“Secret Window” is based on a novella with a slightly longer title (“Secret Window/Secret Garden”) that appeared in Stephen King’s 1990 anthology “Four Past Midnight.” Deeply distraught by the discovery of his wife, Amy’s (Maria Bello) affair with Ted (Timothy Hutton), successful writer Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) holes up in his isolated lakeside cabin, licking his wounds and delaying signing his divorce papers. His miserable reverie is broken by the intrusion of an intimidating southerner named John Shooter (John Turturro) who angrily claims that Mort stole his story and, even worse, ruined the brilliant ending. Mort tries to dismiss the man’s claim but Shooter keeps returning to the cabin, his demands for reparation turning violent. After Shooter kills Mort’s faithful blind dog, the addled writer turns to detective friend Ken Karsch (Charles D. Dutton) for protection and then to his wife to try to settle the question of which story was published first. ...

  At first, “Premonition” is interesting, almost fascinating. After a brief scene in which Linda (Sandra Bullock) is presented with their home (an attractive older building) by husband Jim (Julian McMahon), the story jumps forward in a cut to ten years or so later. They now have two daughters, Megan (Shyann McClure), about ten, and Bridgette (Courtney Taylor Burness), several years younger. Jim leaves on a business trip. After an ordinary morning of taking the girls to school and doing odd jobs, the local sheriff (Marc Macaulay) arrives at her front door to gently break the news: Jim has been killed in a car wreck. Linda is stunned, staggering through the rest of the day; she has to tell her daughters about their father, and her mother Joanne (Kate Nelligan) arrives to help. Finally, exhausted, she falls asleep. And awakes to find Jim alive, taking a shower. Confused, uncertain, Linda tries to roll with the ...

  How much you like “Identity” will depend on your acceptance of the twist ending. To me, the explanation is highly implausible, and violates what I know about the psychological disorder afflicting one of the characters. But the film did receive some very positive reviews; consider this review just one more opinion. (Which is all they ever are in the first place.) Behind the opening credits, we see psychiatrist Dr. Malick (Alfred Molina) poring over clippings, a notebook, and psychology reports—these center on Malcolm Rivers (Pruitt Taylor Vince). We soon learn that this is the night before Rivers’ execution for having murdered all the people in a house. But before any of this can be more than briefly revealed, the story shifts to the Southwestern desert in heavy downpour. A group of travelers and others are stranded at a lonely motel, where Larry (John Hawkes) is the jittery clerk. Those arriving include George York (John C. ...

  The public loves magic. Nearly everyone, at least in public schools, can look back on their younger years and remember when the magician played the schools. The kids went nuts getting ready for the big day, then spent the rest of the day and maybe the rest of the week trying to figure out how all the tricks were done. That same love and curiosity continued into adulthood, which is why so many audiences are attracted to street magicians like David Blane, cold readers like John Edwards, or Vegas-style illusionists like Doug Henning and David Copperfield. “The Prestige” started as a novel by Christopher Priest. Priest is an English horror/SF novelist who doesn’t hesitate to mix the two genres to get whatever effect he chooses for his stories. Director Christopher Nolan was so concerned over the movie’s ending being given away to American audiences that he kept an American tie-in edition to the ...

  On the surface, “Phone Booth” had the story conceit and the major star power to make a good movie. Add to that the seasoned directing of Joel Schumacher (who has several thrillers under his belt) and the scripting talent of Larry Cohen (author many television and movie scripts). In the end, though, it fails to meet some basic criteria for good storytelling and presentation. The video and audio aspects for the film are amazing. The HD presentation is outstanding. Images take shape on the screen with vibrant color and hard edges. A three-dimensional quality about the film seems like viewers could just pull themselves into the scene with the actors. With the Lossless audio, the sounds are sharp and clear, and the surround sound system works perfectly. A movie as loaded with dialogue as this one is requires a stunning presentation to draw the jaded moviegoer’s attention, but “Phone Booth” delivers. Schumacher directs with ...