Joseph Ruben

The Ottoman Lieutenant is a love story between an idealistic American nurse and a Turkish officer in World War I.

Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) had a son killed in a plane crash with 10 other kids on the way to camp fourteen months previously. Telly is seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Jack Muncie (Gary Sinise). Telly spends time at a dresser every day reminiscing. Her psychiatrist suggests she has to let go. The images of her son start disappearing. Her husband, Jim Paretta (Anthony Edwards), says this is good -- that she is coming back to reality after being delusional. The psychiatrist explains her son was delusional memories manufactured after a miscarriage. He recommends she be sent to a hospital. Telly insists her son was real. Telly goes to Ash Correl's (Dominic West) apartment to convince him that her son, Sam (Christopher Kovaleski), and his daughter, Lauren, played together. Telly finds a children's painting under his office wallpaper. Ash turns her in to the police. NSA Carl Dayton (Robert Wisdom) intervenes. Ash begins to remember his daughter, and decides to help Telly escape the agents. The NSA pursues both Telly and Ash, but they escape, reunite and discuss alien abduction. The NSA pursues and loses them again. Detective Ann Pope (Alfre Woodward ) wonders why the NSA is interested in missing kids. NSA agents meet Ann. The psychiatrist proposes a partnership with Ann to catch Telly. Telly and Ash go to a country cabin and catch Al Petalis (Lee Tergesen) who indicates that the agents are merely helping "them" and it is for the protection of humankind. He mentions an experiment before the roof is ripped from the farmhouse and he disappears, presumably taken by them. Ann visits this country cabin after Telly and Ash have fled. The only evidence left behind is a note written on the window by Ash and Telly, explaining their children were abducted and pleading for help. Telly remembers that the airline her son was flying on that crashed was Quest Air. She and Ash check out Quest Air, which is closed down and being audited by an accountant appointed by the courts. They go on to the former CEO's house which is empty. Ann, still on their trail, follows them to the CEOs house. Ann sees a man at this house, and orders him to freeze. When he doesnt, she shoots him, but his bullet wounds heal within seconds. Ann then realizes Telly was telling the truth. She catches up to Telly before she flees again, and tells her she believes her and will help her find her son, when suddenly Ann gets sucked up into the sky. Ash and Telly leave together, and track down the strange man from the CEOs house. Ash attacks him, and the two struggle for a moment before Ash thrusts backward knocking both of them out the window together. Telly rushes to the window in time to see Ash get sucked up and the strange man disappear. The psychiatrist finds Telly and takes her to the airport where the strange man is waiting. Telly then realizes the psychiatrist has been in cahoots with this man -- who seems to be an alien -- all along. The psychiatrist tells her that the government monitors the aliens trials- aware that they have no power to stop 'them' from doing whatever they want to do. The psychiatrist tells the alien man to finish the experiment and the alien says its not over and walks away. Telly pursues him and demands her son back. He tells her to imagine he is there. She then sees Sam behind the alien and tries to run to him, but he runs away and disappears around a corner. Telly chases him around the corner and runs into the alien who again insists that Telly forget her son. Telly realizes at this experiment was not about the children -- it was about the parents. The alien explains that the connection between parent and child is so strong as to be almost unbreakable. Almost. Every other parent in the experiment had forgotten their children except Telly. He says Telly must forget or experiment fails. The alien begins to choke her, and tells her to remember the first moment she ever saw her son when he was born. She does, and he steals the memory from her. She falls to the ground. The alien asks her the name of the boy she is looking for, and she replies, What boy? The alien looks triumphant and begins to walk away. Telly sits up and thinks about being pregnant, which causes her to remember again. She then, once again, demands the alien return her son Sam to her. The alien panics for a moment and says he needs more time for the experiment before being sucked into the sky. Telly runs home and finds Sam in a nearby park. Telly meets Ash, again, in the park, where each of them are watching their children. Everything is back to normal.

Two men can save a friend's life by going to jail. Three friends share an exciting vacation in Malaysia, full of fun, drinks, women and hash. When the vacation is over, each have dreams of continuing their lives, and they all go their separate ways. One of them (Phoenix) remains on the tropical paradise to fulfill a dream of working with apes for research. Two years later, a lawyer (Heche) comes to New York and hunts down the other two friends to give some sad news. A few days after they left the island, police raided their camp and found amazingly large quantities of hash left about. Phoenix was still residing there, so he had to take the blame. He is set to be put to death in 8 days, and the only way the charges can be decreased is if the two friends come back to paradise and take their share of the responsibilty. If they do, they both will spend three years in prison. If only one does, he will spend six years behind bars... —R.P. Falvey Three men find themselves in hell in the middle of paradise, after their vacation goes wrong and their irresponsible past comes back to haunt them. Accused of drug trafficking, one of the men fights for his life in another country, while the other two struggle to come to grips with owning up to their share of the burden while preparing themselves for the future they may not have. —Marielle<msaz12> Lewis, Sheriff and Tony are three American guys who meet and hang out one summer at the beach huts of Malaysia. There they enjoy the luxuries of women, rum and hashish. As the summer ends, Tony and Sheriff go back to New York, but Lewis decides to go to Borneo to help save the orangutan. But before he got the chance to leave, he was arrested for possession of the leftover hash and sentenced to death because he was considered to be trafficking. Two years go by and Sheriff and Tony are living their lives peacefully in The Big Apple when Lewis' lawyer tells them the news: three years each if they both go, six years if one goes, Lewis' death if neither go. Although they both do not want Lewis to die, they do not know him well enough to really want to sacrifice three years of their life to a Third-World prison. "Return to Paradise" watches Sheriff and Tony as they struggle to decide in the short period of time. —Rob Meltzer <blade9637@hotmail.com>

Two New York City transit cops who are foster brothers come to a crossroads when one decides to rob the train they`re hired to protect.

A cynical former civil liberties attorney now reduced to "specializing" in defending drug dealers becomes transformed by an eight-year-old murder case. Eddie Dodd is a burnt out former civil rights lawyer who now specializes in defending drug dealers. Roger Baron, newly graduated from law school, has followed Eddie's great cases and now wants to learn at his feet. With Roger's idealistic prodding, Eddie reluctantly takes on a case of a young Korean man who, according to his mom, has been in jail for eight years for a murder he did not commit.