Paul Sorvino

We begin with an aerial view of the hotels in Las Vegas, before settling on one called the Shangri-La. Inside one gaming area, the patrons all seem to be winning. Joe, a floor boss, picks up a phone and asks where Bernie is - they need him right away. Moments later, from an elevator emerges Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy), dressed in a seedy-looking ill-fitting suit. As he limps through the casino and passes people, their luck immediately goes sour. Roulette wheels, blackjack cards, crap tables and slot machines all stop paying out. Bernie then wanders over to Doris, the barmaid, who pours him a coffee. He asks for cream, but as she starts to pour it the creamer runs dry. A pretty blonde waitress, Natalie Belisario (Maria Bello) brings a drink order to the bar. Bernie tries to chat with her, but she is clearly distracted. She asks Doris if Shelly left word for her; he was supposed to put her at the tables rather than the nickel slots she's been stuck at. As Natalie leaves, Bernie promises her he'll talk to Shelly but she doesn't seem to notice. Joe tells Bernie he's needed on table 11. Bernie tells Joe to have Natalie bring him a drink - that he talked to Shelly and he wanted her on the tables tonight. Natalie brings him the drink, thanking him for talking to Shelly. Bernie then takes the drink to a player at the crap table who's having a hot streak - which ends immediately. Bernie then plays some blackjack, losing his money and wrecking the luck of all the other players. Next, we see casino boss Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin) in his office. He has a headache and is trying to get a manicure, when a small entourage of men in gray suits barge in . Leading the pack is his casino partner, Nicky Bonnatto (Arthur J. Nascarella). Nicky introduces Shelly to his new VP Larry Sokolov (Ron Livingston) and his numbers guy, Marty Goldfarb. After drinks, smokes and jokes, Nicky tells Shelly that Larry has some ideas to revitalize the Shangri-La. Shelly asks why - they raked in $35 million last year. Larry explains that he respects the job Shelly has done the last 16 years, but that things have changed on the strip. Shelly responds in disgust about the "Disneyland" the strip has become. What was once a high class hooker, has now become a cheap, fat whore. Larry points out that other casinos are raking in dough and the Shangri-La just can't compete anymore. Shelly says they're not trying to compete; this is where old-time real money comes to play. Larry counters they only offer nostalgia - fine for museums but not casinos. Later, Shelly meets Bernie on the floor and stops him for a chat. He asks how his knee is and tells him about an orthopedist who can make a kneecap out of titanium. But Bernie reminds him he won't be here past Sunday. Shelly asks him where he's going to go that better than this. But Bernie insists that in seven days he's gone. Bernie goes to his motel room at the Bettor Life motel, a dismal dive. He sits in bed watching TV. He can't even try to sleep because his neighbor is having loud, headboard-banging sex on the opposite side of the wall. Next day, a high roller is on a hot streak. When Natalie brings him his drink, he deliberately takes his time stuffing the money into her cleavage, causing her to topple over into Bernie. She apologizes, but Bernie tells her she might want to stick around. He hands the guy some new dice, and his lucky streak evaporates. The roller sees Natalie smiling at his misfortune, and starts swearing at her, until he is hauled off by security. Natalie smiles at Bernie gratefully. Shelly takes his partner and the new guys out to watch Buddy Stafford (Paul Sorvino), the casino's older, worn-down lounge singer. Larry is clearly not impressed. Shelly goes to see the singer in his dressing room. Buddy is embarrassed about his performance. Shelly tries to pump up his ego, but Buddy is more concerned whether Shelly brought his fix. Shelly did and Buddy quickly shoots up. He tells Shelly about a nature show he saw - how a lion who was once the leader of a pride had gone past his prime and was expelled and left to forage on his own until he died. It would be so much easier, he moans, if he could just walk away with his dignity intact. Shelly disagrees, saying that would be like admitting he was dead already. Bernie walks out to his car and is surprised to find Natalie waiting for him. "Buy you a drink?" she invites. Larry, meanwhile, introduces Shelly to Johnny Capella (Joey Fatone), a new hot singer he thinks should be headlining at the Shangri-La. Shelly tells Larry he already has Buddy signed up for five more years. Johnny is miffed and walks out. Natalie and Bernie are in a diner, where she is reviewing his astrological chart, telling him he is a slow starter when it comes to romance. He tells her it all doesn't matter; he knows what the outcome will be - all bad. He asks if she knows what he does. "You're a cooler", she replies. "You turn winners into losers". He tells her he does it by just being himself. Everyone who's ever been