Elliott Gould

The pace of the narrative gets sloppy at times and there are a few scenes that could have been done away with.

It`s bolder. Riskier. The most dazzling heist yet. Double-crossing Vegas kingpin Willy Bank has gone too far. Danny Ocean`s crew wants to hit him where it hurts: in his wallet.

Claire Goldstein is a gifted pianist, but the same week that none of her friends pass a major competition, including her boyfriend Jeremy, he dumps her. An earthquake in San Francisco damages her apartment, so she must cross town to live with her parents. Her sister is about to get married; her mom is into the occult; her dad is withdrawing and losing his job. Claire obsesses about Jeremy, despite her girlfriends' advising her how to interest other men ("look mysterious, like Mona Lisa") and taking her to parties. Her sweet teacher, Bennett, gets her auditions, but she blows them off. Then, she meets Eddie. Is he the key to her rejoining the human race?

Melvin Smiley (Mark Wahlberg) has a good life thanks to his talents as a contract-killer but has a very working-class mentality going about his life, in combination with his constant struggles to maintain two romantic relationships. One is with the demanding and demeaning Chantel (Lela Rochon), who does not accept his work, and the other with Pam (Christina Applegate), who knows nothing of his job. Melvin is somewhat of a pushover, trying to appease all of Chantel's demands, even her most expensive wishes (like paying the next installment of $25K on her mortgage), as well as rolling over whenever one of his co-workers takes credit for his achievements. Chantel is cheating on Melvin and knows that he is engaged to Pam on the side. Pam has also taken $50K out of their savings account to loan to her parents, who are unable to get a loan to start a business due to their bad credit history in the past. Melvin carries out entire heists by himself (taking all the risks), while his co-workers wait for him outside to finish the job. But in front of the boss, they push Melvin behind to take all the credit. Perhaps as a result of his helplessness in asserting himself, throughout the early scenes, Melvin is often seen drinking Maalox to relieve a developing stress-induced ulcer. Feeling underpaid for their work for mob boss Paris (Avery Brooks), the assassin team of Melvin, Cisco (Lou Diamond Phillips), Crunch (Bokeem Woodbine), Vince (Antonio Sabato Jr.) and Gump (Robin Dunne) take an independent job, kidnapping Keiko Nishi (China Chow), the teenage daughter of local electronics magnate Jiro Nishi (Sab Shimono), for a hefty ransom. Melvin poses as her limo driver and picks her up from school. Her boyfriend Lance tries to sexually assault Keiko in the back of the limo and Melvin shoots him. Despite the kidnapping, Keiko is not afraid and instead makes fun of the fact that the kidnappers look amateurs. Unfortunately, the team does not realize that Nishi has recently gone bankrupt over his failed foray into films and furthermore, their boss Paris is the girl's godfather. Enlisted by the group to hold Keiko, Melvin has to hide the bound and gagged schoolgirl on his property. At first, Melvin hides Keiko at Chantel's place, but she kicks her out when she finds that Melvin has been unable to come up with the money for the mortgage like he had promised. Now Melvin has no option but to hide Keiko at Pam's. Attempting to keep her presence hidden from Pam and her parents (Jeanne (Lainie Kazan) & Morotn (Elliott Gould)), who are staying over at Pam's for the weekend. Pam takes her parents to the Jewish temple for their daily prayers. That allows Melvin a little breather to bring things under control. Melvin feels sorry for Keiko and relieves her from her bondage. In the ensuing hours they build up a rapport preparing dinner together, an act which leads into a love scene reminiscent of the pottery scene from Ghost, but which is cut short when Keiko attempts to escape. Melvin captures Keiko and puts her in the boot of his car. Ordered by Paris to discover the kidnappers of his goddaughter, a panicked Cisco kills Gump. While Cisco was with Paris, Gump makes the ransom call to Jiro at the appointed time. By this time Jiro had set up all the trace equipment needed to track and locate the caller. Gump gives the location of the money drop to Jiro, but Jiro stalls enough for the trace to be completed. So, Cisco rushes out (with the rest of Paris's goons) to get to Gump and kill him, because he will spill the beans to Paris. Cisco hits Gump in the midriff into implicating Melvin for the kidnapping, by saying that Keiko is with Melvin. Then Cisco kills Gump. A team of assassins crash Melvin's dinner with Pam's family, leading to a shootout during which Melvin realizes Pam was going to break up with him over pressure from her mother, a hardcore Jew who is severely against her being with Melvin, a Gentile. Melvin and Keiko's growing feelings for each other lead them to forming an awkward romance, and she and Melvin attempt to escape from the fiasco, pursued by Cisco. In the chaos, Melvin happens to run into Chantel (who was running away with her boyfriend and Melvin's money) and finally takes the opportunity to stand up to her and end their relationship. A fight ensues between Cisco and Melvin, culminating at a video store where the ever-honest Melvin stops to return an overdue tape of King Kong Lives. Melvin kills Cisco by stabbing him in the chest, but not before Cisco arms an explosive device. Melvin leaves the building and is confronted by Keiko, her father and Paris. He re-enters the building, which explodes. Paris and Nishi, believing Melvin to be dead, call off the manhunt. Soon Melvin is revealed to have survived, sheltered from the blast by an enormous solid gold film stand-up made for the flop that destroyed Nishi's career. Melvin and Keiko are reunited and ride off together, while Nishi recoups his losses by making a film out of the story of his daughter's kidnapping.

