Peter Boyle

Some time after their adventures on Spooky Island: Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo attend the opening of an exhibition at the Coolsonian Criminology Museum, which commemorates their past mysteries with displays of each culprit's monster costume. However, an individual known as the Evil Masked Figure interrupts the event, stealing two costumes using a reanimated version of the Pterodactyl Ghost. Journalist Heather Jasper Howe ridicules the entire gang, starting a smear campaign against them, taking their spoken words out of context. Concluding that an old vengeful enemy is the mastermind, the gang begins revisiting old cases. Dismissing the former Pterodactyl Ghost, Doctor Jonathan Jacobo, due to his presumed death during a failed prison escape three years ago, they suspect Jeremiah Wickles, the Black Knight Ghost and Jacobo's recently-released cellmate. Scooby and Shaggy, after overhearing the others criticizing their tendency to bungle every operation and especially their most recent failure to secure the Pterodactyl Ghost at the museum, resolve to better themselves and act like real detectives. Going to Wickles' residence, the group falls through a trapdoor and into a cage targeting unwelcome callers, but escape due to Daphne's cosmetics. Inside, the gang find an ancient Celtic text that serves as an instruction manual on how to create monsters by combining magic and science. Scooby and Shaggy find a note inviting Wickles to visit the Faux Ghost nightclub and are attacked by the Black Knight Ghost, but escape after fending it off. Before fleeing, the rest of the gang had previously discovered through the book found in Wickles' mansion that the key ingredient to creating the monsters was a substance called "randomonium", the byproduct of certain silver mines such as Coolsville's old mining town. Daphne, Velma, and Fred go to the museum accompanied by curator Patrick Wisely, but discover that the rest of the costumes have been stolen. Heather Jasper Howe turns the city against them. Following the lead from Wickles' note, Scooby and Shaggy don disguises and sneak into the Faux Ghost, only to discover it's a hangout for all the villains Mystery Inc. had previously unmasked. After speaking to Wickles, they learn that he has abandoned his criminal ways. The duo are eventually discovered and they escape through a garbage chute. On their way out, they spot Patrick uncharacteristically threatening someone who appears to be a member of his staff, ordering him to find out who vandalized his museum. Escaping an awkward interaction with Patrick, Scooby and Shaggy spot Wickles leaving the club and follow him. Daphne, Velma, and Fred go to the mines, finding Wickles presenting plans to turn it into a summer camp for children to a group of investors. When they confront Wickles, he states that he and Jacobo hated each other for various petty reasons and that he has no connection to the museum robberies. The gang then finds a secret laboratory where the costumes are vitalized as real supernatural creatures. Shaggy and Scooby play around with the machine's control panel, inadvertently bringing several costumes to life, and the gang flees with the panel as the Evil Masked Figure terrorizes the city. Escaping to their old high school clubhouse, the gang realizes they can reverse the control panel's power by altering its wiring, consequently destroying the monsters. However, Captain Cutler emerges from the nearby lake, forcing the gang to retreat to the mines, encountering the various monsters along the way. When Velma tries to give Scooby and Shaggy the control panel, they refuse to take it, believing that they will once again ruin everything and admit their feelings of inadequacy compared to the rest of the gang. Velma convinces them they are fine as they are and that they have both been heroes in their own way all along. After escaping the Skeleton Men, Velma finds a shrine dedicated to Jacobo built by Patrick. Eventually, Patrick finds her and proves his innocence by helping her after a catwalk gives way underneath her, but he is captured by the Pterodactyl Ghost. The gang finally confronts the Evil Masked Figure as the Tar Monster captures everyone except Scooby, who uses a fire extinguisher to freeze its body. He reconnects the control panel and activates it, turning the monsters back into their original forms. The gang takes the Evil Masked Figure to the authorities and he is revealed to be Howe. When asked about Howe's reason for committing her crimes, Velma suddenly pulls her face off, revealing her to actually be Jonathan Jacobo, alive and well. Velma explains that she realized Jacobo was still alive after finding a newspaper clipping showing him in front of the museum, the construction of which had begun a year after his apparent death. Having miraculously survived his prison escape, Jacobo sought to get revenge on the gang by discrediting them using his Heather Jasper Howe persona and later ultimately defeat them with his newfound way to create the monsters. Jacobo is soon arrested once again alongside his cameraman accomplice, Ned, and the gang are praised as heroes once more and celebrate their victory at the Faux Ghost with Wickles and the reformed criminals.

Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton), a widower, and his son, Sonny (Heath Ledger), are corrections officers in a Georgia State Prison. They reside in Jackson with Hank's ailing father, Buck (Peter Boyle), a racist whose wife committed suicide. The audience is first introduced to Sonny through a series of telling incidents: he has an encounter with a local prostitute, Vera, which is startlingly empty; with her back to her client, Vera strips and bends over a desk, telling him to go easy because she's sore, to which he replies, "Yes ma'am." Their "lovemaking" is over in less than a minute, and a minute after that, Vera is out the door, having refused Sonny's almost pathetic offer to have something to eat or just talk. Hank, meanwhile, as a deputy warden oversees the execution of convicted murderers and begins the finalization of each execution date by vomiting in his bathroom. When he and Sonny are assigned the execution of Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs), the proceedings prove too intense for Sonny, who begins to vomit and then collapses as he is leading Lawrence to the electric chair. Ironically, Hank (having thrown up at home) attacks Sonny in the jail's bathroom afterwards for being so "soft" and ruining a man's last walk. The attack continues even after Hank and Sonny are home, with father confronting son in his bed and telling him to get out of the house. Sonny grabs a gun, and threatens his dad, who backs off. The confrontation ends in their living room with Hank at gunpoint, lying on the carpet, and Sonny in Buck's customary chair. Sonny asks his father if he hates him. After his father calmly confirms that he does and always has, Sonny responds, "Well, I always loved you," and then shoots himself in the heart. Hank subsequently buries Sonny in the back garden with no real funeral; Buck offers the only comment: "He was weak." Hank prevents the preacher from speaking, saying all he wants to hear is the sound of dirt hitting the casket. But he's not as unmoved as he looks. Hank subsequently quits his job, burns his uniform in the backyard, and bolts shut the door of Sonny's room. During the years of Lawrence's imprisonment, his wife, Leticia (Halle Berry), has been struggling to raise their son, Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun), who has inherited his father's artistic talent. She goads the boy to the point of abuse over his obesity, proving to be not much more sensitive a mother than Hank was a father. Along with her domestic problems, Leticia struggles financially, leading to the loss of the family car and, worse, the start of the eviction process whereby she'll lose her house. In desperate need of money, Leticia takes a job at a diner frequented by Hank. Their first encounter is a disaster: she spills his coffee and jams the cash register, annoying Hank, who has made a date with Vera-the same prostitute Sonny frequented. Told how much the bill is, Hank makes his displeasure known by leaving Leticia eight cents as a tip. But his rendezvous with Vera-move for move, an exact duplicate of Sonny's, in which there is no touching, no foreplay, no real lovemaking, but only a rear entry while Vera leans casually over the same desk she leaned over with Sonny-turns out to be a bust too. As Hank is preparing for this round of ice-cold sex, Vera asks, "How's Sonny?" After which Hank is unable to perform. But Hank and Leticia are destined to meet again. One rainy night, Leticia and Tyrell are walking down a soaked highway when Tyrell is struck by a car. Hank happens to be driving along and sees Leticia and Tyrell. After some hesitation, he picks up mother and son and takes them to a hospital, but Tyrell dies upon arrival. At the suggestion of the authorities at the hospital, Hank drives Leticia home. A few days later, Hank gives Leticia a ride, this time home from the diner. They begin talking in the car about their common losses, and she invites him in. Hank finds out that Leticia is Lawrence's widow, though he does not tell her that he participated in her husband's execution. He "celebrates" this discovery by vomiting in her bathroom, after they've drowned their grief with alcohol and, in a particularly raw and graphic display, have had sex as Leticia repeatedly groans, "Make me feel good!". Hank starts the session by turning her around, for the same sterile doggie-style sex he's had with Vera. But Leticia doesn't let that go on for long, turning around and wrapping her entire body around her lover. Afterward, Hank confesses that it's been a long time since he felt anything at all. After this encounter, Hank decides to eliminate at least one of Leticia's problems: he gives her Sonny's old car. She doesn't know how to drive a standard and says she just can't accept such an extravagant gift, but she's clearly thrilled to have it. In return, she pawns her wedding ring to buy Hank a gift: a new weatherproof Western hat. Leticia stops by Hank's home with her present but finds that he is out. Instead, she meets Buck, who promptly tells her that in his younger days, he had "a thing for nigger juice", and that Hank takes after his old man in wanting to "split dark open." Hurt and repulsed, Leticia leaves, refusing to interact with Hank, who arrives just in time to see her storming out of the house. That incident proves to be the last straw for Hank: he is changing and wants different choices, so he decides to send his father to a nursing home. Leticia is evicted from her home for non-payment of rent and Hank invites her to move in with him. She later discovers Hank's involvement in her husband's death when she enters Sonny's room, finally unlocked to accommodate Tyrell's things, and finds drawings of Hank and Sonny done by Lawrence before his death. She erupts, and seems to be at a crossroads, but is there waiting for Hank when he returns from town with ice cream. She is still stunned, but Hank tells her simply, "You look real pretty. Wanna come out on the steps?" The two of them end up eating ice cream together on the back porch, content with each other.

Margaret teaches a gorilla sign language etc. When the gorilla owner takes it back to make money from shows, Margaret's rebellious teenage son steals it. They're off on a road trip to the Canadian border. Rick Heller is a juvenile delinquent who keeps getting himself into trouble. To keep him out of trouble his mother puts him to work cleaning the cage of a gorilla named Katie which she is teaching to communicate through the use of sign language. When the owner of the gorilla takes her back to become a flea market freak Rick takes it upon himself to break Katie out and take her on an adventureous journey to get her out of the country. —Christopher D. Ryan <cryan@direct.ca>

