The Shawshank Redemption

Mystic River


            
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The Brink


            In 1998, Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) is a corporate defense attorney in Cincinnati, Ohio. One day at the office, farmer Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp), an acquaintance of Robert's grandmother, arrives with boxes of videotapes, requesting Robert's assistance. Robert doesn't have time for him, but later drives out to his home town of Parkersburg, West Virginia, to see his grandmother and then Wilbur. Wilbur shows him evidence - from video tapes he's made to remaining cow parts - of how all 190 of his cows have died, showing signs of bizarre and strange disease. He knows it has to do with the huge company DuPont, who has a plant in town, since his brother had been working for them disposing of waste. Robert asks his boss, Tom Terp (Tim Robbins) if he can take the case, assuring him it will be a small side project. Tom reluctantly agrees.At a function for attorneys, Robert broaches the subject with DuPont attorney Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber), who politely tells him he's not aware of the specifics but will help out in any way he can. Mark files a small suit so he can gain information through legal discovery of the chemicals that have been dumped on the site. He doesn't find anything useful, then realizes it's possible that whatever poisoned Wilbur's cattle could be something that isn't even regulated by the EPA. At an awards dinner, he presses Phil on the issue, who curses at him and calls him a hick. Robert is able to legally force DuPont to turn over its information, which it does, sending him hundreds of boxes of documents hoping he'll never find anything. He goes through the files one by one, finally finding reference to a chemical called PFOA that he can't find anything about. He continues going through the documents.In the middle of the night, Robert's pregnant wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) finds him tearing the carpet off the floors and going through their pans. He tells her they're being poisoned, and she thinks he's gone mad, until he explains what he's found in the DuPont documents: PFOA-C8 is a man-made chemical used in the production of Teflon. It was created for army tanks, but then used by companies in American homes. DuPont has been running tests of the affect of it for decades, including on animals and on their own employees. Their own studies show that it caused cancer in animals, people, and birth defects in babies of women working on their line - and they never said a thing. They then dumped hundreds of gallons of toxic sludge upriver from Wilbur's farm.Wilbur, meanwhile, has been shunned by the entire local community for suing their biggest employer. His house is broken into, and he gets sicker. Robert goes to him with the evidence and tells Wilbur to take the settlement DuPont is offering, but Wilbur refuses, wanting justice and not wanting to stay silent. He tells Robert he and his wife both have cancer. Robert feels guilty, and so he gets Wilbur the settlement, he also writes a brief with all the DuPont evidence and sends it to the EPA and Department of Justice, among others. The EPA fines DuPont $16.5 million.DuPont sends a letter to Parkersburg residents telling them that there is PFOA in the water but in safe amounts. Darlene Kiger (Mare Winningham) and her husband get the letter and approach Robert, Darlene remembering her first husband's illness while working in the plant that the employees called "Teflon flu". She also had to have a hysterectomy before she was 40. Robert decides to start with the Kigers to lead a class action lawsuit against DuPont - he wants a settlement and also medical management for the people of Parkersburg, meaning DuPont will have to monitor and take care of their health care. There is push-back at a meeting with the partners at the law firm, who think this will ruin the firm's reputation to go after a company that they would normally be defending. Tom angrily chastises them, arguing that this is the right thing to do.Robert takes the class action to court in Charleston, West Virginia in order to secure medical monitoring, with local attorney Harry Dietzler (Bill Pullman), and since PFOA isn't regulated, they argue that DuPont is liable because the amount in the water was higher than the one part per billion their internal documents argued to be safe. In court, DuPont claims they did a new study that says that 150 parts per billion is safe. Robert is aghast, and the locals begin protesting DuPont and the story becomes national news. DuPont agrees to settle for $70 million. Legally, they are only required to do medical monitoring if scientists prove that PFOA causes the ailments, so an independent scientific review is set up to study the affects of PFOA. If they find in favor, DuPont will have to pay up. In order to get data for it, the firm tells the locals they can get their settlement money after donating blood, and nearly 70,000 people donate to the study.Years and years go by, with no result from the study. Wilbur passes away, the Kiger family are harassed locally, and Robert faces extreme financial strain, having worked the entire case on the promise of the settlement and continuing to work on it, having to pay scientific experts. He's taken pay cut upon pay cut at the firm, and things are tense with Sarah. When Tom tells him he needs to take another pay cut, Robert collapses, shaking. At the hospitals, the doctors tell Sarah he had an ischemia, or minor stroke, and that he needs to get on new medication and stop dealing with so much stress. Sarah tells Tom to stop making Robert feel like a failure, since he's done something for people who needed help.Finally, seven years after the panel was convened, the scientific review contacts Robert and tells him that PFOA causes multiple cancers and other diseases. At dinner with his family, Rob is informed that DuPont is reneging on the entire agreement. He is angry, saying Wilbur told him that there wasn't any justice and he didn't believe him. So Rob decides to take each defendant's case to DuPont, one at a time.A post-script text explains that Rob won his first three multi-million dollar settlements against DuPont, and finally DuPont settles the class action for $671 million. PFOA is still in the blood of 99% of life on earth, and thousands of chemicals are still unregulated.
    

Dark Waters

Dead Man Walking


            Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is a studio executive dating story editor Bonnie Sherow (Cynthia Stevenson). He hears story pitches from screenwriters and decides which have the potential to be made into films, green-lighting only 12 out of 50,000 submissions every year. His job is endangered when up-and-coming story executive Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher) begins working at the studio. Mill has also been receiving death-threatening postcards, assumed to be from a screenwriter whose pitch he rejected.Mill surmises that the disgruntled writer is David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio). Mill lurks around Kahane's home and is told by Kahane's girlfriend, June Gudmundsdottir (Greta Scacchi), whom he watches while talking to her on the phone, that Kahane is at a showing of 'The Bicycle Thief'. Mill goes to the theater, pretending to recognize Kahane in the lobby after the film, and offers him a scriptwriting deal, hoping this will stop the threats. The two go to a nearby bar and have some drinks. Kahane gets intoxicated and rebuffs Mills offer; he calls Mill a liar, pointing out that he knows Mill didn't really go to the theater to see 'The Bicycle Thief' because Kahane saw Mill wander in late and only catch the last five minutes of it, and denies responsibility for sending Mill the postcards. Kahane continues goading Mill about his job security at the studio. In the bar's parking lot the two men fight. Mill loses his balance and falls, and feeling threatened, kills Kahane, then makes the death look like a robbery gone wrong.The next day, Mill receives another postcard. Mill attends Kahanes funeral and gets along with June; she knows none of the other mourners. Studio chief of security Walter Stuckel (Fred Ward) confronts Mill about the murder and says that the police know Mill was the last one to see Kahane alive. Detectives Avery (Whoopi Goldberg) and DeLongpre (Lyle Lovett) suspect Mill is guilty of murder. They question him and DeLongpre keeps an eye on him. Mill receives a postcard from the writer suggesting they meet at a club. While Mill is waiting, he is cornered by two screenwriters who pitch Habeas Corpus, a serious legal drama featuring no major stars and with a depressing ending. Mill's stalker never shows up for the meeting. Leaving the club, Mill receives a fax in his Range Rover from the stalking writer, advising him to look under his raincoat, where he discovers a live rattlesnake, whereby he stops the car and flees.The brush with death makes Griffin Mill realize he has feelings for June. Having persuaded Bonnie to leave for New York on studio business, Mill takes June to a Hollywood awards banquet and their relationship blossoms. Apprehensive that Larry Levy continues encroaching on his job, Mill phones Levy and invites the two writers to pitch Habeas Corpus. Mill convinces Levy that the scenario is good and the movie will be an Oscar contender. Mill's plan is to let Levy shepherd the film through production and have it flop. Mill will step in at the last moment, suggesting some changes to salvage the films box office, letting him reclaim his position at the studio.Mill asks June to go away with him to Acapulco, and Bonnie confronts him about his relationship with June. At the airport, Griffin discovers DeLongpre with police officers patrolling the terminal. He pretends to have left his passport at home and suggests a change of plans to June, and the pair head for an isolated desert resort and spa. During their weekend, Griffin and June consummate their relationship. Mill receives a call from his attorney, who informs him that studio head Joel Levison (Brion James) has been fired, and the police want Mill to participate in a lineup. An elderly eyewitness has come forward who claims to have seen the murder and can identify the assailant. Mill gains a reprieve when the witness fails to identify him in the lineup.One year later. Studio power players are watching the end of Habeas Corpus with a new, tacked-on, upbeat "Hollywood" ending. Mill's plan to "save" the movie has worked and he is head of the studio. June is now Griffin's wife and pregnant with his child. Bonnie objects to the changes and is fired, a decision Griffin does not overrule; he rebuffs Bonnie when she appeals her termination to him. Mill receives a pitch over the phone from a man who reveals himself as the postcard writer. The man pitches an idea about a studio executive who kills a writer and gets away with murder. Mill recognizes the pitch as blackmail and gives the writer a deal. The writers title for the film is 'The Player'.
    