next to him has had their luck turn sour; it's always been that way. That sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy, she retorts. He blurts out that he is leaving in five days anyway, so she suggests they don't waste any time and just go to his place. He nervously tells her he's not sure he can afford her. She is insulted, and he realizes he's made a mistake. I've done it again, he tells her. I've cooled the damn table. But she assures him he hasn't cooled anything yet. They go to his motel room, where she notices his plants are all dead, and he has a cat food dish but no cat. She sits down on the bed, while he dusts off an old record. But as it starts to play the needle scratches across it. He resets it and nervously sits next to her. She tells him to relax - at least one of them has done this before. As the record starts to play, "Luck Be a Lady Tonight", she starts to undress. He notices she has a tattoo of two dice, each reading a two, on her behind. She walks to him coyly and starts to seduce him. But he is nervous, and ends up just rolling on top of her and finishing very quickly. She tells him gently, "It's okay. I've had worse", then gives him other kind reassurances. The next morning Bernie wakes up to find he's alone. Sadly, he picks up her pillow and hugs it. Suddenly she walks out of the bathroom, brushing her teeth, and asks if he wants to go to breakfast. He nods yes with a huge smile. At breakfast, he tells her about his past. He was an out-of-control gambler who built up a huge debt until Shelly broke his legs with a baseball bat. Natalie is horrified, but Bernie says he's actually grateful. His shattered bones are a reminder to keep him from giving into the temptation to gamble. He worked out a repayment plan with Shelly - six years off the books cooling tables, and it's up in five days. The conversation is interrupted as a pregnant girl nearby has labor pains. Bernie sees them and recognizes the husband as his son, Mikey (Shawn Hatosy). Bernie and Natalie escort the pregnant couple, Mikey and Charlene (Estella Warren), to their car. She has settled down and is no longer in labor. When Bernie asks about Mikey's mother, he angrily responds she's getting by as long as she's high. Bernie nervously invites him to come to his motel to "catch up". Mikey says he might do that for the kid's sake. Bernie sits down at a blackjack table with one other player, Mel, who is obviously winning. He bets one hand and the dealer goes bust with it. Afterward, incredibly, the dealer busts on hand after hand, letting Mel rake in the dough. Bernie is perplexed and leaves the table. Shelly wonders if the dealer is cheating, but can't believe it. They run across Larry - who knows Bernie is a cooler. He chides Shelly for sticking to the old ways. He says there are more effective ways nowadays. He shows Shelly a CD with soft music laced with a subliminal message of "Lose. Lose. Lose." Shelly only rolls his eyes. The other partners arrive, and Shelly takes them to Buddy's room only to find Buddy on the floor dead of an overdose. Shelly suggests that the Paradise room stay closed tonight in Buddy's honor, but Larry quickly has Johnny Capella take over and do the show. The partners are impressed, but not Shelly. Bernie and Natalie try the ring toss as a carnival, but she misses all her tosses. They sit down and Natalie looks sadly at a little boy standing next to his dad. She asks Bernie if he noticed the tattoo on her butt: two dice each with a 2 - a Little Joe. She admits she had a son named Joe, but only for a year. She gave him up for adoption ten years ago because she was 17 and wanted her life back. Her family abandoned her after that, and she ran off to become a showgirl. Deep down, she knows she did the right thing, but now feels she was selfish. Bernie stands up as if to leave, and tells her softly, "I think...I could kick your ass at the dime toss". She laughs and they hug tenderly. Afterward, they make love in his motel room. Bernie is now very confident and gives Natalie obvious pleasure. Then with a smile he asks if she'll do something for him. Moments later, it sounds like they are having loud, headboard-banging sex, but the camera pans up to reveal that the two of them are just leaning against the headboard, rocking it and screaming out loudly. Finally, Bernie screams out and the two collapse, quietly laughing as the neighbor yells for them to shut up. "Did we wake you?" Bernie calls out. Later on, Natalie returns to Bernie's apartment to find Charlene and Mikey waiting there. Mikey asks if Bernie is renting her, because he can't figure out how else his loser father could get so lucky. Before she can say something back, Bernie returns from parking his car. He's surprised but happy to see Mikey. Mikey then tells him they're strapped for money and Bernie gives them $3,000 in cash, all the money he has to spare. Meanwhile, Larry presents a model of the new Golden Shangri-La to the partners: 3 floors of gaming, entertainment, boutiques, restaurants - even a roller coaster. Shelly responds by telling them