M. Emmet Walsh

Riverside, Illinois couple Luther (Tim Allen) and Nora Krank (Jamie Lee Curtis) see their daughter, Blair (Julie Gonzalo) depart for a Peace Corps assignment in Peru on the Sunday following Thanksgiving, and their empty nest syndrome sets in. Blair had left for a year and had promised to come back for Christmas the following year. Nora is distraught that Christmas will not be the same without Blair. It is cold and wet in Riverside, and Nora forces Luther to get chocolate from a shop. While coming out, Luther is drenched and that's when he sees the advertisement for a warm and inviting Caribbean cruise. Luther calculates the couple spent $6,132 during the previous year's holiday season and, not looking forward to celebrating Christmas without their daughter, he suggests they invest the money usually spent on decorations, gifts, and entertainment and treat themselves to a ten-day Caribbean cruise instead. Luther insists that they completely boycott the holidays but Nora initially objects. Nora finally agrees when she realizes that the cruise is only $3000, and they would save money by skipping Christmas. Nora agrees under the condition that they still give a donation to the church and Children's Hospital amounting to $600. Luther tries to refuse but finally agrees and they begin planning the trip. They leave at noon on Christmas Day. The Kranks are amazed to discover they are considered pariahs as a result of their decision. Luther's co-workers think he has become Ebenezer Scrooge when he gives all his employees letters that state about his Christmas boycott (which includes no gifts, no participation in holiday rituals, no attendance at the office party or at the black tie Christmas dinner), local stationer Aubie (Patrick Breen) is distressed to lose the couple's order for their engraved greeting cards and Christmas Eve party invitations, the Boy Scout troop is upset and angered when the Kranks refuse to purchase one of their Christmas trees to help the scouts make enough money for a camp outing, and the police are stunned to discover they won't be buying this year's calendar from them. Nora even cancels her famous Christmas Eve party that her friends and the whole neighborhood looks forward to. Most vocal in their objections are neighbors Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd) and Walt Scheel (M. Emmet Walsh). Vic, who's the self-appointed leader of the street, organizes a campaign to force the Kranks to decorate their home (with Christmas lights, and a Frosty) so Hemlock Street won't lose the coveted award for best decorations. Walt doesn't seem to like Luther, so his efforts are primarily personal. However, it is revealed that Walt's wife Bev (Elizabeth Franz) is suffering from cancer, perhaps dampening his holiday spirits. Bev has had the cancer return for the 3rd time and this Christmas might be her last. Vic even offers to install Frosty himself, if Luther would just take him out of the basement and leaves it on the front lawn. But Luther still refuses, citing the principle of his stand. Father Zabriskie (Tom Poston) finds Luther and Nora in a tanning salon in a mall, in their beachwear, and admonishes them for trying to skip Christmas. Children picket, led by Vic's son Spike (Erik Per Sullivan), neighbors constantly call, and Christmas carolers try to revive the Kranks' holiday spirit by singing on their lawn which Luther stops them by freezing his front lawn. Even the newspaper gets into the act by publishing a front-page story complete with a photograph of the unlit Krank house and states that the Kranks' street has lost the prize and won sixth place because of how Luther and Nora refused to decorate their house. Still, Luther and Nora continue to stand their ground. Luther gets a Botox injection to get ready for his vacation with Nora. The two are in the process of packing on Christmas Eve morning when they receive a call from Blair, who announces she's at Miami International Airport, on route home with her Peruvian fiance as a surprise for her parents. She's anxious to introduce Enrique (Rene Lavan) to her family's holiday traditions, and when she asks if they're having their usual party that night, a panicked Nora says yes, much to Luther's dismay. Comic chaos ensues as the couple finds themselves trying to decorate the house and coordinate a party with only twelve hours to spare before their daughter and future son-in-law arrive. While Nora scrambles to find food, especially Blair's favorite ham, Luther buys a tree from the Boy Scouts, but they only have one left, which is a dead, ugly, non-green tree. Luther buys it anyway but rejects it by throwing it in his backyard. While Spike leads a picket at the Kranks', Luther arranges to borrow the tree of neighbor Wes Trogdon (Mark Christopher Lawrence) who is going away for a couple of days. Luther and Spike try to transport it across the street on Spike's Radio Flyer wagon, only for the neighbors to confuse this to be Luther stealing the family's Christmas tree, and to be stopped by the police, who assume they have stopped a robbery in progress. Spike comes to Luther's rescue. Nora comes home enraged at Luther for making the borrowed Christmas tree a "Disaster" and how she had to buy "Smoked Trout" to replace the honey ham (because the ham rolled into the street and got smashed by a truck). Nora tells Luther to put up Frosty on their roof, which fails when he and Frosty fall off, drawing the neighborhood's attention. Once it is established why Luther is trying frantically to decorate his home, the neighbors, led by Vic, come out full force to help him and Nora ready it for Blair. Blair calls to say she landed from Miami. The party starts off strong, with Blair having no idea of the earlier drama. Enrique thanks everyone for the warm welcome, and Nora thanks her neighbors for being a strong community. Luther, to everyone's disappointment, offers only a lukewarm toast. When Nora confronts Luther, he tries to convince her to still go on the cruise, but Nora refuses, disgusted that he is not happy that Blair is home. Luther sadly slips out of the house and goes across the street to the Scheel home. Bev's cancer, once in remission, has returned and, knowing this may be their last holiday together, Luther insists they take the cruise in place of him and Nora, going so far as to offer to take care of their hated cat, Muffles, who's always under Luther's foot. At first, they decline, but ultimately they accept his generosity. With his holiday spirit renewed, Luther finally admits to Nora that skipping Christmas was not a good idea until she suggests they should do it next year.

