George Wendt

In 1939, Captain Daniel McCormick (Mel Gibson) is a test pilot in the United States Army Air Corps. After a successful run and a subsequent crash landing in a prototype North American B-25 Mitchell bomber, McCormick greets his longtime friend, scientist Harry Finley (George Wendt). Finley confides that his latest experiment, "Project B", has succeeded in building a prototype chamber for cryogenic freezing. The following day, just as McCormick is about to propose to his girlfriend, Helen (Isabel Glasser), she goes into a coma following an automobile accident, with doctors doubting she will ever recover. McCormick insists he be put into suspended animation for one year, so he will not have to watch Helen die. Fifty-three years later, in 1992, 10-year-old airplane enthusiast Nat Cooper (Elijah Wood) and his friend Felix (Robert Hy Gorman) are playing inside the military storage warehouse housing the chamber, accidentally activating it and waking McCormick, leaving Nat's coat behind. McCormick awakens and escapes from the warehouse before realizing what year it is. He first approaches the military about his experiences, but they dismiss him as crazed; McCormick becomes more determined to learn what happened to him. McCormick follows the address on the jacket back to Nat, befriending him. While hiding in Nat's treehouse, he rescues Nat's mother Claire (Jamie Lee Curtis) from her abusive boyfriend Fred (Eric Pierpoint), slightly injuring his hand in the process. Claire fixes up his wound and a bond develops between the two; she allows McCormick to stay, and he and Nat build a simulated bomber-plane cockpit in Nat's treehouse so that McCormick can teach Nat how to fly. McCormick passes out and is hospitalized, where he discovers that his body is failing as his age begins to catch up with him. McCormick tracks down Finley's daughter Susan (Millie Slaven), who informs him her father died in a fire before she was born. She gives McCormick her father's journals, detailing the cryogenic process, and Finley notes disclose that the rapid aging is irreversible. Susan also reveals that Helen is still alive, but they escape before the FBI, who is now after McCormick, catch up with him. Claire drives McCormick to an air show and commandeers a B-52 bomber to fly to Helen's seaside-lighthouse home, with Nat stowing away on board. Claire gives Harry's journals to the FBI, for their plans to replicate and modernize the experiment. McCormick suffers another ageing attack, forcing Nat (who is now slightly familiar with the plane's controls after his simulated-training session with McCormick) to land the plane near Helen's house. The now-elderly McCormick reunites with the also-gray-and-wrinkled Helen and asks her to marry him; she happily accepts, proving that true love does indeed last forever. McCormick introduces Nat to Helen, and the film ends with the three joining hands and going for a seaside stroll together.

In a town in rural Pennsylvania, the automobile factory has been shut down for nine months, leaving the town economically distressed. A Japanese company, Assan Motors, has purchased the factory, but will need to be convinced that it is worth reopening. Hunt Stevenson goes to Japan to make a presentation to Assan's management, and the result is that Assan sends a management team to America and the factory is reopened, although the workers will earn a substantially lower wage than they had before the factory had originally closed. However, Hunt is a hero for having convinced management to reopen. The culture clash is severe, as Japanese management demands far more regimentation and output than the workers are used to, and unpaid overtime is expected when output falls short of productivity standards. Management has little regard for the workers and the quality of their lives, focusing on productivity alone. The workers become agitated and their relationship with management becomes adversarial. Acting as employee liaison, Hunt tries to smooth things over, but is unable, and when a worker intentionally knocks over one of the Japanese managers during a company baseball game, the situation appears beyond repair. Japanese management sees little point in keeping the factory open until Hunt contends that he can match the production of a Japanese factory in its best month, meaning 15,000 completed automobiles. Amused by this contention, Japanese management agrees that once this output is reached, the factory would remain open and wages would return to the levels operating before the original closing of the factory. Otherwise, the factory would close once again and the workers would receive nothing. Hunt advises the workers of this deal, but his announcement is met with incredulity, and to appease them, he falsely relates that a lesser raise would still be earned once this output exceeded 13,000 automobiles. The workers give this a shot, but despite working long hours and on weekends, they conclude that the goal of 15,000 is unattainable, and decide to go for the raise that would come once 13,000 automobiles were completed. After attaining this goal, the workers walk out on management when a dispute arises. Now, Hunt must come clean, and tell his town that he made a deal for 15,000 automobiles, and that failure would result in no raises, which would devastate the town's local economy. Hunt has now gone from hero to goat, and his co-workers are furious. However, they finally put their noses to the grindstone and put their differences with the Japanese managers aside as the senior executive from Japan is coming to check on the state of the factory. When the strict executive comes by, they have fallen slightly short of their 15,000 goal, but the Japanese executive is nonetheless impressed by the team spirit he sees in the factory. Liking the way that the Americans and Japanese are now working together, he decides to keep the factory open, and give the full raises, and the stage is set for an era of understanding among all those working at the factory. The management agrees to be partially less demanding on their requirements and pay the employees better while the workers agree to be more cooperative.

