Betty Thomas

At the Bureau of National Security headquarters, BNS Special Agent Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) is accosted by his rival agent, Carlos (Gary Cole), before being debriefed on his next mission. Scott is assigned to recover a stolen fighter plane sold to arms dealer Arnold Gundars (Malcolm McDowell). The plane is known as the "Switchblade" and is invisible to both radar and the naked eye. The BNS learns that Gundars is sponsoring Middleweight world boxing champion Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy)'s next match and is using the event to auction off the plane. The agency has contacted Robinson and assigned him to be the civilian cover for Scott's mission. Scott and Robinson travel to Budapest, where Scott plans to penetrate Gundars' compound during a party taking place that night just before the fight. The duo clashes from the beginning, with Robinson treating Scott as a new member of his entourage. Robinson is initially wary of Scott's penetration plan but is convinced after Scott frightens Robinson while maneuvering the plane and gives Robinson a pair of contacts that allow Robinson to see whatever Scott sees. In Budapest, Robinson is kidnapped after walking off with a local woman and interrogated. Scott bursts in, frees Robinson, and fights the kidnappers before revealing that the entire situation was a test. The woman is Rachel Wright (Famke Janssen), a fellow BNS agent and the object of Scott's affections. At Gundars's party, Robinson replaces Gundars's pen with a duplicate fitted with a tracking device before confronting his European challenger in the party's boxing ring. Scott, posing as a member of Robinson's entourage, uses this as a diversion to enter Gundars' private office and hack his computer. Robinson arrives unexpectedly and trips an alarm. The two are forced to escape, a task hindered by Scott's defective equipment. After a chase spanning much of Budapest, Scott and Robinson manage to evade their pursuers by hiding in a sewer. After returning to base, Robinson coaches Scott into winning the heart of Agent Wright (by feeding him lines from the song, Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye). Scott succeeds but is interrupted by movement on the pen tracking device. He tracks Gundars to a bathhouse, which Scott believes is a dead end. However, Robinson has a hunch that the plane is hidden in the building, leading the two into a fight with Gundars's men. Gundars speeds off in his car, with Wright in hot pursuit. Wright's car explodes, stunning Scott, who blames Robinson for her death. The two engage in a public confrontation that leads to Robinson's arrest. Nonetheless, Scott convinces the BNS that the operation can continue and tracks Gundars down once again. Meanwhile, Robinson clears up his arrest and reaches the arena just in time for his fight, his serious demeanor unnerving his entourage. At the top of a bridge, Scott finds Gundars with terrorists fitting the plane with a nuclear missile. Scott takes the men by surprise and forces them to surrender, before being disarmed by an alive Agent Wright, who reveals she is a double agent. Wright tortures Scott for the Switchblade's activation codes. Scott activates the contact lens gadget, allowing Robinson to see the dilemma as he battles his opponent in the ring. Robinson is taken aback, but quickly recovers, knocks out his opponent, and departs for the bridge. Upon arrival, Robinson sets off a firefight which kills many of the terrorists. A few terrorists are killed by Carlos, providing back-up by parachute. After Carlos lands, Robinson infers that Carlos is also corrupt. When Carlos provokes Kelly, he knocks him out, scattering the terrorists for them to take cover. Other terrorists and Gundars are killed by Rachel. Robinson happens to take out the remaining terrorists. After the bomb on the plane is blown up (but it did not blow up the plane), Robinson appears to tell Rachel to put Carlos' gun down. She tells him that she is with BNS. Wright makes up a lie that the BNS (herself included) suspected that Carlos was corrupt and says that Mac and she pretended to team up with him so that they can finally nail him and uses this to convince the others that she is innocent. The confusion leads to a fight between Scott and Carlos, allowing Wright to escape with Gundars' briefcase, which containing sensitive information and is worth billions. With Robinson in tow, Scott attempts to fly the Switchblade away, but it crashes into the river below seconds after take-off. While in the water, Robinson discovers the nuclear weapon. Scott realizes the mission is a success after all, and Robinson remarks that he will be recognized as a hero. 36 hours later, in Monte Carlo, Scott and Robinson track down Agent Wright and place her under arrest, as she remarks that she is glad the two received deserving press coverage. Scott turns up a copy of USA Today and sees a picture of Carlos in a parade with President Bush, receiving credit for the operation. Robinson takes this news hard and refuses to accompany Scott to BNS headquarters for a mission debrief.

