Robert Downey Jr.

When the young queen falls gravely ill, a reluctant Dolittle is forced to set sail on an epic adventure to a mythical island in search of a cure.

Big city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the towns judge, is suspected of murder.

A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.

Sherlock Holmes matches wits with his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty, a criminal genius conspiring to make a fortune by manufacturing the next generation of wartime weaponry.

After the rib-tickling comedy `Hangover`, director Todd Phillips presents ``Due Date`` starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis as two unlikely companions who are thrown together on a road trip that turns out to be as life-changing as it is outrageous! Downey plays Peter Highman, an expectant first-time father whose wife`s due date is a mere five days away. As Peter hurries to catch a flight home from Atlanta to be at her side for the birth, his best intentions go completely awry when a chance encounter with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis) forces Peter to hitch a ride with Ethan-on what turns out to be a cross-country road trip that will ultimately destroy several cars, numerous friendships and Peter`s last nerve.

When a string of brutal murders terrorizes London, legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and his crime-solving partner, Dr. Watson, work on finding the killer.

The film opens up in the early morning. A man is cycling by as a paper boy is driving around delivering newspapers. A newspaper hits a door and the main articles title is Life Has A Mind by Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.). Steve Lopez is cycling around town and goes in the opposite direction of a bunch of cyclists. Lopez gives an internal monologue chronicling a biking accident which occurred near a construction site. His bike hits a bump and he hits his head badly on the pavement. In the next scene hes in an ambulance being driven to a busy hospital. While in the emergency room, Lopez writes down his thoughts as if writing an article. He is given an MRI and after being cleared, takes a taxi home. He checks his messages (there are none), continues to narrate into a tape recorder. The next morning, he goes into work at the L.A. Times. He continues to talk to himself as he walks through the halls about how much he hates hospitals and health care under the governor. The Editor of the L.A. Times, Mary (Catherine Keener), walks down the cubicles past Steve as he is greeted by the people in the neighboring cubicles. Steve and Mary banter about an article Steve was supposed to write before his accident but he tells her that he wont write it as she goes off to her office. Steve is then sitting outside on the boardwalk drinking a soda. He hears a violin playing and starts to walk around the plaza until he finds the sources. He finds Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), playing a two string violin under a statue. Steve immediately realizes that Ayers is a schizophrenic and tries to walk away but Ayers follows him for a bit until Steve introduces himself. Ayers tells Steve that he once went to Julliard. Steve is in his office making a call to the Registrars office at Julliard when Mary sits down next to him. She tells him that the LA times stock situation is looking pretty dire before switching the conversation over to their son. Mary tells Steve to call him but Steve says that whenever he calls their son wont call him back. He sends her away stating that he is trying to find a story before deadline. The Registrars office tells Steve that there is no record of a Nathaniel Ayers ever attending Julliard and then hangs up on Steve. He says hes not taking the blood story but as he crosses violinist off his list of potential stories its clear hes out of options. He is then seen sitting in front of a young nurse preparing to draw blood from him. As part of his blood test, he goes to urinate in a cup. While hes peeing he drops the cup and slips when he gets a callback from Julliard. The Secretary tells Steve that she only checked the graduates but when she checked all students, she found that Nathaniel Ayers dropped out of Julliard during his second year. That night, Steve returns to where he met Nathaniel and narrates the content of the article Points West detailing how Nathaniel is missing while calling him shy. Steve drives back to his apartment and finds that raccoons ruined his lawn. His neighbor tells him that coyote urine will keep the raccoons away. Steve spends the night walking around his messy apartment while listening to music. The next morning, Steve is calling the head of the coyote urine business when he sees Nathaniel on the side of a busy intersection. He stops his car. Nathaniel turns away from him and continues to play his 2 string violin and doesnt speak. Steve waits patiently against the gate for Nathaniel to finish up. Nathaniel plays the same group of notes over and over until he cant do it anymore. Steve tells Nathaniel that he wants to write a piece about him and how he ended up on the street. Steve asks him about his family, but Nathaniel cant focus and give direct answers and continues to ramble, even asking if Steve is the pilot of a plane flying overhead at one point. Steve calls Nathaniels sister to learn more about him. A flashback shows a young Nathaniel walking down the street carrying a cello. He met with his music teacher and went on and on about how much he admired Beethovens work. He played the cello for his teacher and the teacher thought that he was an incredibly gifted student. Instead of playing sports, his sister said that all Nathaniel would do was play the Cello. Nathaniels mother told him that when she listened to him play, she heard the voice of God. Steve writes an article detailing what he learned from Nathaniels sister. After it is published, an old lady reads it and sends Steve her old cello with the request that he give it to Nathaniel with her prayers. As Steve is driving through the same busy intersection, he almost hits Nathaniel who is picking up litter from the middle of the street (almost being hit multiple times by other cars) and gets him to walk over to the side. Steve is concerned about Nathaniels safety and the cello and arranges for Nathaniel to keep the cello in the office of a homeless shelter LAMP (under the stipulation that Nathaniel also stay at the same shelter). Steve lets Nathaniel play the instrument on the street for a test run. Nathaniel plays for Steve and Steve is visibly moved by the piece. Steve drives away with the cello to take it to the shelter. The shelter is located in a bad neighborhood where a bunch of homeless people are gathered on the sidewalk outside the gate. He pulls up to the gate and asks to speak to someone named David. He and David put the cello in his office and Steve sticks around to wait for Nathaniel. He sees all the people with their problems and seems a bit troubled. He goes outside and continues to wait for Nathaniel. He mingles with several homeless people. He waits until nightfall and then goes home. He starts to put tie up a bag of coyote urine onto a tree when the bag explodes on him. The next morning Steve is seen interviewing an Atheist road-side cleanup worker on the side of the road. when he gets a phone call and hears Nathaniel playing the Cello. He goes back to the shelter and sees Nathaniel playing for the people gathered around. Another flashback shows Nathaniel in his first apartment and subsequent performances at Julliard. At one point he is surrounded by people and in the next he is in an empty auditorium. His musical performances grow more erratic and his paranoia starts to set in as a voice says they can hear your thoughts Nathaniel. He runs out of the auditorium and runs away because the voices tell him to. He hides in a closet and lets the voices overwhelm him. He calls his 'mother' from a payphone and shares the fact that he cant always tell what is going on in the world around him and that he cant differentiate whats real and whats not and drops the phone and the recording "please hang up and try your call again" is heard. It's obvious he wasn't actually talking to his mother but rather a dial tone. Steve asks David if he will diagnose Nathanials problem. David says that it would be pointless. Steve asks if theres a medication that can help Nathaniel but David tells him that the last thing he needs is another person telling him he needs medication. Steve goes to find Nathaniel but Nathaniel is gone. Steve goes out to his car and just sits there, observing the interactions of the people outside before going to find Nathaniel. He walks past some drug users and down the street before seeing the police around a dead body. As he looks down to see the person, he sees Nathaniel next to him. Nathaniel finds a place to sleep and starts cleaning the area a little with a broom before setting up his bed. He tells Steve that he will end up like Beethoven and lie down and die. Steve spends the night with Nathaniel on the street and they talk. Steve tells Nathaniel that it is no place for him to live, but Nathaniel is adamant that this is where he should be. The next morning Steve offers to bring Nathaniel to see an Orchestra perform Beethoven. Nathaniel watches the orchestra with Steve and as they perform, Nathaniel focuses only on the music and imagines each sound striking up a bright color. Later on, Steve and Mary are at a karaoke bar with their coworkers and Steve is telling her about Nathaniels enjoyment of the music and the grace Nathaniel gets listening to music. Steve finds Nathaniels love of music to be awe inspiring. He upsets Mary when he tells her the he has never loved anything like Nathaniel loves music. He tries to recover from that but Mary leaves and tells him the Mayor wants to talk to him. The Mayor announces that he intends to add 50 million dollars in aid to the citys homeless community. Nathaniel visits Steve at the office. Steve is busy and tells Nathaniel he cant perform in front of the building, so Nathaniel waits on the other side of the building. He calls Graham Clayton (Tom Hollander), a cellist, to rehabilitate Nathaniel. Steve convinces David to help find Nathaniel an apartment where Nathaniel can live and rehabilitation. Nathaniel doesnt want to live in an apartment. He frustrates Steve but then starts to question Steve about his family. Steve was once married to Mary, but they divorced. Their son, Tom is in college and wont talk to Steve. Steve tells Nathaniel that if he doesnt go to the apartment, he will be on his own. Another flashback details Nathaniels mental breakdown in his old apartment. He is slowly driven insane by the voices until he cries on the floor of the apartment. A week later, Steve and Nathaniel move Nathaniel into the place where he will live and practice. It is a small apartment with a bed and a bathroom. There is enough room for Nathaniel to be comfortable and practice, but Nathaniel is afraid to enter the room. Steve patiently tells Nathaniel that he can do it. Eventually, Nathaniel enters the room with his stuff. Nathaniel doesnt like the room because it doesnt have the natural sounds of the city and reminds him of the night he spent going insane. Steve introduces Graham and Nathaniel. Graham brings Nathaniel the sheet music for Bach to begin Nathaniels rehabilitation. Graham is impressed by Nathaniels skill but notices that it needs to be refined. Graham tells Nathaniel that God gave Nathaniel a gift and that Nathaniel shouldnt waste it. Nathaniel gets upset with Graham and declares that Steve is his God. Steve gets frustrated with Nathaniel for being so attached to him. Steve asks David to help Nathaniel with psychiatry and medication and tells David that if he puts Nathaniel into forced rehab for two weeks, that might be enough to get Nathaniel straightened out. Steve goes to an award show which honors Steves achievement in bringing Nathaniels story to focus. Nathaniel calls Steve and tells him all the things he needs. Steve hands the phone off to Mary, and she listens to all the things Nathaniel says. She gets drunk and tells Steve that hes good at avoiding responsibility. Steve calls her a drunk and tells her she needs someone to drive her home. Graham calls Steve the next day and tells Steve that Nathaniel should have a recital. At the recital Nathaniel wheels out his card and takes out his cello before sitting down in front of the audience. As Nathaniel starts to play, he begins to have a psychotic episode and hear the voices. He experiences a flashback to when his sister was taking care of him after he fled Julliard. She tries to give him a bowl of soup, but Nathaniel insists that it is poison and instead takes the spoon and starts force feeding her instead. Graham puts his hand on Nathaniel to bring him back to reality, but Nathaniel freaks out and the movie flashes between Nathaniel swinging a chair at Graham and the younger Nathaniel swinging the tray at his sister before he runs out the building. Steve picks up Nathaniels cello and looks for Nathaniel with his car. Again the movie flashes back to when Nathaniel freaked out on his sister and him running away with her following him in her car int he middle of winter and asking him where he is going and where he would sleep. As Steve searches for Nathaniel, he sees the police launching a large scale arrest of the homeless and drug users. Steve finds police guarding a bloody shirt and is told that a bunch of kids with baseball bats beat a man brutally. Steve, convinced it's Nathaniel, checks every hospital in the area looking for him. He spends all night looking for him. The next morning, Steve gets a call from David telling him that Nathaniel is at the shelter eating breakfast and that he spent the night in the apartment. Steve visits Nathaniel at his apartment and returns his cello. Steve gives Nathaniel a miniature Beethoven and asks him if he did a good job looking out for him. Jennifer, Nathaniels sister, is ready to take over as Nathaniels caretaker. Steve leaves him the forms and tells him to read them before he signs them. Nathanial reads the forms and throws them around the room when he realizes that its about his schizophrenic state of mind. Nathaniel gets violent with Steve, pushing and slapping him, and tells him that if he sees him again hell gut him like a fish. Steve runs out of the apartment the minute he gets free and leaves Nathaniel to the voices. A little while later, Steve is taking shots in a bar. He visits Mary at her house. They reminisce about when they moved into the house with Tom. Steve comes to grip with his failures as a father and a husband. He apologizes to Mary and tells her that he thought he was helping someone with a gift who had lost their way. He tells her about what happened with Nathaniel and how he doesnt know how to fix it. He tells her that he officially resigns from everything since he cant get it right. Mary tells him that Steve would never have been able to cure Nathaniel just like he would never prevent a earthquake and that all Steve could do was be his friend. Jennifer flies into L.A. to see her brother. Steve drives her to the shelter and she goes in to see him. The shelter is not as crowded as it was before the cops arrested people. Jennifer sees Nathaniel sitting and slowly approaches him. They sit together for a while as Steve watches from the car. Nathaniel remembers that Jennifer is his sister and reaches out his hand to her and she takes it. Steve sits outside dangling his car keys until the pair come out. Nathaniel looks down at Steve and apologizes for threatening Steve. Steve tells Nathaniel that its ok. Mr. Ayers, Im honored to be your friend. Steve begins his narrative epilogue as Mary, Steve, Jennifer and Nathaniel watch an orchestra perform. A year ago, he met Nathaniel and thought that he could help him. His mental state and well being havent changed but he no longer lives on the street. Psychiatrists tell Steve that his friendship alone gives balance to chemical misfire in his brain, but he cant attest to it. Steve tells himself that Nathaniels friendship and courage has made him a better person. They watch the orchestra perform in silence. Credits roll and the audience reads the following: Mr. Ayers still sleeps inside and is a member of LAMP. He continues to play the cello, as well as violin, bass, piano, guitar, trumpet, French horn, drums and harmonica. Mr. Lopez continues to write his column for the L.A. Times. He is learning to play the guitar. There are 90,000 homeless people on the streets of Greater Los Angelos.