The Player


            The movie portrays the fragile remains of a torture survivor, Hanna (Sarah Polley) from the war in Croatia. A burn unit nurse by training, she has gone through survival counseling at a center in Copenhagen where her torture was documented by Inge (Julie Christie), and then made her way to work in a Northern Ireland factory. She has post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, including compulsive behavior (stacks of bars of soap), is hearing impaired (nearly deaf without a hearing aid on) and lives her life completely alone, attending to work every day, taking no sick leave or holidays. The union complains so she is directed to take a holiday. She goes to a seacoast village and overhears an oil company manager discussing the need for a live-in nurse for a burned oil platform worker on site in the North Sea. She volunteers to help, and begins to care for Josef (Tim Robbins) who is temporarily blind and has face and arm burns from fighting a rig fire. He coaxes her story of torture from her, feeling the cuts scars on her chest in a remarkably poignant moment of truth. After he is transferred to hospital, she goes back to the factory. He talks to Inge and realizes the depth of suffering and the guilt of torture victims who survive. A moving love story, beautifully done, with unforgettable character development and a happy ending.
    

The Secret Life of Words


            Helicopters in Nam. We are at the Mekong Delta, 1971. Suddenly, all the soldiers have splitting headaches and go wild. They are attacked. Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) doesn't even move; he just stares at the mess and cruelty of war. He survives but has to run away on his own. He is wounded.He wakes up alone at a dirty subway car. He fell asleep while reading a book. He goes to another compartment where there is an old woman (Antonia Rey) and inquires if they have passed Bergen Street, but she doesn't understand him. There's a tramp sleeping there. He thinks he sees something like a tail. He leaves the train at his station but the doors are locked and chained. The exit is at the other side of the railway, he is alone in the station. He splashes into a pool of water; lights are flickering, another train is approaching menacingly - and he thinks he sees faceless people staring at him from the windows, one of them waving him goodbye.It's a sad, downtrodden New York neighborhood he lives in. Finally, he gets home to Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña), who was worried about him being so late. He has a shower and Jezzie showers with him.In Nam, he is crawling in the jungle. He notices a spiderweb. He wakes up in the morning, after having made love to Jezzie. They stare at some old photographs: one of them is Sarah's (Patricia Kalember). There is also a picture of Jacob's dead son, Gabe (Macaulay Culkin) which makes him cry. Jezzie offers some consolation, but she wants to destroy the photographs because they make Jacob cry. Later on, she throws the photographs into an incinerator, except for the one Jacob keeps in his wallet of his late son.Jacob driving while singing. He's a postman now. He flirts at work and goes for a massage to Louis (Danny Aiello), who feels that Jacob is terribly tense today. He comes back to the moment he was found in Nam. Jacob feels so relaxed, suddenly, and Louis looks like an angel to him.Walking down the street in his uniform, a group of young women (Kisha Skinner & Dion Simmons) sing to him Hey, Mr Postman. A car tries to run him over, with the same blurry faces as on the train. He goes to Doctor Carlson's. The reception nurse (Suzanne Shepherd) says that there is no such doctor and never was. She suggests he sees a psychiatric doctor. Jacob bangs on the table, breaking a flower vase. When the nurse picks it up, he notices she's got a weird dead thing on her head. Jacob runs away and is followed by a security guard. He interrupts a group meeting. He says he's waiting for Dr Carlson. The new doctor (Doug Barron) says that Dr Carlson died in a car accident a month ago, it just "blew up".Jezzie thinks he's exaggerating. She touches his back.He is in a house party dancing to Lady Marmalade . A woman wants to read his future. She says that according to his palms, he's already dead. He dances with Jezzie, one of the party-goers, but feels the need to go. He notices a young man staring at him and several birds flying around. He stumbles and his glasses fall after seeing the man become a dizzy faceless man. He sees one of the party-goers strip down and a weird lizard tail hurting and killing her. The party stops because he panics and faints.He remembers about Nam. Jezzie tells him off because she felt mortified at the party. Jacob has a temperature, so Jezzie calls a doctor. She prepares a bath with ice so that the fever goes down. She calls for the help of her neighbors to ask for more ice. Mrs Carmichael (Gloria Irizarry) brought a bag full of ice. Some of them put them in the freezing water and he screams in pain.Back in bed, he thinks that he's with Sarah, and that his son enters his bedroom to complain of the cold. They talk father-to-son. It looks like he's been hallucinating. He wakes up dazed and confused, with Jezzie and a dog looking at him. He closes his reddened eyes, and remembers a helicopter picking him up.Jacob sees pictures in a book of torture and hell. Jezzie screams at him "Anybody home?", and he interprets it as her being a demon, so he pushes her away. She leaves, wishing he was dead. At that moment the phone rings; it's Paul Flanagan (Pruitt Taylor Vince).They meet at a bar. Paul thinks that he's being followed, and is scared to death. They start wondering what they did to them that night in Nam which they can't remember. Somebody is looking at them. They are going out of the bar together. Jacob stops to pick up a penny saying "my lucky day". Paul starts his car and smiles: it blows up, killing him instantly. The man who was staring at them tries to help Jacob, but then he leaves before Jacob has time to assimilate everything. For a second, Jacob remembers how the pilot got shot and blood spilled everywhere.It's Paul's funeral: it's raining, and everybody is carrying an umbrella. Frank (Eriq La Salle) trembles. George (Ving Rhames) spills his bottle. Jacob says to his friends that everything is too suspicious. Jacob and his 5 friends contact a lawyer, Geary (Jason Alexander) to sue the military department. He says it'll be expensive as hell while munching some crappy food. Somebody watches them leaving the office.Later, Jezzie tells Jacob that the lawyer is not taking his case as his friends have all backed down. Frank says that he's backed down because of having been threatened. Jacob insists that Geary take his case. He says that he's just checked his background and he and his friends were left out of the army draws on psychological grounds.Some guys kidnap Jacob in a car. They are official-looking men. A lady with a buggy sees that. Jacob hits the man and jumps out of the car, where a man dressed as Santa Claus (Jan Saint) stares at them. He's begging for money and he steals Jacob's wallet.Jacob is admitted to hospital. A young police officer (Raymond Anthony Thomas) has found him. A nurse (Bellina Logan) tells him that they will do for him everything they can. The resident doctor (Scott Cohen) looks as though he's having fun. Jacob starts seeing a broken bike, and weird demented people all over him. He passes through some butcher's place with human parts all over the place, and watches a faceless man (Alva Williams) trembling again.An evil doctor (Davidson Thomson) is getting ready to operate on him and tells him that he's dead. Jezzie is a nurse there. He insists he's alive and sane. An eyeless doctor (Ed Jupp Jr.) punctures his forehead with a needle and reaches his brain.Sarah and two children visit him in hospital. Jacob insists he's alive. A voice says "Dream on", and Jacob panics again. His doctor tries to take him out of hospital. He's heavily bandaged. The nurses and paramedics cannot stop them. Louis gives him a massage: Jacob says that he was in hell. Louis's treatment is rough and painful, but he says that now, Jacob is well.Jacob checks on his honorable discharge documents. He also sees a drawing made by Gabe. He was playing with his bike, and started to pick up his baseball cards from the road. A car ran over him. He thinks he sees him at home but sees a blurry man again. He caresses his temples.Jezzie enters with some groceries. She asks where he's been, as he's been away for two days. She looks very concerned. She called every hospital in the city, but he was nowhere. The phone rings, and Jacob tells her not to pick it up. She picks up and says she hasn't seen him all night. Jacob picks the phone up when she asks "what experiment?". Jezzie looks terrified and asks him not to go. He hugs her, says "sorry and leaves. The voice tells him to make sure he's not being followed.Michael Newman (Matt Craven) has been following him for some time, as he was one of the survivors. He claims to have been a chemist who used to work for the Army's chemical warfare division in Saigon. They had invented a new drug called "The Ladder". It was designed to increase aggression, bringing soldiers' most primal urges to light in such a way that the conscious mind could not repress them. The ladder was first tested on monkeys and then on a group of captured enemy combatants, with gruesome results. It was deemed that the drug had created the effect wanted by the army officers, so the next step was to give small doses of the drug to the soldiers in Jacob's battalion in secret. Here it was when all hell turned loose, as each private attacked his fellow soldiers. The result was a carnage, so one of his fellow soldiers was responsible for wounding Jacob, not the enemy.Jacob leaves and takes a taxi. Jacob gives the taxi driver (Sam Coppola) all his money and tells him to take him home. The driver asks where his home is. Jacob finally remembers the moment when he was wounded, and it was somebody from his platoon.The Doorman (Thomas A. Carlin) greets Jacob as "Doctor Singer", saying that it's a long time since they have seen each other. They shake hands.He is alone at home; he sits in the dark and reminiscences about playing with Gabe. He sees Gabe. Jacob and his son hug each other. Gabe takes him by the hand upstairs, into the shining light.Newman is in Nam: he says that Jacob is gone. He and another doctor (Jaime Perry) leave his body behind carelessly.Fade to black.Some captions say that "It was reported that the hallucinogenic drug BZ was used in experiments on soldiers during the Vietnam war. The Pentagon denied the story."End credits.Photographs of Jacob and Gabe walking together, from behind.
    

