Sam McMurray

Earl Crest (Joshua Jackson), a young Southerner in Bennet, Texas, who has to work hard at keeping his friends and family out of trouble. He is in a relationship with his step-sister Baby (Jamie King), although they are somewhat justified in that he and Baby were together before their respective parents even met. Earl's father was a priest who was killed in a stripper bar by a patron, when he went in there to "convert the heathens". Earl's mother married Baby's father Wayne (John Mellencamp). Wayne gets monthly disability checks from getting hit by shrapnel in Vietnam. Jimbo (Matthew Davis) is Earl's best friend, and has been openly gay for 6 years. Andy (Rodger Boyce) is the Sheriff of the town. Smyrna (Elizabeth Barondes) is the waitress at the bar which Earl frequents with Jimbo and Baby. Baby tells Earl to keep an eye on her cousin Junior (DJ Qualls), but Junior is doing his best to get into trouble. Junior and his thuggish friend Tinker (Ryan Hurst) mug a pizza delivery boy, however when they open the bag, they have taken they discover that it actually contains $20,000 and some drugs. Earl finds out about the mugging as Junior is suddenly spending big and Junior claims that he won the lottery but cannot remember his winning numbers. A few years ago, Tiner and Junior tried to use Earl as a getaway driver in a liquor store heist. When Earl sees them robbing the store, he drives away, leading to Tinker and Junior being arrested. Tinker gets 3-5 years in prison, and Junior gets 6 weeks in juvenile detention as it was his first offense. Earl visits Tinker and allows Tinker to knock himself unconscious. Earl confiscates the money and drugs, so that when the owners come back for it, he can return it. Turns out Tinker is a bigger goof than Junior. However, Junior has already spent $2,000 of the money, and Earl and Baby have a little less than that in the bank money that Earl has promised will be used to take Baby to the city to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. Its Saturday and Earl has promised that he and Baby will leave for LA on Tuesday. Earl keeps the money and drugs in the locker of the bowling alley. But then, Tinker comes by Earl's home with a gun and threatens him to hand over the stash. Earl refuses, but then Baby walks by and Tinker ends up capturing Baby. Baby beats the crap out of Tinker, but Tinker forces Earl to hand over the stash else he threatens to shoot Baby. Tinker shoots Earl, but then Baby gets herself free and mows down Tinker with his own pickup truck and saves Earl. Baby drives Earl to the doctor and he is lucky that Tinker was a bad shot. The pizza delivery boy reports the theft of drugs to Mr. Smith (Sam McMurray). Earl tells Andy that Tinker was taking revenge for back when Earl left him outside the liquor store. He doesn't tell Andy about the drugs and the cash. Junior is visited at home and is roughed up and given till Sunday night to return the stolen goods. Junior calls Earl who talks to the goons to arrange a transfer. The goons demand the missing $2000 and keep Junior as hostage till the $2000 is paid. Earl only has $1900 in his accounts and as a result Junior loses his Pinky finger. To make matters worse, the man who killed Earls' father (Thomas Haden Church) has just been released from jail, and he always swore that he would come back to get his revenge on Earl. Earl was the one who identified the person in court, which led to his incarceration. Things become more complicated when the money and drugs have been returned it turns out that they have been given to the wrong people, and now the real owners call Junior and want it back. Earl figures that Tinker, who is alive and is being kept with Jimbo, had something to do with the fake gangsters taking the money posing as the real gangsters. Turns out the fake one is Vasquez (Julian Dulce Vida) and Tinker had promised to sell the drugs to him. Tinker called Vasquez from the hospital and told him to shake down Junior to get the drugs. Earl gets Vasquez's address from Tinker and recovers the drugs and $19,900. Junior takes Vasquez's phone as recompense for his lost Pinky finger. Baby is livid that the bank account has been emptied and orders Earl to deposit the $1900 back. Earl must work out how to make up the difference. Earl goes to meet Mr Smith, with Tinker, Jimbo and Junior, and secretly followed by the Killer. Just before Mr Smith shoots Earl, Junior gets call from Baby on his cell phone, where Baby informs Earl that she has been kidnapped by Vasquez. Earl uses the distraction to get his hands on a machine gun and makes his way out of Mr. Smith's mansion. Earl, Jimbo, Tinker and Junior head to Vasquez to rescue Baby and are soon outgunned. Soon, they are joined by Mr. Smith and his goons, who followed them. A shootout ensues and 2 the gangs end up killing each other. Mr. Smith has Earl on gunpoint, but he is shot by the Killer, who saves Earl. Turns out Killer only wanted to apologize to Earl for killing his father. Throughout the confrontations, Tinker keeps changing sides and uses every opportunity to turn the gun on Earl. Earl leaves with Junior, Jimbo, and Baby, taking the cash, but leaving the drugs with Tinker, and promising to call the ambulance, so he can get help. Knowing fully well that Tinker will be put in prison for possessing such large quantities of narcotics. Baby and Earl decide to leave for LA.

