story of the Phantom is not just a legend. A brilliant but horribly disfigured composer (Gerard Butler) lives deep in the depths of the opera house, and taken with the beauty of Christine's voice, he abducts her and brings her to his lair, where he offers to help her perfect her talents, offering to write an opera especially for her. As the terrified Christine is comforted by Raoul, the two fall in love, but the phantom sees her affection for Raoul as a tremendous betrayal, and the jealous phantom nearly kills Christine as he nearly killed Carlotta. When the phantom emerges to present the opera's management with the piece he has written for Christine, the singer is asked to put her life on the line in an effort to capture the mad genius once and for all. Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of Gaston Leroux's novel, which had already enjoyed several stage and screen adaptations in the past, opened in London in 1986 and has been a popular favorite around the world ever since; the show was still running in New York and London when the film version premiered in late 2004. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, (more)
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joel Schumacher take on the real-life story of an assassinated Irish journalist in the dramatic thriller Veronica Guerin. Cate Blanchett appears as the title character, a relentless crime reporter for The Sunday Independent during the early '90s. Guerin's violent murder in 1996 led to a revision of Ireland's laws and the creation of the Criminal Assets Bureau. The movie picks up with her pursuit of the underground drug trade in Dublin, which she suspects is led by mobster Martin "The General" Cahill (Gerry O'Brien). When Cahill's gang is attacked, she suspects mobster Gerry "The Monk" Hutch (Alan Devine) is responsible. Not deterred by threats or gunshot wounds, she uses thug John Traynor (Ciarán Hinds) as an informer to help out her investigation of psychotic mobster John Gilligan (Gerard McSorley). Schumacher's protégé Colin Farell appears in a small role. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cate Blanchett, Gerard McSorley, (more)
One man's life is thrown into turmoil by picking up a telephone in this claustrophobic thriller. Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) is a brash, cynical, and self-centered public relations man who juggles a busy career with both a wife, Kelly (Radha Mitchell), and a mistress, Pamela (Katie Holmes). Stu steps into a phone booth on a busy New York street to make a call to Pamela without Kelly being the wiser, but as soon as Stu hangs up, the phone begins to ring. Curious, Stu picks it up -- and a stranger on the other end (voice of Kiefer Sutherland) informs him that if he hangs up the phone, he'll be shot. The red dot of an infrared rifle scope convinces Stu that the caller means business, and when another man tries to make his way into the booth, he's shot mere inches from Stu, calling the attention of the police. Captain Ramey (Forest Whitaker) naturally assumes that Stu was the killer, as Stu struggles to find a way to convince the police of what's happening before more lives are lost, without leaving the booth and putting his own life on the line. At one time proposed as a vehicle for Jim Carrey, Phone Booth was directed by Joel Schumacher, from a screenplay by exploitation icon Larry Cohen. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
Dignified Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins tries the buddy action-comedy on for size with this typically slick and bombastic offering from producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Hopkins stars as Gaylord Oakes, a CIA spy attempting -- along with his partner, Kevin Pope (Chris Rock) -- to secure a suitcase-sized nuclear bomb in Prague from a Russian black marketer (Peter Stormare). Just as the partners discover that another bidder for the device exists, they are ambushed and Pope is killed trying to protect Oakes. Desperate for the bomb's owners and their attackers to believe that Pope is still alive so that the deal can commence in ten days time, Oakes recruits his late partner's long-lost twin, ticket-scalping chess hustler Jake Hayes (also played by Rock), a small-time criminal who never knew he had a brother. Offered a sizable payday and the admiration of his student nurse girlfriend, Hayes agrees to undergo vigorous training and dangerous situations as he impersonates his brother and helps Oakes to remove the nuclear threat, but the new partners clash in every way possible, from personal discipline to musical taste. Meanwhile, the assassin of the real Kevin Pope sends another cadre of killers after the agent he believes is still alive. Bad Company co-stars Kerry Washington, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, Gabriel Macht, and Matthew Marsh. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Chris Rock, (more)
A young man tries to fight the military system only to find it fighting back in unexpected ways in this hard-edged drama. In 1971, Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell) is a draftee who has been sent to the Advanced Infantry Training Facility in Fort Polk, LA, where with hundreds of other new soldiers he's to be taught a final course in combat skills before being shipped out to Vietnam. Bozz has no interest in going to war, and is determined to get sent home as a troublemaker. But his plan backfires; his superiors regard his insubordination as a sign of intelligence and independent thinking, and he's told he might some day become an officer. Bozz and his fellow soldiers -- aspiring writer Paxton (Matthew Davis), sensitive Miter (Clifton Collins Jr.), philosophical Cantwell (Thomas Guiry), bloodthirsty Wilson (Shea Whigham), and heroic Johnson (Russell Richardson) -- are taught how to survive as they face their fears of death and wonder if they can somehow escape going to war. Tigerland was directed by Joel Schumacher; in a change of pace from his best-known work (Falling Down, Batman Forever, and Batman and Robin), the film was made on a relatively low budget (under $10 million), was written by first-time screenwriters Ross Klavan and Michael McGruther, and features a cast of young, little-known actors. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Colin Farrell, Matthew Davis, (more)
