Robert John Burke
Also Known As: John Burke , Robert Burke
Biography: A born-and-bred New Yorker, Robert John Burke made his film debut while in his early 20s with a small part in the drama "The Chosen" (1981), based on the Chaim Potok story. He went on to study acting at SUNY Purchase where he met aspiring filmmaker Hal Hartley, who cast him as one of the leads in his debut feature "The Unbelievable Truth," an offbeat indie tale where he played a man trying to escape his troubled past. Working with Hartley again on the charming brother-centric dark comedy "Simple Men," Burke caught a major break when Hollywood producers decided that his chiseled jawline was the right one to replace Peter Weller's in the sci-fi/action sequel "RoboCop 3." Despite Burke's efforts, the movie tanked, and he went on to smaller roles in major films, including the lauded Western "Tombstone" (1993) and the prison-break movie "Fled" (1996). Burke landed his second chance in a Hollywood starring role with the Stephen King adaptation "Thinner" (1996), but the macabre tale, which featured him under heavy makeup to depict a callous man who magically loses weight, was deemed almost universally unlikable.Though Burke's leading-man days were mostly behind him, his beastly role in Hartley's "No Such Thing" (2001) aside, he soldiered on, and began increasingly working on television with recurring roles on the grim prison drama "Oz" and the police procedural "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC, 1999- ). Appearing in George Clooney's first two movies as director, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" (2002) and "Good Night, and Good Luck." (2005), Burke nonetheless became more familiar to TV audiences, particularly when he signed on to play Mickey Gavin, the ex-priest cousin of Denis Leary's lead character on the firefighter series "Rescue Me," a part that dovetailed with Burke's real-life second job as a New York State fireman.Often cast as a tough guy, the ruggedly handsome and tall actor continued to play imposing figures such as Major General James "Chaos" Mattis in the Iraq War miniseries "Generation Kill" (HBO, 2008) and Bart Bass, the controlling billionaire father of Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) on the soapy drama "Gossip Girl." Before long, he was juggling his ongoing "Law & Order: SVU" part with regular spots on the military drama "Army Wives" (Lifetime, 2007- ) and the tense crime show "Person of Interest" (CBS, 2011- ), while still finding time for supporting turns in films, including the Denzel Washington/Mark Wahlberg action movie "2 Guns" (2013).
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: September 12, 1960
Age: 64 years old
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Thinner
Overview: An obese lawyer finds himself growing "Thinner" when an old Romani man places a hex on him. Now the lawyer must call upon his friends in organized crime to help him persuade the old man to lift the curse. Time is running out for the desperate lawyer as he draws closer to his own death, and grows ever thinner.
Genres: Fantasy Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-10-25
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Good Night, and Good Luck.
Overview: The story of journalist Edward R. Murrow's stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunts in the early 1950s.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-09-16
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Flirt
Overview: In New York, Bill struggles to decide whether he has a future with Emily, while attempting to restrain Walter, the angry husband of a woman he thinks he might be in love with. Later incorporated into a feature film of the same name.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-09-11
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Dust Devil
Overview: A woman on the run from her abusive husband encounters a mysterious hitch-hiker.
Genres: Horror Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-07-11
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RoboCop 3
Overview: The mega corporation Omni Consumer Products is still bent on creating their pet project, Delta City, to replace the rotting city of Detroit. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of the area have no intention of abandoning their homes simply for desires of the company. To this end, OCP have decided to force them to leave by employing a ruthless mercenary army to attack and harass them. An underground resistance begins and in this fight, RoboCop must decide where his loyalties lie.
Genres: Action Adventure Crime Science Fiction Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-01-21
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Hide and Seek
Overview: David Callaway tries to piece together his life in the wake of his wife's suicide and has been left to raise his nine-year-old daughter, Emily on his own. David is at first amused to discover that Emily has created an imaginary friend named 'Charlie', but it isn't long before 'Charlie' develops a sinister and violent side, and as David struggles with his daughter's growing emotional problems, he comes to the frightening realisation that 'Charlie' isn't just a figment of Emily's imagination.
Genres: Horror Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-01-27
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A Far Off Place
Overview: Thrown together under incredible circumstances, two strangers must discover courage and strength when they begin a journey across the treacherous African desert! Equipped only with their wits and the expertise of a native bushman who befriends them, they are determined to triumph over impossible odds and reach their destination. But along the way, the trio face a primitive desert wilderness.
