
            Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), a Los Angeles car dealer in his mid-twenties, is in the middle of importing four grey market Lamborghinis. The deal is being threatened by the EPA, and if Charlie cannot meet its requirements for pollution control, he will lose a significant amount of money. After some quick subterfuge with an employee, Charlie leaves for a weekend trip to Palm Springs with his girlfriend, Susanna (Valeria Golino).Charlie's trip is cancelled by news that his estranged father, Sanford Babbitt, has died. Charlie travels to his hometown in Cincinnati, Ohio, to settle the estate, where he learns an undisclosed trustee is inheriting $3 million on behalf of an unnamed beneficiary, while all he is to receive is a 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible and several prized rose bushes -- all of which are dying from neglect. Eventually he learns the money is being directed to Wallbrook, a mental institution which is the home of his autistic older brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), of whose existence Charlie was previously unaware. We learn that Charlie grew up a rebellious child and that following the death of his mother, he ran away from home at age 16 to California where he lived ever since, never speaking to his father ever again. Prior to his flight to California, Charlie had taken the Roadmaster out on his 16th birthday without his father's permission. His father subsequently called the police, reported the car stolen, and Charlie and his friends were picked up by the police. Charlie's father allowed the police to hold his son in jail for two days (the friends he was driving with had been bailed out by their own parents within hours). This leads Charlie to ask the question that permeates the movie: "Why didn't somebody tell me I had a brother?"Although Raymond has autism, he is high-functioning and also has superb memory recall, but little understanding of subject matter thus making him an "overgrown child". He is frightened by change and adheres to strict routines (for example, his continual repetition of the "Who's on First?" sketch whenever he becomes nervous or agitated) and has regimented mealtimes and outings. Except when he is in distress, he shows little emotional expression and avoids eye contact and is frightened of most physical contact. Numbed by learning that he has a brother and determined to get what he believes is his fair share of the Babbitt estate, Charlie effectively kidnaps Raymond -- who has always been a voluntary resident -- from Wallbrook. Charlie quickly becomes frustrated with Raymond's behavior and finds out that Raymond won't get on a plane to LA: Raymond recalls statistics of crashes with every airline (except Qantas) and has a severe anxiety attack where he hits himself in the head and screams uncontrollably when Charlie tries to force him to board. Charlie has no choice but to drive back to LA in the Buick. Charlie is also forced to avoid major highways when the two pass an accident, extending the driving time of the journey.Charlie intends to start a custody battle in order to get Raymond's doctor, Dr. Bruner (Jerry Molen), to settle out of court for half of Sanford Babbitt's estate so that the mental institution can maintain custody of Raymond. During the course of the long journey, Charlie learns about Raymond's autism, which he initially believes is curable resulting in his frequent frustration with his brother's antics. He also learns about how his brother came to be separated from his family, as a result of an accident when he was left alone with Raymond when Charlie was a baby, about 20 months old and Raymond was age 10. Raymond also sings "I Saw Her Standing There" by The Beatles like he did when Charlie was three or four years old. Charlie remembers the incident as early as he could remember and always thought that the person singing to him, (whom the young Charlie referred to as the 'Rain Man' due to Raymond's slow-speaking of his own name) was an imaginary character. While Charlie and his brother reminisce about their relationship, Charlie turns on the hot water in the hotel room bathtub -- Raymond suddenly has an episode where he hits himself and screams, yelling that the hot water will burn Charlie if he touches it. Charlie realizes that Raymond had tried to give his younger brother a bath and had scalded him, prompting their parents to send Raymond to Wallbrook.Charlie proves to be sometimes shallow and exploitative, as when he uses Raymond's precision memory and takes him to Las Vegas to win money at blackjack by counting cards. Casino security begins to watch Charlie and Raymond, though they can't find any proof that either is using a cheater's system to win against the house so Charlie can pay off his considerable debts back in LA. Security sends an attractive woman who finds Raymond alone in the casino's bar. She is able to get Raymond to allude to his and Charlie's counting of cards. Later, in their hotel suite, Raymond mentions the "date" he'd made with the woman. Charlie suggests that Raymond will have to dance with her and he shows Raymond how to properly dance with a woman. The two share a brotherly and friendly moment until Charlie tries to hug Raymond, who shrieks in fright.Shortly after, security asks to speak to Charlie privately and suggests that Charlie take his winnings, about $80,000 and leave. Charlie agrees. Susanna meets Charlie and Raymond at the hotel and she & Charlie reconcile -- they'd had a falling out just as the journey from Cincinnati had begun over Charlie's cold treatment of his brother. While she escorts Raymond back up to the suite, she kisses Raymond.In the end, Charlie finds himself becoming protective of Raymond, and grows to truly love him. Back in Los Angeles, Charlie meets with his attorney Boros (Adam S. Gottbetter) to try to get his share of his inheritance, but then decides that he no longer cares about the money and really just wants to have custody of his brother. However, at a meeting with a court-appointed psychiatrist and Dr. Bruner, Raymond is unable to decide exactly what he wants (to live with Charlie in California or stay at the mental hospital in Ohio). Eventually, the psychiatrist presses Raymond to make the decision, upsetting him and leading Charlie to request that the doctor back off. Raymond is allowed to go back home to Cincinnati. Charlie, who has gained a new brother and mellowed considerably, promises Raymond as he boards an Amtrak train with Bruner that he'll visit in two weeks.
    

Rain Man


            The movie opens with an official explaining the facts of life to a group of prisoners. The scene switches to a French city where a large group of men are being paraded at gunpoint through a street crowded with onlookers, police and media. A wealthy woman waves forlornly to a man wearing glasses. They board a freighter and are put in cells in the ship's hold.The men begin to talk about the short bespectacled man, Dega, who is said to be a renowned counterfeiter, who may have a lot of concealed money. The prisoners begin their voyage and are shown in various daily routines. The blue-eyed man with a large butterfly tattoo, Papillon, has a knife, decides to befriend Dega and promises to protect him. Some men are seen to be getting ill and weak in the heat as the ship travels south. Papillon is tanned, fit, and confident looking. Two men attempt to assault Dega during the night. Papillon manages to fight them off but is placed in irons. Finally the ship arrives at its destination in French Guiana, the men see three small islands in the distance and mention they are high security prisons. One is the real-life but long abandoned Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni (Bagne de Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni), where some scenes were filmed.While lining up to disembark one prisoner, Julot, a "two time loser", asks for Papillon's shiv and cuts his own knee, he pretends to fall down the gangplank and he is carried off on a stretcher. A young man walks into the ocean and is summarily shot and killed. The prisoners are marched through a town of onlookers, assembled at the main camp, the Pénitencier, and told that if they try to escape they will get two years in solitary, a second attempt means five years solitary confinement, and a third attempt means the guillotine. They are issued red and white striped uniforms. In the barracks an older prisoner/trustee recognizes Dega and explains that an easy job is available for a price. A struggling prisoner is brought in front of the assembled camp and is guillotined. Papillon and Dega stick together, they have a medical exam and just before they are assigned to the easy work a senior guard says Dega's counterfeiting cost his family a lot of money and assigns them to a hard labor logging detail in the swamp.One day a crocodile attacks the group, Papillon and Dega are told to get it with their bare hands. They meet another prisoner, Clusiot, at lunch break who shares some quinine anti-malaria medicine. Next, the prisoners chase butterflies with nets. Dega catches a big blue one. Papillon approaches the butterfly buyer and asks for help to escape. Arrangements are made for two weeks later. Papillon tries to convince Dega to come also. Julot's corpse is brought in with his throat slit, Dega is sickened and causes a commotion, Papillon escapes. Dega gets new bifocal glasses. Papillon comes to the butterfly buyer's camp and is immediately taken at gunpoint, betrayed.He is taken to "Reclusion" and told the rules. He is placed in a small cell 5 paces wide and starts walking back and forth and do push ups. His food and water are passed in through a small hatch, despite the poor food he vows to eat all. One day he finds a piece of coconut in his water bucket and a note from Dega. Eventually the guards discover the extra food and try to find out from Papillon who arranged it for him. He refuses to talk and is placed on half-rations. Then his ceiling is covered and he is placed in almost complete darkness. Over time Papillon gets very weak and hallucinates, thinking back on a wasted life, later fantasizing about a triumphant return to France with Dega. He is near death and reduced to eating insects when suddenly he is released as his solitary period is ended. He is taken back to the main camp.Slowly regaining his strength he renews his friendship with Dega, who appreciates that Papillon never gave him up. In the hospital ward he notices a young prisoner, Maturette, who is molested by a trustee. Maturette admits he is homosexual and will help Papillon if he can come too. Papillon starts planning a new escape with the Maturette and Clusiot. A prisoner doctor says he can make suitable arrangements for a price. Dega refuses to go along but gives Papillon money and a map. During a band concert night the three try their escape, a guard is alerted and Clusiot is hurt. Papillon and Maturette get over the wall and encourage Dega to join them. Dega breaks his ankle when falling over the wall.The three escape into the jungle. They paid 3,000 francs to buy a boat but find the boat is useless. A trapper with strange facial tattoos shows them he killed two men who had been waiting for the three escapees. He helps them escape down the river to a leper colony. At the leper colony the leader tests Papillon by telling him to smoke his cigar. Papillon does so and the man says he has non-contagious leprosy. The lepers give the three escapees a boat and some money and the three sail off toward the Honduras.At sea they scavenge water and eat turtles, endure storms and heat. Dega's broken ankle gets worse, Maturette knows some medicine and tries to do first aid . Eventually they land on a sandy beach and are immediately confronted by a small group of Spanish-speaking soldiers. Dega lies there in the sand and the other two scatter. Papillon meets a Spanish prisoner and together they run off deeper into the jungle. The Spanish prisoner is impaled on a booby trap and Papillon is hit with a blowgun dart and falls into a river.He awakes in a village of primitive natives. They live in thatch huts on a beach, fish for pearls and a nubile young woman helps Papillon regain his strength. The chief has Papillon give him a butterfly tattoo like that of Papillon. One day he wakes up and the natives are all gone but have left him a small bag with some pearls. Somewhere he gets newer clothes and appears to be a regular European tourist. At a border crossing he tries to join a religious caravan, they let him join them to cross. At the church, Papillon declares to the Mother Superior he is an innocent man who never killed anyone and gives her his pearls in a show of good faith. Asleep on a clean bed, he is rousted awake and taken at gunpoint. The nun has betrayed him.Five years (or more) later, Papillon is released from "Reclusion" with white hair, looking very old. He meets a dying Maturette in the courtyard. He is taken to Devil's Island and assigned a cabin where he is told to fend for himself. He meets Dega, who is also on the island, and has a tidy cabin, carrot garden and a few pigs, but is a bit off, mentally. Papillon begins observing the waves and currents and begins planning another escape. He figures out that every seventh wave is big enough to carry a floating object out to sea. He fashions two large floats and seems to have Dega convinced to escape with him. When it is time to go Dega changes his mind. The two friends hug and Papillon jumps off a cliff into the ocean timing to meet the 7th wave. He is carried out to sea clinging to his float.A voice-over announces that Papillon made it to freedom and outlived the prison. The final scenes are of the abandoned prison overgrown by the jungle.
    

Papillon


            In June 1972, a smiling, confident President Nixon is about to address the American people. At the Watergate building in Washington, D. C., flashlight beams are visible through the windows of an office. Security guard Frank Wills discovers a piece of masking tape covering a door latch in the garage, and calls the police to report a possible burglary. Inside an office, one of the burglars announces through a walkie-talkie, "We're home." On the receiving end is a man watching from an adjacent window, who warns them of "activity." Three undercover police enter the building and arrest the burglars.The next morning, Harry Rosenfeld (Jack Warden) and Howard Simons (Martin Balsam), editors at the Washington Post, briefly discuss the burglary, including the large amounts of cash, 35mm cameras and walkie-talkies found in the burglars' possession, and the fact that they invaded the Democratic Party's national headquarters. Reporter Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) asks to cover the story, but it is given to Bob Woodward (Robert Redford).Woodward attends the burglars' arraignment and is surprised to learn that they have private council. The burglars, James W. McCord, Bernard Barker and three others, have a Mr. Starkey as their private attorney, even though they hadn't contacted anyone since the arrest.Back at the office, Woodward, Rosenfeld and Bernstein discuss the information they've gathered: McCord had worked for the CIA, though the CIA denies knowledge of him. That night, a policeman calls Woodward concerning some entries found in the address books of two of the burglars, which include the names "Howard Hunt" and "WHouse." Woodward calls the White House the next morning and asks for Hunt; he is referred to the office of Charles Colson, special council to the President. When he finally reaches Hunt, Woodward's questions are greeted with shock and evasiveness.Woodward continues his investigation, and is ultimately given an unsolicited denial of Colson's involvement in the Watergate burglary from the White House. Simons, realizing that the story is of national interest, believes it should be covered by a top political writer, rather than an inexperienced youngster. Rosenfeld disagrees, and partners Bernstein with Woodward. Bernstein begins his research by interviewing Karen, a former employee of Colson's. She describes both Colson and Hunt as very secretive, but she learned that Hunt was investigating Senator Edward Kennedy on behalf of the White House, doing extensive research at the White House library.At the news room, Bernstein contacts the librarian, who corroborates Karen's story, then suddenly denies any knowledge of Hunt. Woodward calls Deputy Director of Communications Ken Clawson at the White House, who denies that the librarian spoke to Bernstein. The reporters take their investigation to the Library of Congress but find nothing. The resulting news story is lacking in hard evidence, and Executive Editor Ben Bradlee keeps it off the front page.From a phone booth, Woodward calls an anonymous man, who refuses to discuss Watergate. The next morning, Woodward finds a note from the man in his copy of 'The New York Times' instructing him to contact him by placing a small red flag from a flower pot at the balcony of his apartment building. That night at 2:00 am, Woodward takes a series of taxis to an underground parking garage, where the anonymous man (Hal Holbrook) is waiting. Woodward promises the man that his identity will remain secret, then recounts the details of the investigation. The man advises Woodward to "follow the money."A few days later, The New York Times uncovers evidence of the Watergate conspiracy dating back to March 1972. Bernstein travels to Miami, Florida, where State Attorney Dardis has subpoenaed Bernard Barker's telephone and money records. Dardis's file contains several checks from a Mexican bank, and one from a Florida Bank issued to Kenneth H. Dahlberg for $25,000.Woodward contacts Dahlberg, an officer with the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), who gave the check to CREEP finance chairman Maurice Stans, who in turn gave it to Barker. At a meeting of Washington Post editors, feelings are mixed about continuing the Watergate investigation, with Rosenfeld as the strongest advocate. One editor admits that he simply does not find the story believable.At their next conference, Woodward and Bernstein inform Bradlee and Simons that the General Accounting Office (GAO) has discovered a secret fund containing hundreds of thousands of dollars among CREEP's accounts. Woodward's anonymous source, now referred to as "Deep Throat," points to the money as the key to the investigation. Bradlee is losing faith in the story, but Woodward and Bernstein are undaunted.
They acquire a list of CREEP employees and attempt to interview several in their homes. One woman tells them to leave before they are seen, and is in tears as she closes the door.The reporters continue to visit CREEP employees, but virtually all refuse to talk; Woodward and Bernstein suspect an organized cover-up. After two weeks, they still have no solid evidence. Rosenthal further discourages them with the news that the GAO report will not be released until after Nixon is re-nominated for president, and only Hunt, the five burglars, and CREEP operative G. Gordon Liddy will be indicted for the Watergate burglary. Bernstein continues his efforts to interview CREEP employees, using any excuse to get inside their houses. One woman, a CREEP bookkeeper, admits that she had long been aware of the secret fund and mentions a list of 15 names with a dollar amount next to each. The list was destroyed, however. She refuses to disclose the names of the men who control the secret fund but she will identify initials.As Woodward and Bernstein transform the bookkeeper's comments into a story, they discover that former Attorney General and CREEP chairman John Mitchell controlled the secret fund, along with Liddy, Bart Porter, Jeb Magruder, attorney to the President Herbert Kalmbach, and one other. When the reporters visit the bookkeeper again, she indicates that they are being watched.Woodward and Bernstein next visit Hugh Sloan, who recently resigned as CREEP treasurer as an act of conscience. Sloan states that all CREEP activities are approved by the White House, and estimates the amount of the secret fund at close to $1 million. The two reporters describe John Mitchell's criminal activities to Bradlee, Rosenfeld and Simons; Bradlee is aggravated by the fact that none of the sources can be named, but still approves the story. Bernstein calls Mitchell at home to read him the story, in case he'd like to comment on it. Mitchell responds with vulgarity and threats, and issues a statement the next day denouncing the story, without pointedly denying it.Bernstein travels to Los Angeles to interview Donald Segretti, a young lawyer who, under the supervision of CREEP operative Dwight Chapin, sabotaged the campaigns of several Democratic presidential candidates. Back in Washington that night, Woodward meets again with Deep Throat, who explains that the Department of Justice was well aware of the infiltration and sabotage of the Democrats. As Woodward leaves the underground garage, he suspects that he's being followed and starts to run, though no one is behind him.Woodward learns from an FBI source that Segretti was paid from the CREEP secret fund by Chapin, who was hired by White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, suggesting that Haldeman is the fifth man who controls the fund. Woodward and Bernstein visit Sloan for confirmation of Haldeman's involvement, but rather than confirming the story, Sloan says he has "no problem" with it. Bernstein calls his source at the FBI, who confirms that "John Haldeman" controlled the fund. Woodward is not convinced, nor is Bradlee, but Bernstein gets further confirmation from a contact at the Justice Department and Bradlee runs the story. The following morning, Sloan denies implicating Haldeman, and the Nixon administration publicly denounces the Washington Post. The paper is barraged with criticism, and Bradlee is angered by his reporters' blunder, but he stands by the story.At Woodward's next meeting with Deep Throat, he learns that Haldeman runs the entire operation, Mitchell has the entire U. S. intelligence community involved in his covert operations, and the cover-up exists mainly to protect these covert operations. He is also told that he and Bernstein are under surveillance and their lives are in danger. Woodward heads to Bernstein's apartment and shares this new information via typewriter to keep their conversation from being heard. They wake up Bradlee at his home and disclose what they've learned from Deep Throat. Bradlee states that, even though half of all Americans have no interest in the Watergate affair, the future of the nation may be riding on it.In the final scene, Woodward and Bernstein are soon back at their typewriters, relentlessly working on the story as Nixon is sworn in for his second term on January 20, 1973. Sometime later, the Washington Post teletype reports the convictions and sentences of the conspirators, and Nixon's resignation from office on August 9, 1974.
    

