Tony Shalhoub

In a world where monster wrestling is a popular sport, Winnie seeks to follow in her father`s footsteps by coaching an inexperienced monster, Steve, into a contender.

The film follows the Wellers, A dynamic New York City family as they come to terms with themselves and each other. Eleanor Weller (Hunter) is a therapist who is not coping well with changes in her personal life, including a recent divorce and the growing instability of her daughter. Her ex-husband Adam (Shalhoub) is a once promising playwright whose career has been on a steady decline for many years. When Adam receives a manuscript written by a dead friend, he seizes an opportunity to transform his life.

The turtles have a conflict with scientist Dr. Baxter Stockman with the association of the Foot Clan and the return of their enemy, the Shredder. The Shredder has hired Stockman to create mutants of their own in the form of Bebop and Rocksteady, ready with an unknown invasion above New York City. To prevent the end of the world, the turtles and their human friends April O`Neil and Vern Fenwick come to the rescue with vigilante Casey Jones.

After waking up and discovering that he has undergone gender reassignment surgery, an assassin seeks to find the doctor responsible. Following an ace assassin who is double crossed by gangsters and falls into the hands of rogue surgeon known as The Doctor who turns him into a woman. The hitman now a hitwoman sets out for revenge, aided by a nurse named Johnnie who also has secrets. —bartholomewmatthew The drug addicted Sebastian Jane owes a large amount to the powerful mobster Honest John Hartunian and the hitman Frank Kitchen is hired to kill him. After finishing his assignment, he meets the nurse Johnnie in a bar and has one night stand with her. Soon Honest John double-crosses him and abducts Frank. When Frank wakes up, he learns that his gender was perfectly changed and now he is a woman. He also finds instructions in a tape recorder and medicine and hormones to be taken. Frank is mentally disturbed and calls Johnnie, asking to stay with her during his recovery and while planning his revenge. Two years later, the unethical Doctor Rachel Jane, who lost her license of plastic surgeon, is interrogated by Dr. Ralph Galen. She admits that she hired Honest John to bring Frank Kitchen to her and performed the surgery in Frank to affect his mind and give him a new chance in life as woman. However, the police do not believe that Frank exists. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The lives of three women are unexpectedly changed when they cross paths at a New York Family Court.

Darkness has settled over New York City, as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan have an iron grip on everything from the police to the politicians. The future is grim until four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must work with fearless reporter April O`Neil and her cameraman Vern Fenwick to save the city and unravel Shredder`s diabolical plan.

From acclaimed director Michael Bay comes a new action comedy starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie. Based on the unbelievable true story of a group of personal trainers in 1990s Miami who, in pursuit of the American Dream, get caught up in a criminal enterprise that goes horribly wrong.

Author Michael Enslin, who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences, checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel in New York City, settles in, and soon confronts genuine terror. Author Mike Enslin specializes in paranormal investigations writing books along the line of the 10 best haunted hotels in America and so on. He receives an anonymous postcard in the mail telling him not to stay in room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel in New York City. His attempts to make a reservation there are unsuccessful and he is told that it isn't available - ever. His research reveals that there have been a number of very strange deaths in that room dating as far back as the hotel's opening 95 years ago. The hotel is forced to accept him but the manager, Gerald Olin, begs him not to stay there. In his opinion, the room is evil and no one has ever been able to stay in there for more than an hour. Enslin scoffs at the warning and is soon in the room - from which he soon becomes desperate to leave. —garykmcd Hacked off with his miserable life, the quasi-successful author of spine-chilling ghost stories, Mike Enslin, makes a living debunking supernatural events by visiting sites of reported paranormal activity. Profoundly cynical, Enslin receives an anonymous postcard warning him not to check into the mysterious room 1408 of Manhattan's Dolphin Hotel, of course, only to spark his suspicious interest. Intrigued, Mike chooses to ignore the hotel manager's insistent warnings of the evil room's grave dangers--and after packing his spirit-detecting gear--he boldly enters a secret realm of bizarre occurrences and surreal instances. Will Room 1408 make for an excellent final chapter in sceptic Mike's new novel? —Nick Riganas Supernatural writer Mike Enslin is the author of two successful books on supernatural phenomena. As research for his latest book, Enslin is determined to check out the notorious room 1408 in a New York City hotel by personally staying as a guest in the fabled room. He believes that 1408 is just a myth perpetuated by stories and rumors that Enslin has collected for his past works. However, hotel manager Mr. Olin has strong objections to Enslin's stay and only warns him of possible danger to come. Enslin is determined to go anyway. But what Mike Enslin is about to experience is no myth, as 1408 truly is a room where the guests don't check out by noon. —mystic80

