Nick Cassavetes

Kate is diagnosed with leukaemia when she`s two and to keep her alive, her parents conceive another child, Anna, genetically who is a bone marrow match for her sister. The sisters get in and out of hospitals, enduring tests and procedures till Anna one day decides that she would like to make her own decisions and hires a lawyer. My Sister`s Keeper is based on Jodi Piccoult`s book of the same name.

At a modern-day nursing home, an elderly man, Duke (James Garner), reads a romantic story from his notebook to a fellow patient Allie. Both Duke and Allie live in a nursing home. In 1940, Seabrook Island, South Carolina, poor lumber mill worker Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) sees 17-year-old heiress Allison "Allie" Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) at a carnival. He pursues her, coerces her into dating him. Noah approaches Allie to ask for a dance, which she refuses. Allie goes on the Ferris wheel with a friend, and Noah jumps on the wheel and sits in the same carriage as Allie. Noah asks Allie out for a date, but she refuses again. Noah threatens to jump off the wheel unless Allie agrees to the date. Allie agrees to go out on a date with Noah, to stop him from jumping off. Later, Allie refuses to honor her promise of a date. Noah uses his friend Fin and his girlfriend Sara (Heather Wahlquist) to lure Allie for a movie night and Noah reaches there with Fin. Noah later walks Allie home. Allie reveals that she had not seen a movie in ages, as she doesn't have much time. Her schedule is decided by her parents, and she has tutors and activities almost all day. Noah goads Allie by insinuating that she is not free to do as she pleases. They share a dance in the middle of the street. Noah and Allie start a romance. They started spending every waking hour together and fall in love with each other. They argued a lot, and rarely agreed on anything, but they also had a lot of fun. Allie learned swimming and how to drive a truck, with Noah. Despite their differences they were crazy about each other. When Allie meets Noah's father Frank Calhoun (Sam Shepard), he immediately likes her. Frank is warm, inviting and free of any prejudice. However, when Noah meets her parents, they disapprove. Noah is made to admit that he makes 40 cents an hour at his job at the lumberyard. They believe that Noah has too much spirit for Allie, who comes from a different background and circumstances. Noah takes Allie to an abandoned house at Windsor Plantation that he intends to buy for them. Allie also gives specs to Noah that she wants incorporated in the house for herself. She wants a white house with blue shutters, and a room overlooking the water, where she can paint. A big porch that wraps around the house, where they can sip tea and watch the sun go down. They try to make love for the first time (Allie is talking too much and is very nervous, while Noah wanted to be patient and respectful to her feelings) but are interrupted by Noah's friend Fin (Kevin Connolly) with the news that Allie's parents have the police looking for her. When Allie and Noah return to her parents' mansion, Allie's mother Anne (Joan Allen) calls Noah trash (she says that Allie is likely to end up pregnant or heartbroken) and they ban her from seeing Noah. Allie says that her parents don't know anything about love as they don't enjoy each other's company at all. Noah walks out and Allie chases after him. They have an ensuing argument (Noah says that Allie is eventually going to leave him and suggests that they slow things down between them), and she impulsively breaks up with him, but immediately regrets it. The next morning, Anne announces that the family is returning home to Charleston. Allie attempts to contact Noah, but is unable to find him, so she asks Fin to tell Noah that she loves him. Allie says that it is not over between them and that they just had a fight the previous day. When Noah gets the message he rushes to Allie's home, only to find the house gated up and empty. Noah writes to Allie every day for a year, but Anne intercepts the letters such that they never reach Allie. When all 365 go unanswered, he stops writing to move on. Noah enlists with Fin to fight in World War II and fight in the Battle of the Bulge, where Fin is killed in battle. Allie volunteers in a hospital for wounded soldiers, where she meets captain Lon Hammond Jr. (James Marsden), a young lawyer who comes from old Southern money. After a few years being together, the two become engaged to the delight of Allie's parents. When Noah returns from the war, his father has sold their home so that Noah can buy the abandoned house. While visiting Charleston, Noah witnesses Allie and Lon kissing at a restaurant; he convinces himself that if he restores the house, Allie will come back to him. Once it's completed, Noah resists selling it. Later, while Allie is being fitted for her wedding dress, Allie is startled to see in the newspaper that Noah has completed the house to the specifications she made years before. After Allie asks permission from Lon to take a little trip before the wedding, Allie returns to Seabrook to find Noah living in the restored house. The two renew their relationship and make love. Noah tells Allie about the 365 letters, and they realize her mother kept them from her. Several days later, Anne appears in the morning on Noah's doorstep to warn Allie that Lon has followed her to Seabrook. She also reveals that she once loved a lower-class young man in town and still wonders how changed their lives would have been if she had chosen differently. Noah and Allie argue and he tells her to decide what she wants, not what everyone else does. She drives back to her hotel, sobbing and confused. Anne then gives Allie the letters that Noah wrote to her as an admission that she had hidden them from Allie. Subsequently, Allie confesses to Lon that she had spent time with Noah, and eventually returns to her relationship with Noah. In the present narrative, it is revealed that the elderly woman is dementia-stricken Allie (Gena Rowlands), Duke is actually Noah, who uses a pseudonym to not startle her in her disoriented state. The journal he reads to her she wrote during the early stages of her illness, detailing their romance and life together so he could help her come back to him. Noah has kept the promise to read it to her almost daily. Almost at the end of the journal in the notebook, Allie asks Noah what happened at the end of the story and Noah prompts her that she knows. She briefly recognizes him and remembers. Allie asks how long they have before she forgets again and Duke tells her possibly five minutes. They dance to their song, "I'll Be Seeing You", and she asks about their kids. However, Allie's dementia quickly relapses and she panics to see a stranger touching her, so is sedated. Noah suffers a heart attack and is sent to the hospital while Allie is sent to a dementia ward in the same hospital. Noah visits Allie's room in the middle of the night causing her to remember him again and proceeds to remind her of her illness, though he reassures her that they can do anything with the love they share. While sleeping, both Noah and Allie pass away in each other's arms and a nurse discovers them in the morning.

