Paul Mazursky

Yankie director Don Tyler faces mounting insecurity and declining health while on location in Beijing, so his assistant hires down-and-out camerman YoYo to take the reins. Scrambling, studio boss sells the sagging picture to a Japanese media company. But YoYo is determined to upstage the whole production by granting the director's wish to have a grand "comedy funeral". To raise the money for it, he auctions off advertising and sponsorships for the funeral to companies around the world. But wait...is Don getting better? Aged famed American director Don Tyler is in Beijing to film a big budget remake - in his mind, a more authentic Chinese cultural version - of The Last Emperor (1987). His Chinese-American assistant, Lucy, hires native Chinese and non-English speaker YoYo to be the cameraman for a behind the scenes documentary; YoYo is just to shoot whatever he sees with no editorializing. Part way through the filming, Tyler gets depressed and loses his artistic vision for the movie. Simultaneously, he learns that he is being fired. Tyler, YoYo and Lucy have a philosophical discussion on the similarities of the uplifting feeling of attending the funeral of the elderly and of comedy movies, after which Tyler requests from his new friend YoYo a "comedy funeral". After Tyler faints and goes into a coma, YoYo, thinking that Tyler is about to die, goes ahead with the planning of what he believes is Tyler's final wish, the comedy funeral to be bigger than Tyler's last movie. Because of the astronomical cost, YoYo and his funeral planner Louis Wang (an event promoter by trade), have to come up with some creative financing. Lucy, however, is certain that Tyler will come out of his coma, but still goes along with the funeral planning. But what will happen to YoYo and his plans if Tyler does awaken?

A depressed housewife whose husband is having an affair contemplates suicide, but changes her mind when she faces death by a killer hired to do her in. For their 20th wedding anniversary, Jack gets Maggie a diamond necklace and a hit man. But when Tony shows up and, waiting for the signal from Jack in Connecticut to do the hit, he and Maggie begin to talk - perhaps Tony can come to value Maggie even more than her husband does. And when Jack shows up, things get very tricky. —Bruce Cameron <dumarest@midcoast.com>

In the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County, two hit-men, Lee Woods (James Spader) and Dosmo Pizzo (Danny Aiello), break into a house at night and walk into a bedroom where a sleeping couple, aspiring Olympic athlete Becky Foxx (Teri Hatcher) and her ex-husband Roy Foxx (Peter Horton) are in bed. Lee injects Becky with a tranquilizer then shoots Roy in the head. Lee and Dosmo then drive to an abandoned area off Mulholland Drive, where Lee shoots Dosmo and blows up the car in order to set Dosmo up as the fall guy for the murder. Lee flees the scene with his Swedish girlfriend, Helga Svelgen (Charlize Theron) where they hide out at a local hotel bungalow. However, Dosmo was wearing a bulletproof vest and survived the shooting and car explosion. He seeks shelter at the mansion of wealthy art dealer, Allan Hopper (Greg Cruttwell) where he takes Hopper and his assistant, Susan Parish (Glenne Headly) hostage. Dosmo is unaware that Hopper has called his sister, Audrey Hopper (Marsha Mason) a nurse, to come to the house. On her way, Audrey picks up Teddy Peppers (Paul Mazursky) a down-and-out TV producer contemplating suicide. The next morning, Becky awakens and discovers Roy's body in bed beside her. She runs from her house and flags down two police detectives, young, ambitious Wes Taylor (Eric Stoltz) and cynical veteran Alvin Strayer (Jeff Daniels) who are driving by. Although he is sympathetic, Wes begins to suspect that Becky knows more than she is saying. It turns out that Becky was the one who had hired Lee and Dosmo to kill Roy for $30,000, but was unaware that they would kill Roy in her own house. When Audrey arrives at Allan's house, Dosmo takes both her and Teddy hostage as well as forces Audrey to tend to his wounds in exchange for her not being harmed. Meanwhile, Lee goes back to the house to get the money, encounters homicide detectives Creighton (Keith Carradine) and Carla Valenzuela (Ada Maris) working the crime scene, and kills them both. Wes decides to return to the crime scene to see if he can offer any insight on the case. Masquerading as one of the detectives, Lee lures Wes outside, intending to kill him. In Lee's bungalow, Becky and Helga get into an argument, which escalates into a fight. After being smashed over the head with a vase by Becky, Helga reaches across the bed to grab her gun from her purse, but Becky realizes this and runs and grabs the gun as well to prevent herself from being shot. In a confused fight for the gun, Helga ends up getting shot and wounded in her left side, after which Becky escapes from the hotel with Helga shooting at her from the doorway of the room multiple times but missing with each shot. Helga finds her way to Becky's house, where Lee has knocked Wes unconscious. Lee reluctantly decides to kill Helga instead of taking her to the hospital, concluding that her wound is too severe to be treated, but his gun jams. He turns to retrieve Wes' gun but finds that Helga has escaped and has flagged down a passing car containing Dosmo and his four hostages. Audrey jumps out of the moving car and tries to help the dying Helga, but Helga dies on the roadside. Wes is caught in the middle of a shootout between Dosmo and Lee, and is shot in both of his legs. Just before Lee can kill Dosmo, Teddy shoots Lee, killing him. A grateful Wes allows Dosmo to take the $30,000 and escape with Susan. The following day, Teddy shows up to an anniversary party that Audrey is attending. In the final scene, as Susan and Dosmo drive down a highway leaving Los Angeles behind them, Dosmo contemplates using the money to start a pizzeria in Brooklyn. Susan smiles and he kisses her.