In Tibet after the First World War, at the court of a powerful foreign warlord, an American named Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin) has succumbed to his darker instincts during the war. He then vanished into the Orient, where he exists as a brutal warlord and opium kingpin under the alias of Yin-Ko (Mandarin Chinese meaning "Dark Eagle"). One night he is abducted from his palace by servants of the Tulku (Barry Dennen), a holy man who exhibits otherworldly powers and knows Cranston's identity. Tulku lives in a huge temple deep and high within the mountains, but the temple itself is hidden to the outside world. Only the chosen ones are allowed to see the temple. Tulku informs Cranston that he will become a force for good. Tulku says that Cranston has the ability to see the evil in men's hearts as he has seen the evil himself. Cranston objects but is silenced by the Phurba (Frank Welker), a mystical living knife that assaults Cranston, wounding him. Cranston is unable to refuse and remains under the tutelage of the Tulku for seven years. The price of Cranston's redemption was to take up man's struggle against evil. He learns to "cloud men's minds", a form of hypnosis that allows him to influence others' thoughts through the force of concentration and bend their perceptions so that he becomes invisible, save for his shadow (the only thing he can never hide). Cranston returns to New York and resumes his previous life. No one is aware of his past in the East, and he is seen as a shallow and opulent playboy. He operates as The Shadow, a vigilante that terrorizes the underworld. Citizens who are saved by the Shadow are recruited to be his allies, providing him with informants and specialists. The existence of The Shadow is regarded by the public as nothing more than an urban legend. Moses "Moe" Shrevnitz (Peter Boyle) is a cab driver allied with the Shadow. Dr. Roy Tam (Sab Shimono) is a Chinese scientist rescued by the Shadow. Burbank (Andre Gregory) is an ally of the Shadow who runs his spy network which is connected to a central station through a network of communication pipes running through the city, used by the allies to deliver messages to The Shadow. Cranston's allies are given a special ring that helps them identify each other as members of The Shadow's organization. His identity is largely unknown, especially to his Uncle Wainwright (Jonathan Winters), who happens to be the Police Commissioner of New York, who he has to regularly hypnotize in order to keep the police from interfering with him. The Shadow's secret is endangered when Cranston meets Margot Lane (Penelope Ann Miller), an eccentric socialite who is also a natural Telepath. He is intrigued, but unable to continue seeing her as he cannot keep his thoughts from her. Cranston is challenged by Shiwan Khan (John Lone), another student of the Tulku who possesses even sharper powers but did not turn to good. Shiwan Khan arrives in New York inside Genghis Khan's sarcophagus and delivered to the New York museum. Isaac Newbold (Joseph Maher) is curator of the New York museum and Berger (Max Wright) is the assistant curator. Isaac is astonished to find a sarcophagus made of pure Silver delivered to the museum. He is shocked to read the inscription and realize that the sarcophagus belongs to Genghis Khan. The sarcophagus opens at night, revealing Khan, who kills Nelson (Ethan Phillips), the night guard at the museum. Through his network, Cranston learns about Khan's arrival in the city. Khan is the last descendant of Genghis Khan and plans to fulfill his ancestor's goal of world domination. He offers Cranston an alliance, sensing that blood-lust and a thirst for power still exists in his heart, but Cranston refuses. Cranston acquires a rare coin from Khan and learns that it is made of a metal called Bronzium that theoretically can generate an explosion large enough to destroy a city. This suspicion is confirmed when he learns that Margot's father Reinhardt (Ian McKellen), an atomic scientist working for the War Department, has vanished. Cranston deduces that Khan has compelled Reinhardt to create an atomic bomb. Shiwan Khan hypnotizes Margot Lane and sends her after Cranston, hoping to force him to kill her and reawaken his darker side, but the attempt is unsuccessful. Cranston breaks Khan's hold on her but she is now aware of his secret identity. Cranston goes to rescue Reinhardt but is thwarted by several of Khan's henchmen. The Shadow suffers another setback when he confronts Reinhardt's former assistant Farley Claymore (Tim Curry), who has joined Khan's forces. Claymore traps the Shadow in a submersion tank, but he saves himself by mentally summoning Margot. The Shadow learns of Khan's hideout: the luxurious Hotel Monolith, a building in the middle of the city that Shiwan Khan has rendered invisible as it appears to everyone as an empty lot. Knowing that Khan has Reinhardt hostage and the completed bomb in his possession, he infiltrates the hotel for a final showdown. The Shadow fights his way through the hotel, killing Claymore and Khan's warriors. He faces Khan and is subdued by the Phurba, sustaining multiple injuries until he forces himself to concentrate and overcome Khan's power. He takes control of the Phurba and sends it into Khan's torso, splitting his concentration which undoes both Reinhardt's hypnotic state and the hotel's invisibility. As the citizens outside see a building appear, the Shadow pursues Khan into the bowels of the building while Margot and Reinhardt disable the bomb. The Shadow defeats Khan by psychically hurling a mirror shard into his skull. Khan awakens in an asylum, confused as to how he got there and discovering that his powers no longer work. He learns that the doctors saved his life by removing the part of his brain that harbored his psychic abilities. He demands to be set free but is ignored along with the rants of the other inmates. Unknown to him, the doctor is an agent of the Shadow who has ensured that Khan is no longer a threat. Cranston and Margo begin a relationship and join forces to fight the criminal underworld.

