John Irvin

At a Lake Como resort, Miss Bentley, an attractive older guest, meets a handsome, well-to-do bachelor. But when he's more interested in a beautiful young flirt, the mischievous Miss Bentley goes to outrageous lengths to reel in her catch. For 16 years Miss Bentley has been spending April at an elegant hillside villa on Lake Como. This year, 1937, her London society artist father has recently died and the only other English-speaking guests are brash Americans. Then Major Wilshaw arrives. He suggests they meet for cocktails and Miss Bentley stands him up -- not even thinking about it -- as she helps the new nanny of an Italian family settle in. Miss Beaumont, a tall, young American who has dropped out of finishing school in Switzerland, is bored and finds some amusement in flirting with the major, whose libido is awakened for the first time since before the great war. And Miss Bentley now finds more about the major to admire than his ears. —Dale O'Connor <daleoc@interaccess.com>

The Swashbuckling legend of Robin Hood unfolds in the 12th century when the mighty Normans ruled England with an iron fist.

A high-ranking Polish politburo member is banished from the party, and must find out why. Set in 1979 Poland before the Solidarity events.

On 10th May 1969, troops of the 101st Airborne division engaged the enemy at the base of hill 937 in the Ashau Valley. 10 days and 11 bloody assaults later, the surviving troops called it Hamburger Hill. In 1969, a platoon of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, receives five new recruits as replacements: Beletsky (Tim Quill) who constantly frets that he won't be able to remember everything he is taught; Languilli (Anthony Barrile), soon called Alphabet and who gets annoyed when people Mis-pronounce his name; Washburn (Don Cheadle), the only African-American of the replacements; Bienstock (Tommy Swerdlow); and Galvan (M.A. Nickles) the quietest but most promising of the new intake. At the same time, platoon Sergeant First Class Worcester (Steven Weber) is breaking in a new commander, Lieutenant Eden (Tegan West). The five privates are assigned to 3rd Squad, under battle-weary squad leader, Sgt Frantz (Dylan McDermott). The recruits are taken through a crash-course in battlefield skills, everything from oral hygiene to a demonstration from a captured NVA soldier as to how skillfully enemy troops can penetrate perimeter defenses (by having a Viet Cong deserter silently penetrate a barbed wire barrier and aim a rocket launcher at them). There are many unique things about combat in Vietnam. The soldiers put plastic covers on their rifle Firehole to protect it from water damage, the enemy is well entrenched in tunnels dug under the ground and no amount of aerial bombardment can dislodge it, most of the country is covered by a tropical jungle and there are no roads for easy transportation, soldiers fraternize with the local prostitutes for sex but this is dangerous as prostitutes don't use any protection, infection due to worms and bacteria is rampant and soldiers are specifically given induction training on personal hygiene. Even in the middle of the war, an army General flies in his camper trailer from the US and lugs it all over Vietnam for his personal comfort. The platoon has a new commander, Lieutenant Eden who is going to need the skills and experience of both Frantz and platoon-Sgt Worcester. The platoon's specialist MG-team is composed of the burly Pvt Duffy (Harry O'Reilly) and his Mis-matched, bespectacled buddy Pvt Gaigan (Daniel O'Shea). The three African-American veterans of the unit- Motown (Michael Patrick Boatman), 'Doc' Johnson (Courtney B. Vance) and Sgt McDaniel (Don James) (who has less than a month left on his tour)- all have first-hand knowledge