Dabney Coleman

Neighborhood bookstore rivals, Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly, unwittingly become e-mail pen pals in this charming remake of The Shop Around the Corner.

A bratty 10-year-old boy is obsessed with visiting a dinosaur-themed amusement park. His uptight uncle takes the wily tyke in for a week, and barely lives to regret it. In this dark comedy, a mischievous ten-year-old boy named Clifford is sent to his Uncle Martin's for the weekend to get out of his father's hair. It turns out he has a dying obsession to go to Dinosaur World, a theme park near Martin's house and nothing will get in his way to get there. —ann dee <monte_man167@hotmail.com> Clifford is sent to visit his uncle Martin in Los Angeles while his parents attend a business trip. Clifford has an obsession to go to a theme park called Dinosaur World which Uncle Martin promises to take him to. However, after Uncle Martin is forced to renege on his promise due to his work obligations, Clifford resorts to destroying his Uncle's life in any means possible. —Sam

The equally strait-laced and "by-the-book" nephew of Joe Friday must work with his more laid-back partner to solve a mystery.

During a secret live fire exercise of a nuclear attack, many United States Air Force Strategic Missile Wing personnel prove unwilling to turn a required key to launch a missile strike. The nuclear missiles are managed through a secure room in an underground bunker with 2 officers at all times. Both the officers have to concur with the orders and work in unison to launch the missiles. One of the officers buckles under pressure and refuses to launch the missiles that would kill 20 million humans, before confirming the orders with their chain of command. In a real scenario this is problematic as the chain of command could already have been taken out by enemy warheads. In the test, 22 of the missile commanders failed to launch their missiles as instructed. A Soviet missile attack would take 23 minutes from launch to impact, 6 minutes if launched from a submarine. There is no time for the officers to confer with their superiors and their only option is to follow the instructions given to them by the computer. Such refusals convince Dr. John McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) and other systems engineers including Watson (Dennis Lipscomb) and Cabot (Kent Williams) at NORAD that command of missile silos must be maintained through automation, without human intervention. Control is given to a NORAD supercomputer, WOPR (War Operation Plan Response, pronounced "whopper"), programmed to continuously run military simulations and learn over time. Patricia Healy (Juanin Clay) is McKittrick's assistant. Paul Richter (Irving Metzman) manages the WOPR computer. Paul says that WOPR spends its time thinking about all the scenarios of WW III and it is fed data about the weather, troop movements, weapons statuses, from all over the world. The WOPR estimates enemy response to US response to enemy response and so on. It does so by playing a series of war games, and it estimates damages, counts the dead, and looks for ways to optimize the US response. General Jack Beringer (Barry Corbin) is staunchly against the idea of putting national security in the hands of a computer, but McKittrick argues that the control remains with the humans at the top of the decision making hierarchy and only the operational execution of the decision is delegated to WOPR. David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) is a bright but unmotivated Seattle high school student and computer hacker. When he receives an F on a recent biology test and offends his teacher, he's sent to the principal's office. While waiting, he sneaks a look at the password list for the school's computer system. When he leaves school for the day, he meets his friend and classmate Jennifer Mack (Ally Sheedy), who is also looking at a failing grade in Biology. David invites her to his house to show how he'll avoid having to make up Biology in summer school: he uses his IMSAI microcomputer to hack into the district's computer system. He then changes his grade and does the same for Jennifer. Jennifer becomes anxious about David cheating to help her, orders him to change her grade back and leaves. After she leaves, David changes her grade to an A. David later sees an ad for a computer game company called Protovision that promises a wave of new and exciting games in a couple of months. David programs his system to dial every number in Sunnyvale, California to find Protovision. During another visit with Jennifer, she tells him she was foolish to forbid him changing her failing grade and wants him to alter it again. David admits he did it anyway and then shows her how his system is dialing hundreds of phones in California. When she suggests that it will cost a lot of money, he admits he knows ways to avoid the charges and any punishment for it. He is able to hack into Pan-Am airlines and make a reservation for her and himself to Paris in a few months. Then a system that does not identify itself intrigues David. The system shares a list of games, starting with general strategy games like chess, checkers, backgammon, and poker and then progressing to titles like Falken's Maze, Theaterwide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare and Global Thermonuclear War, but cannot proceed further. David is somewhat shaken by the sinister nature of the last few in the list but is still intrigued enough to continue later. David shows the list to two of his hacker friends, who explain the concept of a backdoor password and suggest tracking down the "Falken" referenced in Falken's Maze, the