The film begins somewhere in Canada where a young woman is driving dangerously into oncoming traffic, as she attempts to pass a semi she is clipped by another semi, which causes her to spin and stalls, then right into the path of the first semi that slams into the side of her car killing her instantly. A few weeks earlier in Chicago, Illinois, John Quincy Archibald (Denzel Washington) and his wife Denise (Kimberly Elise) are getting behind with their payments. One day after witnessing their young son Michael (Daniel E. Smith) collapse at his baseball game. After a series of tests at the hospital, John is informed by Dr. Raymond Turner (James Woods) and Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche), a hospital administrator, that Michael has an enlarged heart and will need a transplant. Because the company he works for dropped John from full-time to part-time, his health insurance has been changed, and the new policy does not cover the surgery, leaving them to raise $250,000 to get their son's name on the donor list. The family tries to raise the money (they sell everything of value they have and even try and approach TV show hosts to run special interest pieces for the family) but are only able to come up with a third of the necessary payment. The hospital uses the money to clear their current dues and demands the full $250K for the transplant procedure. The hospital tires of waiting and releases Michael; Denise shouts at John to do something, or else Michael dies. Unwilling to let his child die, John walks into the hospital ER with a handgun, gathers hostages, and sets demands: his son's name on the recipient list as soon as possible. The hostage negotiator, Lt. Frank Grimes (Robert Duvall), stands down to let John cool off. Meanwhile, John and the eleven hostages learn more about each other. They begin to understand John's situation and support him a little as he ensures each of them receives the treatment they came to the emergency room for. One of them, Miriam (Troy Byer as Troy Beyer), is pregnant, and her husband Steve (Troy Winbush) is hoping that their first child is healthy. A young hostage, Julie (Heather Wahlquist), has a broken arm, and she and her boyfriend Mitch (Shawn Hatosy) claim that a car crash caused it. Due to holes in their story, John and another hostage, Lester (Eddie Griffin), conclude that the two are lying and that Mitch beat up Julie. After a while, John agrees to release some hostages to have his son's name added to the list an hour afterward. He releases Steve, Miriam, and a hostage named Rosa (Martha Chaves) with her baby. Meanwhile, Frank and Rebeca talk to Denise and tell her that the hospital is putting Michael on the list of donors and will cover all expenses. Frank knows this is a lie and that the plan is to use Denise to misguide John into thinking that Michael is on the list when he is not. The Chicago Chief of Police, Gus Monroe (Ray Liotta) is a sadistic s.o.b. and doesn't agree with Frank's tactics (he wants to bring down the hostage taker ASAP for the TV audiences and his own personal ratings with the Mayor's office), gives a SWAT unit permission to insert a sniper into the building via an air shaft. John is shot while he is distracted talking to Denise, but he ends up receiving only a minor wound, which is treated right away. After taking the shot, the sniper's leg falls through the ceiling tiles. Outraged, John pulls him out of the air shaft and beats him up. Meanwhile, Rebecca is moved listening to John's conversation with his son and decides to put him on the list right away, which nobody else knows. Using the bound SWAT policeman as a human shield, he steps outside to the sight of dozens of policemen pointing weapons at him and a large, supportive crowd. John demands that his son be brought to the emergency room. The police agree to his demand in exchange for the SWAT sniper. Once his son arrives, John reveals to the hostages his intention to commit suicide so his heart can be used to save his son. He persuades Dr. Turner to perform the operation, and two of his hostages bear witness to a will stating his last request. John says his last goodbyes to Michael and enters the operating room. He loads a single bullet into the gun and pulls the trigger, but the safety is on. As he prepares to end his life a second time, his wife learns that an organ donor, the woman who died in a car accident, has been flown to the hospital for organ recovery. She runs to the emergency room and stops John from shooting himself, and John allows the hostages to go free. Michael is given the life-saving operation, and after watching the procedure with Denise, John is taken into police custody after the operation is a success. John became a nationwide hit. Three months later, at his trial, all of the witnesses speak on his behalf. He is later acquitted of charges of attempted murder and armed criminal action but is found guilty of kidnapping. It is never revealed what his sentence for the crime will be, but his lawyer is overheard saying that no judge will give him "more than three to five (years)" and that she will try to get it reduced to two.

