Rick Overton

Robin`s Wish` is an in-depth portrait of comedian and actor Robin Williams` personal struggles and inner life, which was darker than anyone knew.

What was Mark Whitacre thinking? A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Whitacre suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company`s multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion. But before all that can happen, the FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre eagerly agrees to wear a wire and carry a hidden tape recorder in his briefcase, imagining himself as a kind of de facto secret agent. Unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn`t been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre`s ever-changing account frustrates the agents and threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre`s active imagination.

In the quiet mining town of Prosperity, Arizona, an accident involving a rabbit causes a barrel of toxic waste to land in a reservoir. An exotic spider farmer named Joshua (Tom Noonan) has been making regular visits to the site, where he collects crickets for his spiders. Although the spiders have ingested the toxins, he is oblivious since the arachnids seem unaffected. Joshua shows Mike (Scott Terra), a local boy, his collection, which include Jumping spiders, Trapdoor spiders, Tarantulas, and orb-weavers, including a female orb-weaver named Consuela. After Mike leaves, Joshua is bitten by an escaped tarantula and accidentally knocks down the spider cages. He is killed by the spiders and, after devouring him, the spiders grow to even huger proportions. On his way home, Mike is accosted by his mother, Sheriff Samantha 'Sam' Parker (Kari Wührer) and Deputy Pete pulling the toxic barrel out of the pond. Wade, the Mayor of Prosperity, is holding a town meeting in the mall about whether they should sell the mines and relocate. Chris McCormick (David Arquette), whose father owned the mines before he died ten years ago, shows up and stands against Wade's proposition. Chris also sparks a romance with Sam. Meanwhile, Harlan Griffiths (Doug E. Doug), the local radio DJ and an eccentric extraterrestrial enthusiast, is broadcasting his theory that various missing pets around town have been abducted by extraterrestrials. Inevitably his theory is dismissed as the product of a deranged imagination. Mike sneaks out on foot to find Joshua but finds the spiders missing, the farm covered in webbing, and the dead body of Joshua. Although he sees an enormous spider shadow in the mines and tells Chris that the spiders have grown to enormous sizes, based on a giant spider leg he found at the mine entrance, Chris disbelieves his story. Meanwhile, the mines have reopened with the miners searching for a famous gold lode. One miner is eaten by a gigantic spider, whose clan have made the mines their home. Seeing as the entire town is connected in some way to the mines, spiders show up in many different places. Deputy Pete Williams (Rick Overton) cat has a fight with one of the spiders in the air vents before being eaten, and some of the ostriches on Wade's farm are devoured by Trap Door Spiders, Ashley breaks up with her boyfriend Bret, and he and his motorcyclist friends are chased by jumping spiders, with him being the only survivor, accidentally cutting off the telephone line and being stuck in the mine. Chris finds out that his Aunt Gladys and her dog are abducted by a male orb weaver in their basement. Sam is convinced Chris and Mike are delusional. However, her skepticism fades and she realizes that Chris and Mike were right all along when she witnesses a giant male orb-weaver attempting to abduct Ashley (Scarlett Johansson), Sam's rebellious teenage daughter and Chris; Sam saves them both. Meanwhile Bret, still wandering the mines, gets a good peek at the giant Consuela during her feeding. Sam contacts Pete and tells him to bring all guns in the police station's possession and they escape to Harlan's trailer, knowing he has a radio station that he operates from within his trailer. As Sam broadcasts the threat over the radio, a giant tarantula, the "tank" of the horde, assaults the trailer but they manage to escape. As the town is besieged by vicious spider hordes, many people are killed and eaten, Chris tries to convince Harlan that the spiders are "from Earth" but ends up convincing him that they are "Spiders from Mars" to make him happy, Sam tells everybody to evacuate to the mall. Chris, Sam, Mike, Ashley, Harlan, Wade and many other townspeople all escape and barricade themselves in the mall (but the cowardly Wade flees into the mines and locks the gate before the attack) and defend themselves from the spiders. Meanwhile, Harlan and Chris climb onto the roof and ascend the radio mast and try to get a signal to call the US army as they are being attacked by the spiders, but are believed to be pranksters. Harlan jumps from the roof, after the tarantula breaks open the gates and lets the spiders enter the mall, and lands in some bushes, where he meets up with Pete. The two run from spiders as Chris meets up with the remaining townsfolk and goes down to the basement. Meanwhile, Bret, still wandering the mines, encounters the cowardly Wade before his abduction. While the townsfolk are in the basement, Bret arrives on a forklift that brings down the locked gate, and they all head to through the mines straight to the front entrance, discovering the methane-filled tunnels. After losing Norman and freeing Wade, Chris goes to look for his Aunt Gladys in the mines and finds her - and the gold his father was searching for, but is confronted by the gigantic Consuela. He uses perfume to distract the spider and then escapes using Bret's motorcycle. Chris then blows up the spiders and the mines utilizing Gladys's smoking addiction and the high concentrations of methane gas. The police finally arrive. They had not believed the reports of the spiders but believed Harlarn's theory that the assailants were extraterrestrial in nature, until Pete tells them that the assailants were "just spiders, that had ingested extremely high levels of toxic waste." He attempts to prove this by removing his hat, showing us that he is bald. He runs his hand back and forth over his head saying; "All new growth, just look at this, all new growth!" In the final scene, Harlan is heard making a radio report about the spiders. He concludes that the town has decided to cover up the whole incident, but have let Harlan continue broadcasting the incident, knowing nobody will believe him. He also mentions Chris reopening the gold mines and putting everyone back to work, but tells us "that is another story altogether." As the camera zooms in close on his mouth, it is clear that he now has three gold teeth.