A charismatic gangster and his starlet mistress join forces to create his vision of what we now know as Las Vegas.

A patient of Chicago psychoanalyst Dr. Judd Stevens (Roger Moore) is murdered after a session, stabbed while wearing a raincoat belonging to the doctor. Police detectives McGreavy (Rod Steiger) and Angeli (Elliott Gould) investigate. McGreavy bitterly resents the doctor from a previous case in which Stevens' testimony led to a cop killer being institutionalized rather than sent to prison. The patient's personal problems are in question until Stevens' secretary is also found brutally murdered. Stevens realizes he is the murderer's target, while the detectives treat him as their prime suspect. A widower, Stevens expresses concern to his physician brother-in-law about the cops' behavior. McGreavy in particular is so aggressive in his interrogations, Angeli reports him to a superior and gets McGreavy thrown off the case. Posing as doormen, two armed gunmen break into Stevens' apartment. He holds them off until the brother-in-law and two paramedics arrive. Not trusting the cops, Stevens instead made an emergency call to the hospital for help. Choosing a name out of the Yellow Pages at random, Stevens hires an old, quirky private investigator named Morgens (Art Carney) who lives in a rundown apartment filled with clocks and cats. Morgens saves his life by finding a bomb planted in Stevens' car. After he reports this latest attempt on his life, Angeli promises to lend Stevens a more sympathetic ear than his partner had. McGreavy, however, has secretly cut a deal with their captain to keep an eye on the case from a distance. One evening, Morgens claims to know the killer's true identity, but refuses to reveal it over the phone because he claims nobody can be trusted, not even the police. He tells Stevens to meet him after midnight at Navy Pier and mentions the name "Don Cicini." But when Stevens and Angeli arrive, they find the murdered body of Morgens, holding a cuckoo clock. After doing some research by looking up the name and visiting a prison to inquire about the name, Stevens believes that Don Cicini is an Italian code name for the head of an organized crime syndicate. Offering to hide Stevens in a safe house, Angeli instead drives him to a countryside mansion where the phony doormen appear. Angeli draws a gun but points it at Stevens, telling him he trusted the wrong cop. Stevens is taken to a crime boss, discovering that the mobster's wife is Ann Blake (Anne Archer), a quiet woman who has been seeing Stevens as a patient. Don Cicini feels he simply can't have anyone knowing his private business, despite the fact that Ann told the psychiatrist practically nothing during their sessions. Stevens is taken to a warehouse to be done away with permanently. Angeli, expecting a payoff, is killed instead. Stevens tries to escape but is re-captured, then beaten savagely by the crime boss until McGreavy and a team of cops arrive just in time, having been called by Ann. Her husband is killed and the rest of his men are arrested. In the final scene, at a cemetery where Stevens goes to visit his late wife's grave once a week, Ann Blake turns up to apologize for causing Stevens all this trouble at the cost of so many lives. He has quit his private practice, so she asks if that means he can see a former patient socially. It does and they begin to leave the cemetery together, but the doctor is in for one last shock: Ann is shot and killed by an unseen mob sniper, leaving a grieving Stevens wailing over her dead body.

In 1892, two vaudevillians and petty con artists get involved, together with the most notorious bank robber, in a New York City bank heist. Two hopelessly-out-of-their-class conmen attempt to pull off the largest bank heist of the nineteenth century. They gain the enmity of the most famous bank robber in the world, and the affection of a crusading newspaperwoman. —Don Devlin <ddevlin@loop.com> It's 1892. Harry Dighby and Walter Hill are a Massachusetts-based third-rate vaudeville team and penny-ante con artists who pilfer money from audience members to supplement their meager income. They often feud with each other because of their differing perspectives and personalities, but they both have the same primary goal of making it big in vaudeville. Adam Worth is a renowned New York City socialite and ladies' man who also robs banks, the latest being the Lowell Bank and Trust. He has a standing agreement with New York City bank Presidents that after the robberies, he keeps the cash, but returns the securities for a fifteen percent face-value fee minus a modest commission for the bank President. Harry and Walter meet Adam when they are assigned cellmates during their incarceration at Concord Prison for their latest crimes. As Adam manages to arrange to continue living lavishly in prison, Harry and Walter become his manservants. They learn that Adam has a copy of the blueprints for the redesigned Lowell Bank and Trust, now reported to be the most impenetrable financial institution. Adam plans to rob the bank again to satisfy his ego that he can do it, but also to get back at the bank's President, Rufus T. Crisp, who was responsible for his capture. Much against Walter's sensibilities, Harry senses an opportunity to get a copy of the plans so he and Walter can rob the bank first. They manage indirectly to get a copy of the plans, but they destroy the originals in the process and subsequently escape from prison. Adam finds out about the copy and does whatever he can to get the plans back from Harry and Walter. But unexpectedly on Harry and Walter's side are Lissa Chestnut, the emancipated publisher of the New York City-based Socialist Advocate newspaper, and her associates at the newspaper. She inadvertently helps Harry and Walter get the plans, but does whatever she can to rob the bank with them in the name of the common man and to avenge an action against her and the newspaper by Adam. —Huggo