Hook-handed Vietnam veteran Staff Sergeant John "Four Leaf" Tayback's (Nick Nolte) (The author of Tropic Thunder, a fake memoir of his war experiences on which the film-within-a-film is based. He suggests the idea of dropping the actors in the middle of the jungle to get them looking and feeling like soldiers lost in a foreign land) memoir, Tropic Thunder, is being made into a film. With the exception of newcomer supporting actor Kevin Sandusky, the cast-fading action hero Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) (Once the highest-paid, highest-grossing action film star ever due to his Scorcher franchise, his career has stalled, and he now has a reputation for appearing in nothing but box office bombs. After drawing negative coverage for his portrayal in Simple Jack, in which he plays a mentally-challenged farm boy, he takes the role of Four Leaf Tayback in an attempt to save his career), five-time Academy Award-winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) (five-time Academy Award winner, Lazarus had a controversial "pigmentation alteration" surgery to darken his skin for his portrayal of the African American character, Staff Sergeant Lincoln Osiris), rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) (A closeted homosexual rapper who is attempting to cross over into acting, portraying a soldier named Motown, while promoting his "Bust-A-Nut" candy bar and "Booty Sweat" energy drink), and drug-addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) (A drug-addicted comedian-actor well known for portraying multiple parts in films that rely on toilet humor, particularly jokes about flatulence and fart jokes)-all cause problems for director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) (he inexperienced British film director who is unable to control the actors in the film), who cannot control them, resulting in a million-dollar pyrotechnics scene being wasted. The project is months behind schedule. Studio executive Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) (The profane, ill-tempered studio executive producing Tropic Thunder) orders Damien to get the cast under control or risk the project's cancellation. On Four Leaf's advice, Damien drops the actors into the middle of the jungle, with hidden cameras and rigged special effects explosions to film "guerrilla-style". The actors have guns that fire blanks, along with a map and scene listing that will lead to a helicopter waiting at the end of the route. Unknown to the actors and production, the group have been dropped in the middle of the Golden Triangle, the home of the heroin-producing Flaming Dragon gang. Just as the group is about to set off, Damien inadvertently steps on an old land mine and is blown up, stunning the actors. Tugg, believing Damien faked his death to encourage the cast to give better performances, assures the others that Damien is alive, and that they are still shooting the film. Kirk is unconvinced but joins them in their trek through the jungle. As they exit the drop zone, they are attacked by Flaming Dragon militia who are dumbfounded by the crazy tactics of their opponents. Carefully placed C4 charges by Cody go off at the right time to save their asses. On the trek Kirk berates Tugg for going full retarded on "simple Jack" as per him retard is a good category, but you "never go full retard". When Four Leaf and pyrotechnics operator Cody Underwood (Danny McBride) try to locate the deceased director, they are captured by Flaming Dragon. Four Leaf is revealed to have hands; he confesses to Underwood that he actually served in the Coast Guard, has never left the United States, and that he wrote his "memoir" as a tribute. Tugg and Kirk both try to get rookie actor Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) on their side. A novice actor, he is the only cast member to have read the script and book and attended the assigned boot camp prior to the film. Kirk says Tugg is leading them in the wrong direction and Tugg alleges that Kirk is trying to torpedo the film. As the actors continue through the jungle, Kirk and Kevin discover that Tugg is leading them in the wrong direction. The resulting argument results in Kirk leading the rest of the cast back toward the resort they are staying at as an increasingly delirious Tugg is captured by Flaming Dragon. Just prior to that Rick calls Tugg on his satellite phone (which Tugg had hidden when Damien had confiscated all phones) and Rick got the impression that Tugg was firing him as his agent as he didn't deliver the TiVo, as was specified in his contract with Les. Taken to their base, Tugg sees CCTV cameras in the base and believes it is a POW camp from the script. The gang discovers he is the star of their favorite film, the box-office bomb Simple Jack, and force him to reenact it several times a day. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Tugg's agent Rick 'Pecker' Peck (Matthew McConaughey) confronts Les over an unfulfilled term in Tugg's contract that entitles him to a TiVo. Flaming Dragon calls during the discussion and demands a ransom for Tugg, but Les instead delivers a profanity-laden death threat not knowing that Tugg has been kidnapped. Despite the threats, Les expresses no interest in rescuing Tugg and is instead happy at the insurance payout that would happen if Tugg dies. He attempts to convince Pecker to play along by promising a Gulfstream V jet and "lots of money". Kirk, Alpa, Jeff, and Kevin discover Flaming Dragon's heroin factory. Kevin reckons they aren't even in Vietnam anymore and may have crossed into Myanmar or Laos, as that's on the Golden Triangle. After witnessing Tugg being tortured, they plan a rescue attempt based on the film's script. Kirk impersonates a farmer towing a "captured" Jeff on the back of a water buffalo, distracting the armed guards so Alpa and Kevin can infiltrate and find the prisoners, but a combination of broken Chinese and inconsistencies in his story sets off the gang's boss. The actors, knowing their cover has been blown, begin firing, fooling gang members into surrender. Their control of the gang falls apart when Jeff (who has been a deprived addict for the last 2 days) grabs the leader and heads for the drugs, and the gang, realizing the guns fire blanks, recover their guns and fight back. Meanwhile Tugg doesn't want to leave as he is performing 5 shows a day to standing room only audience. Kirk is insecure as his hair and eyes are blonde and blue and he realizes that he is African American in name only. Jeff is insecure as he thinks people only laugh at his farts and is reluctant to re-enter that world. Tugg comes to his senses after the leader of Flaming Dragon stops their truck with a grenade launcher. He leads his "men" again. The four actors locate Four Leaf, Cody, and Tugg and cross a bridge rigged to explode to get to Underwood's helicopter. Tugg initially remains behind, believing Flaming Dragon to be his "family", but runs back screaming, chased by an angry horde. Four Leaf destroys the bridge, rescuing Tugg, but as the helicopter takes off, the gang boss fires a rocket-propelled grenade at the helicopter. Rick unexpectedly stumbles out of the jungle carrying a TiVo box and throws it in the path of the grenade, saving them. The crew return to Hollywood, where footage from the hidden cameras is compiled into a feature film, Tropic Blunder, which becomes a major critical and commercial success. The film wins Tugg his first Academy Award, which Kirk presents to him at the ceremony. Les celebrates 8 academy awards and $400MM at the box office for the movie.