Meg Ryan stars in a true story about Jackie Kallen, the first female boxing manager who successfully broke the gender barrier of the boxing world. The film focuses on the relationship she has with her first boxer, Luther Shaw (Omar Epps) and his successful rise to the boxing championship and the inside dealings of the boxing game. Jackie turns Luther into a prizefighter with the help of trainer Felix Reynolds (Charles Dutton). During the press conference after each boxing win, Jackie is put in the spotlight and she lets fame go to her head. Jackie begins to believe that she is the one who made the boxer what he is today, and that she is doing all the work. This causes trouble between Jackie and the boxer. The boxer wants and gets a new manager. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)

Agents J and K reunite once again in this sequel, to eradicate the threat posed by a seductress alien who is disguised as a lingerie model.

Ghost hunter Cyrus Kriticos (F. Murray Abraham) and assistant Dennis Rafkin (Matthew Lillard) lead a team on a mission to capture a spirit, called the Juggernaut, in a junkyard. Several of the men are killed during the ensuing fight, including Cyrus himself. However, the team is able to catch the ghost. Arthur Kriticos (Tony Shalhoub), a mathematician who is also a widower, is informed by the estate lawyer of his uncle Cyrus, Benjamin Moss (JR Bourne), that he has inherited a mansion. Arthur and his financially insecure family plan to move into this mansion with his two children, Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth) and Bobby (Alec Roberts). Their babysitter/nanny Maggie (Rah Digga) accompanies the family. Dennis Rafkin, disguised as a power company employee, meets the family and Benjamin as they tour the mansion. The residence is made almost entirely of glass. It contains Latin phrases etched on floors and movable glass walls, along with priceless artefacts. Arthur and his family are eager about inheriting this new home, and while Arthur is discussing financial matters with the attorney, Kathy and Bobby venture off on their own to explore the mansion. After seeing several ghosts in the basement, Dennis frantically runs upstairs to warn Arthur about the home he is about to own. Benjamin assures Arthur that Dennis is crazy and should be ignored. Dennis tells Arthur that there are twelve spirits are imprisoned in the house, held captive by the spells written throughout the residence. Benjamin Moss is seen sneaking off to collect a valise of money which was intended to be payment. However, upon taking the money, he activates a mechanism set up by Cyrus that seals the entrance and releases the ghosts, one by one. Consequently, Moss encounters one of them, the Angry Princess, and backs up into an open doorway, which snaps shut and slices him in half. Later the existence of ghosts is proven to the skeptical Arthur, when he witnesses an attack on his daughter by the ghost known as the Jackal. Bobby, the younger of the two children, disappears after getting separated from Maggie and he wanders into the basement. There he encounters several spirits, including the Torso and the Bound Woman. Arthur manages to find Kathy, and the two battle the Jackal. Kalina Oretzia (Embeth Davidtz), a spirit liberator, helps Arthur free Kathy from the Jackal's grip, only to be lost again a few moments later. After this, Arthur's objective is clear - to find his children and leave this house as soon as possible. This becomes problematic for two reasons: only those equipped with special glasses are able to see the ghosts; and the walls continue to shift, making navigation difficult. Kalina explains that this is not a house - it is a complex machine built by Cyrus, known as the "Ocularis Infernum" (Eye of Hell.) Created by the Devil and powered by the dead, once completed, this demonic device would allow its user to see into the future. To Arthur's horror, he discovers one of the ghosts powering this machine is the spirit of his dead wife, Jean. Kalina goes on to tell Arthur that his children are in grave danger, and the only way to ensure their successful return is to offer his soul in exchange. If Arthur takes his place as the 13th ghost, his sacrifice of pure love would combat all of the evil contained within the machine, thus shutting it down. Cyrus is revealed to be alive, having faked his death in order to lure Arthur to the house; Kalina turns out to be his secret partner and lover, and knocks Maggie unconscious. Cyrus has orchestrated the previous events, including the abduction of Kathy and Bobby, so that Arthur will become the 13th ghost not to stop the machine, as Kalina had claimed, but to trigger it. Cyrus then turns on Kalina and crushes her between two glass walls, claiming "greatness requires sacrifice." Arthur and Dennis make another attempt to save Kathy and Bobby with the help of a detached wall. Facing the Hammer, Dennis pushes Arthur into a corner where he is then protected by the wall, sacrificing his own life in the process. After combating the Hammer, Dennis finds himself cornered by the angry spirit and the newly released Juggernaut; he is brutally beaten and dies when the Juggernaut breaks him in half. Trapped behind the glass, Arthur is visited by Jean's ghost. Then, all the ghosts disappear from the basement, responding to a tape-recorded summons played by Cyrus. Kathy and Bobby have been placed at the center of a set of whirling, razor-sharp rings. Arthur and Cyrus have a violent confrontation , which is interrupted by the sound of Maggie beginning to destroy the machine. Due to this breakdown in equipment, the ghosts are released from their trance. All the ghosts except Jean immediately grab Cyrus, and hurl him into the spinning rings. Dennis' ghost then appears, telling Arthur to go to his kids. Waiting for a break in the razor rings, Arthur jumps to save his children, making the leap without dying. The house's glass walls shatter, releasing the spirits from captivity. A peacful-looking Jean lingers briefly to say goodbye to her family, then departs with the others. The film ends with a battered Maggie walking through the wreckage yelling, "I quit!"

