Jon Avnet

The story of an idealistic freedom fighter, Joe (Ralph Fiennes), who tells us of a very famous revolutionary terrorist leader, Thorne (Donald Sutherland), he has known as a tortured prisoner by the tyranny in power.Thorne recruits him for a successful but bloody coup d'etat which overthrows the tyranny in place. But in the world that follows, Thorne shows he hasn't learn anything from the past, and becomes another tyrant, maybe worse than the last one, ...and Joe has to overthrow him. The story of an idealistic freedom fighter, Joe (Ralph Fiennes), who tells us of a very famous revolutionary terrorist leader, Thorne (Donald Sutherland), he has known as a tortured prisoner by the tyranny in power.Thorne recruits him for a successful but bloody coup d'etat which overthrows the tyranny in place. But in the world that follows, Thorne shows he hasn't learned anything from the past, and becomes another tyrant, maybe worse than the last one, ...and Joe has to overthrow him.

An American attorney on business in China is wrongfully arrested and put on trial for murder, with a female defense lawyer from the country the only key to proving his innocence. American lawyer Jack Moore is in Beijing on what looks to be a successful business trip for his company to enter into a film and television distribution deal with the Chinese government, their main competitor for that distribution deal being HoffCo Telecom out of Germany. Before Jack's boss David McAndrews and the Chinese government sign on the dotted line of the contract, Jack is implicated in a murder, the victim who was discovered in his hotel room. The police were alerted to an incident in his hotel room based on the report of hearing a scream emanating from his room, such a scream which Jack, asleep in the room when the police entered, did not hear. Jack being charged with murder quashes the distribution deal, which instead is awarded to HoffCo. The situation is made all the worse for Jack due to the known connections between the victim and people within high places in China, who may try to manipulate the situation to see Jack sentenced to death for the murder. Jack also has language, cultural and political obstacles to overcome, the Chinese government and thus the court system which seems already to have convicted him to make him, a foreigner, an example. As such, Jack does not trust his court appointed lawyer, a young woman named Shen Yuelin who has always seen her role to carry out Chinese government policy. Things may change when Yuelin begins to believe that Jack is being framed for the murder, the death of an innocent man which she may not be able to tolerate if she has any sway within the Chinese justice system, which she may find she does not. The key to discovering the truth behind the murder, the reason for Jack being framed for it and Jack possibly coming out the other end with his life is an important piece of physical evidence which he knows exists but which seems to be missing. —Huggo A lawyer goes to China, has a one night stand with a Chinese woman he meets there, and she ends up dead. The law immediately points the finger at him, and he must stand trial in China, facing their corrupt and unfair system. A young Chinese lawyer who is assigned to Gere's case starts believing him, and they both fight for his rights in an unfair system. —ShowBob <showbob@geocities.com> Jack Moore, a high-profile international lawyer, is in China for business. Moore sleeps with a young woman, and wakes up to find her dead in his bed. Falsely accused of murder, Moore's only chance is his Chinese advocate Yuelin. The rules and laws are different, and Moore must convince Yuelin of his innocence and unravel the chain of events that has entrapped him. —John Hawkinson <jhawk@mit.edu>

The War tells the story about a young boy named Stu (Elijah Wood) and his father Stephen (Kevin Costner), who is a recovering war veteran. Stu, his sister Lidia Simmons (Lexi Randall), and their friends are determined to build the ultimate tree fort during their summer break. Stu's father has equally high hopes of rebuilding his life and the life of his family. Stu is constantly getting into fights with everyone who says a bad word about him or his sister. Especially a group of children, who Stu considers to be the lowest of the low, the Lipnicki's. Stephen, Stu's father realized what was worth fighting over and what wasn't, and so he tries to help Stu understand that he needs to pick his battles. Lidia, meanwhile, is off in the Lipnicki's junkyard, scavenging for the items they need to make the tree fort. She runs into Billy Lipnicki (Christopher Fennell) on one of her trips, and pays him ten cents to stay quiet. Once the tree fort is completely built, Billy spends all the money he got on ice cream. His father and brothers and sister find him with them as confront him about how he got all that ice cream. His eldest brother shaves a portion of his head and Billy tells about Lidia taking stuff from the yard. The Lipnicki's go to the tree fort and make a dare with Stu, whoever swims across the water tower while it's draining and back, gets to keep the tree fort. The Lipnicki's back out of the dare, but Stu goes through with it. The Lipnicki's promise to not take the fort, and one of the Lipnicki's throw the lock and key to the fort on top of the old water tower roof. Stu gets the lock, but couldn't reach the key. Later that day, Stu's father is in the hospital because of an accident at his work. A few days later, Stephen dies. That day, the Lipnicki's break their promise about staying away from the tree fort, and take it from Lidia and her friends. Stu finds his father's old crate of war items, face paint, smoke bombs, grenades, and his father's army tags. Stu and his friends start a war with the Lipnicki's to get the tree fort back. The tree fort gets ruined in the process, and Billy Lipnicki goes to the water tower to try and get the key, to stop the fighting. Billy falls through the roof of the water tower and Stu jumps in after him. He and Arliss (Donald Sellers) manage to free Billy from the drain and get him on solid ground. However, Billy is ice cold and isn't breathing. Stu and Lidia try everything they can to get Billy to breath again, and after a lot of slapping and yelling, finally Billy takes a breath. After that, the Lipnicki's and the Simmons stopped fighting with each other. The tree fort never got fixed, and Stu was able to come to terms about his father's sudden death.

NYC cartoonist Duffy meets the bad cappuccino maker, chef Meg, and falls in love. She moves in with him, marries him - but they have problems having a baby. When New York City cartoonist Duffy Bergman meets gourmet chef Meg Lloyd, he discovers the love of his life and they marry, yet love alone isn't enough to make them happy. Meg decides she wants to have a baby, which at first panics Duffy but soon becomes his top priority too. When they're unable to conceive, Meg concentrates on her career and the two drift apart and eventually separate. When Duffy later speaks at a convention of the Delta Gamma sorority, he reveals that Delta Gamma girls have always been his dream girls, then meets one of them, the uninhibited Daphne Delillo. When Daphne moves to New York City to work as a network sports reporter, their mutual attraction, and Daphne's spontaneity spark an adventurous new relationship for Duffy. Now Duffy must decide which is more valuable to him: the relationship he has given up, or the relationship he has always dreamed of having.