Lucky You - a movie based on human relationships in a place where stakes doesn't get any higher than Las Vegas - the Sin city. Drew Barrymore (Billie Offer) is a young singer with a big heart rather than raw talent from Bakersfield. Eric Bana (Huck Cheever) is an ace when it comes to playing poker. His emotions at the table seem to overshadow his mastery in playing poker. Even he is tad ahead of his father (L.C.Cheever), a legendary poker player played by Robert Duvall. The only common skill which Huck and Billie shares is an intuitive ability of reading people. However difference lies in what they do. On one hand Huck's gut feel enables him to gain advantage over his opponents at the poker table by cleverly avoiding any sort of emotional attachments and long term commitments in his personal life. While on the other hand, Billie utilizes her intuitive talents in seeking emotional truths of those around her and subsequently shares their sorrows. But when Huck and Billie meet the real game starts. If Huck has to win over Billie then he needs to play cards the way he has been living his life and lead life in a manner he has been playing cards.

The director`s cut of the iconic movie that portrays the infamous serial killer and the manhunt he inspired, exploring one man`s desire to kill and another`s quest for the truth.

The United States has lost the war on drugs. Substance D, a powerful drug that causes bizarre hallucinations, has swept the country. Approximately 20% of the total population is addicted. In response, the government has developed an invasive, high-tech surveillance system and a network of undercover officers and informants. Substance D is manufactured from components of a blue flower that can be grown in select climates. New-path is the only company that help addicts overcome this devastating addiction. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is one of these undercover agents, assigned to immerse himself in the drug's underworld and infiltrate up the supply chain. Arctor has a vision of being in his house with a wife and two children in Anaheim, California (he remembers a sense of dread as he feels trapped in his family and thinks that nothing new could happen with his life); today he has two drug-addicted, lay about housemates: Luckman (Woody Harrelson) and Barris (Robert Downey Jr.). The three spend time taking D and having complex, possibly paranoiac examinations of their experiences. At the police station, Arctor maintains privacy by wearing a "scramble suit" that constantly changes every aspect of his appearance and voice (making the wearer undetectable by any facial or voice recognition systems); he is known only by the code name "Fred." Arctor's senior officer, "Hank" (Winona Ryder), and all other undercover officers, also wear scramble suits, protecting their identities even from each other. Since going undercover, Arctor himself has become addicted to Substance D, and buys from Donna, who Arctor hopes to purchase large enough quantities of D from so that she is forced to introduce him to her own supplier. They have a tense, at times caring romantic relationship, but she rebuffs his physical advances. Charles Freck (Rory Cochrane) is Barris's friend and hangs out with the gang. Barris wants Freck to register into rehab with New-Path, but Freck has heard stories of sexual abuse at that place. At work, Hank orders "Fred" to increase surveillance on Arctor himself and his associates. Arctor's house is now at the center of his own investigation (with the police secretly installing cameras all over the house and live feed going back to the station), since this is where Donna and the other addicts spend time. Arctor is inexpertly negotiating a double life, and his prolonged use of D is damaging his brain (as determined by a series of cognitive tests administered by Medical Deputy 2 (Chamblee Ferguson) & Medical Deputy 1 (Angela Rawna)). Barris is informing on Arctor to Hank, arguing that Arctor is a terrorist, and angling to be hired as a cop himself. However, Barris unknowingly conveys this information in the presence of Arctor himself, whose identity at the time is hidden behind his scramble suit. Looking at the surveillance tapes of his own home, Arctor sees that Luckman falls down due to the side effects of drugs. but Barris does not help Luckman even though he sees him falling down. Freck commits suicide when the hallucinations drive him towards insanity. Fred/Arctor undergoes additional tests and it is clear that his condition is getting worse by the day. The doctors confirm that substance D has caused damage to the left hemisphere of Arctor's brain. Arctor can't figure out why the police would be interested in him, and suspects that something big is going down. Hank reveals to "Fred" that he has long known that he is Arctor. Arctor seems legitimately surprised, and repeats his own name in a disoriented, unfamiliar tone. Hank informs him that the real purpose of the surveillance was to catch Barris, and that the police were deliberately increasing Barris's paranoia until he attempted to cover his tracks. Hank reprimands Arctor for becoming addicted to Substance D and warns him that he will be disciplined with a financial fine. Hank explains how seriously brain damaged Arctor has become from D, and Hank "phones" Donna, asking her to come pick up Arctor and take him to New-Path, a corporation that runs a series of rehabilitation clinics. Hank immediately leaves, and in private removes his scramble suit, revealing Donna. At the New-Path clinic, Arctor and other D addicts show serious cognitive deficiencies. "Donna", now known as Audrey, meets with Mike (Dameon Clarke), a fellow police officer. They discuss how New-Path is secretly responsible for the manufacture and distribution of Substance D. Audrey expresses her growing ethical aversion to their police work, in which they deliberately recruited Arctor - without his knowledge - to become addicted to D; his health sacrificed so that he might eventually enter a New-Path rehabilitation center unnoticed as a genuine addict, and collect incriminating evidence of New-Path's D farms. Audrey and Mike debate whether Arctor's mind will recover enough to grasp the situation. New-Path sends Arctor to a labor camp at an isolated farm, where he mindlessly repeats what others tells him. Tending to corn crops, Arctor discovers hidden rows of the blue flowers that produce D. He secretly hides one flower in his boot, to bring to his friends at his next holiday from the farm.

