Stacey Sher Movies

Lincoln Lawyer's Brad Furman directs this online gambling drama with Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake toplining the cast in this 20th Century Fox release. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

A former slave and a German bounty hunter become unlikely allies in the battle against a tyrannical plantation owner in this western from visionary director Quentin Tarantino. Two years before the Civil War pits brother-against-brother, German-born fugitive hunter Dr. King Schultz (Academy Award-winner Christoph Waltz) arrives in America determined to capture the outlaw Brittle brothers dead or alive. In the midst of his search, Dr. Schultz crosses paths with Django (Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx), a freed slave and skilled tracker who seeks to rescue his beloved wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from ruthless plantation owner Calvin Candie (Academy Award-nominee Leonardo DiCaprio). Once Django has aided Dr. Schultz in coralling the Brittle brothers, the two team up to capture some of the most wanted men in the South. Meanwhile, Django never loses sight of his mission to free Broomhilda from the treacherous slave trade before it's too late. Upon arriving at Candie's nefarious plantation, dubbed Candyland, Django and Dr. Schultz discover that slaves are being groomed for gladiator-like competitions by Candie's malevolent right-hand man Billy Crash (Walton Goggins), and together they skillfully work their way onto the compound for a closer look. But just as Django and his partner locate Broomhilda and plot a daring escape, Candie's house slave Stephen (Academy Award-nominee Samuel L. Jackson) catches wind of their plan, and informs his master of the betrayal. Now, as a clandestine organization attempts to back them into a corner, Django and Dr. Schultz will have to come out with pistols blazing if they ever hope to free Broomhilda from Candyland and the clutches of its vile proprietor. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

From producer Steven Soderberg and screenwriter Peter Buchman (Che) comes this Paramount Pictures production telling the story of Jack Garcia, the man who went undercover for the FBI to bring down the Gambino crime syndicate. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

The bumbling cops of Comedy Central's hit television series take a trip to Miami Beach for a national police convention. After the trip there turns out to be much more difficult than anticipated, the bumbling crew must leap into action when the convention center becomes the target of a biological terrorist attack. Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon) must keep together his motley and inept crew in order to save everyone from the disaster, and keep peace on the streets of the popular Florida city. The film features the same cast from the popular Comedy Central series of the same name. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Director Oliver Stone once again offers a powerful and provocative story based on real-life events in this drama. Sargeant John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and William J. Jimeno (Michael Pena) were two officers assigned to New York City's Port Authority who were working their beats on a quiet day in early fall when they received an emergency call. The day was September 11, 2001, and McLoughlin and Jimeno were among the policemen who attempted to evacuate the World Trade Center towers after they were struck by airliners piloted by terrorists. Both McLoughlin and Jimeno were inside the fifth building of the World Trade Center when the towers fell, and were two of the last people found alive amidst the wreckage. As McLoughlin and Jimeno struggled to hold on to their lives as rescuers sifted through the rubble, their spouses -- Donna McLoughlin (Maria Bello) and Allison Jimeno (Maggie Gyllenhaal) -- clung to the desperate hope that their husbands would survive and be found. As the McLoughlin and Jimeno families waited for word on the fate of the two men, they watched as a city and a nation came together with strength and compassion in the face of a tragedy. World Trade Center was based on the true story of John McLoughlin and William J. Jimeno, both of whom cooperated with producers in the making of this film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Underworld hipster Chili Palmer is back in the entertainment business in this sequel to the 1995 hit Get Shorty, which like the first film is based on a novel by Elmore Leonard. Gangster-turned-movie producer Chili (once again played by John Travolta) has grown tired of the screen trade, especially after his latest project turned out to be a box-office flop. Chili is looking for new horizons and thinks he may have found his niche when his close friend Tommy Athens (James Woods), a fellow mobster who runs an independent record label, is murdered by Russian gangsters. Chili takes over Athens' record company, Nothing to Lose Records, and begins courting Tommy's girlfriend, Edie (Uma Thurman). Edie is an experienced hand in record production, and together she and Chili spot what would seem to be the ideal act for their label -- Linda Moon (Christina Milian), a beautiful young woman with a powerhouse voice. Linda is stuck, however, in a going-nowhere R&B trio managed by the monumentally sleazy Raji (Vince Vaughn). Chili isn't much concerned about Linda's contract with Raji, but Raji certainly is, and the manager soon takes out a contract on Chili with the same Russian hoods who killed Tommy. Soon Chili is facing all the action he can handle between the Russian gunmen, a music mogul named Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel) who wants Chili to stay out of the business, and Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer), a successful hip-hop producer who wants Chili to pay him the 300,000 dollars he is owed by Tommy. Be Cool also features appearances by The Rock as a gay Samoan bodyguard, Andre Benjamin (aka Andre 3000 from the hip-hop duo Outkast) as a rapper who isn't very good with a gun, and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler as himself. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Screenwriter John Hamburg directs his second film (since his 1998 debut Safe Men) with the romantic comedy Along Came Polly. Ben Stiller plays Reuben Feffer, a professional risk assessor who never takes chances in any aspect of his life. When his new bride Lisa (Debra Messing) leaves him for a European scuba instructor named Claude (Hank Azaria), he finally decides to a risk of his own. At a party, he meets free-spirited Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston), whom he remembers from his seventh-grade Model U.N. Unlike the control-freak Reuben, she's spent her life living on the edge. They reluctantly begin a romance and Polly introduces him to a new world of spicy food and suggestive dances. Along Came Polly also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as Reuben's washed-up best friend Sandy Lyle and Alec Baldwin as the obnoxious insurance company boss Stan Indursky. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