In 1985, Jack Singer (Nicholas Cage) swears to his overbearing and possessive mother, Bea (Anne Bancroft), while she is on her deathbed, that he would never get married because Bea is the only woman who will ever love Jack. Over the next seven years, Jack, who works as a New York private detective that handles divorce cases, begins dating Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker), an elementary school teacher, but is reluctant to commit. By the present day in 1992, Betsy finally tires of Jack's reluctance and threatens to leave him. Fearful of losing her, Jack suggests a spontaneous trip to get married in Las Vegas, Nevada. They check into the Bally's Hotel during a convention of Elvis Presley impersonators. Before the wedding, however, a high-stakes gambler named Tommy Korman (James Caan) sees Betsy from a distance in the hotel lobby and notices a striking resemblance to his beloved late wife Donna. Tommy, an eternal and ruthless romantic, determines to romance Betsy and marry her. Jack is very nervous about getting married and decides to relax by gambling first. Tommy lures him into a high-stakes poker game. Up in Tommy's hotel suite, he arranges a crooked poker game (with Jerry Tarkanian as one of the other players) where Jack borrows $65,000 after being dealt a straight flush (7-8-9-10-Jack of clubs), only to lose to the gambler's higher straight flush (8-9-10-Jack-Queen of hearts); Tommy, however, promises to erase the debt with a proposal: Tommy offers to accept a platonic weekend with Betsy as payment for the debt, and Jack reluctantly agrees. Betsy is furious when Jack tells her about his predicament, but Tommy charms her and she agrees to the arrangement. Tommy Korman meets Betsy for drinks and reveals they will be spending the weekend at his beachfront estate in Kauai, Hawaii. As Betsy packs for the trip, Jack realizes the magnitude of his mistake, and asks her to marry him immediately. However, Betsy does not believe his proposal is sincere, or he would have married her upon their arrival in Vegas. She plans to honor the deal with Tommy, and informs Jack that they will return from Hawaii mid-week. Tommy flies with Betsy to his estate, where she meets his family and is impressed by his thoughtfulness. Upset, Jack returns home to New York to wait. One of Jack's clients, an emotionally erratic man named Sydney Tomashefsky (Robert Costanzo) tells Jack about his crazy suspicions about his wife cheating on him with boxer Mike Tyson. Meanwhile, Tommy continues to court Betsy at his island paradise house, trying to woo her to replace his late wife whom he confides in her about. Jack becomes more agitated when he sees a television news story about a volcano erupting in Hawaii, and spots Betsy and Tommy among the excited onlookers. Jack flies to Hawaii, but his efforts to see Betsy are thwarted by Tommy's men. When Tommy learns that Jack has left New York and is heading to Hawaii to try to get Betsy back, the gambler hires a local taxi driver friend, named Mahi Mahi (Pat Morita) to keep Jack as far away as possible from him and Betsy until he manages to persuade her to marry him. When Jack arrives on Kauai, Mahi Mahi intercepts him and takes Jack on an aimless drive around the island, leading them to an old Hawaiian chief's house who is Chief Orman (Peter Boyle), where Mahi Mahi tries to stall Jack. At the same time, Tommy begins feeding Betsy lies about Jack, first claiming that Jack lied to her about the gambling bet by claiming that Jack only lost $3,000 instead of $65,000 and that Jack has used Betsy as collateral, which makes Betsy feel more hurt and betrayed. He tries to calm her down by proposing marriage. Believing Tommy's lies, Betsy accepts his proposal. He insists they return to Las Vegas and get married immediately. At Chief Orman's house, Jack eventually figures out that Mahi Mahi must be on Tommy's payroll, so he distracts Mahi Mahi for a minute where Jack steals the taxi and drives off looking for Tommy and Betsy. After learning from Tommy's son and wife that Tommy hangs out at the Kauai Club, Jack drives over there that evening, and sees Betsy outside the club. But before Jack can approach her, he is attacked by Tommy and arrested. Jack calls his bookie dentist friend Dr. Molar (John Capodice) in New York who pays for Jack's $5,000 bail. Mahi Mahi meets him outside and admits that Tommy Korman left for Vegas with Betsy and has convinced her to marry him. Mahi races Jack to the airport. As Betsy and Tommy arrive back in Las Vegas, she tries to contact Jack to inform him about her choice, but cannot reach him anywhere. This slowly leads her to have second thoughts about marrying Tommy. Meanwhile, Jack cannot get a connecting flight to Las Vegas and ends up in San Jose, California where another one of Tommy's employees (a ticket agent) tries to stall Jack again from getting a flight to Las Vegas. Jack tries frantically to find a flight to Vegas. Finally, he finds a group about to depart for Vegas, but, much to his surprise, finds out mid-flight that they are the Utah chapter of the "Flying Elvises" - a skydiving team of Elvis impersonators led by the flamboyant Roy Bacon (Burton Gillam). Jack now realizes that he will have to skydive from 3,000 feet in order to get to Betsy. Back in Las Vegas, Tommy tries to rush Betsy to a wedding chapel, but she hesitates and asks to wait a few weeks. Tommy, sensing that he is losing control of the situation, offers her $1 million to marry him right away. She is disgusted by the offer and starts to leave. However, Tommy snaps and threatens that she agreed to the marriage... and no one breaks their word to him. Intimidated (and finally seeing the gangster that Tommy really is), Betsy asks to use the ladies room before leaving for the wedding chapel. As Tommy waits, Betsy follows several showgirls to their dressing area, dons a showgirl's costume, and sneaks out of the hotel. As Tommy and his men search for Betsy, she hides among the crowds lining the street to see the arrival of The Flying Elvises. Although Jack is afraid of dying, his love for Betsy overcomes his fear, and he jumps out of the plane with the other skydivers. Betsy hears Jack's name announced as he lands, and she runs into his arms. He declares his love, and asks her to marry him. From a short distance away, Tommy sees the couple together and realizes he has lost Betsy. Tommy tells his henchmen to let Jack and Betsy go and then heads back inside the hotel to his suite to set up another poker game with some of the guests. (Note: even though Tommy is the villain of this film, one can't help it but feel a tiny bit sorry for him.) The final scene shows Jack and Betsy getting married in a small Las Vegas chapel with the Flying Elvises as guests, Jack still in his white illuminated jumpsuit and Betsy in her stolen showgirl outfit.

David's brother, Kurt, defeats Po in Kickboxer (1989). A year after Po kills Kurt, David, who has a kickboxing gym in LA, is manipulated into a match against Po. This movie is supposed to be a sequel to the movie which starred Jean-Claude Van Damme. Only now the movie revolves around the brother of the character that Van Damme played. David Sloan is the brother Van Damme's Kurt Sloan. He runs a Karate gym. Now Mr. Sangha, the Thai government official who handles Tong Po, the brutal kickboxer whom Van Damme in the previous movie, wishes that Tong Po would have another shot at Kurt Sloan, so he could vindicate himself but Tong Po in a fit of rage shot and killed him thus depriving him of an opportunity to face him again. But when they hear of David, they decide that he will be the one whom Tong Po will face to regain his honor. But when David is injured, Xian David's teacher is brought over to help him with his recovery. And when he recovers, they set David up to fight Tong Po; who will survive? —<rcs0411@yahoo.com> A sequel to the acclaimed Jean Claude Van Damme original, Kickboxer 2 The Road Back follows David Sloan, Kurt and Eric's younger brother as he struggles to keep Sloans Kickboxing Gym open in the wake of his older brothers deaths. David gets pulled back into a world he vowed to stay away from only to find out a much bigger scheme is at play involving brutal Muay Thai kickboxing champion Tong Po. —Paul_Rizzo

Four mental patients on a field trip in New York City must save their caring chaperon, who ends up being taken to a hospital in a coma after accidentally witnessing a murder, before the killers can find him and finish the job. Dr. Weitzman works with patients in a sanitarium. Convinced that all that his "group" needs is a some fresh air and some time away from the sanitarium, he persuades the administration to allow him to take them to a ballgame. Unfortunately, he accidentally stumbles across a crime in progress and ends up in hospital. The group is stranded in New York City, forced to cope with a place which is often more bizarre than their sanitarium.