Los Angeles Times reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher is writing an article exposing drug trafficking on the beach, where he suspects food vendor Fat Sam (George Wendt) of distributing heroin from his shack. Posing as a homeless addict during his investigation, he is approached by Alan Stanwyk, who mistakenly assumes Fletch is a junkie. Offering Fletch $1,000 just to hear out his proposal, Stanwyk takes him to his luxury mansion in Beverly Hills, where he formally introduces himself and says that he works for Boyd Aviation as the executive vice president. Stanwyk claims to have bone cancer, with only months left to live, and wishes to avoid the pain and suffering. Stanwyk offers $50,000 for Fletch to come to his mansion in a few days time, kill him, and then escape to Rio de Janeiro, staging the murder to appear as the result of a burglary. Fletch is suspicious, but ostensibly agrees to the plan. Along with his colleague Louisa Larry, Fletch begins investigating Stanwyk instead of completing his drug trafficking exposé, much to the dismay of his impatient boss/chief editor Frank Walker. The next day, Fletch endures a rectal exam from Stanwyk's doctor, Dr. Dolan, in a failed attempt to talk Dolan into divulging medical information about Stanwyk. Later that same day, disguised as a doctor, Fletch accesses Stanwyk's file in the hospital's records room and learns Stanwyk lied to him about having cancer. Fletch visits Stanwyk's wife Gail at her tennis club and, pretending to be a friend of her husband's, flirts with her during an impromptu tennis lesson, but does not uncover very much from her and leaves. Next, Fletch poses as an FCC agent while he visits Gail's father, Stanton Boyd, the head of Boyd Aviation to inquire about Stanwyk's finances. Fletch finds that Gail recently converted $3 million of her personal stock in Boyd Aviation into cash for her husband to buy a ranch in Provo, Utah. Fletch returns to his apartment for the day and finds that his ex-wife's lawyer, now-husband Marvin Gillet is waiting for him to collect unpaid alimony. Fletch gives Gillet the $1,000 cash bribe money that Stanwyk gave him earlier to make him leave. After having a cold beer, Fletch goes to sleep and has a dream of being a major league basketball player playing for the Lakers and scoring a hoop. The next day, while undercover at the beach, he discovers one of Fat Sam's customers, Gummy, running away from a patrolling squad car. Fletch tries to intervene when the cops catch Gummy and beat him up, but Fletch gets kicked in the groin by one of the cops and they haul Gummy away in the car. Fletch retaliates by throwing a rock through the car's back windshield, but the car keeps going. A few days later, Fletch travels to Provo, where he breaks into a realtor's office and discovers the deed lists the sale price as only $3,000. He barely escapes from the office while being chased around by a guard dog. Meanwhile, LAPD Chief Jerry Karlin gets wind of Fletch's soon-to-be-published drug article. He sends two thuggish detectives to Fletch's apartment and arrest him after they plant heroin on him. The two take Fletch to meet with Karlin, who tells Fletch he is jeopardizing the lives of undercover cops he's planted on the beach to bust the drug trade. When Fletch insults Karlin, he takes Fletch to an empty jail cell and threatens to shoot Fletch and place a switchblade in his dead hand to claim self-defense. Fletch tells Karlin he is going to work on another story about off-track betting in the Himalayas instead. An amused Karlin then lets Fletch go. Fletch finds out that Karlin had him arrested because of Fletch's boss, who wants Fletch to stop investigating what he considers a ludicrous story about drug-dealing cops. When Fletch confronts his boss about the incident, Frank refuses to believe Fletch's story about Karlin's plan to kill him. Fletch storms off, angry but more determined than ever to break the story. Disguised as a redneck airplane mechanic, Fletch shows up at Stanwyk's plane hangar and learns from two mechanics that Stanwyk has been using the plane each weekend to go to Utah, but uses as much fuel as if he traveled to South America. Back at the tennis club, Fletch meets Gail at her cabana. He treats her to an expensive lunch which he charges to the credit account of a snooty and obnoxious club member, Ted Underhill. Fletch gives