Stephen Endelman

A fateful event leads to a job in the film business for top mixed-martial arts instructor Mike Terry. Though he refuses to participate in prize bouts, circumstances conspire to force him to consider entering such a competition. Is there room for principle in Los Angeles? Mike Terry teaches jujitsu and barely makes ends meet. His Brazilian wife, whose family promotes fights, wants to see Mike in the ring making money, but to him competition is degrading. A woman sideswipes Mike's car and then, after an odd sequence of events, shoots out the studio's window. Later that evening, Mike rescues an action movie star in a fistfight at a bar. In return, the actor befriends Mike, gives him a gift, offers him work on his newest film, and introduces Mike's wife to his own - the women initiate business dealings. Then, things go sour all at once, Mike's debts mount, and going into the ring may be his only option. —<jhailey@hotmail.com> The idealistic instructor of jujitsu, Mike Terry, refuses to compete in the ring for principle and is training the promising fighter and police officer Joe Collins. When the stressed lawyer Laura Black stumbles in his academy in a rainy night, she accidentally shots Joe's pistol breaking the front window. Mike and Joe do not report the incident, and Mike's wife Sondra tells him that they do not have money to repair the window. Mike seeks Sondra's brother in a bar to raise a loan, but he does not find his brother-in-law; he befriends the actor Chet Frank after rescuing him in a fight in the bar. Chet invites Terry and Sondra for a dinner party at his home and gives a golden watch as a gift. Mike gives the watch to Joe for pawning, but the watch is stolen and Joe gets in trouble in the police. Meanwhile Mike's idea of fight with handicap is stolen by a group of gamblers and Sondra raises a debt of US$ 30,000.00 for an unsuccessful business with Chet's wife. Without other option, Mike decides to fight in the ring to raise the necessary money to pay his debts. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In the opening scene, we are introduced to four high school girls whom are blessed with beauty and charisma. They are known as the "Flawless Four" who are the most popular girls in Reagan High School in southern California. The clique consists of Courtney Shayne (Rose McGowan) known as Satan-in-heels; Marcie Fox (Julie Benz) known as 'Foxy'; Julie Freeman (Rebecca Gayheart); and Elizabeth Purr (Charlotte Ayanna), known as the "Princess Di of Reagan High." Of the four, Elizabeth Purr was the only one who was genuinely kind-hearted and loved by the entire school. Julie was "doomed to be popular because of 'that face' and because she was best friends with Elizabeth Purr". Cold-blooded queen bee Courtney and her airheaded friend, Marcie, demand respect through terror. However, Courtney, Marcie and Julie play a mindless prank on Liz the morning of her seventeenth birthday, by performing a fake kidnapping: They surprise Liz in bed, bind her with ropes (with Courtney ramming a jawbreaker candyball into her mouth to gag her) and cover it with duct tape. The girls trap Liz, dressed only in a shirt and panties, in the trunk of a car, as she struggles and squeals through her gag, and drive off. They plan to take the bound, gagged, and helpless girl to a restaurant and "stuff her face with pancakes". However, upon opening the trunk, they are greeted with the grisly sight of Liz dead, having choked to death by aspirating the jawbreaker into her larynx. Horrified, Julie wants to go to the police but Courtney forbids her. Instead, Courtney calls the school pretending to be Liz's mother and tells them Liz is ill and cannot attend school. To keep up appearances, Courtney, Marcie and Julie then go to school as though nothing had happened. When the principal sends school outcast Fern Mayo (Judy Greer) to deliver Liz's homework at the end of the day, she stumbles upon the three girls and Liz's mangled and decomposing body. Out of jealousy, Courtney fabricates a story that Liz died at the hands of a rapist, and plots to tarnish Liz's good reputation by spreading false rumors that she was actually a rebellious, promiscuous girl, and not the perfect angel she made herself out to be. Fern, who had admired Liz to the point of hero worship, is appalled and attempts to flee the house, but the girls easily catch her. To buy Fern's silence, Courtney accepts Fern into the clique, telling her to take Liz's place. Courtney and Marcie then give her a makeover, transforming her from plain and awkward to elegant and beautiful. Later in the school cafeteria, Courtney introduces Fern as the beautiful exchange student "Vylette." Julie, overwhelmed by guilt at her part in Liz's death, distances herself from the clique, only to be shunned and tormented by her former friends and becomes a new target for abuse throughout the school. Her only real friend during this time is her drama student boyfriend, Zack. Meanwhile, a police detective, Vera Cruz (Pam Grier) begins investigating Liz's death after her body was discovered by her parents who arrived home from a long vacation. With some cooperation from the wary principal Ms. Sherwood (Carol Kane), Detective Cruz interogates all of Liz's friends (Courtney, Marcie, and Julie included). All of them deny knowing anything about Liz's death. Fern/Vylette however comes across as suspicious due to her demeanor. But without any evidence, Cruz allows 'Vylette' to remain free. As Vylette's popularity soars, Julie watches in mute horror as Courtney spins a relentless web of lies, trickery and manipulation to cover up the murder and maintain her popularity at the school. A few days later, Julie learns from Detective Cruz (to her disgust) that after they'd returned Liz's corpse to her house, Courtney went out and seduced a stranger (Marilyn Manson) at a sleazy bar and had sex with him in Liz's bed, making it seem as though he had raped Liz. Meanwhile, Vylette becomes intoxicated with her newfound popularity, which has eclipsed Courtney's own. Realizing she has created a monster, Courtney threatens to reveal the truth about Vylette if she doesn't stop showing off, but Vylette vows she will reveal the whole truth about Liz's death if Courtney attempts to expose her. The next day, an infuriated Courtney and Marcie post enlarged yearbook photos of Fern Mayo all over the school with the message "Who is Vylette?" written on them, revealing Vylette's true identity. Fern is thoroughly humiliated by the entire school and once again reduced to an outcast. Feeling no remorse for the lives she has destroyed, Courtney casually attends the senior prom with her boyfriend, jock Dane Sanders (Ethan Erickson). Julie takes pity on Fern and forgives her for falling under Courtney's influence. Later that night as she sulks in her room, going through a bag of Liz's belongings that were given to her, Julie finds the recording card she was fiddling with when Courtney was faking Liz's death and discovers it has incidentally recorded Courtney's admission to the murder. Struck with an idea, Julie, Fern and Zack all hurry to the prom. Upon seeing them, Courtney, Marcie and a few of their lackeys call Julie and Fern names and try to embarrass them, but it backfires when the girls completely ignore their taunts and go on with their plan. Later on, as Dane and Courtney are announced as Prom King and Queen, Zack sneaks backstage and broadcasts the card message, "I killed Liz! I killed the teen dream! Deal with it!", over the sound system while Courtney is making her acceptance speech. Dane (seized with shock and disgust over the revelation) quickly abandons Courtney. Marcie also runs and hides to distance herself from Courtney. Horrified that her scheme has become unraveled, she races for the exit as the rest of the students pelt her with corsages and call her a murderer. Awaiting Courtney at the very end of the mob is Julie, who gleefully snaps a picture of her former friend's anguished face to immortalize the occasion.

Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller) and his wife, Nancy (Patricia Arquette), live in New York, near Mel's neurotic, Hebrew, adoptive parents, Ed (George Segal) and Pearl Coplin (Mary Tyler Moore). Mel and Nancy have just had their first child, and they refuse to name their son until Mel can discover the identity of his biological parents. He assures her that once he knows who he really is, the right name for their boy will be a snap. Meanwhile Mel and Nancy's sex life has taken a brutal hit since the birth of their son. After an adoption agency employee locates his biological mother's name in a database, Mel decides to meet her personally. Tina (Tea Leoni), the sexy but highly incompetent adoption agency employee, decides to accompany Mel, Nancy, and the newborn on a trip to San Diego to meet Mel's biological mother. Tina is in the middle of a divorce; she is 30 years old and wants a baby of her own. Tina is finishing her dissertation (on the emotional and psychological impacts of the reunions) and will film the happy reunion of mother and child as part of her research. For this privilege, she's footing the bill. Mel's adoptive parents are left behind feeling abandoned by an ungrateful son. Ed says that his 60th birthday is coming up and he doesn't want Mel to miss it. Pearl cannot understand Mel's need to connect with his "roots", feeling that perhaps he feels that they were not good enough parents to him. The trip, of course, does not go as planned, and ends up becoming a tour of the United States. First, Mel is introduced to Valerie (Celia Weston), a blond Scandinavian woman with Confederate roots whose twin daughters are at least six inches taller than Mel. Valerie comes from an athletic family with Finnish and Scottish roots. They quickly realize that Valerie is not Mel's biological mother (as her son was born 2 years before Mel was born), and Tina scrambles to get the correct information from the agency database. Meanwhile, Nancy becomes jealous as Tina and Mel begin to flirt. Tina used to be an exotic dancer and that raises Nancy's anxiety further still. Tina and Mel playfully wrestle each other as Tina is into Indian wrestling as well. Next, the group heads to rural Michigan with the hope of meeting the man whose name appears as the person who delivered infant Mel to the adoption agency. The man, Fritz Boudreau (David Patrick Kelly), turns out to be a trucker with a violent streak. However, when he discovers that Mel might be his son, he becomes instantly friendly and lets Mel drive his semi-trailer truck, which Mel immediately crashes into a Post Office building. This leads to a run-in with two ATF agents, Tony (Josh Brolin) and Paul (Richard Jenkins), who are gay and in a relationship with each other. It is discovered that Tony and Nancy went to high school together. Charges are dismissed, and Fritz Boudreau tells Mel that he is not Mel's father, but only handled Mel's adoption because Mel's biological parents were incapacitated. Tina locates the current address of Mel's biological parents, which turns out to be in rural New Mexico. Tony and Paul surprise everyone by deciding to tag along on the trip. While Mel and Tina become close, Nancy finds herself flirting with Tony, who returns the compliment, causing friction. The trip through rural New Mexico is fraught with more problems. At last, the whole crowd descends on the front porch of Mel's true biological parents, Richard (Alan Alda) and Mary Schlichting (Lily Tomlin). They are asked to stay the night. While Richard and Mary are more than welcoming, Mel's biological brother Lonnie (Glenn Fitzgerald) is overly rude and jealous. It is during dinner that Mel discovers that Richard and Mary had to let Mel be adopted because they were in jail for making and distributing LSD in the late 1960s. Not only that, but Richard and Mary continue to manufacture LSD, as becomes apparent when Lonnie, in an attempt to dose Mel with acid at dinner, accidentally doses Paul, the ATF agent. In his drugged state Paul tries to arrest Richard and Mary but Lonnie knocks him out with a frying pan. They attempt to escape and decide to take Mel's car, hiding their supply of acid in the trunk. Mel's adoptive parents arrive but then change their minds and decide to leave, taking the wrong car. When they change their minds again and make a blind U-turn, the two families crash. Mel's adoptive parents are arrested while his biological parents escape to Mexico. Not realizing what has happened Mel recounts the stories from dinner to Nancy and they agree to name the baby Garcia. Called to the Sheriff's office to bail out Ed and Pearl, Mel refers to them as his parents, which they are surprised and happy to hear. The next day Paul explains the situation and is able to get Mel's parents released. A montage of each family's personal relationships - Mel and Nancy, Paul and Tony and their Tina-arranged adopted baby, Ed and Pearl, the three Schlichtings, and a very pregnant Tina - continues over the credits. Each family still have their troubles, but Mel and Nancy are happy together.