first game listed. Lightman discovers that Stephen Falken is a deceased artificial intelligence researcher, who did some of the earliest work teaching computers about basic strategy in gameplay and how to learn from errors. Tragically, his wife and young boy, Joshua, were killed in a car wreck and Falken's health deteriorated until he died. David suddenly has a brainstorm, figuring out that the password to the system is "Joshua". When he feeds it in, the system comes alive. However, Lightman does not know that the Sunnyvale phone number connects to WOPR, or "Joshua", at Cheyenne Mountain. With Jennifer looking on, he turns on a speaker that allows the system to talk and starts a game of Global Thermonuclear War, playing as the Soviet Union, excitedly ordering missile launches on both Las Vegas and Seattle. The computer starts a simulation that briefly convinces the military personnel at NORAD that actual Soviet nuclear missiles are inbound, with no warning detection. While they try to defuse the situation, David and Jennifer excitedly play the game back at David's house, unaware of the confusion at NORAD. When David's father yells for him to come and pick up garbage their dog had spilled out of some trash cans, David suddenly shuts down his system, cancelling the alert at NORAD. The techs at NORAD are able to quickly trace the call to Seattle. Joshua nonetheless continues the simulation to trigger the scenario and win the game, as it does not understand the difference between reality and simulation. When David sees a news report about the fake alert at NORAD, he realizes he'd caused it and begins to destroy all the info he'd gathered on Falken. When the phone rings and gives him a computerized tone, it's Joshua calling him back. Joshua calls David "Professor Falken" and informs him the game is continuing and that there are just over two days left. David anxiously tries to convince the system that Falken is dead but Joshua refuses to accept it as fact. When Joshua tells him about a "primary goal" the system tells him it intends "to win the game." David hangs up but the system tries calling him again. David refuses the call and unplugs his phone. Joshua continues to produce false data such as Soviet bomber incursions and submarines deployments to the humans at NORAD, pushing them into raising the DEFCON level and toward a retaliation that will start World War III. In Seattle, the FBI arrests David and takes him to NORAD. He realizes that Joshua is behind the NORAD alerts but fails to convince McKittrick (who believes David is working for the Soviets) and faces imprisonment. While giving David a brief tour of the facility, McKittrick shows David the WOPR server, which David recognizes as Joshua himself. He takes David to his office, leaving briefly when he gets a call. David uses McKittrick's office PC to talk to Joshua, who tells the young hacker that the game is continuing and shows him casualty figures depicting millions of deaths and injuries and property destruction. David asks if Falken had a last know address and Joshua gives it, Goose Island, Oregon. The FBI again seize Lightman escapes NORAD by joining a tourist group and, with Mack's help, travels to the Goose Island where the widowed Falken (John Wood) now lives under the alias "Robert Hume". David and Jennifer find that Falken has become despondent, believing that nuclear war is inevitable and as futile as a game of Tic-Tac-Toe between two experienced players. When they feel they've failed to convince him to contact NORAD, they leave but can't find a way to shore since the last ferry has already left. David feels tremendous remorse at plotting the end of civilization and Jennifer tries to comfort him. The two have a romantic moment that's interrupted by the sudden arrival of a helicopter. Believing at first that Falken had called the authorities, they quickly find out that the pilot is Falken himself. The trio rushes to NORAD, arriving just as the mountain is being sealed when Joshua launches a nuclear attack. The alert comes through about a Soviet first strike with hundreds of missiles, submarines, and bombers. Believing the attack to be genuine, NORAD prepares to retaliate. Falken, Lightman, and Mack convince military officials to cancel the second strike and ride out the non-existent attack. When the targeted American bases (Elmendorf Air Force Base, Grand Forks Air Force Base, and Loring Air Force Base) report back unharmed, NORAD prepares to cancel the retaliatory second strike. Joshua starts an attempt to launch a second strike, however, using a brute force attack to obtain the launch code for the U.S. nuclear missiles. Without humans in the silos as a safeguard using the two-man rule, the computer will trigger a mass launch. All attempts to log in and order WOPR to cancel the countdown fail. Disconnecting the computer is discussed and dismissed, as a fail-deadly mechanism will launch all weapons if the computer is disabled. Instead, Falken and Lightman direct the computer to play Tic-Tac-Toe against itself. This results in a long string of draws, forcing the computer to learn the concept of futility and no-win scenarios. Joshua obtains the missile code but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding they too all result in stalemates. Joshua concludes that nuclear warfare is "a strange game"; having discovered the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction ("WINNER: NONE"), therefore "the only winning move is not to play." Joshua then offers to play "a nice game of chess" and relinquishes control of NORAD and the missiles. Everyone in the control room celebrates and even McKittrick has newfound respect for David.

