Jon Polito

New York City bus driver Ralph Kramden (Cedric the Entertainer) and his feisty wife Alice (Gabrielle Union) struggle to make ends meet. Despite Ralph's many get-rich-quick schemes (the Y2K survival kit, the pet cactus, the Velcro fanny pack, the Mets merchandise on discount), they've managed to save some money. Along with their best friends Ed (Mike Epps) and Trixie Norton (Regina Hall), they almost have enough money for a down payment on a duplex in Brooklyn. Alice & Trixie work as waitress at a local diner. Ed is a sewer department employee. The duplex belongs to Miss Benvenutti (Alice Drummond) who is an old woman and is moving out of New York as she can't handle the winters anymore. They have two weeks to come up with the rest of the money or it well be sold to a developer William Davies (Eric Stoltz). the couples have 10k in their accounts and need $20k to make the down-payment in 2 weeks. Alice decides to ask her mother (Carol Woods) for the rest of the money they need for the down payment. Ed is working the sewers one night and finds an abandoned shed with an exquisite, high class, preserved train car sitting right there. He tells Ralph that the city is going to auction the train car. Ralph has the brain wave to modify the train car and use it to give tours of New York city to tourists. Ralph and Ed decide to buy a train found below the streets of New York they end up spending most of the money ($ 3000) Ralph and Alice have saved. Ed shuts out another buyer from the auction, who was very interested in the train. Lenny (Lenny Venito) is a mechanic and tells the guys that the train car is in good shape, but it is sitting 60 feet below street levels. Once they find out how much money it is going to take to get the train out Ralph and Ed decide on a new plan to get the money back. but none of their schemes (begging, looking for coins, asking for donations dressed as the Brooklyn youth club, hip hop dancing in the streets) are big enough to earn cash that fast. Ralph and Ed had found a greyhound dog in the dumpster and decide to race the dog (after Ralph sees the dog run very fast in the park). The duo approaches the track owner Kirby (Jon Polito) who says that the weekend is the anniversary derby of the track with a prize purse of $20,000. Kirby agrees to give a time trial to Ralph and Ed's dog. He suggests that they approach Dodge (John Leguizamo), to train the dog. Dodge charges them $500 and only agrees to train the dog at night. Ralph makes a story to Alice about a job at a lodge to get out of the house at night and to go with Ed to train the dog with Dodge. Dodge has to train the dog to start running when the cages open. Despite mind tricks and all sorts the cajoling, the dog still won't budge from his starting position. Eventually the dog only chases the blue ball that Ed plays with him with on their outings to the park. Using the ball, Ralph and Ed make the dog qualify for the race in front of Kirby. Dodge gets them the paperwork for the dog for $600. Meanwhile Alice's mom gives her a check for $10K. she thinks that they already have $10K in their accounts, and that together is their deposit. But when she finds that her account is empty, she is mad at Ralph and decides to leave him. When William (who has private investigators trying to find out where the remaining $10K is coming from, as he knows that Ralph and Ed have nothing in their bank accounts) finds out they are going to make the money that way he pays off Kirby to not let the dog race. Ralph makes a speech about the down and out dumpster dog & so that gets the dog back into the race. Ed pulls out the dog's blue colored ball (with which he plays in the park) while he is in the race that could win the money and distracts the dog, and he loses. Ralph yells at Ed, which upsets Alice when she is already mad at him for spending all of their money. Ralph is by the train he had bought (burning all of his previous business invention prototypes) when he finds the card of the other man that wanted to buy the train. Ralph decides to sell the train (for $20 K) to get the money back for the duplex. Once he gets the money, he makes up with Ed and they get to the seller in time to buy the place (before it's sold to the developer). When they are all sitting down in the back yard eating, the dog brings the paper and on the front is the train Ralph sold that was in turn sold for one million dollars.