the plot of the movie LOST HORIZON, how Shangri-La was totally untouched by the outside world - a paradise. Thats what the hotel Shangri-La was supposed to be, and you don't mess with that. Shelly insists that someday people will want the old Vegas back and he'll be there to give it to them. Nicky then goes to play some craps but is annoyed by a rude player. After Nick craps out and the guy laughs, Nicky head-butts him and beats him bloody until security, called by Bernie, drags the guy away. Bernie tells Natalie how anxious he is to get out of Vegas and begs her to come with him. She answers that she's done an astrological compatibility chart on them and they're good together - but only if they stay in Vegas. Bernie returns to his job. As he stands by a table, he is appalled to see his son there, playing craps. Natalie finds him and so does Larry, as Mikey rolls two nines and wins big. Shelly arrives in time to see Mike subtly switching back the real dice for his obviously loaded dice. He then throws a losing roll and decides to graciously leave with his winnings. Shelly tells him he doesn't want to lay out that kind of cash on the floor and invites them to come to his office to collect. Mikey agrees, but when Shelly tells him not to bother bringing his chips he knows he's in trouble. Larry suggests they turn them in to the authorities, but Shelly tells Larry to watch him protect his investment the "old school" way. Bernie is torn up, but goes to save his son. Shelly has the couple down in a basement area, about to work Mikey over when Bernie arrives and begs him to stop. Shelly accuses Bernie of being in on the con, but believes him when he denies it. Instead, he tells Bernie they were up 150 grand when they left the table, so he wants $75,000 each for their lives. When they start to punch Mikey, Bernie agrees to cover the 150 G's. Charlene then starts to have contractions and pleads to go to the hospital. Shelly responds by kicking her in the stomach, then pulling up her shirt to reveal that the "baby" was just a large cushion. Shelly mocks the shocked Bernie by cradling the cushion. He gives Bernie a chance to change his mind but the cooler still offers to cover the debt. Shelly then orders Mikey to be put up on the table. Bernie pleads that they had a deal, but Shelly tells him 150 grand buys only their lives. With that he takes a sledge hammer and breaks both of Mikey's legs. Back at his motel, Bernie blames himself for what happened to Mikey. Natalie gently tells him to stop beating up on himself and begins to dance with him instead. Later on, they are in bed together. She sits up and confesses that she knows she loves him. "You blindsided me, Bernie Lootz," she declares. "I never saw it coming". She then tells him there are things about her that he should know, but he doesn't care; it won't change how he feels about her. He's afraid to voice just how he feels about her because of all his rotten luck. But she tells him his rotten luck is all over now, so he admits that he loves her too. As a new day dawns, Bernie awakes to find his cat Trixie has come back, and Natalie has left him a note, "Have a Spectacular Day". He goes off to work with a new confidence. When the waitress pours his coffee, the creamer finally pours out cream for him. As he makes his rounds, people around him start to get very lucky. Even as Shelly takes him aside to find out what's going on, a brand new slot machine rigged for virtually no payouts hits a big jackpot. Bernie tells Shelly theres nothing wrong with him - he's just in love! Shelly has Natalie brought to him. He reminds her he only hired her to be a lover to Bernie, not to actually fall in love with him. Now his falling in love has turned Lootz's bad luck to good and cost the casino at least a million. He demands that she leave him, not even telling him to his face but just leaving a note. She refuses at first until Shelly threatens her life. Bernie returns home to find a note from Natalie that she has left him. Afterward he returns to the casino to find the creamer has run dry again and he is once more bringing bad luck to everyone he touches. He meets Shelly in the lounge and asks if he muscled Natalie into leaving, but Shelly denies everything and acts offended. Bernie comments that the new lounge singer is all flash and no soul and that he misses Buddy. Shelly tells him Buddy was tired and that he gave him an easy way out. He admits that he knew Buddy would never accept the casino buyout. He'd have fought to the end and eventually would have been hurt. So he gave him the overdose instead and let him die peacefully. Bernie is appalled. That night in his motel room, a lonely Bernie hears a knock on the door. Natalie is back, suitcase in hand. He takes her back before she can even say a word. Later, in bed, she suggests they run away together, but he says he can't. He owes Shelly a debt, and if he ran, Shelly would come after him and hurt her as well. At the casino, Bernie is bringing people luck again, so Shelly has Natalie grabbed from the motel. He tells her he could make her