Jacob's Ladder


            Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) is a widower and college history professor at George Washington University with a 10-year-old son, named Grant (Spencer Treat Clark). While driving through his suburban neighborhood, he encounters a boy, Brady (Mason Gamble), staggering in the road with horrific injuries to his hands. Michael takes him to hospital, and meets his parents Oliver (Tim Robbins) and Cheryl Lang (Joan Cusack), discovering they are his neighbors. The families soon become friends, and their sons join the Discoverers, a Scouts-style group.Actions of the Langs arouse latent suspicion in Michael. During a get-together, Michael sees blueprints in the Lang's house which are not for the building project Oliver, a structural engineer, claims, and a wrongly delivered letter suggests he lied about where he attended college. Over dinner, Michael describes impersonal treatment from the government after his wife, an FBI agent, was killed in the line of duty. Oliver states his belief that the government should be punished for its mistakes. Michael's younger girlfriend, Brooke (Hope Davis), and his wife's former FBI partner, Whit Carver (Robert Gossett), dismiss Michael's concerns as paranoia.On a field trip to the site of the standoff in which his wife was killed, Michael describes to his college class what he sees as a needless tragedy: that although certain activities of the besieged family raised "flags," other facts, not investigated before the FBI visit, both exonerated them and explained their wariness of the FBI agents, which provoked the standoff. Michael's students appear uneasy at the intensity with which Michael condemns the FBI's actions.Conversing with Michael, Oliver says that Grant wishes someone could be punished for his mother's death, at which Michael is again suspicious. Researching archives, Michael discovers that Oliver's real name is William Fenimore, and that he tried to blow up a post office in Kansas at age 16. He is seen by Oliver, who later confronts him, incensed at Michael's intrusions and presumptions of judgment. He states that he was retaliating against the government for seizing his family farm's water supply, which rendered it unusable and eventually led to his father's suicide. He states he was imprisoned, and admits to assuming the identity of his deceased friend Oliver Lang to hide his criminality from his children.Michael appears to let the matter drop. However, Brooke later sees Oliver swap cars with a stranger in a parking lot, and follows him to a delivery depot where a number of metal boxes are exchanged. From a payphone, she leaves Michael a message that his suspicions may have been correct, but is discovered by Cheryl.Michael learns of Brooke's (off-screen) death on the news, where it appears she died in a car crash. He discovers inadvertently that messages left on his answering machine had been erased, and again suspects foul play, telling Whit about Oliver/William and asking him to check FBI records, and records of calls to his home.Michael travels to St. Louis, Missouri where he visits the father of Dean Scobee, accused of blowing up a federal building in St. Louis, from where the Langs had moved. Dr. Scobee is certain his son was not the perpetrator of the bombing since 10 children were killed, which he would never have done knowingly. Michael becomes certain that Dean was set up when he sees a photo of him in a Discoverer troop with Brady, with whom Grant is currently on a field trip. In a panic Michael rushes back to Washington to retrieve Grant, but is told by troop leaders that he was taken home with Brady. Returning home, Michael does not find Grant and confronts Oliver at his home. Oliver confirms that he knows all about Michael's excursion to St. Louis and also confirms that his group killed Brooke, and implies that Grant will be killed if Michael tries to involve others.Whit accosts Michael the following day, stating the FBI discovered nothing suspicious about Oliver/William or his acquaintances, and says that Michael's 'missing' telephone message was from a payphone. The next day, Michael rents a car under a false name and drives to the payphone where he seeing a passing delivery vehicle, follows it to its depot, where he sees men he recognizes from Oliver's house and from Discoverer photographs, loading metal boxes into the van.Michael follows the van and is shocked to see Grant at the window with the Discoverer taskmaster, and gives chase. Oliver blocks Michael's car with his own, causing a crash, and drags him to an abandoned building where he beats him, saying Michael will not see Grant again. Oliver believes his group is waging war against the government, and states their target is the FBI. Michael overpowers Oliver and drives to FBI headquarters, calling Whit at his office to warn him.After frantically driving his car through the busty streets, Michael sees a delivery van at the gate and illegally pursues it into the secure parking garage, but discovers that the van has a different driver and is empty. Whit tells Michael that he is the only unauthorized person in the building, in panic Michael rushes back to his own car discovering at the last moment that the conspirators have planted the bomb in his own car trunk seconds before it detonates. Michael, White, and hundreds of government agents and civilians are killed in the massive blast which partially collapses the FBI headquarters. Oliver impassively watches the bombing from a distance.In a montage of television news clips, Michael is portrayed as a lone wolf terrorist who had sought revenge for his wife's death and targeted the FBI, in particular her former partner, Whit. Statements from his students (one of whom is a conspirator) support the official story, giving accounts of his erratic and paranoid behavior in the days prior and inferring from them that he held a dangerous grudge against the FBI due to his own actions. Grant, now orphaned, moves in with relatives, tragically unaware of his father's innocence. All of Michael's actions in the days beforehand played right into the Langs plans to frame him for their terrorist attack against the FBI headquarters.In the final scene, after seeing Grant away, Oliver and Cheryl Lang strongly imply that they will move again to another city to plan their next terrorist strike as well as look for another fall guy to take the blame for their group's actions as they did with Michael Faraday and many others before him.
    

Arlington Road


            It's December 1st, 1958 and everything at Hudsucker Industries is going great. Profits and the stock price have never been so high, so it is shocking when President Waring Hudsucker (Charles Durning) runs down the table at the Board of Directors meeting and throws himself out the 45th floor window of the Hudsucker building. Despite this tragedy, vice-president Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) quickly focuses the board on the problem that Waring's death has left them: With no designated heir his 51 percent share of stock will be sold to the public one month from that day. The board would like to buy the stock and retain control of the company, but at the current price, they cannot afford it.Mussburger comes up with a plan to depress the stock price by temporarly putting an obviously incompetent person in the President's seat. But who can he find that is stupid enough to qualify?Fortunately, for him, Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) has just arrived in town with a brand new degree from the Muncie, Indiana, School of Business. Barnes has an idea for a new product, which he shows to everybody he meets. Unfortunately it appears to only be a circle drawn on a piece of paper as Barnes has a problem explaining exactly what he has in mind.Barnes is working in the Hudsucker mailroom the morning of Waring's death and as the new boy is given the unenviable task of taking a high-priority "Blue letter" (they are always bad news) up to Mussburger's office. Before delivering the letter Barnes first tries to show Mussburger his idea for his new product and in the process sets an important contract on fire and nearly causes Mussburger to fall out the window. In all this, however, Mussburger realizes he had found the perfect dupe to take the president's job.With a shave and a new wardrobe Barnes is quickly installed in the president's office, separated from Mussburger's own by the works of the massive company clock. It is at this point we meet the kindly clock keeper (Bill Cobbs) and the company repairman. They seem to represent good and evil forces in the film.Newspaper editor (John Mahoney) is suspicious of this move to put a novice at the helm of such a big company and dispatches prize-winning reporter Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to find out what is going on. Approaching Barnes as a poor, unemployed girl from Muncie, Archer gets him to hire her as his secretary. At first she thinks him an imbecile, and writes her story like this causing the stock price to plummet just as Mussburger wants. She soon changes her mind, however, seeing him as a bright and good-hearted fellow who is just totally naive about company politics. They soon start to fall in love.Now that he is the president, Barnes decides to have the company produce his new product. Mussburger goes along with this as he expects it to be a bust further dropping the stock price. As it turns out Barnes's idea, when actually manufactured, is the hula-hoop which soon becomes a big success and pushes Hudsucker stock prices to new heights.Mussburger sets out to totally discredit Barnes by having elevator operator Buzz (Jim True-Frost) claim Barnes stole the hula-hoop idea from him. He also discovers that Archer is actually the reporter that wrote the story bad-mouthing Barnes and accuses him of bad judgment in hiring her. The apparent betrayal by Archer sends Barnes into an emotional tailspin and Mussbuger has psychiatrist Dr. Hugo Bronfenbrenner (David Byrd) declare him mentally incompetent.Archer finds Barnes at a beatnik bar on New Years Eve and tries to apologize to him, but he leaves intending to throw himself out the window of his office. He first puts on the apron he wore in the mailroom and then climbs out on the ledge. He finds he can't do it, but slips and falls anyway. Suddenly halfway to the ground he stops as the clock keeper has wedged a broom handle into the mechanism of the company clock apparently stopping time.While Barnes hangs in space, Waring Hudsucker visits him in the form of an angel. Waring reminds Barnes of the blue letter he never delivered which is still in his apron pocket. Barnes reads the letter which reveals that Waring, despite his apparent success, was never happy because he drove away the woman he really loved. The letter also goes on to state that the 51 percent of the shares owned by Waring will go to whoever the board selects as the next company president (who, at the time, Waring was sure would be Mussburger), so that person will be free to operate without the pressure from the stockholders. Barnes realizes this will save him, if only he can avoid falling the rest of the way to his death.Up in the clock room a fight starts between the good clock keeper and the evil repairman. The broom is knocked out of the mechanism and Barnes starts falling again. A punch from the clock keeper, however, sends the repairman's false teeth flying into the mechanism to stop the clock again with Barnes only two feet above the ground. When it starts again he is uninjured by the short fall and races to the bar to tell Archer that he loves her.Barnes is again in charge of the company and Mussburger, finding out that he could have had everything he wanted - the presidency and the stock - if he only hadn't been greedy, goes off the deep end and is sent off to a sanitarium. With Archer as his girl at the next board meeting Barnes introduces his next big idea for Hudsucker Industries, the Frisbee. The board applauds and the film ends.
    