In the year 2079, planet Earth has been at war for the last 45 years after it was attacked by a hostile and implacable alien civilization from the Alpha Centauri system. Force shield domes are put in place to protect cities from frequent and incoming meteors from the aliens, and a totalitarian global military government is established to effect the war and the survival of human race. The enemy aliens, called Centaurians, have never been physically seen (nor are they ever seen on camera). Spencer Olham (Gary Sinese), a designer of top-secret government weapons, goes to work for a typical Monday. He is arrested by Major D.H. Hathaway (Vincent D'Onofrio) of the Earth Security Administration (ESA), after somehow being identified as a replicant created by the aliens. The ESA intercepted an alien transmission which cryptanalysts decoded as programming Olham's target to be the Chancellor (Lindsay Crouse), whom he was scheduled to meet later that day. Such replicants are perfect biological copies of existing humans, complete with transplanted memories, and do not know they are replicants. Each has a powerful "U-bomb" in their chest in the shape and appearance of a human heart, which is programmed to detonate only when the android replicant is close to its target. The alien-made bomb is undetectable with standard X-ray and ultra-sound scanners. The bomb can only be detected by physical dissection... thus killing the replicant. Major Hathaway begins interrogating Olham. As he's about to drill out his chest to find the bomb, Olham breaks loose and escapes from the facility, accidentally killing his friend Nelson (Tony Shalhoub) in the process. With the help of underground scavenger Cale (Mekhi Phifer), Olham avoids capture and becomes a fugitive from the law as well as all the persons and neighbors he thought he trusted over the next 12 hours. With the help of Cale, Olham must find a way to prove his innocence and that he is not an alien replicant. That evening, with the help of Cale, Olham sneaks into the hospital where his wife Maya (Madeleine Stowe), who works as an administrator, to get a high-tech scan of his entire body in order to prove he's not a replicant. Cale helps Olham in order to get medical supplies for his people whom live in a shantytown slum of the city. But the scan is interrupted by security forces before it can deliver the answer with his chest scan incomplete. Never the less, Cale helps Olham escape from the hospital, while he and Olham go their separate ways with Cale having gotten the medical supplies and medicine needed for the people in the shantytown. Olham and his wife are eventually captured by Hathaway's troops in a forest outside the city near an alien crash site, close to the spot where they sneaked out of the city where they spent a romantic weekend just one week before Olham's arrest. Inside the ship they discover the corpse of the real Maya, and Hathaway shoots the replicant before she can detonate. Hathaway thinks he has killed the true impostor, but as his men move debris away from the Centauri ship, the real Spencer's body is revealed. At that moment, the shocked Olham realizes aloud that he really is an alien replicant all along, as well as his wife. But before Hathaway can react, Olham's secondary trigger (his awareness of what he truly is) detonates his U-bomb, destroying himself, Hathaway, his troops, and everything else in a wide area... in a large and fiery nuclear explosion. In the final scene, the news announces that Hathaway and the Olhams were killed in an alien attack, as if the government was covering up the truth, or didn't know what actually happened. Cale wonders if he ever really knew Olham's true identity.

A laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong. 1949, Santa Rosa, California. A laconic, chain-smoking barber with fallen arches tells a story of a man trying to escape a humdrum life. It's a tale of suspected adultery, blackmail, foul play, death, Sacramento city slickers, racial slurs, invented war heroics, shaved legs, a gamine piano player, aliens, and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Ed Crane cuts hair in his in-law's shop; his wife drinks and may be having an affair with her boss, Big Dave, who has $10,000 to invest in a second department store. Ed gets wind of a chance to make money in dry cleaning. Blackmail and investment are his opportunity to be more than a man no one notices. Settle in the chair and listen. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Carmen (Alexa PenaVega) and Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) live with their parents, Ingrid, and Gregorio, who they believe are boring, unaware that their parents are actually semi-retired international spies Grogorio Cortez (Antonio Banderas) & Ingrid Cortez (Carla Gugino), working for an organization called the OSS (Organization of Super Spies). Originally, Ingrid and Gregorio were enemies until they fell in love and got married. They retired to some degree when they had their children. Long ago, at a time of unstable relations between countries, a new breed of soldiers was created: super spies. Using their vast intellects and prowess in the art of stealth, they could stop wars before they even happened. The two protagonists of the story, both of whom were spies, were tasked with eliminating each other, but they ended up becoming infatuated with one another instead and soon fell in love. Despite being from opposing nations, they decided to marry, but this only painted a massive target on their backs for enemy factions that wished to see them dead. They ultimately chose to retire and start a family. They shield their children from their secret spy lives to protect them from inherent danger. The parents are worried about their kids as according to their school principal Carmen's been skipping out on school and Juni's self-proclaimed 'friends' are only in his head. Carmen's main concern in life is with the unwelcome responsibility of babysitting her brother, Juni, and is therefore usually mean to him. However, underneath her abusive exterior, Carmen is hiding secrets of her own: she skips school and has to wear diapers at night due to having problems with bed-wetting. She is desperate to keep both of these problems secret, especially from her brother. Juni lacks self-esteem and is a fan of a children's television show called "Floop's Fooglies." Hosted by Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming) and co-starring the Fooglies-colorful, mutant, gibberish speaking friends of Floop-the show proves to be an irritant to Gregorio, who openly displays his dislike for the program. Gregorio receives information from the OSS that several of their agents have gone missing, notifying Ingrid the following morning. Gregorio and Ingrid are suddenly called back to active field work to find missing agents. Gregorio suspects children's television host Fegan Floop has kidnapped them. Georgio takes notice that one of Floop's side characters, called 'Fooglies,' looks suspiciously like one of the missing OSS agents, Donnagon Giggles (Mike Judge). Gregorio suspects the show is involved in the disappearance of several fellow spies mutating them into his "Fooglies" - creatures on his show, a program that Juni avidly watches. Ingrid and Gregorio decide to investigate and leave their children in the care of "Uncle" Felix Gumm (Cheech Marin), a man not actually their uncle but, rather, a family guardian. Gregorio and Ingrid take a mini-sub and head to Floop's suddenly pick up a transmission from Floop, telling them they have something he desires, and they find themselves being chased by a sub. Gregorio tries to outrun it, but soon he and Ingrid end up getting engulfed by a much larger sub. Ingrid and Gregorio are captured by Floop's men, the ever-idiotic Thumb-Thumbs, robots with thumbs for legs, arms and heads that wear red vests. Carmen and Juni discover the truth about their parents when they find that their parents have been kidnapped. In Floop's island castle, Floop is in a pickle of his own. He is being contracted by a businessman named Lisp (Robert Patrick), the head of a nameless corporation, to build an army for them, and so far, the candidates he's given them (The Fooglies and Thumb-Thumbs, additional characters from the show) have been unsatisfactory to their liking. Floop then presents them with his newest invention, Spy Kids, an army of super-strong robots, using the children of world leaders as a disguise, to conquer the world. The robots were constructed by Floop's servant Alexander Minion (Tony Shalhoub). Since the androids have no artificial intelligence yet, they are unable to function outside their