A detective, a thief posing as a struggling actor and an actual struggling actress get entangled in a murder mystery with twists, turns, betrayal and, most importantly, romance.

Psychiatrist Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) works at a mental hospital and has a car accident after trying to avoid a girl (Kathleen Mackey) on a road during a stormy night, while driving back home. She rushes to try to help the girl. The girl turns out to in fact be a ghost, and possesses Miranda's body by burning her after she extends her hand to the girl. Miranda loses consciousness. Miranda next wakes up in the very hospital she works for, but as a patient treated by her co-worker, Dr. Pete Graham (Robert Downey, Jr.). Drugged and confused, she remembers nothing of what happened after the car accident. To her horror, she learns that her husband Douglas (Charles S. Dutton) was brutally murdered and that she is the primary suspect. While Miranda copes with her new life in the hospital, the ghost uses her body to carry out messages (most noticeably, she carves the words "not alone" into Miranda's arm) which leads her former colleagues to believe Miranda is suicidal and is inflicting the wounds on herself. Meanwhile, Miranda bonds with fellow inmate (and former patient) Chloe Sava (Penélope Cruz). Several times in sessions, Chloe had claimed that she'd been raped while in the hospital, but Miranda had always attributed these stories to mental illness. One night, the door to Miranda's room in the hospital is opened by the ghost that has been haunting her. When she passes Chloe's room in the hospital, she can hear the rape occurring and momentarily sees a man's chest pressed against the window. The man's chest bears a tattoo of an Anima Sola. Miranda realizes that Chloe was not making up these stories, and when she sees Chloe the next day, she apologizes, and the two embrace. Chloe warns Miranda her attacker said he was going to target Miranda next. Miranda begins regaining some of her memories bit by bit, and slowly comes to remember herself killing her husband. She realizes that the ghost had used her body to murder Douglas, thus making Miranda the patsy for his murder. This is why all of the physical evidence points to Miranda. Miranda escapes the hospital, having recognized the girl as a ghost. Seeking clues to the mystery of why she killed her husband, she goes to a farmhouse in Willow Creek, Rhode Island. In the cellar of the barn she discovers a room containing a blood-stained bed, what appears to be a box containing drugs, restraints, and video equipment. She watches the tape that is still in the camera and the viewer hears a woman screaming as if tortured or raped. In the final seconds of the video, Douglas walks into the shot, covers a woman's lifeless body on the bed with a sheet, and winks at the camera. At this point, police arrive, and one officer comes closer to Miranda and draws a gun on her while she is holding a knife to him. Miranda backs up to a stair case, and all of a sudden an injured, frantically screaming girl grabs hold of her from the adjoining crawlspace. The police release the girl, and Miranda is taken to jail. While she is in jail, Sheriff Ryan (John Carroll Lynch), who was Douglas' closest friend, talks to Miranda, and quizzes her on how she knew all these things. He does not believe her claim that ghosts told her everything, and asks her what sort of person the accomplice would be. Miranda uses her experience as a psychiatrist to give a psychological profile, and as she does so realizes that Ryan fits the profile perfectly. He attacks Miranda and in the fight reveals his tattoo an Anima Sola. Miranda kills the sheriff in an act of self-defense, with the help of the ghost. Meanwhile, Miranda sees that Pete just comes here to try to save her (as Pete had also discovered what she said were true). Miranda is next seen walking with Chloe on a city sidewalk discussing how each helped the other come to terms with their experiences. Miranda claims to be free of the ghost's influence and sends Chloe off in a taxi. Miranda then sees a young boy standing in the middle of the road who appears as though he is about to be struck by a fire truck. Miranda yells for the boy to move, but after the fire truck passes through the boy without harming him she realizes he was only a ghost. As Miranda walks away, a poster with the words "Have you seen Tim?" and a picture of the same boy is shown taped to a pole next to the street on which Miranda is walking.

Professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) is a novelist who teaches creative writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh university (the movie was shot chiefly in and around Carnegie Mellon University). He is having an affair with the university chancellor, Sara Gaskell (Frances McDormand), whose husband, Walter, is the chairman of the English department and thus Grady's boss. Grady's third wife, Emily, has just left him, and he has failed to repeat the grand success of his first novel, published years earlier. He continues to labor on a second novel, but the more he tries to finish it the less able he finds himself to invent a satisfactory ending - the book runs to over two and a half thousand pages and is still far from finished. He spends his free time smoking marijuana. His students include James Leer (Tobey Maguire) and Hannah Green (Katie Holmes). Hannah and James are friends and both very good writers. Hannah, who rents a room in Tripp's large house, is attracted to Tripp, but he does not reciprocate. James is enigmatic, quiet, dark and enjoys writing fiction more than he first lets on. During a party at the Gaskells' house, Sara reveals to Grady that she is pregnant with his child. Grady finds James standing outside holding what he claims to be a replica gun, won by his mother at a fairground during her schooldays. However, the gun turns out to be very real, as James shoots the Gaskells' dog when he finds it attacking Grady. James also steals a very valuable piece of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia from the house. Grady is unable to tell Sara of this incident as she is pressuring him to choose between her and Emily. As a result, Grady is forced to keep the dead dog in the trunk of his car for most of the weekend. He also allows James to follow him around, fearing that he may be depressed or even suicidal. Gradually he realizes that much of what James tells him about himself and his life is untrue, and is seemingly designed to elicit Grady's sympathy. Meanwhile, Grady's editor, Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.), has flown into town on the pretense of attending the university's annual WordFest, a literary event for aspiring authors. In reality, Crabtree is there to see if Tripp has written anything worth publishing, as both men's careers depend on Grady's upcoming book. Terry arrives with a transvestite whom he met on the flight, called Antonia Sloviak (Michael Cavadias). The pair apparently become intimate in a bedroom at the Gaskells' party, but immediately afterwards Terry meets, and becomes infatuated with, James Leer, and Sloviak is unceremoniously sent home. After a night on the town, Crabtree and James semi-consciously flirt throughout the night, which eventually leads up to the two end up spending an awkwardly intimate night together in one of Grady's spare rooms. Tired and confused, Grady phones Walter Gaskell (Richard Thomas) and reveals to him that he is in love with Walter's wife. Meanwhile, Walter has also made the connection between the disappearance of Marilyn Monroe's jacket and James Leer. The following morning the Pittsburgh Police arrive with Sara to escort James to the Chancellor's office to discuss the ramifications of his actions. The jacket is still in Grady's car, which has conspicuously gone missing. This car had been given to him by a friend as payment for a loan, and over the weekend Grady has come to suspect that the car was stolen. Over the course of his travel around town, Grady has been repeatedly accosted by a man claiming to be the car's real owner. He eventually tracks the car down, but in a dispute over its ownership the majority of his manuscript blows out of the car and is lost. The car's owner gives him a ride to the university with his wife, Oola, in the passenger seat, wearing the stolen jacket. Remembering James Leer's distress at how lonely the jacket looked in its own special closet, Grady finally sees that making things right involves having to make difficult choices. Grady tells Oola the story behind the jacket and allows her to leave with it. Worried that Grady's choice comes at the expense of damaging James Leer's future, Crabtree convinces Walter not to press charges by agreeing to publish his book, "a critical exploration of the union of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe and its function in American mythopoetics", tentatively titled The Last American Marriage. The film ends with Grady recounting the eventual fate of the main characters - Hannah graduates and becomes a magazine editor; James wasn't expelled, but drops out anyway and moves to New York with Crabtree to rework his novel for publication; and Crabtree himself "goes right on being Crabtree." Grady finishes typing his new novel (now using a computer rather than a typewriter), then watches Sara and their child arriving home before turning back to the computer and clicking "Save."