The Hudsucker Proxy

Revenge of the Electric Car


            "Crash" Davis (Kevin Costner), a veteran of 12 years in minor league baseball, is sent down to the single-A (advanced) Durham Bulls for a specific purpose: to educate hotshot rookie pitcher Ebby LaLoosh (Tim Robbins, playing a character loosely based on Steve Dalkowski) about becoming a major-league talent, and to control Ebby's haphazard pitching. Crash immediately begins calling Ebby by the degrading nickname of "Meat", and they get off to a rocky start.Thrown into the mix is Annie (Susan Sarandon), a lifelong spiritual seeker who has latched onto the "Church of Baseball" and has, every year, chosen one player on the Bulls to be her lover and student. Annie flirts with Crash and Ebby, but Crash walks out, saying he's too much a veteran to "try out" for anything. Before he leaves, Crash further sparks Annie's interest with a memorable speech listing the things he "believes in", ending with "I believe in long, slow, soft, deep wet kisses that last three days... Good night".Despite some animosity between them, Annie and Crash work, in their own ways, to shape Ebby into a big-league pitcher. Annie plays mild bondage games, reads poetry to him, and gets him to think in different ways (and gives him the nickname "Nuke"). Crash forces Nuke to learn "not to think" by letting the catcher make the pitching calls (memorably at two points telling the batters what pitch is coming after Nuke rejects his calls), and lectures him about the pressure of facing major league hitters who can hit his "heat" (fastballs). Crash also talks about the pleasure of life in "The Show" (Major League Baseball), which he briefly lived for "the 21 greatest days of my life" and to which he has tried for years to return.Meanwhile, as Nuke matures, the relationship between Annie and Crash grows, until it becomes obvious that the two of them are a more appropriate match, except for the fact that Annie and Nuke are currently a couple.After a rough start, Nuke becomes a dominant pitcher by mid-season. By the end of the movie, Nuke is called up to the majors and the Bulls, now having no use for his mentor, release Crash. This incites jealous anger in Crash, who is frustrated by Nuke's failure to recognize all the talent he was blessed with. Nuke leaves for the big leagues, ending his relationship with Annie, and Crash overcomes his jealousy to leave Nuke with some final words of advice.Crash joins another team, the Asheville Tourists, and breaks the minor league record for career home runs. We see Nuke one last time, being interviewed by the press as a major leaguer, reciting the clichéd answers that Crash had taught him earlier. Crash then retires as a player and returns to Durham, where Annie tells him she's ready to give up her annual affairs with "boys". Crash tells her that he is thinking about becoming a manager for a minor league team in Visalia. Both characters end one phase of their lives and begin another, Annie and Crash dancing in her candle-lit living room.
    

Bull Durham


            After recovering from their wounds in the Iraq War, three soldiers are sent back to the United States. Sgt. T.K. Poole (Michael Pena) and Pvt. Colee Dunn (Rachel McAdams) are given a 30-day leave, and Sgt. Fred Cheever (Tim Robbins) is retiring. The three soldiers now have a new mission. T.K is going home to visit his fiancée, Colee is going to return her boyfriend's guitar to his family after he saved her life, and Fred is going home to his wife in St. Louis. When they arrive at JFK Airport in New York, all fights have been canceled, because of a blackout. The three decide to rent a van and drive to St. Louis, and once there, T.K. and Colee can catch a plane to Las Vegas. What started out to be a short 14 hour trip ends up being a journey across America. Along the way, the three soldiers who had just met at JFK, become close friends. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
    

The Lucky Ones


            The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) is on patrol near the Persian Gulf when radar contact is made with a MiG fighter. The Combat Air Patrol of the Enterprise is vectored to meet the incoming aircraft, and the fighters involved are F-14 Tomcat interceptors, each manned by a pilot and a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO). The pilot of the lead plane is Flight Lieutenant Peter "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise), a callsign appropriate for his arrogant rule-bending attitude; his RIO is Lt. Nicholas "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards). The second F14 is piloted by Bill "Cougar" Cortell (John Stockwell) with Sam "Merlin" Wells (Tim Robbins) as the RIO. The two F14s split up and are surprised when a second MiG, shielded from radar by riding within feet of its leader, appears. Cougar is outmaneuvered by MiG One while Maverick locks his missile radar on MiG Two, who promptly disengages. MiG One stays on Cougar and is only chased off when Maverick flies upside down, closes up on the MiG, and flashes an obscene gesture to the enemy pilot. The MiG disengages and the two Tomcats fly to the Enterprise, but Cougar is so rattled he cannot land, forcing Maverick, low on fuel and against orders, to abort his own landing and talk Cougar to the deck.Cougar sees the captain of the Enterprise, Tom "Stinger" Jordan (James Tolkan), and turns in his wings -- the incident has left Cougar rattled and he feels he can't fly combat any longer. Stinger is forced to change his intended disciplinary action against Maverick, for he must send a Tomcat tandem for additional combat training at the Navy's Fighter Weapons School in Miramar, near San Diego,CA and the Captain is plainly disgusted that Maverick is the only qualified candidate for the assignment.Maverick, however, is quietly overjoyed as he regards the assignment as an opportunity for advancement, and upon arrival begins a rivalry with a fellow Tomcat pilot, Lt. Tom "Iceman" Kazansky (Val Kilmer), and his RIO, Ron "Slider" Kerner (Rick Rossovich). At a bar the night after their first day at the School, Maverick notices Charlotte Blackwood (Kelly McGillis) a pretty young blonde in jeans, and hits on her by following her into the ladies room and serenading her. It seems not to work until the next day she appears at the School, revealing herself to be Charlie, a previously unseen DOD flight instructor that Maverick had assumed to be male. Though technically a civilian, she has mastered the flight simulator where she has beaten several actual pilots. She begins to become smitten with Maverick before the official competition begins.In his first exercise, Maverick takes on the School's resident "enemy" pilot, LTC Richard "Jester" Heatherly (Michael Ironside), and succeeds in outmaneuvering him and "shooting" him down, but in so doing he flies below a set minimum engagement altitude - a "hard-deck" - and then compounds this faux pas by "buzzing" (or overflying) a flight tower at absurdly low altitude just to show off. Both Maverick and Goose listen while Jester and their commanding officer, Commander Michael "Viper" Metcalf (Tom Skerritt) are chewed out by the tower's commanding officer.Iceman also chews out Maverick for his "unsafe" attitude, but Maverick refuses to have any of it, even after Jester summons him to his office and threatens to expel him should he continue this way. Metcalf, however, knows Maverick because Maverick's father flew with him in Vietnam off the USS Oriskany (CVA-34) and was shot down when he engaged the enemy in "neutral" airspace.The contest between Maverick and Iceman continues; in a later exercise Viper and Jester team up against Maverick and fellow F14 pilot Hollywood. Maverick breaks a cardinal rule by abandoning his wingman to go after Viper, and in so doing Hollywood is "shot down" and then the same fate befalls Maverick.But the worst is yet to come, for Maverick is teamed with Iceman and Maverick, determined to win the School contest, angrily chews out Iceman for taking too long to attack an enemy craft; Maverick takes the shot, but when the two aircraft get close, the backwash from Iceman's thrusters cripple Maverick's engines and the F14 plunges toward the sea. Goose barely succeeds in yanking open the emergency ejection handles, but when the fighter's canopy pops open, the two pilots eject and Goose crashes into the canopy, killing him.Maverick is devastated by Goose's death, and though an inquiry clears him of wrongdoing, his confidence is destroyed. He nonetheless graduates from the class and is reassigned to the Enterprise, where an incident with enemy MiGs leads to a fateful battle involving Iceman as well as Maverick. Iceman, and Hollywood are launched to intercept a pair of MiGs but are jumped by four additional enemy fighters. Hollywood is shot down and Iceman hopelessly surrounded when Maverick is launched, now with Merlin as his RIO. Though delayed by malfunctioning catapults on the flight deck, Maverick still arrives at the scene of battle but is surrounded by enemy and when he flies into one ship's jetwash his own fighter briefly stalls out - and though he regains control he flashes back to Goose's death and breaks off, leaving Iceman (who has long doubted Maverick's courage after Goose's death) trapped as Merlin desperately and furiously yells at Maverick to get back into battle. Maverick pull himself together and returns to assist Iceman, and they destroy four MiGs, prompting the remaining squadron to retreat.
As a result, Maverick and Iceman finally become friends. As a reward for his heroism, Maverick is offered any assignment he chooses. He chooses to be an instructor at Top Gun. He tosses Goose's dog tags into the ocean, signifying he has come to terms with his friend's death.
    