The blurry line between a rumor and the truth is stretched to the breaking point in this drama. Three arrogant and self-centered college students, Jones (Lena Headey), Derek (James Marsden), and Travis (Norman Reedus), are brought together for a class project, in which they decide to start a rumor and keep track of how it spreads. Looking for possible gossip material, they see Naomi (Kate Hudson), a girl known for her high-minded views on saving sex for marriage, drunkenly making out with Bo (Joshua Jackson) at a party. The three students begin passing around the rumor that Naomi became a victim of date rape later that evening, embroidering the truth with allegations that Bo forcibly seduced Naomi after she was too inebriated to put up a fight. Before long, the rumor makes its way back to Naomi herself, who suffered a black-out on the night in question after too much alcohol. Naomi panics, and convinced that the rumor is true, contacts the police, who assign Detective Kelly (Sharon Lawrence) to investigate the charges of rape filed against Bo. Featuring a cast of young actors best known for their work on television, Gossip was an appropriate first feature film for director Davis Guggenheim, who previously distinguished himself on such TV series as ER, NYPD Blue, and Party of Five. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eric Bogosian, Marisa Coughlan, (more)
Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is a surveillance expert on the rise. He's living the American dream with a wife, Amy (Catherine Keener), infant daughter, and a house in the suburbs of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After the completion of an assignment for a U.S. Senator, Welles is summoned to the house of a recently deceased captain of industry. His widow, in settling his estate, has discovered an 8MM film in her late husband's private safe. The silent short depicts the apparent murder of a young woman by a large, masked figure, what is known as a "snuff" film. Greatly disturbed by the film's contents, the widow hires Welles to find the identity of the woman and determine if she is still alive. Welles finds the girl's identity and follows her trail from the time she ran away from home to Hollywood. Once there, Welles meets adult bookstore clerk Max California (Joaquin Phoenix) to act as Virgil to Welles' Dante. As the two begin their descent into the world of underground pornography, the detective grows more and more distant from his family, as if he cannot shake the taint of the world in which he now walks. Tom and Max eventually meet pornographers Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare) and Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini). By this time the detective finds he can no longer walk out of the inferno. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, (more)
Can a homophobic former rent-a-cop find happiness learning to sing with a man in a dress? That's the big question in this comedy-drama. A retired security guard (Robert De Niro), deeply conservative and set in his ways, falls victim to a debilitating stroke. His doctors prescribe an extensive program of physical therapy once he's released from the hospital, including singing lessons to help him regain his full powers of speech. As it turns out, there's a vocal instructor living next door to the guard, so he signs up only to discover that his new teacher is a flamboyant drag queen awaiting a sex-change operation (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Written and directed by Joel Schumacher, Flawless also stars Wilson Jermaine Heredia and Daphne Rubin-Vega, both of whom first gained notice in the Broadway musical Rent, as well as Rory Cochran and Barry Miller. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, (more)
This was the third follow-up to Tim Burton's Batman (1989), the original revisionist look at the Gotham City legend, as well as the second in the Batman series directed by Joel Schumacher and the first featuring George Clooney as the Caped Crusader; it features not one but two super-villains, and a new heroine to fight crime alongside Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) and Dick Grayson (aka Robin) (Chris O'Donnell). The experiments of Dr. Victor Fries (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to preserve his late wife cryogenically have gone horribly wrong, turning him into the evil genius Mr. Freeze, who must keep his body at sub-zero temperature in order to say alive -- and he wants to put Gotham City on ice. Shy horticulturist Pamela Isley (Uma Thurman) goes a bit wild with a Venus Fly Trap-like creation she's been working on and mutates into Poison Ivy, who wants to kill all the people on Earth so plants can take over. Can Batman and Robin stop these fiends before their plans go too far? Meanwhile, Bruce and Dick's faithful butler Alfred (Michael Gough) isn't feeling well, so his niece Barbara (Alicia Silverstone) comes to pay a visit. When Barbara finds out what her uncle's employers do in their spare time, she decides she wants in on the action, and she joins the crime fighting twosome as Batgirl. Batman & Robin also features Jesse Ventura in a small role as a prison guard; it would be his last film role before becoming Governor of Minnesota in 1998. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, (more)
Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) takes the law into his own hands after the legal system fails to adequately punish the men who brutally raped and beat his daughter, leaving her for dead. Normally, a distraught father could count on some judicial sympathy in those circumstances. Unfortunately, Carl and his daughter are black, and the assailants are white, and all the events take place in the South. Indeed, so inflammatory is the situation, that the local KKK (led by Kiefer Sutherland) becomes popular again. When Hailey chooses novice lawyer Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) to handle his defense, it begins to look like a certainty that Carl will hang, and Jake's career (and perhaps his life) will come to a premature end. Despite the efforts of the NAACP and local black leaders to persuade Carl to choose some of their high-powered legal help, he remains loyal to Jake, who had helped his brother with a legal problem before the story begins. Jake eventually takes this case seriously enough to seek help from his old law-school professor (Donald Sutherland). When death threats force his family to leave town, Jake even accepts the help of pushy young know-it-all lawyer Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock). ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson, (more)
