2002 movies
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The director of Mortal Kombat (1995) adapts another popular video game for the big screen with this gory action thriller. Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez star as Alice and Rain, two members of a commando team assigned to infiltrate the Hive, an underground research laboratory owned by the faceless conglomerate known as the Umbrella Corporation. A bio-engineered virus has been released into the maze-like Hive, turning the facility’s employees into mindless, flesh-eating zombies. A single scratch or bite from one of these rampaging ghouls dooms its victim, so the commandos have their work cut out for them as they attempt to reach the Red Queen, the lab’s supercomputer — and their sole hope of halting the spread of the contagion. Before they can complete their mission, however, the soldiers must overcome a variety of deadly obstacles, including mutant dogs, lasers, and a genetically altered beast known as The Licker, whose strength increases with every victim it slays. Alice and Rain also discover that the release of the virus may not have been an accident, and that a cure may exist somewhere in the deadly Hive. Resident Evil co-stars Eric Mabius, James Purefoy, Martin Crewes, and Colin Salmon.
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A Cinderella story turns into a nightmare when a former waitress’ perfect marriage gives way to adultery and physical abuse in this combination of domestic drama and revenge thriller. Motherless young woman Slim (Jennifer Lopez) works in a San Francisco diner with her best friend, Ginny (Juliette Lewis). After almost succumbing to the slick flirtation of an insincere customer (Noah Wyle), she is rescued by another dashing diner named Mitch (Bill Campbell). A few years later, the now happily married couple seem to have it all — a perfect house, a precocious daughter (Tessa Allen), and a comfortable life. Then, Slim discovers that Mitch is actually a lothario who has been sleeping with other women behind her back. When she protests, he slaps her around and uses daughter Gracie as leverage to keep her in line. Slim enlists the help of her friends to escape with her child, though Mitch attacks and very nearly kills her in the process. Going on the lam, Slim adopts a series of new identities, wigs, and residences to avoid the goons Mitch has sent to retrieve her. Along the way, she receives help from Joe (Dan Futterman), a friend and old flame from college. Ultimately, Mitch and his unexpected allies so terrify Slim that she must turn the tables and transform herself from hunted to hunter. In doing so, she receives some surprise assistance of her own — from Jupiter (Fred Ward), the rich father who abandoned her mother years ago. Although the soundtrack to Enough features the music of star J. Lo, the title song was written especially for the film by Magnolia tunesmith Aimee Mann.
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At first, the made-for-cable melodrama Blood Crime seems determined to emulate the classic Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode “Revenge” — but there’s far, far more to it than that. Vacationing in the forest outside his native Seattle, city detective Daniel Pruitt (Johnathon Schaech) is stunned when his wife Jessica (Elizabeth Lackey) is sexually assaulted. While driving her to the hospital, Daniel collides with a semi, whereupon Jessica insists that the driver was her assailant. Blinded by his rage, Daniel jumps out of his car and pummels the other driver into unconsciousness. Upon arriving at the E.R., however, the hysterical Jessica changes her story, claiming that she was attacked by the male nurse taking care of her. Already distraught over the possibility that he has beaten up the wrong man, Daniel is in no mood to discover that his victim has died — and that the dead man is the son of local sheriff Morgan McKenna (James Caan), who has his own peculiar ideas about justice and retribution. Keeping mum about his involvement in the case, Daniel is placed in the awkward position of investigating the death of McKenna’s son. And then, evidence is unearthed suggesting that Daniel may not be a murderer after all. Filmed in New Zealand under the title The Wrong Man, Blood Crime premiered over the USA Network on September 13, 2002.
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A good-old-boy small-town sheriff in a New Orleans parish happens upon a murder case that threatens to end his career in Behind the Badge, the embattled second feature of writer/director Robby Henson (Pharaoh’s Army). Billy Bob Thornton stars as Darl, a divorced lawman first spotted sleeping in his truck outside his favorite bar. Darl gets a call about a truck accident, and happily hands out shoes from the ditched tractor-trailer to win over the locals for his re-election. But then the body of a beautiful woman is found in the mud near the wrecked truck. The “woman” turns out to be a transsexual with a .22 slug in her back. Prejudice reigns in the small community, and no one seems to be taking the murder too seriously. Local politicians, including a powerful judge (William Devane), are focused on the upcoming election, and are also angling to build a casino in town, and so they want to keep the sordid murder quiet. The victim’s wife, Scarlet (Patricia Arquette), a New Orleans stripper, shows up. Despite Darl’s own prejudices, he finds himself attracted to Scarlet, and starts to look into the case. Soon he learns that his investigation and his big mouth have cost him his slot on the ticket. When he presses on, he finds himself jailed on a trumped-up statutory rape charge. Struggling with his own family history of disgrace, Darl considers making a deal with the local bigwigs in order to keep his job. But when he learns that Scarlet is in danger, he’s forced into action. Sela Ward and Jena Malone also star. Behind the Badge was heading for theatrical distribution before production company Propaganda Films went bankrupt. The film was unable to find a new distributor and premiered on Starz cable on September 7, 2002.
