Bovie Movie

Cops, secretaries, and prisoners stuck in a soon-to-be-shuttered L.A. police station fight off a horde of murderous gang members in director John Carpenter’s homage to Howard Hawks. When police officer Bishop (Austin Stoker) is left in charge of Precinct 13 on the last day it’s open, he isn’t prepared for the onslaught of a murderous street gang who have come into the possession of an enormous arsenal of guns. Finding himself trapped in the precinct with a pair of secretaries (Laurie Zimmer and Nancy Loomis), a few civilians and a handful of prisoners, Bishop is unable to call for help because the phones have already been disconnected and the precinct is in a run-down, out-of-the-way neighborhood. Holding out for a rescue, he and his fellow prisoners band together to barricade themselves in and hold the bandits at bay. But as the casualties mount and the supplies run low, they must choose between a daring escape attempt, a fiery offensive, or certain death. The sophomore feature from auteur-in-the-making John Carpenter, Assault on Precinct 13 reunited the director with Douglas H. Knapp, his cinematographer on 1974’s Dark Star.

Liberty Wallace, who lives in Los Angeles, isn’t at all uncomfortable about her links to the weapons business. Liberty is a key player for McCloud Industries, one of the largest gun manufacturers in the United States. She’s the Vice President of Marketing, she’s the daughter of the company’s founder, and her husband is the company’s ruthless CEO, America’s premier arms merchant, Victor Wallace. While former war hero Victor is busy trafficking in international armaments, Liberty uses her business breaks to conduct an affair with actor Russell Williams. The balance of their marriage shifts when a sniper named Joe trains his rifle on Liberty as she walks through a busy Los Angeles park on her way to meet with Russell. Joe calls Liberty on her cell phone, and orders Liberty to handcuff herself to a nearby hot dog vendor’s cart — the cuffs are already there. Liberty has no intention of submitting to Joe’s wishes — until Joe begins firing shots. Quickly convinced, Liberty locks herself to the stand, only to learn that it is loaded with enough explosives to take out a city block. If she calls for help, hangs up the phone, mutes the phone, or fails to cooperate, the bomb will go off. Joe has also attached a bomb to Russell, who’s now trapped in his dressing room at a local theater. Liberty realizes she can’t buy her way out of this situation, and she is forced to consider Joe’s demand for an anti-gun forum. The reason why Joe is doing this is because his daughter was fatally shot by a school classmate who used a gun that was manufactured by McCloud Industries. The death of a child can break a parent’s mental balance. Now, Joe is demonstrating to Liberty what it’s like to be on the other end of the weapon, and show Liberty the horrors of what she has had a blind hand in for years. Victor has apparently bartered illegal deals without Liberty’s knowledge, ones that have resulted in easier access to weapons for street dealers — the ones who sold the weapon that killed Joe’s daughter. As a result of his daughter’s death, Joe wants Liberty to use her political connections and this incident to spark a public debate on the Second Amendment. Despite his past as a CIA agent, Joe no longer supports the unequivocal right to bear arms. Joe lets Liberty know that she’s going to die, but that she can die a hero if she exposes the company’s shady business dealings and political connections before she’s killed. As Joe monitors and records her every move, Liberty reveals secrets about her own past, and her business dealings. When Victor, who is also having an affair, finds out that Liberty has been taken hostage, he’s torn between following company protocol — protecting himself and allowing Liberty to be killed — and trying to help her.

A two-hour Battlestar Galactica special that tells the story of the Battlestar Pegasus several months prior to it finding the Galactica.

A police dog finds himself pitted in a battle of wits against an accident-prone mailman and a gang of crooks (and it looks like the dog has the edge in the brains department) in this broad comedy. Agent 11 (Bob) is a bulldog trained by the FBI agent Murdoch (Michael Clarke Duncan) to sniff out drugs, and the dog’s keen nose ferrets out the storage facility of Mafia kingpin Sonny (Paul Sorvino); Agent 11 has also been taught to show no mercy with criminals, and he gives Sonny a serious bite in a rather personal place. Needless to say, Sonny is not amused, and wants revenge against the pooch, so Agent 11 is put into the animal equivalent of the witness protection program. However, unlikely circumstances set the dog loose, where he soon pairs up with Gordon (David Arquette), a stunningly inept letter carrier with a long history of fending off ill-tempered pets. Gordon is attempting to impress Stephanie (Leslie Bibb), an attractive single mother, by helping to look after her son James (Angus T. Jones), and when he comes across Agent 11, he adopts the dog and names him Spot, feeling certain he can smooth out the critter’s often cranky relationship with people. But Gordon doesn’t know that Sonny and his henchmen are hot on Agent 11’s trail and that his new best friend will lead a gang of ruthless gangsters into Stephanie and James’ home. See Spot Run was originally announced as a vehicle for comedy star Martin Lawrence, but when changes in Lawrence’s schedule prevented him from taking on the project, it was retooled for the talents of David Arquette.

John Woo directs the sci-fi action thriller Paycheck, based on a story written by Philip K. Dick in 1953. Waking up with his short-term memory erased, engineer Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) learns that he has been doing highly secretive work for the last three years in exchange for billions of dollars. But when he tries to get paid, he finds out that he himself had previously exchanged the money for an envelope of random clues to his life. Chased by an FBI agent (Michael C. Hall) and his old boss Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart), Michael uses the clues to find out his identity and prove his innocence. Uma Thurman appears as his love interest and partner, Rachel.

The novel of the same name by author Tom Savage becomes this horror film starring Marley Shelton as Kate Davies. Kate’s in a troubled relationship with journalist Adam Carr (David Boreanaz), a problem drinker, but she receives support from her best friends, the same four girls she’s known since grade school: Paige Prescott (Denise Richards), Dorothy Wheeler (Jessica Capshaw), Lily Voight (Jessica Cauffel), and Shelly Fisher (Katherine Heigl). When Shelly is murdered and the other girls begin receiving gruesome Valentine’s Day cards signed “JM,” they begin to speculate that the killer could be an awkward schoolmate named Jeremy Melton, whom they once teased mercilessly at a school dance, leading to his beating and humiliation. Dorothy in particular is afraid that a false accusation she made against Jeremy might be causing him to seek bloody retribution, but the macho detective (Fulvio Cecere) assigned to investigate Shelly’s murder has some other suspects in mind. As the body count is racked up and Dorothy’s lavish Valentine’s Day party approaches, Kate begins to suspect that the true identity of Jeremy, who likely underwent plastic surgery to alter his appearance, could hit very close to home. Valentine is the second slasher flick from Urban Legend (1998) director Jamie Blanks.