James Gandolfini

Incredible Superstar magicians, Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) have ruled the Las Vegas strip for years, raking in millions with illusions as big as Burt`s growing ego. But lately the duo`s greatest deception is their public friendship while secretly they`ve grown to loathe each other. Facing cutthroat competition from guerrilla street magician, Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), whose cult following surges with each outrageous stunt, even their show looks stale. But there`s still a chance Burt and Anton can save the act both onstage and off if Burt can get back in touch with what made him love magic in the first place.

A New York City subway dispatcher`s day is thrown into chaos when an armed gang hijack a train, leaving him to use his knowledge of the subway system to outwit their leader.

Based on Robert Penn Warren`s novel, the film charts the rise and fall of a charming Southern politician and the embittered ex-reporter who fuels his corrupt political ambitions.

Drew (Ben Afflek) is wowing a bunch of ad execs with a promotional idea for spiked eggnog. That night with his girlfriend he presents her with two tickets to Fiji. She's disappointed because she was expecting a proposal & walks out on him. The next day, he's at work and tells his secretary to send her a gift to win her back. Drew realizes that he's going to be alone for Christmas, so he starts calling up all the people in his address book. No one wants to have him over for Christmas. He ends up running to the airport to catch the shrink of his girlfriend when he's trying to leave on a plane with his family. The shrink tells him to write down his grievances on a piece of paper, and then burn them at a place that reminds him of his childhood. Drew drives out to the suburbs and pulls up to the house he grew up in, which is now occupied by a different family. Inside the house, the parents Mr. Valco and Mrs. Valco (James Gandolfini and Catherine O'Hara) are arguing about the son spending too much time on the computer. They see Drew kneeling down on the sidewalk and light something on fire. The dad walks out and hits him over the head with a shovel. Inside the house. The family is standing around wondering if he's dead. When Drew comes to, the Valco's let him stay for dinner. They ask him to leave. Drew offers to pay them $250,000 to pretend to be his family for the holidays. A lawyer comes and they sign legal papers. He makes them go tree shopping, and the dad has to wear a Santa hat. The sister Alicia (Christina Applegate) comes home and has no intention of adopting this new brother. She demands that they kick him out. At dinner, Drew shows up with an old man and says that he is the Grandpa. He's a local theater performer who Drew hired to fill the role. They all sit down and have dinner. Drew pulls out a script and gives copies to everyone and asks that they all read through the scene. Everyone gets annoyed. Mr. Valco tells Drew that he and his wife are thinking about separating and having him there is making things worse. Drew tells him to go out and buy something for himself that will make him feel better. Then he tells the wife that he's going to set up a private photo shoot and have her all dressed up. She's so happy she cried. At the shoot, she's dressed in leather and a ton of makeup. She seems to be having a great time. Drew gets the son and sister to go sledding with him. The old hill is now too small, so he charters a helicopter and carries them to the top of a mountain. They sort of dare each other into getting on the sled. Then they go screaming down the mountain. At the end Drew and Alicia crash and start laughing. Drew & Alicia both get colds and spend the afternoon talking and watching TV. She tells him about a time when she was 9 and saw a tree covered in ice & wanted to live that moment again. Drew confides that he never lived in that house. His father walked out on them when he was little. His mother worked in a diner, and he spent every Christmas alone. Alicia & Drew almost kiss, but she sneezes. Later on, Drew takes Alicia outside. He had the tree covered in ice and flew in a bunch of dancers and singers. Alicia gets offended because it's so over the top. Meanwhile, the girlfriend is talking with her own parents. She got the gift (a diamond bracelet) that his secretary sent her, and she wants to make up. She calls and says that she wants to meet his family. Drew had just told the family that he was leaving. But now he is forced to offer more money to have them pretend to be his family in front of his girlfriend, and her parents. The old man playing Grandpa couldn't show up, so his understudy comes over. Alicia comes home and apologizes to Drew. She kisses him. As soon as she leaves, his (ex) girlfriend walks in and they end up kissing too. Alicia sees him. Alicia decides to get even. She plays along with the family, making cutting remarks and finally causes Drew to lose it. He rants about how they were just making out in the kitchen. Then he tried to cover by saying they're a very affectionate family. Meanwhile the son is upstairs. "Grandpa" had come in while he was looking at porn and they found a website that was posting the pictures that Mrs. Valco had gotten taken. She didn't know they were being posted in that way, of course, but the son is frozen in shock. The whole family (girlfriend and her parents included) come walking in and see the screen. Everyone freaks out. The parents of the girlfriend finally say that they've seen enough, and they all storm out. Then Mr. Valco storms out saying he's staying at a hotel. Drew goes back home to his huge empty apartment. Mr. Valco shows up. Drew stills owes them money. Drew writes a check and then they talk about how Mr. Valco wishes that he didn't separate from his wife. Drew mentions that he still has the ticket to the performance of Scrooge ("Grandpa" had given the entire family tickets to his performance as Mr. Scrooge earlier on). They go, not knowing if his family will be there. They are. Mr. Valco and Mrs. Valco make up. Drew hooks the brother up with a cute girl in the audience. When he goes outside, he finds Alicia. They kiss and make up. The ex and her parents drive by and witness it, in all its open-mouthed glory.

