Joseph Ruben
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Joseph Ruben
With a plot that might’ve been lifted from The X-Files, nothing is quite what it seems in The Forgotten, a psychological conspiracy thriller with Julianne Moore doing fine work as a grieving mother whose nine-year-old son was killed in a plane crash. At least, that’s what she’s been led to believe, but when even her husband (Anthony Edwards) tries to convince her that she’s delusional and never had a child, things start to get very spooky indeed. Dominic West (from HBO’s superb series The Wire) plays a similarly traumatized father, and when…
Joseph Ruben
Evil resides in an unexpected place in this gripping, suspense-filled drama. Macaulay Culkin stars as Henry, an angelic-looking boy who seems loving and loyal to his parents, sister and friends. Only his cousin Mark (Elijah Wood) sees what lurks behind Henry’s smile- secret thoughts and a love of deadly games. But when Mark tries to warn Henry’s family, they won’t believe him, leaving the terrified youngster alone to battle his jealous, menacing cousin.
Joseph Ruben
This 1991 thriller by Joseph Ruben (True Believer) works up to a point: Julia Roberts plays an abused wife who fakes her death and starts anew under a different identity in Iowa. Her psychopathic husband (Patrick Bergin) figures it out and stalks her and her new boyfriend (Kevin Anderson). The best part of the film is the moody isolation of Roberts’s life with Bergin. Ruben ingeniously stakes out the story by presenting what looks like an ideal life between the two—a nice house on the ocean, a seemingly healthy sex life, etc.—and then, whammo! Vital to the…
Joseph Ruben
Eddie Dodd (James Woods) is a former ‘60s radical lawyer who now spends his time cynically defending drug dealers for the big bucks. But an idealistic young protégé (Robert Downey Jr.) convinces him to take one case from the heart: a young Korean immigrant unjustly accused in a gang slaying. Woods (complete with add-on ponytail) fairly hums with energy once he gets cooking here. Playing the been-there-done-that mentor—not to mention legal gadfly—gives Woods plenty of opportunity to run off at the mouth with spicy one-liners and zingers. But it also allows him to…
Joseph Ruben
Jerry Blake (Terry OQuinn) is a man fascinated by the perfect life—a dream house in the suburbs, a big backyard, an adoring wife and loving children. In a peaceful town just outside of Seattle, he marries the attentive Susan Maine (Shelly Hack).
He also became the stepfather of Susan’s 16-year-old daughter Stephanie. Stephanie, however is uneasy with Jerry’s cheerful manner, and doesn’t hide her distrust. While Jerry pretends to be the ideal dad, Stephanie glimpses his darker side…Could he be the same man who murdered his own family one year earlier, but…
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