Genres: Drama Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-03-12
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Heaven & Earth
Overview: In a small Vietnamese village torn apart by war, a young woman faces unimaginable horrors before deciding to escape to the city. There, she encounters a compassionate Marine who offers her hope and a chance at a new life, igniting the possibility of a future together.
Genres: History War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-12-25
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Rambling Rose
Overview: Rose is taken in by the Hillyer family to serve as a 1930s housemaid so that she can avoid falling into a life of prostitution. Her appearence and personality is such that all men fall for her, and she knows it. She can't help herself from getting into trouble with men.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-09-10
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No Such Thing
Overview: A young journalist journeys to Iceland to find her missing fiancé only to encounter a mythical creature who longs to die.
Genres: Fantasy Drama Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-03-29
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Speak
Overview: Freshman high-school student Melinda has refused to speak ever since she called the cops on a popular summer party. With her old friends snubbing her for being a rat, and her parents too busy to notice her troubles, she folds into herself, trying to hide her secret: that star senior Andy raped her at the party. But Melinda does manage to find solace in her art class headed by Mr. Freeman.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-01-20
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Looking for Mr. Goodbar
Overview: A short, unhappy affair with a married man leads a dedicated schoolteacher into the alcohol-and-drug fueled underworld of singles’ bars, where she begins to engage in a pattern of dangerous sexual activity.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-10-19
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The Unbelievable Truth
Overview: After serving time for murder, Josh Hutton returns to his home town where he meets Audry Hugo. No one can remember exactly what Josh did...
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-07-20
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Fled
Overview: During a routine prison work detail, convict Piper is chained to Dodge, a cyberhacker, when gunfire breaks out. Apparently, the attack is related to stolen money that the Mafia is after, and some computer files that somebody wants desperately to bury. The pair, who don't exactly enjoy each other's company, escape and must work together if they are to reach Atlanta alive. Luckily, they meet a woman who may be willing to help them.
Genres: Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-07-19
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Flirt
Overview: The same situation is played out in different cities (New York, Berlin and Tokyo). A lover has to choose whether to commit to a partner who is returning home. In each case there are other people involved, an ex-partner and someone else in a "permanent" relationship, what do they choose to do?
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-09-14
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Simple Men
Overview: Dennis is a handsome and bookish college student. His brother, Bill, is a roughhewn ladies' man and thief. Together they search for their dad, confront their expectations of each other, themselves, and their attitudes towards women.
Genres: Crime Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-10-14
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Limitless
Overview: The life of an unsuccessful writer is transformed by a top-secret 'smart drug' that allows him to use 100% of his brain and become a perfect version of himself. His enhanced abilities soon attract shadowy forces that threaten his new life.
Genres: Thriller Mystery Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2011-03-17
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Safe
Overview: After a former elite agent rescues a 12-year-old Chinese girl who's been abducted, they find themselves in the middle of a standoff between Triads, the Russian Mafia and high-level corrupt New York City politicians and police.
Genres: Action Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2012-04-16
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Killer: A Journal of Murder
Overview: Carl Panzram is sent to Leavenworth Prison for burglary. While there, he is brutally beaten by a guard. Neophyte guard Henry Lesser feels sympathy for Panzram, befriends him, and gets him to write his life story. Lesser learns that Panzram's past is much more violent than he thought, but also that he's capable of being a much better person than the rest of the prison staff believes - or so Lesser thinks.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-09-06
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Munich
Overview: During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eleven Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. In retaliation, the Israeli government recruits a group of Mossad agents to track down and execute those responsible for the attack.
Genres: Drama Action History Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-12-23
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Triggered
Overview: A US Senator faces her greatest challenge when a home invasion takes a shocking turn.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2022-04-03
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2 Guns
Overview: A DEA agent and an undercover Naval Intelligence officer who have been tasked with investigating one another find they have been set up by the mob -- the very organization the two men believe they have been stealing money from.
Genres: Action Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2013-08-02
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Crazy for a Kiss
Overview: On a hot sunny day in Kansas, 1973, Mike Kinross's parents tell him he's going on holiday to his Uncle Dan's house. But instead they drop him off at the juvenile unit of the local mental institution.