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

In a town in rural Pennsylvania, the automobile factory has been shut down for nine months, leaving the town economically distressed. A Japanese company, Assan Motors, has purchased the factory, but will need to be convinced that it is worth reopening. Hunt Stevenson goes to Japan to make a presentation to Assan's management, and the result is that Assan sends a management team to America and the factory is reopened, although the workers will earn a substantially lower wage than they had before the factory had originally closed. However, Hunt is a hero for having convinced management to reopen. The culture clash is severe, as Japanese management demands far more regimentation and output than the workers are used to, and unpaid overtime is expected when output falls short of productivity standards. Management has little regard for the workers and the quality of their lives, focusing on productivity alone. The workers become agitated and their relationship with management becomes adversarial. Acting as employee liaison, Hunt tries to smooth things over, but is unable, and when a worker intentionally knocks over one of the Japanese managers during a company baseball game, the situation appears beyond repair. Japanese management sees little point in keeping the factory open until Hunt contends that he can match the production of a Japanese factory in its best month, meaning 15,000 completed automobiles. Amused by this contention, Japanese management agrees that once this output is reached, the factory would remain open and wages would return to the levels operating before the original closing of the factory. Otherwise, the factory would close once again and the workers would receive nothing. Hunt advises the workers of this deal, but his announcement is met with incredulity, and to appease them, he falsely relates that a lesser raise would still be earned once this output exceeded 13,000 automobiles. The workers give this a shot, but despite working long hours and on weekends, they conclude that the goal of 15,000 is unattainable, and decide to go for the raise that would come once 13,000 automobiles were completed. After attaining this goal, the workers walk out on management when a dispute arises. Now, Hunt must come clean, and tell his town that he made a deal for 15,000 automobiles, and that failure would result in no raises, which would devastate the town's local economy. Hunt has now gone from hero to goat, and his co-workers are furious. However, they finally put their noses to the grindstone and put their differences with the Japanese managers aside as the senior executive from Japan is coming to check on the state of the factory. When the strict executive comes by, they have fallen slightly short of their 15,000 goal, but the Japanese executive is nonetheless impressed by the team spirit he sees in the factory. Liking the way that the Americans and Japanese are now working together, he decides to keep the factory open, and give the full raises, and the stage is set for an era of understanding among all those working at the factory. The management agrees to be partially less demanding on their requirements and pay the employees better while the workers agree to be more cooperative.