disappear and no one would miss her. "Bernie would!" she counters. She tells Shelly it must kill him to know that Bernie loves her. Bernie was your friend, she shouts at him, and you crippled him. Still he stood by you but no more! She and Bernie are leaving tonight and he can't stop them. Shelly slams her face into a mirror which shatters and leaves her face bloody. He then departs quietly. Bernie returns home to find Natalie hiding in the dark. He finds the broken mirror and turns on the light, seeing her with cuts on her face. She confesses that Shelly paid her to get close to him. She thought it was easy money. But as she got to know him, she saw that he wasn't a phony or a hustler but a decent guy. And she loved the way he treated her like a lady. Now Shelly wants her gone because she brought him luck. She just wanted to tell him the truth before leaving him, because she knows he wouldn't want her now. But instead, Bernie rushes her to the hospital, where they stitch up her cuts. He tells her afterward that everything will be all right. And if she ever looks in the mirror and doesn't like what she sees, then don't believe it. Look into my eyes instead, he tells her tenderly, they're the only mirror you're ever going to need. They go back to the Shangri-La. She tells him she lied about his astrological chart that first night - that it was actually the worst she had ever seen. But he assures her that was before he opened his heart to her now he has Lady Luck on his side. She gives him the $3,000 that Shelly had paid her and suggests he give it to Shelly as a down payment. He goes inside to where Shelly is meeting with his partners, throws Natalie's bloody handkerchief on the table and punches Shelly in the stomach swearing to kill him if he touches Natalie again. Shelly and his men drag Bernie up to the roof. Shelly says he hurt Natalie because he never gives up on a good thing, and Bernie is a very good thing - the best cooler ever. Bernie says he's not that man anymore. He promises to leave, get a job and send Shelly half his paycheck, but.Shelly says if he tries to leave the casino without paying his debt, he'll toss both he and Natalie off the roof. Bernie says he won't do that, because with him dead, he'd no longer the biggest loser in the world - Shelly would. What do you have except this place, Bernie challenges, your legacy is an illusion - you've got nothing. Shelly isn't impressed by the speech and walks away. Bernie turns his $3,000 into chips and starts throwing the dice at the crap table and winning. After he has run up some serious money and gotten Shelly's attention (but no interference from him) Larry arrives demanding Shelly shut him down right now and proclaiming that Bernie isn't leaving with one dime. Shelly hauls Larry into the men's room and tells him Bernie is okay and nobody's touching a hair on his head. He pins Shelly down and declares, wait, on a subsonic level, I hear a mantra "Pain! Pain! Pain!" Then he breaks Larry's wrist. At the table, Bernie is up over 100 grand until he craps out. He bets again but craps out a second time. He then takes the rest of his chips - $80,000 in all and places one last bet, throwing the dice nervously. He is next seen walking out of the casino empty-handed. Natalie is just grateful that he is alive as he drives them away. Meanwhile, Shelly is in his office with a headache, refusing to answer his ringing phone. He finally smashes the model of the new Golden Shangri-La to bits. Miles away in the car, Natalie asks Bernie to tell her what happened. He stops the car on the side of a desert road and opens the door as if he has to throw up. Meanwhile, Shelly gets into his car in the parking lot only to find Nicky waiting in his back seat. Bernie, meanwhile, proceeds to pull wads of money out of his pockets. He tells Natalie he won big at the casino. "Bahamas, here we come", he declares. Then a cop appears at their window, ordering them to step out. Bernie tells the cop he's sorry if he was driving carelessly, but that they just won a load of money. The cop pulls out a gun and tells them they didn't win anything - and orders them to get on their knees. Nicky tells Shelly he's just protecting his investment the old school way. He points his gun at Shelly's temple and shoots him dead. Meanwhile, on their knees in the desert, Natalie whispers to Bernie that they should have known it was all too good to be true. They turn to give each other one last loving gaze as the cop cocks his gun. But instead of hearing a gunshot, they hear a loud thud. They turn to see that a car has run down and killed the cop. Bernie realizes it was just a random drunk driver - a freaky, lucky coincidence. Bernie and Natalie get back into the car and drive away with their money. We see Larry being introduced to the investors as the new Director of Casino Operations at the new Golden Shangri-La. "The future looks very bright, gentlemen. Very, very bright," he assures them. And with those words of endorsement ringing in our ears, we watch Bernie and Natalie drive off toward a new life together.