On a Spanish galleon in the year 1687, aristocrat El Nebuloso (Tommy Chong) and his second-in-command, El Segundo (Cheech Marin), abscond with a treasure chest intended for their king. A band of English pirates, led by the dreaded blonde-haired Yellowbeard (Graham Chapman), descend on the ship and seize the treasure. Although his boatswain, Moon (Peter Boyle), planned the attack, Yellowbeard refuses to share the treasure, and as he slams the chest shut, Moon's left hand is severed. Yellowbeard continues his reign of terror, killing more than 500 men, until a betrayal by Moon leads to his 20-year prison sentence for tax evasion in England. Despite years of rehabilitation and torture, Yellowbeard refuses to divulge the location of the treasure. In a jump-forward to 1707, during the final week of his incarceration, Yellowbeard is informed by his wife, Betty (Madeline Kahn), that they have a teenage son named Dan (Martin Hewitt). The pirate is horrified to learn that the boy was raised by Lord Percy Lambourn (Peter Cook) to be an intellectual and a gardener. Dan, however, is fascinated by the idea that his father is the most ruthless pirate of all time. Meanwhile, Commander Clement (Eric Idle) of the Royal Secret Service coerces Queen Anne (Peter Bull) to extend Yellowbeard's sentence an additional 140 years, hoping the pirate will escape and lead authorities to his treasure. As predicted, Yellowbeard breaks out of prison and makes his way to Betty's tavern in search of the treasure map. Betty reveals that she tattooed it onto Dan's head before destroying the original, and directs Yellowbeard to Lambourn Hall, where the boy lives with his mentor. On the advice of informant Harvey "Blind" Pew (John Cleese), Commander Clement follows Yellowbeard into the tavern, but the pirate evades him. Moon's henchman, Gilbert (Marty Feldman), questions Blind Pew about the location of the map, but the informant refuses to assist pirates. Yellowbeard confronts his son at Lambourn Hall, declaring that he needs to remove the boy's head. Dan asks to remain intact and join his father on the treasure hunt. They consult Dr. Ebenezer Gilpin (Michael Hordern), who advises Yellowbeard to pose as a scientist on a voyage of discovery. Gilpin, Dan, and Lord Lambourn sign on as traveling companions. Blind Pew listens outside the office and informs Commander Clement of the group's departure. Moon and Gilbert eliminate Blind Pew by locking him inside a shed full of explosives and detonating them. The next morning, while Yellowbeard wreaks havoc in a brothel, Moon and Gilbert infiltrate a group of sailors and take Dan, Lord Lambourn, and Dr. Gilpin aboard the battleship, Lady Edith. As the ship sets sail, Yellowbeard stows away in the hold, while Captain Hughes lectures the men of their duty in England's war against France. Certain that Yellowbeard is aboard, Moon organizes a mutiny and elects Dan the new captain. Dan places the ship on a course to Madagascar, but during the night, Yellowbeard takes the helm and guides it toward the West Indies. Guided by Yellowbeard's wife, Betty, Commander Clement pursues the Lady Edith. He flies the French flag on his ship to avoid suspicion, and inadvertently attracts cannon fire from the battleship, forcing him to retreat. When the crew of the Lady Edith sights an island, Yellowbeard jumps overboard and swims ashore. Meanwhile, in El Nebuloso's hilltop fortress, an underling named Verdugo demonstrates his latest torture device, designed to break every bone in the human body. To further intimidate victims, it is suspended on a walkway over a pool of acid, to which nothing is impervious except gold and jewels. As the crew arrive on shore, Dr. Gilpin consults the map on Dan's scalp and leads a small party to the other side of the island. El Segundo assumes the landing party is searching for Yellowbeard's treasure and rallies his troops against the invaders, taking Dan prisoner. The boy is placed in the torture device, but refuses to talk. El Nebuloso's daughter, Triola (Stacey Nelkin), begs Dan to lead her father to the treasure, "for the grace and glory of God." When Dan suggests that torture is inconsistent with Christian ideals, Triola explains her father's desire to expedite his victims' entry into heaven. After Dan and Triola declare their love for each other, he promises to find the treasure and return for her, although El Nebuloso may be killed in the process. The avaricious Triola voices her approval. Elsewhere in the castle, El Nebuloso instructs El Segundo to feign resistance as the invaders approach the castle, enabling him to trap their leaders in the torture chamber. Yellowbeard joins Dr. Gilpin and Lord Lambourn as they lead their men into the fortress. Although guards pretend to fall dead at their feet, Yellowbeard proceeds to dispatch all in his path, including El Segundo, who dies a highly dramatic death, and receives a round of applause from his men. Upon entering the torture chamber, Dan's comrades find El Nebuloso threatening the boy with a sword. Yellowbeard swings from a rope and pushes the despot into the acid. Triola enters as Dan is set free, and she is happy to learn that her father is in heaven with all of the people he sent there. Moon leads his band of mutineers into the chamber and a sword fight ensues where Gilbert also falls into the pit of acid. Yellowbeard offers Dan the opportunity to fight Moon, but Triola intervenes and pushes the boatswain into the acid. Returning to the beach, Yellowbeard uses his sword to shave the top of Dan's head, revealing the map. When they unearth the treasure, Dan embraces his father, accidentally stabbing him with a dagger. Yellowbeard is proud of his son for adhering to the family tradition of patricide. Clement confiscates the treasure in the name of Queen Anne, prompting Triola to reject Dan and declare her love for the commander. Later, while Commander Clement considers keeping the treasure for himself, Dan and Yellowbeard burst into his cabin and take control of the ship. Triola has renewed affection for Dan, and Yellowbeard declares, "There's pirating to be done."