her a little information about the investigation but has to flee when Mr. Underhill shows up at Gail's door, demanding the several hundred dollars the lunch had cost. Fletch spies on Stanwyk making a suspicious briefcase exchange with Chief Karlin, but is unable to determine the nature of their relationship. He returns home to find two squad cars in his building's parking garage and flees, managing to avoid capture after a harrowing car chase when Fletch steals an Alfa Romeo from a young car thief. He manages to stay ahead of them and is only able to shake them when he distracts them all at a lodge club dinner. Fletch returns to Provo and, under the guise of an insurance investigator, interviews Stanwyk's parents. Fletch discovers Stanwyk has been secretly married to another woman for eight years, having used Gail for her money. He returns to Beverly Hills and shares what he has found with her, who is very upset about her husband's bigamy. Fletch arrives at Stanwyk's mansion on the night of the plotted murder only to find Stanwyk armed and ready to kill Fletch instead. He reveals he is aware of Stanwyk's real plan to fake his own death by killing Fletch, burning his body, and dressing like Fletch himself. Stanwyk would then escape to Brazil with his other wife, as well as Gail's $3 million. Stanwyk was also using his private jet to smuggle cocaine from South America to supply Karlin, who unexpectedly shows up and, upon learning of Stanwyk's intentions to flee with $800,000 of Karlin's drug money, kills Stanwyk. Karlin then turns the gun on Fletch but is knocked unconscious by Gail with a tennis racket. Some time later, Karlin is indicted for Stanwyk's murder, due to Fletch's investigation. He begins dating Gail and, in the final scene, takes her on a vacation to Rio. Fletch jokes that he had placed the expenses for the vacation on Underhill's credit account and offers the audience the number.

Sixteen-year-old Charles Cummings (Jon Cyrer) is obsessed with photography and sets up a shot early one morning on a pier in San Francisco, California. When an arguing couple walks in front of his camera, Charles yells at them to move and is reminded how much he hates taking pictures of people. As soon as the couple leaves, he resumes his shot of the harbor. Arriving back home, Charles encounters Ken (Jeffery Tambor), his mother's latest boyfriend, and makes a snide remark during their introduction. As Charles prepares for school, his mother, Joan Cummings (Ann Wedgeworth), tells her smart-aleck son to show more respect to guests. That evening, Charles examines his photographic negatives from the pier and sees a shot of the woman (Demi Moore) who was arguing with her boyfriend. He is stunned by her beauty and develops enlargements of her face to cover his bedroom wall. However, his inquiries about her identity lead nowhere. Meanwhile, his older brother, Leonard (Peter Frechette), arrives in San Francisco to introduce his latest fiancée, Susan (Elizabeth Daily), and persuades Charles to join them in the North Beach district. There, the underage Charles enters a nightclub using his brother's identification and realizes the band's lead singer is the woman from the pier. He starts snapping photographs of her until a fight ensues as the bouncer tries to eject him. Before police escort him out, Charles learns the woman's name is Laura Victor. The next day, Charles sneaks away from the apartment without his mother noticing and returns to the club. He finds Laura again arguing with her boyfriend, Scott (Scott Getlin), about his decision to abandon the band to become a studio musician. After Scott walks out, Laura persuades club owner Jake Lewis (George Wendt) to give her band a chance to prove their talent without Scott. Charles overhears the conversation while hidden behind the bar and follows Laura from the club as she goes to an aquarium. He shows her the pictures from the pier and offers to take more photographs for her portfolio. Preoccupied with her struggling career, Laura is not interested and says goodbye. However, Charles later finds a way to charm the beautiful singer. He takes Leonard's bachelor party guests to watch her and the new band perform at Jake's club, which would otherwise be empty. Later, Laura stops by Charles's high school to thank him and invites him to her loft for a photography session. When Charles arrives, Laura is depressed