Bovie Movie

A magazine article about real-life car racing gangs for Vibe becomes this fast-paced automotive thriller from director Rob Cohen. Paul Walker stars as Brian O’Conner, a youthful FBI agent investigating a series of hijackings by going undercover with a street gang led by charismatic Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). Caught up in Toretto’s world of gang conflict that is resolved in late-night car races, Spindler starts to sympathize with his chief suspect and falls in love with Toretto’s younger sister Mia (Jordana Brewster). In the meantime, Spindler initially suspects the wrong gang of complicity in the crimes he’s probing, while Toretto remains involved in a forbidden romance, à la Romeo and Juliet, with his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). The Fast and the Furious co-stars Ted Levine, Rick Yune, and Matt Schulze.

The true story of the kids who created modern skateboard culture is recreated in this drama. In the early ’70s, skateboards were seen as a fad of the 1960s that had all but died out, but in a rough-and-tumble Venice, CA, community known as “Dogtown,” that was about to change. Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk), Stacy Peralta (John Robinson), and Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch) were three guys who liked to surf the rugged beaches around Venice and hung out at the Zephyr Surf Shop, a store run by Skip Engblom (Heath Ledger) that stocked gear for adventurous surfers and skateboarders. With the advent of new urethane wheels that connected with concrete in a way old metal and rubber wheels could not, Tony, Stacy, and Jay began exploring ways to translate radical surf style to skateboarding, and the guys invented a new way to state inside the smooth, round surfaces of empty pools, employing vertical moves and edge flips that added a new and dramatic spin to skating. It didn’t take long for word to spread about the wild new style of the Z-Boys, and they quickly became local celebrities, and later nationwide skating stars, though sudden fame took its toll on these young men. The true story of Lords of Dogtown was previously the basis of the acclaimed documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, directed by former Z-Boy Stacy Peralta, who like Tony Alva served as a consultant on this project.

Stephen Somers wrote and directed this $50 million science-fiction action-thriller. Set in the South China Sea, the story has been described as a cross between The Poseidon Adventure, Alien, and Die Hard. On the maiden voyage of the luxury liner Argonautica, pickpocket Trillian (Famke Janssen) is caught stealing jewels and locked up. After the ship’s communication system is infected with a virus, the ship collides with a massive underwater object. When John Finnegan (Treat Williams) and others board the Argonautica, they are surrounded by death. Survivors Trillian, builder Simon Canton (Anthony Heald), and others talk of sea monsters, but Hanover (Wes Studi) doesn’t believe them — until the fanged, squid-like creature (designed by Rob Bottin) extends its huge tentacles and makes its presence known to all. Filmed in Vancouver and the northern Pacific under the working title Tentacles.

The grim futility of the war between Bosnia and Serbia is reduced to its essence as two enemy soldiers are forced to share a wary trust for one another in this drama. A group of Bosnian soldiers are advancing upon Serbian territory during a misty night when the fog lifts at daybreak, making them plainly visible to their enemy. Serb forces open fire upon them, and soon only Chiki (Brancko Djuric) is still alive, after diving into a trench in no man’s land. Two Serbian soldiers scouting the area set up a land mine using the body of a Bosnian soldier as “bait;” if moved, the mine will jump into the air and explode. Chiki watches as the soldiers set the trap, and furious at the disrespect to his fallen comrades, he kills one of the Serbs, and takes the other, Nino (Rene Bitorajac), hostage. With both soldiers alone and equally armed, they find themselves at a stalemate, and begin trying to attract help from either side. Eventually, the two men are found by a squadron of French soldiers attached to a U.N. peacekeeping unit; now held by supposedly neutral forces, Chiki and Nino are with the French troops when it’s discovered that the dead Bosnian soldier isn’t dead after all, though no one is sure how to disarm the mine without killing him in the process. No Man’s Land was the debut feature from Bosnian writer and director Danis Tanovic.

Two former government agents square off as they search for the most deadly new weapon on Earth in this white-knuckle thriller. Sever (Lucy Liu) was once a top agent with the Defense Intelligence Agency, but she quit when her son was killed in a bungled raid organized by Gant (Gregg Henry), and has sworn to take vengeance against him and his colleagues. When Sever learns that Gant and his team are in possession of a remarkable new weapon — a microscopic device injected into the victim’s bloodstream which is benign until triggered, then kills immediately without leaving a trace — she is determined to get her hands on it, whatever the cost. However, Gant has turned rogue, and FBI agent Julio Martin (Miguel Sandoval) has been ordered to find him and recover his new weapon. Martin needs the best man he can find for the job, and calls upon Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas), a former FBI tracker, to do the job. Ecks quit the Bureau when his wife was killed, but Martin informs Ecks that his spouse is actually alive and in hiding, and if he can bring in Gant, she will be returned to him. But Ecks has to face the most formidable adversary of his life in Sever, a master of mayhem bent on revenge. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever was the first English-language feature from Thai filmmaker Wych Kaosayananda (aka Kaos), whose first feature Fah was a box-office blockbuster in his homeland.

Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner helms this action-adventure yarn in which Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone), a veteran, burned-out hit man for hire who’s looking to leave his profession, meets a younger, crazier, more ambitious competitor, Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas), who is out to best Rath and make him a target in the process. Rath signs on for one last hit, but complications ensue when he falls in love with the mark, a beautiful, mysterious woman named Electra (Julianne Moore). Bain sets out to murder Electra as well, and the chase leads the two assassins into a deadly game of wits that takes them from Seattle to Puerto Rico. Critics and audiences both turned away from this thriller, which was co-scripted by Bound writer/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski and L.A. Confidential screenwriter Brian Helgeland.