Robert Knott

Two friends hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a rancher find their job complicated by the arrival of a young widow. 1882, New Mexico Territory. Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) are itinerant lawmen, hired by desperate towns as Marshal and Deputy, respectively. The city fathers of Appaloosa hire them after Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), a newly-arrived rancher with money and a gang of thugs, disrupts commerce and kills three local lawmen. Cole and Hitch contrive to arrest Bragg and bring him to trial, but hanging him proves to be difficult. Meanwhile, a widow has arrived in town, Allison French (Renée Zellweger), pretty, refined, and good-natured. Virgil falls hard, and it seems mutual, but there may be more to Allison than meets the eye. Can friendship and skill with a gun overcome a pernicious villain and green-eyed jealousy? —<jhailey@hotmail.com> Tough friends and partners Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) arrive in the town of Appaloosa and they are hired as Marshal and Deputy, respectively, by the local politicians with absolute power to rule the city. In their first assignment, they face the gang of the powerful rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), who had killed Marshal Jack Bell (Robert Jauregui) and his two Deputies, and they killed three gunmen. When refined piano player Allison French (Renée Zellweger) arrives in Appaloosa, she stays close to the needy Virgil and they decide to live together. Meanwhile, one employee of Bragg offers to testify against his boss, and Virgil and Everett bring him to court, where he is sentenced to death by hanging. While transporting Bragg in the train to be executed, two gunmen abduct Allison to force Virgil to release Bragg. Bragg escapes with his men and Allison through the desert, with Virgil and Everett on their tails. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A film about the life and career of the American painter, Jackson Pollock. At the end of the 1940's, abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) is featured in Life magazine. Flashback to 1941, he's living with his brother in a tiny apartment in New York City, drinking too much, and exhibiting an occasional painting in group shows. That's when he meets artist Lee Krasner, who puts her career on hold to be his companion, lover, champion, wife, and, in essence, caretaker. To get him away from booze, insecurity, and the stress of city life, they move to the Hamptons where nature and sobriety help Pollock achieve a breakthrough in style: a critic praises, then Life magazine calls. But so do old demons: the end is nasty, brutish, and short. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Two cowboys have their friendship tested when they fall for the same girl. An intimate story of the enduring bond of friendship between two hard-living men, set against a sweeping backdrop: the American West, post-World War II, in its twilight. Pete and Big Boy are masters of the prairie, but ultimately face trickier terrain: the human heart. —Anonymous

Aliens with conical crania crash-land on Earth. An alien couple known as Beldar and Prymatt with cone-shaped heads from the planet called Remulak is mistakenly ditched on earth, during a scouting mission for planet conquest. While here, they dodge the INS, have a child and discover that life on Earth is quite good. But unfortunately they are being chased by the government who knows something is not quite right with the Conehead family. After they are rescued and taken back to their planet, Beldar vows to return to earth and conquer it. —Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com} An alien couple with cone-shaped heads from the planet "Remulak" is mistakingly ditched on earth. While waiting to be recalled to their mother planet, they start a family and have a little daughter. They try to adapt to earth customs by living in middle-class suburbia. Meanwhile, their daughter grows up to be a teenager who has difficulties fitting in with her peers or accepting the fact that at some point, she has to return to "Remulak" with the rest of the family. —Cedrus