The film begins with several shots of Hillwood showing the kids having fun and adults doing their usual routine until Sid notices construction workers demolishing a house. Arnold and Gerald are then seen walking back to the boarding house with a popped basketball after being beaten by 5th graders at a game. Before Arnold walks into the boarding house, he sees several of his neighbors making a fuss about something. One of the gathered neighbors Mr. Green, explains the commotion. He states that Mr. Scheck, the CEO of a real estate company called Future Tech Industries or FTi, wants to buy all the houses in Arnold's neighborhood so the urban development firm can convert them into a futuristic mall. According to the news, Mayor Dixie is already approving plans for the mall. This means that Arnold's neighborhood will be destroyed and everyone who lives there has to move away (which would also mean Helga would not see Arnold again or express her feelings to him). The neighbors state that they should do something about this. During the night, Helga discovers that her dad, Big Bob Pataki, is working with Nick Vermicelli (who had worked with Bob on previous occasions). Bob is revealed to be planning to build a store in Scheck's mall called "Big Bob's Super Beeper Emporium." Helga points out to her dad that people are going to suffer if he builds his store. However, Bob counters by saying that if they leave the neighborhood alone, his store will not exist. He also insists that change is good (as does Scheck at various times in the film) and states that when his store is built, their family will be rich and Helga will be able to buy anything. The next morning, FTi puts up a huge electronic billboard across the street from the boarding house that shows the number of days until construction begins as well as several Future tech Industries ads featuring Scheck stating "Out with the old, in with the new," "Change is good," and "I've seen the future, and the future is Future Tech Industries." Arnold rallies the neighborhood and hosts "Blockapalooza," a block party held to protest against FTi. However, the permit allowing them to close a public street was stolen by Scheck's employees, and Blockapalooza was declared illegal. Arnold's grandmother was jailed for being hostile to the police suppressing the rally. She tries breaking out but keeps getting caught. As demolition day closes in, Gerald tells Arnold to stop looking on the bright side of things and that you cannot always win. Later, Arnold sees how this will effect the citizens as he sees the friendship between Sid and Stinky and the relationship between Mr. Green and his shop and how this will destroy his business. Later on, as the boarders begin packing, Grandpa tells Arnold the history of the boarding house, stating that it was first built in the 1700's and it was the site of the "Tomato Incident" (a parody of the Boston Tea Party) during the Revolutionary War. The residents at that time angry over the increase in British taxes for tomatoes. The locals fought the British soldiers by hitting them with the tomatoes, sending them running. Arnold realizes that if he can find a document proving the event happened, then the neighborhood will be declared a historical site and cannot be demolished. With Gerald reluctantly tagging along, Arnold manages to trace the document to FTi, though Scheck denies ownership of the document. Just as Arnold and Gerald are about to give up hope, the boarding house telephone rings, and a mysterious individual named "Deep Voice" reveals that Scheck is lying and the document is hidden in his vault, which Vermicelli has the key to. Gerald suggests going to a woman named Bridget who can provide them with the proper gadgets to do the job and sneak the key away from Vermicelli. Arnold and Gerald, now secret agents, follow Vermicelli to a bar, where they disguise themselves as employees. Arnold and Gerald use one of the gadgets to listen to what Vermicelli is saying. Vermicelli's voice is heard over the speakers, and people are confused and wonder about the key that Vermicelli had mentioned. Vermicelli gets angry and accidentally spills his drink. He demands that Arnold and Gerald clean up his mess and replace his drink. Arnold's fake mustache almost slips off, nearly revealing him to be a kid. They walk away, and before Vermicelli can figure out who they are, they leave the bar. Arnold and Gerald follow Vermicelli to his home outside of Hillwood and stay on top of his roof until he eventually falls asleep. Arnold straps himself to a rope to swing down and sneak the key. Gerald is holding on to it, but let's go when his watch beeps. Arnold almost falls down, but Gerald grabs it just in time. Vermicelli wakes up when Arnold's sweat touches his forehead, but luckily, he thinks that Arnold is an angel and goes back to sleep. Arnold gets the key and they leave the rooftop. Deep Voice gives them a call and gives them more information on what they need to do. The bus picks them up and they head to FTI. Big Bob, having read the fine print of his contract, finds that Scheck had taken control of 51% percent of his company in exchange for the right to build his beeper emporium, and takes