Brad Pitt has been working for a mobster who is in prison because Pitt accidentally ran a red light and hit the mobster's car. When the police arrived, they found a body in the mobster's trunk. The guy was alive but was obviously going to be murdered. The mobster was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Pitt has been forced to work for the mobster to pay for having caused him to go to prison. Julia Roberts is Pitt's girlfriend and they have been having difficulties with their relationship. Roberts now wants to go to Vegas but Pitt has to make one last trip for the mobster or he will be killed. Roberts throws Pitt out and heads to Vegas alone and Pitt heads to Mexico on his last mission. Pitt has been given orders by the 2nd in command (Bob Balaban) to pick up a gun called "The Mexican" and bring it back. Pitt gets to Mexico and picks up the gun but unfortunately, the man he gets it from is accidentally killed by a stray bullet fired during a Mexican celebration. Pitt calls Balaban and reports the problem and while he's on the phone, his car is stolen, gun and all. Pitt sets out after the car to try and retrieve the gun. Meanwhile, on the way to Vegas Roberts is in a restroom when a gunman grabs her and before anything happens, James Gandolfini saves her by shooting the man. Gandolfini claims that he is working for the mobster and that his name is Leroy. He is a very sensitive, gay psychotic killer who is there to protect Roberts. They get to Vegas and along the way Gandolfini picks up a gay postal worker who spends a romantic evening with Gandolfini. In the morning Roberts and Gandolfini go out for breakfast and while they're eating, the gunman goes to their hotel room and kills the postal worker by throwing him off the balcony. Roberts and Gandolfini get back and this time Gandolfini shoots the man in the head to kill him for good. Roberts and Gandolfini are told by Balaban to head to Mexico and meet Pitt because things have gone wrong. In Mexico, Pitt has recovered the gun and then lost it a second time. A man from the mob has come down to help him. Pitt knows the man had been sent to kill him so he tricks the man, gets the gun and drives to the airport to leave Mexico. Unfortunately, Pitt has the wrong passport and can't get on his flight. He goes back to the small town where he left the man handcuffed, but he's gone. Gandolfini and roberts meet up with Pitt and for some reason, Pitt does not tell him he has the gun but will take him to where it's hidden. Pitt has an argument with Roberts and nearly wrecks the car causing a blowout. While Pitt is changing the tire, Gandolfini pulls a gun on him. Roberts is furious with Pitt and has been walking away. Pitt hasn't seen Gandolfini's gun yet but Gandolfini sees Roberts walking away and puts his gun away. He knows that Roberts loves Pitt and he just can't kill him. Gandolfini helps Pitt change the tire and now Pitt pulls a gun on Gandolfini. Gandolfini sees the gun in the reflection on the hubcap and turns to fire but Pitt shoots first and kills Gandolfini. It seems that Pitt had once met Leroy and knew that Gandolfini was not who he claimed to be. He realized that he was there to kill him. Roberts is extremely upset but Pitt and her stay together trying to decide what to do now. In their hotel room, Pitt looks out the window and see someone trying to break into his car. the same person that stole it the first time. He goes down to stop him and is punched in the face (twice) and knocked out. He is driven to a very nice ranch house and there he meets the mob boss who has been let out of prison - Gene Hackman. In prison Hackman was befriended by the grandson of the ranchowner. the son was killed saving the life of Hackman in prison. The ranch owner is the grandson of the man who made "The Mexican." We are now told the true legend of The mexican. It was made by a gunsmith as a gift to a rich noble so the nobleman's son would marry his daughter. Unfortunately, the daughter was in love with the gunsmith's assistant. On the wedding day the nobleman's son is presented with the gun and it fails to work. He notices his future bride and the assistant staring at each other. He realizes they are in love and shoots and kills the assistant. The girl picks up the gun, puts it to her head and shoots herself. The gun contained two bullets, one of which has now been used. Hackman has been trying to get the gun to give it back to the rightful owner, the great grandson. Balaban has been trying to get it to sell for profit. Roberts is back in the hotel room and has the gun tied to her leg when Balaban appears on the balcony. Roberts hides between 2 mattresses. We next see Pitt and some Mexican employees of the ranchowner driving into town. Balaban is standing beside his car and asks Pitt where the gun is. Pitt says only Roberts knows and Balaban opens the trunk to reveal Roberts. Unfortunately for Balaban, when he opens the trunk, Roberts has the gun pointed right at him. She shoots the 2nd and last bullet, hitting him in the throat. We hardly know he's been shot until he opens his mouth and smoke comes out. The ranchhands take the gun back to the ranch and a brass ring that had fallen off the gun is picked up by Pitt. He uses it as a wedding band and places it on Roberts finger. The final scene shows the two of them driving off - arguing...

Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin (Robert Redford) is brought to a maximum-security military prison to begin a ten-year sentence for his decision (in violation of a presidential order) to send U.S. troops on a mission in Burundi, resulting in the deaths of eight soldiers. Irwin walks about how castles have not changed in 1000 years in their role on the battlefield. They sit on high ground and command a territory as far as the eye can see, they have big walls for protection and strong enough to withstand a frontal attack and has a garrison of men who are trained and willing to kill. Finally, a castle has a flag, and that flag belongs to the soldiers of the castle. Nobody takes the flag, but the garrison of the castle. When the flag flies high, the castle is complete. Irwin compares the prison to a castle that is designed to keep people in. Colonel Winter (James Gandolfini), the prison's commandant, is a great admirer of the general but is offended by a comment by Irwin that he overhears. Irwin criticizes Winter's much-prized military artifacts collection, saying that the used bullets from the Civil War it includes is something no combat veteran - such as Irwin - would ever have. Colonel Winter, who has never seen combat in his career, quickly resents what he perceives as Irwin's attempt to change the attitude of the prisoners, and his admiration and respect of Irwin fades fast. A tenet of Winter's methods for running the prison is that the prisoners are no longer soldiers and therefore should not follow military customs and courtesies. Irwin notices that Winter instructs his guards not to intervene when a fight breaks out in the common outside area among inmates. Then, non-lethal force is used in the form of rubber bullets to bring the inmates under control. Irwin is assigned to laundry duty. There are specific gangs of inmates who protect their own turf. A "white" gang works on the prison wall and doesn't allow anyone to touch it. The inmates complain to Irwin that Winter instigates violence, uses extreme force and then only provide basic medical treatment. There have been 13 critical injuries in the last 11 months. Twice inmates have been hit in the head with rubber bullets and killed. Irwin is only ever visited by his daughter Rosalie (Robin Wright). On one occasion, Irwin is punished harshly after stopping a guard from clubbing a prisoner, Corporal Ramon Aguilar (Clifton Collins Jr.), who had made the mistake of saluting Irwin in the prison yard. Continuing to observe acts of cruelty, Irwin attempts to unify the prisoners by building a "castle wall" of stone and mortar at the facility, which in many ways resembles a medieval castle. Envying the respect Irwin is clearly receiving, Winter orders his guards to destroy the wall. Aguilar, directly involved in the building of the wall, takes a stand before the bulldozer. Winter orders a sharpshooter to fire a normally non-lethal rubber bullet directly at Aguilar's head, killing him. After the wall is destroyed, Irwin and the inmates pay final respects to Aguilar in formation. Colonel Winter later tries to make amends with Irwin, but Irwin calls him a disgrace to the uniform and demands his resignation. The prisoners begin to behave like soldiers around Irwin, using code words and gestures, infuriating the commandant. Winter reaches out to an anti-social prisoner named Yates (Mark Ruffalo), a former officer and Apache pilot convicted of running a drug smuggling ring, bribing him to inform about Irwin's plans in exchange for a reduced sentence. Irwin organizes a plot to throw the prison into chaos. His intent is to show a friend, Brigadier General Wheeler (Delroy Lindo), the commandant's superior officer, that the commandant is unfit and should be removed from command under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. During a visit by General Wheeler to the prison, Winter receives a letter threatening the kidnapping of Wheeler by the prisoners. After ordering his men into action, Winter discovers that the kidnap scheme was a fake. Irwin orchestrated it as a way to detect how prison guards would react during an actual uprising. Wheeler