When Rod Lurie decided to make the jump from film critic to filmmaker, not many in Hollywood gave him much of a chance, thanks in part to the venomous film reviews he wrote for Los Angeles Magazine. Too many players who might have helped the fledgling filmmaker refused to get involved, though some met with Lurie just to give him a piece of their mind. But despite the many roadblocks he himself put up-the most damaging when he called actor Danny DeVito a testicle with arms-Lurie managed to join an elite group of critics-turned-directors that included Francois Truffaut and Peter Bogdanovich. Though his first feature, "Deterrence" (2000), failed to gain recognition, "The Contender" (2000), which benefited from the marketing muscle of DreamWorks, placed Lurie firmly on the filmmaking map.