John A. Alonzo

Steel Magnolias follows the close friendship of a group of women living in a small town, as they look to each other for strength and support to survive life`s various misfortunes.

It is 1985. Police Sgt. Jack Ramsay is 35 years old; his records show he was born in 1950. He is a widower and has a 10-year-old son Bobby. He works in a large city which is never specified. Ramsay has a fear of heights, so he asked to be moved to a division called "Runaways" that deals with malfunctioning robots, who have taken over many of the jobs humans once did. Thompson is Ramsay's new partner. She has tried other jobs, including computer programmer, but none of them worked out. She is pretty but capable. On their first assignment together, Ramsay and Thompson must take a helicopter to a farm where pest-control robots are out of control. They are able to successfully capture the robots. On their second assignment, Ramsay and Thompson go to the house of a man named Johnson whose household robot has killed two people. A 10-month-old baby is alone and crying. TV crews are on the scene and Ramsay must discourage them, but one cameraman insists on going inside and gets killed before Ramsay can bring the robot under control. Johnson comes home and is very concerned about the baby but disappears before Ramsay can rescue the baby. A suspicious looking man is watching everything. Ramsay goes home to Bobby and Lois, the robot who takes care of the house and Bobby. Bobby, who should be in bed, is very excited about what he has just seen happen on TV, and he likes Thompson, who is already showing signs of being a partner to Ramsay in more than one way. Lois makes sure Bobby goes to bed and asks if Thompson needs to be entered into her list of information, which of course she does. On another day, Ramsay and Thompson go out on another assignment, this one a tall building under construction where a robot is throwing items off the building. Ramsay gives this job to Thompson and he stays on the ground. Johnson is discovered staying in a hotel room, and Ramsay and Thompson go to pick him up. Johnson fears for his life, with good reason. His company developed a new technology that someone called Dr. Luther wants to use to commit crimes. Just before Ramsay can take Johnson to the station, he takes off running and Ramsay chases him. Dr. Luther joins the chase and starts firing bullets at Johnson, only these are not ordinary bullets. They an go around corners and dodge obstacles and have the ability to track their target. After several attempts, Johnson is killed. Although it is not Ramsay's department, he continues to investigate the case and discovers Dr. Luther in a room at the Ritz hotel. There is gunfire and several officers are killed. TV crews are there as well. Despite his fear of heights, Ramsay must go to the roof to rescue a girl being held by Dr. Luther. Because of all the chaos and the deaths, and the fact it wasn't his department, Ramsay is reprimanded by his Chief. There is an incident at the company where Johnson worked, and secretary Jackie is being held prisoner by one of the robots. Ramsay rescues Jackie and destroys the robot in the process, which the security guard says wasn't necessary. Ramsay takes Jackie and offers her protection. She has the templates necessary for the chips needed for Dr. Luther's special bullets, and Dr. Luther still wants them. This leads to a car chase where special robots that can track Jackie start shooting. Eventually Ramsay and Jackie have to change cars; a robot is driving theirs and Thompson is in the other. As soon as the transfer is made the car they were in is blown up. At a nice restaurant with outdoor seating Dr. Luther demands Jackie be turned over to him. Jackie leaves part of what he wants behind as insurance, but he kills her when he realizes he doesn't have everything. Dr. Luther escapes and ends up at Ramsay's precinct dressed as a cop, and no one notices. He has an eyeball which is capable of passing a retinal scan that is required to sign in to Ramsay's computer. Ramsay later sees information about him on the screen, and he knows someone knows where he lives. He goes home and discovers Lois seriously damaged and Bobby missing. After fixing Lois, Ramsay goes to a tall building under construction where Bobby is being held. After going up in the elevator, Ramsay demands Bobby be released and then hands over the templates. Dr. Luthor explains that as soon as Bobby gets off the elevator, robots called spiders will kill him because there can be no witnesses. Thompson has followed Ramsay and rescues Bobby before anything can happen to him, but Ramsay experiences a series of terrifying events before he can successfully trick Dr. Luther into the trap his set for Bobby, leading to Dr. Luther's death. At the end of the movie it is clear Ramsay and Thompson are romantic partners.

A Cuban refugee, Tony Montana, arrives in Miami with nothing and rises to become the city's drug kingpin.

A tough but straight-arrow cop battles a group of military and government elitists who have developed an extraordinary helicopter into the ultimate weapon.

A prostitute and a drifter find themselves bound together as they make their way through the rural South, doing what they have to do to survive.

San Francisco, 1940, detectives, dames, documents, Nazis, and a treasure. Lou Peckinpaugh (Peter Falk), the cheap detective has entered a world that is half Casablanca (1942) and half The Maltese Falcon (1941). A parody of Humphrey Bogart's movies in which Lou goes through a series of scenes from the two movies trying to keep ahead of the police who think he killed his partner and find the black bird.

Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), an alcoholic and former minor-league baseball player, is recruited by a city councilman and attorney who filed a lawsuit against an ultra-competitive Southern California Little League which excluded the least skilled athletes (including his son) from playing. In order to settle the lawsuit, the league agrees to add an additional team - the Bears - which is composed of the worst players in the whole Little League. Buttermaker becomes the coach of the unlikely team, which includes (among others) a near-sighted pitcher, an overweight catcher, a foul-mouthed shortstop with a Napoleon complex, an outfielder who dreams of emulating his idol Hank Aaron, and a motley collection of other "talent". Shunned by the more competitive teams (and competitive parents), the Bears are the outsiders. They play their opening game, and do not even record an out, with the score at 26 to 0 before Buttermaker forfeits the game. Realizing the team is nearly hopeless, he recruits a couple of unlikely prospects: First up, is sharp-tongued Amanda Whurlizer (Tatum O'Neal), a skilled pitcher (trained by Buttermaker when she was younger) who is the 12-year-old daughter of one of Buttermaker's ex-girlfriends. At first, she tries to convince Buttermaker that she has given up baseball, but then she reveals that she had been practicing "on the sly". Before agreeing to join the team, Amanda makes a number of outlandish demands (such as imported jeans, modeling school, ballet lessons, etc.) as conditions for joining. Upon hearing her demands, Buttermaker asks, "Who do you think you are, Catfish Hunter?" Amanda responds by asking, "Who's he?" Rounding out the team, Buttermaker recruits the "best athlete in the area," who also happens to be the local cigarette-smoking, loan-sharking, Harley-Davidson-riding troublemaker, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley). With Whurlizer and Leak on board, the team starts gaining more confidence, and the Bears start winning games. Eventually, the unlikely Bears make it to the championship game opposite the top-notch Yankees, who are coached by aggressive, competitive Roy Turner (Vic Morrow). As the game progresses, tensions are ratcheted up as Buttermaker and Turner engage in shouting matches, directing their players to become increasingly more ruthless and competitive against each other, going as far as fighting, spiking on slide, or the batter getting hit on purpose. The turnaround point of the game comes after a heated exchange between Turner's son (and Yankees pitcher) Joey (Brandon Cruz) and the Bears at-bat catcher Engelberg (Gary Lee Cavagnaro). Turner orders his son to walk Engelberg, the only Bears hitter he cannot overcome, despite Joey's wish to give it a try. In response, Joey intentionally throws a wild beanball nearly striking Engelberg in the head. Horrified, Turner goes to the mound and slaps his son. On the next pitch, Engelberg hits a routine ground ball back to Joey who exacts revenge against his father by holding the ball until Engelberg has an inside the park home run. Joey then leaves the game dropping the ball at his father's feet. Buttermaker - realizing that he has become as competitive as Turner - puts the benchwarmers on the field, thus giving everyone a chance to play. In spite of this, the finish-up brings up the best team-play from the Bears. After loading the bases with smart tactics (two walks and a bunt) they nearly recover a four run difference, with the last runner getting taken out at the last moment. Having narrowly lost the game at 7 to 6, Buttermaker gives the team free rein of his beer cooler. Although they did not win the championship, they have the satisfaction of having come a long way. The condescending Yankees congratulate the Bears (in a sarcastic tone implying that they really not mean it) telling them that although they are still not that good, they have "guts." Tanner, the shortstop, replies by telling the Yankees where they can put their trophy. The Bears cheer and Lupus overcomes his chronic shyness enough to yell "Wait 'til next year!", then they spray their beers all over each other. The movie ends with a field celebration by the Bears that makes it look as if they won the game.

While investigating a socialite`s husband, a private eye is swept into a storm of lies and a web of scandals that come crashing together for an unforgettable night in Chinatown.

In New Mexico, a Confederate veteran returns home to find his fiancée married to a Union soldier, his Yankee neighbors rallied against him and his property sold by the local banker who then hires a gunman to kill him. When Confederate soldier Matt Weaver returns to town after the Civil War, he finds that his home has been sold by town boss Sam Brewster. Brewster hires gunfighter Jules Gaspard d'Estaing to deal with Weaver, but d'Estaing's independent approach settles the town's problems in a very unorthodox manner. —<JeanneArmintrout@juno.com> In the aftermath of the costly Civil War, the veteran Confederate Army soldier, Matt Weaver, returns to his hometown of New Mexico and his dusty ancestral farmhouse, only to discover that his property has been confiscated and resold by the immoral town boss, Sam Brewster. As the hamlet's only Rebel trooper attempts to repossess his ranch, an unfortunate complication will have the suave Creole gunslinger, Jules Gaspard d'Estaing, hot on his trail, paid by the crooked land baron to kill Weaver. Nevertheless, right from the start, the mysterious hired gun seems to have plans of his own. Will Jules finish what he got paid for? —Nick Riganas