Top Gun

A Perfect Day

Cradle Will Rock

Here and Now

The Spoils of Babylon

Catch a Fire

Nothing to Lose

Cinema Verite


            Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a divorced union container crane operator with few skills as a father. Ray's ex-wife (Miranda Otto) drops off their rebelious but coming of age teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin), and meek 10-year old daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) for a weekend visit with their father in New Jersey. (Filmed in Bayonne in the shadow of the worlds longest arch bridge.) Ray is a self-absorbed individual who feels imposed upon by having to baby sit his own children. Then something happens that will change their entire lives. An unusual and violent lightning storm hits the town. In the intersection down the street, Ray sees a huge three-legged war machine rise from beneath the street. The machine begins to fire and incinerate everything and everybody. The Martians have begun the war by attacking Earth with only one goal in mind, destroying everything in sight. Ray becomes a real father when he decides to protect his children and take them to their mother house. Ray grabs his handgun and a few supplies and steals a minivan from his friends service station, begging the friend to come with them, but leaving him behind when he doesn't understand the danger and refuses to get in. The mother and her new husband have already left for Boston so the Ferriers hole up in their house. Overnight, the Martians show up around their and cause great destruction. A news van is outside and the reporter informs Ray the Machines are in all cities. They decide to try to make it to Boston They start running for their lives and are just ahead of the Martians, when they get caught up in a frantic mob of people in upstate NY who are also fleeing the machines. The mob tries to get in the car or take it away from them. In a Mexican standoff, Ray relinquishes the car to an armed gunman in exchange for letting him get Rachel out of the car. Ray drops his gun which is picked up by another mobmember who shoots the other gunman. They manage to get on a ferry as several more machines rise in the distance and the ferry leaves before it's full. A machine rises from the river and overturns the ferry but the Ferriers swim to shore. Robbie follows an Army unit into battle against Ray's wishes but he cannot stop him. Ray and Rachel are taken in by a sole man holed up in the basement of his rural house. Machines are all around and they send a camera tentical into the basement where they are holed up to look for humans which they avoid by moving and hiding. Then some Martians come in personally to investigate, but they're called back to the ship before they find the humans. Ray and the homeowner dispute over how to handle the situation. The machines have increased in number and are everywhere, and they can not be destroyed by our military. They make it to Boston and the Martians start dying from various sickness caused by germs that humans are built up immunity to, but the Martians don't have. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)=================================Ray Ferrier is a dock crane worker who leaves his shift in Brooklyn and drives home to meet his ex-wife, Mary Ann, and his two kids, Robbie and Rachel, at his home in Bayonne, New Jersey. When he arrives, late, they are all waiting for him. Ray sees that Mary Ann is pregnant. After a few minutes of debate, over the children sharing a room and Robbie's homework assignment due on Monday, Mary Ann and her new husband leave for Boston to visit her parents for the weekend.Ray mildly orders his son to play catch with him in the back yard. Ray notices that Robbie now wears a Boston Red Sox hat; Ray is a Yankees fan. While the two play catch it becomes clear that father and son share a strained relationship. After a brief argument, Robbie allows one of Ray's throws to fly past him and break a window in the basement. Rachel comments that Ray "won't reach" Robbie by being belligerent. Rachel asks what they should have for lunch and Ray coldly replies "you know, order." Ray goes upstairs to his bedroom to get some sleep.When he wakes up several hours later, he finds Rachel watching cartoons in the living room. She also informs her father that Robbie has taken off with his prized Mustang. Ray becomes furious and rushes out to the street to find Robbie. People have gathered on the street. Ray also sees everyone looking to the north of his block where a strange storm appears to be swirling in the wrong direction. Ray goes into his backyard, taking Rachel with him. The wind picks up, but blows towards the storm. Suddenly, several bolts of lightning begin to strike the ground, some hitting dangerously close to Ray's yard. He and Rachel rush back into the house for shelter and find that every clock has stopped and the power is out. Ray's watch has stopped and his cellphone is dead. After telling Rachel to stay in the house, he goes outside and finds Robbie nearby; his son had taken his car downtown and left it there when it stalled. Ray orders Robbie to watch his sister until he comes back. Ray passes by an auto repair shop where the owner, Manny, tells him that the starter is burned out on a minivan he's looking over. Ray tells Manny to replace the solenoid.Ray walks downtown to the site where the lightning struck. A crowd has gathered around a large hole in the street. Ray touches a piece of the cracked pavement and finds that it's unusually cold. Suddenly the ground under the hole surges upward and everyone scatters. A car that fell into the hold is thrown out. A huge machine on three stilted legs bursts out of the hole and observes the crowds. It lets out a loud blast like a fog horn and as the crowd continues to scatter, it begins to incinerate dozens of people with blasts of heat beams; people are turned instantly into ash when the beams strike them. Ray runs, escaping through a department store; as he does, the ash from an unfortunate victim covers him. Ray hides behind a building and watches the monstrous machine walk by. He is reminded of Robbie and Rachel when a man runs by carrying his own child.Ray returns home in utter shock. Barely speaking to his kids and washing the ash from his face and hair, he tells them both that they're leaving immediately. Ray has Robbie take everything in his refrigerator and Ray retrieves a small pistol, tucking it into his belt. They go to Manny's garage and climb into the minivan the mechanic had been working on; since he'd replaced the solenoid, the car is able to run. Manny thinks Ray is joking with him until Ray tells him in a serious tone to come with them. As he tells Ray to get out of the car, the nearby Bayonne Bridge collapses. Ray speeds off while his kids become panicky, especially Rachel, who has a problem with enclosed spaces. Robbie tries to calm her. Ray tells Robbie about the machine and the destruction it caused. Ray plans to take his kids to a safe place, hopefully their mother and stepfather's house.Arriving at Mary Ann's house, they find it deserted. The trio have a brief argument over what to eat and Ray takes them down to the basement where they'll spend the night. After a few hours of restless sleep, Ray wakes up and hears a commotion outside, which becomes a deafening roar. The three rush into the basement's utility room and lock the door against a wall of flames.When Ray wakes up several hours later, he walks upstairs to find most of the house demolished. The commotion from the previous night was caused by a plane that had crashed in the neighborhood. While Ray walks by, he sees a man in the wreckage of the plane, cleaning out the food service carts. Ray finds out that he's a cameraman for a news network and is there with a woman reporter. The woman tells Ray that the reports about the tripods are all the same, once they start moving, no more reports or news come from the area they attack. The woman eagerly asks Ray if he's a survivor of the plane crash; when he tells her he isn't, she and her crew hastily leave.Ray gathers his family and they set out again in the minivan. They drive for a while and pull over when Rachel needs to relieve herself. She defiantly walks farther than Ray wishes her to and stops by a creek. While she looks at the water, she sees dozens of human bodies floating by. She is terrified by the sight until Ray suddenly finds her and scolds her for wandering off too far. Back at the truck, and Army convoy passes by. Robbie seems overcome with anger and wants to join them in their counterattack against the invaders. Ray tries to reason with Robbie, telling him that the idea of them joining up with the Army is ludicrous.Ray lets Robbie drive for a while so he and his daughter can get some sleep. They come to a small town where evacuated people have gathered. The crowd quickly becomes hostile toward Ray's family and wants their vehicle. Ray and Robbie are forcefully pulled from the truck and beaten by the mob. Rachel panics and Ray, gathering his senses, uses his gun to force the crowd to retreat a bit. Moments later, he is forced to drop his pistol when another man, determined to take the truck for himself, holds a pistol on Ray. Ray is permitted to get Rachel out of the truck and walk away. The crowd again becomes violent and the man who took the minivan is attacked.The family continues to walk with the crowds of evacuees. At a railroad crossing, a train zooms by, the entire length of it is on fire. At a ferry crossing in Athens, New York, the family waits to cross the river on one of the boats. Ray meets a woman he knows who has her own daughter in tow. The sound of the alien call is heard nearby and the crowd of people begin to rush the ferry. Army guards close the gates and deny Ray, his friend and their kids entry. The see a way to bypass the gates and make it to the boat, but only Ray and his kids are able to board. Robbie sees that several people are trying to climb over the ferry's ramp and goes to help them. As the boat crosses the river, another tripod rises from the river and attacks, turning the ferry over and spilling cars and people into the water. Ray and the kids surface and swim for shore as tentacles from the tripod grab people out of the water. Ray and the kids make it to the opposite shore. While they steal away, they see garments floating down from sky.Still walking, the family passes by a battle between the aliens and the Army. Jets zip by overhead and Robbie somehow becomes entranced by the battle, which is unseen and taking place over a hill. Robbie approaches it while Ray and Rachel yell for him to come back. Robbie ignores them and is stopped at the top of the hill by Army personnel. Ray leaves Rachel under a tree and confronts Robbie, telling him that he doesn't need to become involved and that his sister is very worried about him. Robbie insists that he needs to see the battle and Ray reluctantly lets him go, accepting that he can't stop his son's obsession and needs to protect his daughter. Ray picks up Rachel just as a final assault of helicopters fails to stop the tripods. The last thing Ray sees after Robbie rushes over the hill is a tripod looming over a wall of fire. It also becomes obvious that the tripods have a protective shield covering them that repels all bombardment. Just then Ray and Rachel are called by a man who owns a nearby house. The owner, Olgilvy, offers them sanctuary in his basement. However, it becomes clear to Ray that Olgilvy is mentally unstable and plans to tunnel out of the basement.A series of loud noises from upstairs prompt the group to hide. A snake-like probe is sent into the basement. The group narrowly avoids detection and the probe is withdrawn after a few minutes. Later, three of the aliens enter the basement - they are three-legged and very curious. Ray also stops Olgilvy from shooting them with his shotgun, knowing the noise will attract more of them. The aliens leave when their horn sounds.Ray also discovers that the aliens are covering the landscape with a mysterious and rapidly-growing red vine and they are using blood harvested from humans they've captured to fertilize it. At this revelation, Olgilvy becomes extremely agitated, digging frantically in his basement and muttering "Not MY blood!" repeatedly. Ray realizes that if Olgilvy continues to act the same way, he'll only grow worse and they'll all be found. Ray tries one last time to calm the man but fails. Ray has Rachel put on her headphones and listen to her music while he confronts and kills Olgilvy behind a closed door. After he emerges from the room, Ray and Rachel fall asleep. When Rachel awakes, she sees the alien probe has returned and they've been discovered. Ray uses an axe to cut the eye of the probe off, however, Rachel has fled the house. Ray rushes out in time to see her captured by a tripod. The tripod attacks Ray, who hides in a nearby Humvee, and he's flipped over. The tripod loses interest in him, however Ray uses a grenade from a belt he finds to get it's attention. It uses a tentacle to lift him into an underslung cage filled with other people. Ray finds Rachel, who's in deep shock. While Ray figures out how to escape, a large valve opens overhead and sucks up one of the captives. The valve then tries to capture Ray, who takes the grenade belt with him. His fellow captives keep hold of his arm and drag him back. When Ray lands in the cage, he shows a soldier that he'd pulled the pins from two of the grenades. They explode inside the tripod and the cage is released, falling onto a nearby tree, freeing everyone.Ray and Rachel make it to Boston. While being directed by more soldiers, Ray notices that the red weeds are dying and that a tripod has come down. Another nearby tripod sounds it's horn and everyone flees. Ray notices that a small flock of birds have landed on the tripod - it's shield is not functioning. Ray relays this discovery to a captain standing by, who orders his platoon to bring up Javelin missiles. Several rockets are fired at the defenseless tripod, which collapses, demolishing a building. The evacuees and soldiers approach the tripod, which opens a hatch, spilling a bright orange fluid. An alien arm with a pink hue (instead of the steel-gray color Ray had seen on the aliens in the basement) falls out limply. The aliens are dying of some unknown cause.Ray walks Rachel to his in-laws' house. His ex-wife and her new husband are there, along with her parents. Rachel runs to her mother. Robbie steps out of the house too and he an Ray embrace.The narrator's voice returns and informs us that the aliens had killed billions, however they were defenseless against disease-carrying bacteria to which humans have long been immune.
    