The Black Mask must stop a group intent on setting off a DNA bomb that could cause mutations to the human race. Genetic modification means Black Mask has superhuman fighting and healing powers. He is searching the world for top geneticists who might be able to reverse his mutation, which has stolen his ability to feel emotion. His maker, whom he's running from has an amateur rival in this sequel though. Someone is hybridizing the DNA of top pro-wrestlers with that of animals, making them stronger and deadlier. But the process is turning the wrestlers (Iguana, Chameleon (Traci Lords), Snake, Wolf, and Claw) slowly more into animal killers, than human-beings. Black Mask tries to help the wrestlers but their boss has plans for BM himself. —kwedgwood@hotmail.com

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>

Fluke is a mutt puppy (a wrong colored Golden Retriever) who has flashing memories and dreams of having lived a human life. After being taken to a pound and eventually escaping, he is raised by an elderly homeless woman named Bella, who gives him the name 'Fluke', stating that he is a "fluke by nature, Fluke by name." Fluke supports Bella by helping her earn money from passing strangers, who are impressed with Fluke's ability to beat Bella's shell game. After Bella dies of an illness due to poor conditions, Fluke meets a street-wise dog named Rumbo who takes him to see a man named Bert who feeds Fluke and Rumbo. Fluke matures into an adult dog and eventually realizes that he was once a man named Thomas P. Johnson, who died in a car crash. Fluke is then abducted by a man named Sylvester to be used in makeup experiments at a cosmetics company. During his captivity, Rumbo comes to the rescue, but is shot by Sylvester (after taking a gun from a security guard who refused to shoot the dogs) as he and Fluke escape. A dying Rumbo tells Fluke that the black-and-white snapshot of a man in a sailor suit on Bert's wall was him and Bert was his brother and that he wishes to smell the sea again, suggesting that he died in the line of duty. After Rumbo's death, Fluke seeks out his surviving wife Carol and son Brian and reunites with them by becoming their new family dog. Though Carol, (implied to be afraid of dogs), is apprehensive about adopting Fluke, she caves in seeing how Brian has quickly bonded with Fluke. During his life as a dog, Fluke gets to know his family better and bitterly realizes, much to his regret, that he had been a distant workaholic. As more memories return, Fluke suspects that his human death was caused by his former business partner Jeff Newman. Enraged by this and the fact that Jeff is now dating Carol, Fluke viciously attacks him when he visits the house, and ends up getting put outside. Jeff calls for Animal Control against the protests of Brian, and so Fluke is forced to run from the premises. The next night, Brian goes missing while looking for Fluke and Carol implores Jeff to help, so Jeff drives back to their house. Fluke, who had been hiding in the backseat of Jeff's car while the latter was at work, comes close to killing Jeff by causing him to get into a car accident like his own. Fluke then has another flashback and realizes that Jeff wasn't responsible for his death. Instead, Fluke had caused his own death when he recklessly drove on the wrong side of the road just to argue with Jeff one night and swerved off to avoid hitting an oncoming truck. Jeff later tried to save him but failed. An injured Jeff, implied to have realized Fluke's true identity but bearing no ill will, tells Fluke to go find Brian before the latter catches hypothermia from the falling snow. Regretful over his actions, Fluke barks for a passing driver to help Jeff before running off. On a hunch, Fluke goes to the graveyard where he had been buried and finds Brian there, who had been locked in by an unaware groundskeeper. Fluke huddles with Brian to keep him warm. Carol, having come to the same conclusion from one Brian's drawings of his father, uses her car to break open the cemetery gates and picks up Brian. Brian tells Carol that he heard Fluke tell him in a vision that Fluke had to leave them. Carol tries to coax Fluke to come home with them. Instead, Fluke digs away at the snow in front of his tombstone to show Carol who he really is by uncovering the word "forever" at the bottom, a phrase he often said to her as a human. Carol is left speechless, and lets Fluke leave without objection. With a heavy heart, Fluke departs and entrusts his family to Jeff for their happiness. He monologues that he had to leave because he finally accepted that he can no longer be the family man he should have been, and that he should just cherish the life he has now, which he had not done back then. Far away and sometime later, Fluke is resting under a tree on a farm by himself. To his surprise and happiness, he is reunited with Rumbo, now reincarnated as a squirrel. Rumbo tells Fluke about life as a squirrel and about reincarnation.