Genres: Comedy Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-04-23
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Boston Strangler
Overview: Reporters Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole bravely pursue the story of the Boston Strangler at great personal risk, putting their own lives on the line in their quest to uncover the truth.
Genres: Crime Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2023-03-16
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True Story
Overview: A drama centered on the relationship between journalist Michael Finkel and Christian Longo, an FBI Most Wanted List murderer who for years lived outside the U.S. under Finkel's name.
Genres: Crime Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2015-04-17
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Midnight Flight
Overview: An American woman is stranded in a German airport when she witnesses someone sabotaging a plane.
Genres: Thriller Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-06-02
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Ned Rifle
Overview: Henry’s and Fay's son Ned sets out to find and kill his father for destroying his mother's life. But his aims are frustrated by the troublesome Susan, whose connection to Henry predates even his arrival in the lives of the Grim family.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2015-04-01
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Bait
Overview: TJ's day takes an unexpected turn when he visits his Uncle Mack at his hotel in Montauk...
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2015-09-18
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Connie and Carla
Overview: After accidentally witnessing a mafia hit in the Windy City, gal pals Connie and Carla skip town for L.A., where they go way undercover as singers working the city's dinner theater circuit ... disguised as drag queens. Now, it's not enough that they become big hits on the scene; things get extra-weird when Connie meets Jeff -- a guy she'd like to be a woman with.
Genres: Comedy Crime Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-04-16
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Overview: Queen Ramonda, Shuri, M’Baku, Okoye and the Dora Milaje fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia and Everett Ross and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.
Genres: Action Adventure Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2022-11-09
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Somewhere in the City
Overview: The film portrays life of New York City's Lower East Side inhabitants. Introvert therapist Betty is befriended with Chinese immigrant Lu Lu, leftist radical Che is also Lu Lu's friend. Italian immigrant and wife of supervisor of building where they all live, Marta, is having an affair with her neighbour Frankie who likes scams. One of his scams goes terribly wrong.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-06-11
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First Love, Last Rites
Overview: Passion and infatuation ignite as two lovers flounder through their "first time" in this alarmingly sexy film set in the Louisiana bayou. Joey and Sissel are a young misguided couple trying desperately to make their way through their first intense relationship. Blinded by sexual attraction, they become oblivious to everything around them. But when forced far great than themselves threaten their idyllic existence, each must learn to cope with heart-wrenching pain and loss.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-08-07
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Years Later: The Unbelievable Truth and Its Consequences
Overview: A series of impromptu interviews with Hal Hartley, Adrienne Shelly, and some of Hartley's other most frequent collaborators on his style, career, and process.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2010-11-01
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Miracle at St. Anna
Overview: Miracle at St. Anna chronicles the story of four American soldiers who are members of the all-black 92nd "Buffalo Soldier" Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2008-09-15
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Tombstone
Overview: Legendary marshal Wyatt Earp, now a weary gunfighter, joins his brothers Morgan and Virgil to pursue their collective fortune in the thriving mining town of Tombstone. But Earp is forced to don a badge again and get help from his notorious pal Doc Holliday when a gang of renegade brigands and rustlers begins terrorizing the town.
Genres: Western Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-12-25
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Jack's Law
Overview: Jack Santos is a retired undercover vice cop whose world is suddenly torn apart by the murder of his wife and daughter. After serving a prison term for a crime he did not commit, Jack returns to the streets with a vengeance against crime, and takes to vigilantism.
Genres: Action Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2006-06-06
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The Chosen
Overview: In a 1940s New York, two Jewish teenage boys are determined to remain friends despite the deep differences between their two families.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-08-20
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Nightmare Weekend
Overview: A female scientist performs experiments on three college girls that turn them into drooling, murderous mutants.
Genres: Horror Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-05-12
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State Property
Overview: A Philadelphia gang member becomes a drug kingpin and starts a feud with vicious rivals in his quest for the American Dream.
Genres: Crime Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-01-18
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Gangster Wars
Overview: The film tells the story of three teenagers, based on real life gangsters Charles "Lucky" Luciano (Michael Nouri), Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (Joe Penny) and Michael Lasker (Brian Benben) (a fictional character who was most likely modeled after Meyer Lansky), growing up in New York's ghettos during the early 1900s to their rise though organized crime.