War of the Worlds

Thanks for Sharing

Human Nature


            its about these two boys that found a game to play and they started to play the game. they started to realize that the game was coming to life. they also found out that they had to keep on playing in order to finish the game and so all of the thing could dissapper also they uloked people from the game also there trapped in space but in the house has gravity. they try t get out but the instructions says once you play you cant stop. they wanted to play but they really didn't understand the instructions they wanted too stop playing the game but they couldn't because it was one of the rules .
they tried to finish but it was getting to late and hard even thought they really didn't know what time it really was . But they were getting sleepy and almost going to bed they had no food they yeld sos they fianally finished the game happily ever after
    

Zathura: A Space Adventure


            During the film opening, we see a man, presumably Einstein (Walter Mathau) playing a violin, as another man walks past a poster advertising Boyd's comet. We then see Catherine Boyd (Meg Ryan) with her fiance James Moreland (Stephen Fry). She's working on some math referring to the comet. He comments that she's babbling when she tries to tell him a story. The scene cuts back and forth with a group of elderly men arguing about whether time exists. Meg and James are in his convertible when it develops engine trouble. We see Einstein discussing with his friends (the elderly men), whether there are 'accidents' and he says, "I do not believe God plays dice with the universe."Catherine and James pull into a garage, where Ed Walters (Tim Robbins) is arguing with his boss, Bob (Tony Shalhoub), about the car they hear coming into the shop, what make and model it is and what the trouble with it is, based on what they can hear. Bob sends out Ed to check because he sees the couple and assumes they're "college people" meaning they come from Princeton College. As soon as Ed sees Catherine, he falls for her.James, obnoxiously asks if someone there can work on a British engine, and Ed says, "May I look under the bonnet?" James, reassured by the use of the word 'bonnet' consents. Ed looks at it, looks at Catherie and pronounces, "You have no spark." There's clearly a double meaning here, referring to her relationship with James. James insists, "But what's wrong with it?" and Ed adds, "My guess is that you have a short stroke and premature ignition." He turns to Meg Ryan and says, "Does it ever feel that way?" She replies, "I'm sure I don't know what you mean" but it's clear that she gets the double entendre. Ed says he'll go check with his boss about fixing it, and goes in to tell his boss that he's in love, that time and space stopped, that he could see himself kissing Catherine in the future. Ed tells Catherine that fixing the car will take days, and she uses his phone to call a cab, giving the cab company and Ed her address for the invoice. In the process, she leaves behind a pocket watch. There's a brief moment where you see a hand move the watch under some magazines, but whose hand? And is it an accident? Or deliberate? The theme of accident versus deliberate intervention occurs repeatedly in the film.Ed goes to return the pocket watch and discovers that the address is the home of Albert Einstein, who is Catherine's uncle. Ed helps Einstein and his friends retrieve a badminton racket and in the process befriends them. It's clear to them that Ed likes Catherine. Einstein sees that his niece is unhappy with her fiance and wonders how to help Ed date her. She will only date a very intelligent man, and Ed is an auto mechanic. Ed says, "That's easy, lend me your brain for a couple of days." Einstein gets an idea.Einstein and his three friends hatch a plot to make Catherine think that Ed has developed cold fusion as a way to power a rocket to reach the stars so she'll desire him. They help Ed appear hyper-intelligent, helping him present a paper on cold fusion at a symposium and then helping him pass an IQ test administered by Catherine's fiance. Catherine, as a mathematician, is trying to figure out "Ed's" theory on cold fusion, but she struggles with it. Ed wants to tell Catherine he's a fake, but he can't quite seem to. Einstein and his buddies interfere with Catherine's relationship with James, and encourage Ed. James is presented as a sadistic, sexually cold man who puts Catherine down subtly.Of course, there's always a happily-ever-after ending, even though it takes President Eisenhower's appearance in the film, a convertible, a motorcycle, waltz music, engineered automotive troubles and a comet, to make it all come about.
    