All the President's Men


            Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman), a workaholic advertising executive, is just given his agency's biggest new account. After spending the evening chatting with his boss about handling a new and very large account, he returns home to find his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) in the process of leaving him.Ted is left to raise their son Billy (Justin Henry) by himself. Ted and Billy begin to resent each other as Ted no longer has time to carry his increased workload, and Billy misses the love and attention he received from his mother. After many months of unrest, Ted and Billy begin to cope with the situation and eventually grow to love and care for one another.Ted befriends his neighbor Margaret (Jane Alexander), who initially had counseled Joanna to leave Ted. Margaret is a fellow single parent and the two become kindred spirits. One day as the two sit in the park watching their children play, Billy falls off the jungle gym and severely cuts his face. Picking him up, Ted sprints several blocks through oncoming traffic to the hospital, where he comforts his son tenderly, representing his increased emotional connection and sense of responsibility for the child since his wife left.Fifteen months after she walked out, Joanna returns to New York in order to claim Billy, and a custody battle ensues. During the custody hearing, both Ted and Joanna are unprepared for the brutal character assassinations that their lawyers unleash on the other. For instance, Margaret is forced to confess that she advised Joanna to leave Ted if she was as unhappy as she professed, although she also attempts to tell Joanna on the stand that her husband has profoundly changed. Eventually, the damaging facts that Ted was fired because of his conflicting responsibilities with his son, forcing him to take a lower-paid job, come out in court, as do the details of Billy's accident.Finally, the court awards custody to Joanna, not so much due to the evidence on both sides but due to the assumption that a child is best raised by their mother. Ted discusses appealing the case, but his lawyer warns that Billy himself would have to take the stand in the resulting trial and Ted cannot bear the thought of submitting his child to such an ordeal. He therefore decides not to contest custody.On the morning that Billy is to move in with Joanna, Ted and Billy make breakfast together, mirroring the meal that Ted tried to cook the first morning after Joanna left. They hug in a very tender moment as they both know this is their last breakfast together. Joanna calls from the ground floor, asking Ted to come down to talk. She tells Ted that, while she loves Billy and wants him with her, she knows that he is already home, and that his true home is with Ted. She will therefore not take him. As she enters the elevator, she asks her ex-husband "How do I look?". The movie ends with the elevator doors closing on the emotional Joanna, right after Ted answers, "You look terrific," as she heads upstairs to talk to Billy.
    

Kramer vs. Kramer

Kung Fu Panda


            Harold Crick (Will Farrell) is an IRS auditor who almost compulsively measures, quantifies and rationalizes his life. Suddenly, he becomes aware of a voice narrating his life, "accurately and with a better vocabulary." The voice is that of a writer we learn is struggling with writer's block (Emma Thompson), mostly about the best way to make Harold die. When Harold overhears his impending doom, he takes action, and eventually makes his way to a professor of literary theory (Dustin Hoffman), who helps him understand the implications of the narrative life he is leading. The main story line seems to be around a woman he is auditing, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Realizing he could die at any moment, Harold begins to break free of his limited, orderly life, and joins Gyllenhaal in a romantic relationship. He tracks down Thompson and confronts her with the truth: if she writes about his death, then he will die. But Hoffman is convinced the novel must be written as intended, and Thompson herself is ambivalent. Crick himself reads the novel and encourages her to keep the original ending, which would kill him. Eventually, Thompson writes of the fatal accident, but makes the accident only near-fatal. "If you have someone who willingly, knowingly, goes to his death, well...isn't that the kind of person you want to keep alive?" In the end, there is an ode to Harold, Maggie, Dustin, and most of all, Harold's wristwatch.
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Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service, living his entire life based on the timing of his wristwatch. He is given the job to audit an intentionally tax-delinquent baker, Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal) to whom he is awkwardly attracted. On the same day, he begins hearing the voice of a woman that is omnisciently narrating the events in his life, but he is unable to communicate with the voice. On his way home, Harold's watch stops working and he resets it using the time given by a bystander; the voice narrates "little did he know that this simple, seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death". Worried over this prediction, Harold turns to a psychiatrist who attributes the voice to schizophrenia. Harold listens to her conclusion without giving importance to it. When he asks what she would advise if it were not schizophrenia, the psychiatrist suggests Harold turn to a literary expert. Harold visits Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), a university professor, and relates his story. Jules first comes to the same conclusion as the psychiatrist, as Harold's dull life is not something commonly seen in novels. However, Jules then recognizes aspects of a literary work in Harold's story ("little did he know"), and encourages him to help identify the author, first by determining if the work is a comedy or a tragedy.As Harold proceeds to audit Ana, the two begin to fall for each other, but when Harold refuses to accept cookies that Ana made for him on the grounds that they could be viewed as a bribe, Ana angrily tells him to leave, making Harold believe the story is a tragedy. Harold spends the next day at home to try to control his own destiny, but his apartment is partially demolished by a wrecking crew mistaking the building for an abandoned one. Harold reveals these facts to Jules, who believes that Harold cannot control the plot that has been set for him and should accept that he will die, telling Harold to enjoy whatever time he has left to the fullest. Harold takes this to heart; he takes an extended vacation from work, develops his friendship with his co-worker Dave (Tony Hale), fulfills his life dream of learning to play the guitar, and starts to see Ana on a regular basis, helping her to avoid tax issues by claiming charitable offerings. Harold believes he may have mistaken his story and now reassesses it as a comedy. When he returns to Jules with this revelation, Harold inadvertently identifies the voice in his head from a television interview as noted author Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson). Jules, a long-time fan of Karen's works, reveals that in every book she has written the main character has died.Harold is able to find Karen through tax records, and learns that she is presently struggling from writer's block in how to kill off the character of Harold Crick in her latest book, Death and Taxes, envisioning numerous ways to have Harold die, while her publisher has sent an assistant, Penny (Queen Latifah), to make sure the book gets completed. When Karen learns that Harold is a real person and has experienced everything she's written, she becomes horrified to consider that all of her previous books may have also resulted in the deaths of real people. She tells Harold she has finally written a draft of the ending and his death, but hasn't typed it up yet. Penny suggests Harold read the book and the drafted ending to get his opinion. Harold is unable to bring himself to read it and gives the manuscript to Jules to review. Jules reads it and tells Harold that the manuscript is a masterpiece, his written death integral to its genius.Though Harold is deeply distressed over his fate, Jules comforts him by stating the inevitability of death - this death at least, will hold a deeper meaning by completing the book. Harold reads the manuscript himself, and comes to the same conclusion and returns the manuscript to Karen, accepting his death. He spends one last night with Ana.The next day, Harold prepares to return to work after his vacation despite Karen's voice narrating the fateful day as she types up her planned ending. Due to getting the time from the stranger earlier, Harold's watch is three minutes ahead, and he arrives at the bus stop early enough to save a child on a bicycle from being run over by a bus, though he himself is hit by the bus. Karen attempts to write Harold's death, but is unable to do so, and instead claims the watch was the character that died, and that fragments of the watch helped to block the right ulnar artery in Harold's body after the collision, preventing him from bleeding to death.Harold wakes up to find himself in a hospital, alive though in traction and with several broken bones, with Ana by his side to help him recover. When Jules reads Karen's final manuscript, he notes that the story is weaker without Harold's death. Karen admits the flaw, although she points out that the story was meant to be about a man that unknowingly dies, and this was not the case.Therefore, she states that she would rather have the story end with Harold alive, changing the dead character to that of the watch which had earlier been personified throughout the film.
    

Stranger Than Fiction


            In an interview, Honey Harlow Bruce (Valerie Perrine), ex-wife of stand-up comic Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman), recalls her life with him:In 1964, Lenny shocks his audience by stating that Eleanor Roosevelt gave Lou Gehrig "the clap," but then says the real point he wants to make is about the suppression of words. Venereal disease he says, is an epidemic because people will not talk about it.Honey then recalls seeing Lenny for the first time in Baltimore, when he was a comic impersonator:In the early 1950s, Honey, a stripper known as Hot Honey Harlow, is eating in a cafeteria when she sees Lenny watching her from across the room. The next time Lenny and Honey see each other, they go off together to have sex. Afterward, the smitten Lenny calls Honey his "shiksa goddess" and follows her to Miami.In another interview, Artie Silver (Stanley Beck), Lenny's manager, discusses the delicate balance of involving himself in both Lenny's professional and personal life:Shortly after Lenny and Honey meet, Artie warns Lenny that Honey, who had done jail time as a teenager, would be trouble. Despite Artie's misgivings, Lenny marries Honey, then takes her to meet his mother, Sally Marr (Jan Miner), and her sister Aunt Mema (Rashel Novikoff). Later, Lenny, who is uncomfortable with Honey's stripping, adds her to his act. They are hired to perform in the Catskills, where, during a show, Lenny makes an impulsive, crude joke to the band that is overheard by the audience. After this incidence, Sherman Hart (Gary Morton), an established comic, advises Lenny not to use "dirt" in his routines, but, at his next performance, Lenny intentionally insults his audience, thus losing career opportunities.In a 1960s performance, Lenny asks his audience, "What is dirty?" He says he would rather his child watch a stag movie than 'The King of Kings' , because nobody gets hurt in porn.In a flashback to 1950s, Honey is seriously injured and, while in the hospital, guesses that Lenny has an affair with her nurse. This incident becomes the source of a routine Lenny performs a decade later, in which Lenny advises men to deny their indiscretions at all costs, even if their wives catch them in the act. Explaining the difference between men and women, Lenny says that a woman is physical with someone she likes, but a man will seek out anything, even on a desert island.In the 1950s, the couple moves to Los Angeles, Honey returns to stripping, Lenny to small gigs and they become involved in the show business drug culture. Lenny pushes to experiment sexually, but then accuses Honey of enjoying the other woman in their ménage a trois "too much." In her interview, Honey recalls that after their daughter, Kitty, was born, she and Lenny parted.During his stand-up act in the 1960s, Lenny says that "divorce is great at first, but then you realize the women you meet are also divorced and burdened with children or poodles". He claims the only satisfaction is the revenge of gaining child custody, but then you are responsible for getting up in the morning to raise the child.In her interview, Honey at first accuses Lenny of stealing Kitty, but then admits she had a problem with drug abuse:In the late 1950s, Honey, an emotional wreck from loneliness and drugs, calls Lenny collect from Hawaii, where she has been arrested for possession of marijuana.In a 1960s performance, Lenny explains that the problem is that we live in a "happy ending" culture instead of a "what is" culture. He thinks that true human responses are denied and lied about, causing people to feel guilty when they act in a natural way.In an interview, Sally says that she moved to California to help with Kitty, and that Lenny had by then given up impersonation and begun to improvise:In the late 1950s, Lenny works in strip clubs, content that no one censors his act. Eventually, Artie and Sally convince him to take engagements at college and political venues, where his irreverence soon becomes trendy. During a performance, Lenny risks audience alienation by boldly referring to individuals using racial epithets. Then, explaining that suppression gives words power, he advocates using offensive words until they can no longer cause pain. When a Time magazine reporter suggests that Lenny's act has social impact, Lenny denies it, saying he likes attention and wants to "make a buck." Now, Artie commands high fees for Lenny's appearances.During one performance, Lenny says that he has been accused of making "sick jokes," but that a true sick joke is that Zsa Zsa Gabor earns $60,000 a week in Las Vegas and a Nevada school teacher's top pay is $6,000 a year. After wisecracking about masturbation and integration, Lenny says his financial success is based on violence, segregation, disease, despair and injustice, and if the world suddenly became pure, he would be unemployed. When he visits Honey in prison, he shows her an album cover of a recording of some of his performances.At an appearance in San Francisco, Lenny protests the dismissal of homosexual teachers, saying the men were considered good at their jobs and their actions occurred far from school grounds. Because of one of his crudely worded comments, Lenny is arrested and charged with the use of an obscene word in a public place.During his interview, Artie recalls that Lenny became obsessed with his legal battles and would read court transcripts to his audience:At Lenny's trial without jury in San Francisco, the judge orders a continuance and cautions Lenny not to repeat any of "those words."At Lenny's next performance, after pointing out to the audience several uniformed and plainclothes policemen posted around the room, Lenny talks about his arrest, substituting the sounds, "blah blah blah," for provocative words. When the trial resumes, the humorless judge finds Lenny guilty, after which his counsel requests a jury trial.In his interview, Artie states that Lenny began to study law books and record his trials:During the appeal trial, his lawyer forces the arresting policeman to admit that one of the words that Lenny is being charged for saying in public is often used at the police station, which also is a public place. Then his lawyer suggests that Lenny's work is found in the social satire of Aristophanes and Jonathan Swift. A professor of religion testifies that Lenny's routines convey a sincere message that exposes hypocrisy. A recording of a performance is played, one in which Lenny riffs on the phrase, "to come," and arranges his words into a kind of beat poem. Although the judge is offended, the jury votes for acquittal. Lenny, however, is dissatisfied, feeling that he won because of the jury's idiosyncrasies rather than the acknowledgment of First Amendment rights.According to Artie's later recollection, Lenny, who added jokes about the Pope and other religious leaders to his routines, developed a following, although some people attended shows just to see if he got arrested. After Honey is released from prison, she and Lenny spend time together taking drugs. Artie and Sally try to cancel Lenny's Chicago performance, but when the manager refuses, the drug-addled, coughing Lenny goes onstage. After an attempt at coherence, he apologizes, admitting he is not funny. Backstage, the police arrest him.In the present, Honey recalls that Lenny was arrested a total of 13 times, and Sally states that he suffered from pleurisy. Artie says Lenny dealt with depression, and was going broke from lawyer and doctor bills. In a performance at the height of his career, Lenny tells the audience that there has been an "obscenity circus" for years, starring the district attorney and the lower and Supreme Courts, and that he is the "schmuck" who fell off the high wire into the ring. As he wonders aloud why it is permissible to show photographs of maimed breasts injured in war, but not the beautiful breasts of a lovely woman in the audience, a policeman rises to arrest him.At the trial, words Lenny has spoken are presented out of context and a gesture he used is incorrectly stated to signify masturbation. Increasingly frustrated, Lenny speaks out, asking to talk to the judge and jury as human to human, but his interruptions anger the judge. Expecting a guilty verdict, his defense team plans to appeal to a higher court, but Lenny, no longer thinking clearly, is uncooperative. He tries defending himself, but the judge declares him in contempt of court. Lenny states that he has no money left and his cabaret card, which allows him to perform, has been confiscated. As he is removed from the courtroom, Lenny claims he hurts no one and pleads that they do not take away his words.In her interview, Sally says the New York court found Lenny guilty, but an appeal was being planned by his defense team. When the interviewer suggests the possibility of suicide, Sally denies it. Honey describes Lenny as funny, and Artie, pleased that Lenny's records are selling again, states that he is negotiating a film about his life. Intrigued, the interviewer mentions that Lenny's speeches are now-after less than a decade-considered harmless.Back in 1966, when Lenny is found dead in his apartment, naked, with drug paraphernalia nearby, the police allow news photographers to film his death scene.
    