B movie film producer Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) has saved up to direct a movie for his entire life-he now has $2,184 to pay for production costs. He is deep in debt, but an extremely positive outlook towards life. He is a master at doing things on a budget, using his connections. He has a script ("Chubby Rain" (because the aliens come to earth in rain drops) penned by an accountant, Afrim (Adam Alexi-Malle), and a camera operator, Dave (Jamie Kennedy) (who is also a parking lot attendant and loans Bowfinger expensive cars for his meetings with producers and stuff), with access to studio-owned equipment. Bowfinger then lines up several actors who are hungry for work (including Daisy (Heather Graham), a Hollywood wannabe and Carol (Christine Baranski) who considers herself a serious actress), along with a crowd of illegal Mexican immigrants for a camera crew; the only other thing he needs is access to a studio in order to distribute his masterwork. He extracts a promise from a high-ranking Universal Pictures executive, Jerry Renfro (Robert Downey Jr.), that Universal will distribute the film if it includes currently hot action star Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy). Ramsey-a pompous, neurotic, and paranoid (he thinks there is a conspiracy in Hollywood to deliver all the good lines to white actors) actor-refuses to act in Bowfinger's film, so Bowfinger constructs a plan to covertly film all of Ramsey's scenes without his knowledge. The actors, told that Ramsey is method acting and will not be interacting with them outside of their scenes, walk up to Ramsey in public and recite their lines while hidden cameras catch Ramsey's confused reactions. Daisy is very comfortable giving sexual favors to get what she wants and starts by showering Slater (Kohl Sudduth) (the supporting actor) with her affections. The plan goes well at first: Ramsey (who is a member of an organization called MindHead, whose mentor Terry Stricter (Terence Stamp) is counseling Kit on his paranoia about being chased by aliens and against his urge to flash females in public) swallows the movie's alien invasion premise and believes he is genuinely being stalked by aliens, resulting in an exceptionally genuine and intense performance. Daisy wants more scenes with Kit and asks Slater for it. Slater suggests speaking to Afrim, since he is the screenwriter. Daisy sleeps with Afrim and he changes the script. Afrim informs Daisy that its up to Bowfinger if the scenes actually make it into the final movie or not. So, Daisy moves on to Bowfinger. Bowfinger steals Daisy's credit card to fund the equipment to film the rest of the movie. However, the strain on Kit's already-precarious mental state leads him to go into hiding (He moves into the Mindhead facility for solitude) in order to maintain his sanity, stalling the film's production. Bowfinger resorts to hiring a Ramsey lookalike named Jiff. Jiff is kind, amiable and rather clueless. He even runs through a gauntlet of "stunt drivers" racing along a major freeway when asked. During a chat with the other cast members, Jiff mentions that he is Kit Ramsey's brother, explaining the likeness. Using this new knowledge, Bowfinger has Jiff find out Kit Ramsey's movements and the final scene to the film is readied for shooting. Also, Daisy moves on to having sex with Jiff to get an intro to Kit. The final scene is at an observatory. Though otherwise pleased with Ramsey's unscripted dialogue, Bowfinger considers his character's final line "Gotcha suckers!" to be the key moment of the film and directs one of the actors to guide Ramsey through the scene under the guise of showing him how to get rid of the aliens. During the filming, Ramsey becomes terrified and struggles to deliver the final line. At this point, Ramsey's mentor at MindHead, Terry Stricter (Terence Stamp), has discovered evidence (A guard at Dave's studio is a MindHead member and tells Terry everything) that Kit's "aliens" may not be just in his head. MindHead officials track Bowfinger to the observatory and shut down production. Bowfinger's camera crew show him B-roll footage of Ramsey they were filming off-set, just in case they saw anything they could use. The footage shows Ramsey donning a paper bag over his head and exposing himself to an amused Laker Girl Cheerleading Squad, something MindHead specifically discouraged him from doing. Bowfinger blackmails MindHead with the footage, threatening to release it and ruin Ramsey's career (which would also endanger MindHead's finances as Ramsey is a major donor to their operations). MindHead advises the star to finish the project. Bowfinger finally gets to sit at the premiere of a film he himself directed and is awed (Daisy attends the premier as Kit's guest, suggesting that she is now sleeping with him). Following the arguable success of the film, Bowfinger receives a rare Fed-Ex envelope-an offer to film a martial arts film called "Fake Purse Ninjas" starring himself and Jiff Ramsey.

A suburban housewife learns that she has a dreamworld connection to a serial murderer, and must stop him from killing again. The housewife Claire Cooper is married to the pilot Paul Cooper and their little daughter Rebecca is their pride and joy. When a stranger kidnaps a girl, Claire dreams about the man but Detective Jack Kay ignores her concerns. But when Rebecca disappears during a school play, Claire learns that her visions were actually premonitions and she is connected to the killer through her dreams. She has a nervous breakdown and tries to commit suicide. Her psychologist Dr. Silverman sends her to a mental institution and soon she finds that her husband will be the next victim of the serial-killer. Further, the serial-killer was interned in the same cell in the hospital where she is. Will Claire be able to save Paul? —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Claire Cooper dreams strange things from time to time. One night, she dreams about a little girl being taken away by a stranger, right in her neighbourhood. When her own daughter Rebecca is kidnapped and murdered only a little later, Claire is sure about the chilling truth that her and the killer's mind are connected to each other in dreams. But nobody believes her being able to foresee the killer's next steps, as she could with her own daughter. In addition, the nervous breakdown she suffers gets her into a mental facility after a suicide attempt. And here, locked away in a padded cell, she dreams of her husband being murdered... —Julian Reischl <julianreischl@mac.com>

Two Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agents are gunned down while trying to intercept a briefcase exchange taking place in a United Nations (UN) parking garage. The murders are caught on a CCTV camera but the killer escapes with the top-secret information. The person who delivered the money also escapes. Six months later, Senior Deputy US Marshal Samuel Gerard and his team capture a pair of fugitives in Chicago. His team includes Noah Newman, Cosmo Renfro, Savannah Cooper and Bobby Briggs. Gerard is very close to his team, and they function like a well-oiled machine. Gerard reports to US Marshal Catherine Walsh (Kate Nelligan). Catherine admonishes Gerard for hitting the fugitives while they were in handcuffs, which is against the law. Gerard says that the fugitive was huge and was throwing the team around and this was the only way to bring him under control. At the same time, tow truck driver Mark Warren (Wesley Snipes) is arrested for a weapons violation after a firefighter finds a pistol in his truck after a car accident, enabling the Chicago Police Department to discover he is the federal fugitive Mark Roberts wanted for the double-homicide. Roberts boards a prisoner transport back to New York, sharing the flight with Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones), who is escorting prisoners unrelated to Roberts' case. Roberts thwarts an assassination attempt by Chinese prisoner Vincent Ling with a zip gun (which was concealed in the toilet paper handle in the plane's loo), but the bullet pierces the window and depressurizes the cabin, forcing a crash landing. The pilots cannot find any airport nearby and decide to the land the transport plane on a highway. The plane crashes into the Ohio River, and Gerard tries to rescue the surviving prisoners as Roberts escapes. Gerard discovers Roberts has fled the crash site and DSS Special Agent John Royce (Robert Downey Jr.) is assigned to join Gerard's team to hunt Roberts. They corner Roberts in a Kentucky swamp before he wounds Gerard and flees. Roberts calls his girlfriend Marie Bineaux, explaining that he was a government agent until he was betrayed in New York. Roberts makes it to New York City, secures money, weapons and fake ID. Returning to New York City, Roberts secures supplies from a Force Recon comrade and tracks a Chinese diplomat Xiang Chen (Michael Paul Chan). In Chicago, Gerard and the marshals pursue several leads, including Roberts' girlfriend Marie Bineaux (Irène Jacob) as well as the airplane mechanic who hid the zip gun, the latter of whom the marshals find killed by Chen. Gerard suspects that Royce is concealing information about Roberts and the murders. Gerard and team watch the UN surveillance footage of the murders in the parking garage and realize that Roberts acted in self-defense and was wearing gloves; thus, couldn't have been identified by fingerprints at the scene as was claimed. Confronted with the evidence, DSS Director Bertram Lamb (Patrick Malahide) informs Gerard that "Mark Roberts" is in fact Mark Sheridan, a highly trained covert operative and a former CIA Special Activities Division Agent, that went rogue during an investigation to find the mole within the U.S. State Department that had been selling secrets to China. Sheridan was suspected of selling U.S. State Department classified intelligence to the Chinese government. Chen was delivering money to Sheridan for the information when the DSS agents tried to apprehend Sheridan, who escaped with the documents. Gerard's team tracks Sheridan to a cemetery. The team catches up with Sheridan (and Gerard brings Marie along) in the Bohemian National Cemetery where Sheridan meets with, and threatens to expose, DSS Special Agent Frank Barrows (Rick Snyder) as one of the conspirators who framed him. Chen tries to snipe Sheridan as he leaves the cemetery, but inadvertently kills Barrows instead. Sheridan flees to a retirement home followed by Gerard, Royce and Deputy Marshal Noah Newman (Tom Wood), while Chen is caught and detained by Deputy Marshals Savannah Cooper (LaTanya Richardson) and Bob Biggs (Daniel Roebuck). At the retirement home, Gerard and Royce chase Sheridan to the eighth floor and search for him, room by room. Royce walks in the room of an Emphysema patient where Sheridan jumps on him and the two fight. Newman overhears the fight and walks into the room where he witnesses Royce holding Sheridan at gunpoint. Royce suddenly shoots Newman with his Taurus PT945 pistol and later lies to the team, claiming Sheridan got a shot off and Newman walked into it. Sheridan escapes by jumping from the building onto the roof of a passing Metro-North train. Newman is mortally wounded, and dies during the ambulance ride to the hospital, with a devastated Gerard by his side. After finding empty motion sickness pill containers in a stolen car, Gerard tracks down Sheridan on a freighter bound for Canada. During a brief scuffle, Sheridan gains the upper-hand and grabs Gerard's gun, aiming it at him but then lowering it without taking the shot. Sheridan is then shot from behind by Royce who fires rather recklessly, almost hitting Gerard. The Marshal notices the D.S.S. agent now carries a Glock 22. Sheridan is taken into custody. Gerard begins to suspect Royce may be associated with the mole within the U.S. State Department when Royce hands him the pistol he used to kill Newman (Gerard is tipped off because Royce has filed off the serial number, but he still remembers Royce showing it to him when they first met). Left alone to guard Sheridan's hospital room, Royce wakes Sheridan up, releases him from his restraints and plants a knife to claim an attempted escape and therefore justifiable self-defense in shooting Sheridan. Gerard interrupts Royce before he can shoot a weakened Sheridan with his Glock and tricks him into revealing his status as the rogue agent, before revealing that he has also removed Royce's magazine to disarm him. Royce pulls his concealed backup firearm but is shot by Gerard on warning from Sheridan. After leaving the hospital, Sheridan's charges are dropped, and he is released. Sheridan is exonerated and reunites with Marie, while Gerard and his team depart to drink a toast to Newman.