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.

A scheming ex-girlfriend attends a magnificent wedding determined to prevent it and win back the groom.

Fleeing robbers stumble into a staked-out bar in New Orleans. Three petty thieves who the police believe to be major criminals are chased into a basement bar where they take five hostages including all the bar employees. The rest of the movie deals with the cops lurking outside the bar while the trio try to get hold of the situation inside. —Danny Paikov <deepee@netvision.net.il>

Vampires residing in a town wear sunscreen. A Van Helsing descendant arrives, leading to humorous situations as their paths intersect. Reclusive vampires lounge in a lonely American town. They wear sunscreen to protect themselves. A descendant of Van Helsing arrives with hilarious consequences. —<robin.poole@octacon.co.uk> The last remaining vampires have decided to find peace in a secluded desert town protected by sunblock. They are in the midst of getting a substitute blood plant up and running, but they need the help of a human scientist who brings his family not knowing what they are walking into.

When police officer Xavier Quinn's childhood friend, Maubee, becomes associated with murder and a briefcase full of ten thousand dollar bills, The Mighty Quinn must clear his name. Or try to catch him, which could be even trickier.

In 1955 Florida, a Korean vet has a breakdown and is incarcerated in a "maximum security" mental health prison, where patients are abused. An American war hero attempts suicide and ends up in Chattahoochee State Mental Hospital. But he realizes that the doctors in the hospital are humiliating patients, and staff are murdering them. —Harun Mehmedinovic <Pkojovic@concentric.net> Emmet Foley, a decorated but troubled Korean War vet suffering from PTSS and impotence, has a breakdown and goes on a shooting spree in his neighborhood, subliminally hoping to commit "suicide by cop." Failing that, he shoots himself in the chest but survives to be sentenced to a "maximum security" mental health facility in 1955 Florida. While recovering, he begins to feel a sense of rage over the mistreatment and open abuse of his fellow inmates, whose needs are ignored in an atmosphere of neglect and filth. With the help of another inmate and his faithful sister, he begins a campaign against the entrenched bureaucracy to improve conditions for his fellow patients. —duke1029

The Henderson family adopt a friendly Sasquatch but have a hard time trying to keep the legend of 'Bigfoot' a secret. Returning from a hunting trip in the forest, the Henderson family's car hits something in the road. At first, they fear it was a man, but when they examine his "body", they find he's a "bigfoot". They think he's dead, so they decide to take him home. As you guessed, he isn't dead. Far from being the ferocious monster they fear him to be, he's a friendly giant. In their attempts to keep him a secret, they have to hide him from the authorities and a man who has made his goal in life to catch a "bigfoot". —Rob Hartill While returning from a hunting trip in the woods, George Henderson and his family run into something with their car that turns out to be a Sasquatch. Thinking he is dead, they take him home, but he soon awakens. Despite their initial fears, he is a kind and sensitive being, and they become very fond of him. However, it is difficult to keep him a secret, and they soon begin to fear for his safety. —Jwelch5742

A small-town loser determines to have one more shot at the big time by winning a football game. Jack Dundee is a meek banker living in Taft, California. He constantly thinks about the 1972 high school football game between Taft and powerhouse Bakersfield. Dundee drops a perfect pass from quarterback and friend Reno Hightower, and the game ended in a tie. He wants to replay the game, but has trouble convincing Reno and the town to replay the game. So Jack resorts to desperate measures to make the game reality. —Pat McCurry