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Terror is lurking online in this thriller directed by William Malone, who also helmed the 1999 remake of House on Haunted Hill. Mike Reilly (Stephen Dorff) is a NYPD detective who has been assigned to look into a string of murders which have taken place in Manhattan, with Terry Houston (Natascha McElhone), a researcher from the city Department of Health, lending her assistance whether Reilly likes it or not. Reilly discovers that all four victims have one thing in common — they were all men who logged on to the same Internet website exactly 48 hours before they were killed. It seems the website features a sexy woman offering kinky fun to those who enter her domain, but clicking the wrong icon takes users on a journey into fear. Reilly decides the only way to find out the truth is to head into the website and find out what follows for the next two days — if he can make it out alive. Fear dot com also stars Stephen Rea, Jeffrey Combs, and Udo Kier.
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Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 |
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An ancient evil finds resistance in the most unlikely of places in this oddball comedy horror effort from Phantasm director Don Coscarelli. Resting in the confines of a Mud Creek, TX, nursing home after fading into obscurity following his departure from the limelight, an aging and embittered Elvis (Bruce Campbell) befriends a delusional patient named Jack (Ossie Davis) who claims to be John F. Kennedy. It seems that at the height of his popularity Elvis had switched identities with a convincing double, and, upon the death of the substitute, missed his chance to reclaim his former fame. Despite his anger at never having made a comeback, Elvis finds a new reason to live when Jack tips him off to an evil mummy that is feasting on the souls of hapless nursing home inhabitants. Before long the geriatric duo must muster the strength to fend off the malevolent soul sucker lest they ultimately fall prey to the fearsome Bubba Ho-Tep (Bob Ivy).
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Four years after scoring a box-office touchdown with Blade (1998), actor Wesley Snipes returns to portray the Marvel Comics character again in this sequel that teams him with Mexican horror director Guillermo del Toro. A half-vampire, half-human hybrid, Blade (Snipes) is a merciless vampire hunter bent on destroying the bloodsuckers that feed on humanity. The keys to Blade’s success are a serum that allows him to resist the urge for blood and an array of inventive, deadly weapons, both of which were once supplied by his mentor, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). Since Whistler’s death, Blade has relocated to Prague and recruited the pot-smoking slacker Scud (Norman Reedus) to take the place of his father figure, but then he discovers that Whistler’s not dead after all: He’s been infected with the vampire virus. Reunited with Whistler, Blade is dealt an even bigger surprise: His greatest enemy, vampire leader Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann), wants to make peace with him. It seems that the vampires are facing a greater threat than Blade and hope to persuade him to fight the Reapers, a mutated super-race of vampires on a rampage of murder, indiscriminately killing both humans and their fellow bloodsuckers while sucking their victims dry. Blade agrees to a truce and joins the Bloodpack, an elite squad of commandos originally formed to fight Blade himself. Soon, the vampire soldiers discover that the virus responsible for creating their enemies is spreading rapidly and can be traced back to a mysterious “Patient Zero.” Blade 2 (2002) co-stars Ron Perlman, Leonor Varela, Donnie Yen, and Matt Schulze.
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Things start off bad and quickly take a turn for the worse when Matt (Patrick Muldoon) takes a trip to visit his girlfriend Dawn’s (Keegan Connor Tracy) reclusive backwoods parents in this dramatic thriller from director Uwe Boll. Haunted after having caused the death of a young girl in a drunk driving accident years before, Matt’s inner demons tear at his insides as he attempts to put the past behind him and start a new life with Dawn. Stopping off at a hotel for a quick round of lovemaking before they venture into the woods, Matt must subsequently fend off an axe-wielding psychopath before discovering that Dawn has disappeared. Though Matt soon finds the route to the house in the woods, he is unexpectedly attacked by Dawn and imprisoned by the family. Put on trial by the family for killing their youngest daughter in the drunk driving incident, Matt’s nightmare soon becomes a waking reality as he desperately struggles to escape the clutches of Dawn’s family and maintain his slipping sanity.
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Suspended from the police force following an undercover drug bust gone horribly awry, Detroit undercover narcotics officer Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) is reluctantly goaded back into active duty in hopes that he can help to crack the case of a slain fellow officer. Promised reinstatement in the force in exchange for his efforts, Tellis is paired with the victim’s volatile ex-partner Henry Oak (Ray Liotta) and soon begins to actively seek the killer in an increasingly complex case. A recent father whose wife fears for her husband’s safety and begs him not to take back to the dangerous streets, Tellis struggles with his conscience as he navigates a twisting road of half-realized truths, shifting loyalties and questionable agendas. With every step closer to Tellis gets to solving the troubling murder, he grows farther away from his wife and newborn son, and edges ever closer to a resolution so complicated that it threatens to devour his soul and shatter every preconceived difference he has ever made between cop and criminal.
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Frequent television director Brad Silberling directs the romantic drama Moonlight Mile. Set in a Massachusetts town in the early ’70s, Joe Nast (Jake Gyllenhaal) is distraught after the death of his fiancée. He moves in with her parents, Ben (Dustin Hoffman) and JoJo (Susan Sarandon), while trying to sort out all of the legal troubles and painful details of the wedding cancellations. While trying to locate the wedding invitations in the mail, Joe meets Bertie (Ellen Pompeo), whose boyfriend has been MIA in Vietnam. Despite his growing relationship with his late fiancée’s parents, Joe begins to foster a romance with Bertie. Also starring Dabney Coleman and Holly Hunter. Moonlight Mile is based on Brad Silberling’s real-life situation following the murder of his TV-star girlfriend Rebecca Schaeffer.
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