A naive monk, named Brother Ambrose (Marty Feldman), is sent by the abbot on a mission to raise $5,000 in order to save their monastery from closing. He goes to Hollywood where he encounters a number of eccentric characters. He is at first robbed and later befriended by con artist Dr. Sebastian Melmoth (Peter Boyle), and meets a prostitute named Mary (Louise Lasser) who lets him stay at her apartment. Mary grows to care for Ambrose and seduces him while he is taking a cold shower to try to alleviate his lustful thoughts about her. While he is in Hollywood, he visits several churches including a service at the Church of Divine Profit, performed by the televangelist Armageddon T. Thunderbird (Andy Kaufman) in which he sees the focus of the sermon being a request for money in exchange for salvation. Ambrose is angered by this message and tries to meet a number of times with Thunderbird, being ejected each time. Dr. Melmoth and Ambrose travel the city in a modified schoolbus, in which they hold church services for donations. During one service, the brakes of the bus release and the bus rolls downhill into a river. The passengers escape safely in the river and are shown on the local news being baptized by the pair, which catches Thunderbird's attention. He prays to G. O. D. for guidance and it tells him to work with Ambrose to make more money because Ambrose is an innocent and has a clean image. Thunderbird has his minions kidnap Ambrose and bring him to his office where he outlines a plan for his own brand of church on wheels. He says he will pay Ambrose the $5,000 the monastery needs if he assists him. While they are talking, Thunderbird mentions that G. O. D. (Richard Pryor) audibly talks to him when he prays to him and Ambrose is surprised because he himself has never heard from God in this way. Ambrose agrees to work with Thunderbird and they go across the country from town to town holding services in their own bus. One day at Thunderbird's headquarters, Ambrose overhears Thunderbird praying to G. O. D. in his private chamber and when he hears G. O. D. speak back to him, he is intrigued. When Thunderbird leaves, he sneaks into the chamber and discovers that G. O. D. (General Organizational Directivatator) is a sophisticated master computer, linked to all of Thunderbird's finances and operations. He talks with G. O. D. and reads the Bible to it, giving it morality and a conscience. G. O. D. decides to give all of Thunderbird's money away and tells Ambrose what to do to accomplish this, which results in bags of money being poured out of the office's window. Thunderbird discovers someone has been interfering with the computer and rushes back to headquarters where he tries to capture Ambrose and destroys the computer. Ambrose grabs the paid monastery mortgage certificate from Thunderbird's office and escapes in a chase through the city. While Mary and Dr. Melmoth look for Ambrose during his escape, she learns that Melmoth is the father that left her family when she was a child, due to a distinctive tattoo she sees on his leg. They eventually find Ambrose and rescue him from the people chasing him. Ambrose goes back to the monastery and gives the abbot the mortgage certificate, then leaves and marries Mary, who is pregnant from their single night together. The end titles show Melmoth's bus traveling down the road, saying they "all lived happily hereafter".