Thorton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) is a successful and wealthy businessman who owns a nationwide chain of clothing stores for overweight people. Melon himself came from humble beginnings where his father pushed him to succeed in school; however Melon himself, despite his sharp business skills, never attended college. At a meeting of his top staff, he accepts a few new investment ventures and suggests modifying a few more when his son, Jason (Keith Gordon), calls him. Jason is a student at a prestigious school, Grand Lakes University. His father asks him how he's doing with his studies, if he's enjoying being in a fraternity and if he's doing well as part of the diving team. Jason tells him all is fine, but is actually lying to his father; he isn't in a frat, and he's only the towel boy for the diving team. Melon's snooty, mean, spendthrift 2nd wife, Vanessa (Adrienne Barbeau), holds a dinner party for her rich friends at their luxurious house. Thorton mentions that nearly all the people who attend are only there for free food and drink and want to schmooze her for donations. While he raids the fridge for a beer, he catches Vanessa in a tryst with another man, Giorgio (Robert Picardo). Thorton has known about the affair for some time, and when Vanessa demands a divorce, he presents her with papers and shows her several Polaroids of her having sex with Giorgio. After the party, while he practices diving in his pool, Thorton talks to his personal aide and bodyguard, Lou (Burt Young), about how he's let Vanessa weaken his relationship with Jason. He decides he's going to make a surprise visit to Grand Lakes to see his son. When they arrive, Thorton goes to the wrong Greek house - it's a sorority house - and finds out that Jason isn't in a frat or on the diving team. Jason tells him that he's unhappy at the university because he hasn't made very many friends and the frats & diving team don't want him as a member. Thorton tells him that he needs to stay in college so he can be successful in life. He also tells Jason that he'll join him for a semester at the university, enrolling as a freshman. Thorton has no record of his academic achievement to qualify as a student, so he persuades the school's academic dean, Dean Martin (Ned Beatty), by donating money to construct a new building that will house the Thorton Melon School of Business. The school's dean of the business department, Philip Barbay (Paxton Whitehead), is appalled that Thorton is able to bribe his way into Grand Lakes. Thorton counters by saying that he has real-world business experience that trumps Barbay's academic credentials. Thorton and Jason register for classes and both take Barbay's business course. In the first class, Thorton counters nearly every point Barbay makes about his lesson plan for the semester where they will learn about theory by building a fictional company that will make and sell a product. Later, Thorton and Jason attend a literature class taught by Diane Turner (Sally Kellerman), whom Thorton embarrassingly falls for immediately. Though she's seeing Barbay, she seems to enjoy Thorton's freewheeling personality and dates him as well. When Thorton forgets that he's supposed to meet Jason for a study session, Jason instead meets with a young woman who he's smitten with, Valerie (Terry Farrell), and they bond, despite Valerie's attachment to a snobby student, Chas (William Zabka). Meanwhile, Thorton, while partying at a local bar, comes to the aid of Jason's roommate, Derek (Robert Downey Jr.), a politically radical troublemaker who'd earlier disrupted a pep rally for the football team. The team's captain threatens to beat Derek when Thorton has Lou intervene, prompting a huge brawl. Thorton later comments that the football team isn't nearly as tough as his high school team was. Thorton also connects with the school's diving coach (M. Emmet Walsh); the man knew Thorton when he was an entertainment diver on a pier in Atlantic City. The coach tells him that Jason tried out for the team but didn't do well. Thorton has Jason execute a difficult dive for the coach on the spot. Thorton soon finds that he likes the fun aspects of college; hanging out in bars, throwing parties, schmoozing with female coeds, but he doesn't like the academic work involved. He brings in his senior staff and hires people from scientific corporations to do his classwork for him. Jason is angered when his father presents him with an astronomy paper that Jason wants to do himself. Jason becomes further disillusioned with his father when, after he makes the diving team, that his father might have persuaded the coach to let him join. One night during a wild party thrown by Thorton in the dorm room he had luxuriously renovated, Thorton is caught in the hot tub by Diane with several young women. His relationship with her is further hurt when she reads the paper he'd turned in on Kurt Vonnegut, saying that he couldn't possibly have written it himself and that the person who wrote it for him didn't know anything about Vonnegut. (Thorton had called in Vonnegut (Kurt Vonnegut Jr.) himself (who appears in a cameo) for assistance.) Barbay soon goes to Dean Martin with charges leveled against Thorton of academic fraud. Thorton lies and insists the work he did was his own, but Barbay trumps his claim by suggesting that Thorton's final exams be given to him in oral format so he can't cheat. Thorton begins to pack, wanting to leave. Jason convinces him to stay and that he and his roommate, Derek, and Lou will all help him cram for his finals. When Thorton's big day arrives, he's exhausted. Barbay starts the proceedings, giving Thorton a grueling single question composed of 27 sections. Thorton persists and answers all the parts correctly. When he wants to give up, Diane asks him to recite Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night". Thorton gets a boost and finishes his exams. The Grand Lakes diving team has a match the same day. Jason does very well, earning high points while Thorton watches and waits for his exam results. When the team begins to fall behind their rivals, the diving coach calls Thorton poolside to execute his famous Triple Lindy dive from his Atlantic City days. Thorton is reluctant, but Lou talks him into it. Thorton executes the dive, involving bouncing on several diving boards on 3 different levels of the platform, and the team wins the match. Diane finds him after, telling him he earned all D's in his classes and one A from her. Thorton is allowed to give a humorous address to the graduating class. He tells them to stay in college and become successful, drawing laughter from the crowd.

A group of small but vicious alien creatures called Crites escape from an alien prison transport vessel and land near a small farm town on earth, pursued by two shape-shifting bounty hunters. A massive ball of furry creatures from another world eat their way through a small mid-western town followed by intergalactic bounty hunters opposed only by militant townspeople. —Keith Loh <loh@sfu.ca> A Kansas farm is attacked by a hoard of hungry flesh-eating monsters from outer-space with razor sharp teeth and a witty attitude! The family who inhabit the farm must seek the help of a local drunk and his critter-fighting bounty hunting pals before its too late... —Joe Collins