regular programming. An item named the Third Brain is required to power the robots, or at least give them the ability to speak and think. Lisp is furious, demanding usable androids. Lisp chastises Floop for not keeping with their schedule, and demands that he finish his army in two days or everything he's built will be reduced to ashes. Ingrid and Gregorio were brought in, due to Gregorio being one of the scientists who created the Third Brain and hid it, although he refuses to give the hiding place. Ingrid knows nothing of it, while Gregorio claims he had destroyed the brain years ago. After Floop leaves, Gregorio reveals to Ingrid that the Third Brain was a secret OSS project he had worked on: an AI brain with all the skills of the entire OSS. The project was scrapped as being too dangerous and many scientists demolished the brains that they were working on, but Gregorio refused to destroy the final prototype. Floop's minions invade the Cortez home, although Carmen and Juni escape whilst Felix is captured, but not before he tells the children the truth about their parents. The children escape alone via a miniature submarine set to autopilot to a safe house. At the safe house, the children accept that their parents were spies and decide to rescue them. The children flee to a safe house where they decide to become spies, until Ms. Gradenko (Teri Hatcher), a fellow spy, arrives to help them. Giving Carmen a bracelet as a sign of trust, she asks about the Third Brain, but Carmen is confused. Gradenko orders the house to be dismantled and the siblings realize Gradenko is a traitor when they see ninja Thumb-Thumbs destroying the escape submarine. It is revealed that Third Brain is hidden in the house. Juni accidentally exposes the Third Brain, and a chase ensues. Carmen gets the brain, and she and Juni escape. She realizes too late the bracelet from Gradenko has a tracking device. The children escape but soon encounter robotic clones of themselves who steal the Third Brain and deliver it to Minion, who takes command of the robots and imprisons Floop. Meanwhile, back at the castle, Gregorio tells Ingrid that Minion used to work for the OSS, but was fired after he reported him tampering with the Third Brain project. With it, Floop can achieve his goal, but he wishes to continue his children's show. Carmen and Juni locate Gregorio's estranged older brother and inventor, Isador "Machete" Cortez (Danny Trejo), who harbors bitter feelings against his younger brother, similar to the feelings Carmen harbored toward Juni. Machete was apparently forced to watch over Gregorio and left him because of this. He refuses to help the children because of this. With no support from their uncle, the children sneak away to rescue their parents on their own, stealing a map of Floop's castle and a spy plane to get them there. Their sibling rivalry comes to a head, however, when Carmen's continuing criticisms and name-calling pushes Juni to retaliate by calling her "diaper lady," starting a quarrel that almost crashes the plane. As they work together to safely land the craft, Juni reveals that he had always been aware of Carmen's nighttime bed-wetting but kept that knowledge to himself at their mother's insistence. Having come to an understanding of each other as brother and sister, their relationship begins to improve from this point on. The two make it to the castle and search for their parents. Juni finds Floop and frees him, convincing him to help them and explaining what was missing from his TV show- children. Carmen, Juni and Floop free Ingrid and Gregorio and then confront Minion, trapping him in a machine that creates the Fooglies on the children's show (who are actually the missing agents). Minion deliberately starts the machine but escapes before he becomes a Fooglie, altering his appearance with three extra heads and combined hands with multiple fingers. The spies confront Gradenko, Minion and Lisp and are attacked by their 500-man army of child robots. Machete arrives to help, later on claiming he came back for the same reason he left, meaning that he was told to watch over his brother. Floop rewrites the children's minds to make them act like children (as Minion says to Lisp, "They have minds of their own now, sir; anything we tell them to do goes in one ear and out the other!"), saving the Cortez family and causing the children to play with Gradenko, Minion and Lisp, tossing them around in the air. Gregorio and Machete reform their brotherly relationship, with both of them claiming neither of them even remembering why Machete left, and Floop redesigns his show with Minion and the robotic Carmen and Juni as his new characters. The leader of the OSS, Devlin, offers the Cortez children jobs as spies, to which Carmen responds that the spy-work is easy, whilst keeping their Cortez family together is the hardest mission of all. Having adopted a stronger value of family unity, she demands that they be allowed to work together as a family.