The ABC cop series Karen Sisco was based on characters created by novelist Elmore Leonard, as visualized in Steven Soderbergh's 1998 theatrical feature Out of Sight. In the role originated on film by Jennifer Lopez, Carla Gugino starred as Karen Sisco, one of the toughest (and certainly the sexiest) U.S. Marshals working the Miami gold coast. Patrolling a beat from Palm Beach to South Beach, Karen used brains, brawn, and sheer chutzpah to bring criminals to heel. All of this was most disconcerting for Karen's father, veteran private detective Marshall Sisco (Robert Forster), who had hoped that his darling daughter would have picked a less risky profession -- and, on a more personal level, wished that Karen would exercise better discretion in her choice of boyfriends. Karen Sisco premiered October 1, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of several government-espionage series unveiled during the 2001-2002 TV season, UC: Undercover detailed the exploits of the Special Operations Group, an elite five-person team answerable only to the Justice Department. Using up-to-date technology and advanced martial arts skills, the Group was dedicated to tracking down and capturing supercriminals and terrorists (though several episodes dealing with the latter were toned down in the wake of the World Trade Center tragedy). Described by several observers as the Wiseguy of the early 21st century, the series found its regulars adopting all manner of disguises and new identities in order to infiltrate the illicit organizations which they'd targeted for extinction. Originally cast as group leader John Keller, Grant Show was replaced in the second episode by new leader Frank Donovan (Oded Fehr); other regulars included Jon Seda as Jake, Vera Farmiga as Alex, Bruklin Harris as Monica, and Jarrad Paul as Cody. Executive produced by Steve Salerno (one of the writers of the movie hit Armageddon), UC: Undercover began its weekly, 60-minute NBC run on September 30, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A man struggles back from madness to avenge the death of someone he knew in an intelligent thriller based on the acclaimed novel by George Dawes Green. Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson) once had a career as an acclaimed concert pianist, a position at the Juilliard School of Music, and a loving wife and children. But Ledbetter's life has been devastated by paranoid schizophrenia; now homeless, Ledbetter wanders the streets of New York City as he rails against Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant, a man whom he believes controls all the evil in the world while following his movements from a perch atop the Chrysler Building. Most nights, Ledbetter takes shelter in a cave in Central Park, earning him the nickname "the Caveman." One morning, Ledbetter discovers a frozen corpse caught in the branches of a tree near his cave; the body is that of Scotty (Sean MacMahaon), a homeless drug addict who was close friends with his pal Matthew (Rodney Eastman). Ledbetter is determined to get justice for Scotty, and he's also eager to prove himself to his daughter Lulu (Aunjanue Ellis), now a New York City police officer. While Ledbetter is at first convinced that his nemesis Stuyvesant is responsible for Scotty's death, in time he focuses on another suspect: David Leppenraub (Colm Feore), a famous photographer known for his controversial erotic images of young men, who occasionally hired Scotty as a model. As Ledbetter attempts to investigate Leppenraub's possible role in the murder, he soon gains an unexpected ally -- Moira (Ann Magnuson), a noted sculptor and Leppenraub's sister. The Caveman's Valentine marked the major-studio debut for director Kasi Lemmons, who made an impressive debut in 1997 with the independent drama Eve's Bayou. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Julia Roberts stars in this legal drama based on the true story of a woman who helped win the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit. Erin Brockovich (Roberts) is a single mother of three who, after losing a personal injury lawsuit, asks her lawyer, Ed Masry (Albert Finney), if he can help her find a job. Ed gives her work as a file clerk in his office, and she runs across some information on a little-known case filed against Pacific Gas and Electric. Erin begins digging into the particulars of the case, convinced that the facts simply don't add up, and persuades Ed to allow her to do further research; in time, she discovers a systematic cover-up of the industrial poisoning of a city's water supply, which threatens the health of the entire community. Erin Brockovich was directed by Steven Soderbergh; Julia Roberts earned a $20 million payday for her work on the film, the highest salary paid to a female film star up to that time. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Steven Soderbergh directed this crime caper adapted from the novel by Elmore Leonard. When ex-con Jack Foley (George Clooney) robs a bank, his car goes dead, and Foley lands in a Florida prison. His escape from prison doesn't go as planned, since it's witnessed by deputy federal marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez). Foley's pal Buddy Bragg (Ving Rhames) intervenes, with the result that Sisco winds up in the trunk of the getaway car with Foley, and the two realize they're attracted to each other, despite being on opposite sides of the law. However, that doesn't stop Sisco from her mission to capture Foley, who has spent much of his life in prison. Flashbacks introduce Foley's fellow prisoners, including dim dude Glenn Michaels (Steve Zahn), violent Maurice "Snoopy" Miller (Don Cheadle), and insider trader and billionaire Richard Ripley (Albert Brooks), who talks too much about his wealth. This later leads to a break-in at Ripley's posh Detroit estate by Miller, his brother-in-law Kenneth (Isaiah Washington), and menacing White Boy Rob (Keith Loneker). While seeking a hidden safe, the group threatens Ripley's housekeeper Midge (Nancy Allen). Foley and Bragg are in on this operation, but they wind up outwitting the others, and Sisco is close on their trail. The film features uncredited cameos by Michael Keaton and Samuel L. Jackson, and was shot in locations in Florida, Louisiana, and Michigan. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi