John Mahoney

Jessie Vallequette follows her scribe boyfriend of 3 years, Dale Morrow, on a search for his long-lost father, last heard from on a deserted island in the Philippines. Along with a group of unwitting friends, the young couple encounters more than they bargained for after discover not only was Dale's father part of a top-secret government project testing the depth of people's fears, but also that he had very good reason for not wanting to be found. —In-Motion Pictures

In October 1957, during the Cold War, an object (Vin Diesel) from space crashes in the ocean just off the coast of Maine and then enters the forest near the town of Rockwell. A fishing boat collides with the object, which appears to be a giant robot made of Iron. The boat sinks, but the skipper survives and swims to the coast, guided by the lighthouse. The skipper reaches Rockwell and makes a call to the Government about what he saw. Hogarth meets an artist named Dean in a diner, where Hogarth's mother Annie works as a waitress. The following night, nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal) is watching a late-night movie on TV, as his mother is working late at the cafe. The TV suddenly has no picture, and Hogarth climbs to the roof to find the antenna cut off, and a trail going into the forest. Hogarth investigates a trail of destruction in the forest and finds the object, a 50-foot-tall alien robot. He runs away but then returns to save the robot when he gets electrocuted while trying to eat the transmission lines of an electrical substation. Hogarth turns the substation power off, to stop the robot from being electrocuted. Hogarth's mother returns from work and is worried at not finding him at home. She goes into the forest looking for him and finds him near the substation. Hogarth tries to tell her about the robot, but his mother refuses to hear anything and takes him home. Hogarth eventually returns and befriends the Giant, finding him docile and curious. The robot follows Hogarth back to his house, where he lives with his mother Annie (Jennifer Aniston). Upon their return, the Giant attempts to eat the rails off the ties of the nearby railroad tracks. Alarmed by the sound of an oncoming train, Hogarth tells the giant to repair the tracks. The Giant attempts this, but takes too long, causing the train to collide with his head. Hogarth and the robot flee before the train crew can investigate. Hogarth discovers that the giant is self-repairing, as loose parts from the collision return under their own power and reassemble. Hogarth hides the robot in their barn and helps to teach it about life. He is able to teach the robot how to speak English through his comic books. The robot is impressed with Superman but distressed when he discovers a comic about an evil robot; Hogarth tells the Giant that he can be "who you choose to be". Investigating the destroyed power station, US government agent Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald) discovers evidence of the robot and decides to continue his inquiries in nearby Rockwell. At the substation, while he is investigating, the robot eats Mansley's car. Finding a BB gun Hogarth left near the substation, Mansley takes up a room for rent at Hogarth's home and trails the boy to learn more. He is paranoid about an alien invasion and alerts the U.S. Army to the possible presence of the robot. Worried that they will be discovered, Hogarth evades Mansley and takes the robot to beatnik artist Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick, Jr.). Hogarth enjoys his time with the Giant but is compelled to explain the concept of death to the Giant after he witnesses hunters killing a deer. Hogarth is detained and interrogated by Mansley when he discovers evidence of the Giant after finding a photo of him next to Hogarth and summons a U.S. Army contingent led by General Shannon Rogard to the scrapyard to prove the Giant's existence. Dean is able to pass off the robot as one of his works of art when Mansley and Lieutenant General Rogard (John Mahoney) investigate. Later, while playing with a toy gun, Hogarth inadvertently activates the Giant's defensive system, firing a laser beam in the process. Dean yells at him for nearly killing Hogarth, and the saddened Giant runs away with Hogarth giving chase. Dean realizes that the Giant was only acting in self-defense and catches up to Hogarth as they follow the Giant. In Rockwell, the Giant rescues two boys falling from a roof when he arrives, winning over the townspeople. Mansley, having seen the robot, orders an attack to stop it. Hogarth and the robot attempt to flee but Hogarth is knocked unconscious. Hogarth is knocked unconscious, but the Giant assumes that Hogarth is dead, and in a fit of rage and grief transforms into a war machine and returns to Rockwell. Mansley convinces Rogard to prepare a nuclear missile launch from the USS Nautilus, as conventional weapons prove to be ineffective. Hogarth awakens and returns in time to calm the Giant while Dean clarifies the situation to Rogard. Rogard is ready to stand down and order the Nautilus to deactivate its primed nuke, but a panicked Mansley snatches Rogard's radio and orders the missile launch. The missile is targeted to hit Rockwell, where it will destroy the town upon impact in the resulting nuclear detonation. Mansley attempts to escape, but the Giant intervenes, and Rogard has Mansley arrested. To save the town, the Giant bids farewell to Hogarth and flies off to intercept the missile. As he soars into the missile's path, the Giant remembers Hogarth's words, "You are who you choose to be," smiles contentedly, and declares himself "Superman" as he collides with the weapon. The missile explodes in the atmosphere, saving Rockwell, its population, and the military forces nearby, while the Giant is presumably destroyed, leaving Hogarth, Dean, Annie, and Rogard devastated. Months later, Dean and Annie, now a couple, have a chat at a memorial of the Giant made by Dean, standing in Rockwell. Hogarth is given a package from Rogard containing a screw from the Giant, which is the only remnant found. That night, Hogarth finds the screw trying to move on its own and, remembering the Giant's ability to self-repair, happily allows the screw to leave. The screw joins many other parts as they converge on the Giant's head on the Langjökull glacier in Iceland, and the Giant smiles as he begins reassembling himself.