Genres: Crime Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-04-09
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Mayday - Flug in den Tod
Overview:
Genres: Action
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1997-01-01
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BlacKkKlansman
Overview: Colorado Springs, late 1970s. Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer, and Flip Zimmerman, his Jewish colleague, run an undercover operation to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.
Genres: Crime Comedy Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2018-08-09
Popularity:
Future '38
Overview: An American Agent from 1938 travels through time to hamstring Hitler! Transported to the year 2018, he hoodwinks hoodlums, infuriates the Fuhrer, and goes gaga for a gal 80 years his junior!
Genres: Comedy Romance Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2017-12-01
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Where There's Smoke
Overview: After a tragic accident, a firefighter must convince the city commissioner he's able to return to the line of duty.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2017-04-01
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Piggie
Overview: An unbalanced young girl in upstate New York dairy country falls for a petty criminal from NYC and tries to manipulate him into being her boyfriend.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-06-13
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If Lucy Fell
Overview: Joe and Lucy are roommates and best friends. Lucy, whose love life is embarrassingly dull, convinces Joe, who is infatuated with a neighbor he's never met, that if they don't have stable romances within a month, they must jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-03-08
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Brooklyn's Finest
Overview: Enforcing the law within the notoriously rough Brownsville section of the city and especially within the Van Dyke housing projects is the NYPD's sixty-fifth precinct. Three police officers struggle with the sometimes fine line between right and wrong.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2010-03-04
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Boarding School
Overview: When troubled 12-year-old Jacob Felsen is sent away to boarding school, he enters every kid’s worst nightmare: a creepy old mansion, deserted except for six other teenage misfits and two menacing and mysterious teachers. As events become increasingly horrific, Jacob must conquer his fears to find the strength to survive.
Genres: Horror Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2018-08-30
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A Bright Shining Lie
Overview: Something in his past keeps career Army man John Paul Vann from advancing past colonel. He views being sent to Vietnam as part of the US military advisory force a stepping stone to promotion. However, he disagrees vocally (and on the record) with the way the war is being run and is forced to leave the military. Returning to Vietnam as a civilian working with the Army, he comes to despise some South Vietnamese officers while he takes charge of some of the U.S. forces and continues his liaisons with Vietnamese women.
Genres: Drama War TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-05-30
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We Only Know So Much
Overview: A married woman has an affair with a suicidal lover while caring for her husband's sick relatives.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2018-06-23
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Being
Overview: A festive gathering in a secluded small-town farmhouse in the mountains is brought to a halt when a bright burst of light explodes from the barn. Stranded in the middle of nowhere, they carefully investigate, making a discovery not of this world.
Genres: Drama Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2020-01-07
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Cop Land
Overview: Freddy Heflin is the sheriff of a place everyone calls “Cop Land” — a small and seemingly peaceful town populated by the big city police officers he’s long admired. Yet something ugly is taking place behind the town’s peaceful facade. And when Freddy uncovers a massive, deadly conspiracy among these local residents, he is forced to take action and make a dangerous choice between protecting his idols and upholding the law.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-08-15
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The Ex
Overview: When his lawyer wife, Sofia, becomes pregnant, chronic underachiever Tom Reilly must take a job at his father-in-law's advertising firm. Tom has to adjust to the demands of a very high-powered job, and he finds himself in an increasingly hostile office rivalry with Chip, Sofia's paraplegic former lover.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2006-12-01
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Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Overview: Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. Television producer by day, CIA assassin by night, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA at the height of his TV career and trained to become a covert operative. Or so Barris said.
Genres: Comedy Crime Drama Romance Thriller History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-12-31
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The Oh in Ohio
Overview: Frustrated with their relationship, Priscilla and Jack decide to take a break. While Jack moves into a new place of his own and starts dating a student, Priscilla discovers the joys of self-pleasuring and finds an unusual bedmate.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2006-03-30
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Intrusion
Overview: When a husband and wife move to a small town, a home invasion leaves the wife traumatized and suspicious that those around her might not be who they seem.
Genres: Drama Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2021-09-22
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The Retaliators
Overview: An upstanding pastor uncovers a dark and twisted underworld as he searches for answers surrounding his daughter's brutal murder.
Genres: Horror Thriller Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2022-09-08
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