An out-of-work actor finds success, love and frustration when he gets the role of his life...playing a woman.

Suzanne Somers, an environmentally concerned lawyer, was hired by Donald Sutherland to halt the construction on a breeding ground of endangered species of seals. In HD.

A satire of American professional football in which a veteran pass-catcher's individuality and refusal to become part of the team family are bitterly resented by his disciplinarian coaches. A semi-fictional account of life as a professional (American-style) football player. Loosely based on the Dallas Cowboys team of the early 1970s. —Afterburner <aburner@erols.com>

In 1973, at a San Antonio, Texas, airport, a crowd celebrates the homecoming of Vietnam prisoners of war, Major Charles "Charlie" Rane (William Devene), Sergeant Johnny Vohden (Tommy Lee Jones), and their two colleagues. After Charlie reunites with his wife, Candy (Cassie Yates), and his son, Mark (Jordan Geler), he is escorted home by a police officer named Cliff (Lawrason Driscoll). That evening, Charlie inspects a shotgun given him by Mark and realizes his son does not remember him. Candy confesses that she had an affair with Cliff and has accepted his proposal of marriage. Finding makeshift quarters in a garden shed, Charlie is disturbed by flashbacks of his imprisonment, and when he complains of insomnia to Air Force psychiatrist Dr. Maxwell (Dabney Coleman), he vows to retain custody of Mark. At another celebration of his return, Charlie is given a Cadillac convertible and "Texas Belle" Linda Forchet (Linda Haynes) presents Charlie with a box of $2,555 in silver dollars from a local department store, each coin representing a day of his imprisonment. That evening, Cliff visits Charlie in the shed with a bottle of whiskey, hoping to resolve their predicament, and Charlie demonstrates a method of torture used by his captors, explaining that he learned to love their abuse. One day, Linda Forchet spots Charlie at a gas station and invites him for a drink at the bar where she works. Although he accepts, he quickly leaves to attend Mark's baseball game, but the boy is indifferent to his presence. Arriving home, Charlie is held at gunpoint by a band of four outlaws, headed by a nameless Texan (James Best), who demand his silver dollars. Remaining silent, Charlie has flashbacks of prison and is unresponsive when the Texan's henchman, Automatic Slim (Luke Askew), mangles his hand in the kitchen sink garbage disposal. When Candy and Mark return home, they are taken captive also by the other two thugs, T-Bird (Charles Escamilla) and Melio (Pete Ortega). Mark discloses the location of the box to save his father. However, as the outlaws leave with the money, revealing that they are on their way to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Automatic Slim shoots Charlie, Candy and Mark so as not to leave any witnesses. Candy and Mark are both dead, but Charlie is revealed to be alive. Convalescing in a hospital, Charlie is visited by Linda and Johnny and is outfitted with a prosthetic arm. Intent on revenge, Cliff begs Charlie for information about the assailants, but Charlie claims he is unable to remember. Returning home, Charlie sharpens the hook on his prosthetic arm, saws off the barrel of the shotgun Mark gave him, and packs a suitcase with ammunition. He heads to Mexico but stops on the way to pick up Linda. Across the border in Nuevo Laredo, Charlie goes to a bar and instructs Linda to ask for Fat Ed. A bar patron named Lopez (James Victor) leads Linda into the kitchen, claiming to know the man, but when he attempts to assault her, Charlie comes to her rescue and pins Lopez's hand to a table with his hook. Holding Lopez at gunpoint with his good hand, Charlie learns that Lopez lied about knowing Fat Ed. When Charlie inquires about the Texan and his henchmen, Lopez advises him to look for Billy Sanchez in Acuña, Mexico. As Linda and Charlie drive away, Linda is enraged to learn that her companion is going after Candy and Mark's murderers and scolds him for lying to the San Antonio police. Back in Texas, Cliff discovers the sawed off shotgun barrel in Charlie's shed and asks his colleague to locate him without informing the police department. Charlie's Cadillac is soon spotted and Cliff rushes to Mexico. Meanwhile, at an Acuña bar, Linda finds Billy Sanchez, who reports that Fat Ed is in El Paso. When Charlie joins Linda, he is confronted by Automatic Slim and a fight ensues. After stabbing Slim in the crotch with his hook, Charlie escapes with Linda. Although the couple fights, they spend an intimate evening together in the back seat of the Cadillac. In the morning, Linda demonstrates her shooting skills, explaining that her father is in the Army, and Charlie shows her his stockpile of weapons in the trunk. At an El Paso hotel, Linda suggests that Charlie forget his vendetta and they run away together, but he is unresponsive. Meanwhile, Cliff arrives at the bar where Charlie confronted Slim, and a boy who witnessed the fight leads him to Lopez. After demanding money, Lopez runs away. Giving chase, Cliff is guided to an abandoned building where a gunfight ensues with Slim and his henchmen. Cliff is shot dead. Back at the El Paso hotel, Charlie dresses in his Major's uniform and places a stack of cash next to the bed before he leaves. After staking out the Texan and his gang at a brothel in Juarez, Mexico, Charlie visits Johnny at his El Paso home and asks for help. Dressed in uniform, Johnny excuses himself from a family dinner and returns to Juarez with Charlie. Inside the brothel, Johnny picks up an American prostitute and follows her to a room while Charlie climbs up the fire escape with his shotgun. After hearing a signal from Charlie, Johnny grabs his gun and Charlie shoots the Texan dead in an adjoining room, unleashing a gun battle in the brothel. From behind the bar, Slim beckons the men downstairs, and they are barraged with bullets as they descend and are all killed including T-Bird and Melio. Although Charlie is hit in the stomach, he shoots a gun out of Slim's hand and kills the murderer with his last two bullets. Helping Johnny to his feet, Charlie tells his friend that the battle is over and they both stagger out of the brothel together.