The film opens in the mountain cabin of one Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Bill Murray), gonzo journalist extraordinaire. He is holed up with his dog Bronco and a plethora of alcohol and drugs, struggling with a looming deadline to produce a magazine article about his eccentric former attorney, Carl Lazlo, Esq. (Peter Boyle). When his fax machine begins beeping with a call from his publisher, he angrily shoots it with one of his many guns (in this case, a .45 revolver); he then "get[s] a grip" and sits down to his typewriter. His voice-over narration reflects what he writes, as it does throughout the film. Fade to 1968, early in Thompson's career. He is holed up on an upper-story hospital room with a loud stereo, a pack of drugs and alcohol, and a nubile student nurse (Sunny Johnson). A nurse explains to a doctor that he arrived there claiming to have been chased by Richard Nixon and attacked by a swarm of bats. At this point, Lazlo, a wild-haired, mustachioed liberal attorney, arrives. Finding Thompson's room barricaded from the inside, he calmly walks through the neighboring (and occupied) room and, after helping himself to some of the patients' pills, climbs out onto the balcony and bursts into Thompson's room from the window. This sends Thompson's drugged-out companion into a nearly-catatonic state (she believes Lazlo to be a giant bat), but Lazlo remains calm as he offers his legal advice to Thompson and eats some food. (Lazlo eating some of Thompson's food is a running theme of the film and suggests that he [Lazlo] is not above sponging off those around him.) As the hospital staff begins to break down the door, Thompson and Lazlo unhurriedly escape and miraculously get down to Lazlo's car and escape just as the doctors and nurses break in. On the road, Thompson simultaneously drives and types Lazlo's running commentary about the sorry state of America's legal system, vis-a-vis their treatment of teenagers on drug charges. They arrive at the courthouse where Lazlo is about to go before a judge to defend a large group of kids who, in various combinations, have all been arrested for possession of marijuana. He insists on taking all the cases to bench trial, which serves only to irritate the judge and district attorney; all the defendants receive very harsh penalties. After one such outrage, when a teenager is given five years for possession of a joint, Lazlo reacts violently and ends up throwing the district attorney over the judge's bench. As the court is hurriedly cleared and Thompson struggles to snap pictures, Lazlo screams at him to "tell the world" what happened. Back at BLAST Magazine headquarters, Thompson's beleagured publisher Marty (Bruno Kirby) paces back and forth waiting for Thompson to deliver his story. Presently Thompson arrives, but teases Marty for a while before finally giving up the story in exchange for the cheque. Thompson's voice-over comes back in as we see Lazlo languishing in a jail cell with one of his defendants. Los Angeles, 1972; in voice-over, Thompson explains that Lazlo quit the legal system and dropped out of sight, and as the 60s ended many counterculturalists, in Thompson's words, "got off the boat," but not everyone did, including Lazlo, Nixon, and himself. Now a successful and popular writer, Thompson is in town covering Super Bowl VI (this is an error, as the 1972 Super Bowl was actually held in New Orleans). He arrives at his hotel in a hallucinogenic state, mildly assaulting his driver before remembering where he is and what he is doing. At the front desk, he terrorizes the clerk by ordering large amounts of electronic equipment and food (including 16 grapefruit), and proceeds to turn his room into a slightly grotesque piece of modern art, complete with toilet paper and variously-placed fruit. When the hotel staff comes to quiet him down (as requested by a professional gambler [Leonard Gaines] who "needs a super rest" for the game), they are sucked into his world and willingly take the marijuana and alcohol he provides. The next morning, Thompson is sitting in the hotel restaurant, eating a huge breakfast and listening to his tape recorder. His recording from when he awoke says that he did so to find that the hotel employees had broken in, drank all his liquor, did all his drugs, and stole his dinner. At the entrance, the aforementioned gambler is speaking on the phone with an associate, bemoaning his sleepless night; just then Lazlo appears wearing a Nixon mask, which prompts the gambler to give up on the game and go home to escape the "nuthouse." Lazlo sits down at Thompson's table, gives him the mask as a present, and then persuades him to give up on the Super Bowl story and go with him to some unknown destination. Outside, Thompson gives his tickets, press pass, and room key to two random guys, and they set off. On the road, Lazlo talks about where he has been the past four years; namely, becoming enlightened. He now is actively trying to promote world revolution, and he does this with a small band of weirdos by smuggling weapons to revolutionaries in impoverished countries. At the ranch, Thompson quickly sees the futility of what Lazlo is doing but comes with him anyway to a rendezvous at a isolated airfield, where Lazlo's group will load up a plane with guns and fly it away. At the airstrip, however, a police helicopter arrives and begins to descend; Lazlo and his group escape in the loaded plane, but Thompson refuses to follow, and the police follow the copter. Later in 1972, Thompson is covering the presidential campaign, but takes some time to appear at a university for a Q&A with the students. The hall is packed and he is very late, and needs to be coaxed quite a bit by the event coordinator to even go on at all, but eventually goes out and wows the crowd with his eccentric views and answers. One student asks about Lazlo and puts forth the idea that he never really existed; Thompson responds that he was real, but he was now believed dead. Back on the campaign trail, he gets on the press plane that follows Richard Nixon (referred to only as "the candidate") around. He stands out starkly from the rest of the buttoned-down reporters, dressed in Bermuda shorts, a loud Hawaiian shirt, and a maroon sports jacket. Onboard, he frightens the young reporter next to him (Michael Cornelison) by producing an enormous hunting knife to slice his grapefruit ("They never search me"), then by speaking into his tape recorder about being divebombed by poisonous ravens on his way to catch the plane. Just then, the candidate's aide Dooley (Mark Metcalf) comes in and throws Thompson off the plane, demanding that he fly on the "zoo" plane with the technicians. The zoo plane is considerably different than the straight-laced reporter plane; the people are all hippies and drugs and alcohol flow freely (even amongst the crew). Also onboard this flight, though, is another reporter, Harris from the Post (Rene Auberjonois), due to overcrowding on the other plane. He sits down next to Thompson and tries to settle down to work, but the loud noise and constant physical distress drive him to distraction. That is, until Thompson produces some "headache pills," his blue ones; Harris takes two, and within an hour he is in the grip of Thompson's powerful hallucinogens. By the time the plane lands, Thompson has switched their clothes and infiltrates the reporter entourage by posing as Harris. As he washes up in the bathroom, Thompson gets a surprise visitor: Nixon himself (Richard M. Dixon, but voiced by Brian Cummings) comes in to relieve himself. Thompson launches into a tirade that the country is divided into the "Screwheads" and the "Doomed," who live in fear of the Screwheads. He asks Nixon what the country is doing for the Doomed, to which Nixon replies, "Fuck the doomed!" Back aboard the reporter plane, on which Thompson has reappeared disguised as Harris, he suddenly spots none other than Lazlo walking across the tarmac, wearing a three-piece white suit. Realizing that the appearance of Lazlo will destroy his chance of continuing on the campaign trail, he hurriedly invites the same young reporter that he terrorized before (who does not recognize him in his disguise) to sit in his row and tell Lazlo that the seat between them is taken. He does so when Lazlo boards, but Lazlo ignores him and sits down next to Thompson. He begins telling him, in an increasingly excited and loud voice, about his new plan: to buy land in the middle of the desert and build a socialist paradise. At this point Dooley arrives and, fed up with Thompson, promptly throws him off the plane for good; when he insults Lazlo, Thompson punches him in the face and the two escape while Thompson holds the reporters and Secret Service at bay with a fire extinguisher (he gets a good shot in on Nixon when the candidate pokes his head out of his door for a moment). On the runway, Thompson watches as the plane takes off and tells Lazlo that he won't help him with his project, because Lazlo is "insane, a raving maniac." Back in the present at his ranch, Thompson finishes the story and sits down next to his dog to read him the end. Reading, he speaks of how Lazlo and Nixon were both gone (the latter being eaten by white cannibals on an island near Tijuana), and that he, Thompson, got out because, through it all, it never got weird enough for him.