Los Angeles Times reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher is writing an article exposing drug trafficking on the beach, where he suspects food vendor Fat Sam (George Wendt) of distributing heroin from his shack. Posing as a homeless addict during his investigation, he is approached by Alan Stanwyk, who mistakenly assumes Fletch is a junkie. Offering Fletch $1,000 just to hear out his proposal, Stanwyk takes him to his luxury mansion in Beverly Hills, where he formally introduces himself and says that he works for Boyd Aviation as the executive vice president. Stanwyk claims to have bone cancer, with only months left to live, and wishes to avoid the pain and suffering. Stanwyk offers $50,000 for Fletch to come to his mansion in a few days time, kill him, and then escape to Rio de Janeiro, staging the murder to appear as the result of a burglary. Fletch is suspicious, but ostensibly agrees to the plan. Along with his colleague Louisa Larry, Fletch begins investigating Stanwyk instead of completing his drug trafficking exposé, much to the dismay of his impatient boss/chief editor Frank Walker. The next day, Fletch endures a rectal exam from Stanwyk's doctor, Dr. Dolan, in a failed attempt to talk Dolan into divulging medical information about Stanwyk. Later that same day, disguised as a doctor, Fletch accesses Stanwyk's file in the hospital's records room and learns Stanwyk lied to him about having cancer. Fletch visits Stanwyk's wife Gail at her tennis club and, pretending to be a friend of her husband's, flirts with her during an impromptu tennis lesson, but does not uncover very much from her and leaves. Next, Fletch poses as an FCC agent while he visits Gail's father, Stanton Boyd, the head of Boyd Aviation to inquire about Stanwyk's finances. Fletch finds that Gail recently converted $3 million of her personal stock in Boyd Aviation into cash for her husband to buy a ranch in Provo, Utah. Fletch returns to his apartment for the day and finds that his ex-wife's lawyer, now-husband Marvin Gillet is waiting for him to collect unpaid alimony. Fletch gives Gillet the $1,000 cash bribe money that Stanwyk gave him earlier to make him leave. After having a cold beer, Fletch goes to sleep and has a dream of being a major league basketball player playing for the Lakers and scoring a hoop. The next day, while undercover at the beach, he discovers one of Fat Sam's customers, Gummy, running away from a patrolling squad car. Fletch tries to intervene when the cops catch Gummy and beat him up, but Fletch gets kicked in the groin by one of the cops and they haul Gummy away in the car. Fletch retaliates by throwing a rock through the car's back windshield, but the car keeps going. A few days later, Fletch travels to Provo, where he breaks into a realtor's office and discovers the deed lists the sale price as only $3,000. He barely escapes from the office while being chased around by a guard dog. Meanwhile, LAPD Chief Jerry Karlin gets wind of Fletch's soon-to-be-published drug article. He sends two thuggish detectives to Fletch's apartment and arrest him after they plant heroin on him. The two take Fletch to meet with Karlin, who tells Fletch he is jeopardizing the lives of undercover cops he's planted on the beach to bust the drug trade. When Fletch insults Karlin, he takes Fletch to an empty jail cell and threatens to shoot Fletch and place a switchblade in his dead hand to claim self-defense. Fletch tells Karlin he is going to work on another story about off-track betting in the Himalayas instead. An amused Karlin then lets Fletch go. Fletch finds out that Karlin had him arrested because of Fletch's boss, who wants Fletch to stop investigating what he considers a ludicrous story about drug-dealing cops. When Fletch confronts his boss about the incident, Frank refuses to believe Fletch's story about Karlin's plan to kill him. Fletch storms off, angry but more determined than ever to break the story. Disguised as a redneck airplane mechanic, Fletch shows up at Stanwyk's plane hangar and learns from two mechanics that Stanwyk has been using the plane each weekend to go to Utah, but uses as much fuel as if he traveled to South America. Back at the tennis club, Fletch meets Gail at her cabana. He treats her to an expensive lunch which he charges to the credit account of a snooty and obnoxious club member, Ted Underhill. Fletch gives her a little information about the investigation but has to flee when Mr. Underhill shows up at Gail's door, demanding the several hundred dollars the lunch had cost. Fletch spies on Stanwyk making a suspicious briefcase exchange with Chief Karlin, but is unable to determine the nature of their relationship. He returns home to find two squad cars in his building's parking garage and flees, managing to avoid capture after a harrowing car chase when Fletch steals an Alfa Romeo from a young car thief. He manages to stay ahead of them and is only able to shake them when he distracts them all at a lodge club dinner. Fletch returns to Provo and, under the guise of an insurance investigator, interviews Stanwyk's parents. Fletch discovers Stanwyk has been secretly married to another woman for eight years, having used Gail for her money. He returns to Beverly Hills and shares what he has found with her, who is very upset about her husband's bigamy. Fletch arrives at Stanwyk's mansion on the night of the plotted murder only to find Stanwyk armed and ready to kill Fletch instead. He reveals he is aware of Stanwyk's real plan to fake his own death by killing Fletch, burning his body, and dressing like Fletch himself. Stanwyk would then escape to Brazil with his other wife, as well as Gail's $3 million. Stanwyk was also using his private jet to smuggle cocaine from South America to supply Karlin, who unexpectedly shows up and, upon learning of Stanwyk's intentions to flee with $800,000 of Karlin's drug money, kills Stanwyk. Karlin then turns the gun on Fletch but is knocked unconscious by Gail with a tennis racket. Some time later, Karlin is indicted for Stanwyk's murder, due to Fletch's investigation. He begins dating Gail and, in the final scene, takes her on a vacation to Rio. Fletch jokes that he had placed the expenses for the vacation on Underhill's credit account and offers the audience the number.