A simpleton inventor becomes a superhero with a bulletproof costume and a low budget. Darryl is a childlike man with a genius for inventing various gadgets out of junk. When he stumbles on a method to make his clothes bulletproof, he decides to use his skills to be the lowest budgeted superhero of all. —Kenneth Chisholm <kchishol@execulink.com> Darryl Walker is a nerdy, child-like man with a genius for inventing various gadgets out of junk. After tragedy hits his family, and when he stumbles on a method to make his clothes bulletproof, he decides to use his skills to become the lowest budgeted superhero ever. His brother Kevin disapproves of Darryl fighting crime as "Blankman", but soon finds himself fighting alongside his brother as "Other Guy", an easily overlooked partner with no special weapons or crime-fighting abilities. —Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}

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

An N.Y.C. film school student accepts a job with a local mobster who resembles a famous cinema godfather and who takes the young man under his wing, after demanding total loyalty. Clark Kellogg is a young man starting his first year at film school in New York City. After a small time crook steals all his belongings, Clark meets Carmine "Jimmy the Toucan" Sabatini, an "importer" bearing a startling resemblance to a certain cinematic godfather. When Sabatini makes Clark an offer he can't refuse, he finds himself caught up in a caper involving endangered species and fine dining. —Scott Renshaw <as.idc@forsythe.stanford.edu> Clark Kellogg (Matthew Broderick) is robbed moments after arriving in New York, so when he sees his mugger several days later, he confronts him. The man promises to return his property and get him a job with his uncle, Carmine Sabatini (Marlon Brando), who turns out to be a Mafia boss. As Clark continues his shady work for Carmine, he discovers an elaborate underworld that has caught the attention of the authorities. As things come to a head, not everything is what it seems. —FilmsNow

