Bovie Movie

Five friends find their relaxing summer getaway turning into a bloody battle for survival when they discover that the remote island that they thought was uninhabited has been overrun with vicious, genetically-mutated canines. Michelle Rodriguez, Oliver Hudson, and Taryn Manning star in a Wes Craven production.

A band of renegades on the run in outer space get in more hot water than they anticipated in this sci-fi action-adventure adapted from the television series Firefly. In the 26th century, the galaxy has been colonized by a military force known as the Alliance, but its leadership has not gone unquestioned. The Alliance was once challenged by a league of rebels known as the Independents, but the Alliance emerged victorious after a brutal civil war, with the surviving Independents scattering around the galaxy. Also wandering the edges of the galaxy are the Reavers, who have won few allies due to their violent behavior and habit of ripping apart their enemies and eating them before they’re dead. Capt. Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), who fought as an Independent in the galactic war, is the head of Serenity, a rogue frieghter ship whose crew includes Mal’s first mate, Zoe (Gina Torres), who fought alongside him in the war, her husband, hotshot pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk), sunny but dependable mechanic Kaylee (Jewel Staite), and hard-nosed gunman Jayne (Adam Baldwin). The crew of Serenity wander the galaxy, taking on whatever work they can get, from criminal activities like smuggling and stealing to legitimately offering transport to travelers. Passengers aboard Serenity include professional “companion” Inara (Morena Baccarin) and holy man Shepherd Book (Ron Glass), but the real trouble aboard the ship comes with the arrival of Simon (Sean Maher) and his teenage sister, River Tam (Summer Glau). In time, the crew discovers that River has remarkable psychic powers and was being held captive by Alliance forces until Simon came to her rescue. Now the Alliance is hot on the heels of Serenity and its passengers, with The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a sinister Alliance tracker, leading the chase. Serenity was written and directed by Joss Whedon (in his directorial debut), creator of Firefly, which only lasted 11 weeks on the air but gained a powerful cult following who rallied to get the show released on DVD after its cancellation, leading to impressive home-video sales and and an eventual motion picture deal. A couple of months prior to Serenity’s theatrical release, reruns of Firefly were picked up by the Sci-Fi channel, adding even more fans to its cult following.

The third of John Woo’s American-made feature films, Face/Off stars John Travolta as Sean Archer, an FBI agent obsessed with capturing Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), a criminal genius who years before killed Archer’s son while trying to assassinate the agent. Archer’s single-minded pursuit of Troy has caused serious harm to his marriage, but Archer thinks the light may have appeared at the end of the tunnel when a seriously wounded Troy is captured in a bloody shootout. However, it turns out that Troy has planted a time bomb, with a biological payload that could destroy the entire city of Los Angeles — and Troy isn’t about to say where it is. The only other person who knows the bomb’s location is Troy’s brother, Pollux (Alessandro Nivola), who is no more helpful than Castor. FBI scientists hatch a plan: they have developed an experimental surgery which would allow them to graft Troy’s face temporarily on Archer’s head and allow him to question Pollux as if he were his brother. But after Archer has taken Troy’s face, Troy regains consciousness and forces the doctors to give him Archer’s face. Now the criminal mastermind has the FBI at his disposal, and the lawman is underground with few places to turn. Along with Woo’s usual elaborately choreographed action scenes, Face/Off features a number of notable supporting performances, including Joan Allen as Archer’s wife, Colm Feore and C.C.H. Pounder as FBI scientists, and Gina Gershon as Troy’s loyal but long-suffering girlfriend.

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.

Director Robert Rodriguez picks up where his successful independent debut El Mariachi left off with this slam-bang South of the Border action saga. Bucho (Joaquim DeAlmeida) is a wealthy but casually bloodthirsty drug kingpin who rules a seedy Mexican border town. Bucho and his men make the mistake of angering El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas), a former musician who now carries an arsenal in his guitar case. Bucho was responsible for the death of El Mariachi’s girlfriend and put a bullet through his fretting hand, making him unable to play the guitar. Bent on revenge, the musician-turned-killing machine arrives in town to put Bucho out of business, though he finds few allies except for Carolina (Salma Hayek), who runs a bookstore that doesn’t seem to attract many readers. Desperado features supporting performances from Cheech Marin as a cynical bartender, Steve Buscemi as the cantina patron who sets up the story, and Quentin Tarantino as a man with a really terrible joke to tell.