offers to transfer Irwin to another prison but Winter declines. Yates tells Winter that Irwin intends to take over the prison, then raise the flag upside down to signal distress. Yates becomes the key to their plan, tasked with stealing a U.S. flag from the warden's office, revealing that he is on Irwin's side and seizing a Bell UH-1 helicopter used by guards. Winter orders all the prisoners to the yard in an attempt to prevent their plot, but Irwin anticipated this and a prisoner uprising commences. Using improvised weapons (some resembling medieval ones) and the tactics of a military unit, the prisoners capture an armored vehicle and the helicopter. The prisoners place a call to Wheeler's headquarters and inform him of the riot. Winter has little time to regain control before Wheeler can arrive to see the prison under siege. He orders the use of live ammunition against the prisoners. He also knows from Yates that Irwin's ultimate goal is to raise the American flag upside down, a classic signal of distress. Irwin's men create havoc but ultimately are confronted with overwhelming numbers of guards, all armed with live ammunition in their weapons. Knowing further resistance would only mean a massacre, Irwin orders the prisoners to stand down. Despite Winter having successfully halted the uprising with the threat of overwhelming force, Irwin elects to hoist the flag personally. Winter then tells Irwin to return his flag but Irwin replies "It's not your flag". Irwin begins walking toward the flagpole to raise it. An increasingly unsettled Winter tells Irwin, "You will not raise that flag upside down," but Irwin continues walking toward the flagpole. Colonel Winter orders his men to open fire on Irwin, but they refuse to do so on the orders of Winter's second-in-command, Captain Peretz (Steve Burton). The colonel cannot persuade anyone else to follow his command, so he proceeds to shoot Irwin fatally himself. Peretz places the commandant under arrest. The prisoners salute the flag, and Winter now sees that Irwin has actually raised the U.S. flag in the correct manner, meaning he shot Irwin for no reason. It flies above the prison's walls as Brigadier General Wheeler arrives and Colonel Winter is led away in handcuffs. The story ends with the inmates building a new wall as memorial to their fallen comrades. Aguilar's and Irwin's names are among those carved onto the castle wall.

A laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong. 1949, Santa Rosa, California. A laconic, chain-smoking barber with fallen arches tells a story of a man trying to escape a humdrum life. It's a tale of suspected adultery, blackmail, foul play, death, Sacramento city slickers, racial slurs, invented war heroics, shaved legs, a gamine piano player, aliens, and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Ed Crane cuts hair in his in-law's shop; his wife drinks and may be having an affair with her boss, Big Dave, who has $10,000 to invest in a second department store. Ed gets wind of a chance to make money in dry cleaning. Blackmail and investment are his opportunity to be more than a man no one notices. Settle in the chair and listen. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Homicide detective John Hobbes (Denzel Washington) and Edgar Reese (Elias Koteas), a serial killer, are talking just before the latter is going to be executed in prison. Reese is proud of all his crimes, and doesn't repent at all. Hobbes witnesses the execution of Reese. At the last second, Reese starts shouting that he is innocent, that it wasn't him, all his cocky demeanour lost. However, this doesn't finish the matter. Soon after the execution the killings start again, and they are very similar to Reese's style. Hobbes starts hearing people on the street singing the same tune that Reese sang in the gas chamber. He is told that maybe the fallen angel Azazel is behind it all. Azazel is cursed to roam the Earth without a form, and he can switch bodies by any contact, making him hard to track. The last clue is given by Gretta Milano (Embeth Davidtz), a semi-mad woman who lives in a flat crammed with bric-a-brac, pictures, and small statues representing all kind of of angels. When Hobbes is forced to kill a man possessed by Azazel, he must clear his name while protecting his family and others from the evil, vengeful Azazel. Milano tells him to kill Azazel in a place where no other person is around. If Hobbes kills the person who is at the moment possessed by Azazel, and he himself commits suicide, the fallen angel will die, because he can't survive for long without a body. Hobbes is determined. His workmates are suspicious of him. They think that he has tricked them all, being the serial killer from the very beginning, or