A television weatherman scams a local lottery. Winter 1988. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is Russ Richard's oyster, there where he is the popular weatherman for WTPA Channel 6 News. That popularity allows him many perks in the city, especially at his local Denny's. Things start to go off the rails for him as this winter is unseasonably warm and not white, meaning that no one is buying from his snowmobile dealership, and none of his usual sources are willing to advance him any money to tide him over this rough business patch. In turning to Gig, a slightly shady acquaintance who operates a strip club and bar, Russ decides to turn to illegal activities to get the money he needs. After one failed attempt at that criminal life which has its own negative consequences, Russ instead decides on a lottery scam, his partners in crime being Gig, and Crystal Latroy, Russ' colleague at WTPA as the Pennsylvania Lucky Six Lottery girl - the lottery numbers which are drawn live on air during WTPA's supper hour news - and his sometime lover. Crystal is also sleeping with her and Russ' married boss, WTPA manager Dick Simmons, in an effort to get ahead in the world. Russ, Gig and Crystal are able to devise a plan to win the next jackpot, worth $6.4 million. As they enact the plan, which requires the assistance from a few others, the plan also potentially starts to go off the rails as those in the know and those who think that they know something about the fraud want what they believe is their fair share which, if Russ would agree, would get him further in the hole than he was before going into the venture. But as things get more and more dangerous and potentially lethal, Russ, Crystal and Gig begin to have diverging views on how to get out from the increasing mess based on their own tolerance of the risk for the potential reward. —Huggo Winter, 1988: Harrisburg PA's celebrity weatherman, Russ Richards, is broke: he's borrowed heavily to open a snowmobile dealership, and it's still unseasonably warm. Gig, his seedy pal, advises him to run an insurance scam; when it goes awry, Russ is out another $10,000 and in trouble with Dale, a bat-wielding thug. Gig convinces Russ to rig the state lottery with the help of Crystal, a gold-digging ditz with a heart of tin. They have to find a beard to buy the ticket, and then they have to cash it. Soon, murder and various double-crosses add to Russ's nightmare. A lazy cop zeroes in. Jail is closer than riches. Will Russ have to choose between his money and his life? —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Three problem teens sent to jail are offered a deal to work with an undercover cop, uncover an intricate drug ring and are caught in a deadly set-up. With cops on their trail, they have little time to solve the case and clear their names. Three minor delinquints (Danes, Ribisi, and Epps) are recruited by a cop (Farina) working undercover to bust a cop/drug ring. When the officer who recruited them is killed, they go above and beyond the call of duty to solve the murder; and bust the drug ring. Suffering the jibes, and ridicule of fellow officers; they struggle to save their names, and that of their deceased benefactor. —J. D. Keith <jkeith@compunet.net>

With the help of a talking freeway billboard, a wacky weatherman tries to win the heart of an English newspaper reporter, who is struggling to make sense of the strange world of early 1990s Los Angeles. Harris K. Telemacher is a "wacky weekend weatherman" for a local Los Angeles television station, who is searching for meaning in his otherwise cliché ridden Los Angeles life. With the help of an insightful and talkative Freeway sign, Harris embarks on a journey through Los Angeles in pursuit of Sarah, an English reporter who has been sent to the City of Angels to research an article for the London Times. —TheMovieHippo In Los Angeles, the meteorologist Harris K. Telemacher is the wacky weatherman of television news. He has a wasted relationship with his obnoxious girlfriend Trudi, and he feel that he lives a boring life. When Harris meets English journalist Sara McDowell, who has come to Los Angeles to write en article for the London Times, in a brunch party with her ex-husband Roland Mackey and other friends, he believes that she is the woman of his life. Harris does not know how to seduce her, and he discovers that Trudi has been cheating on him with his agent for three years. Then Harry dates the younger aspirant spokesmodel SanDeE* because he believes that Sara is interested in her ex-husband. However, a freeway signpost helps Harry to woo Sara. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil In culturally artificial and intellectually vapid Los Angeles, Harris K. Telemacher has only come to the realization that he hates his life. He is in a long term relationship with Trudi, a personal shopper and image consultant who is a self-absorbed, high maintenance woman and whose primary goal in life is to climb the social ladder. And as the wacky weatherman for KYOY Channel-14 Television News despite his Ph.D. in Arts and Humanities, he has the most boring job in the city in the weather never changing, it always 72°F and sunny, the reason he has to be wacky in order to make it more interesting. His life changes when he begins to have conversations with an electronic highway signpost, which seems to want to help him find the meaning of his life. He thinks that what the signpost is trying to help him with is finding happiness in large part with his love life. He believes it has something to do with two free-spirited women he has only recently met. The first is Sara McDowell, a London based journalist he meets at a social function, she in town temporarily to write a story for the London Times on Los Angeles. As Sara to him seems unattainable despite his overall attraction to her, the second is not Sandy, Sandi, or even Sandee, but rather SanDeE*, a clothing store clerk and aspiring spokesmodel who is not shy about wanting to have a casual sexual relationship with him despite she already being in another one. —Huggo Harris K. Telemacher is the "wacky weather" presenter for a Los Angeles television station. He finds himself battling the insane conditions and people caused by the manic chaos that is Los Angeles. Striving to achieve happiness (or at least a date), he finds a helping hand from the last person he expected: the city of Los Angeles. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

A boy and his brother run away from home and hitch cross-country, with help from a girl they meet, to compete in the ultimate video-game championship. Brothers Corey and Jimmy Woods are being separated by their parents' divorce. Jimmy is a mentally-unstable boy who has had problems ever since his twin sister died at a young age. One day, Corey discovers that Jimmy has a natural talent for playing video games. He is one of the best around, and the two journey to the West Coast to compete in a video-game championship, but along the way, they must avoid the adults who are trying to take Jimmy away. —Anonymous This is the story of a young boy named Jimmy Woods who has suffered from a serious mental disorder ever since his twin sister died at a young age. One day, Jimmy discovers he has a natural talent for playing lots of video games. Jimmy and his two friends run away from home and hitch-hike cross-country to Los Angeles to compete in the ultimate video game championship. —Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}