When casual gambler Bill Denny befriends professional gambler Charlie Walters, Bill begins to mirror Charlie's life, sinking deeper and deeper into the sleazy world of gambling, where the stakes keep getting bigger. A down on his luck gambler (George Segal as Bill) links up with free spirit Elliot Gould (Elliott Gould as Charlie) at first to have some fun, but then gets into debt when Gould takes an unscheduled trip to Tijuana. As a final act of desperation, he pawns most of his possessions and goes to Reno for the poker game of a lifetime. A film set mainly in casinos and races, as the two win and lose (but mainly win), get robbed, and get blind drunk. —David B-2 Bill Denny (George Segal) and Charlie Waters (Elliot Gould) meet when they are both on the same end of a fellow gambler's wrath at a Southern California gambling club. Bill is a casual gambler who has a full-time job as a magazine writer; whereas Charlie is a small-time career gambler, with the moxie to match his need to portray himself as the winner, specifically to those at his poker table. As Bill and Charlie spend more time together, Bill begins to want to emulate Charlie's life, including hanging out with Charlie's prostitute friends, Barbara Miller (Ann Prentiss), but most specifically Susan Peters (Gwen Welles). Bill even goes into debt to his loan shark as he gambles more. Regardless, Bill and Charlie try to raise enough cash to take a trip to Reno with the goal for Bill to win some money at among others a high-stakes poker game, but more importantly to get the gambler's fix associated with winning big. —Huggo

Private eye Philip Marlowe (Elliot Gould) wakes up in the middle of the night when his pet cat wakes him up, wanting to be fed. He goes out to an all-night supermarket somewhere in west Los Angeles, but can only buy a brand his cat hates. His cat runs out on him. Marlowe's friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) comes by and gets Marlowe to drive him to Tijuana. In the morning, the L.A. police arrest Marlow for helping Terry escape. They tell Marlowe that Terry is a fugitive who beat up and killed his wife Sylvia. Marlowe doesn't believe his friend is capable of such a crime. Another day later, Marlowe is freed from jail and the case has been closed. According to Mexican newspapers, Terry Lennox committed suicide. Marlowe is hired by Terry's ex-neighbor, Eileen Wade (Nina van Pallandt) to find her husband, author Roger Wade (Sterling Hayden). Marlowe tracks Wade to sanatorium where he is being treated for alcoholism by Dr. Verringer (Henry Gibson), a money-hungry quack. Marlowe brings Wade home and observes that the Wades are at odds with each other. Eileen has a bruise on her face to prove that she is being abused by her husband. Wade is full of self-pity and haw writer's block. Marlow wonders if Wade, a big, powerful, violent, depressed man, might have known Sylvia Lennox. Gangster Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell) threatens Marlowe, telling him to return the money that Terry was running for him but took to Mexico. Marlowe says that he knows nothing about any money, but Marty tells him to go find it. Suspicious, Marlowe follows Marty's car to the Wades' house. The next day, Wade tells Marlowe that Marty owes him a lot of money. A day or two later, the Wades throw a party where Dr. Verringer shows up and demands that Wade pay him the money they he owes. When Wade refuses, Verringer slaps Wade greatly embarrassing him. As a result the party ends. Eileen makes dinner for Marlowe where she tell him that she doesn't believe Terry was violent enough to have killed Sylvia. Wade walks into the ocean and commits suicide by drowning. Afterwords, the tearful Eileen tells Marlow that Wade and Sylvia were having an affair and that she thinks that he killed her and set up Terry as the fall guy. Marty's men pick up Marlowe. Marty threatens to beat him up for failing to find the money that Terry stole. But when the money Terry owned turns up, they let Marlowe go. Marlowe is accidentally run down by a car while following Eileen's car on foot. When he gets out of the hospital, he discovers that Eileen has moved. Marlowe takes $5,000 he received in the mail from Terry on the day Terry went to Mexico and goes back to Mexico himself. There, he bribes the local coroner and learns that Terry's death and funeral was all fake. Terry really is still alive. Terry is not surprised to see Marlowe. He admits that he really did kill his wife because she was going to squeal on him for running money for Marty. "No one cares," Terry says. But Marlowe says that he cares. Upset that Terry would brutally kill his wife and that Terry would play him for a fool, Marlowe pulls a gun out and shoots Terry dead. In the final scene, Marlowe dances back up the road for the USA, passing Eileen, who has been living with Terry, her new lover.