A U.S. actor gets a gig in South American Parador. When the dictator dies, he's forced to play him for real and gets his mistress. Can they change Parador? Little known actor Jack Noah is working on location in the country of Parador at the time the dictator dies. The dictator's right-hand man Roberto makes Jack an offer he cannot refuse: to play the dictator. Jack's acting skills fool the masses, but not close friends and employees of the dictator. —Rob Hartill

A medical-school dropout and a homemaker/mom try to make it as stand-up comedians. They become friends and help each other out at a New York City comedy club. Steven Gold is a flat-broke stand-up comedian who has recently dropped out of medical school. He and several others work regularly at the Gas Station, a New York City comedy club. The wages are lousy and everybody hopes for the big break. Lilah Krytsick is a homemaker with an ambition to be a stand-up comedian, but she doesn't seem to have the talent. Steven takes her under his wing and teaches her the art of comedy and humor. But when a TV station arranges a comedy evening at the club, Steve sees his opportunity for fame and stardom. Their friendship seems quickly forgotten and now it's every man and woman for him- or herself. —Mattias Pettersson <seaman@sbbs.se> Lilah Krytsick is a New Jersey homemaker and mother married to insurance salesman John Krytsick, who expects her to place these household roles as her top priority in life. Steven Gold has just been kicked out of medical school; he had only been admitted by having his doctor dad pull some strings. Although he never wanted to be a doctor, Steven doesn't want his father to know he is no longer in school. Lilah and Steven casually know each other with both being stand-up comics--secret lives to both John and Steven's father--performing for $15 a set at a New York City comedy club called The Gas Station. Lilah has always felt joy in making people laugh, although she strains in putting together a set that is meaningful to her and thus funny to the audience. Steven, arguably considered the best comic at the club, wants to make it big in the business. However, he sucks up most of the proverbial oxygen when at the club, which doesn't sit well with some of the other comics, especially the less secure ones who also want to make this business their life. While Lilah deals with trying to balance this secret life and her household duties while also trying to improve her stand-up skills and Steven strives to make a career of stand-up happen sooner than later in needing to eke out a life for himself, Lilah and Steven connect on an emotional level through comedy. The question then becomes what will happen to their friendship as they focus on their own priorities in their lives holistically, which is only complicated as network executives hold a contest at the club; the winner will be featured on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962). —Huggo

When a Russian musician defects to New York, he finds adjusting to his new life in America more difficult than he could have imagined.

A successful architect, dogged by a mid-life crisis, purges his material trappings then retreats into a self-imposed exile on a remote Greek island in a vain attempt to bring meaning to his life.

The lawyer Stephen Blume, who specializes in divorces, is living a paradoxical situation where, having broken up his marriage, is still in love with his ex-girlfriend. Lawyer Stephen Blume, specialized in divorces, lives a paradoxical situation when, having his own marriage break up, is still in love with his ex-wife. —Victor Munoz <vmunoz@macul.ciencias.uchile.cl>