over news that Jake has hired another band for the club. Charles lifts her spirits by taking her on his moped scooter to various San Francisco landmarks as backdrops for his photos. At the end of the day, Laura is hungry, but the two have only fifty cents between them. She changes into another outfit and brings Charles along as they sneak into a wedding reception. Laura and Charles drink until they are intoxicated. After observing the two suspiciously, Gus Sosnowski (Hamilton Camp), father of the bride, demands that Charles and Laura pay for everything they have consumed or he will contact police. Charles tells Gus that his date is famous, and arranges for Laura to sing for the guests. Charles photographs Laura on stage as she performs a romantic ballad, impressing the crowd and Gus. Afterward, Charles is even more awed by Laura's talent and encourages her to incorporate more popular standards into her repertoire, but by the time he takes her home, she is again despondent about her future and asks him to leave. Driving home, he gets an idea to jump-start Laura's singing career. Using the cash he has been saving to begin his own photography career in Milan, Italy, Charles buys advertising space on 150 taxi cabs to publicize her image. Instead of job offers, however, Laura receives prank calls or inquiries about her "escort service." On the street, people wave and know her name. She is dumbfounded until she sees an advertisement on the top of a taxi, showing her face and the words, "Laura Victor She's the Best! 555-1012." Furious, she pulls Charles out of class and tells him to get rid of the ads immediately. He tries to explain that he only wanted to help, but she walks away. When Laura later learns from the taxi service that Charles spent $6,000 on the advertisements, she realizes he gave up his Milan trip for her and feels guilty about her reaction. In the meantime, Charles stops by the loft while Laura is away and leaves a note of apology. That night, Jake Lewis visits Laura and shows her a newspaper article reporting the story behind Charles's advertising campaign. Ever since the article was published, mentioning Laura is a singer at the club, Jake has been receiving numerous calls for reservations and is desperate to rehire her. She agrees, and in front of a sold-out audience, Laura focuses on singing ballads, thrilling the crowd as well as a record executive in attendance. Between sets, she hurries off to find Charles and is told by his family that the teenager is missing. She leaves a confidential note for him, which his brother, Leonard, tucks away for safekeeping. Later that night, Leonard searches for his younger brother and finds him passed out in an alley. At Leonard and Susan's wedding, Charles, as best man, finds Laura's note inside the ring box and interrupts the ceremony to proclaim that the singer loves him. He rushes to Laura's loft, and the two embrace. She is excited after signing a contract with Atlantic Records and thanks Charles for making the opportunity possible. However, Charles is disappointed that she must leave for Los Angeles, California, the next day, then becomes angry when she calls him her "best friend." The teenager accuses Laura of playing with his emotions, and rereads aloud her note that ends with the words, "I love you." Crying, Laura is upset that there has been a misunderstanding about their relationship. He asks to kiss her goodbye and is pleasantly surprised when Laura begins to undress. He telephones his mother to say that he will not be returning home that evening. At the airport the next day, Laura assures Charles that many women will love him and gives him a final, passionate kiss. Although at the moment, Charles does not feel he will ever love another woman, the experience with Laura has left him more self-assured, and he finally decides to approach Mona (Jennifer Tilly), a nerdy classmate who has been flirting with him throughout the film to ask her out on a date.

If you met Ray and Mickey Davis, you'd swear they had a perfect marriage. But if you read Mickey's diary, you'd know that unrest is lurking just beneath the surface. A woman trapped in a boring marriage begins an affair with a handsome man who seems able to read her mind. She doesn't know that he has broken into her house and read her diaries, where she has recorded her deepest thoughts and fantasies. —<paultb@voicenet.com>