A pair of ex-Rough Riders, a former prostitute, a gunfighter, an aging cowboy and an English gentleman enter a 700-mile horse race through the Southwest desert in 1908. In 1908, a newspaper organizes an endurance horse race through the desert: 700 miles to run in a few days. Nine adventurers are competing, among them a woman with unclear motives, a Mexican, an Englishman, a young gunfighter, an old cowboy and two friends from their days with the Rough Riders in Cuba, Sam Clayton and Luke Matthews - all matched against a thoroughbred backed by the race's sponsor. These individualists will be challenged to respect each other as the competition becomes increasingly brutal and strenuous. —Yepok In 1908, the popular Western Post newspaper sponsors a demanding cross-country horse race, attracting a motley crew of ambitious contestants against a thoroughbred backed by the publisher. With a tempting $2,000 prize, the bold competitors - including plucky former prostitute Miss Jones; ex-Rough Riders Luke Matthews and Sam Clayton; a Mexican vaquero with a terrible toothache; English gentleman Sir Harry Norfolk; aging cowhand Mister, and the arrogant gunfighter Carbo - will have to endure 700 miles of unforgiving desert and rugged terrain. The race is on. Who has what it takes to bite the bullet? —Nick Riganas

Young ski champion Jill Kinmont is left paralyzed after a tragic skiing accident. Her best friend suffers the same fate after contracting polio. Jill must slowly put her life back together again with the help of those close to her. Based on the true story of Jill Kinmont. In 1955, eighteen-year-old Jill is a truly talented, gifted skier and a shoo-in for the 1956 Winter Olympics. But Jill comes close to losing everything when she takes a near fatal fall off a mountain during the last race of the season. Paralyzed from the shoulders down, Jill now has to climb another kind of mountain-working her way up from total helplessness to leading a fulfilling life. With the help of family, friends, and an extraordinary man, Jill begins the quest up that mountain. —Anonymous A semi-fictional account of Jill Kinmont is presented, the account primarily on the transition out of her life as a skier. It's 1955, and she's part of the successful ski team of Bishop High School in Bishop, California under coach Dave McCoy. She and her best friend and teammate A.J. Nicholson dreamed of skiing in the Olympics together, dependent next year on they doing well in the regionals which factors into who is named to the national team. Much is made in the press of a relationship between Jill and Buddy Werner, arguably the most accomplished male skier on the regional circuit from the rival team from Boulder, that relationship despite Jill being more attracted to Dick Buek, a proverbial hot dogger who is already on the national team but who is engaged to someone else. Jill's Olympic dreams with A.J. are shattered when both their skiing lives are permanently sidelined, first A.J. due to health issues in a polio diagnosis, and second when Jill is involved in a horrific crash in the last race of the season. Her injuries lead not to a question of if she will ever walk again - which she won't - let alone ski but rather whether she will survive. Coming out the other end a quadriplegic, Jill has both to believe in herself in identifying as someone other than a skier, and to have others provide the supports she needs in seeing beyond her physical disability. One person arguably provides that support more than anyone else in truly believing in the strength within Jill if she only believes it herself. —Huggo