I.Q.

Noise


            This synopsis is in german, feel free to translate...
--------------------------
In einer nicht allzu fernen Zukunft sind nach einer Klimakatastrophe die Städte zu Sicherheitszonen erklärt worden, die von der Sphinx Corporation kontrolliert werden. Der privilegierte Teil der Menschheit lebt innerhalb dieser geschützten Bereiche, alle anderen in unwirtlichen, wüstenähnlichen Orten außerhalb. Klonen und Genmanipulationen sind Normalität. Die ganze Biografie eines Menschen ist nun auf elektronischen Pässen gespeichert. Wer keinen Pass besitzt, muss sich illegal einen besorgen, um eine andere Identität vorzutäuschen und so in die Städte zu gelangen. William, ein Versicherungsagent, kommt von Seattle nach Shanghai, um eine "undichte Stelle" in der Passdruckerei der Sphinx Corporation aufzudecken. Er ist mit einem Empathie-Virus infiziert, der ihn die Gedanken anderer Menschen erkennen lässt. Zügig ermittelt William die Schuldige, Maria, die er aber deckt, weil sie eine rätselhafte Anziehungskraft auf ihn ausübt. Als er Maria zufällig wieder trifft, lädt William sie zum Essen ein und verbringt später die Nacht mit ihr. Dann fliegt er zurück zu seiner Familie in Amerika. Doch William spürt, dass er sich in Maria verliebt hat, und beschließt, sie wieder zu sehen. In Shanghai erfährt er, dass Marias Gedächtnis zwangsweise gelöscht und sein Kind abgetrieben wurde. Schließlich findet William heraus, dass Maria ein Klon seiner Mutter ist und deshalb ihre Beziehung gegen den "Code 46" verstößt. Doch die beiden wollen ihre Liebe nicht aufgeben und versuchen, sich dem Überwachungsapparat zu entziehen.____________________HERE YOU GO...-----------------------------------In a not-too-distant future after a climate catastrophe city security zones have been declared, controlled by the Sphinx Corporation. The privileged part of the humans lives within these protected areas, all others in hostile, desert locations outside. Cloning and genetic manipulation are usual. The whole story of a man is now on electronic passports. Who has no passport, must obtain one illegally to get another identity and be able to enter the cities. William Geld (Tom Robbins), an insurance agent of Seattle, comes to Shanghai for a "leak" in the passport printing of the Sphinx Corporation uncover. He has an empathy virus, which lets him recognize other people's thoughts. William soon identifies the culprit, María González (Samantha Morton), but he covers up for her because he feels an strange attraction for her. When he again meets Maria coincidentally, William invites her for dinner and spends the night with her. Then he flies back to his family in America. But William feels that he fell in love with Maria, and decides to see her again. In Shanghai, he learns that Maria's memory has forcibly be removed and his child was aborted. Finally, William finds out that Maria is a clone of his mother, and therefore their relationship infringes "Code 46". But the two do not want to give up their love and trying to escape from the surveillance society.
    

Code 46


            Working with his three friends at their new software development company Skullbocks, Stanford graduate Milo Hoffman (Ryan Phillippe) is contacted by CEO Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) of NURV (Never Underestimate Radical Vision) for a very attractive programming position: a fat paycheck, an almost-unrestrained working environment, and extensive creative control over his work. Accepting Winston's offer, Hoffman and his girlfriend, Alice Poulson (Claire Forlani), move to NURV headquarters in Portland, Oregon.Despite development of the flagship product (Synapse, a worldwide media distribution network) being well on schedule, Hoffman soon becomes suspicious of the excellent source code Winston personally provides to him, seemingly when needed most, while refusing to divulge the code's origin.After his best friend, Teddy Chin (Yee Jee Tso), is murdered, Hoffman discovers that NURV is stealing the code they need from programmers around the world including Chin and then killing them to cover their tracks. Hoffman learns that not only does NURV employ an extensive surveillance system to observe and steal code, the company has infiltrated the Justice Department and most of the mainstream media. Even his girlfriend is a plant, an ex-con hired by the company to manipulate him.While searching through a secret NURV database containing surveillance dossiers on employees, he finds that the company has information of a very personal nature about a friend and co-worker, Lisa Calighan (Rachel Leigh Cook). When he reveals to her that the company has this information, she agrees to help him expose NURV's crimes to the world. Coordinating with one of Hoffman's friends (Nate Dushku) from his old startup, they plan to use a local cable access station to hijack Synapse and broadcast their charges against NURV to the world. However, Calighan turns out to be a double agent, foils Hoffman's plan, and turns him over to Winston.Hoffman had already confronted Poulson and convinced her to side with him against Winston and NURV. When it became clear that Hoffman had not succeeded, a backup plan is put into motion by Poulson, the fourth member of Skullbocks (Tygh Runyan), and the incorruptible internal security firm hired by NURV. As Winston prepares to kill Hoffman, the second team successfully usurps one of NURV's own work centers "Building 21" and transmits the incriminating evidence as well as the Synapse code. Winston and his entourage are publicly arrested for their crimes. After parting ways with the redeemed Poulson, Hoffman rejoins Skullbocks.
    

Antitrust


            A spoof of Norse mythology. Erik (Tim Robbins), a young Viking, has no taste for rape and pillage, and suffers guilt over the death of Helga (Samantha Bond), an innocent woman killed during an attack on a village by Erik and other Vikings.The wise woman Freya (Eartha Kitt) teaches Erik that Fenrir the wolf has swallowed the sun, plunging the world into the grip of the age of Ragnarök. Erik resolves to travel to Asgard to petition the gods to end Ragnarök. To do so he must seek the "Horn Resounding" in the land of Hy-Brasil. The first note blown upon the Horn will take Erik and his crew to Asgard, the second awakens the gods, and the third brings the crew home.Swordmakers Keitel Blacksmith (Gary Cady) and his assistant Loki (Antony Sher) are opposed to Erik's plan, because peace would end the demand for weapons. Keitel joins Erik's crew planning to sabotage Erik's plans. Halfdan the Black (John Cleese) joins them, afraid that peace will mean the end of his reign, and sets sail in pursuit.Arriving at Hy-Brasil, Erik and crew are astonished to find it a sunlit land whose people are friendly (if musically untalented). Erik falls in love with Princess Aud (Imogen Stubbs), daughter of King Arnulf (Terry Jones). Aud warns the Vikings that should blood ever be shed upon Hy-Brasil, the entire island would sink beneath the waves. Erik and his crew defend Hy-Brasil against Halfdan's ship. In gratitude for Erik's having saved Hy-Brasil, King Arnulf presents him with the Horn Resounding. Loki steals the Horn's mouthpiece to prevent it from being sounded, and persuades Keitel to throw it in the sea. Snorri, one of Erik's men, catches them in the act, and Loki kills him. A single drop of the man's blood falls from Loki's dagger, triggering an earthquake that causes the island to begin sinking.Erik's crew, joined by Aud, prepare to escape in their ship with the Horn safely aboard, but Arnulf refuses to join them, denying that the island is sinking up to the very moment he and the other islanders are swallowed by the waves. Aud, who was able to recover the mouthpiece by chance, sounds the first note on the Horn. The ship is propelled over the edge of the flat Earth and into space, coming to rest upon the plain of Asgard. Erik sounds the second note to awaken the gods, and he and his crew approach the great Hall of Valhalla.Erik and the crew encounter old friends and enemies slain in battle. The gods are revealed to be petulant children who have no interest in answering mortal prayers. Odin persuades Fenrir to spit out the sun, but tells Erik that the end of Ragnarök will not bring peace to the world. Odin then informs Erik that he and his crew cannot return home. Nor may they remain in Valhalla, since they were not slain in battle; instead they are to be cast into the fiery Pit of Hel. Some of the Vikings who were killed in the sea-battle with Halfdan attempt to save them, but even as they are drawn into the Pit, they hear the Horn Resounding's third note, which flings them clear.Erik's crew, including the formerly dead men, immediately find themselves back in their home village. They are dismayed to find that Halfdan and his soldiers have arrived before them and are holding the villagers captive. Halfdan and his men are crushed to death by Erik's ship as it falls out of the sky with Harald aboard. As the villagers celebrate Erik's return and Halfdan's defeat, the sun rises, ending the age of Ragnarök.
    