Z, a worker ant, dreams of winning the heart of beautiful Princess Bala so he switches places with a soldier ant. But he may turn out to be the biggest little hero of them all!

A lawyer chases the spotlight by taking up the famous case of a teenager charged with an archbishop`s murder. But the cynical attorney`s client may actually deserve his best defense.

A Secret Service agent seeks to redeem himself by saving the life of his country's highest elected official, even if it means sacrificing his own.

Coming from a police family, Tom Hardy ends up fighting his uncle after the murder of his father. Tom believes the killer is another cop and goes on the record with his allegations. Demoted then to river duty, the killer taunts Tom. Tom Hardy (Bruce Willis) is a maverick cop in pursuit of a sadistic serial killer. Demoted to river patrol after suggesting to the press the killer may be a police officer, he initiates an unauthorized investigation with his new partner (Sarah Jessica Parker).

Dr. Richard Sturgess and his colleagues cut red tape at a poorly-run hospital for veterans. A group of doctors in a veteran's hospital must contend with their hopeless situation: too many patients and not enough beds. The main cause of their problems is bureaucratic belt-tightening by the hospital administrators. The doctors are determined to give the best service they can, even if that means defying the orders of management and performing unauthorized operations. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood. In the wake of his early but undeniable theatrical success in Broadway, the idealistic author of the proletariat and self-pitying 1940s New York playwright, Barton Fink, finds himself lured to dazzling Hollywood to write scripts for eccentric Jack Lipnick's Capitol Pictures. But, instead of writing a story pivoting around the common man, Fink's first screenplay turns out to be a Wallace Beery wrestling movie, and, before he knows it, he develops a severe case of writer's block. Now, holed up in the seedy, run-down Hotel Earle, before his silent Underwood typewriter, Barton comes to realise that his only hope to meet the deadline is to take inspiration from the burly insurance salesman living next door, Charlie Meadows, and the unassuming secretary, Audrey Taylor. In the meantime, the suffocating stranglehold of artistic bankruptcy tightens. Does self-destructive Barton Fink have the stomach for confronting Hollywood's bitter reality? —Nick Riganas The film opens in New York City during the year 1941. Barton Fink is a novice Jewish-American playwright, who has just had his first great success at the Broadway stage. He wrote a play about the struggles and aspirations of common fishmongers. He aspires to write more plays about the lives of the working class, as he finds them more interesting than the kings and the aristocracy. His agent instead convinces him to sign a lucrative screenwriting contract with Capitol Pictures, a Los Angeles-based film studio. Fink settles into the life of a hack writer, though he is not truly suited for the job. His first assignment is to work on the script of a B-Movie about wrestling, though he does not even know the basics about this form of entertainment. Fink becomes a long-term resident of the Hotel Earle, a decaying relic of the art deco era. Feeling lonely, Fink befriends his next door-neighbor, the insurance salesman Charlie Meadows. He views Meadows as a typical working stiff, but he likes sharing drinks with him. Fink seeks writing advice from the experienced novelist and screenwriter W. P. Mayhew, but soon realizes that the man is an abusive alcoholic whose career has declined. Fink finds a love interest in Audrey Taylor, Mayhew's personal secretary, long-term mistress, and the ghost writer behind most of Mayhews' recent works. After Taylor is murdered in Fink's bedroom, a traumatized Fink becomes increasingly emotionally dependent on Meadows. Shortly after, two police detectives inform Fink that Meadows is actually wanted serial killer Karl Mundt, who typically decapitates his victims. Fink slowly realizes Meadows' hidden agenda, while finding himself out of favor with his boss at the film studio. —Dimos I In 1941, New York intellectual playwright Barton Fink comes to Hollywood to write a Wallace Beery wrestling picture. Staying in the eerie Hotel Earle, Barton develops severe writer's block. His neighbor, jovial insurance salesman Charlie Meadows, tries to help, but Barton continues to struggle as a bizarre sequence of events distracts him even further from his task. —Scott Renshaw <as.idc@forsythe.stanford.edu> Barton Fink is a troubled New York playwright obsessed with bringing his new idea of "Theater of the Common Man" to the producers he loves to hate. After his first budding success his agent convinces him to travel to Los Angeles to write for Capital Pictures. When he arrives he checks into the dark Hotel Earle and meets with Capital Pictures President Jack Lipnick, who tells him of the movie he's writing: a B-Movie wrestling picture for Wallace Beery. Fink travels back to his hotel room to begin, but when he arrives he types one sentence and then falls into the horror of writer's block. He tries getting help from his neighbor, "Common Man" Charlie Meadows; famed writer Mayhew; Mayhew's girlfriend Audrey and producer Ben Geisler. But as Fink drifts further away from his script strange things start happening, and eventually two detectives show up at his door... —Monte_Man167