The exiled royal doctor to King Charles II devotes himself to helping Londoners suffering from the plague, and in the process falls in love with an equally poor woman. An aspiring young doctor, Robert Merivel found himself in the service of King Charles II and saves the life of a spaniel dear to the King. Merivel joins the King's court and lives the high life provided to someone of his position. Merivel is ordered to marry one of the King's mistresses in order to divert the suspicions of another one of his mistresses. He is given one order by the king and that is not to fall in love. The situation worsens when Merivel finds himself in love with his new wife. Eventually, the King finds out and relieves Merivel of his position and wealth. His fall from grace leaves Merivel where he first started. And through his travels and reunites with an old friend, he rediscovers his love for true medicine and what it really means to be a doctor. —P. Wong <pwong@nt.net>

After playing with a Ouija board with her brother Larry, 11-year-old Faith Corvatch becomes convinced that her soulmate, the man she is destined to be with, is named "Damon Bradley." This belief is strengthened when a few years later a carnival fortune teller tells her that "Damon Bradley" is the name of the man she will marry. But the fortune teller also says that a person makes their own destiny. Fourteen years later, Faith (Marisa Tomei) is a teacher at a Catholic school and is engaged to a podiatrist Dwayne (John Benjamin Hickey). Faith is still slightly hesitant and is not fully sure that Dwayne is her life partner. Faith's sister-in-law Kate is not respected by her husband Larry. Larry has no passion for Kate, and only sees her as a glorified house help. Kate hates it when Larry patronizing her by calling her "doll". Faith is depressed when she is asked to wear her future mother-in-law's wedding gown, which is very old fashioned. Kate tells Faith that life is not "Happily Ever After" as sold by everybody. 10 days before their wedding, Faith gets a call from her fiance's high-school classmate Damon Bradley. Faith is shocked and feels this is destiny, but Damon is flying to Venice that day. Determined to meet him, Faith follows his trail with her sister-in-law Kate (Bonnie Hunt) from Pittsburgh through to Venice. They reach the hotel where Doman is staying only to find that he has already checked out. They search Damon's room to figure out that he had left for Rome and go after him by renting a car. Kate cannot read the Italian maps and the ladies are lost in the Italian countryside with their car out of gas. A group of nuns passing by provides them some gas. They reach an address in Rome, where Damon had called before leaving Venice, and meet a woman named Anna (Barbara Cupisti) who was supposed to meet Damon that evening. Anna now has a prior commitment and Faith offers to take her place instead. This is where Kate meets a suave Italian named Giovanni. They finally reach a street-side restaurant in Rome, but they never quite catch up with him. At the restaurant, Faith and Kate wait for Damon and find that he is one of the booths. Before Faith can meet him, Damon walks away, and Faith runs after him and loses her shoe. Faith meets a young American man but has no interest until he identifies himself as Damon Bradley. The man had approached Faith with her missing shoe and learns from Kate that Faith is looking for a man whose name she read off a Ouija board when she was 11 years old. They spend a romantic evening together and fall hopelessly in love. Then he reveals that his actual name is Peter Wright (Robert Downing Jr), so she angrily leaves him and prepares to fly back home. Meanwhile, a suave Italian businessman named Giovanni (Joaquim De Almeida) has been wooing Kate. Kate reveals that Larry cheated on her. Peter convinces Kate that meeting Faith was destiny for him too. He was not supposed to be in Italy, as he works in Boston. He was a last-minute replacement for a co-worker who got measles. And he ran into Faith at the Piazza. Peter says that Faith and he were supposed to find each other. The next morning, Peter tells Faith that he searched for Damon overnight and discovered that he has moved on to Positano. Giovanni agrees to drive the three Americans there. At a posh hotel, Faith meets Damon, a good-looking playboy, and invites him to dinner. Peter spies on them at the restaurant until Damon makes unwelcome sexual advances with Faith. It turns out that this "Damon" is really a friend of Peter's who has helped Peter stage the entire scene. Back in the United States, Larry (Fisher Stevens) finds out that his wife Kate is in Italy. He travels there to find her while Kate and Faith are again planning to return home. Larry arrives in time to make up with Kate. He also reveals to her that Faith's childhood "Damon Bradley" phenomenon was a prank: Larry intentionally spelled out the name on the Ouija board, then he paid the fortune teller to tell Faith that her true love had the same name. He hasn't told Faith the truth because he has been afraid, she would never speak to him again. Faith and Peter are at the airport when they hear Damon Bradley paged. At the information desk, they finally meet Damon (Adam LeFevre), who is not especially handsome. Peter explains to Damon why Faith has been following him. He also tells Damon that he (Peter) is in love with her, then boards his flight home to Boston. Damon asks Faith if she loves Peter. She realizes that she does and rushes to join Peter on his plane. The airport staff delays the flight until Faith can board. She and Peter embrace and kiss as the passengers and crew applaud. Their plane then flies into the sunset.