Gwen Cummings (Sandra Bullock) spends her nights in a drunken haze with her boyfriend, Jasper (Dominic West). She ruins her sister (Elizabeth Perkins) Lily's wedding by showing up late and disheveled, delivering a drunken, rambling speech, and knocking over the wedding cake. Intoxicated, Gwen steals a limousine from the reception, tries to locate a cake store, and winds up losing control of the car and crashing into a house. She is given a choice between jail time or 28 days in a rehab center, and she chooses rehab. Gwen is introduced to a variety of patients while in treatment: Oliver (Mike O'Malley) (a hyper-sexual cocaine addict), Daniel (Reni Santoni) and Roshanda (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) (alcoholics), Bobbi Jean (Diane Ladd) (an older addict), Gerhardt (Alan Tudyk) (a gay man whose addiction is not specified), and Cornell (Steve Buscemi), the rehab facility's director (a recovered drug addict and alcoholic). Her roommate is young Andrea (Azura Skye), a heroin addict who sporadically self-harms and is a fan of the fictitious soap opera Santa Cruz. Initially, Gwen is angry and resistant to taking part in any of the treatment programs on offer, refusing to admit that she is an alcoholic. On visiting day, Jasper shows up and slips her a bottle of medication, then the two sneak off for a day of drinking and drugging. Later, Gwen returns to the facility, clearly inebriated. The next day, Gwen is confronted by Cornell. He informs her that she's being kicked out of rehab the next day and will be going to jail instead. Gwen angrily denies that she has a problem with alcohol, that she can stop anytime that she wants. Ignored, she angrily makes her way back to her room, where she rifles through her tissue box to get to her smuggled drugs. She puts a pill in her mouth but quickly spits it back out, then tosses the open bottle out the third-story window. All throughout the day, Gwen experiences withdrawal symptoms. She shuns the meetings and any activities, all the while desperately trying to push through her physical discomfort on her own. Later that evening, in a moment of weakness, she attempts to climb out her window and retrieve the discarded medicines. She falls, severely spraining her ankle, and is rescued by Eddie (Viggo Mortensen), a pro baseball player and fellow addict, who is just arriving as a new patient. The next morning, Gwen asks Cornell for another chance, finally convinced that anyone who would climb out of a three-story window to chase a high might have a problem. He relents; and Gwen finally begins to participate in the recovery process, growing closer to her fellow addicts and her roommate, Andrea. Gwen discovers that Eddie is also a fan of Santa Cruz, and their fellow group participants join Eddie and Andrea in catching up on tapes of the show. During therapy sessions, Gwen experiences flashbacks of a childhood that included a thrill-seeking addict mother who died of an overdose when Gwen was about six, leaving young Lily and Gwen to be raised by an aunt. On one of his visits, Jasper proposes to Gwen, bringing champagne to celebrate. Not wanting to jeopardize her newfound sobriety, Gwen throws the champagne into the lake. Later, her fellow addicts try to encourage her to see that Jasper isn't taking her sobriety seriously and to be careful. At some point, Gwen's sister Lily attends a group therapy session but leaves in disgust when Gwen become dismissive of Lily's recollections and resentments of her younger sister's drunken antics (specifically the toast at Lily's wedding where she called her husband a sucker and a compromise). Eddie and Gwen's friendship grows closer. Afraid to share what she'd done as a practicing alcoholic for fear of looking bad to Eddie, they share a moment when Eddie tells her that's just what she's done. She is just fine as she is. They are come upon by Jasper, who showed up unannounced. Jasper then proceeds to insult and pick a fight with Eddie, shoving him. Eddie punches him before Gwen stops any further violence. Eddie walks off, and Gwen and Eddie's friendship becomes estranged. Gwen's roommate, Andrea, is soon to be released and has been agitated and moody at the prospect, as well as heartbroken that her mother has never visited her during her entire stint in rehab. Gwen discovers Andrea dead in their bathroom, clearly having overdosed. Andrea's death leaves Gwen devastated and perhaps wiser as to how an addict's behavior affects others. Gwen commits herself to restoring her relationship with her sister. Gwen and Lily reconcile, and Gwen leaves treatment, but not before Eddie warns her that Jasper is dangerous to her sobriety. Back in New York, Jasper tries to make amends to Gwen for his behavior. Reconciling, Gwen tries to help Jasper to understand what needs to change in their relationship to support her recovery; but she soon sees that Jasper doesn't take her sobriety seriously. Seeing old party friends, Jasper wants to join them, demonstrating that he won't change his lifestyle or adjust to her needs and abstentions as a recovering addict. Gwen comes to terms with the fact that they are too different now and starts to see that recovery, though an everyday struggle, might be attainable. She breaks up with Jasper and walks away for good. Sometime later, she is reunited with a sober Gerhardt at a floral shop. In a post-credit scene, Eddie recognizes a Santa Cruz character, Falcon, arrive as a new patient at the rehab facility.