Set in a small Midwestern American town of Grandview, Illinois, Tim Pearson (C. Thomas Powell), a Grandview High School senior, wants to study oceanography in Florida after graduation. His father Roger (Ramon Bieri) loans him his brand new Cadillac to go to the senior prom with Bonnie Clark (Elizabeth Gorcey). Later, while Tim and Bonnie are making out in the car near a stream, the car's parking brake fails and the car literally rolls in, so they walk to "Cody's Speedway", a local garage, for a tow. When Bonnie's father (M. Emmet Walsh) comes for her, he punches Tim in anger. Mechanic Michelle "Mike" Cody (Jamie Lee Curtis) defends him, and has local demolition derby driver Ernie "Slam" Webster (Patrick Swayze) tow the car with Tim. Slam first stops at the local bowling alley asking for his wife Candy (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who hasn't been there all day. Slam suspects that Candy might be cheating on him. The next morning, when Tim visits his father at work, he tells Tim he does not want him to drive his car again. Running into Mike, he thanks her for helping him with the car and asks to drive in the derby. Tim goes out to the Speedway, where he meets Mike's mentally challenged brother, Cowboy (John Philbin). Later on that night, Mike goes to the bar to see her uncle Bob (William Windom), asking to borrow $10,000 to fix up the Speedway. He doesn't have the money, but wants to help. Just then, they both hear a drunken Slam beating on a video game machine after loosing. Mike and Bob help him out to his truck, and she and Slam talk about old times. Hungover at work the next morning, Slam's boss sends him home. When he arrives, he finds Candy with Donny Vinton (Troy Donahue). Enraged, he jumps on his car demanding she come back to him, in the process Donny shoots himself in the foot. At the hospital, Candy doesn't press charges, but won't come home. She files a restraining order so Slam cannot be within 50 feet of her. That night, when Mike sees Slam sleeping in his truck, she comforts him, believing he does not really love Candy but is only afraid of being alone. Later, he invites Mike out to dinner but she can't. (She has a County Commission meeting, but doesn't say so.) Tim and his dad also go to the meeting, and he tells him he's declining his ISU scholarship to go to Florida to study oceanography; Roger isn't too pleased. At the Town Hall, Roger asks Tim to get something in his office. There, he sees the Speedway renovation plans. At the meeting, Mike requests more time to get the money to fix up the Speedway, but the commission won't give it to her. Tim reveals they plan to put a country club and golf course on Mike's land. (Roger has already bought all of the adjacent property to the Speedway and will go bankrupt if the deal doesn't go through.) Tim then argues with his father and leaves. Tim runs into Mike, who thanks him for saving her place. Going for a burger, she invites him over, and they spend the night together. Mike offers Tim a car to drive in the Derby. In the morning Slam shows up, finding them in bed together; he leaves upset, thinking Mike turned him down because of Tim. Later on that day, Roger apologizes to Tim about the fight. He asks Tim to reconsider Illinois State University, but he still wants to go to Florida. At the Speedway, Mike sells her old cars to make extra money, upsetting Cowboy, who runs off crying. Slam goes to his house and sees his stuff on the lawn, getting wet under the lawn sprinkler. Donny taunts him by the door with a shotgun, telling him he called the cops. Slam leaves with his wet things. Later that night, at the Demolition Derby, Tim is competing against Slam in the race. At the climax, Slam crashes into Tim, injuring him. Thinking he did it on purpose, Mike sends him off the track. Then, as Candy and Donny are having sex in his house, Slam bulldozes it and he is arrested. As Tim and Mike drive home from the hospital, they see firetrucks and find the Speedway has burned down. Mike asks her mother what had happened, but she doesn't know. In the morning, however, the police discover that the gas tank was unlocked. Cowboy had started the fire because Mike sold the old cars. Tim and Mike talk, and she admits she is in love with Slam. Mike bails Slam out of jail and he offers to help fix the Speedway, but she says she'll sell to Roger so they can afford to start a life together. She then asks him for a favor. In the final scene, Tim is a bus stop on his way to Chicago. As the bus leaves a car comes alongside, forcing him off; Slam gives Tim the old car and money for his trip to Florida. Mike and Slam, now a couple, go to the local parade.

California, Present Day. Awaking from a nightmare, retired Colonel James Braddock (Chuck Norris) is preoccupied with memories of his experiences during the Vietnam War. After being captured, he was imprisoned in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war (POW) camp and remained in enemy hands even after the conflict ended. The U.S. government classified him as MIA (Missing in Action), until he was able to escape after seven years and return home to the United States. Believing MIA soldiers are still held captive in communist Vietnam, Braddock crusades on their behalf, but is unable to provide any evidence for his claims. At the request of the U.S. government, Braddock returns to Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City in the communist People's Socialist Republic of Vietnam, to participate on an investigative committee about the missing soldiers which is led by Senator Maxwell Porter (David Tress). Upon arrival, Braddock recognizes Colonel Vinh (Ernie Ortega), the ruthless North Vietnamese officer who tortured Braddock at the POW camp. General Tran (James Hong) leads the talks on behalf of his communist government, and presents false evidence that "heroic" Braddock actually committed war crimes, claiming the North Vietnamese imprisoned the American not as a POW, but as a "common criminal." Braddock sneaks into Tran's compound that night to confront the general about the location of missing American soldiers. As Braddock points a knife at his throat, Tran mentions a camp in northern Vietnam, eight kilometers from the coast. Braddock fatally stabs the general when Tran tries to shoot him. Braddock then evades the Vietnamese guards and makes his way across the rooftops back to his room where Ann Fitzgerald (Lenore Kasdorf), a member of the American investigative committee, is waiting. Sympathetic to Braddock, Ann covers for him by climbing in his bed so when the Vietnamese soldiers enter the room and find Braddock and Ann in bed, she claims that he had been with her all night. The next morning, after thanking Ann for helping him and bidding her goodbye, Braddock journeys to Bangkok, Thailand, to seek out and enlist the help of a former U.S. Army comrade named Jack Tucker, nicknamed "Tuck," (M. Emmet Walsh) who now smuggles contraband along the Southeast Asia coast. After convincing Tuck to take him by boat to rescue MIA soldiers, Braddock buys weapons, a bullet-proof assault raft, and the services of a backup helicopter. Meanwhile, Colonel Vinh attempts to assassinate Braddock in Bangkok by sending agents after Braddock, but the American fights off his attackers, and quickly leaves for the mission with Tuck. Although Vinh follows Tuck's boat and slips on board at night wielding an ax, Braddock gains the upper hand and kills his former captor. Anchoring off the Vietnam coast, Braddock and Tuck disembark from the boat and navigate a river inland on the armored raft. Braddock leaves Tuck with the raft while he infiltrates the covert POW jungle camp. That night, Braddock launches a one-man attack against the enemy prison camp. Taking control of the camp after igniting a series of explosions, Braddock learns from a local prisoner that the American prisoners were taken away three hours earlier and are being transferred by truck along a riverfront road. The next morning, Braddock and Tuck intercept the enemy convoy and rescue four American prisoners, but fighting continues as they confiscate a Jeep and make their way back toward the coast. As Braddock and the other Americans reach Tuck's boat, a Vietnamese armed patrol boat appears. At the same time, Braddock's backup helicopter arrives. Tuck fends off the patrol boat with a heavy machine gun long enough for Braddock and the POWs to climb safely into the hovering helicopter just before Tuck's boat is destroyed. Braddock looks down at Tuck's burning boat and sees that his friend was killed in the fight. Back in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnamese officials issue final statements to Senator Porter and the rest of the U.S. investigative committee, as well as the local and foreign press, maintaining that there are no living American MIAs in Vietnam. Suddenly, the helicopter containing Braddock and the MIAs land outside the building in which Braddock barges into the conference room with the four rescued soldiers, exposing the Vietnamese treachery.