Lenny


            In the present day 1970, 121-year-old Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman), the oldest living man in the world, who resides in a hospice, is recounting his long and colorful life story to a curious historian (William Hickey). Among other things, Crabb claims to have been a captive of the Cheyenne, a gunslinger, an associate of Wild Bill Hickok, a scout for General George Armstrong Custer, and the sole white survivor of Custer's force at the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. Having been adopted by the Cheyenne and reared in their culture, Crabb tells the Historian that he has perspective on both Caucasian and Native American life in the 19th century.Flashing back to 1859, the 10-year-old Jack and his older sister Caroline (Carole Androsky) survive the massacre of their parents' wagon train by the hostile Pawnee warriors. Found by a Cheyenne warrior, Jack and his sister are taken back to a Cheyenne village. Caroline manages to escape on horseback, but Jack is reared by good-hearted tribal leader Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George). Life among the Cheyenne proves to be idyllic, though Jack unwittingly makes an enemy of another boy, Younger Bear (Cal Bellini). However, Younger Bear eventually owes his life to Jack, who saves him from a Pawnee warrior. Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he's short but very brave.In 1865, when Jack is age 16, he is captured by U.S. cavalry troopers after skirmish between them and the local Cheyenne. Jack then renounces his Native American upbringing in order to save himself from being killed. After his interrogation and debriefing, and being that he is still a minor, Jack is put in the care of Reverend Silas Pendrake (Thayer David) and his sexually frustrated wife, Louise (Faye Dunaway), who tries to seduce Jack. Jack cannot accept the contradiction between Louise's piety and sexual appetite. When Jack finds Louise one day seducing the owner of a local soda shop/pharmacy, he leaves the Pendrake household.A year or so later, Jack becomes the apprentice of the snake-oil salesman Merriweather (Martin Balsam). The two are tarred and feathered when their customers realize that Merriweather's products are fraudulent. One of the angry customers happens to be Jack's sister, Caroline. Once Caroline realizes that one of the men she helped to tar and feather was her brother, they reunite. She attempts to mold her brother into a gunslinger named the Soda Pop Kid (after his favorite beverage). Jack meets Wild Bill Hickok (Jeff Corey) at a saloon, and Hickok takes a liking to the young man. When Hickok is forced to kill a man in self-defense, Jack loses his taste for gun slinging and Caroline deserts him.Another year or two later, Jack becomes a partner in a general store and marries a Swedish woman named Olga (Kelly Jean Peters). Unfortunately, Jack's business partner turns out to be a thieving scoundrel and Jack is forced to close the store. The famous cavalry officer George Armstrong Custer (Richard Mulligan) happens upon the scene and suggests the couple re-start their lives further west.Jack and Olga set out, but their stagecoach is ambushed by Cheyenne hostiles. Olga is abducted and Jack sets out in search for her. During his quest, he is reunited with Old Lodge Skins, who is overjoyed Jack has returned to the tribe. Younger Bear has become a contrary (a warrior who does everything in reverse) and, having been humiliated by Jack years before, is still bitter. After a short stay with the tribe, Jack continues his search for Olga.He eventually becomes a "muleskinner" in Custer's 7th Cavalry, hoping to obtain information on Olga's whereabouts. He takes part in a battle against the Cheyenne, but when the 7th troopers begin killing unarmed women and children, Jack becomes enraged and turns on them. Nearby, Jack discovers a Cheyenne woman, Sunshine (Aimée Eccles), giving birth. He saves Sunshine from the marauding troopers and returns with her to Old Lodge Skins's tribe. Sunshine becomes his wife and, the following year, bears him a child of their own. Jack again encounters Younger Bear, who has undergone another life change. No longer a contrary, Younger Bear is now the henpecked husband of the long-lost Olga, who has become a Cheyenne squaw. Olga does not recognize Jack, who makes no attempt to remind her of their previous relationship. Sunshine asks Jack to take in her three widowed sisters as wives and to father children with them. He is reluctant at first, but finally agrees and has sex with all three in succession.One day during the winter season, Custer and the 7th Cavalry make a surprise attack on a Cheyenne camp in Oklahoma (to be known as the Battle of Washita River, which took place on November 27, 1868). A now-blind and elderly Old Lodge Skins is saved by Jack, but Sunshine and their child are killed along with her sisters. Jack tries to infiltrate Custer's camp to exact revenge. At a crucial moment, with knife in hand, Jack loses his nerve, and is mocked by Custer for it.Flashing forward eight years later in 1876, a disheartened Jack has become the town drunk in Deadwood, South Dakota. While in a drunken stupor, he is recognized by Wild Bill Hickok, who gives him money to clean up. When Jack returns to the bar, Hickok is shot and killed. With his last breath, Hickok expresses a dying wish involving a widow he was having an affair with. Jack goes to see the widow, a prostitute who turns out to be Louise Pendrake. Jack gives her the money that Hickok intended for her to use to start a new life.Jack soon becomes a trapper and hermit. His mind becomes unhinged after coming across an empty trap with a severed animal limb. Poised at the edge of a cliff, he prepares to commit suicide. Jack suddenly hears the faint chords of the traditional cavalry tune Garryowen echoing through a valley and spots Custer and his troops marching nearby. Jack decides to exact revenge. Custer, who remembers that Jack once tried to assassinate him, hires him him as a scout, believing anything he says will be a lie, thus serving as a reverse barometer.Jack leads the troops into a trap at the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. Before the attack, Jack truthfully tells Custer of the overwhelming force of Native Americans hidden within the valley of the Little Bighorn. The arrogant and overconfident Custer does not believe him and leads the 7th Cavalry to its doom. During the frantic battle, Custer begins to rave insanely while Jack is wounded. Ignoring the closing circle of massed Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, Custer points his pistol at Jack. Before he can pull the trigger, Custer is shot and killed by Younger Bear, who removes the unconscious, wounded Jack from the battle by carrying him to Old Lodge Skins' tepee pretending that he is carrying a fellow warrior. Having thus discharged his life debt, Younger Bear tells Jack that the next time they meet, he can kill Jack without becoming an evil person.Some days later at the Indian camp, the recovering Jack accompanies Old Lodge Skins to a nearby hill, the Indian Burial Ground, where the old man, dressed in full Chief's regalia, has declared "It is a good day to die", and decides to end his life with dignity. He offers his spirit to the Great Spirit, and lies down at his spot at the Indian Burial Ground to wait for death. Instead, it begins to rain. Old Lodge Skins is revealed to still be alive, and says, "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't". They return to his tepee to have dinner.Back in the present, Jack's narrative abruptly ends and he dismisses the Historian who leaves the room. The film concludes with an extended shot of the elderly Jack sitting in his wheelchair and sadly staring into space.... thinking about the memories of a world which is no more.
    

Little Big Man


            
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Luck

Against the Tide


            The film begins with the sentencing of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), a notorious murderer. Between the reading of the sentence and the execution, the story of his life is told in flashback, beginning with his abandonment at birth in a French fish market. Raised in an orphanage, Grenouille grows into a strangely detached boy with a superhuman sense of smell. After growing to maturity as a tanner's apprentice, he makes his first delivery to Paris, where he revels in the new odors. He focuses on the scent of a kindly girl selling plums (Karoline Herfurth) and startles her with his behavior. To prevent her from crying out, he covers the girl's mouth and unintentionally suffocates her. After realizing that she is dead, he strips her body naked and smells her until the scent fades.Afterwards, Grenouille becomes haunted by the desire to preserve the woman's scent forever.
After making a delivery to a perfume shop, Grenouille amazes the Italian owner, Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), with his ability to create fragrances. He revitalizes the perfumer's career with new formulas, demanding only that Baldini teach him how to convert scents into perfume. Baldini explains that all perfumes are harmonies of twelve individual scents, and may contain a theoretical thirteenth scent. He also tells a story about a perfume discovered in an Egyptian tomb that was so perfect that it caused everyone in the entire world to briefly believe they were in paradise the moment the bottle was opened.When Grenouille discovers that Baldini's method of distillation will not capture the scents of all objects, such as iron chains and dead animals, he becomes depressed. After receiving a letter of presentation written by Baldini, Grenouille leaves to learn a different method in Grasse. En route to Grasse, Grenouille realises that he has no scent of his own, and is therefore a cipher. He decides that creating the perfect smell will prove his worth.Upon arrival in Grasse, Grenouille catches the scent of the naive Laura Richis (Rachel Hurd-Wood), daughter of the wealthy Antoine Richis (Alan Rickman) and decides that she will be his "thirteenth scent", the linchpin of his perfect perfume. Grenouille finds a job in Grasse under Madame Arnulfi (Corinna Harfouch) and Dominique Druot (Paul Berrondo) assisting with perfumes and learns the method of enfleurage. He kills a lavender picker and attempts to extract her scent using the method of hot enfleurage, which fails. After this, he tries the method of cold enfleurage on a prostitute and successfully preserves the scent of the woman.Grenouille embarks on a killing spree, murdering beautiful young girls and capturing their scents. He dumps the women's naked corpses around the city, creating panic. After preserving the first twelve scents, Grenouille plans his attack on Laura. During a church sermon against him it is announced that a man has confessed to the murders. Richis remains unconvinced and flees the city with his daughter. Grenouille tracks her scent to a roadside inn and sneaks into her room that night. The next morning, Richis discovers Laura lying dead in her bed.Soldiers capture Grenouille moments after he finishes preparing his perfume. On the day of his execution, he applies a drop of the perfume over himself. The executioner and the crowd in attendance are speechless; the perfume endows Grenouille the essence of innocence and beauty, and they declare Grenouille "innocent" before falling into a massive orgy. Richis, still convinced at Grenouille's guilt, threatens him with his sword, before being overwhelmed by the scent and embracing Grenouille as his "son". Eventually, the town awakens and decides that the godly Grenouille could not have been the murderer. Druot is convicted for the murders and hanged, since it was his backyard where the clothes and hair of the victims were found.Walking out of Grasse unscathed, Grenouille has enough perfume to rule the world, but has discovered that it will not allow him to love or be loved like a normal person. Disenchanted by his aimless quest and tired of his life, he returns to Paris. Back in the city, Grenouille returns to the fish market where he was born and dumps the perfume on his head. Overcome by the scent and in the belief that Grenouille is an angel, the nearby crowd devours him. The next day, all that is left are his clothes and the open perfume bottle, from which one final drop of perfume falls.
    