Preston Meyers and his best friend, Denise, meet up after their graduation ceremony. Preston has just learned that Amanda Beckett, a girl he's been infatuated with for the past four years, is now single. He talks Denise into going to the huge after-graduation bash at Molly's house so he can give Amanda a love letter he's been working on for years. Of course, Molly's parents are not home, so the party is a free-for-all. Also at the party is Kenny Fisher, a.k.a. "Special K." Kenny is a short, white kid who acts like a black kid. He speaks the lingo and wears all the hip, urban clothes. Kenny used to be Denise's best friend in grade school, but he moved on when they got into middle school. He wanted to be a cool kid, so he left her behind and even harassed her in high school. Amanda's ex-boyfriend, Mike Dexter, is at the party as well. He decided to break up with Amanda because he'd soon be going off to college and having sex with all kinds of other girls. He tries to get his three best friends, all jock-types, to break up with their girlfriends, too. Another guy at the party is the school geek and misfit William Lichter. Poor William has been tortured and bullied for years by Mike. He's out for revenge as he and his nerdy friends plan to get Mike drunk and take naked pictures of him and his friends in a gay embrace. At the house party, Preston tries to get up the nerve to talk to Amanda, he leaves Denise on her own. We find that she hasn't really got any friends and no one at the party knows her. After realizing she doesn't belong, she decides to leave. But a brownie smacks her in the side of the head, so she has to seek a bathroom to clean up. Meanwhile, Kenny is determined to lose his virginity at the party and he's narrowed it down to 10 "lucky" finalists. Once he realizes that none of them want to get with him, he decides that anyone will do. He hears a girl say that she wanted to get back at her cheating boyfriend and she was going to sleep with the next guy who talked to her. 'Special K' takes advantage of overhearing the conversation and goes to freshen up in the bathroom. Unfortunately, there is a huge line, so he gets Molly to let him upstairs (where NO ONE is supposed to go) to use that bathroom. The doorknob is broken, so he shouldn't shut the door all the way. Kenny and Denise end up locked in the bathroom and we learn all about their past and get to see them reconcile. They eventually have sex and then get in an argument about it. Meanwhile, Preston is having a hard time talking to Amanda, who is being consoled by her airhead friends and hit on by every guy in the place. At one point, a friend embarrasses Preston in front of Amanda by talking about how he'd puked in his backpack years before. Mike meets up with a guy named Trip McNeely, who was a "sexual icon" in his high school years. Trip tells Mike that the biggest mistake he made was breaking up with his long-term girlfriend when he went to college because he thought he'd be getting with all kinds of girls there. Mike realizes he made a mistake with Amanda and tries to get back with her. She refuses him and in his humiliation he starts drinking heavily. William sees his opportunity, but is getting drunk himself. They spend time talking about things and Mike apologizes to William about being a jerk to him all these years. Amanda is talking to her cousin Ron about Mike, and Ron grabs her and kiss her. Preston goes inside with the letter just in time to see this scene. Heartbroken, he leaves. Amanda pushes Ron away, disgusted. Outside, a shattered Preston tosses the letter in the trash and heads home. Amanda sits down inside the house, wondering what is next. Preston's letter is knocked out of the trash and gets stuck to a girl's shoe. After being brought into the house, it ends up in front of Amanda. She reads it and melts. But she has no idea who Preston is. She goes home and begins tearing down the memories she had with Mike. Preston's letter helped her realize she was special and that she was worth much more than just being Mike's girlfriend. Also part of the story is the band scheduled to play during the party. They are excited that perhaps an acquaintance of a famous rocker may be there. As they begin to play, they have a fight about what some of the band members are wearing. Eventually, they decide to get back together, only as soon as they begin to finally play, the police show up to bust the party. When the cops show up at the party, it is way out