The story of Paul Weaver and his strained relationships with women and his family. Thirty-seven year old Paul Weaver, an ex-major leaguer turned insurance salesman, a job he hates, has just received final divorce papers a year after his wife Nancy Weaver left him because of his chronic infidelity. Paul can admit to himself that Nancy is the only woman he's ever loved but sometimes it was easier to turn to other woman as those one-nighters carried less baggage. Despite the probability of seeing Nancy, Paul decides to make the ten hour drive from his home in New York City to his small hometown in Pennsylvania for his sister Karen Weaver's wedding, he planning on staying with his parents in his old bedroom. What Paul is unaware of until he arrives is that Nancy and their their two children, teenage David Weaver and preteen Sarah Weaver, have temporarily moved in with his parents out of circumstance. While David understands the machinations of what happened with his parents, Sarah, who nonetheless misses New York life and always has plans on running away, blames her father for their collective situation. Within this situation, Paul will face others with difficulties in marriage despite love. One is his parents, Boomer and Ruth Weaver, Boomer who can only function and cope when he has alcohol in his system. Two is somewhat inexperienced Karen herself, who is questioning whether she can tolerate the thirty percent of her fiancé Doug Whipkey that bothers her and whether there is someone else out there for her who has less than thirty percent. And three is Susan Volcheck, one of Karen's bridesmaids who may want to fall into Paul's arms if only because she is certain that her husband, house painter Danny Volcheck, is cheating on her when he is in Wheeling, West Virginia on a job. —Huggo

A British publisher is sent a manuscript detailing Soviet Union nuclear missile capabilities. British Intelligence intercept it and recruit him to investigate the author's editor, a beautiful Russian woman he claims never to have met. Three notebooks supposedly containing Russian military secrets are handed to a British publisher during a Russian book conference. The British Secret Service are naturally keen to learn if these notebooks are the genuine article. To this end, they enlist the help of the scruffy British publisher Barley Blair, who has plenty of experience with Russia and Russians. Barley, an unconventional character who doesn't respond well to authority, finds himself in a game more complex than he first thought when he digs into the origin of the notebooks. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