that he has become so obsessed with the serial killer that now he's copy-cattting him. His co-worker and closest friend, Det Jonesy (John Goodman), is one of those who seem to have changed their minds concerning Hobbes. Lou and Stanton (James Gandolfini and Donald Sutherland) start having no doubts that Hobbes is the killer. Hobbes goes to a lonely cottage kilometers away from nowhere where he has dared Azazel to go. To his surprise, it's Jonesy who goes. He tells him that it was about Hobbes from the beginning. When Hobbes and Reese had the conversation, there was a second when they shook hands, but Azazel could not move inside Hobbes because he was an honest and good person. There is a final confrontation and Hobbes kills Jonesy, and then kills himself. It seems that evil has died. However, a voice tells the audience that there is only an animal which can hold a demon, a cat. We see a cat which is making its way to the nearest inhabited town. The audience now knows that Hobbes didn't succeed.

A single mother becomes embroiled in a dangerous game when she is chosen to serve on the jury in the trial of a powerful mobster.

The story is narrated in first person by Porter Wren (Adrien Brody), a columnist and crime reporter for a New York City newspaper with a reputation as a good listener. One night, he attends an after-work party hosted by publishing magnate Hobbs (Steven Berkoff), who has just purchased the newspaper. He is approached by socialite Caroline Crowley (Yvonne Strahovski), whom Porter recognizes from headlines regarding the death of her husband, Simon (Campbell Scott). Simon was a successful movie producer obsessed with capturing authentic life, often disappearing at night to film random things. His body was discovered in the rubble of a demolished building (with little pieces of jade found next to his body). No one could figure out how the body got there, as the site was fenced off and locked up. Caroline invites Porter to her apartment where she shows him confidential police reports related to Simon's still-unsolved death. She asks Porter to investigate and, over a series of meetings, gradually seduces him. Porter, whose relationship with his wife Lisa (Jennifer Beals) and children has become stale, soon gives in. Caroline reveals how she met Simon at a bar, and he proposed to her after a few hours of talking. Caroline had no money or prospects in NYC and said yes. Caroline wants Porter to help find how and why Simon died, as he is the guy that people talk to and tell him all sorts of things. It's been 17 months since Simon died. It is not clear is Simon was in the building before it was demolished. Going through Simon's belongings, Porter forms an image of him as an eccentric and controlling man. He filmed his own life almost obsessively, sometimes with hidden cameras, and subjected Caroline to cruel pranks and mind games for the sake of capturing authentic reactions. She has a vault filled with thousands of memory cards containing footage of these incidents. None of it, however, gives Porter any insights into his death. Hobbs learns of Porter's affair with Caroline and forces him into an investigation on Hobbs' behalf by making threats against Porter's family (He threatens to fire Porter and initiate a medical malpractice suit against his wife, who is a doctor). Hobbs is looking for a particular memory card he believes Caroline is using to blackmail him. When Porter questions her, Caroline admits she is also looking for the memory card. Simon, after beating her in a drinking game, dared her to have sex with a stranger and record the encounter with a hidden camera. She randomly crossed paths with Hobbs and decided to sleep with him. When Simon watched the video, something about it infuriated him and he hid the memory card; after his death, Hobbs began threatening her. Porter, forcing Caroline to admit she only seduced him to enlist his help, leaves in disgust. Outside his house, he is accosted by thugs working for Hobbs, who beat him up and promise to do worse until he finds the video. Porter goes to see Simon's father, who is in a nursing home, but he is unresponsive. Porter discovers a video camera in a bedside table, but the memory card in it only has footage of Simon visiting his father. Meanwhile, Hobbs' men force their way into Porter's house and accidentally shoot and wound his son, causing a distraught Lisa to take the children and walk out on Porter. After attacking Hobbs' lawyer in revenge, Porter watches the nursing home video again and realizes Simon's father had regular visits from a lady named Mrs. Segal (Linda Lavin). He breaks into her house and finds financial records indicating that she has been billing Simon's estate for the visits to Simon's father but also