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

The Point


            Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is an actor living and working in New York City. Most of his work seems to be on the stage; he is adept at disguises, and has a tendency to tailor his own look at the audition based on what he thinks the director wants. However, he is also very stubborn and willful; for instance, he has one confrontation with a director over whether his character can get up and move center stage for a death scene. Michael storms off the stage and quits the play, even though apparently they are well into rehearsals.Michael lives with his best friend Jeff Slater (Bill Murray), an eccentric playwright, and both men earn a living by waiting tables in a restaurant. As the film opens, Jeff and Michael's many friends and associates throw him a surprise birthday party, during which Michael's inability to connect with women becomes obvious. He has the tendency to lie, even about trivial things, to the point where the women see through him and avoid him. When Michael's potential love connection leaves the party with another man, Michael decides to console his neurotic friend Sandy Lester (Teri Garr) by walking her home. Sandy is nervous about an audition that she has the following day for a TV soap opera called "Southwest General", Michael coaches her and agrees to walk her to the audition the next day.When they get to the studio, the director refuses to even allow Sandy to read; he says she isn't intimidating enough. When Michael tries to talk to a secretary to get hold of a friend of his in the cast, he finds out his friend has left the cast to do a Broadway play--a role that Michael's agent, George Fields (director Sydney Pollack), had promised for Michael himself. Michael becomes furious and goes straight to George's office and barges in. George humors him at first but then explains to Michael that his reputation as a troublemaker has made him impossible to employ. Even directors who have hired Michael for TV commercials have found themselves over-budget due to Michael's inability to take direction. Michael questions George about Jeff's play that he's writing; Michael has sent George a copy of it, and George dismisses it as a pointless play that nobody will see. Michael becomes resolved; he will raise the $8,000 it will take to produce Jeff's play. George disagrees and tells Michael nobody will hire him.The next thing we see is Michael, walking down a busy New York street... in disguise as a woman. He goes to the audition for "Southwest General" and gives them the bogus name "Dorothy Michaels", name dropping George as "her" agent. Dorothy meets the show's producer, Rita Marshall (Doris Beack), who takes her in to meet Ron Carlisle (Dabney Coleman), the show's director. Ron sees Dorothy and immediately dismisses her, just as he must have done to Sandy. He tells Dorothy she's not right for the part, but Dorothy presses the issue and asks why. When Ron tells her she's not intimidating enough, Dorothy questions his intentions and becomes visibly angry and loud, scolding Ron and even Rita about wanting to portray powerful women in a negative, unattractive light. Rita seems to take what Dorothy said to heart, and follows her when she storms out, asking her to come back in for a reading. Ron is put off by Dorothy's outburst, but Rita smooths it over by flattering him, telling him Dorothy was impressed with the way he communicated the part to her. Dorothy's audition is impressive, and although Ron says there is something about her that doesn't sit right with him, Rita decides to hire her for the role.Still dressed as Dorothy, Michael goes to the Russian Tea Room, where he knows George will be having lunch, and intercepts him, inviting himself to George's table and discreetly revealing to George that he is Michael Dorsey in disguise. George is horrified, and even more shocked that Michael managed to land a job as Dorothy. When a couple of New York producers approach George in passing, Michael pinches George under the table to emphasize how well he fits the role. After they leave, Michael borrows $1,000 from George and goes shopping for a new wardrobe.Back home, Michael has a discussion with Jeff about his strange new gig as Dorothy. He plans on simply doing the soap opera for the next few weeks until he raises the money to do Jeff's play, which is intended as a vehicle for Michael and Sandy. Michael and Jeff both wonder how they'll tell Sandy that they have obtained the money to do the play, without telling her that the producers hired a man in drag instead of her. Michael decides to lie to her, telling her a family member died. Michael and Sandy decide to celebrate by going out to dinner; while Sandy is in the shower, Michael spots a dress she owns and wants to try it on, but after he undresses, Sandy returns unexpectedly. At a loss to explain why he is in his underwear, Michael tells her he wants her and has sex with her. Afterward, they both wonder how it will change their friendship; Sandy is pessimistic and says Michael will never call her now, but Michael promises to have dinner with her the following day.At his first day on the job as Dorothy, Michael meets his fellow cast members, including a beautiful woman named Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange). She plays a nurse on the show, and she also happens to be Ron's girlfriend. Dorothy makes a good impression on everybody, but Michael is shocked when he discovers that Dorothy has a scene where she kisses a lecherous male cast member, Dr Brewster, played by an older man named John Van Horn (George Gaynes). Since Michael does not relish the idea of kissing another man, "Dorothy" ends up changing the scene, hitting John over the head with a folder when he tries to kiss her. Although Ron is incensed, he lets it pass, and the emergence of both Dorothy and the character she is playing as a strong, no-nonsense woman begins.Dorothy and Julie also begin a friendship. Although Julie sees Dorothy as simply another woman, Dorothy is really Michael, and he is extremely attracted to Julie. A series of mishaps occurs where Michael breaks plans with Sandy in order to spend time with Julie, culminating in an evening when he goes to Julie's apartment as Dorothy in order to discuss work and socialize with her. Dorothy meets Julie's infant daughter, Amy, and discovers that Julie has a fondness for drinking. She seems vaguely unhappy and in search of her own voice, something that keeps her under the spell of Ron.On the set, Dorothy sees Ron treating Julie with disrespect, not only cheating on her with other women but constantly talking down to her, clearly not taking her seriously as a person. When Julie mentions that Ron was supposed to show up for dinner one night and stood her up, Michael suddenly remembers Sandy and the dinner she had planned to make at her apartment for the both of them that night. After leaving Julie's, Michael goes home, changes out of his disguise, and goes over to Sandy's. She isn't nearly as furious with him as she should be, and even Michael points this out to her. Sandy accuses him of having an affair, having spotted Dorothy going into Michael's apartment. Michael tells her "Sandy, I'm not having an affair with the woman that went into my apartment. It's impossible."As Dorothy, Michael begins to learn about what it means to be a woman, particularly the roles that men may expect women to play. When Ron talks down to Dorothy, she stands up for herself and gives it back to him, which inspires Julie and the other women on the show. Additionally, Dorothy's spunky attitude is a hit with the viewers of "Southwest General", causing the show's ratings to climb and Dorothy to become a minor celebrity.Meanwhile, George remains an unwilling accomplice in Michael's deception, perhaps mostly due to the fact that Michael already associated him with Dorothy by telling everyone he's her agent. He takes Michael to a party one night and they see Julie there with Ron. Michael isn't in disguise, so neither one of them recognizes him as Dorothy. Michael makes an attempt to talk to Julie, but she ignores him, eventually throwing a drink in his face when he makes an off-color remark to her. The failed conversation adds to Michael's panic about his relationship with Julie; as Dorothy, he is Julie's friend and confidante. As Michael, he doesn't stand a chance with her.As Dorothy's tenure with "Southwest General" is about to end, Julie invites her to come with her to upstate New York, where her widowed father still lives on the farm where Julie grew up. Against Jeff's advice, Michael goes with Julie, maintaining his Dorothy disguise all weekend. Dorothy meets Julie's father, Les (Charles Durning), a conservative but kind man who enjoys the laid back life he leads on the farm. Julie tells Dorothy that Les hasn't dated any women since her mother passed away, and it becomes clear that he takes a strong liking to Dorothy. Dorothy manages to politely avoid all of Les's advances.When they return to New York, the precarious position that Michael is in begins to implode. Rita tells Dorothy that because of her popularity with the viewers, they will be picking up their option to keep her on the show for another season. Michael then phones George to update him with the news. Michael is very upset since he wants to leave the show in order to do Jeff's play, but George tells him there is nothing he can do about it because the studio has the legal option to keep Dorothy on. As Michael is about to go to bed, he gets a frantic call from Julie asking Dorothy if she can come over and sit for Amy while Julie goes out with Ron; Julie has decided to break up with Ron, and she tells Dorothy that she herself is the inspiration for Julie's newfound assertiveness. After a few harrowing hours where Amy refuses to cooperate with Dorothy, Julie returns, despondent about the breakup, and in a moment of vulnerability, she tells Dorothy that she treasures their friendship more than anything, but feels like she wants something she just can't have. In response, Michael leans in and tries to kiss Julie, but Julie of course does not know Dorothy is really a man, and she assumes Dorothy is a lesbian who just made a pass at her. Confused and upset, she is clearly distraught that her new best friend has made a pass at her, when the phone rings. It is Les, and he asks if he can speak to Dorothy, inviting her to a downtown club for drinks and dancing. What Les really intends is to propose marriage to Dorothy, giving her an engagement ring. Dorothy tells him she needs time to think it over and leaves.Michael returns home by taxi and finds John Van Horn waiting outside his apartment building for Dorothy. When she refuses to invite him up, he starts serenading her loudly and attracts the attention of neighbors, so Dorothy invites him up. After making several attempts to seduce Dorothy, John is horrified when Jeff returns home unexpectedly. Embarrassed, he leaves. Jeff turns to Michael and says "You slut!" The final strand to unravel is Sandy, who shows up right after, banging on the front door to be let in. Michael hurriedly takes a shower, removing his makeup and Dorothy disguise. Sandy demands to know why he hasn't been returning her phone calls. Michael attempts to lie to her again, giving her a box of chocolates that Les sent Dorothy, but her forgets there is a note attached. Sandy reads it and it says "Thank you for a wonderful night in front of the fire, Les." Cornered, Michael decides to finally come clean with Sandy, but all he manages to get out is "I'm in love with another woman" before Sandy plunges into hysteria. Even so, Sandy tells Michael that she could handle the fact that he was in love with another woman, but she does not like being lied to. Michael has already come to the realization that he has been behaving like Ron, rationalizing his lies and callous treatment of women, which may explain why Michael does not have any real relationship with a woman at all.Things come to a head when, the next day at the studio, one of the reels of the show is accidentally destroyed and the cast is forced to do a crucial scene live on the air. Before they go on, Dorothy visits Julie's dressing room. Julie tells Dorothy that she cannot see her anymore. Since Julie now thinks another woman is in love with her, she can't lead Dorothy on by pretending to be friends when she knows Dorothy wants more from her. When they go on the air, Ron and Rita watch nervously, hoping that the scene comes off alright. They are horrified when Dorothy starts veering wildly from the script, taking her character into a long speech about why she came to Southwest General. After concocting a crazy story about disfiguring diseases, exile in foreign countries, and other nonsense, Dorothy takes off her wig and reveals herself to be a man underneath, weaving her own real story into that of her character, as if her unmasking was always intended to be part of the Southwest General plot all along. Sandy and Les react in horror, watching the episode from their TV sets, while the cast themselves are shocked to discover that Dorothy is actually a man. Julie walks up to Michael and angrily hits him in the stomach.Some time after the fallout, a now unemployed Michael drives upstate and finds Les in the bar where he likes to hang out, presumably to return the ring and make amends. Les is hostile at first, but eventually softens enough to allow Michael to apologize. Michael explains why he took the role as Dorothy, because he needed the money, and that he never meant to hurt anybody. Les and Michael eventually lighten up enough to joke about the situation, and Les admits that Michael was good company. Michael tells Les that he is in love with Julie, but Les says Julie never mentions him.The final scene occurs when Michael attempts to see Julie. He waits for her outside the TV studio, but Julie spots him and walks away. Michael chases after her and tries to make small talk with her. Julie tries to avoid him but finally allows him to talk to her. Michael tells Julie what he told Les, that he only did it for the money, and that he couldn't help falling in love with Julie. He also says that he was a better person as Dorothy than he ever was as himself. He asks her to give him a chance, since they were already good friends. Julie admits that she misses Dorothy, but Michael reminds her that he is Dorothy. "I just gotta learn to do it without the dress," he tells her. Julie softens and smiles, playfully asking him if she can borrow one of Dorothy's outfits. In the final shot, they walk down the street together talking and laughing, and after they get about a block away, Julie happily puts her arm around Michael.
    

Tootsie

Straight Time


            Thomas "Babe" Levy (Dustin Hoffman) is a history Ph.D. candidate and avid marathon runner researching the same field as his father, who committed suicide after being investigated in the Communist witch hunts of the Joseph McCarthy era. Babe's brother, Henry James Levy (Roy Scheider), known only as "Doc", poses as an oil company executive but in fact is a U.S. government agent working for a secret agency headed up by Director Peter Janeway (William Devane). Babe is not aware of his brother's true occupation.Doc is often supposedly out of the country on business for extended periods of time, but comes to New York under the guise of a visit to Babe. The brother of a Nazi war criminal possesses a safety deposit box key, but is killed in a traffic accident (after a road rage altercation with a short tempered middle-aged Jewish American motorist). Doc suspects that the criminal, Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier) will be arriving to retrieve an extremely valuable diamond collection. Szell later sends a burly assassin named Chen (James Wing Woo) to kill Doc in his Paris hotel room, but Doc fights the hit man and breaks his back.Babe enters into a relationship with a young woman named Elsa Opel (Marthe Keller), who claims to be from Switzerland. One night while out on a date Elsa and Babe are mugged in a park by two men dressed in suits. Some time later, Doc takes the couple to lunch, where he tricks Elsa into revealing that she has been lying to Babe about her background. Though Doc suspects she may have some connection to Szell, he tells Babe only that she is seeking an American husband so that she can become a U.S. citizen.After Szell arrives in America, Doc meets him to tell the former Nazi he is not welcome in the country, and also to warn Szell to stay away from Babe. Szell casually accepts the pronouncement, but then swiftly knifes Doc, wounding him severely. Doc is able to make it back to his brother's apartment, but collapses and dies in Babe's arms without telling him anything. The police interrogate Babe for hours, until government agents led by Peter Janeway arrive. Janeway asks Babe what Doc told him before he died, and informs Babe of his brother's career as a U.S. government agent. Babe insists that his brother did not tell him anything, but Janeway feels that Doc struggled all the way to Babe's apartment to give him vital information of some kind.Babe is later abducted from his apartment by Szell's henchmen, Karl and Erhardt (the two men from the park). In an infamous sequence, Babe is tortured by Szell, a skilled dentist, who repeatedly asks "Is it safe?" Confused by the question code phrase he does not understand, Babe denies any knowledge, but is tortured. The dentist offers him oil of cloves, an anesthetic, as positive inducement to cooperate. Eventually, Babe loses consciousness and Szell pauses his torture.Babe is then rescued by Janeway, who apparently kills Szell's bodyguards and takes Babe from Szell's hideout. As he drives, Janeway explains that Szell is in America to sell off his large cache of diamonds, which he had taken from Jews he had exterminated at Auschwitz during World War II. Janeway continually presses Babe about Doc's dying words, but Babe again insists he knows nothing. Frustrated, Janeway reveals himself as a double agent working with the Nazi criminal all along, and he turns Babe over to Karl and Erhardt (Janeway had only faked killing them). As it turns out, Szell is one of Janeway's highest level informants, and had informed on other Nazi war criminals in return for immunity.Delivered back into Szell's hands, the Nazi criminal has a curiously kindly conversation with Babe before calmly explaining why he is holding Babe for questioning. Szell suspected that Doc would attempt to rob him of his diamonds, or rat on him to authorities; thus his desire to know if it's "safe" to withdraw the diamonds, i.e., whether Doc told Babe any incriminating information. Still unable to extract anything from Babe, he proceeds to drill into one of Babe's healthy teeth. Babe eventually escapes again, this time on his own, with Janeway and Szell's two henchmen giving chase in a car. Though exhausted and barefoot, he is able to outrun his pursuers in part by remembering famous "marathon man" Abebe Bikila, who ran barefoot.After inviting a neighborhood acquaintance and his toughs to break into his apartment and steal his pistol (the same pistol his father used to commit suicide), Babe phones Elsa, who agrees to meet him with a car. She drives him to a country home as a hideout. Babe guesses that she has set him up; she confesses that Szell's dead brother owned the home, and that she was one of Szell's couriers. Janeway and Szell's men arrive, but Babe avoids an ambush by taking Elsa hostage. In another twist, Janeway kills Szell's men and offers to let Babe kill Szell in revenge for Doc's death if Janeway can have the diamonds. Babe agrees, but as he leaves to find Szell, Janeway attempts to shoot Babe, but kills Elsa instead when she tries to alert Babe. Angered, Babe guns down Janeway.Back in New York, Szell attempts to determine the value of his diamonds. However, he chooses an appraiser in the Diamond District in midtown Manhattan, where many of the shop owners are Jewish. A shop assistant who is also an Auschwitz survivor believes he has recognized Szell as a wanted Nazi criminal. After Szell hurriedly leaves the shop, an elderly Jewish woman also recognizes him, but passersby think she is senile. Trying to cross the street to get closer to Szell in order to expose him she is hit by a taxicab, causing a crowd to assemble to assist her. Amidst the confusion, the shop assistant appears again, directly confronting Szell. Becoming increasingly paranoid, Szell slits the man's throat with a retractable blade concealed in his sleeve.Szell retrieves his diamonds from the bank, but is taken hostage by Babe as he attempts to leave, who inconspicuously forces him into Central Park and into one of the pump rooms at the south end of the Reservoir. Babe holds Szell at gunpoint on a scaffold and seizes the diamonds; rather than kill Szell, Babe informs him that he will allow Szell to live and keep as many diamonds as he can swallow. Szell initially refuses, prompting Babe to begin throwing the diamonds into the water below them. Szell relents and swallows one diamond, but then refuses to cooperate further. Szell goes on to insult Babe, and after he spits in Babe's face, a fight erupts in which Szell tries to stab Babe. Babe throws the remainder of the diamonds down the scaffold steps towards the water; Szell dives for them, but stumbles, and fatally falls on his own knife blade. Picking up his gun, Babe exits the pump room and heads out into Central Park. Stopping by the Reservoir, he throws the gun into the water.
    

Marathon Man


            Miami-born Carl Casper is the head chef of Gauloise in Brentwood, California. While popular with his kitchen staff and hostess Molly, the restaurant owner Riva wants Carl to stick to tired "classics" rather than innovative dishes. Carl has a strained relationship with his tech-savvy preteen son Percy and rich ex-wife Inez.When Carl has a chance to prove his creative talents during a visit from prestigious critic and blogger Ramsey Michel, Riva demands that he stick with old favorites at the last minute, causing Carl to concede, leading to a scathing review. On Twitter, Carl insults Ramsey for the review, not realizing that his reply is public, and gains a large Twitter following. Carl comes up with an inspirational new menu that his staff loves and invites Ramsey to a "rematch". Carl walks out, quitting after confronting Riva as the owner wants the same old menu again. At home, he prepares the menu he wanted to serve to Ramsey. Carl's assistant becomes the interim chef and even the regular dishes become a disaster. Ramsey again starts to tweet bad about Carl quitting, leading Carl to go to the restaurant, where he angrily and publicly berates Ramsey.Videos featuring Carl's meltdown go viral, and his professional credibility evaporates. Molly and Inez encourage him to run a food truck. He accepts Inez's invitation to Miami, where he spends some quality time with Percy and rediscovers his love for Cuban cuisine. Inez's ex-husband Marvin offers him a dilapidated food truck, and Carl reluctantly accepts. He also finds out that Marvin and Inez spent some time together after his divorce from Inez, which made him a little angry. He and Percy bond while restoring the truck and buying groceries and Carl buys him a chef's knife. Martin, his friend from Gauloise, turns down his restaurant promotion to work with Carl, who has become an exuberant and passionate chef again.The three drive the food truck across the country back to Los Angeles, serving top-quality Cuban sandwiches and yuca fries. Percy finds ways to promote the food truck on social media websites, and the truck becomes successful in New Orleans and Austin, Texas, where the daily specials include items made with local ingredients such as po' boys and barbecued brisket.Back in Los Angeles, Carl realizes the importance of his relationship with his son and accepts Percy's enthusiastic offer to help out on weekends and holidays. Ramsey visits the truck to explain that he wrote the bad review as he knew Carl's creativity did not suit a restaurant which had been serving the same menu for years. He leaves with an offer to bankroll a new restaurant where Carl will have full control of the menu. Flash forward six months later, the new restaurant is successful and closed for a private event: Carl and Inez's remarriage ceremony.
    