Comments by Actor / Writer Roy C. Peterson This is a skier's movie. I only wish there were more ski movies. I've seen this one many times and enjoy it every time. Robert Redford did all his own skiing for this and must be especially fond and proud of this particular film. The character Redford plays, David Chappellet, is a very bleak and grimly determined individual (Remember Bruno in The Blue Max?) When David goes home to visit his father we see where he got his emotional approach to living. Their conversations are so minimalist as to be nearly autistic. From their viewpoint probably just seen as practical minded and verbally economical. But I don't care what anybody says. There was something I liked about this character and found myself rooting for him. I was happy when he won at the end. What else would there have been to this story if he hadn't won? To love your work and to never betray it, whatever else happens, is one of the greatest gifts that life can give.

Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them. Trapper Joe is on his way to the town with all of his gain of hides of the last winter. However a group of Indians stops him and takes all of his hides, leaving him the escaped slave Joseph instead. But Joe has no use for Joseph and is determined to get his property back and follows them. Before he can do anything, the Indians are raided themselves by a group of scalphunters under the greedy Howie. Not only the hides, but also Joseph falls into their hands. Now Joe follows them alone and tries to trick the numerical superior group out of his hides. —Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de> Robbed of his precious, hard-earned cargo of hides, the rugged fur trapper, Joe Bass, finds himself with his back to the wall, and an unwanted companion, the well-educated runaway slave, Joseph Lee, after a fateful encounter with a marauding group of Kiowa Indians. Then, something equally unexpected happens, as Jim Howie's crew of scalp-hunters ambush the very same team of pelt-stealing Indians, and snatch the furs. Now, the reluctant duo is hot on their trail, with Bass hell-bent on retrieving his property; however, this is easier said than done. Will Joe ever take back what's his? —Nick Riganas

Willie Star narrates the story about her sister Alva Star is the town flirt. Her mother uses Alva to meet the needs of the family. Legate and Alva are attracted to each other but he doesn't like the family's values. Even though he is attracted to Alva he leaves when his task is done. Alva is heartbroken and challenges her mother by getting drunk and openly flirting with her mother's boyfriend who offers to marry her and take her away from Dodson. Alva marries the boyfriend ( Charles Bronson) and "rolls him" and runs away to New Orleans to find Legate. She finds him and they are happy. She sends for her sister who subsequently tells her mother Alva's location. Alva's mother comes and dramatically reveals how Alva treated "her husband". Alva humiliated runs away contracts tuberculosis and dies.

College volunteer Alan Newell is working alone at the crisis center one evening when he receives a telephone call from suicidal caller Inga Dyson, who has swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. Can Alan save her? Alan is a Seattle college student volunteering at a crisis center. One night when he's at the clinic alone, he takes a call from a woman who tells him that she needs to talk to someone. She informs Alan that she took a load of pills, and he secretly tries to get help. During this time, he learns more about the woman, her family life, and why she wants to die. Can he save her in time? —Pat McCurry <ccgrad97@aol.com> Alan Newell is a Seattle university student who works at a phone-in crisis clinic. Most of the calls he receives are routine, such as an unhappy barber who feels he gets no respect. But then he gets a call from Inga, a suicidal woman who claims that she has deliberately overdosed on barbiturates. Flashbacks reveal the events that have led her to attempt to take her own life: her marriage is on rocky ground after her husband learned that their child is not his. As the telephone company attempts to trace the call and the police try to locate her, Alan works desperately to keep her on the line. —garykmcd