for unknown services at $5000 per month. Before he can find the memory card, Mrs. Segal returns to find him there. After explaining himself, he learns that she is a friend of Simon's family, who became a surrogate mother to Simon after his own mother passed away when he was a child. Wanting to repay her kindness, he arranged a monthly allowance for her once he became rich. Mrs. Segal felt obligated to earn the money and became a caretaker of sorts to Simon's father. Questioned by Porter about the charges to the estate, Mrs. Segal reveals she was asked by Simon before his death to send copies of a memory card to Hobbs every month. Never having seen what is on it, she gives her last remaining copy of the card to Porter. Watching it, he sees that Hobbs and Caroline had a long and intensely personal conversation (where Hobbs revealed that his penis was butchered by random thugs in France, when he was 20 years old. Caroline also whispered a secret about her stepfather to Hobbs, but this was not audible in the video) before they had sex. Porter returns the video to Hobbs, ending the threat against him and his family. In a show of good faith, Hobbs gives him a key his men found when searching Caroline's apartment for the video. Porter figures out the key is for the basement lock of the building where Simon was found. He goes there and discovers another hidden camera. The memory card in this one reveal Simon took Caroline to the building the night he died. Having watched the sex tape, he demands to know a dark secret about her stepfather that she revealed to Hobbs. Caroline refuses to divulge the story to Simon. So, Simon puts a padlock around Caroline's ankle and swallows the key. Caroline kills Simon during the interrogation and since the building is to be demolished the following morning, Caroline has no choice but to cut into Simon's stomach to retrieve the key and get out of the building. The next morning, Porter meets Caroline and reveals the recording. He gives her a copy, with the original as insurance against her contacting his family (something she had previously done for her own enjoyment). She in turn reveals the secret she told to Hobbs but kept from Simon. Basically, as a little girl, Caroline wanted a horse, and her stepfather never gave her one. She begged and begged and then her stepfather starting sexually abusing her with the promise to get her a horse by her next birthday. On the birthday, the stepfather drives Caroline to a farm to present a horse to her, only to shoot him right in front of her eyes. Porter wishes her well and leaves. In voiceover, Porter expresses guilt for all that happened, including his divorce, while admitting that the experience has both corrupted him and revealed an inner darkness that was always there. In the final scene, Porter drives by the house of a now-remarried Caroline and they look at each other one last time.

Chilli Palmer (John Travolta) is a loan shark in Miami. When his New York based boss dies of a heart attack, Palmer finds himself working for Ray 'Bones' Barboni (Dennis Farina) an old rival who hates, Palmer. Bones is upset with Palmer for not collecting a loan from dry cleaner Leo Devoe (David Paymer) who was killed in an airliner crash. Bones directs Palmer to get the money from Devoe's widow (Linda Hart). Visiting the widow Palmer realizes that Devoe is not actually dead but got off the plane at the last minute and has used the accident to get out of the loan and, through his wife, collect a $300,000 settlement from the airline. Devoe has taken the money out of the state, but never sent for his wife. Angry, she lets Palmer know that he is in Las Vegas. Palmer travels to Vegas and meets with a casino chief who tells him that Devoe has managed to gamble his winnings up to $500,000 and has moved on to Los Angeles. The casino chief asks Palmer while he is in L.A. if he can visit low budget movie producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman) and remind Zimm that he owes the casino $150,000. Palmer traces Zimm to the house of his sometimes girlfriend, sometimes star, Karen Flores (Rene Russo). Late at night when Flores hears the TV playing downstairs, she sends Zimm down to turn it off and he finds Palmer watching Letterman. Palmer delivers his reminder to Zimm about the casino debt and Zimm promises to pay. Palmer is a big film fan and engages Zimm in a conversation about his work eventually pitching him a story which is a fictionalized version of his hunt for Devoe. Flores comes downstairs to find them talking over drinks and, less than happy with both, and throws them out. Action switches to the airport where gangster Bo Catlett (Delroy Lindo) is meeting a representative of a Columbian cartel, Yayo Portillo (Jacob Vargas) to