The movie Chaplin is the story of Sir Charles Chaplin, the famous actor and director that changed film forever. The film starts out with the narrator (played by Sir Anthony Hopkins) and an elderly Charles Chaplin (played by Robert Downey Jr.) preparing Chaplin's autobiography. This reveals to the audience that the entire movie is the flashbacks of an elderly Charles Chaplin. Chaplin then recalls the first time he ever participated in show business. We see Chaplin's mother, Hannah, a poor, defeated woman performing in front of a full theatre of army cadets. Within a few minutes, these military men boo her off the stage, and a young, five-year-old Charles walks out on the stage. He sang the same song, and the men love it, and are bewildered that a young five-year-old boy could have that much courage. After this, Charles and his mother return home, and the audience sees the poor, wretched lifestyle that this child is subjected to. Charles, his mother, and his brother Sydney settle down to a meal of fish heads. After this, the British police come, and seize young Charlie and Sidney to put them to work in a labor house. The two brothers are separated, and quietly descend into the terrible living conditions of a labor house. After this, we see a teenage Charles Chaplin out of the labor house being guided by his older brother to a new job in show business. Sydney approaches a wealthy man that he works for, and asks him to hire Charlie as a comedian for a play. The man quickly dismissed the idea, but then Charlie starts performing a wonderful routine of slapstick comedy that wins the man over. Sydney also tells Charlie about the problems regarding their mother, and how the loss of both of her sons drove her to insanity. They discuss which care facility they should place her in and how much it would cost. Chaplin is shown performing numerous times in England, and then he meets a girl named Hetty Kelly, a dancer that travels with his theatre group. He falls in love with her, and asks her to marry him. She says no, and Chaplin leaves to go to America. While in America, Chaplin receives a job from Mack Sennett, who was known as The King of Comedy. Charlie then spends hours in the dressing room picking out what would be known as his Little Tramp outfit. After Charlie develops this renowned character, he instantly becomes famous. Next, Charlie meets Mildred Harris, a young underage woman who ran away from her home to become an actress. The two get married even through they are not really in love, and it is hinted that the only reason Charlie married her is because he got her pregnant. The two remain together for a while, but eventually divorce. Charlie breaks away from Mack Sennett because of Sennett's demanding wife/co-director, and he leaves with his brother to meet a new financier for his movies. While at this meeting, Charlie meets Lillita McMurray, an actress sitting down eating dinner with her mother. Charlie becomes involved with this woman, and eventually casts her in many of his movies such as The Kid (1921). Then, Chaplin goes onto divorce this woman and marry another woman named Paulette Goddard, who eventually divorces him because of his obsession with the composing of his movies. Chaplin then made enemies with J. Edgar Hoover at a dinner party, and Hoover continually harassed him through his life. When Chaplin leaves America to visit London, he is exiled from America by Hoover, for his scandal of having a baby with an underage woman. With his reputation damaged, he remains out of the public eye for over seven years until producing Limelight (1952). While in London, Chaplin realizes America is not really his home, that he really belongs nowhere. Charlie traveled to Switzerland with his final wife Oona O'Neill, and together they resided into exile. In 1972, Chaplin is welcomed back to America to accept a special Academy Honorary Award. Though initially resentful after twenty years of his exile and concerned that no one would remember him, he is moved to tears as the audience laughs at footage from his films and gives him the Academy Awards' longest standing ovation ever. The epilogue describes what happened to each of the main characters: Charlie Chaplin accepts his Oscar and returns to Switzerland; he is knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1975 and dies two years later at the elderly age of 88 on Christmas Day in Vevey, alongside his wife, children, and grandchildren. Hannah Chaplin spends the final seven years of her life in the small house Charlie bought for her near the Pacific Ocean. Sydney Chaplin retires to South France after World War II, spending part of each summer at his half-brother's residence in Switzerland, before passing away on his half-brother's 76th birthday. Fred Karno, the vaudeville impresario who gave Charlie his first job, goes bankrupt in 1926 and dies impoverished fifteen years later. Charlie's first love, Hetty Kelly, married a politician and died at the age of 25, but she is never forgotten by Chaplin and served as the inspiration for many of his cinematic heroines. With the advent of talkies, Mack Sennett's reign as the "King of Comedy" came to an end. Almost forgotten, he returned to Hollywood to accept a Special Academy Award in 1937. Mabel Normand becomes involved in a drug and sex scandal surrounding the murder of a Hollywood director in 1922 and has never acted again. Edna Purviance, Charlie's leading woman in over 30 comedies, retires after failing to find work as a dramatic actress, and Chaplin keeps her on the studio payroll for the rest of her life. Douglas Fairbanks, one of United Artists' three co-founders, divorces Mary Pickford in 1936 and dies of a heart attack in his sleep three years later. Mary Pickford, dubbed "America's Sweetheart", became a key figure in the operation of United Artists, contending with Charlie for the highest salary in Hollywood and lived to the age of 86 (sic, actually 87). Mildred Harris, Charlie's first wife, has a fading acting career following their divorce, where she becomes confined to performing in sleazy nightclubs and dies an alcoholic at the age of 43. J. Edgar Hoover was the FBI's director for nearly five decades, employing sex secrets obtained illegally by his special agents to manipulate powerful people from all walks of life - Charlie's FBI file containing over 1,900 pages. Charlie's second wife, Lita Grey, and her younger son, Sydney Jr., remained in California, while his other son, Chaplin Jr., died in 1968. Charlie's third wife, Paulette Goddard, retired from acting in 1966 and moved to Switzerland, near Charlie and Oona. Joan Barry spent the most of her remaining life in mental institutions, with no indication of where or how she died. Despite not being the father, Charlie was obligated to maintain Joan's daughter, Carol Anne, until she reached the age of 21. Joseph Scott's courtroom speech is based on contemporary accounts. Because the State of California did not allow the blood tests to be used in evidence, the paternity suit came to be regarded a major miscarriage or justice. Charlie's fourth wife, Oona O'Neill, marries Chaplin at the age of 18 and has eight children with him. She renounces her own American citizenship and spends the rest of her life in Switzerland after Charlie is forbidden from entering the United States. She outlives Charlie by 14 years and never ceased to mourn his loss until her own death in September 1991.

An ambitious television soap actress connives with her producer to scuttle the career of the show's long-time star, but nothing works as they plan. Celeste Talbert has been the queen of the soaps for over two decades. Montana Moorehead needs to get her out of her way before she can move on and begins her program to get her to leave. She hires an old boyfriend of Celeste to be on the show and has Celeste become a murderer in the script, but each attempt has unforseen consequences. —John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net> Celebrated soap star Celeste Talbert gets support from her niece and from Rose, the script-writer, but is otherwise pretty unpopular at work. In particular, the producer is trying increasingly desperately to write her out of the script on the promise of favours from venomous co-star Montana Moorehead. So Celeste's life is not greatly improved by the re-appearance of an old flame she had insisted was fired from the show twenty years before. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

A young pilot finds himself recruited unwittingly into a covert and corrupt CIA airlift operation in Laos during the Vietnam conflict. Air America was the CIA's private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War, running anything and everything from soldiers to foodstuffs for local villagers. After losing his pilot's license, Billy Covington is recruited into it, and ends up in the middle of a bunch of lunatic pilots, gun-running by his friend Gene Ryack, and opium smuggling by his own superiors. —Jeff Cross <blackjac_1998@yahoo.com> Billy is a wacko pilot who loses his last straight job as a helicopter traffic reporter by getting into a screaming match with a driver. He takes a job working for what amounts to a CIA airline in Asia. Billy puts it as, "I'm used to being the weirdest person in the room. Here I don't even make the top ten." There is an insurgency shooting at them, government soldiers running drugs, a pilot who is supplying arms to the whole region, and those are the straightforward sub plots. —John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

A multimillionaire whose son and daughter are gay leaves a will with one clause: His children will inherit his money only if at least one of them produces his grandchild within a year of his death.

A reincarnated man unknowingly falls in love with his own daughter from his previous life. Once he realizes this, he tries to end their relationship before angels erase his memory. Louie Jeffries is happily married to Corinne. On their first anniversary, Louie is killed crossing the road. Louie is reincarnated as Alex Finch, and twenty years later, fate brings Alex and Louie's daughter, Miranda, together. It's not until Alex is invited to Louie's home that he begins to remember his former life, wife and best friend. Of course, there's also the problem that he's attracted to Louie's/his own daughter. —Rob Hartill

A cynical former civil liberties attorney now reduced to "specializing" in defending drug dealers becomes transformed by an eight-year-old murder case. Eddie Dodd is a burnt out former civil rights lawyer who now specializes in defending drug dealers. Roger Baron, newly graduated from law school, has followed Eddie's great cases and now wants to learn at his feet. With Roger's idealistic prodding, Eddie reluctantly takes on a case of a young Korean man who, according to his mom, has been in jail for eight years for a murder he did not commit.