Chef


            Long ago, Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), heir of the peacock clan that ruled Gongmen City in China, sought to harness the power of fireworks as a weapon with which to rule the entire country. When he learned from the court's goat soothsayer (Michelle Yeoh) that "a warrior of black and white" would one day defeat him, Shen assumed she was referring to the giant pandas and had them exterminated to avert the prophecy. Shen's parents were horrified at this atrocity and exiled Shen, who swore revenge.Twenty years later, Po (Jack Black) is living his dream as the Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, the Furious Five, but is told by Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) that he has yet to achieve inner peace. While fighting off a pack of wolf bandits who have been stealing refined metal for Lord Shen, Po is distracted by a symbol on the head wolf's (Danny McBride) armor, which causes Po to have a flashback of his mother and allows the wolves to escape. Po asks his goose father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), where he came from, but all Ping can tell him is that he found Po as an infant in a radish crate and adopted him.Afterward, Shifu receives word that Master Thundering Rhino (Victor Garber), leader of the kung fu council protecting Gongmen City, has been killed by Lord Shen with his newly developed weapon, a cannon, which threatens to destroy kung fu tradition. Po and the Five go to stop him, reaching Gongmen City to find it under the control of Shen's forces. The heroes find two imprisoned council members, Masters Storming Ox (Dennis Haysbert) and Croc (Jean-Claude Van Damme), and ask their help to liberate the city, but both masters cite their helplessness against Shen's weapon and refuse to escape. Po and the Five are then discovered by the wolf leader, who they chase to prevent him from alerting Shen, only to be captured.Upon being brought before Shen in his tower, Po and the Five free themselves and destroy Shen's cannon. However, Crane burns his wing and Po is again distracted by a flashback upon seeing the same symbol as before on Shen's plumage, allowing Shen to escape and destroy the tower with an arsenal of cannons. After escaping, Tigress (Angelina Jolie) confronts Po over his distraction. Po explains that he remembers Shen's presence on the night he was separated from his parents, and wants to question Shen about his past. Though empathetic, Tigress orders him to stay behind for his own safety. Po regardless breaks into Shen's cannon factory to confront Shen, inadvertently foiling the Five's attempts to destroy the factory. Shen claims that Po's parents abandoned him before he blasts Po out of the factory and captures the Five.Po is rescued by Shen's soothsayer, who has been exiled by Shen to the ruined village where Po was born. Guided by the soothsayer to embrace his past, Po remembers that his parents had endangered themselves to save him from Shen's forces, his mother hiding him in a crate before she was subdued. Furthermore, the Soothsayer reminds Po that despite this tragedy, he had lived a happy and fulfilling life in the Valley of Peace.Attaining inner peace, Po returns to Gongmen City to save the captive Five from being executed by Shen at the city harbor. During the ensuing battle (in which Shifu participates after having persuaded Ox and Croc to do the same), Po uses his inner peace to gauge Shen's cannon fire and redirect it against Shen's armada. He then urges Shen to let go of his own past, but Shen refuses and attacks Po until Shen inadvertently slashes the ropes holding up his last cannon, which falls and crushes him to death. Victorious, Po returns to the Valley of Peace and reunites with Mr. Ping, declaring him to be his father. At the same time, Po's biological father (Fred Tatasciore) is shown to be alive in a hidden village inhabited by surviving pandas, sensing that his son is also alive.
    

Kung Fu Panda 2

Death of a Salesman

Becoming Mike Nichols


            Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) is residing in the Spirit Realm. There, he is attacked by Kai (J.K. Simmons), a large yak who was Oogway's ally, but turned against him 500 years ago. Oogway sent him to the Spirit Realm, where he collected the chi of every warrior there. He beats Oogway, and takes his chi, turning him into a jade amulet which Kai wears on a belt along with the rest of the warriors. With Oogway's chi, he is able to open a portal to Earth.At the Jade Palace, Po (Jack Black), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross) order lunch at Mr. Ping's (James Hong) noodle shop, and then go back up the mountain. Po tries to get them to do a dramatic entrance into the palace, and demonstrates by moving to kick open the door, when Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) appears in front of him. Shifu does a real dramatic entrance, and then breaks the news that this will be his last day teaching, and that from now on, Po will be their teacher.Po tries to shout out commands to the team to guide them through an obstacle course, but his commands only make them crash into the obstacles and each other. Po goes to a statue of Oogway and apologizes, and Shifu pops up next to him. Po tells Shifu that he is done with teaching, and Shifu tells him that Oogway named him the Dragon Warrior because he could do more than just fight. Shifu harnesses chi energy to make a flower bloom. Po says he'll never be a good teacher like Shifu, and Shifu replies that he's not trying to turn Po into himself, rather, he's trying to turn Po into Po. Po is thoroughly confused.Kai goes through the portal and lands on a farm. He tosses his jade amulets on the ground, and they turn into warriors. He instructs them to bring him Oogway's students.Po is at home taking a bath, and he gets interrupted by Mr. Ling, his adopted father. Po tells him what happened earlier, and that he can't be a teacher. Mr. Ling tells him to take the job, and then Mr. Ling can sell noodles inside the palace. A pig pokes his head in and tells them that someone is about to beat Po's dumpling-eating record. They go downstairs, but can't see who is eating the dumplings. Once the record is broken, Po sees that it is another panda, bigger even than him. The panda introduces himself as Li Shan, (Bryan Cranston) and tells Po that he is looking for his son that he lost many years ago. Po tells him that he lost his father when he was a baby. They wish each other good luck and start to walk away. The other animals in the restaurant shake their heads.Po and Li stop and look at each other again. They notice each other's green eyes and huge bellies, and realize they're father and son. They hug each other, and Po introduces him to Mr. Ling. Po is unsure what to call them, since they're both his father. Li teaches Po the Belly Gong, where they bump bellies together, and both bellies shake. Po asks an artist to make a sketch of him and Li, but Mr. Ling puts himself in the picture. Li tells Po that there is a secret panda village where he had been living, and that he got a message from the universe that Po would be here. Po leads Li outside to show him around, and Mr. Ling sadly looks at his Po action figure.Po takes Li to the Jade Palace, and they both get winded climbing up the stairs. Po shows Li all the cool artifacts in the Hall of Heroes. Shifu and the others walk in, and Po introduces his father. Shifu asks if he will stick around to watch Po teach, but then a gong goes off, signaling that the village is under attack. They all go to the village, and find Kai's jade zombies. In battle, Po recognizes that they're fighting the great warriors of the past. The group gets the upper hand and pins down the "jombies," and they all start speaking with Kai's voice. They say that Po's chi will soon be Kai's, and then vaporize and fly away. Shifu tells them he doesn't know who Kai is.In the scroll room, Shifu finds a scroll that has information about Kai, written by Oogway. "Long ago I had a brother in arms. I was an ambitious young warrior leading a great army. And fighting by my side was Kai, my closest friend. One day we were ambushed. I was badly wounded. My friend carried me for days, looking for help. until we came upon a secret village, high in the mountains. An ancient place of healing. A village of pandas.""Pandas?" Po asks."Yes! Pandas! The pandas used the power of chi to heal me. They taught me the power to give chi. But Kai wanted the power all to himself. He saw that what could be given could also be taken.On the scroll is a picture of Kai sucking the chi from a panda."I had to stop him. Our battle shook the earth. Until finally, I banished Kai to the Spirit Realm. Should he ever return to the mortal realm, he can only be stopped by a true Master of Chi."The group huddles together to try to figure out how to get a Chi Master, until Li tells Po that he can teach him how to do it by taking him back to the panda village and teaching him how to be a true panda. Mr. Ling tries to protest, but Po tells him that he can only master chi by finding out who he really is. Mr. Ling offers to pack him a lunch before he leaves.The next morning, Li and Po head for the village, and Shifu sends Crane and Mantis to find Kai, telling them not to engage him. Po and Li are walking through the mountains and decide they should eat lunch. Po finds Mr. Ling inside his lunch sack, and Mr. Ling tells him that he stowed away in case the pandas don't have any food Po likes. They get to the palace, which is behind a giant wall of ice. Li pulls a string, and a bucket comes down. The three of them climb in and are hoisted up into the clouds. Po sees a lush green village with pandas everywhere. Li introduces Grandma Panda, the village elder, and Po's cousins, Dim and Sum. A panda named Big Fun gives Po a big hug, despite not knowing who he is. And Lei Lei, a baby panda, takes Po's Tigress action figure and plays with it. Li announces that they will have a feast in Po's honor, and all the pandas flop to the ground and start rolling downhill. "Pandas don't walk, we roll!" explained Li. The other pandas manage to avoid the rocks and logs on the hill as they roll down. Po plops down on the grass and rolls after them.The pandas dig into the food at the banquet table, and Mr. Ling hands Po his chopsticks. The other pandas look at him, confused, so he demonstrates how to eat a dumpling with chopsticks. He sees that they have all stuffed a bunch of dumplings into their mouths at once. A gong sounds, and everyone turns to look at a nearby stage. A panda named Mei Mei does a ribbon dance and flirts with Po.Crane and Mantis are searching for Kai, and they find three kung fu masters in the desert. The group finds an abandoned ship, and the masters run in to attack, despite Crane's warning not to engage. Mantis hears them scream and jumps in to help. Kai steals all of their chi, turning them into jade. Crane flies in, but he soon meets the same fate.The next day, Po finds some pandas playing with a jianzi, and he joins in and kicks it, sending it straight to Grandma Panda, conking her in the head. They quickly roll away. Li points to Dim and Sum, standing next to two trees with a hammock strung between them. They get into the hammock, and then Li pulls back the trees and launches them up the hill. Awestruck, Po does likewise. Mr. Ling tries to lure him away with food, but Po ignores him.
    

Kung Fu Panda 3


            In New Orleans, Louisiana, Celeste Wood's life is changed in a blinding flash when a failed day trader at her husband's stock brokerage firm shows up at his former workplace with a semiautomatic handgun and opens fire on his former colleagues, including Celeste's husband. Two years later, and armed with pro bono attorney Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), Celeste decides to take the weapon's manufacturer to court, on the grounds that the company's gross negligence led to her husband's death.As the trial date draws near, jury consultant Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman) arrives in town. Early in the movie, Fitch proves his incredible talent for reading people when he correctly guesses that his cabbie's mother is ill and in the hospital. Fitch arrives at his destination: the back room of a closed costume shop. In this room are about a dozen people on Fitch's payroll, armed with personal computers and backgrounds on each of the jurors in the jury pool. Also in this room are viewing and listening devices, intended to allow Fitch and his staff to communicate with lead attorney Durwood Cable (Bruce Davison) in the courtroom through electronic surveillance (a highly illegal practice) when they view the jurors and hear the answers to the questions put forth to them.In the jury pool is Nicholas Easter (John Cusack), a happy-go-lucky video game store clerk who tries to get himself excused from jury duty, even going as far as asking the judge to excuse him so he can compete in a video game challenge with a nominal cash prize. The judge refuses, and Fitch, despite doubts about allowing Easter on the jury, is out of challenges and has no choice but to allow Easter into the jury.Easter's congenial manner wins him acceptance from his fellow jurors, except Frank Hererra, a hardened former Marine of Cuban descent, who knows that there is a great deal of money at stake. Hererra takes an instant disliking to Easter, which is not alleviated when Easter proposes Herman Grimes - a blind man who displayed the most knowledge of law out of all of them when being selected - as jury foreman instead of Hererra.However, there is something to Hererra's suspicion that Easter has a hidden agenda. It is soon clear that Easter does have an ulterior motive, which somehow involves his girlfriend Marlee (Rachel Weisz). The two seem to be grifters and try to offer Fitch the verdict he wants - for a steep price. Fitch, clearly not amused, asks for proof that they can do what they say they can do. This they try to give him in a number of different ways; for example, Marlee asks Fitch "feeling patriotic?" and the next day, as an indirect result of a suggestion of Easter's, the jury stands up and leads the entire courtroom in the Pledge of Allegiance.Angered that an "amateur" may be even better at manipulating the jury than he is, Fitch orders Easter's apartment raided. Marlee counteracts by getting one of Fitch's jurors bounced. The cat and mouse game continues when a hit man tries to kill Marlee in her apartment. She manages to injure the intruder and escapes. She raises her price from $10 to $15 million.Meanwhile, Marlee is also working on Rohr, also promising to deliver him the same verdict for the same price. Though Rohr knows his case stands little chance against the well-funded defense- indeed, he goes so far as to actually get the money out-, he refuses to pay, going with his conscience.Fitch finally agrees to pay Marlee the ransom as one of his witnesses blows up on the stand, crippling, but not entirely losing the case. After Easter receives confirmation that Fitch has wired the money to a Cayman Islands bank, he asks jurors to review the facts of the case (trying to deliver a conviction for Celeste), much to the displeasure of his fellow juror Frank. In the meantime, Fitch's henchman, tracking Easter's path to Indiana, calls him frantically, telling him to not wire Easter the money, but it is too late. The henchman also learns that Easter's real name is Jeffrey Kerr, and that he has been tailing gun cases for some time. We also learn that Marlee's real name is Gabrielle Brant.Obviously Marlee and her sister had been Easter's friends since high school in the fictional rural town of Gardner, Indiana. Marlee's sister died in a school shooting when Easter was unable to protect her, and the town took the gun manufacturer to court in a lawsuit that Fitch himself argued. The town bankrupted its treasury after losing the case to Fitch.Back in the jury room, Frank calls the lawsuit frivolous, stating that despite the hardship in his own life, he has never asked anyone for a handout. Frank also reveals in a rant that regardless of the case facts, he does not want to deliver a verdict that will make a white upper-middle class woman even richer.Shocked at Frank's outburst, the jurors agree to review testimony once more. The gun manufacturer is found liable, with a large jury award coming for Celeste Wood. Fitch, defeated, leaves the courthouse and into an area bar. There, he is confronted by Easter and Marlee, who show him a copy of the wire transfer of $15 million. They tell him that he is to retire immediately... or they will fax the transfer document to the IRS, who will be likely concerned over such a large amount of money. Fitch asks what they intend to do with the money, and gets the answer that the $15 million will be given to the town of Gardner, Indiana since they went bankrupt after losing their case.Outside the bar, they see Wendell Rohr. Rohr recognizes Marlee and knows it's Nick with her. They smile at one another without saying a word. The movie ends with Marlee telling Nick she wants to go home. Nick agrees, knowing their job is done.
    