of the racial discrimination still practiced in the army. McDaniel begs Frantz for a desk job at HQ for the remainder for his tour duration, but he knows that African American soldiers are not considered for such assignments. The FNGs (The term "F**king new guy" (FNG) is a derogatory term, made popular within combatants, military chaplains, and combat medics of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps deployed to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, usually to refer to newcomers. Da Nang, Vietnam) get their first sudden taste of war when a quiet spell beside a river is interrupted by an enemy artillery barrage and Galvan is killed. The base comes under intermittent NVA fire to test their defenses. The stress on the troops is unimaginable. The platoon enters the Ashau Valley and runs into an enemy patrol, sparking a firefight in which Sgt McDaniel is killed. This loss provokes considerable bitterness and tension as McDaniel was near the end of his tour and being African American, was denied any chance to score rear-line duties at headquarters. Doc blames Frantz for not getting the short-timer McDaniel a less dangerous assignment. The platoon is part of the battalion's assault on Hill 937, which soon grows into the Battle of Hamburger Hill when unexpectedly determined resistance is encountered. With the NVA defending well-entrenched positions, the platoon attacks the hill repeatedly against stubborn opposition. Between assaults, US air-strikes steadily strip away all vegetation, leaving the hill a barren, scorched wasteland. In one assault, a battle-crazed and wounded Duffy, wielding an M60 machine gun, seems on the verge of carrying the day as enemy resistance begins to crumble. However, botched air support by helicopter gunships causes several friendly casualties, including Duffy. In between attacks, the shrinking platoon tries to rest, chattering about social upheaval and unrest back home. Bienstock is devastated by a letter from his girlfriend, whose college friends have told her that it is immoral to remain with a soldier. Beletsky gets a cassette tape from his girlfriend, and Frantz is moved that she mentions his name. Worcester describes to his comrades the alienation and hostility from anti-war college students, and the breakdown of his marriage, on his return from a previous tour of duty. He tells of a good friend, whose son had been killed in Vietnam during the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang, who receives cruel phone calls gloating over his son's death. On day seven, returning downhill from their ninth assault, Frantz has a confrontation with a TV reporter, telling him that he has more respect for the NVA on the hill than for the reporter. The exhausted platoon continues the attempt to capture Hill 937. During the tenth assault, in torrential rain, Gaigin is killed while Beletsky and Doc are wounded. Doc tells Frantz and Motown to capture the hill so that they will at least have something to be proud of, then succumbs to his wounds moments before a Medevac helicopter lands. Beletsky, despite having received a "million dollar wound," decides to return to his unit. The eleventh and final assault is mounted by the remaining troops, whose bitterness and exhaustion is overcome by desperation and unit pride. The final enemy positions are overrun but the cost is heavy. Lieutenant Eden loses his right arm, while Murphy, Worcester, Motown, Bienstock and Languilli are killed. Frantz, stunned by the loss of so many friends, is dazed and wounded by an enemy bayonet. Beletsky, also wounded but enraged, leads the final push to the summit. At the summit, the bleeding and exhausted Frantz, Washburn and Beletsky sit together in the dirt, as the battlefield finally goes silent.