of control. William tells Mike they have to get out of there and they run outside. Unfortunately, Mike runs to the pool house which is where William's nerdy friends are waiting to chloroform Mike and his buddies for the picture-taking. They ambush Mike and William and take gay pictures of them before they realize what they've done. Mike and William end up in jail. Denise is out walking home as Kenny drives up beside her. He says he's sorry for the fight they had and they make up and head to a diner for breakfast. Outside the diner, Denise goes to talk to Preston about what happened and he tells her Amanda didn't feel the same way. William wakes up in jail and learns from an officer that Mike has taken all the heat, saying he beat William up and took the naked pictures of him. The next morning, William heads to the diner to thank Mike, but Mike is acting like his old self again, telling William to get lost. Stung by Mike's betrayal, William walks out of the diner, vowing never to see or talk to Mike again. Preston goes home and the next day he heads to the train station to go off to school. Amanda finds him there and thanks him for the letter. They decide that since he's leaving, they can't be together. She says she should probably be alone for a while anyway. As she walks away, they both turn and run to each other. They decide to try to make it work long-distance. They write to each other every day and have never been happier. THE END.

The original 1970s TV family is now placed in the 1990s, where they're even more square and out of place than ever. Mike Brady and his wife Carol have just only one week to come up with $20,000 in back taxes or their house is sold and they'll have no choice but to move. And it's up to their kids to secretly raise money and save the house before they lose it to their scheming next-door neighbor, Larry Dittmeyer. —Anthony Pereyra <hypersonic91@yahoo.com> This movie picks up the Brady clan and plops them down in the 1990s with their original naivete intact. Their next-door neighbor, Larry Dittmeyer, is in charge of acquiring land for a new residential mini-mall, and they are the last holdouts on selling their land. Unbeknownst to them, he has also been receiving and concealing their mail, which includes overdue notices on property taxes. $20,000 is necessary to save their house from auction, and when their kids find out, they secretly go about raising money to save it. —Rick Gregory <rag.apa@email.apa.org> In the 1990s and even the Bradys get the blues. Mike and Carol have just one week to come up with $20,000 before their house is sold to their scheming next-door neighbor, Larry Dittmeyer. To make matters worse, Marcia gets a swollen nose on prom night, Cindy is addicted to tattling, and Jan is hearing a psychotic inner voice crying, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" —Corey Semple

A soon to be divorced Beverly Hills socialite is determined to prove to her husband and herself that she can finish what she starts out to do, by becoming a den mother to a troop of Beverly Hills Girl Scouts. As Phyllis, a Beverly Hills housewife, is in the middle of a divorce, she tries to find focus in her life by taking over her daughter Hannah's Wilderness Girl troop. Among the girls are Tiffany, (whose father has to bribe to attend meetings), Emily (the daughter of an out of work actor, whose financial difficulties hinders her wanting to participate in certain activities), the neurotic Tessa (whose parents divorce has forced her into therapy twice a week), the hostile Chica (whose parents are too busy with their own lives to even remember her birthday) and Claire (the child star who see the wilderness girls as her chance to lead a "normal" life). Phyllis then takes the girls camping at a Beverly Hills hotel and earns patches relating to material things. The district leader, Velda, feels the troop should be disbanded. However, the head of the Wilderness Girls organization believes that as long as Phyllis has taken an active interest in the girls, that is the only thing that's important. Then Velda begins to sabotage the girls endlessly. —Theresa Phyllis Nefler, a soon to be divorced Beverly Hills society wife, is determined to prove to her husband, Freddy, and herself that she can finish what she starts out to do. She soon realizes that being a Wilderness Girls den mother to a troop of Beverly Hills-bred girls is not as easy as simply buying cookies. —Michael Escober <m2e2@poboxes.com>