Set in Washington DC, Suspect centers on three disparate characters. Carl Wayne Anderson is a homeless, deaf-mute Vietnam veteran accused of murdering Elizabeth Quinn, a file clerk at the Justice Department. Kathleen Riley is the beleaguered Federal Public Defender assigned to represent Anderson. An agribusiness lobbyist who normally works on Capitol Hill, Eddie Sanger, is made a member of the jury and begins investigating the details of the murder himself, eventually teaming up with Riley to solve the case. We see some early scenes of Sanger's work as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill, including his efforts to win passage of a bill by seducing a Congresswoman. While not relevant to the movie's plot, these scenes are establishing shots giving us a sense for Sanger as a charming, though somewhat ruthless, person. The movie begins around Christmas with the suicide of a United States Supreme Court Justice, for which no explanation or context is given. We only see the Justice making a tape recording and then shooting himself. Shortly after the Justice's suicide, Elizabeth Quinn's body is found floating in the Potomac river, and Carl Wayne Anderson is arrested for the crime, based almost entirely on the fact that he was found sleeping in Quinn's car, which was abandoned in the parking lot where she worked (and was mostly deserted at night). Anderson explains that he found it unlocked and was just looking for a warm place to sleep since it was the dead of winter. But since he was homeless, had no alibi, and was found in Quinn's car, he was arrested for her murder. The establishing scenes show Riley trying to communicate with Anderson and realizing that he is a deaf-mute. Over time, she begins to penetrate his hard exterior and he tries to cooperate with her efforts to mount a defense for him. In the District of Columbia, all crimes are tried in the federal courts, so a murder trial that would normally be in state court was in federal court instead. Riley selects Sanger to be a member of her jury. Soon thereafter, it becomes clear that Sanger is intent on helping Riley with her investigation and defense of Anderson. As the investigation by Riley and Sanger intensifies, they begin focusing on Deputy Attorney General Paul Gray. Figuring that a key found on Elizabeth Quinn's body has something to do with the Justice Department (where Quinn worked), Riley and Sanger break into the file department at the Justice Department late one night and try to find what the key unlocks. They find that it unlocks a file cabinet, which contained trial transcripts from federal cases from 1968 that Quinn was in the process of transcribing. While the investigation goes on after hours, the movie shows scenes during the day from Anderson's murder trial. During the trial, we are introduced to the stern federal judge Matthew Helms (John Mahoney). Helms is rumored to be the President's nominee for a seat on the prestigious United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Judge Helms begins to suspect that Riley may be collaborating with Sanger, which would be a disbarrable offense of jury tampering, although he does not have concrete proof. One key sequence in a law library (where Riley and Sanger continue looking for the elusive case from 1968 that may be the key to the murder) brings Helms, Riley and Sanger into close proximity. Riley and Sanger narrowly avoid being caught by Judge Helms. Eventually, Judge Helms sequesters the jury to avoid further contact between Riley and Sanger. Riley and Sanger continue tracking the federal court cases from 1968. Their theory is that Elizabeth Quinn stumbled onto something during her transcription of those cases. They look for any case that might have an impropriety. As is explained to the audience, fixing a case requires participation from both the prosecutor and the trial judge. Riley and Sanger think they will find evidence that Paul Gray was a prosecutor on a rigged 1968 case, which would be his motive to murder Elizabeth Quinn if she approached Gray about what she found. Eventually, Riley goes back to Quinn's car (still impounded where it was found in a government parking lot) and finds an audiotape that the police did not uncover in their half-hearted investigation. The tape is the one we saw the Supreme Court Justice making at the beginning of the movie. In it, he confesses to conspiring to fix a case in 1968 (with a politically influential defendant) in return for an appointment from the United States District Court to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Riley assumes the prosecutor on that case was Paul Gray and goes back to the courthouse to retrieve the case book that will confirm this. As she gets to the courthouse (now deserted at night), she is pursued and attacked by an unseen figure. With the help of Sanger (who managed to get away from being sequestered by creating a diversion with a fire alarm), Riley was able to slice the right wrist of her assailant, who then fled unseen. The following day takes place in court. Paul Gray shows up in the courtroom, to the surprise of Judge Helms. Riley then tells Judge Helms that she wants him to take the stand. Irate and perplexed, Helms says that Riley cannot make him testify as he is the presiding judge. Then, in a somewhat-rushed speech, Riley reveals that Judge Helms, not Paul Gray, was the prosecutor in the fixed case in 1968. The Supreme Court Justice was the presiding judge in that case. In exchange for fixing the case, he was promoted from the District Court to the Court of Appeals. Helms, who was the prosecutor on the fixed case, was appointed to the District Court. Judge Helms then waited 17 years (from 1969 to 1986) to be promoted again to the Court of Appeals. Just as he learned he was the President's nominee, Quinn inadvertently discovered the case fixing as she transcribed the cases from 1968. She approached the Supreme Court Justice, who responded by committing suicide. By contrast, when she approached Judge Helms, he murdered her. As Judge Helms angrily bangs his gavel during Riley's accusation, his right wrist begins to bleed from where Riley slashed him the night before, confirming his identity as the killer. The movie ends with Riley reinvigorated in her job and in a relationship with Sanger.