A directionless young man hired as a drama teacher at a psychiatric hospital is roped by a demanding patient into helming an ambitious production of Mozart's opera "Così fan tutte". Lewis is a young Sydney amateur theater director at his first experience: he is offered a job with a Governmental program for the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients in a Sydney institution for mentally ill. His project is overrun by one of the patients Roy who wants to put on stage Cosi Fan Tutte (Mozart). None of the patients in the cast is able to sing and none of them knows Italian which is the language of the libretto. Through a lot of difficulties Lewis and his cast develop a deep understanding. The play smartly adapted for the unusual cast is finally produced: lots of unforeseen situations solved 'a la crazy way'but indeed brilliantly. Great success and sad farewell of the director from his cast. —Lorenzo Matteoli <matteoli@iinet.net.au>

When an English cartographer must tell a Welsh village that their mountain is only a hill, the offended community sets out to change that. Two English cartographers visit the small South Wales village of Ffynnon Garw, to measure what is claimed to be the "first mountain inside of Wales". It's 1917, and the war in Europe continues. The villagers are very proud of their "mountain", and are understandably disappointed and furious to find that it is in fact a "hill". Not to be outwitted by a rule (and the Englishmen who enforce it), the villagers set out to make their hill into a mountain, but to do so they must keep the English from leaving, before the job is done. —Rob Hartill

The journey that August King takes is one of faith. He is conflicted with what the world tells him in the here and now and resists any idea that he is connected to the plight of this young woman. His journey is a metamorphosis. During this journey he changes and grows in his faith without ever realizing it -- at each turn he is making the critical decision to not only help someone, but to take a leap of faith -- a faith that his wife tried to persuade him exists but one in which he does not immediately believe. He is called upon by a higher power and sees this only at the moment he loses everything. The beauty of it is that he gains everything in the interim. This film is full of symbolism and Biblical references that integral to the plot and affords the viewer an opportunity to experience what it means to chose between right and wrong, good and evil in an almost alcoholic way -- day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second. We cannot know in advance, what our mission is in life we can only make critical decision one at a time until the entire mission is revealed. Jason Patric's performance is excellent as well as a performance by Thandie Newton -- before she becomes well known through other films yet to come. As a person involved in the slavery film 12 Years a Slave, I must say that this film in many ways is just as riveting and important in the telling of American History and the nation in which we live past and present. There are some strong images but this film is well worth watching. Renee Moore, themoor78@yahoo.com