The cast of an old 1980s space-adventure television series, Galaxy Quest, spend most of their days attending fan conventions and making promotional appearances. Though the series' conceited former star, Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen) (who played Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, the commander of the NSEA Protector and main character of the series), thrives on the attention, the other cast members -- Gwen (Sigourney Weaver) (who played Lieutenant Tawny Madison, the ship's communications officer and the only officer aboard who can give orders to the ship's computer), Alexander (Alan Rickman) (who played Dr. Lazarus, the ship's science officer and a member of the Mak'tar, an alien species known for their super intelligence and psionic powers), Fred (Tony Shalhoub) (who played Tech Sergeant Chen, the ship's chief engineer), and Tommy (Daryl Mitchell) (who played Lieutenant Laredo, a precocious child pilot) -- resent him (as Jason has an out-sized ego and doesn't treat his colleagues as his equal) and, to varying degrees, the states of their careers. At a convention, Jason is approached by a group calling themselves Thermians (Before that Jason also met a few diehard fans led by Brandon, whom Jason ignored as he was busy hitting on Gwen. Later he scolds Brandon by saying its just a television show), led by Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni) and Teb (Jed Rees), a Thermian and Mathesar's second-in-command, who request his help. Jason thinks they want him for a promotional appearance and agrees (he is also humbled by hearing some comments in the bathroom about how he has not had a real acting job in 20 years and that Jason is pathetic since his buddies hate him and he has no clue). The next morning, when the Thermians pick him up, Jason is hung over and does not grasp that the Thermians are aliens and that he has been transported to a working re-creation of the bridge of the NSEA Protector, the starship from Galaxy Quest. Believing he is on a set and must perform in character, he confronts the Thermians' enemy, the evil warlord Roth'h'ar Sarris (Robin Sachs), who demands the "Omega 13", a secret super-weapon that has never been used and whose capabilities are unknown. Giving perfunctory orders, Jason manages to temporarily defeat Sarris. After the grateful Thermians transport him back to Earth (with a universal communicator), Jason realizes the experience was real (after returning to Earth he again runs into Brandon, and they drop their communicators (Brandon had the fake one) and they get exchanged). He attempts to convince the other cast members but is rebuffed. When the Thermian Laliari (Missi Pyle) appears and requests Jason's help again, the cast, thinking it is a job, joins him, including Guy (Sam Rockwell), who played an ill-fated redshirt in one episode of the series. Aboard the Protector, the cast learns that the guileless Thermians believe episodes of Galaxy Quest are true historical documentaries. Inspired by the crew's adventures, they have based their society on the virtues espoused by the show and manufactured a functioning replica of the Protector. Mathesar tells them how the entire Thermian society is based on Jason's team's "historical records" (transmissions of their show). Mathesar also tells Jason about how their previous commander was tortured and killed by Sarris. Sarris returns and attacks the