Erik the Viking

Five Corners


            Carnelle (Hunter), an oversexed hellion who was orphaned as a young child, has always played second fiddle to her beautiful, older, Southern belle cousin -- a past Miss Firecracker contest winner. But Carnelle is ready to turn the tables. After all, she wants that crown. And by golly, she is going to succeed. Her aspirations are further turned when a long-lost brother-cousin, Delmont, recently released from psych ward, returns home, adding to the fiery comic. Hunter originated this role -- by tuns fiery and comical -- in the off-Broadway version of the movie, which was an important stepping -stone to her eventual film debut.
    

Miss Firecracker


            When car salesman Joey O'Brien (Robin Williams) gets the chance to redeem himself from all his past sales pitches, financial misdeals and relentless womanising, he is forced to confront all his demons in one very long afternoon.
    

Cadillac Man

Tapeheads


            In the year 2020 AD, a mission is launched with the goal of carrying humans to Mars for the first time. The mission's four crew members, upon arriving on the planet, discover a mysterious geologic formation in their vicinity. After transmitting their findings back to the command center on the World Space Station, they head for the site to try and learn more. When they arrive at the formation, they notice a strange sound, which they assume to be interference from their Mars Rover. While attempting to scan the formation with radar, a large vortex forms around the structure, which envelopes and kills two of the mission's crew. A third member was killed when a large rock breaks her visor, exposing her to the Martian atmosphere. Only the mission's commander, Luke Graham (Don Cheadle), survives. The formation also emits an extremely powerful EMP, which irreparably damages much of the electronic equipment on the spacecraft. Despite the damage, Graham manages to upload one transmission to the REMO (REsupply MOdule) orbiting Mars.After receiving Commander Graham's garbled message informing of his crew members' deaths, the Earth command center hastily dispatches another Mars mission. The crew of this new mission includes Commander Woodrow "Woody" Blake (Tim Robbins); Co-Commander Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise); and mission specialists Terri Fisher (Connie Nielsen) and Phil Ohlmyer (Jerry O'Connell). The goal of the mission is to investigate the tragedy and bring back any survivors. As the ship is being prepared for its orbital insertion around the red planet, a swarm of micrometeorites collides with the ship and compromises the ship's hull, causing an atmosphere leak. The crew works quickly to repair the hole, troubleshooting where the damage is located, and then using a liquid to help Woody apply the patch. Jim nearly asphyxiates in the incident but survives.Unbeknownst to the crew, the fuel tanks were also damaged, and when they ignite the main engines, the resulting fuel explosion destroys the ship. They quickly don pressure suits and abandon it, hoping to maneuver their way to the REMO. Circumstances are unfavorable, though, as the REMO is moving more quickly (in a slightly lower orbit) than the tethered astronauts. Woody concludes the only hope of a successful rendezvous with the REMO is for him to launch himself directly at it, using the remainder of his jet pack fuel, carrying a line from the others. He successfully attaches the cable to the REMO but is unable to stop himself as he does and floats helplessly away toward the planet. Terri, wanting to save him, decides to cut her line. Woody, not wanting Terri to be harmed, commits suicide by taking off his helmet.When the remaining crew arrive on the red planet, they find Luke, the captain of the first team, still alive. He seems a bit crazed from the isolation and the deaths of his crew but he's able to tell the rescuers about his crew's findings, and informs them that the formation found was the "face". He had spent the time alone attempting to learn the secrets of the mysterious structure. He shows the rescue team his most significant clue, a recording of the noise heard in the area of the formation. He had found, after several months of analysis, that the sound was a map of human DNA, in XYZ coordinates.Together, they discover that the mysterious signals are actually a prompt, requiring input of one missing pair of chromosomes which would complete human DNA. The crew dispatches a robot to send the completed signal, at which time an opening appears in the side of the structure. Curious, they venture inside, and are soon sealed in, and discover Earth-like atmospheric conditions. They find a large dark room, and once they step inside, a three-dimensional projection of the solar system appears.A humanoid hologram of a Martian appears, silently explaining that at some time in the distant past, Mars was hit by a "planet-killer" asteroid which decimated the Martian ecosystem. The Martians were forced to evacuate their home planet and find other places to settle. During their evacuation, however, they also dispatched elementary life forms of their own to the nearby planet Earth, which at the time of the Martian evacuation, contained no life forms. Over the billions of years following this "seed-scattering" (see panspermia), these life forms eventually became the humans who would one day land on Mars and be recognized as the descendants of that ancient Martian experiment. As the image of the Martian fades away, an invitation is offered for one of the astronauts to follow the Martians to one of their new home planets. Jim McConnell decides to go and after their farewells, the rest of the surviving crew head back to Earth. Jim stands in a cylinder that rapidly fills with clear liquid - after a few seconds submerged, he finds that he can breathe the fluid.As the rest of the crew head toward Earth they watch in curiosity as Jim, now inside a Martian craft, races away at speeds hundreds of times faster than their ship into deep space.
    

Mission to Mars

The Truth About Charlie


            The film begins with Howard the Duck (voiced by Chip Zien), who lives in a parallel universe inhabited by anthropomorphic ducks. Howard spends his days smoking, drinking and reading the latest issue of Playduck. One day, as Howard relaxes in his armchair, it begins to quake violently and propels him out of his apartment building and into outer space. He eventually crosses dimensions and ends up in Cleveland, Ohio. Howard encounters a woman being attacked by thugs and decides to help her out with his unique brand of "Quack Fu". After the thugs scamper, the woman introduces herself as Beverly (Lea Thompson) and decides to take Howard into her apartment and let him spend the night. The next day, Beverly takes Howard to a supposed scientist named Phil Blumbertt (Tim Robbins), whom Beverly hopes can help Howard return to his world. As Phil is revealed to be only a janitor, Howard resigns himself to life on Earth and rejects Beverly's aid. Howard later lands a job cleaning up at a local romantic spa. Due to unfair treatment by his boss, Howard quits the job and returns to Beverly, who plays in a band called "Cherry Bomb". At the club Cherry Bomb is performing at, Howard comes across Cherry Bomb's manager and confronts him when he bad-mouths the band. A fight ensues, in which Howard is victorious.Howard rejoins Beverly backstage and accompanies her back to the apartment, where Beverly elects Howard to be Cherry Bomb's new manager. The two begin to flirt and almost engage in sexual intercourse, but are interrupted when Blumburtt and two of his colleagues, Doctor Walter Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) and Larry (David Paymer), arrive and reveal how Howard came to this world: earlier, the scientists have been working on a dimensional-jumping device that just happened to be aimed at Howard's universe and brought him to Earth when it was activated. They theorize that Howard can be sent back to his world through this same process, so they drive Howard to the lab planning to send him back. However, the device malfunctions upon being used a second time, arousing the possibility of something else being brought to Earth this time around. Around this time, Jenning's body is taken over by a lifeform from another alternate dimension. At a diner, the lifeform introduces itself as the "Dark Overlord" and demonstrates its developing mental powers by assassinating table condiments. Howard then gets into a fight when the truckers in the diner begin to insult him. The fight results in Howard's capture and near-decapitation at the hands of the diner chef. However, the truckers are scared off when the Dark Overlord destroys the cafe and kidnaps Beverly, escaping in an articulated truck.Meanwhile, Howard finds Phil and frees him from a police car. On the run, they discover a light aircraft, which they use to hunt down the Dark Overlord and Beverly. Having returned to the lab, the Dark Overlord ties Beverly down to a metal bed, hoping to transfer another Dark Overlord into her body with the dimension machine. Howard and Phil return to the lab and supposedly destroy the Dark Overlord with an experimental "neutron disintegrator" laser. However, the Dark Overlord reveals itself as a monstrous stop-motion creature, Howard fires the neutron disintegrator at the beast oblitirating it. All the while, the dimension machine is in the process of bringing more Dark Overlords to Earth, leaving Howard with no choice but to destroy the machine. This results in Howard's loss of a ride home, a decision he comes to accept as Earth is now safe. Howard becomes Beverly's manager and hires Phil as an employee on her tour.
    

Tim Robbins

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