Frank Whaley

David Fox (Luke Wilson) and his soon-to-be ex- wife Amy (Kate Beckinsale) are forced to spend the night at a cheap motel when their car breaks down on a remote country road. The motel is run by an odd but seemingly harmless proprietor (Frank Whaley). In their filthy room, the couple finds a series of homemade slasher films which seem to be disturbingly real. They realize that the videos were shot in the very same room that they are staying in! David and Amy must put aside their differences and work together to escape, or become the sadistic filmmakers next victims.

David Fox (Luke Wilson) and his soon-to-be ex- wife Amy (Kate Beckinsale) are forced to spend the night at a cheap motel when their car breaks down on a remote country road. The motel is run by an odd but seemingly harmless proprietor (Frank Whaley). In their filthy room, the couple finds a series of homemade slasher films which seem to be disturbingly real. They realize that the videos were shot in the very same room that they are staying in! David and Amy must put aside their differences and work together to escape, or become the sadistic filmmakers next victims.

A disadvantaged, abused, neglected, exploited but basically decent kid slips into criminality while trying to cope with his harsh, inescapable reality. A destitute 14-year-old struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother's hands, harsher abuse at his father's, and a growing separation from his slightly older brother. Petty thefts for food grow into more major takes until he steals a cash box from the diner where he works. Although Joe uses the money to pay off some of his father's debts and to replace his mother's records that his father smashed in a fit of temper, Joe gets no thanks. —John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>

The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

Guy, an ambitious would-be screenwriter, works as an assistant to demanding boss Buddy Ackerman. Guy tries to cater to Buddy's ever-more capricious demands until he decides he's been pushed too far in what can best be described as an cynical if canny black comedy.

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.

Jim is the dorky son of a local cement contractor who lives at home and has no direction. Josie is the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy businessman who dreams of leaving town. They find they have a lot in common. Jim is the dorky son of a local cement contractor who lives at home and has no direction. Josie is the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy businessman who dreams of leaving town. When Jim is locked inside a Target store on his first night as the overnight janitor, he discovers Josie, who fell asleep while contemplating shoplifting. Now locked in together, the pair learns they have a lot in common. Little do they know that two petty criminals are on the lam and looking for a place to hide.

An N.Y.C. film school student accepts a job with a local mobster who resembles a famous cinema godfather and who takes the young man under his wing, after demanding total loyalty. Clark Kellogg is a young man starting his first year at film school in New York City. After a small time crook steals all his belongings, Clark meets Carmine "Jimmy the Toucan" Sabatini, an "importer" bearing a startling resemblance to a certain cinematic godfather. When Sabatini makes Clark an offer he can't refuse, he finds himself caught up in a caper involving endangered species and fine dining. —Scott Renshaw <as.idc@forsythe.stanford.edu> Clark Kellogg (Matthew Broderick) is robbed moments after arriving in New York, so when he sees his mugger several days later, he confronts him. The man promises to return his property and get him a job with his uncle, Carmine Sabatini (Marlon Brando), who turns out to be a Mafia boss. As Clark continues his shady work for Carmine, he discovers an elaborate underworld that has caught the attention of the authorities. As things come to a head, not everything is what it seems. —FilmsNow

Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella is inspired by a voice he can't ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Supported by his wife, Ray begins the quest by turning his ordinary cornfield into a place where dreams can come true. Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his cornfield tell him, "If you build it, he will come." He interprets it as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm, upon which appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. When the voices continue, Ray seeks out a reclusive author to help him understand the meaning of the messages and the purpose for his field. —Scott Renshaw <as.idc@forsythe.stanford.edu> "If you build it, he will come," is what thirty-six-year-old novice farmer Ray Kinsella hears several times over the course of days from a bodiless voice emanating from somewhere in the cornfield on his Iowa farm. Later, he has a vision that the "it" is a baseball field, the "he" is Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was infamous for his association in the Chicago 8, the eight players of the 1919 White Series who were banned for life from the sport for throwing games in exchange for money from gamblers. Although it was proved that Jackson did take money, it was never proved that he participated in throwing any of the games. Ray grew up with baseball, his long-deceased father, John, who played in the minor leagues, lived in Chicago during that infamous year, and told stories to Ray about it and Jackson when he was growing up. He was estranged from his father at the time of his death, something that he now regrets. With the moral support of his wife, Annie, he tears up part of their cornfield to build that baseball field. He eventually hears the voice telling him other things, always without a clear understanding on his part of what it all means. One he believes it has to do with is famed '60's writer Terence Mann, now a recluse who stopped writing because he, renowned as the voice of his generation, didn't always want to be the answer to his generation's problems. Another he believes has to do with it is Archie "Moonlight" Graham, who played only one half of one inning of one major league game in 1922 and died in 1972. Ray's voice led path may be difficult to achieve since cynical Mann may not have the same direction of the voice as him and Graham is dead. He will have to work through these puzzles to understand the full meaning of what the voice wants for him, which may not happen if he and Annie lose the farm and thus the baseball field, a real possibility due to the latter taking away from earning income from the farm, especially as Annie's cutthroat brother, Mark, who says he is looking out for her best interest, will do whatever needed to get Ray back to what he considers reality of earning a living from the farm. —Huggo

11-year-old Bryan Stevenson is drawn into a world of magic , mischief and wonder . After moving to a new town . He offers a sleep in his 6 year old brother Eric Stevenson's room and soon discovers there really is a monster Under the Bed. A child meets the monster that lives under his bed. He even becomes one of his best friends. Soon the child discovers a whole new world of fun and games under his bed where pulling pranks on kids and other monsters is the main attraction. —Steve Richer <sricher@sympatico.ca>