his anger out on Vermicelli. They engage in a small fight before Bob is dosed in pickle juice (reminiscent of the Hulk) and knocked out. Vermicelli then realizes that the key was gone and alerts Scheck. Meanwhile, Grandpa Phil and the men at the boarding house are trying to develop a backup plan just in case Arnold fails to get the document. They have several ideas, but fight on their weaknesses. However, Phil gets an idea that works. They plan to wire the sewer tunnels beneath their street with dynamite. They would then ignite it and blow a huge hole in the ground so the Future Tech workers would fall in. Arnold and Gerald infiltrate the FTi building and locate several different vaults. When they finally unlock the right vault, they find the document missing. Scheck comes up from behind them, with the document in his hand. He reveals that his ancestor, who was the German leader of the British forces, was humiliated by the Tomato Incident. For generations, Scheck's family has been planning on regaining control of the city and get revenge against the boarders. Scheck then burns the document in front of them. His bodyguards then arrive to detain Arnold and Gerald, who manage to escape and split up. When Arnold is just about to give up hope, he receives another call from Deep Voice, and remembers that FTi has cameras everywhere. He manages to get a video of Scheck burning the document. However, security forces arrive, forcing Arnold to hide on the roof. Meanwhile, Gerald searches for a cab to take them back to the neighborhood. Arnold is then contacted by Deep Voice once again, who is then revealed to be Helga, who, after some pressing from Arnold, confesses her romantic feelings for him and kisses him at the top of the tower. They escape the building and meet Gerald on a city bus. But the driver Murray is unwilling to speed up until he realizes that his former flame lives near Arnold and that her house is going to be demolished. They then ensue into a high speed chase to get back to the neighborhood before Scheck, who is chasing after them in his car and trying to kill our heroes in anyway possible to prevent them from stopping his plans. Scheck tells his workers to let up the bridge so the bus can't cross, but they make the leap, and Murray becomes unconscious. Murray's foot is stuck on the gas pedal. Arnold tells Gerald that he must drive. Though reluctant at first, Gerald eventually is convinced that he must drive it, while Arnold and Helga control the other gears. They almost run over man walking across the street. Phil and the others are waiting with their explosives for FTi to begin taking the neighborhood down. The FTI workers are going to destroy the neighborhood with people still there and inside the buildings. Big Bob is in the area and discovers Phil's plan. Although Bob states they could do some serious jail time, he decides to help because Vermicelli double-crossed him. Meanwhile, Vermicelli's workers blow up the overpass to prevent Arnold, Gerald, Helga, and Murray (who is unconscious at the time) from getting to the neighborhood. However, a truck on the freeway that had a ramp on the back was stopped near the edge. The quartet ride the bus over the truck's ramp to jump the hole and make it to 33rd Street. Back at the neighborhood again, Grandma (who has escaped from jail) hijacks one of the bulldozers and destroys the rest. Soon, a rogue bulldozer and the city bus that Arnold, Gerald, and Helga are on collide. The three kids come out okay a few moments later. Mayor Dixie arrives and Bridget gives Arnold a VCR to show the tape of Scheck burning the document. Bridget hooks it up to the big Scheckivision screen and Arnold shows Mayor Dixie the tape, who then proceeds to claim the neighborhood as a historical landmark. The citizens of the neighborhood cheer for Arnold and Gerald for their bravery and for saving the neighborhood. Scheck then arrives but is dismayed by the incriminating evidence. He gets into his car and tries to run over Arnold and Gerald, only to find that Grandma stripped his car of its wheels. He is then arrested for his crimes and Big Bob gets in another fight with Vermicelli, knocking him out. Arnold's neighbor Harold is exhausted because the exploding freeway woke him up. He sits down on the button that ignites Phil's explosives. The explosives beneath the streets ignite, destroying the FTi billboard. Phil and the boarders run away from the police, and Murray reunites with his ex-girlfriend Mona. As Arnold and Helga watch them, they begin talking about the events of that night and agree that it was all "in the heat of the moment." (As neither of the two were ready to deal with the fallout of the confession.) Arnold and Gerald do their handshake and talk about how they saved the neighborhood. Arnold reminds Gerald that their ball is flat, but Gerald tells him that it's just a little low on air. Arnold questions Gerald's positivity, and Gerald tells him that somebody had to do it, just like Arnold said to him at the beginning of the film. The movie ends with Helga running cheerfully as Eugene sings a song about the neighborhood being saved, but Gerald interrupts the song and tells him that the show is over.