A group of juvenile delinquents are forced to fight for their lives after being sent the forest for an exercise in teamwork and tracked by a crossbow-wielding madman with a pack of flesh-eating dogs. The Young Offenders Institution is the kind of place kids are sent when all hope is lost. In order to test their mettle in an environment where every decision counts, the powers that be at the Young Offenders Institution send their worst offenders into deep into the woods for a tough-love lesson in character-building. Suddenly surrounded by dense forestation, deadly rapids, and a jagged coastline that makes escape virtually impossible, the young criminals must band together after their group leaders are ruthlessly slaughtered. With time running out and their numbers quickly dwindling, these tough-talking teens must put their survival skills to the ultimate test and band together to take down a merciless predator who relishes in watching his victims suffer.

The second sequel to the 1984 sci-fi action classic, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the first film without the involvement of director James Cameron. Instead, Jonathan Mostow, the man behind Breakdown and U-571, has stepped in to fill the shoes left vacant by Cameron. In addition, the role of John Connor from the second film has been recast, with In the Bedroom’s Nick Stahl taking over for Edward Furlong. Set ten years after the events of 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the film finds Connor living on the streets as a common laborer. Sarah Connor, his mother, has since died, and their efforts in the second film have not stopped the creation of SkyNet artificial intelligence network. As he will still become the leader of the human resistance, Connor is once again targeted by a Terminator sent from the future by SkyNet. This new Terminator, T-X (Kristanna Loken), is a female and is more powerful than any of her predecessors. To protect Connor, the human resistance sends a new T-101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back from the future. Also starring Claire Danes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines had its world premiere when it showed out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.

Borrowing liberally from the French film La Totale, this is an action picture, domestic comedy, and political thriller rolled into a crowd-pleasing ball of entertainment. Producer James Cameron wrote and directed the film. Henry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a workaholic computer salesman neglecting his mousy wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), a legal secretary. Simon (Bill Paxton) seduces Helen with the lie that he is a secret agent; he’s really a used car salesman. Harry suspects that Helen is cheating on him, and he sends a few colleagues to kidnap them. Helen then discovers that Harry is a secret agent by night, working for a shadowy group called the Omega Sector. Harry and his partner Gib (Tom Arnold) are trying to find four nuclear warheads that have disappeared from a former Soviet republic.

Point of Origin, produced by HBO, marks the feature directorial debut of accomplished cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel (Three Kings, X-Men). The film is based on an actual serial arson investigation that took place in Glendale, CA, in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Ray Liotta stars in the film as John Orr, a skilled arson investigator with a sixth sense for finding the “point of origin,” the place where a fire was started. Orr also has a knack for locating the devices used to start the fires. Keith Lang (John Leguizamo), his ambitious young prot?g?, calls Orr “Professor.” Orr is stumped by a series of big fires, some fatal, which seem to have been set by the same arsonist. A commission is appointed to investigate the case, headed up by ATF agent Mike Matasso (Colm Feore) and fireman Mike Camello (Cliff Curtis). Orr uses his influence to get Lang appointed to the panel. But Matasso and Orr are immediately at odds with each other, as the ATF man seems to resent Orr’s efforts to maintain control of the investigation. Orr is also dealing with his troubled marriage to Wanda (Bai Ling) and is having an affair with the volatile Kate (Illeana Douglas). As he gets deeper into the case, trying to get inside the head of the criminal, Orr begins to worry that the arsonist has some kind of personal involvement with him. Then the commission uncovers a link to an earlier string of fires, and uncovers evidence that the arsonist may actually be a fireman. The actual investigators, Matasso and Camello, have cameos in the film, and Camello also served as one of the film’s technical advisors. These events were also the basis for Joseph Wambaugh’s book Fire Lover: A True Story.

The sophomore film from former music video and commercial director Michael Bay, this fast-paced action yarn featured rapid-fire editing, a cutting-edge rock soundtrack and liberal use of shots awash in a haze of burnished hues, all trademarks of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Nicolas Cage stars as Stanley Goodspeed, an FBI chemical weapons expert handed a unique assignment. Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris), an insane Marine Corps general, has taken 81 tourists hostage on the abandoned island prison of Alcatraz. He and his men are threatening to bomb San Francisco with deadly gas unless $100 million is paid in war reparations to the families of servicemen killed in covert operations. Goodspeed is teamed with former British spy John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery), the only man ever to escape “The Rock,” as well as a Navy SEAL team. When their military escorts are ambushed, it’s up to odd couple Goodspeed and Mason to break into Alcatraz and stop Hummel. The Rock was the last film produced by Simpson, who died of a drug overdose before the film’s release. Solo, his partner Bruckheimer continued making the sort of glossy, frenetic films for which the duo was famed.