In an unnamed Texas town, a sleazy bar owner Julian Marty suspects his wife, Abby (Frances McDormand), of being unfaithful. Abby gets one of the bartenders, Ray, to give her a ride out of town to Houston. She mentions her husband gave her a pearl handled pistol for their first anniversary and she states she figured she leave before she uses it on her husband, A seedy private detective Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) hired by Marty to follow Abby, takes photos of Abby and Ray, when they end up at a local motel together rather than leaving town. Marty makes a menacing wake up phone call to them, making it clear that he is aware of their tryst. The next day Ray confronts Marty at the bar, it ends badly and Ray quits, walking out at which point Marty threatens Ray. Marty arranges for the private detective to kill the pair, and on the detective's suggestion, Marty goes out of town to create an alibi. That night, the detective breaks into Ray's house and steals Abby's revolver, partially loaded with 3 bullets, that was originally given to her by her husband. Visser uses photos he has doctored to make it appear that he has actually murdered the lovers and goes to collect his $10,000 fee from Marty, whereupon he shoots Marty with Abby's gun and drops it on the floor. Upon leaving, the detective does not realize not only has he has left behind his lighter but also the doctored photo that Marty has removed from the envelope and placed in his safe when getting the money. Later, that same evening, Ray arrives at the bar to insist that Marty pay him the back wages he's owed. Ray finds Marty shot in his chair bleeding out onto the floor. Ray discovers the gun, when he kicks it and it goes off. He recognizes the pistol as belonging to Abby. Ray is interrupted by another employee, Meurice, who arrives in the bar. Ray uses the noise from the bar jukebox to mask his attempt to clean up the blood. He removes Marty's body, dropping Abby's gun into Marty's coat pocket, puts the body into his car and drives off after throwing the bloody windbreaker and towel into the incinerator behind the bar. Driving down the highway, he hears a noise from the rear seat: Marty is alive. Panicking, Ray stops the car, jumps out the passenger door, and runs a short distance into a field. On returning to the car, he sees that the back driver's side door is open and finds Marty crawling down the highway. At first Ray debates running him over with his car, but then grabs a shovel from the trunk, intending to kill him that way, but is interrupted by an oncoming tractor-trailer. Ray considers throwing Marty into the path of the truck, but instead he picks up Marty and drags him back and into the car. Ray drives to the middle of a farmer's field, digs a hole and throws the still alive Marty in. He is in process of burying him when Marty pulls Abby's gun from his jacket pocket. He points it at Ray, and pulls the trigger and it clicks; he pulls it again twice more with the same result. Ray removes the gun from him and continues to bury Marty alive. At dawn, Ray gets his car started and drives off. Meanwhile, the private detective burns the series of doctored copies of the photograph he used to fake the murder of Abby and Ray. He opens the envelope in he handed to Marty and got back and he discovers that Marty has replaced the photo with a sign asking employees to wash their hands before returning to work. Annoyed, he tries to light his cigarette and notices his engraved prized lighter is gone. At Abby's apartment, a deeply disturbed Ray arrives and tries to explain that he cleaned up Abby's mess. Abby does not understand what Ray is talking about, and they get into an argument. Ray has blood on his shirt and Abby thinks the two men had a fight. Ray thinks Abby is being coy when she uses the same term her husband told Ray she used when he caught her cheating. The phone rings, interrupting their argument, and Abby answers but the caller doesn't speak. Abby hangs up thinking it was Marty when it was really the detective. "Well, that was him." "Who?" "Marty." Horrified, Ray leaves and drops Abby's revolver on the table on his way out. Meanwhile, Meurice, the other bartender, checks his answering machine and gets a delayed message from Marty claiming that a large amount of money has been stolen from the safe and that either he or Ray took it. Meurice goes to confront Ray about the theft of the money. Abby goes to Marty's bar to try to find out what happened with Ray. Abby finds the bar ransacked, the safe's combination lock dented, chipped, and partially shattered. The private detective had been trying to break into the safe to retrieve the photo and was interrupted by Abby's arrival: he is hiding in the bar watching Abby move about. She picks up a towel from the top of the safe; a hammer falls out. Abby spins the dial but does not open the safe. The now-rotting fish that Marty brought back from his trip are still on the desk where Marty was killed; and the detective's lighter is still underneath. At her apartment, Abby lies in bed; she gets up to wash her face and hears someone enter the apartment. She calls Ray's name, then pushes open the bathroom door. Marty is sitting on the bed. He tells her that he loves her, and then warns her; "He'll kill you too.", then pitches forward and vomits a torrent of blood. Abby wakes up from the dream. Ray is at his apartment packing when Abby arrives. Abby thinks that Marty refused to pay Ray, that Ray broke into the bar to get his money, and that the two of them got into a fight. Ray interrupts and tells her he found her gun at the bar, that he can't eat or sleep lately, and that Marty was alive when he buried him. Abby leaves to tell Meurice that she thinks Marty is dead; Meurice leaves for the bar. Ray is at the bar; he opens the safe and finds the faked photo showing him and Abby in bed, bodies riddled with holes, blood staining the sheets. He leaves for Abby's apartment and notices the same older model VW parked behind him, the same car that was following them earlier,when they ended up at the motel. Ray pulls out, and the private detective follows him. Abby arrives at her apartment and turns on the lights; Ray is looking out a large window and tells Abby to turn off the light. Abby is reluctant to do so. The private detective is on top of a nearby building, watching the two through a sniper scope, and shoots Ray through the back, killing him. Abby runs to crouch beneath the window, takes off her shoes, and throws them at the light bulb, breaking it. Visser arrives at Abby's apartment, and she goes into the bathroom to hide; outside the bathroom window is a precipitous drop. In Abby's sparsely furnished living room, Visser bludgeons Ray with a large coin bank, then searches Ray's pockets for the lighter, thinking he took it. Failing to find it, he goes into the bathroom. Abby is not there; he looks outside the window, then hearing a sound through the wall, he reaches his arm over, finding another window. He opens the window; Abby slams it on top of his wrist and drives a knife through his hand into the windowsill. The detective screams and then shoots holes through the wall and finally punches through and removes the knife from his other hand. Abby, dazed, backs out of the room and slides down the wall opposite the bathroom door, finding her revolver on the table by the door. The door is partly closed; eventually the man's shadow darkens the doorway, and Abby fires through the door, using up the third and final bullet. The detective falls. "I'm not afraid of you, Marty," Abby says. Visser, laying out on the bathroom floor, bleeding from his chest and hand, suddenly bursts into laughing. "Well, ma'am, if I see him, I'll sure give him the message." The detective lies looking up at the underside of the bathroom sink. Water collects on its underside, grows into a drop, and drips. The movie ends.