Runaway Jury


            The movie starts with a scandal at the White House where the unseen and nameless The President of the USA is accused of fondling a young girl scout visiting the Oval Office just a few weeks before Election Day. Being the third party observers, we know the truth: he's guilty.Conrad Brean (Robert DeNiro), a notorious political "spin doctor" is called to a secret midnight meeting at the White House underground command bunker by Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), one of the President's many advisers, where she asks for his help to engineer a way and a means to divert the news of the scandal when it breaks in the newspapers the next day. Brean suggests creating an artificial war for television only to distract the American public and let the President get on with the job at hand... thus protecting the free world.Brean and Ames fly to Hollywood where Conrad hires brash Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman), whom worked for Conrad several times in the past, to help fabricate this non-existent war with the selected country of Albania to divert the public with the real news about the President's extra-marital trysts. Motts is glad to help out of blind loyalty to service for his country.At an all-night gathering at Motss' Hollywood home, he assembles a team of loyal specialists whom include creative consultant Liz Butsky (Andrea Martin), country-western singer Johnny Dean (Willie Nelson), and entrepreneur Fad King (Dennis Leary) to help out fabricate the means for the "war with Albania". The next day, Motss and Brean venture to a studio back lot that Motss rents out where he hires a young, up-and-promising actress named Tracy Lime (Kirsten Dunst) to play an Albanian peasant girl carrying a CGI cat through the green-screen set up of a destroyed Albanian village. The filmed scene makes the evening news and brings up public interest in the war.However the very next day, Brean and Ames are riding in a limo when they are pulled over and detained by CIA agents led by Charles Young (William H. Macy) who confronts them with fabricating the non-existent war with Albania. Brean manages to talk the CIA agents to releasing them by insinuating that the CIA knows little about what is really going on with the world behind the scenes. Brean convinces Young that revealing the deception is against his (and the CIA's) best interests. Mr. Young releases them, but the next day, the CIA (in collusion with the President's rival candidate) leaks the story about the war in Albania being over and focusing the attention back on the President. Everyone is upset, but Motss downplays the setback by declaring "this is nothing" (the start of a running joke that gets increasingly hilarious as the movie progresses), and proposes an "Act Two" to spin another fabricated story about a secret American unit stuck behind enemy lines and the missing-in-action story about a fellow American left behind in Albania.Motss decides to invent a hero who was left behind enemy lines in Albania. Inspired by the idea that he was "discarded like an old shoe", Brean and Motss have the Pentagon provide the team with a soldier named Schumann around whom a POW narrative is constructed, complete with T-shirts, patriotic songs, and faux-grassroots demonstrations of patriotism and solidarity. As part of the hoax, Johnny Dean records a song called "Old Shoe", which is pressed onto a 78 rpm record, prematurely aged so that listeners will think it was recorded years earlier, and sent to the Library of Congress to be "found". Soon, large numbers of old pairs of shoes began appearing on phone and power lines, signs that the movement is taking hold.However, more setbacks occur when Motss and Brean suggest bringing in a candidate to impersonate their non-existent war hero as an image to the public. But at a secret midnight meeting on a airport runway, the military police arrive where they agree to release a dangerous mental patient who once served in the military because he has the same last name, "Shoe", to portray the war hero of the conflict. The military release Sgt. William "the Old Shoe" Schumann (Woody Harrelson) into their custody as Motss, Brean, and Ames fly away in a private plane through a raging thunderstorm towards Washington DC to welcome 'Old Shoe' back from Albania.However the plane crashes (off-camera) killing the pilots and stranding Motss, Brean and Ames along with the deranged Schumann in a rural part of South Dakota ("this is nothing" Motss quotes yet again). The four of them are forced to hitch a ride on a tractor from a passing farmer to a gas station to call for help. It is there when Schumann attempts to sexually assault the wife of the gas station owner which results in him getting shot dead in self defense by the owner.Despite this latest setback, (Motss again relates his quote "this is nothing") the trio return to Washington and they have the dead Schumann buried in Arlington National Cemetery as a war hero killed in the plane crash, and the funeral is broadcast all over the national news.Election Day comes and goes. The President defeats his rival Senator John Neal (Craig T. Nelson, in an uncredited cameo) and is thus re-elected president. As Motss and Brean celebrate their victory for a job well done, they watch a TV broadcast about the President's re-election campaign. Everything seems fine... until Motss sees that the media are crediting the president's election win to his tired "Don't change horses in mid stream" campaign slogan, rather than Motss's elaborate plans. Motss announces that he will call the media to "set them straight," despite Brean's warning him that he is "toying with his life." When Motss refuses to back down and walks out wanting to take the credit for the President's successful re-election, Brean very reluctantly orders (without speaking a word) to a nearby Secret Service agent to do what they have to do. Motss is seen being taken away by several agents to a waiting car.The next morning, there is a voice-over news report about Motss being found dead at his Hollywood home from an apparent "heart attack"... strongly implying that Brean and Ames and their associates had Motss killed and covered it up to prevent him from talking to the press about the truth of the fabricated war. Brean never-less goes to attend Motss' funeral anyway.In an ironic tragicomedy ending, movie ends with another news report about a violent incident in Albania by a local terrorist group.... but it is unclear whether this is a true event and that a very real war between the USA and Albania has started, or simply a continuation of the fictional war.
    

Wag the Dog

The Meyerowitz Stories

Esio Trot

Quartet


            It is the present day, and the boy who was once known as Peter Pan, has become Peter Banning (Robin Williams), a businessman who is more concerned with his work than with his family, including his wife Moira (Caroline Goodall), and his two children, Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and Maggie (Amber Scott). Peter is hardly able to hold his attention during Maggie's recital of 'Peter Pan' (of which she is cast in the role of Wendy), and misses Jack's baseball game, leading to Jack growing irritated at how his Dad never seems to keep his promises.The family then take a flight to London (much to Peter's dismay, as he hates flying), to visit Granny Wendy (Maggie Smith), who is being honored for her charitable work. While Peter and Moira accompany Wendy to the party, Maggie and Jack are abducted. Liza (Laurel Cronin) the housekeeper saw no one, but Tootles (Arthur Malet) who is a former Lost Boy, tells Peter that it was Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman).The police are called, but even they are unsure of the whole thing, as the ransom note could be someone pretending to be Hook, seeing the history of the house, and of Wendy. Afterwards, Wendy takes Peter aside, and explains that he must remember who he is, in order to save his children. Peter is still confused, thinking Wendy is maybe in shock over what has happened.Later that evening, sitting in the house's nursery, Peter is surprised when a star appears to fall through the nursery window. It turns out it's Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts), who has come to help Peter. However, since Peter won't go willingly, Tink kidnaps him and takes him to Neverland.Peter wakes up in Pirate Town, where he is quickly disguised. All around him, pirates are gathering at the Jolly Roger, as Mr Smee (Bob Hoskins) presents the illustrious Captain Hook with a newly-sharpened hook. Hook then revels in the pirates cheering, telling of how he killed the crocodile that had once sought to devour him, and turned it into a clock, and now, cheers at the triumph in capturing Peter Pan's children in hopes to lead him back to Neverland and to his doom.When Peter steps forward (still claiming to be 'Peter Banning'), Hook is saddened to see that his once 'great and worthy opponent' has become a middle-aged man. Still wanting to test him, Hook demands that Peter fly up the ship and touch the fingers of his children, promising they'll go home if he can do so. However, Peter reveals his fear of flying, and Smee deduces that being away from Neverland for so long, has caused Peter to forget.Hook decrees that Peter walk the plank and wanders away, angered at being denied the war against a worthy opponent. Just then, Tinkerbell appears, and promises Hook that given three days, she'll get Peter into shape.After being knocked into the water, Peter is saved from drowning by the mermaids. Peter and Tink then return to the Lost Boy's hideout, now under the leadership of a boy named Rufio (Dante Basco), who also has possession of Peter's sword from the olden days. At first no-one believes, until a little boy named Pockets (Isaiah Robinson) speaks out. Much to the displeasure of Rufio, the Lost Boys unite to help Peter get his children back.Back on the Jolly Roger, Hook is still upset over his lot in life, until Smee hits on a master plan to make life even more miserable for Peter: get his children to love Hook. Hook finds this idea ludicrous, but soon warms up to it, claiming it as 'his idea.'Back with the Lost Boys, Peter is put through his paces with various exercises, and even tries to fly but with no success. The Lost Boys prepare a 'Never-Feast,' which is a meal of make-believe food. Peter finds the whole thing ridiculous, and Rufio makes fun of him, which leads to a game of name-calling, that Peter soon ends up winning. Peter then pretends to scoop up some food and fling it at Rufio. However, this gesture soon causes Peter's imagination to take flight, and the make-believe food now becomes real!Meanwhile, Hook attempts to turn Maggie and Jack to his side, claiming that parents hate their children. Maggie refuses to believe this, and is dragged away, while she yells for Jack to not forget their Mom and Dad, and to find a way to run home. While Maggie is not easily swayed, Jack's ire towards his Dad allows Hook to turn him easily. Finding a watch on Jack that Peter had given him, Hook and Smee lead Jack to a shop full of smashed up clocks, letting Jack work out his aggressions about his Dad by smashing the clocks and Peter's watch.Sometime afterward, a ballgame is held with Hook in attendance. Peter and the Lost Boys have also snuck over to the game, with some of the boys feeling that if Peter steals Hook's 'hook,' it'll provide him with the happy thought to fly with. However, Peter sees Jack make a home run, and Hook embrace 'his' son, yelling, 'my Jack!' The vision of Hook cheering on and holding his son causes Peter to run back to the Lost Boys hideout, where he attempts in vain to try and fly. Looking around, Peter soon finds Hangman's tree, and the secret entrance inside. As he looks around, Tinkerbell appears, explaining that Hook had found the tree and burned it when he didn't come back. Peter's memory begins to come back, and he remembers his past.Peter remembers his mother, who when he was a baby, talked about grand plans for him. However, as a baby, Peter was afraid of dying, because everyone who grows up has to die someday. A gust of wind blew Peter away in his perambulator one day, and it was then that Tinkerbell found him, taking him to Neverland, where he learned how to fly.Even so, Peter missed his mother, and returned to London, only to find that he'd been 'replaced' by another baby that his parents had. Peter then wandered in and out of open windows, where he eventually lost his shadow in the Darling's nursery, leading to him finding Wendy. Peter would continue to visit Wendy after their first adventure, but as she aged, Peter grew sad, as soon she was too old to accompany him. On his last 'visit' to the nursery, Wendy showed him her granddaughter Moira, asleep in a nearby bed. Upon seeing her, Peter proclaimed he would give her a kiss...but not like the thimble Wendy had once given him, but a real kiss. It is with this revelation that Peter suddenly remembers why he left Neverland behind and grew up: he wanted to be a father.Finding his 'happy thought,' Peter is able to fly again, to the joy of the Lost Boys. Rufio returns Peter's sword, and stands by him as they prepare to go to war with Hook.Hook meanwhile, has managed to make Jack forget Peter, and now consider him (Hook) as his father. Peter appears, and is at first taken aback that Jack does not recognize him, but then goes to work, battling Hook's pirates, as the Lost Boys launch their attack.Rufio appears, and fights off Hook, as Peter goes to rescue Maggie. Returning to the Jolly Roger, Peter arrives just in time to see Hook run Rufio through with his sword. With his dying words, Rufio tells Peter that he wishes he had a Dad like him. These words seem to break the hold that Hook had on Jack, who looks to Peter, asking to be taken home. Peter then reunites with the Lost Boys and Maggie, and they begin to leave...but not before Hook vows to continue to threaten Peter's family forever.Peter then jumps back into battle against Hook. After some time, it appears as if Peter has the upper hand, but instead of killing Hook, Peter listens to his children, who beg him not to kill Hook. Peter then tells Hook to leave. Hook then pulls a dagger on Peter, pushing him against the carcass of the once killer crocodile. However, Hook misses, and ends up puncturing the crocodile, who seems to return to life, and ends up eating Hook.With Hook gone, Peter decides to return home, but leaves one of the Lost Boys named Thudbutt (Raushan Hammond) in charge, as he fought courageously in the battle.While Maggie and Jack return to the nursery, Peter ends up in Kensington Gardens, at the base of a statue bearing his likeness. Also nearby is Tinkerbell, who says her farewells to Peter. Peter then returns to Wendy's place, and greets his family, throwing his cellphone out the window when it rings regarding more business matters.
    

Hook

Boychoir


            Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) works as a jingle writer for television commercials in Manhattan, a job not in keeping with his one-time aspiration to be a jazz composer and pianist. We see him at work and he is very good at what he does. However, his boss does not seem impressed with his latest output. As Harvey departs for London to attend his daughter Susan's wedding, his boss actually suggests that he spend more time there than he had originally planned. Harvey declines, making the point that he needs to be back for an upcoming pitch to an old client. His boss insists that it is being done by other musicians, and that Harvey's latest work was his last chance to keep his job.On the plane, Harvey tries to chat up a fellow passenger, but she is having none of it. He is left sitting there with egg on his face and we come to regard him as even more of a loser.Meanwhile, we witness the mildly strained relationship between Kate Walker (Emma Thompson), a single Londoner, and her mother, whose husband left years earlier. Kate tries to reassure her mother that despite being single, she may yet find a man. Further, Kate tells her mom to quit worrying about the new Polish neighbor who has moved in next door and seems to be stacking a lot of firewood.Upon arrival at Heathrow Airport in London, Harvey encounters Kate at her job collecting statistics from passengers as they pass through the terminals. She attempts to question him about his reasons for visiting the UK. Tired and anxious to get to his hotel, Harvey brusquely dismisses her when she approaches him to ask questions.Harvey heads for the hotel to check in and discovers that he is the first one to arrive. Upon calling his daughter to double check where everyone else is when they were all supposed to be staying together, he learns that his ex-wife Jean actually rented a house to accommodate family and friends from the States and he is the only one at the hotel.After a brief nap, he showers and hurriedly dresses. On the way to the rehearsal dinner in the taxi cab, he realizes the anti-shoplifting device is still attached to the sleeve of his jacket. And to make matter worse, he has worn a white suit (thinking this was requested) while all the other men wore black. During the meal, it becomes increasingly clear Harvey is considered a mere guest and the role of father of the bride has been delegated to Jean's husband Brian. To add insult to injury, Brian stands to give the toast, and recollects the vacation they all spent in Rome, and his stepson-in-law-to-be embraces him and calls him Dad. Just before leaving back to his hotel, when Harvey tells Susan (with whom he has shared a strained relationship since his divorce) that he will be attending the ceremony but not the subsequent reception because he needs to return to the States for an important meeting, she informs him she has asked Brian to give her away.Meanwhile, Kate is set up on a blind date by a well meaning co-worker that does not go well. When she returns to the table after taking yet another call from her mother, she discovers her younger date has invited some of his younger friends to join them. Feeling unwanted and excluded from the conversation, she eventually excuses herself and goes home. As it turns out, Kate's increasingly neurotic mother seems convinced that her Polish neighbor is some kind of murderer because she sees him toting strange looking, lumpy packages into a shed in the back yard. The following morning Harvey attends Susan's wedding, but heavy traffic delays his arrival back to Heathrow, and he misses his plane. When he calls his boss Marvin in NYC to inform him he will be returning a day later than planned and that he will try to get there as soon as possible, he is told that he is fired.In his glum mood, Harvey makes his way to the airport bar and starts slugging down scotch, determined to drown his sorrows. Kate is sitting in the lounge reading a novel and drinking wine when she notices Harvey. She makes a barb to him about the drinking being a big help to whatever is bothering him and he fires back about her reading a trashy novel and drinking chardonnay not being so much better.They gradually warm to each other over the course of their salads. After an awkward goodbye at the exit, where Harvey wistfully watches Kate walk away, he decides to follow her to the Heathrow Express and upon arrival at Paddington station, asks if he can walk her to her writing class on the South Bank. She accepts his offer and is pleased when he offers to meet her after class.As they stroll along the River Thames, Harvey mentions he is missing Susan's wedding reception, and Kate urges him to go. He finally relents, but only if she will accompany him. When Kate insists she is not properly dressed for such an occasion, Harvey buys her a dress and the two head to the Grosvenor House Hotel, where they are welcomed warmly by Susan and her new husband Scott. When the father of the bride is called upon to make a toast, Brian rises and begins to speak until Harvey taps his glass and reminds him who the real father of the bride is. He then delivers an eloquent speech that redeems him with his daughter and endears him to Kate.Following the reception, Harvey and Kate walk and talk until dawn. They exchange a single, gentle kiss and agree to meet again at noon at the same place, a cafe near a water park. They are both excited about the upcoming rendezvous, but after running up the hotel stairs too quickly, Harvey suffers an attack of arrhythmia! Paramedics rush him to the hospital, where he protests to doctors that he is fine and must leave to meet someone. The doctors insist that he must stay for further tests.Kate buys some flowers and does her makeup in anticipation of seeing Harvey again. She waits at the cafe where they agreed to meet, yet he is still in the hospital, unbeknownst to Kate. After a long time waiting, she leaves alone, crushed and rueful.Harvey immediately attempts to contact Kate after he is released from the hospital, but is surprised to receive a call from his ex-boss Marvin, who explains how his superiors like Harvey's latest work so much that he wants him to return to his job right away. Harvey pauses and then tells Marvin that he no longer wants the job.Kate visits her mother again and discovers that the Polish neighbor has left a rather large smoked ham. Turns out that he is not a killer after all, just a meat smoker. Kate then returns to her job taking surveys at the airport, and when Harry calls her there, she refuses to take his call.Harvey rushes to the airport to redeem himself with Kate but she has left for the day. Her workmates are suspicious of him at first but know that she likes him, and let him know that she is at her writing class. He tracks her down after class and reveals why he missed their rendezvous. Overly cautious about romance because of so many past disappointments, Kate initially resists his suggestion that they see what the future might bring them, but finally agrees to give things a chance. When she asks Harvey how it will work, he replies that he does not know, "But it will, I promise you that."As they walk away, Kate takes off her shoes to make her closer in height to the shorter Harry. He says, "I think you're my kind of girl." When he recalls that she never did ask him the questions from her airport survey, she asks for his name and residence, to which he replies, "I'm in transition."Over the end credits, we see that Kate's mom has gone to visit her Polish neighbor to thank him for the ham. The neighbor invites her to come into his house, and after some feigned hesitation, she agrees to enter.
    