A former FBI agent turned small-town sheriff agrees to help the FBI chief infiltrate the Chicago mafia when the FBI chief's son is killed by them. Small-town lawman Sheriff Mark Kaminski, a dishonoured agent kicked out of the FBI for excessive brutality, agrees to lend an old friend a hand. But to infiltrate Luigi Patrovita's powerful Chicago mafia, the tough officer will need all the help he can get. As revenge fuels the suicide mission, Mark, now posing as the mysterious Joseph P. Brenner, must use every trick in the book to force his way through the crime organisation and tear it apart from the inside. For the sake of his friend, Mark takes the law into his own hands in this deadly unofficial assignment. However, how far can the intruder go without blowing his cover? —Nick Riganas Mark Kaminski is kicked out of the FBI for his rough treatment of a suspect. He winds up as the sheriff of a small town in North Carolina. FBI Chief Harry Shannon, whose son Blair Shannon has been killed by a mobster named Luigi Patrovita, enlists Kaminski in a personal vendetta with a promise of reinstatement into the FBI if Patrovita is taken down. To accomplish this, Kaminski must go undercover and join Patrovita's gang. —Dave Gan <longbow@bigfoot.com>

In a small New England town, four elderly men form what they call the "Chowder Society," regaling themselves with the telling of scary "ghost stories." Membership in the club, in fact, requires that one present such a story. The four old friends consist of Ricky Hawthorne (Fred Astaire), a lawyer, and his partner Sears James (John Houseman), along with Dr. John Jaffrey (Melvyn Douglas) and Edward Charles Wanderley (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), a successful businessman. When Edward's son, David, living in New York, falls from a window after the girl he's sleeping with turns suddenly into a hideous demon, Edward grieves. His other son, Don (Craig Wasson), a college professor who's fallen on hard times, shows up in town, not getting a great reception from Edward, who always preferred the other, more ambitious son. But now the four elderly gentlemen are unsettled, experiencing nightmares. Clearly, something is bothering them. Edward becomes so distraught, he wanders across a bridge in the snow. When he sees the same female apparition that caused his son to fall to his death, Edward, too, falls to his death from the bridge. Although his death is ruled a suicide, his son Don and Edward's three remaining elderly friends doubt it. Don approaches the remaining three friends, requesting membership in their group, offering up a bizarre "ghost" story of his own. Don's flashback: A few years earlier, then a promising junior professor in Miami, Florida, Don meets Alma (Alice Krige), a beautiful if mysterious secretary who comes to work at the university. They immediately become involved in a torrid sexual affair, which interferes with Don's job, causing him to miss work and earn the scorn of the Dean who previously championed him. But Don finds something strange about this strange, exotic woman -- a coldness, and he drops her. Later, he hears from his brother David that he has met the same girl in New York and intends to marry her. Don warns his brother that she's trouble, but to no avail. And indeed, Don suspects she caused his death - the fall from the building as seen earlier. Back in the present, the elderly friends react to Don's story. Sears dismisses it, but Ricky believes him. Elderly Dr. John Lafferty, after having a nightmare about the same woman - Alma - dies of a heart attack. This leaves only Sears and Ricky. Thus, they finally tell Don their own strange history with a woman who looked exactly like Alma. Their flashback: Back when the four friends were young in 1931, the beautiful Eva Galli (also Alice Krige) came to town, and, indeed, it's obvious that she's the same person as Alma in the present. The four friends are smitten with Eva, who encourages their sexual interest. It was Young Edward (Don's father) who first took her to bed, but he was impotent with her. When she mocked him later in front of his friends, Young Edward leaps to silence her, knocking her down, accidentally killing her when her head smashes into the stone fireplace. Horrified, the young men realize that she's dead. They consider calling police, but realize it would only mean wrecking their lives. Instead, they load her body into her car, then push it into the nearby lake. As the car descends, Eva stirs inside, looking out at them from the back window.... still alive! Back in the present, Ricky and Sears admit that the death has haunted them all these years. Whereas Sears is dubious, both Ricky and Don believe that Alma and Eva are one in the same and that her ghost has returned to seek revenge after 50 years. Don suggests they go to Eva's old house, now in ruins, to confront the past and her ghost once and for all. They go there, but Don falls on the rotting stairs and breaks his leg. Sears goes off in his car through the snow for help, leaving Don and Ricky behind, but one of Alma/Eva's evil accomplices, an evil boy, causes his car to crash off the icy road and he dies. Ricky nearly dies at the hands of one of Alma's the accomplices, an arrogant young Hod, but Ricky manages to get to the authorities, telling them to pull Eva's car up from the lake to reveal her body inside. This is intercut with Don, who confronts the rotting specter of Alma/Eva's ghost. Ricky and the authorities drag out the ancient car, opening the rusted, corroded door, finding the still-living rotting corpse inside. It falls out, disintegrating before their eyes. Don is spared from the monstrosity of her vengeful ghost, and the town is restored to peace.

