Bovie Movie

After squaring off in 1995 with competing movie biographies of frontier lawman Wyatt Earp, actors Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner co-star in this action crime caper as former cronies engaged in a series of double-crosses over some stolen loot. Michael Zane (Russell) and Thomas Murphy (Costner) are the leaders of a gang of ex-convict thieves using an Elvis Presley impersonator convention to pull off a daring heist in a Las Vegas casino. The gang also includes Gus (David Arquette), Hanson (Bokeem Woodbine), and Franklin (Christian Slater). Although they manage to retrieve the money, the crooks turn on each other in bloody fashion and Murphy (who believes he’s actually the illegitimate son of Elvis) makes off with the illegal funds. In hot pursuit are the police and Michael, who’s encumbered by his girlfriend Cybil (Courtney Cox-Arquette) and her young son Jesse James. Written and directed by music video creator Demian Lichtenstein, 3000 Miles to Graceland also stars Kevin Pollak, Ice-T, and Howie Long.

Adapted from Umberto Eco’s best-selling novel, director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s The Name of the Rose is a 14th century murder-mystery thriller starring Sean Connery as a Sherlock Holmes-esque Franciscan monk called William of Baskerville. When a murder occurs at a secluded Benedictine Abbey, William is called in to investigate. As he and his apprentice, Adson von Melk (Christian Slater), delve deeper and deeper into the case, more dead bodies begin to turn up. Eventually, Bernardo Gui, an inquisitor played by F. Murray Abraham gets involved, but he may not have the best intentions. Sean Connery’s performance earned him the award for Best Actor at the 1988 British Academy Awards.

This film is a ’90s version of the classic Robin Hood story, with Kevin Costner starring as the good-guy thief. Costner is joined in his efforts against the murdering Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) by Morgan Freeman who plays a philosophizing Moor, and by Nick Brimble, who plays Little John (anything but little). After Robin barely survives a watery skirmish with Little John, the two become allies and Robin joins forces with Little John’s band of robber thieves to overcome the evils of the dastardly Nottingham sheriff.

This independent production find New York cab driver Glenn Atkins (Fred Dennis) finding a valuable piece of paper in his vehicle at the end of the day. The paper is a map that leads to $400,000 of stolen money hidden near the Hudson River. Glenn makes love to his wife, a fellow employee and the wife of the man who planned the robbery of the Florida bank. The longer he holds on to the map, the more danger he encounters in this drama of a man who risks his life for the hidden money.

A man finds himself living among the animals and enchanted spirits of the rainforest, and learns of the true consequences of human destruction in this animated adventure. Crysta (voice of Samantha Mathis) is a young fairy who is being tutored in the powers of magic by the older and wiser Magi (voice of Grace Zabriskie) in an Amazon rain forest. While their home was once on the verge of destruction thanks to the evil spirit Hexxus (voice of Tim Curry), the demon has been trapped inside a tree, and Crysta is free to play with her friends Batty Koda (voice of Robin Williams), a bat who escaped from an animal testing facility, and Pips (voice of Christian Slater), who has obvious romantic intentions toward the attractive young sprite. However, a clear-cutting crew destroys the tranquil peace of the rainforest, and when Crysta sees a runaway logging machine about to run over lumberjack Zak (voice of Jonathan Ward), she saves his life by shrinking him to her own size. However, Crysta isn’t able to bring Zak back to his normal size, so he’s forced to live among the forest creatures and learn first-hand the devastation the humans have brought to this world — especially when the loggers accidentally free Hexxus from captivity.

Anne Rice’s best-selling romantic horror tale about the origins of a centuries-old vampire inspired this popular, atmospheric chiller. One of director Neil Jordan’s major Hollywood productions, the film stays close to its source material, retaining the frame of a young reporter (Christian Slater) interviewing a man who claims to be a 200-year-old vampire. The man, Louis (Brad Pitt), shares his story, beginning in 18th-century New Orleans with his first encounters with the charismatic and decadent vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise). Lestat converts Louis to blood-sucking and immortality, but Louis fails to adopt Lestat’s cavalier attitude, instead tormenting himself with guilt over his new nature. The two vampires remain deeply, if reluctantly, connected over the years, while becoming intimately involved with others of their kind, including Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), a mature immortal in a young child’s body. Fans of the novel raised numerous objections, particularly after Rice initially spoke out against the casting of Cruise as Lestat; further casting difficulties followed the death of River Phoenix, whose role as the interviewer was assumed by Christian Slater. Rice later recanted her objections, and the combination of thrills and gothic romance proved popular with audiences.