In a dystopian futuristic Los Angeles, the police department forces Rick Deckard out of retirement to hunt four genetically engineered humans on a killing spree.

A prostitute and a drifter find themselves bound together as they make their way through the rural South, doing what they have to do to survive.

A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia, and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States. American journalist John Reed journeys to Russia to document the Bolshevik Revolution and returns a revolutionary. His fervor for left-wing politics leads him to Louise Bryant, then married, who will become a feminist icon and activist. Politics at home become more complicated as the rift grows between reality and Reed's ideals. Bryant takes up with a cynical playwright, and Reed returns to Russia, where his health declines. —Jwelch5742 The joint lives of journalists and activists John Reed - referred to as Jack in familiar circumstances - and Louise Bryant from 1915 to 1920 are presented, the former who, at the time of the making of this movie, is the only American to be buried at the Kremlin in a place of honor. In their life together, they are sometimes friends, sometimes lovers, sometimes spouses, but always idealists who hold steadfast to their beliefs. They initially meet in Portland, Oregon in 1915 when Jack returns to his hometown on a speaking engagement, he already a well known "liberal" journalist writing about how the working class is paying the price for the elitists calling the shots in the war, with Louise the repressed wife of dentist Paul Trullinger, she who has dabbled in journalism as a means of independence from her traditional life. She is protective about her writing and how to get her point of view across, which often does not mesh even with those who may agree with that point of view. Jack and Louise attracted to each other sexually and emotionally, he asks her to return to New York with him both to be with him and to give her the freedom to write what she really wants. In New York, they associate with Jack's friends - who include among others playwright Eugene O'Neill and writer/activist Emma Goldman - who largely dismiss Louise as a lightweight, just the latest of Jack's girlfriends, and/or solely, in the minds of many of the men, a sexual being to be exploited. Despite their relationship/marriage largely at its end, Jack is able to convince Louise to travel to Russia with him in 1917 to report on and be involved with the Bolshevik Revolution, which Jack feels could be the impetus for the end of the war, and if successful, a model for the American working class. It ends up being a game changer in their lives, for Jack seeing the success of the working class, and for Louise being caught up in the fervor of true idealism coming to fruition regardless of the specific issue. The Revolution will have an impact on their lives in a different way as a possible cause of them never seeing each other again, as (1) it causes Russia to be an isolated nation, (2) the scourge of Communism, Jack who is largely seen as the face of it in the US, being something that most in the mainstream of American life would like to see eradicated, and (3) Communism in Russia not being true to the academic definition of the term and perhaps not quite what Jack or his socialist associates in the US had envisioned. Through it all, an issue in the background but one that plays an integral part of their story is Jack's poor health, something that he does little to improve or care for in his goal of forwarding his leftist ideals. Interspersed with the dramatization of Jack and Louise's life are current day interviews with real life players who knew Jack and/or Louise, or who knew of the issues with which they were dealing. —Huggo Based on the true story of Jack Reed (played by Warren Beatty) and Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton), two American socialists and writers. During WW1 they actively campaigned for and wrote about socialist causes. When the news of the Russian Revolution broke this was seen as the chance for socialism to gain a greater foothold and popularity. Reed went to Russia to see what could be learned from the revolution and took the ideas back to the US, forming the Communist Labor Party of America. Things weren't all plain-sailing though, both in the relationship between Reed and Bryant and in politics. —grantss This movie tells the true story of John Reed , a radical American journalist around the time of World War I. He soon meets Louise Bryant, a respectable married woman, who dumps her husband for Reed and becomes an important feminist and radical in her own right. After involvement with labor and political disputes in the US, they go to Russia in time for the October Revolution in 1917, when the Communists siezed power. Inspired, they return to the US, hoping to lead a similar revolution. A particularly fascinating aspect of the movie is the inclusion of interviews with "witnesses", the real-life surviving participants in the events of the movie. —Reid Gagle

The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father and the guilt-ridden younger son. Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together.