An actor and a chef fathom a plot to fix a horse race and attempt at capitalizing it, while striving to tackle two of the hitmen responsible for the scheme. Two friends, an actor and a chef, discover a plot to fix a horse race and try to capitalize on it. But they must also deal with the two men who fixed the race, who are trying to silence them. Then there's the mob boss the two guys work for, who planned the fix, and whose wife is having an affair with the actor. —<rcs0411@yahoo.com> While filming on location at a race track, womanizing bit actor Spencer Holden, who lives life on one scam after another, overhears a couple of inept thugs named Binky and Turnip while they dope a race horse with a supposed undetectable super stimulant. The thugs find out that Spence overheard them and will do anything to catch him so that he won't go to the authorities with the information. Spence enlists the help of his best friend, drive-in carhop and aspiring restaurateur Dennis Powell, to bet on the race with that horse so they can make some guaranteed money. Spence and Dennis end up not only having to outrun the thugs, who manage to put a few bullet holes in Spence's car, but also the police when they find Spence's bullet-riddled car and after the race horse, Sorry Sue, dies from the drugs. Add an antique player-piano Dennis acquires, sympathetic but naïve auction-house employee Ellen Frankenthaler who is attracted to Dennis, and exotically beautiful Claudia Pazzo who is interested in buying the piano and in whom Spence is irresistibly drawn, and Spence and Dennis may be in more trouble than they ever imagined. —Huggo

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

An American widower and a British divorcée keep running into each other and marry. But when the marriage loses its bloom, they try to separate, yet can’t stop finding their way back together. A college professor (George Segal) and an English divorcee (Glenda Jackson) meet and marry while on a vacation in France. When the bride returns home, she finds life less than rosy as the jungle of academia unfolds and the mirth of marriage fades. —Anonymous

Jerry Landers (John Denver), an assistant manager at a Food World grocery store in Burbank, California, receives a letter at his home after work summoning him to a meeting with God the following day. Jerry and his wife, Bobbie (Terri Garr), dismiss it as a practical joke and he tears the note up and throws it away. However, the next day, the note turns up in a head of lettuce at the store and Jerry feels compelled to honor the request. Jerry goes to the appointment meeting place in downtown Los Angeles, California, and finds an office with nothing but a chair and an intercom. He is greeted by a voice on the intercom. The voice attempts to convince the dubious Jerry that He really is God by demonstrating that Jerry is on the 27th floor of a building that actually has only 17 floors. After Jerry leaves the building completely spooked, the voice begins talking to him through Jerry's supposedly broken car radio. God informs Jerry that He wants him to spread the word that God exists. At home, Jerry tells his wife all about the meeting and encounter. But naturally Bobbie does not believe Jerry and suggests that they go on vacation and visit his brother-in-law, who is a therapist, but Jerry insists that he is not crazy, which fuels her suspicions about Jerry and his mental health. The following day, God speaks to Jerry in the shower and then appears to him in the guise of an elderly man (George Burns). When Jerry asks him how He can permit so much suffering in the world, God explains that the world is based on luck and free will. God tells Jerry that it is up to him to inform the world to heed His message, treat one another better, and look after the Earth's natural resources. God urges him to go to the press. Jerry visits Briggs (George Furth), a Los Angeles Times reporter, that God asked him to be His messenger, but the journalist is skeptical. Later, God appears to Jerry at the grocery store and asks him to go for a drive. Jerry asks for a sign and God makes it rain inside the car. When Jerry is pulled over by a policeman to inquire about the water leaking from the moving car, Jerry lies to the motorcycle cop by claiming that he left the car windows down while driving through a car wash. After the policeman lets Jerry go with a warning, God is somewhat disappointed that Jerry lied to the policeman to avoid getting in trouble and insists that Jerry spread His word with truth and no more lies. Jerry returns to the newspaper office (still soaking wet) and again tries to convince Briggs. The next day, the newspaper runs a story that includes Jerry among tales of various religious fanatics and Bobbie is mortified. Jerry explains that he has now seen God and needs her to believe him. She allows that Jerry believes that he spoke to God, and they attempt to explain the situation to their children, Adam and Becky, but the boy and girl hope their father is just going through a phase and also think that he may be crazy. Later, a television news program picks up the story