Thirty-seven-year-old Loretta Castorini (Cher), a Sicilian-American widow, is an accountant in Brooklyn Heights, New York, where she lives with her family: her father Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) who is a successful plumber, her mother Rose (Olympia Dukakis), and her paternal grandfather (Feodor Chaliapin, Jr). Her boyfriend, Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello) proposes to her before leaving for Sicily to attend to his dying mother; she accepts, but is insistent that they carefully follow tradition as she believes her first marriage was cursed by her failure to do so, resulting in her husband's death when he was hit by a bus. They plan to marry one month later, and Johnny asks Loretta to invite his estranged younger brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage) to the wedding. Loretta returns home and informs her parents of the engagement. Cosmo dislikes Johnny and is reluctant to commit to paying for the "real" wedding Loretta insists on, while Rose is pleased that Loretta likes Johnny but does not love him; she believes that one can easily be driven crazy by a partner whom one loves. The next day, Loretta goes to see Ronny at his bakery after he refuses to speak to her on the phone. He reveals that he has a wooden prosthetic hand, and he explains that he blames Johnny for the loss of his hand and his own fiancée; Ronny became distracted while talking to Johnny as he cut bread for him, his hand was mangled in the slicer, and his fiancée left him. Loretta insists that they discuss the matter upstairs in his apartment, where she cooks for him and then tells him that she believes he is a "wolf" who cut off his own hand to escape the trap of a bad relationship. Ronny reacts furiously and passionately, kissing Loretta (who responds to his kiss) and then sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her to his bed where they make love. That evening, Rose's brother Raymond (Louis Guss) and his wife Rita (Julie Bovasso) join Rose and Cosmo for dinner, and they all wonder where Loretta is. Raymond recalls that when he was a boy and Cosmo was courting Rose, he thought that a particularly bright moon one night was somehow brought to the house by Cosmo because of his love for Rose. That night, Loretta remains at Ronny's apartment and sees such a moon; Raymond sees it as well, and it leads him and Rita to make love. The next morning, Loretta tells Ronny they can never see each other again. She slaps him when he claims to be in love with her ("Snap out of it!) and he agrees to never see her again if she will attend the opera (his other great love) with him that night. She agrees. After closing out the cash register in Raymond and Rita's store, Loretta impulsively has some long-neglected beauty treatments, including having the gray removed from her hair, and buys a glamorous evening gown. She then goes to church and confesses her infidelity. She unexpectedly sees her mother there, and Rose tells her that Cosmo is having an affair; Loretta is doubtful, but Cosmo is in fact dining with his mistress Mona (Anita Gillette) at that moment and giving her jewelry. Loretta and Ronny (wearing a tuxedo) meet at Lincoln Center, and each is impressed with the other's appearance. Loretta is deeply moved by her first opera, Puccini's La bohème. But as they leave, Loretta sees Cosmo and Mona, and she confronts her father. He sees that she is with Ronny, and he suggests that they simply agree that they didn't see each other at all, but Loretta is conflicted. Loretta then intends to return home alone, but Ronny leads her back to his apartment where he passionately and desperately persuades her into another tryst. The same night, Rose dines alone at a restaurant and sees a college professor, Perry (John Mahoney), being dramatically dumped by a female student, a similar scene having played out with a different girl the night Johnny proposed to Loretta. Rose invites Perry to dine with her, asks him why men pursue women, and then shares with him her belief that men pursue women because they fear death. Perry walks Rose home and tries to convince her to invite him in; she refuses, citing the fact that she knows herself. Later, Johnny unexpectedly returns from Sicily after his mother's "miraculous" recovery and goes to Loretta's house; Rose explains that she's not there and then asks him why men chase women. He tells her it may be because they fear death, and Rose realizes, as she had suspected before, that he is right. After this exchange he leaves, planning to return in the morning to see Loretta. In the morning, Loretta returns home in a reverie but is then distressed to learn from Rose that Johnny will be there soon. Ronny then arrives, and Rose notes their matching "love bites" and invites him for breakfast over Loretta's objections. Cosmo and his father emerge from upstairs, and the older man cajoles Cosmo into agreeing to pay for Loretta's wedding. Rose then confronts Cosmo and, after he acknowledges in response to her questioning that she has been a good wife, demands that he end his affair; he is upset but agrees and, after insistence from Rose, also agrees to go to confession, and they then affirm their love for each other. Raymond and Rita also arrive, concerned and seemingly reluctantly suspicious, to find out why Loretta didn't make the previous day's bank deposit; they are relieved to learn that she merely forgot and still has the money. When Johnny finally arrives, he breaks off the engagement, superstitiously believing that their marriage would cause his mother's death. Loretta, momentarily offended by his breaking the engagement, chastises Johnny for breaking his promise and throws the engagement ring at him. Seizing the moment, Ronny borrows the ring and asks Loretta to marry him; she accepts. To Rose's chagrin, Loretta declares that she loves Ronny. The family toasts the couple with champagne and a befuddled Johnny joins in at the grandfather's urging, as he will now be part of the family after all.