Navin R. Johnson (Steve Martin), a homeless bum, directly addresses the camera and tells his story. Navin is the adopted white son of African American sharecroppers in Mississippi, who grows to adulthood naively unaware of his obvious adoption. The large family lived in a small shack. The family includes mother (Mabel King), father (Richard Ward), brother Taj (Dick Anthony Williams), sister Elvira (Ren Woods), Grandma Johnson (Frances E. Williams) and many more. He stands out in his family not just because of his skin color, but also because of his utter lack of rhythm when his adopted family plays spirited blues music. He is unable to dance in rhythm to the spirited folk songs played by the family, but finds that he can do so perfectly to a champagne-style song on the radio. One night, he hears the staid and starchy Roger Wolfe Kahn Orchestra song called "Crazy Rhythm" on the radio and his feet spontaneously begin to move with the urge to dance. He sees this as a calling (and believes that this is the kind of music that inspires him to go out into the world and be somebody) and decides to hitchhike to St. Louis, from where the song was broadcast. On the way, he stops at a motel, where a dog wakes him up by barking at his door. Navin thinks the dog is trying to warn of a fire and decides to name the dog "Lifesaver." He wakes up all the other hotel guests to rescue them, but when everyone realizes it was a false alarm, one Asian man angrily suggests he call the dog "Shithead," which Navin takes literally. Navin takes a lift from several motorists and eventually reaches St. Louis. Navin gets a job (and a place to sleep) at a gas station owned by Mr. Harry Hartounian (Jackie Mason). Harry pays Navin $1.10 per hour. Navin makes it a habit of sending his savings back home at regular intervals. Over a period of time Harry starts to trust Navin and even leaves him in charge of the gas station when he goes out on date with his wife. A car full of thieves rolls in to buy some gas. Navin says that they have to pay by credit card as he is all alone and the owner has asked him not to expose the cash at the gas station to customers. Navin realizes that the credit card is stolen. Navin calls the cops but then attaches a thick rope to the axle of the car and the other end to the wall of a nearby church. When the thieves realize that they have been made, they try to drive away, bringing down the church wall. He's thrilled to find that he's listed in the local phone book, as his name is "in print" for the first time. Not long after, a gun-wielding lunatic (M. Emmet Walsh) randomly flips through the phone book and picks "Johnson, Navin R." as his next victim. As the madman watches through his rifle scope, waiting for a clear shot, Navin fixes the slippery glasses of a customer, Stan Fox (Bill Macy), by adding a handle and a nose brake. The customer, Stan Fox, is an inventor who promises to try to market the device to split the profits 50/50 with Navin, then departs. Seizing his chance, the crazed sniper tries to kill Navin, but fails, hitting the oil cans in the station window and a soft-drink machine. The lunatic chases Navin to a traveling carnival, where Navin hides out, eventually getting a job with SJM Fiesta Shows as a weight guesser. While employed there, Navin meets an intimidating daredevil biker named Patty Bernstein (Catlin Adams) and has a sexual relationship with her, finally realizing what his "special purpose" (his euphemism for his penis) is for. Later, while operating a miniature railway, he meets a cosmetologist named Marie Kimble (Bernadette Peters) and arranges a date with her. Patty confronts them, but Marie knocks her out. While courting, Navin and Marie walk along the beach and sing "Tonight You Belong to Me", with Navin playing the ukulele and Marie on the cornet. Navin and Marie fall in love, but Marie reluctantly decides to leave him because of his lack of financial security. She writes a note and slips out while Navin is in the bath. Devastated, Navin takes Shithead and travels to Los Angeles. There, the gunman who tried to kill him-now sane and working as a private investigator-tracks him down and gives him a letter from Stan requesting a meeting. His glasses invention, now called the Opti-Grab, is selling big and he's entitled to half of the profits. Stan gives him a check for $250,000 as the first installment on his share of the profits. Now extremely rich, he finds and marries Marie, and they buy an extravagant mansion. Their life becomes one of splendor and non-stop partying. However, motion-picture director Carl Reiner (playing himself) files a class action lawsuit against Navin, claiming that the invention caused his eyes to be crossed and as a result, the death of a stunt driver in the film he was making. Nearly ten million other people have the same complaint (including the judge and prosecution) and are awarded $10 million in damages. Bankrupt, depressed, and now homeless, he abandons Marie and is soon living on the streets. He storms out into the street after yelling at and blaming Marie. Seeing how callous and superficial they've become, Marie wears her tattered dress from the beach, and regrets requiring Navin to be rich. His story now told, he resigns himself to a life of misery and memories of Marie, but to his amazed joy, she suddenly appears, along with Navin's family, and some more good news: Having carefully invested the small sums of money he sent home throughout the film, they've become wealthy themselves. They pick him up off the street, and he and Marie move back home into the Johnsons' new house - a much larger but identical version of their old, small shack. Once again Navin dances on the porch to folk songs, this time with perfect rhythm.

The difficulties of a career burglar to reinsert himself after being released on parole. After 6 years in prison, career criminal Max Dembo is released on parole. He wants to go straight, but doesn't like the restrictions of parole, much to his parole officer Earl Frank's chagrin. Some conditions--living in a halfway house, not associating with past friends and associates, no driving, and no drugs--could be more difficult than he imagines especially as his encounters with Earl become increasingly tense. Max deals with Earl the same way he deals with everything: his way or no way. Through his life in the outside world, he embarks on a relationship with Jenny Mercer, an employment-agency clerk he meets while looking for a job. Jenny knows about his past criminal history, but he ends up only telling her so much of his current life if only to protect her, just in case.