Jamie Shannon is a soldier of fortune, a mercenary who will stage a coup or a revolution for the right price. In 1980, Mercenaries Jamie Shannon (Christopher Walken), Drew (Tom Berenger), Derek (Paul Freeman), Michel (Jean-Francois Stevenin), Terry (Ed O'Neill) and injured Richard (Harlan Cary Poe) make a hasty exit from a war-torn Central American country by forcing their way onto a government civilian DC-3 airplane. When a Central American officer demands Richard's body to be removed to make room for others one of the mercenaries shows he is still able to safely grasp the spoon of a hand grenade and Drew insists his friend "goes home". The flight barely manages to take off from a make-shift runway before the rebels completely overrun the airport and kill everything and everybody that remained. Shannon lives a lonely life and doesn't have any friends. He lives alone in his apartment. After Shannon returns home to another night of loneliness, he is approached by a mysterious stranger who calls himself Andean. Endean (Hugh Millais) is a Briton who is interested in "certain resources" of a small African nation named Zangaro. Endean says that the investors he represents are willing to put up several hundred million dollars to extract the resources from Zangaro. Before money can be invested, they need to know much more about the stability of the regime. Endean pays Shannon $15,000 to go on a reconnaissance mission in Zangaro which is run by a paranoid and brutal dictator named General Kimba. Shannon arrives in Zangaro's capital of ClarenceTown, with a cover story of being an Ornithologist for a popular nature magazine back in the states. At the airport itself, a corrupt customs official takes half of everything Shannon has, like whiskey, cigarettes, porn and hard currency, before letting him into the country. He is given a lift into town by a catholic priest. Armed militia roam the streets, stopping vehicles, looking for an opportunity to make a quick bribe to avoid harassment. Shannon meets a British documentary filmmaker named Alan North (Colin Blakely) who tells him Zangaro's history and scouts out the defenses of the military garrison. North says that after independence there were 3 candidates for the President, namely Kima, Colonel Bobi and Dr Okoye. Okoye wanted to maintain links with the mother country. But the freedom fighters feared Neo-colonialism and thus Kimba got elected. A week later, he threw Okoye into prison and pushed Bobi into exile. Shannon activities, especially a suspected dalliance with a woman who turns out to be one of Kimba's mistresses, arouse the suspicions of Zangaro's police, and he is arrested, severely beaten and thrown in jail. His multiple wounds are treated by Dr. Okoye (Winston Ntshona), a physician who was formerly a moderate political leader and the only local politician of whom North approved but who was imprisoned by General Kimba four years ago. North agitates for his release and Shannon is deported after two days of torture. His physician tells him that all the damage he has sustained has taken years off his lifespan. After Shannon tells Endean that there is no chance of an internal coup Endean offers Shannon $100,000 to overthrow Kimba by invading Zangaro with a mercenary army. Endean intends to install a puppet government led by Colonel Bobi (George Harris), Kimba's brutal and greedy former ally. This would allow Endean to exploit the country's newly discovered platinum resources as Colonel Bobi has already signed away the mineral rights. Shannon refuses the offer and decides to leave his mercenary life behind. Shannon meets his estranged wife and proposes that they start a new life in Colorado or Montana. She turns him down noting that she does not think that he has changed. Shannon then accepts Endean's offer to organize an attack on Zangaro with the condition that he will have complete control of the operation. After Endean gives Shannon $1 million for expenses Shannon contacts his mercenary cohorts from Central America and three of them join him but one does not. They meet up at Liverpool Street Station to plan the coup and when all the options have been decided Michel proposes a toast followed by Shannon's reciting his motto "Everyone Comes Home". The group illegally procures Uzi sub-machine guns, ammunition, rocket launchers, mines and other weapons from arms dealers. He hires a small freighter and crew to transport the team to the coast of Zangaro and purchases a variety of other equipment that will be used in the attack such as Zodiac-style motorboats. By chance he encounters North who was expelled from Zangaro shortly after Shannon. North believes Shannon is a CIA agent heading back to Zangaro and tries to tail him. Shannon asks Drew to scare North away without hurting him but instead North is killed by someone who had been hired by Endean to follow Shannon and his crew. A furious Shannon kills him in turn and leaves his body at Endean's house during a dinner party held for Colonel Bobi. At sea the team is joined by a group of mercenary soldiers trained by a former mercenary colleague, Jinja, who will act as infantry. Once ashore in a night attack, the mercenaries and their troops use their array of weapons to attack the military garrison where Kimba lives. Drew bursts into a shack in the barracks' courtyard and finds only a young woman with a baby. When he turns to leave without harming them, she shoots him in the back with a pistol. After the mercenaries storm the burning, bullet-scarred ruins of the garrison, Shannon blasts his way into Kimba's mansion. There he finds the dictator stuffing packs of bills into a briefcase. When a whimpering Kimba offers Shannon some of the money to spare his life, Shannon kills him. The following morning, Endean arrives by helicopter with Colonel Bobi and they enter the presidential residence, where they find Shannon and Dr. Okoye awaiting their overdue arrival. Shannon introduces Dr. Okoye as Zangaro's new president who tells Colonel Bobi that he is under arrest, and when Endean protests. Shannon silences him by shooting Bobi. Shannon, Derek and Michel load Drew's body onto a Land Rover, in line with the toast they drank on planning the operation "Everyone comes home". The film concludes with the mercenaries driving through the deserted streets of Clarence until they are out of frame.