A young George Jung (Johnny Depp) and his parents Fred (Ray Liotta) and Ermine (Rachel Griffiths) of Weymouth, Massachusetts. When George is ten years old, Fred files for bankruptcy and loses everything, but tries to make George realize that money is not important. As an adult, George (Johnny Depp) moves to Los Angeles with his friend "Tuna" (Ethan Suplee); they meet Barbara (Franka Potente), an airline stewardess, who introduces them to Derek Foreal (Paul Reubens), a marijuana dealer. With Derek's help, George and Tuna make a lot of money by retailing pot on the beaches. Kevin Dulli (Max Perlich), a college student back in Boston, visits them and tells them of the enormous market-and demand-for pot in Boston. With Barbara's help, they start bringing the drugs to Boston (Barbara starts by taking 25 pounds of pot to Boston per day on her flights, as her bags are not checked). The demand for the "good pot" skyrockets. As the demand grows, they decide to start buying the drugs directly from Mexico with the help of Santiago Sanchez (Tony Amendola), a Mexican drug lord. But two years later, George is caught in Chicago trying to import 660 pounds of marijuana and is sentenced to two years. After unsuccessfully trying to plead his innocence (by reciting the lyrics of Bob Dylan's "Pretty Boy Floyd (Woody Guthrie)") and insisting that he did no more than "cross an imaginary line with a bunch of plants"), George skips bail to take care of Barbara, who is suffering from, and eventually succumbs to, cancer. Her death marks the disbanding of the group of friends; even his friend, Tuna, flees their vacation home in Mexico and is never seen again. While hiding from the authorities, George visits his parents back in New England. While he is having a heart-to-heart talk with his father, George's mother calls the police, who come and arrest him. George is now sentenced to 26 months in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. His cellmate Diego Delgado (Jordi Molla) has contacts in the Medellín cocaine cartel and convinces George to help him go into business. Upon his release from prison, George violates his parole conditions and heads down to Cartagena, Colombia to meet up with Diego. They meet with cartel officer Cesar Rosa to negotiate the terms for smuggling 15 kilograms (33 lb) to establish "good faith". As the smuggling operation grows, Diego gets arrested, leaving George to find a way to sell 50 kg (110 pounds) and get the money in time. George reconnects with Derek in California, and the two successfully sell all 50 kg in 36 hours, amassing a $1.35 million profit. George is then whisked off to Medellín, Colombia, where he finally meets the group's leader, Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis), who agrees to go into business with them. With the help of main middleman Derek, the pair becomes Escobar's top US importer. At Diego's wedding, George meets Cesar's fiance Mirtha (Penélope Cruz) and marries her. However, Diego resents George for keeping Derek's identity secret and pressures George to reveal his connection. George eventually discovers that Diego has betrayed him by cutting him out of the connection with Derek. Inspired by the birth of his daughter and chastened by a subsequent drug-related heart attack, George severs his relationship with the cartel and vows to leave the drug business forever. All goes well with George's newfound civilian life for five years, until Mirtha organizes a 38th birthday party for him. Many of his former drug associates attend, including Derek, who reveals that Diego eventually cut him out as well. The FBI and DEA raid the party and arrest George. Following George's conviction, he becomes a fugitive. Meanwhile, his bank account-heretofore under Manuel Noriega's protection in Panama-is seized. One night, he and Mirtha get into a fight while driving. They are pulled over by police and Mirtha tells them Jung is a fugitive and has stashed a kilogram of cocaine in his trunk. He is sent to jail for three years, during which time Mirtha divorces him and takes custody of their nine-year-old daughter, Kristina "Sunshine" Jung (Emma Roberts). Upon his release, George finds himself struggling to keep his relationship with his daughter on good terms. George promises Kristina a vacation in California and seeks one last deal to garner enough money for the trip. George completes a deal with former accomplices but learns too late that the deal had been set up by the FBI and DEA, with Dulli and Derek having leaked the nature and location of the action in exchange for pardons for their involvement in his prior actions. George is sentenced to 60 years at Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York. He explains in the end that neither the sentence nor the betrayal bothered him, but that he can never forgive himself for having to break a promise to his daughter. While in prison, George requests a furlough to see his dying father, Fred. His unforgiving mother denies the request, saying a visit would only upset Fred. George is given a tape recorder to record a final message to his father. In the message, George recounts his memories of working with his father, his run-ins with the law, and finally, too late, his understanding of what Fred meant when he said that money is not "real". The film closes with George as an old man in prison, imagining that his daughter (Jaime King) finally comes to visit him. She slowly fades away as a guard calls for George. The film concludes with notes indicating that Jung's sentence will not expire until 2015, and that his daughter has yet to visit him. The film's final image is a photograph of the actual George Jung.