In 1985, a man named Russell Nash (Christopher Lambert) is attending a wrestling match at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Looking somewhat forlorn, he feels a strange tremor and is compelled to leave. As he heads to his car, Nash is confronted by a man named Iman Fasil. Fasil identifies Nash by his real name, Connor MacLeod, and challenges him to a duel. Connor reluctantly accepts, and draws a katana. After a fierce sword fight, Connor decapitates Fasil and is enveloped by a mysterious energy which destroys several cars around him. He quickly hides his sword in one of the light racks hanging from the ceiling. Before he can leave the garage he is arrested by the police, who take him for questioning. The story goes back to Scotland in 1536, where an 18-year old Connor is seen with his fiance, Kate (Celia Imrie), and war-weary cousins Angus (James Cosmo) and Dugal (Billy Hartman). Their clan is preparing for war against their longtime rivals, Clan Fraser. Detectives Moran (Alan North) and Garfield (Edward Wiley) are attempting to interrogate Connor. Garfield loses his cool and assaults Connor. This incident, coupled with lack of evidence, results in Connor's release. Forensics expert Brenda Wyatt (Roxanne Hart) is intrigued by Fasil's sword, as it is a very valuable historical artifact, probably worth over a million dollars. Later, Connor returns to the garage to retrieve the katana, but before he does he sees that Brenda is looking at the crime scene. She finds some metal shards embedded in a nearby concrete column and saves them for analysis. The scene returns to the Highlands, where the armies of Clan Fraser and Clan MacLeod are preparing to face each other in battle. Clan Fraser's leader, Chief Murdoch (Alistair Findlay), has taken on the services of the Kurgan (Clancy Brown), a imposing mercenary in black leather armor. The Kurgan tells Murdoch that he wants to kill Connor on the battlefield and that nobody else should fight him. The battle begins and Connor, who has never been in battle before, is very scared. He soon finds nobody wants to fight him, but eventually the Kurgan finds him and easily defeats Connor by stabbing him in the chest, shouting "there are can be only one!" Dugal and Angus see the Kurgan preparing to decapitate Connor and attack him, forcing him to retreat. Connor is taken back to the village but is so badly wounded everybody assumes he is going to die. We learn that Connor, in his Russell Nash persona, is an antiquities dealer and seems to be quite wealthy. A very pretty older woman named Rachel Ellenstein (Sheila Gish) is his assistant. Later, the Kurgan, now wearing Judas Priest stagewear and sporting a hideous scar on his neck, drives into the city after hearing of Fasil's death. Using the alias Victor Kruger, he takes up residence at a seedy motel and assembles his sectional "bastard sword," made from composite alloys. He practices his technique, taking the occasional break for dalliances with prostitutes. Connor follows Brenda to a bar where they strike up a conversation and Brenda becomes very interested in him. They both leave and as Brenda tries to follow Connor he is attacked by Kruger. They fight but Connor is at an obvious disadvantage without a sword. The fight is interrupted by a police helicopter and everybody flees. Connor has made a remarkable recovery and is now back to normal, in only a few days. While he is happy to be alive, his friends ostracize him. Kate says that his recovery is the work of the devil. Most everybody in the clan mirrors that sentiment. Eventually the townspeople form a mob, tie him to a pole, and take him out to be executed -- but Angus frees him, convincing the villagers to commute the death sentence in favor of exile. Brenda has analyzed the metal fragments and discovered them to be extremely unusual. She makes a date with Connor and they plan to meet at her apartment. Although she tries to make it seem like it's only a date, she actually is trying to entrap him: she has a cassette recorder hidden in a drawer and also has a gun just in case. However, when Connor arrives he's immediately on to her and calls her out on this. Brenda insists that she only wants to know what's going on and that the shards of metal from Connor's sword date back several thousand years, but he tells her to stop digging and leaves. In 1541, Connor has settled in Glencoe, where he works as a blacksmith and is married to a woman named Heather (Beatie Edney). One day they are visited by a well dressed older gentleman (Sean Connery) carrying the katana that Connor uses in the modern era. The man identifies himself as Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez. He explains that they differ from normal men: they do not age, are immune to disease, and will only die if their heads are separated from their bodies. He proves this by knocking Connor (who cannot swim) off a rowboat. Connor does not drown, and actually marvels at some aquatic scenery before bobbing back to surface, seething with confusion and anger. He tries to attack Ramirez with this highland sword but fails; Ramirez simply tells him that they are ready to begin. While training Connor in the finer points of swordsmanship, Ramirez explains a long cycle he refers to as "the Game," where immortals are compelled by an incomprehensible force to hunt each other down. When one immortal decapitates another, the winner receives a transfer of power called "the Quickening." The Game is destined to continue until only a few immortals remain, triggering "the Gathering", where the survivors feel an irresistible pull towards a far away land and fight until only one remains. The last immortal standing will receive the cumulative sum of every Quickening, which Ramirez cryptically refers to as "the Prize." Discussion soon turns toward the Kurgan, who is revealed to be the oldest and strongest of the immortals, descended from an ancient barbaric tribe from Kievan Rus, in the steppes of Russia. He must not achieve the Prize or mortals will be enslaved forever. Connor also learns that all immortals are sterile, and fears how Heather will react when she learns he cannot give her any children. Ramirez