Protector again (Jason tries to run away, but the ship's generators overheat when he presses for boosts for far too long), and the ship barely escapes by going through a magnetic minefield. But the ship's power source, a beryllium sphere, is severely damaged and the humans must travel to the surface of a nearby planet for a new sphere. The planet seems to have an abandoned mining colony and many beryllium spheres. But it also has an abundance of critters-like aliens who eat each other as well, when hungry. When Jason's crew tries to take a sphere from the mine, they are attacked by the critters. Jason gets left behind to allow the rest of his team to get away. Fred beams Jason up with a digital converter on the ship and saves his life (The critters had put Jason in a pit where he was being attacked by a rock monster). In their absence, Sarris seizes the Protector (and has destroyed the Thermian home world) and demands the Omega 13. Jason confesses that he is not the ship's commander and shows Sarris the Galaxy Quest "historical documents". Sarris understands they are actors and forces Jason to explain to a disillusioned Mathesar. Sarris activates the Protector's self-destruct mechanism and returns to his ship, leaving the Thermians and the cast members to die. The humans formulate a plan to abort the self-destruct and defeat Sarris' troops on the ship. Jason communicates with Brandon (Justin Long), a Galaxy Quest fan on Earth, and his network of friends with intimate knowledge of the show (Brandon also tells Jason that the Omega 13 is a matter re-arranger which takes everything 13 seconds in the past). They talk Jason and Gwen through the ship's core and help them abort the self-destruct sequence. Meanwhile, Alexander leads the Thermians against Sarris' forces (Fred beams aboard the rock monster that defeats Sarris' soldiers. Fred kisses Laliari, but Quelleck (Patrick Breen) dies from a stray shot and Alexander is distraught. The Thermians still thank Jason, and Alexander is perplexed.) and they take back control of the Protector. With renewed confidence, the crew challenges Sarris and draws his ship into the magnetic minefield. This time, the Protector drags the magnetic mines into Sarris' vessel, destroying it. The Protector approaches Earth to bring the humans home, but Sarris, who escaped his ship's destruction by transporting on to The Protector, ambushes them on the bridge and fatally wounds several crew members. Jason manages to activate the "Omega 13", which creates a 13-second time warp to the past, giving Jason and Mathesar a chance to disarm Sarris before he repeats his attack. The Protector's bridge splits from the main vessel to land the humans on Earth, while the main section departs with Mathesar leading the Thermians. Guided by Brandon and his friends acting as beacons, the Protector Bridge crashes into a Galaxy Quest convention, coming to a stop on the main stage. The dazed cast emerges to the cheers and excitement of their fans, but Sarris reemerges to imperil them again. Jason shoots and obliterates Sarris, and the ecstatic crowd assumes it is all a massive display of special effects. The cast basks in the adoration of Brandon, his friends, and their fans. Sometime later, Galaxy Quest is revived as a sequel series, Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues, with the cast reprising their roles alongside Guy and Laliari as new characters.