In 1932, two strangers are wrongfully convicted and develop a strong friendship in prison that lasts them through the 20th century. In the mid-1990s, two inmates bury the burned bodies of two lifers at Mississippi's infamous Parchman Farm as a third old-timer relates their story. They'd served 65 years for a murder they didn't commit, framed by a local sheriff while buying moonshine whiskey for a Manhattan club owner to whom they owed money. Flashbacks depict how this odd couple was thrown together (Ray is a fast-talking con man, and Claude is a serious man about to start work as a bank teller), the loss of Ray's watch (sterling silver, from his daddy), the murder and trial, the hardships of Parchman, and the love/hate relationship of Claude and Ray as they spend 65 years bickering and looking for a way to escape. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

An astronaut acts strangely after a space mission. A pair of shuttle astronauts leave their spacecraft to repair a satellite. There's an explosion. NASA loses contact for two minutes, but the both are rescued and safely returned to Earth. Eventually it becomes evident that neither of the astronauts is quite the same. —JHole Astronaut Spencer Armacost was on a mission when he suddenly lost contact. When he got home, to friends he was the same, but to his wife he was different. She becomes pregnant, but as time progresses she begins to feel like the lives inside of her are not of this world. —Brian Levin <COMICY@aol.com> A space shuttle in orbit to repair a damaged satellite is forced to return to Earth after NASA loses contact with astronauts Spencer Armacost and Alex Streck for two minutes. Both were outside the spacecraft when the incident occurred. While Armacost seems to be unaffected, Streck has a much harder time recovering from whatever happened to them. Over time, Armacost's wife Jillian begins to note subtle changes in him. Egged on by a former NASA employee, she begins to believe that her husband is something else. She also learns that she is pregnant. —garykmcd

Petty criminal Dean struggles to raise his autistic son alone, and his life appears to be going off-track until psychologist Stevie arrives to help them both. Backstreet Dreams is the story of a man, who has a disturbed child. He and his wife take their son to a clinic, where he is diagnosed by a talented psychologist (Stevie), as being autistic. After catching his unfaithful wife with another man, Dean tells Lucy to leave, and is faced with the task of raising Shane on his own. Stevie believes that she can improve Shane's condition, going back to Dean's apartment and later convincing him that he can provide a better world for his son. Angelo, who lives in the same apartment building and is like a father to Dean, urges on the relationship, sensing that Stevie is luring Dean away from backstreet dealings, and giving him courage to face life in a positive way. Together, they build a foundation for a better life outside of the violence and danger of the backstreets where they live.

A blind Vietnam vet, trained as a swordfighter, comes to America and helps to rescue the son of a fellow soldier. Nick Parker (Rutger Hauer) is a Vietnam vet who was blinded during the war. He was found by one of the local tribes who taught him to enhance his remaining senses and to expertly wield a sword. On his return to the United States, he goes to visit an old Army buddy, Frank Devereaux (Terrance O'Quinn), but discovers that he and his wife, Lynn (Meg Foster) are divorced, and Frank no longer lives there. What they don't know is that Devereaux was playing in a crooked casino in Reno, Nevada, and accumulated a large debt. Casino boss MacCready (Noble Willingham) is willing to forgive his debt if he does something for him: Devereaux is a chemist, and they want him to make designer drugs. In order to make sure he does it, they try to kidnap his son, Billy (Brandon Call). But Nick is there, and Nick saves the boy. Thus begins a road trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, to protect the boy and save his friend with the boss' henchmen in pursuit. —<rcs0411@yahoo.com>

In a small town in Arizona, a mysterious man/spirit descends from the sky and manifests in a sports car and targets a local violent road-racing gang of motor heads, headed by a ruthless bully who'll do anything to get what he wants. Packard Walsh and his motorized gang control and terrorize an Arizona desert town where they force drivers to drag-race so they can 'win' their vehicles. After Walsh stabs the decent teenager Jamie Hankins to death for being intimate with a girl whom Walsh wants for himself, the mysterious Jake Kesey arrives, an extremely cool motor-biker with an invincible car. Jake befriends Jamie's girlfriend Keri Johnson, takes Jamie's sweet brother Billy under his wing and manages what Sheriff Loomis can not - the methodical and otherworldly elimination of Packard's criminal gang. —KGF Vissers A small desert town has been harassed for months by a gang of drag racers, but so far no one has done anything to stop them. One day, a ghostly black car shows up, challenging members of the group to race, then killing them one by one. Neither the gang nor the police can catch the car or its driver, but some investigating into the gang's past may reveal just who's behind all this. —Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>