Thorton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) is a successful and wealthy businessman who owns a nationwide chain of clothing stores for overweight people. Melon himself came from humble beginnings where his father pushed him to succeed in school; however Melon himself, despite his sharp business skills, never attended college. At a meeting of his top staff, he accepts a few new investment ventures and suggests modifying a few more when his son, Jason (Keith Gordon), calls him. Jason is a student at a prestigious school, Grand Lakes University. His father asks him how he's doing with his studies, if he's enjoying being in a fraternity and if he's doing well as part of the diving team. Jason tells him all is fine, but is actually lying to his father; he isn't in a frat, and he's only the towel boy for the diving team. Melon's snooty, mean, spendthrift 2nd wife, Vanessa (Adrienne Barbeau), holds a dinner party for her rich friends at their luxurious house. Thorton mentions that nearly all the people who attend are only there for free food and drink and want to schmooze her for donations. While he raids the fridge for a beer, he catches Vanessa in a tryst with another man, Giorgio (Robert Picardo). Thorton has known about the affair for some time, and when Vanessa demands a divorce, he presents her with papers and shows her several Polaroids of her having sex with Giorgio. After the party, while he practices diving in his pool, Thorton talks to his personal aide and bodyguard, Lou (Burt Young), about how he's let Vanessa weaken his relationship with Jason. He decides he's going to make a surprise visit to Grand Lakes to see his son. When they arrive, Thorton goes to the wrong Greek house - it's a sorority house - and finds out that Jason isn't in a frat or on the diving team. Jason tells him that he's unhappy at the university because he hasn't made very many friends and the frats & diving team don't want him as a member. Thorton tells him that he needs to stay in college so he can be successful in life. He also tells Jason that he'll join him for a semester at the university, enrolling as a freshman. Thorton has no record of his academic achievement to qualify as a student, so he persuades the school's academic dean, Dean Martin (Ned Beatty), by donating money to construct a new building that will house the Thorton Melon School of Business. The school's dean of the business department, Philip Barbay (Paxton Whitehead), is appalled that Thorton is able to bribe his way into Grand Lakes. Thorton counters by saying that he has real-world business experience that trumps Barbay's academic credentials. Thorton and Jason register for classes and both take Barbay's business course. In the first class, Thorton counters nearly every point Barbay makes about his lesson plan for the semester where they will learn about theory by building a fictional company that will make and sell a product. Later, Thorton and Jason attend a literature class taught by Diane Turner (Sally Kellerman), whom Thorton embarrassingly falls for immediately. Though she's seeing Barbay, she seems to enjoy Thorton's freewheeling personality and dates him as well. When Thorton forgets that he's supposed to meet Jason for a study session, Jason instead meets with a young woman who he's smitten with, Valerie (Terry Farrell), and they bond, despite Valerie's attachment to a snobby student, Chas (William Zabka). Meanwhile, Thorton, while partying at a local bar, comes to the aid of Jason's roommate, Derek (Robert Downey Jr.), a politically radical troublemaker who'd earlier disrupted a pep rally for the football team. The team's captain threatens to beat Derek when Thorton has Lou intervene, prompting a huge brawl. Thorton later comments that the football team isn't nearly as tough as his high school team was. Thorton also connects with the school's diving coach (M. Emmet Walsh); the man knew Thorton when he was an entertainment diver on a pier in Atlantic City. The coach tells him that Jason tried out for the team but didn't do well. Thorton has Jason execute a difficult dive for the coach on the spot. Thorton soon finds that he likes the fun aspects of college; hanging out in bars, throwing parties, schmoozing with female coeds, but he doesn't like the academic work involved. He brings in his senior staff and hires people from scientific corporations to do his classwork for him. Jason is angered when his father presents him with an astronomy paper that Jason wants to do himself. Jason becomes further disillusioned with his father when, after he makes the diving team, that his father might have persuaded the coach to let him join. One night during a wild party thrown by Thorton in the dorm room he had luxuriously renovated, Thorton is caught in the hot tub by Diane with several young women. His relationship with her is further hurt when she reads the paper he'd turned in on Kurt Vonnegut, saying that he couldn't possibly have written it himself and that the person who wrote it for him didn't know anything about Vonnegut. (Thorton had called in Vonnegut (Kurt Vonnegut Jr.) himself (who appears in a cameo) for assistance.) Barbay soon goes to Dean Martin with charges leveled against Thorton of academic fraud. Thorton lies and insists the work he did was his own, but Barbay trumps his claim by suggesting that Thorton's final exams be given to him in oral format so he can't cheat. Thorton begins to pack, wanting to leave. Jason convinces him to stay and that he and his roommate, Derek, and Lou will all help him cram for his finals. When Thorton's big day arrives, he's exhausted. Barbay starts the proceedings, giving Thorton a grueling single question composed of 27 sections. Thorton persists and answers all the parts correctly. When he wants to give up, Diane asks him to recite Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night". Thorton gets a boost and finishes his exams. The Grand Lakes diving team has a match the same day. Jason does very well, earning high points while Thorton watches and waits for his exam results. When the team begins to fall behind their rivals, the diving coach calls Thorton poolside to execute his famous Triple Lindy dive from his Atlantic City days. Thorton is reluctant, but Lou talks him into it. Thorton executes the dive, involving bouncing on several diving boards on 3 different levels of the platform, and the team wins the match. Diane finds him after, telling him he earned all D's in his classes and one A from her. Thorton is allowed to give a humorous address to the graduating class. He tells them to stay in college and become successful, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Nerdy social outcasts Gary Wallace and Wyatt Donnelly are humiliated by senior jocks Ian and Max for swooning over their cheerleader girlfriends Deb and Hilly. Rejected and disappointed at their direction in life and wanting more, Gary convinces the uptight Wyatt that they need a boost of popularity in order to get their crushes away from Ian and Max. Alone for the weekend with Wyatt's parents gone, Gary is inspired by the 1931 classic Frankenstein to create a virtual woman using Wyatt's computer, infusing her with everything they can conceive to make the perfect dream woman. After hooking electrodes to a doll and hacking into a government computer system for more power, a power surge creates Lisa, a beautiful and intelligent woman with unlimited magical powers. Promptly, she conjures up a Cadillac to take the boys to a dive bar in Chicago, using her powers to manipulate people into believing Gary and Wyatt are of age. They return home drunk and happen upon Chet, Wyatt's mean older brother, who extorts money from him to buy his silence. Lisa agrees to keep herself hidden from him, but she realizes that Gary and Wyatt, while extremely sweet, are very uptight and need to unwind. After another humiliating experience at the mall when Max and Ian pour an Icee on Gary and Wyatt in front of a crowd, Lisa tells the bullies about a party at Wyatt's house, of which Wyatt had no prior knowledge, before driving off in a Porsche 928 she conjured for Gary. Despite Wyatt's protests, Lisa insists that the party happen anyway in order to loosen the boys up. She goes to meet Gary's parents, Al and Lucy, who, to Gary's embarrassment, are shocked and dismayed at the things she says and her frank manner. After she pulls a gun on them (later revealed to Gary to be a water pistol), she alters their memories so that Lucy forgets about the conflict; however, Al forgets that they had a son altogether. At the Donnelly house, the party has spun out of control while Gary and Wyatt take refuge in the bathroom, where they resolve to have a good time, despite having embarrassed themselves in front of Deb and Hilly. In Wyatt's bedroom, Ian and Max convince Gary and Wyatt to recreate the events that created Lisa, but it fails. Lisa chides them over their misuse of the magic to impress their tormentors. She also explains that they forgot to connect the doll; thus, with the bare but live electrodes resting on a magazine page showing a Pershing II medium-range ballistic missile, a real missile appears, crashing through the house. Meanwhile, Wyatt's grandparents arrive and confront Lisa about the party, but she freezes them and hides them in a cupboard. Lisa realizes that the boys need a challenge to boost their confidence and has a gang of mutant bikers invade the party, causing chaos and sending the boys running. When the bikers take Deb and Hilly hostage, Wyatt and Gary decide to confront the bikers, causing Deb and Hilly to fall in love with them. The bikers leave, and the next morning, Chet discovers the house in disarray, including a localized snowstorm in his room, and the missile. Lisa tells the boys to escort the girls home while she talks to Chet alone. Gary and Wyatt proclaim their feelings, and both girls reciprocate their feelings to the boys. Returning to the house, the boys discover Chet, now transformed into a talking mutant blob. He apologizes to Wyatt for his behavior. Upstairs, Lisa assures them that Chet will soon return to normal, and, realizing that her purpose is complete, hugs both Gary and Wyatt before de-materializing. As she leaves, the house is magically cleaned and everything transformed back to normal, including Chet. Wyatt's parents return home, completely unaware that anything odd has happened. Later at Gary and Wyatt's high school, Lisa turns up as the new gym teacher, thus continuing her mission to look out for the two boys.