Last Chance Harvey


            A group of grifters rip off their latest mark and celebrate, while the de facto leader of the group, Jake Vig (Edward Burns) narrates about the art of the con. When one of the four grifters is found shot to death, the other three learn that the latest money they stole actually belonged to a local L.A. crime lord called The King (Dustin Hoffman). Jake meets The King, who proposes that the grifters now go to work for him and steal money from Morgan Price, a rival who now owns a bank. The sociopathic King leaves them little choice in the matter.Having no options, Jake gets to work on developing a new con; he enlists the aid of his two remaining partners, Gordo and Miles, and also convinces an independent con artist named Lilly (Rachel Weisz) to round out their foursome. Unfortunately, The King, a wiry, manic man who suffers from ADHD, demands that one of his men, Lupus, also work on the con. The con involves bribing a vice president at the bank into wiring money offshore. The plan hits a major snag when Special Agent Gunther Butan (Andy Garcia) shows up in L.A., looking to finally bust Jake, whom he has followed for years. Agent Butan quickly forces two corrupt LAPD detectives into switching their allegiance from Jake to him.After hearing about Butan's arrival in town, a nervous Jake pulls the plug on the whole con, and screams at Lilly - making her walk out on the group. Lupus gets Jake to reconsider nixing the con, hinting that The King will torture and kill the grifters if the plan falls short. The con is back on, though now without Lilly's help. The plan starts smoothly enough, and the bribed bank VP wires the money to Gordo in Belize. Gordo brings the money to Ontario Airport, but he is met at the airport by both Agent Butan as well as The King and his men, as both sides are after the $5 million in a duffle bag. Butan arrests The King and confiscates the money. Gordo, who had the money taken from him, is nowhere to be found. Lupus, thinking the King now has the money, reveals he was the one who killed Jake's grifter friend at the beginning. Lupus holds Jake at gunpoint, but Jake is saved when Lupus is shot by Travis (Morris Chestnut), a henchman for Morgan Price. It turns out that when Lilly walked out, she went straight to Price himself and revealed the entire con, which was taking place that minute. Price told Travis to locate Jake and find out exactly how the con was engineered, as to stop such a thing from ever happening again.Travis takes Jake to an abandoned lot where Jake is forced to explain the entire story (hence the narration). At the end, a furious Lilly takes out a gun and kills Jake. Travis demands that he and Lilly both disappear immediately. Minutes later, Butan arrives in a car and Jake sits up from a pool of blood, unharmed. The final parts of the con are revealed. Lilly "quitting" was fake - set up to confuse Lupus. Butan is actually an old confidant of Jake's, and he managed to "confiscate" the money and arrest The King at the same time. Butan has the money and it's split five ways. Jake was wearing squibs to fake his own death in the lot. In the end, everyone was in on everything except The King and Lupus (the first marks) and Price and Travis (the second, bigger marks). As the team of four grifters reunites and celebrates, Jake and Lilly kiss.
    

Confidence

Moonlight Mile


            It is the summer of 1969. Everyone seems to be waiting for Neil Armstrong to walk on the moon. The Vietnam War is going on, the flower children abound, and there is a big concert at Woodstock. Teenager Alison and her family are on vacation in a holiday camp for Jewish families not far from Woodstock. Pearl, the mother, is young and attractive, but defeated by life. She got pregnant at a young age and gave up on her dreams to devote herself to her children. Marty, the father, is absent because he is busy at the television repair company where he works. Everyone who needs to have their television repaired wants it in time to see the moon landing.One day a charming salesman of clothes and knick-knacks arrives at camp. Pearl falls in love at first sight. He lives an intense life of love and passion, ending with the adventure of going to Woodstock, where Alison and her first boyfriend have also gone. During the concert, the girl sees her mother and runs away. The father goes to the field and, having knowledge of her infidelity, tries to put back the pieces of a floundering marriage. Eventually, the salesman leaves and the parents dance together.
    

A Walk on the Moon


            Motaba, a fictional virus which causes a deadly fever, is discovered in the African jungle in 1967. To maintain the virus as a viable biological weapon, two U.S. Army officers, Donald McClintock and William Ford, destroy the camp where it was found after taking blood samples from the dying victims.Twenty-eight years later, in 1995, the virus resurfaces in Zaire. Colonel Sam Daniels, a USAMRIID virologist, is sent to investigate. He and his crew, Lieutenant Colonel Casey Schuler, and new recruit Major Salt gain information about the virus and return to the United States, where Daniels asks his superior, now-Brigadier General William Ford, to put out an alert. Ford knows that the virus is not new, but he tells Daniels it is unlikely to show up. Daniels' ex-wife and former crew-member Roberta Keough, has left USAMRIID to take the lead role of a similar team at the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia and is convinced by Daniels to recommend an alert from the CDC, but her superior balks as well.Meanwhile, we learn that the virus arrived via a host animal, a white-headed capuchin monkey, that was smuggled into the United States. James "Jimbo" Scott, an employee at the Bio-Test animal holding facility, bribed a security guard and took the monkey to Cedar Creek, California, to sell on the black market. During the drive, Jimbo is infected with the virus through facial contact with the monkey's saliva.Jimbo unsuccessfully tries to sell the monkey to a crooked pet store owner, Rudy Alvarez Before parting ways, however, the monkey scratches Alvarez and infects him, and shares a banana with another monkey already in the store, infecting that monkey as well. Not able to care for the monkey, Jimbo releases it into the woods. Jimbo starts to show signs of infection while flying to Boston, where he gets off the plane and kisses his girlfriend Alice, infecting her as well just before collapsing. They are both hospitalized. Keough investigates the infections but finds that no one other than Jimbo, his girlfriend or Rudy all three of whom die of hemorrhagic fever in the Boston area was infected.Meanwhile, the technicians at a Cedar Creek hospital run tests on Rudy's blood. But Henry, one of the technicians, accidentally breaks a vial, splattering the contents, infecting and killing him, but not before visiting a movie theater. The virus mutates into a new strain, capable of spreading like flu, and numerous Cedar Creek citizens are exposed to Motaba at the theater. Daniels learns of the infection and flies to Cedar Creek alongside Schuler and Salt, against Ford's orders, joining Keough's team.As Daniels and his team begin a search for the host animal, a state of martial law is declared in Cedar Creek, and the U.S. Army has quarantined the town to contain the outbreak, including preventing an attempt by civilians from breaking quarantine. During their research, Schuler is infected when his suit tears. Keough follows after she accidentally stabs herself with a contaminated needle while collecting samples due to Schuler suddenly convulsing. A mystery serum, E-1101, is introduced to those suffering from Motaba. Daniels soon realizes that the serum is not experimental, but was designed to cure Motaba, and that Ford knew about the virus beforehand. However, the serum does not help the residents of Cedar Creek, who are infected by a mutated strain. Daniels confronts Ford, who admits that he withheld information on the virus due to national security and Motaba's potential to be turned into a biological weapon.Daniels learns from Ford of Operation Clean Sweep, a plan by the military to bomb the town of Cedar Creek, with approval from the President of the United States. Now-Major General Donald McClintock plans to use the bombing to cover up the virus's existence to protect his secret biological weapon project. To prevent Daniels from finding a cure, McClintock has him arrested by implicating Daniels as a viral carrier. This leads Daniels and Salt to search for the host animal to save the town by escaping custody by helicopter. After the animal holding facility who had been aiding Daniels by tracking down how the host animal got into the country learns what happened from the security guard about what Jimbo did, the two are able to track down the ship that carried the host animal and Daniels obtains a picture of Betsy and broadcasts it on the news. Mrs. Jeffries realizes that this is the animal her daughter Kate is playing with in their backyard. She calls the station, and the two men arrive at the family's house, though Colonel Briggs intercepts the call and informs McClintock of Daniels and Salt's location who heads out to intercept them by helicopter. Kate coaxes out Betsy, whom Salt tranquilizes. Learning from Daniels that the host animal is captured, Ford delays the bombing.Flying back, Daniels and Salt are confronted by McClintock who tries to force them to head to their local air force base, only for Daniels to refuse. While McClintock's helicopter chases theirs, Daniels has Salt fire two rockets into the trees to trick McClintock into thinking they crashed so they could escape by flying low enough to avoid being detected by radar. Returning to Cedar Creek, Salt mixes Betsy's antibodies with the E-1101 to create an anti-serum in time to save Keough, but not Schuler, who has already succumbed to the virus. McClintock arrives back at base and has Operation Clean Sweep resumed, refusing to listen to Ford who now wishes to call off the bombing. Daniels discovers this and realizes that McClintock will not call off the bombing. He and Salt take it upon themselves to fly in the way of the bomber, commanded by a pilot with the call sign of Sandman One, to stop it. With support from Ford, Daniels is able to stay in the way of the plane long enough to convince Sandman One and his co-pilot that information was purposely withheld from them and that they can now cure the remaining townsfolk. Heeding Daniels' warnings, Sandman One deliberately detonates the bomb over water instead of the town. Before McClintock can order another bombing, Ford, having had enough of McClintock's single-minded obsession, relieves McClintock of his command and places him under arrest for deliberately withholding information from the President, though while being taken away by Col. Briggs, McClintock promises he'll take Ford down with him. Daniels and Keough reconcile, and the remaining residents of the town are successfully cured.
    

Outbreak

Hero

Mad City


            from PluggedinOnline.com:Mr. Magorium never outgrew his toys--pretty remarkable, considering the guy is 243 years old.Magorium, a lively fellow with wild hair, who has a pet zebra named Mortimer and a fondness for shoes, has been running Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium for the last century or so. It's a place that makes Toys 'R' Us look like the DMVwhere Legos build themselves, fish-mobiles are made with real, wriggling fish, and balsa-wood dinosaurs play with Frisbees.But big changes are ahead. See, Mr. Magorium has worn out his last pair of favorite shoes, and since he bought enough to last a lifetime, he knows he's about to die, er, depart, as he puts it. So Magorium hires a stuffy accountant (whom he immediately dubs Mutant) to determine what his store is worth and prepares to hand the whole thing over to his day-to-day manager, Molly Mahoney.POSITIVE ELEMENTS:
The doubt-filled Mahoney has her own problems. And this candy-colored film creatively uses them to teach us all a thing or two about life. When she was a child, everyone told her she was a musical prodigy, and she still has aspirations of fulfilling her promise. But now, as an adult, she's still working at, well, a toy store. Sure, it's magical and all, but it's not the sort of job one boasts about at class reunions.She is horrified when she learns of Magorium's plans and tells him flat-out that he's got to keep living and dealing with the store himself. After all, she points out, the place is called Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. "It rhymes!" she exclaims, and she takes it upon herself to show her eccentric boss all the small wonders of the world he'd miss out on if he decided to, um, depart. What kind of things? Things like dancing on Bubble Wrap, jumping on furniture-store beds and, inexplicably, making calls from pay phones.The Emporium isn't so keen on Magorium leaving, either: The bright red walls begin turning a charred gray in anticipation and, on Magorium's apparent last day, it throws a temper tantrum. In so doing it reveals to attentively watching children just how childish such outbursts are."Maybe it needs a time-out," says Eric, a hat-loving store regular.Eric, a boy of about 9, is the film's voice of rationality. But he's struggling, too. His hat-wearing ways and penchant for elaborate Lincoln Log sculptures make kids his own age steer well clear. But his mom and Mr. Magorium are urging him to try to make friends. So he does. He reaches out to the Mutant. He begins to write notes to the guy, holding them up to the window of the store's office, where the Mutant is poring over centuries-old receipts."Would you like to play checkers?" Eric scribbles. Sorry, Mutant writes back. I'm working."How about when you're done working?" Eric returns."I never stop working."But he does eventually stop working. And before film's end, Mutant and Eric are playing pretend and having loads of fun with the best of 'em.Thus, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is crammed with winsome, childlike wisdom, coaxing nursery-rhyme-like precepts from its characters and their relationships. They're archetypes, really: The accountant who can't see the magic around him; the shunned, shy little boy; and the uncertain store manager who feels she was made to do great(er) things.When Mahoney first asks the Mutant whether he sees a sparkle in her"something reflective of something bigger trying to get out," he's befuddled. But not for long. Indeed, all the characters here carry with them a hidden "sparkle." And each one journeys toward getting it to show.Through it all Magorium serves as ringmaster, part silly man-child and part wise sage. Confronting his own mortality, he tells the store the only thing they can do is face the coming day with "determination, joy and bravery." When Mahoney takes Magorium to a clock store so they can listen to all the clocks strike 12, she breathlessly whispers they only have 37 secondsall they have to do is wait.Magorium corrects her, saying that it's 37 seconds to breathe, reflect, enjoy, regenerate, dream."Thirty-seven seconds well used is a lifetime," he says.In the end, this is largely a tale about the wonder of life, the inevitability of death and the struggle to bring those two conflicting ideas together. That's oddly heavy stuff for a G-rated flick about a magical toy store, but it's handled quite deftly and in ways that even its youngest viewers will understand. Stories, even the ones we love the most, must eventually come to an end, we're told. "I'm only asking that you turn the page," Magorium tells a weeping Mahoney. "Continue reading. And let the next story begin."SPIRITUAL EMELMENTS:
Spirituality enters at right angles. The Mutant scolds Magorium at one point for keeping fictional characters on his payroll. As an example, he points to an entry for the "King of Planet Yahweh." "Oh, he's not fictional," Magorium said, though he admits the planet is hokum. "He's definitely not fictional."When Magorium tries to make it clear he's departing, it's Eric who understands first. "I think it means he's going to heaven," he says. Magorium agrees, then adds other places he might wind up in, including the Happy Hunting Grounds and Shangri La. He concludes with, "I may return as a bumblebee."VIOLENT CONENT:
When a 2-year-old throws a tantrum, it's bad enough. When a huge toy store throws one, things get downright crazy. One girl gets covered in goo. A boy runs around with a lemur attached to his head. Another shopper, reading a book about the sea, gets attacked by a squid. (She makes a formal, and wet, complaint to Magorium with the squid still clutching her cranium.) Objects fly off shelves. Glass breaks. Pandemonium ensues.A kid rudely stomps on Mutant's toe. A towering red gym ball squishes (harmlessly) a young shopper against a door. Magorium opens the door and says, "Pretty impressive ball, isn't it? Impossible to dodge."CONCLUSION;
I remember my first pinwheelhow, when I took it outside, the wind would catch it, and sunshine would glint off its metallic plastic sleeves. For a 5-year-old, it was ... magic.There's lots of magic like this in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Stuffed animals cozy up to would-be owners, a gigantic magic book poofs toys into instantaneous existence, and bouncy balls try to sneak out of the store via shoppers' bags. This isn't the kind of magic you find in Macbeth or Harry Potter or even The Chronicles of Narnia. This is the special magic with which most children engage during their first precious years, when the world is filled with wonder and newness and outrageous possibilities. The Emporium is a place where imagination sparks reality; where paper planes can paint a cosmos.
    