A devoutly Calvinist businessman from Michigan ventures into California's adult entertainment industry, where he desperately searches for his runaway teenage daughter. Jake VanDorn is a businessman from the American heartland who shares strong Calvinist convictions with most of his countrymen. When his teenage daughter goes missing from her church youth convention, VanDorn hires a private investigator to find her, and the investigator spots the girl in a cheap X-rated movie. VanDorn decides to bring her back personally and during the quest he becomes familiar with the pornographic underworld. —Dragan Antulov <dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr> A few days after seeing his only daughter, quiet teenage Kristen, off on her youth group's trip to California, Grand Rapids businessman and strict Calvinist Jake VanDorn receives the worst phone call a father could ever get: Mysteriously, his beloved Kristen has disappeared. As the police seem unable to help, desperate Jake hires private detective Andy Mast to trace his daughter. Instead, the investigator returns with an 8mm hardcore porn movie in which the missing minor is performing. Jake has no choice but to delve deeply into South California's obscure underworld of prostitution to bring her back. But who knows where she is? —Nick Riganas

The film continues the story from the original movie's conclusion. The Poseidon is still afloat, and the six survivors of Reverend Scott's team have been rescued. After sailing through rough seas, a tugboat captain, Mike Turner (Michael Caine), discovers the capsized wreck of the ship. Accompanied by second mate Wilbur (Karl Malden) and passenger Celeste Whitman (Sally Field), he heads out to claim salvage rights on it, as the tugboat 'S.S. Jenny' lost her cargo in the same storm that capsized it. They are soon followed by Dr. Stefan Svevo (Telly Savalas) and his crew; Kurt (Paul Picerni), Doyle (Patrick Culliton), and Castrop (Dean Raphael Ferrandini) who claim to be Greek Orthodox medics who received the ship's SOS. The seven of them board the doomed vessel and soon become trapped after the corridor entrance to the cut-out hole collapses. The group with Turner also encounters more survivors; the ship's nurse, Gina Rowe (Shirley Jones), a wealthy passenger named Suzanne Constantine (Veronica Hamel), and war veteran Frank Mezzetti (Peter Boyle) who is searching for his missing teenage daughter Theresa (Angela Cartwright), which they soon find along with the elevator operator Larry Simpson (Mark Harmon) and as well as a brash "billionaire" named "Tex" (Slim Pickens). Later they find two more surviving passengers; the blind retiree Harold Meredith (Jack Warden) and his wife Hannah (Shirley Knight), who were waiting for rescue. Water continues to submerge more decks and more explosions occur. Turner and his group find the purser's office, where Svevo decides that he and his men will continue their search for other survivors. Turner agrees and Svevo and his men leave in another direction. Another explosion causes the safe in the purser's office to fall through the floor and open, revealing gold coins (each one worth 100 times its weight in gold) as well as cash and diamonds. Turner and Wilbur excitedly gather it and start looking for another way out of the ship. Unknown to Turner and the survivors, Suzanne was actually working with Svevo and sneaked a list containing information about a cargo of crates from the purser's office. She gives it to Svevo, but decides that she doesn't want to go through with his plan anymore. Svevo apologizes and orders Doyle to kill Suzanne. He shoots her, but she strikes him with an axe before she dies. After climbing up a few decks, Turner and his group find Svevo and his men gathering a cargo of plutonium. Svevo reveals that his real intention of boarding the Poseidon was to retrieve his lost shipment of plutonium to sell on the black market, adding that he can't let Turner and his group go now. However, before they can kill Turner and his group, another explosion occurs, allowing them to escape through another cargo room full of cars, where Frank and another one of Svevo's men is killed during the shootout. Water floods the deck as Turner's group proceed to up to the next deck through a flooding elevator shaft, but Hannah falls into the rising water and drowns, while Turner loses his salvaged diamonds. Svevo and his one remaining henchman head back up to the ship's stern and make it out, where the rest of Svevo's team aboard his salvage boat cut another hole in the Poseidon's hull and attempt raise the plutonium crates from the cargo hold using a crane up to the hull of the ship, which is still above water but is slowly sinking. In another section of the ship, Turner and the survivors exit the ship through an underwater side door, but due to shortage of scuba tanks, Wilbur (unknown to Turner and his group) sacrifices himself by swimming underwater and disappearing. Turner and Celeste swim to the tugboat Jenny and move it closer to the Poseidon as the remaining survivors swim towards it. Svevo's men see them and open fire and kill Tex, who willingly holds onto a bottle of champagne as he goes down. Turner's group makes it to his boat and they sail away. Water continues to flood the Poseidon and cause the on-board boilers to explode, which causes the cargo of plutonium to also do so. The Poseidon completely explodes, killing Svevo and his men. On board Turner's boat, Turner accepts that his tugboat S.S. Jenny will be taken from him when they get to port, but Celeste reveals a diamond that she salvaged from the Poseidon. Celeste asks Turner, "Are you going to kiss me now?" and Turner replies, "I was going to kiss you anyway." They kiss and the tugboat Jenny sails away into the sunset with the survivors Gina, Theresa, Larry, and Harold.

Emotionally scarred from Vietnam, taxi driver Travis is increasingly disturbed by the underbelly of nighttime Manhattan and soon finds his thoughts turning towards violence.

After his last crime has him looking at a long prison sentence for repeat offenses, a low level Boston gangster decides to snitch on his friends to avoid jail time. Eddie's friends are numerous, but the term "friends" is suspect. As a small time hood, Eddie is about to go back to jail. In order to escape this fate, he deals information on stolen guns to the feds. Simultaneously he is supplying arms to his bank robbing/kidnapping hoodlum chums. But who else is dealing with the feds? Who gets the blame for snitching on the bank robbers?

An enthusiastic young woman runs away to Chicago to start a new life. She is soon confronted with the emotional coldness of the big city, and has to search for her place in the scheme of things.