reveals that he has been married three times and his third wife, a Japanese princess named Shikiku (the daughter of the man who made Ramirez's katana), was the love of his life. Eventually, Shikiku died of old age, and he was devastated. He urges Connor to let Heather go, and foreswear future mortal relationships, to avoid the same heartbreak. Connor refuses. One night while Connor is away, the Kurgan arrives, demanding to know where "the Highlander" is. Ramirez lies, telling him that he has already killed Connor. The Kurgan sees through the deception and attacks. A fierce battle ensues. Ramirez gets an early advantage, slashing deep into the Kurgan's throat (revealing how Kruger got the scar on his neck and how his voice was altered) and wounding him in the side. However, the Kurgan's rage and ferocity eventually tip the battle in his favor. He asks who Heather is and Ramirez again lies, saying she is his woman so that his enemy won't use her against Connor. He decapitates Ramirez and receives the Quickening. After it has surged through his body, he falls from the tower where he and Ramirez had battled. Heather approaches him, thinking he's dead, but he grabs her. After the death of his mentor, Connor attempts to return to a normal life, but as Ramirez warned, Heather succumbs to old age while Connor remains youthful. On her deathbed, she thanks Connor for staying with her until the end, and ask that he honor her memory by lighting a candle on her birthday. After burying Heather, Connor plants his Scottish broadsword in the ground to mark her grave, appropriating Ramirez's katana as his weapon. He destroys all traces of his old life and leaves Scotland. Connor meets an exotic-looking man named Sunda Kastagir (Hugh Quarshie) in present-day Central Park at the Bow Bridge. It becomes apparent they are long-time friends as well as immortals. They talk about how few of them are left and say the time for the final battle is close. They also discuss the possibility that they might have to kill each other. Connor and Kastagir recall meeting in Boston circa 1783. Connor is about to duel a very snooty man and is so drunk he can hardly stand up, but he still attempts to fight. The other man easily defeats Connor by stabbing him, and quickly declares himself the victor. However, Connor gets up and wants to continue the fight. The man is stunned but resumes the fight, easily stabbing Connor again. A humorous situation ensues where the man repeatedly "kills" Connor and each time Connor gets back on his feet until he finally apologizes for insulting the man's wife. After much investigation Brenda finds out that Connor should be dead -- Russell Nash is the name of a baby who died at birth. She confronts Rachel and in a flashback we learn that Connor rescued her from the Nazis when she was a child. Rachel tries to keep Brenda away, but eventually Connor explains to Brenda who he really is. He proves it to her by stabbing himself in the stomach. After this revelation Brenda and Connor become lovers, although Connor is reluctant, and the ghostly voice of Ramirez suggests that he let her go. Elsewhere in the city, Kirk, a gung-ho ex-Marine with survivalist tendencies, sees Kruger and Kastagir dueling in an alley. Kruger kills Kastagir and receives his Quickening. Kirk, clearly freaked out by witnessing this event, shoots Kruger, who shrugs off the injury and impales him. Kirk survives, and gives the police Kruger's description. In response, Kruger alters his appearance by shaving his head and covering the scar on his neck with a safety-pin necklace. Connor is at a church, lighting a candle for Heather's birthday. Kruger enters, revealing that Kastagir is dead and he and Connor are now the only immortals left. Kruger taunts Connor by telling him of his defeat of Ramirez and about raping Ramirez's wife. He then realizes that Heather was actually Connor's wife and had never told him about the rape. Connor is furious, but is reminded of the immortals' oldest rule: they cannot fight on holy ground. Kruger finds out that Connor is having an affair with Brenda and kidnaps her in order to draw Connor into the final fight. Connor accepts the challenge and kisses Rachel goodbye, telling her that Russell Nash dies tonight, and that she knew this day would come. The two fighters meet on the roof of Silvercup Studios and an epic sword fight begins. Kruger tries to use Brenda to defeat Connor by tying her to a the studio's massive rooftop sign, but Connor manages to save her. The fight causes major destruction. Both fighters fall into a large warehouse which is surrounded by windows. After a climactic fight Connor defeats Kruger and experiences the sum of all quickenings, which destroys every window in the warehouse. The police assume that Kruger is the headhunter serial killer they were looking for, and that Nash was his final victim. The last scene shows Connor and Brenda in the Highlands and it explains that the Prize gives Connor awareness of the thoughts of all people all around the world and allows him to exert some influence. As a result he can help people cooperate with one another. He is now also mortal, able to have children and grow old. Ramirez tells Connor that he now has power beyond anyone's imagination, and urges him to use it well.

A young woman from a Catholic school and a young man from a nearby prison camp fall in love and must run away together to escape the law, the church and their parents. In this fact-based melodrama, Joe Fisk is a juvenile delinquent who falls in love with Lisa Taylor, a Catholic girl's school student, in an Oregon forest. The two meet by chance when the troubled young man stumbles upon her while being chased by his peers in a training exercise, sees the lovely young girl floating in a small lake as she works on a photography assignment. The two are immediately drawn to each other, but neither of their custodians encourage contact of the opposite sex. However, when their relationship is discovered there's trouble all around, forcing the young lovers to flee. The question then remains: Will they be able to escape the law and other authorities long enough to find happiness? —Bambi Ross <mgross@fuse.net>