Only three of the original five “young guns” — Billy the Kid (Emilio Estevez), Jose Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), and Doc Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland) — return in Young Guns, Part 2, which is the story of Billy the Kid and his race to safety in Old Mexico while being trailed by a group of government agents led by Pat Garrett (William Petersen). Along the way, Billy’s crew gains three new recruits: Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh (Christian Slater), Tom O’Folliard (Balthazar Getty), and Hendry French (Alan Ruck). Though the film suffers from an uneven script, many performances — particularly Slater’s — are surprisingly strong, and the movie looks great. The theme song, “Blaze of Glory”, is performed by Jon Bon Jovi in his first solo appearance; the rocker also has a cameo in the film.

One man bears witness to the secret history of America during the Cold War in this drama directed by celebrated actor Robert De Niro. In 1939, Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) is a young man with a bright future ahead of him — he’s a top student at Yale and the prot?g? of one of the school’s leading English professors, Dr. Fredericks (Michael Gambon). But Wilson’s life changes dramatically when he’s invited to join Yale’s powerful secret society, Skull and Bones. Through his Skull and Bones connections, Wilson meets Sam Murach (Alec Baldwin), an mysterious FBI agent who asks Wilson to investigate charges that Fredericks is a Nazi sympathizer working with the German government. Later, at a Skull and Bones party, Wilson is introduced to Clover Russell (Angelina Jolie), the sister of one of his classmates and the daughter of a powerful politician; their one-night stand leaves Clover pregnant, and Wilson must leave the woman he loves, Laura (Tammy Blanchard), to wed Clover and give their child a name. Shortly after their wedding, thanks to his work with Murach, Wilson is invited to join the Office of Strategic Services, a military intelligence organization organized by Bill Sullivan (Robert De Niro), and Wilson accepts. Through World War II, Wilson serves with the OSS, and learns he can trust no one in the game of international espionage, which helps make him little more than a stranger to his wife, his son, and his few friends. As the OSS evolves into the Central Intelligence Agency after the war, Wilson becomes party to America’s darkest and most dangerous secrets, and in the wake of the futile Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Wilson is forced to make a terrible choice between the security of his nation and the safety of his family. Inspired by the true-life story of CIA founder James J. Angleton, The Good Shepherd boasts an impressive supporting cast, including William Hurt, John Turturro, Billy Crudup, Joe Pesci, and Timothy Hutton.

Loosely based on a real-life operation during World War II, this action-adventure from director John Woo stars Nicolas Cage as Joe Enders, a Marine traumatized by the loss of his entire platoon in the Solomon Islands during an ambush he believes was deadlier than necessary due to his indecision. Suffering from eardrum damage in Hawaii, Joe manages to be declared fit for duty once again thanks to a sympathetic nurse (Frances O’Connor), but his new assignment isn’t what he expects. Joe is ordered to safeguard a Navajo soldier named Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach) because the military has developed a new secret code based on the near-dead Navajo language that is proving unbreakable to the Japanese. Any soldier that speaks Navajo is an immediate asset, including Ben and his pal, Charlie Whitehorse (Roger Willie). Joe’s orders are to “baby sit” Ben during the invasion of Saipan, protecting him if possible, but — if the code-talker’s capture becomes imminent — to kill him before he falls into enemy hands. Meanwhile, Charlie is to be guarded by affable harmonica player Ox Henderson (Christian Slater). Joe reluctantly accepts this new duty as a way to get back into the war, and in the ensuing carnage, his nearly suicidal acts of bravery make him a hero while Ben becomes paralyzed by fear. Determined to live up to Joe’s example, Ben musters up his courage, even in the face of racism from a fellow soldier (Noah Emmerich), and ends up rescuing his own protector behind enemy lines by briefly posing as a Japanese soldier. Despite their growing mutual respect, Joe is eventually forced to take an action that threatens to shatter his bond with Ben, as the war’s tragic losses strike closer to home for both men. Windtalkers co-stars Peter Stormare, Jason Isaacs, and Mark Ruffalo.

One hint about “Churchill: The Hollywood Years”: Ask around . . . no one’s seen it. Cooler heads probably managed to mothball this seeming direct-to-airline release. (I sat through it having run out of other on-demand options during a very long flight from Asia to NYC.) The premise in an interesting one, not a good one; Hollywood producers have made a Winston Churchill bio-pic with a young American GI (Christian Slater) in the lead for the benefit of the American audience. It’s hard to single out the writing, acting, or direction for criticism because the entire film seems to consist of (justified) outtakes from a movie that may have had some idea what it was doing in the comic space between “Airplane” and “The Player.” The film that finally makes it on to the seatback in front of you is jaw droppingly ill-conceived.