and the media surrounds the Landers' Tarzana, California, home. A Food World executive warns Jerry not to make any more claims that he has spoken to God if he wants to keep his job. In another meeting, God tells Jerry that there are no guarantees in life, and his job is a small price to pay for saving the world. When Jerry picks up Adam at school, his son is embarrassed to be seen with him, and Becky refuses to speak to him as well. At home, Bobbie pleads with Jerry not to jeopardize his career or their lives, as their neighbors are now avoiding her. Later, Jerry appears as a guest on the Dinah Shore Show, on which a Los Angeles Police Department sketch artist produces a drawing of God based on Jerry's description. After the show airs, people begin to recognize Jerry wherever he goes. Bobbie is extremely upset when a crowd of religious zealots gathers outside the Landers' house. A committee of religious leaders of various faiths calls Jerry before them to verify his story. The committee sequesters Jerry in a hotel with 50 questions written in ancient Aramaic, which he is to answer with God's help. God appears as a room service waiter, dictates the answers to Jerry and instructs him to take them directly to Reverend Willie Williams (Paul Sorvino), an evangelical preacher, whom God calls a fraud. Jerry attends Reverend Williams' revival meeting at the Shrine Auditorium and tells Williams' followers what God said, which leads to a riot at the auditorium and Jerry getting thrown out by the hostile bouncers. Reverend Williams then sues Jerry for slander. In court, Jerry acts as his own attorney and calls God to the witness stand. The judge threatens Jerry with contempt of court, but God enters the courtroom and testifies. Everyone in court can see and hear Him and He performs a card trick and makes himself disappear to prove his legitimacy; however, when the audio recording made by the court clerk is played back, God's voice cannot be heard and His testimony has disappeared from the stenographer's transcription. The judge dismisses the slander charge against Jerry, but rules that there is no evidence that God appeared despite their mutual experience of the phenomena. Nevertheless, Jerry and Bobbie reconcile as she now believes him and his encounters with God. As the film comes to an end, Jerry loses his job at Food World, collects his final paycheck, and says goodbye to his co-workers. As he drives away, Jerry hears a pay phone ringing in a park and stops to answer it. God materializes in the adjacent phone booth. Jerry asks if they failed to spread His message due to him losing his job and all of his friends and neighbors still ostracizing him. God assures Jerry that they succeeded in getting His word out and now they just have to see what happens. With Jerry's work complete, God bids him good-bye and fades away.

Literature professor Axel Freed is a gambling addict. When he has lost his money, he borrows from his girlfriend Billie, then his mother Naomi, and finally some criminals that chase him. Despite all of this, he cannot stop gambling. Successful college professor Axel Freed is addicted to gambling; he wins big but loses it all just as quickly. He borrows from his girlfriend then from his wealthy mother, and finally from a loan shark. It just gets worse and worse for him because he just cannot stop. But when his girlfriend decides to leave him, his mom decides to disown him, and the mob wants to kill him, he decides to make a big score to win big and pay off everyone so he can stay alive, keep his dignity, and come out ahead. —Wesley Benton Axel Freed is an English professor at New York College. He is also a gambling addict. Although he likes to win, it is only secondary to the excitement he feels in the possibility of losing. Within this mentality, he ends up $44,000.00 in the hole in one fell swoop. He does not have it, and those to whom he owes would not take kindly at all to delayed payment without some sort of retribution. He gets an up-close-and-personal view of the nasty things that can be done as a consequence as he tries to come up with the money through legitimate and not so legitimate sources. The former includes from his wealthy businessman grandfather, A.R. Lowenthal, who has had his fair share of dealings with the wrong side of the law himself, and from his physician mother, Naomi Freed; both could still be affected by his actions whether they can or can't, or will or won't, help him. Even if he can get the money, the feeling of his addiction may not allow him just to pay back the money as that, in his mind, is not winning, regardless of the consequence of being potentially deeper in with those he owes. The other person involved is his girlfriend Billie, who loves him but didn't sign up for this kind of excitement. —Huggo Axel Freed is a college professor who is constantly in debt and must rely on his former friends and associates to bail him out. As his habit becomes an incurable disease, Axel finds that the only people who will have anything to do with him are those to whom he owes money--particularly the polite but deadly loan-shark Carmine.