buy a shipment of drugs. Catlett takes the drugs and gives Portillo the key to an airport locker where the $500,000 in cash is stowed. Portillo, suspecting a set up and that the locker is being watched by the Federal agents, does not go to the locker, but shows up at Catlett's mountainside house. Catlett shoots him and his body falls over the balcony down the mountainside. Catlett sends his bodyguard, Bear (James Gandolfini) a sometimes stunt man, to retrieve the key and hide the body. Zimm tells Palmer about a movie he wants to produce, "Mr. Lovejoy," which has what he thinks is an Oscar winning script. He can't produce it, however, because Catlett has already lent Zimm $150,000 to do a film called "Circus Freaks." Zimm can't return the money because he lost it at Vegas in attempt to gamble it up to $500,000, the amount he needs to buy the Lovejoy script from the late writer's wife Doris Saphron (Bette Midler). Palmer tells Zimm to let him handle the next meeting with Catlett and he will get Circus Freaks put off for a few months. Palmer will get the money from Devoe to finance Mr. Lovejoy. Zimm gets nervous in the meeting with Catlett and Catlett's tough subordinate Ronnie Wingate (Jon Gries). Zimm screws it up so that Catlett finds out about the valuable script and wants a piece of the production. He even offers to give Zimm $500,000 for the picture and suggests he send Palmer to get it from a locker at the airport. Palmer goes to the airport and senses a setup. He tests what is going on by seeming to open the locker with the money when actually he opens the locker next to it. He is grabbed by federal agents, but then released when they realize that they have made a mistake. Afterward Bear confronts Palmer in the parking lot to get the key back but is outmatched by Palmer who levels him with a few blows. As Bear recovers Palmer asks him about his stunt work and flatters him by knowing about the movies he's been in. Palmer mentions that he thinks Bear can do a lot better than working for Catlett. The key to making Mr. Lovejoy a success is to get star Martin Weir (Danny DeVito) to sign on. Flores is Weir's ex-wife and still has a good relationship with him. Flores starts to become romantically involved with Palmer and helps him get access to Weir. As it turns out Weir's current girlfriend is Rock star Nicki (Renee Props) an old friend of Palmer's from Miami. Soon Palmer, who is familiar with Weir's work and flatters him, manages to talk him into signing on for the picture. Palmer also interests Weir in playing the fictional version of himself in the story he is developing. Palmer tracks down Devoe and takes $310,000 of the $500,000 leaving him with just his Vegas winnings. Devoe complains, but Palmer tells him if Bones had found him instead Bones would have taken all the money and killed him. Meanwhile Bones has learned of the money Devoe has scammed from the airline. He comes to LA when Zimm foolishly contacts him and tries to get him to invest in his film. A meeting between the two doesn't go well and leaves Zimm in a cast and head brace. At the same meeting Wingate appears and is shot by Bones, who then makes it look like Zimm killed Wingate in self-defense. The fact that Yayo has disappeared along with $500,000 has brought Colombia drug lord Mr. Escobar (Miguel Sandoval) to L.A. with two goons. Though Catlett denies knowing what happened to Yayo or the money, it is clear that Escobar holds Catlett responsible giving him just a couple of days to find both of them or there will be fatal consequences. Desperate, Catlett confronts Palmer to get Devoe's money, kidnapping Flores and taking her to his house until the cash is delivered. Palmer arrives at the house to rescue Flores. Catlett plans to take the money and kill them both, but with Bear's help (Bear has secretly switched sides), Palmer turns the tables on Catlett and sends him flying over the balcony to his death. Something Catlett had planned for Palmer. Bones finally catches up with Palmer and demands Devoe's money. Finding the airport locker key in Palmer's coat, Bones assumes that Palmer has hid the money at the airport. When Bones goes to the airport and opens the locker, we see the federal agents close around him. The scene suddenly switches to an airport set at a movie studio. A voice addresses Bones and when he turns around, we see that the character is now portrayed by Harvey Keitel. Threatening him is Weir playing the fictional version of Palmer. Weir screws up the shot and as the movie company breaks for lunch, we see that Penny Marshall is the director and Bear a technical consultant with Zimm producing and Palmer and Flores as executive producers. There is a long helicopter pull out shot from the studio and the credits roll.