A nubile young babysitter (Alicia Silverstone) has no idea that she is the center of a maelstrom of male sexual fantasies. Based on a disturbing short story by Robert Coover, the drama presents a non-linear account of a perfectly mundane event. Having a social engagement, a couple calls for their babysitter. She arrives, they go out, her boyfriend comes over, and the weirdness begins -- for director Guy Ferland makes little distinction between the character fantasies and what is really occurring. Something will happen, and then it will happen again; only the outcome is different. What makes this dark film so disturbingly creepy is that none of the males involved, neither the frustrated boyfriend, the horny husband who hired her, or even her little charge has nice fantasies about her. The film contains several sexual scenes and some scenes of violence. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alicia Silverstone, Jeremy London, (more)
Director Joel Schumacher inherited the Batman franchise from Tim Burton and began steering it in the campier direction of the Sixties television show with this third installment. First-time Batman/Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer), in his only outing as the Caped Crusader, is effectively brooding as he ponders strange dreams about his parents' death and escapes his own near-demise at the hands of Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones), a former district attorney driven insane and turned into a master criminal when a gangster throws acid in his face. Meanwhile, as sexy psychologist Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) tries to analyze and seduce both Bruce Wayne and Batman, Wayne Enterprises employee Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey) reacts badly to getting fired, using his self-invented mind-energy device to transform into the super-intelligent Riddler. The Riddler teams up with Two-Face to bring down Batman and drain the minds of Gotham City residents with his device, while Batman gets some much-needed help in the form of circus performer Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell), out for vengeance after being orphaned by Two-Face. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
A sterling cast headed by Oscar-nominated Susan Sarandon makes this slick thriller one of the better adaptations of a John Grisham bestseller. Mark Sway (Brad Renfro) witnesses the suicide of a Mafia lawyer, who confesses that the Mob was behind the murder of a U.S. senator. Mark's brother is traumatized into a coma by the incident; gangster Barry Muldano (Anthony LaPaglia) is soon on Mark's trail, and in desperation, he arrives at the office of recovering alcoholic lawyer Reggie Love (Sarandon). With the Mob after them, and a ruthless federal attorney (Tommy Lee Jones) trying to force Mark to reveal what he knows, Love battles to guarantee the safety of her client and his family. The relationship between Reggie Love and Mark Sway is the center of the film, adding considerable character development to plot's routine elements. Director Joel Schumacher helmed another Grisham adaptation, A Time To Kill, in 1996. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
- Starring:
- Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
It's just not William Foster's (Michael Douglas) day. Laid off from his defense job, Foster gets stuck in the middle of the mother of all traffic jams. Desirous of attending his daughter's birthday party at the home of his ex-wife (Barbara Hershey), Foster abandons his car and begins walking, encountering one urban humiliation after another (the Korean shopkeeper who obstinately refuses to give change is the worst of the batch). He also slowly unravels mentally, finally snapping at a fast-food restaurant that refuses to serve him breakfast because it's "too late." Running amok with an arsenal of weapons at the ready, Foster -- also known as "D-FENS" because of his vanity license plate -- rapidly becomes a source of terror to some, a folk hero to others. It's up to reluctant cop Prendergast (Robert Duvall), on the eve of his retirement, to bring D-FENS down. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, (more)
Directed by Joel Schumacher, Dying Young was adapted from a novel by Marti Leimbach. When Victor Geddes (Campbell Scott) discovers that he is suffering from leukemia, his wealthy family hires pretty, young Hillary O'Neil (Julia Roberts) to help nurse him through his chemotherapy treatment. As the two struggle through the debilitating effects of Victor's treatment, they fall in love and attempt to make the most of their time together. Campbell Scott's real mother, the late Colleen Dewhurst, plays his "reel" mother in the film. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott, (more)
Despite its occasional lapses into silly self-consciousness, Flatliners is one of the most intriguing and well-constructed supernatural thrillers of the 1990s. A group of brilliant medical students decide to literally play with life and death. They put themselves in suspended animation, electronically inducing a near-deathlike state and then pulling out of it at the last possible moment. Things get hairy when one of the students (Kiefer Sutherland) becomes obsessed with the notion of really dying, the better to experience the Afterlife before being revived--if he can be revived. In her first dramatic starring role (playing a sensitive young lady on a misguided guilt trip), Julia Roberts is very, very good--completely bereft of movie-star mannerisms. Audiences flocked to see Flatliners back in 1990 due to the highly publicized off-screen romance between Roberts and Sutherland. Oh, yes: Kevin Bacon and William Baldwin are in the picture, too. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, (more)
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