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium


            In real life, mystery writer Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days in December 1926. To this day, no one knows the details of what she did during that time. The film gives a fictional account of Christie's time away, showing her as a woman fleeing her own life after the death of her mother and the announcement from her husband that he is leaving her. She flees to a spa in Harrogate. With the whole country looking for her, an American reporter finds her and ultimately tries to help her.
    

Agatha

The Tale of Despereaux


            Dr. Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman) is called to a location in the Pacific Ocean, for what he thinks is a plane crash. His specialty is psychiatry and dealing with crash survivors. The helicopter pilot (Huey Lewis - yes THAT Huey Lewis!) tells him they've been ferrying all kinds of scientists to this location.Onboard a naval ship, Norman sees astrophysicist Dr. Ted Fielding (Liev Schriber) and biochemist Dr. Beth Halperin (Sharon Stone), but is unable to talk to them. The ship's captain, Harold Barnes (Peter Coyote) briefs them - the plane crash is a spacecraft, a huge ship buried under 300 years of coral. In addition to Beth, Norman and Ted, mathematician Dr. Harry Adams (Samuel L. Jackson) is also on the contact team, which was recommended by Norman many years ago.The team goes through a medical examination, and a dive briefing by an instructor (James Pickens Jr.), who tells them there is "no quick return to the surface". The team takes a sub to the crash site habitat, and they all begin to exhibit signs of nervousness. It's clear that Norman and Beth have some history. The habitat is manned by Edmunds (Marga Gomez) and Alice Fletcher (Queen Latifah), who is directing a Navy dive team to set up a drone by the ship's door.The team puts on dive suits and walks on the seafloor to the spacecraft, and the door opens for them. Beth sees footprints in the dust, and Barnes splits them into 2 groups. Beth and Norman step onto an elevator, which takes them to the bridge. Ted, Harry and Barnes find English text and advanced metallurgy. Beth finds a human skeleton, and deduces the ship is American. The flight recorder shows dates from the future and an entry for "Unknown Entry Event". A holographic display reveals that the ship travelled through a black hole. The team finds a huge sphere in a cargo hold. The sphere doesn't reflect the team members, but everything else.Back in the habitat, Ted theorizes that the ship time-travelled through a black hole and arrived 300 years ago. Harry thinks the sphere is alive, and that since the future ship has no information about the black hole, the contact team will not get a chance to warn anyone; therefore, they are destined to die in the habitat. He also expresses a desire to get into the sphere. At the same time, Barnes gets a message that a cyclone is approaching topside, and the team must return to the surface before it hits.As the team is preparing to return, alarms go off, and video monitors show Harry entering the sphere through his reflection. Due to Harry's disappearance, the return to the surface is cancelled. Norman goes to the sphere, and finds Harry at its base, unconscious. Norman sees his reflection in the sphere, and communications with the surface are suddenly interrupted. Harry is taken back to the sphere, as is Norman.Norman sits gazing out a window, and sees a jellyfish. Fletcher takes some tapes to the mini-sub outside, and is attacked and killed by jellyfish. Beth later analyzes the jellyfish and determines it's not a normal one. Barnes questions Norman about Beth's mental state, and Harry wakes up from his coma, feeling exuberant and making comments about never leaving. He appears calm about Fletcher's death, but freaks out over calamari.Later, as Norman and Ted argue over Ted's jealousy on Harry, Edmunds bring them to the communications center, where the computers are acting strangely. Harry notices the codes on the computer are in binary code. After decryption, the messages reads, "Hello. How are you. I am fine. What is your name? My name is Jerry." Norman worries that Jerry appears to have emotions, and what the repercussions would be if Jerry gets mad.Later, they hear noise outside the habitat, and Norman and Beth investigate, finding Edmunds' mangled body outside. Meanwhile, Harry reads 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Norman and Beth bring Edmunds' body back inside, and are attacked by strange egg shapes, with something large approaching.Norman tries to contact Jerry, and discovers Jerry can hear them directly. When Norman asks to talk without Jerry listening, and Jerry becomes petulant, and a large squid approaches the habitat. Jerry says (via computer) "I am here," and the squid attacks. Ted bashes his head while adjusting the internal pressure, and Norman activates the external defense system, which causes a fire. As they rush to combat the fire, Jerry states, "I will kill you all". Ted tries to wake Harry, but can't. Barnes get crushed by an emergency door and Ted is killed by fire, then the fire suddenly is extinguished.After the emergency, Norman talks to Jerry, who exhibits a childlike understanding of life, but immense power. Jerry tells Norman to stop calling him "Jerry". Norman then talks to Harry, who is calm but unaware of the incidents. Norman goes to reset the mini-sub, but on the way back, he gets holes in his suit. Harry watches dispassionately and directs Norman to the airlock, but Norman is attacked by a sea snake.Beth goes into the spaceship, saying she's looking for food. Distrust arises among the 3 survivors, as Beth was supposed to be monitoring Norman during his trek. Norman finds another copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and then the entire pantry is full of copies. Beth plants mines around the spaceship.Norman re-calculates the code, and realizes the "j" and "e" are incorrect - they should be "h" and "a", which means Jerry is actually Harry. Later, Norman explains this to Beth and also explains the squid - it's a part of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Norman theorizes the sphere made the change in Harry. Beth and Harry plot to sedate Harry, and he goes under quickly.Beth and Harry get a signal from topside that a sub will arrive in 6 hours. Norman is attacked by sea snakes in the bathroom, but Beth saves him without emotion, saying Norman manifested the snakes. She locks him inside the lab and tells him to sedate himself. When he refuses, she floods the lab, and Norman goes outside the habitat, returning through the main airlock. Meanwhile, Beth begins to doubt her own sanity and Harry wakes up. Norman realizes that all 3 of them went into the sphere, and that is what happened to the original crew.The explosives Beth set become armed. With 13 minutes remaining, the 3 head to the mini-sub. Reality keeps changing, but Norman finds a way to launch the sub. The bombs explode, destroying the spaceship and habitat, but the mini-sub makes it to the surface.Several hours later, the 3 complete decompression, and discuss their story. Norman reminds Harry that they shouldn't be alive, since they made it to the surface, and could tell the authorities what happened. Harry suggests they use their power to forget that they have the power. They count to three, and the sphere rises from the deep and disappears into outer space. Beth, Harry and Norman have successfully forgotten their power...perhaps.
    

Sphere

Billy Bathgate

Into the Labyrinth

As They Made Us

American Buffalo

Family Business


            In New York City, two singer/songwriters, Chuck Clarke (Dustin Hoffman) and Lyle Rogers (Warren Beatty), stare at the window of a Sam Goody record store. Chuck insists the only difference between them and hit makers like Simon and Garfunkel or Bruce Springsteen is that they do not have an essential ingredient: an agent. Soon, Chuck invites talent agent, Marty Freed (Jack Weston), to watch them perform their material at the store Song Mart. Afterward, Marty informs the duo that they have no stage talent. They need patter, "shtick," and gimmicks.For their next tryout, Chuck and Lyle (playing as their duo act called 'Rogers and Clarke') cover a familiar song with awkward choreography at a local nightclub. Despite audience booing, Marty offers them two bookings, one in Honduras at a hotel frequented by American journalists, and another longer engagement in Morocco. Chuck and Lyle mull Marty's offer at a nearby bar.In a series of flashbacks to five months earlier, Lyle was working by driving an ice cream truck, writing song lyrics as he worked. He played new songs for his speechless wife, Willa (Tess Harper). At a restaurant, Chuck played piano for customers. Afterward, as Chuck and his girl friend, Carol (Carol Kane), chatted, a waiter delivered a note from Lyle saying how much he enjoyed Chuck's performance. The songwriters met and had instant rapport, furiously collaborating on songs. They spent so much time composing that Willa left Lyle due to neglect. He sank into a depression, then Chuck helped him recover. Soon, Carol also felt neglected and ended her relationship with Chuck. He called Lyle and threatened suicide. Lyle promised to come to Chuck's aid, but his friend asked him not to alert the police because it would ruin his show business career. However, Lyle called the police, and Chuck climbed onto the ledge of his building when an officer appeared at his apartment. As Lyle joined Chuck on the ledge, Rabbi Pierce appeared to calm Chuck. Lyle grabbed Chuck's hand, and guided him back into his apartment.At the bar in the present day, Chuck remembers all that he and Lyle went through and decides they should take their act to Morocco.In Ishtar, Morocco, as a desert archaeological camp is attacked, Professor Barnes orders his associate, Omar (J.C. Cutler), to escape with an important, newly discovered ancient map that could provoke war in the Middle East. Omar barely has time to give his sister, a left-wing French-Moroccan agent named Shirra Assel (Isabelle Ajani), the map before he is killed. His last words promise that no one will find the map except "two messengers of God."At the Ishtar airport, Shirra Assel, disguised as a man, approaches and persuades Chuck to exchange passports and suitcases with her so she might travel to Marrakesh. She quotes: "It is a matter of life and death." She convinces him that he can visit the American Embassy and have his passport easily replaced. When the duo learns that a new passport will take days to process, Chuck convinces Lyle to travel to nearby Marrakesh and do the show alone, while he checks into a hotel in Ishtar.At the Marakesh Hotel, another American, named Jim Harrison (Charles Grodin), invites Lyle to dinner. After Chuck chats about show business, Jim reveals he works for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He is in Morocco to prevent the Communists from staging a coup to overthrow the royal Moroccan government. Jim hints that his agency likes to recruit people like Chuck as operatives.At his solo show, Lyle launches into a rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and is soon drowned out by an apathetic crowd. Suddenly, Chuck appears and belts out "That's Amore," and show tunes that revive the audience. The new act of Rogers and Clarke, are a hit and are applauded. Later, Chuck says he is going for a drive to get some air.Later that night, Shirra wakes Lyle in his hotel room as she tries to reclaim her suitcase. As Lyle tackles her, she claims Chuck is a CIA agent, and the contents of the suitcase are necessary to overthrow the tyrant running her country. Lyle is skeptical about her story, but she convinces him to help her find a camel seller named Mohammed, and buy a blind camel. She leaves carrying the heavy suitcase.Meanwhile, Chuck secretly meets Jim Harrison, and learns his movements have been tracked through a pen with a hidden microphone that Jim gave him as a gift. The CIA has reason to believe that dictator Muammar Gaddafi in Libya is interested in Shirra's map, and the CIA wants to take possession of the document before Gaddafi does. Chuck claims not to know where Shirra is. However, Jim Harrison believes Lyle knows where to find her after appearing to have a sexual encounter with her at the hotel, and being recruited by her as a left-wing terrorist. Chuck does not believe any of Harrison's assertions but Harrison gives Chuck a beeper to stay in contact.In the morning, Lyle sneaks out of the hotel room, and Chuck follows him. The friends meet and CIA agents follow them to an outdoor market. Chuck and Lyle are kidnapped, but Harrison's associates shoot the captors and panic breaks out. The two friends run, and ask an enterprising local to help them hide. The youth takes them into his uncle's rug shop. The kidnappers confiscate two rolled up rugs, thinking the songwriters are hidden inside. Dressed in Moroccan garments, Chuck and Lyle escape over the rooftops.Meanwhile, Harrison visits Emir Yousef (Aharon Ipalé) at his palace in Ishtar to explain that the Americans, Chuck and Lyle, are merely pawns. The Emir insists the songwriters will be mistaken for "messengers of God." If radical Shiites gain possession of the map they will use it as a sign to overthrow the Emir. The Americans must be killed to demonstrate that God does not favor those who oppose the Emir.As Lyle negotiates for a blind camel at the Ben Sheli Camel Market, Chuck confronts Shirra in a nearby hotel room. He accuses her of recruiting Lyle as a Communist but she denies it. She thinks he stole her map and gave it to Jim Harrison. He denies it but promises to keep her secret. When Chuck finds Lyle, he has bought a blind camel with poor teeth. As Lyle leaves to change his disguise, Harrison appears and warns Chuck that the Emir's men want to kill them. Harrison hands Chuck two canteens with water, and a compass with escape instructions. When they reach a safe hotel at a desert oasis, CIA agents are supposed to rescue them, but it is a ruse. Harrison hopes that the desert trek will result in their deaths.Meanwhile, Shirra's associates convince her the songwriters must be executed. Shirra gives Lyle a beaded necklace with instructions to drop a trail of beads, heading into the desert. At night, the beads will glow and the friends can find their way back to town.The next morning in the desert, Chuck collapses from heat exhaustion. As Lyle helps his friend, vultures appear. Elsewhere, an associate of Shirra's tells Prof. Barnes they plan to announce over radio that they are in possession of the ancient map.The songwriters survive a sandstorm and think they see Moroccans with a truck. Chuck instructs Lyle, dressed in flowing robes, to get water. The Moroccans are actually Australian gunrunners who mistake Chuck for an auctioneer. As Chuck pretends to auction guns to the locals, CIA agents see that the songwriters have stopped moving through the desert and send a helicopter to retrieve their bodies. When the helicopter pilot realizes they are alive he retreats, and the auction is cut short.At his palace, the Emir tells Harrison he wants the "the messengers of God" killed and the helicopter returns to the desert.Parched and exhausted, Chuck and Lyle think of song lyrics to keep alert, and soon discover Shirra's map sewn into the lining of Chuck's jacket. Just then the helicopter appears and when the pilot shoots at the songwriters, they return fire with guns they collected from the auction. The helicopter leaves but returns with a second Apache attack helicopter. However, Shirra appears in a truck. She arms Chuck and Lyle with powerful guns, and the two helicopters are forced to abort their mission.Chuck and Lyle manage to smuggle the map into the United States. Back in New York, Marty, the talent agent, negotiates with Harrison to implement social reforms in Morocco, get rid of the Emir, and back and promote an album and worldwide tour for Chuck and Lyle. If the CIA succeeds, the songwriters promise not to sell the map to the KGB or anyone else. As a show of support, Harrison arranges for American forces and CIA agents to attend Chuck and Lyle's show at Chez Casablanca. Shirra thinks their songs are wonderful.In the final scene, back in America, Chuck and Lyle's "Live in Concert" album can be seen in the window of Sam Goody records.
    

Dustin Hoffman

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