A talking parrot named Paulie recounts his travels to look for his original owner to a Russian janitor who helps him to the end of his journey. Paulie, an intelligent parrot who actually talks, relates the story of his struggle to a Russian immigrant who works as a janitor at the research institute where he is housed and neglected. His story begins many years earlier when he is given as a gift to a little girl named Marie who stutters. Eventually, he teaches her to speak correctly but is taken away by her father because he believes she can't distinguish fantasy from reality because she believes he can talk. He goes through a series of adventures with a pawn shop owner, an aging widow, a Mexican American troubadour, and a would-be thief before being taken to the institute. —<lodger13@iwl.net> A male bird tells the story of his big and long adventure as he tries to find and reunite with his owner. With the the help of a poor male worker, he does his best to discover and remember what it is really like to be a bird in a world where everyone is completely different. —RECB3

Environmental toxins in the city of Woburn, Massachusetts contaminate the area's water supply and become linked to a number of deaths of local children. Cocky Boston attorney Jan Schlichtmann (John Travolta) and his small firm of personal injury lawyers are asked by Woburn resident Anne Anderson (Kathleen Quinlan) to take legal action against those responsible. Jan's partners are Kevin Conway (Tony Shalhoub), James Gordon (William H. Macy), and Bill Crowley (Zeljko Ivanek). Anne appears on air on a radio show that Jan is attending and states that her son died of Leukemia 2 years ago and Jan's firm is handling the case, and yet nobody ever gets back to her. Jan finds that Anne had been in touch with Kevin. Their town has had 12 Leukemia deaths in the last 15 years. Kevin also adds that water sample tests reveal that 2 of the town's wells were found contaminated with a known Carcinogen. The partners decide unanimously that the case will require a lot of financial resources to fight and agree to drop it. Kevin doesn't want to go to the town and refuse the case and so, Jan volunteers to go and drop the case. Jan looks at every case in terms of the value to the plaintiff and to the firm. A dead adult in his 20s is worth less than someone who is middle aged. A dead woman, less than a dead man. A single adult less than one who is married. African American less than white, and poor less than rich. The perfect client is a white working male, 40-year-old, with a family, struck down in its prime. In the parlance of personal injury law, a dead child is worth the least of all. Jan is a master at using the victim's injuries and suffering to sway the jury and extract juicy settlement offers from the defendants. Anne arranges for Jan to meet all the affected families and they all want an apology from whoever is responsible, but they don't know who it is. Jan says that his firm only gets paid if there is an award or a settlement, and hence he can only take cases where there is a defendant with very deep pockets. After originally rejecting a seemingly unprofitable case, Jan finds a major environmental issue involving groundwater contamination that has great legal potential and realizes the local tanneries could be responsible for several deadly cases of Leukemia. Jan decides to go forward against two giant corporations which own the tanneries - Beatrice Foods and W. R. Grace and Company - thinking that the case could possibly earn him millions and boost his firm's reputation. Jerry Facher (Robert Duvall) and William Cheeseman (Bruce Norris) are the lawyer for the defendants. Bringing a class action lawsuit in federal court, Jan represents families who demand an apology and a clean-up of contaminated areas. However, the case develops a life of its own and takes over the lives of Jan and his firm. Jan has to hire a Geologist (Jay Patterson) to prove that the effluents dumped by the tanneries migrated into the underground wells, and then pumped into the homes of the residents. Jan has to hire a full team of geologists and engineers to conduct the tests. The tests have to be conducted on the private property of John Riley (Dan Hedaya). Riley owns the tannery in the area. Jan interviews a lot of staff (including Al Love (James Gandolfini)) at the tanneries, but cannot find direct evidence of harmful chemicals being dumped into the environment. Al says that barrels of TriChloroEthylene or TCE were dumped at the back of the factories. Al also says that many of his family members had a history of debilitating illness which could have originated from the contaminated water. Later, Cheeseman wants Al to tell him where the barrels were dumped, but he refuses as he knows that Cheeseman now wants to eliminate the evidence of the contamination. Riley is also called for deposition, and he says that he never used TCE in his tannery. Soon Jan and his partners find themselves in a position where their professional and financial survival has been staked on the outcome of the case. James tells the partners that everybody in the firm is working on this one case. So, there is no money coming in and millions going out to pay for the tests and to prepare for the trial. They have to borrow money from banker Uncle Pete (Ned Eisenberg) to keep the firm running. Al finally decides to come clean after apologizing to Anne. He gives Jan the exact details of where the barrels of TCE were dumped. The locations are confirmed by another tannery employee Bobby Pasqueriella (Paul Ben-Victor). Jan uncovers that several barrels of TCE were dumped in an artificial lake called the "Swimming pool". As the case develops Jan knows that it is reaching the stage of settlement. Out of 780,000 cases filed each year, only 12,000 (1.5%) go to trial. Jerry reaches out to Jan and says that Jan is going after Grace and wants him to cut Beatrice out of the lawsuit. Jerry offers to cover Jan's expenses, which he refuses angrily. Jerry says that he would only harm Jan and his case against Grace. The lawyers for Beatrice and Grace are not easy to intimidate. Jan stubbornly declines settlement offers, gradually coming to believe that the case is about more than just money. He allows his pride to take over, making outrageous demands (he asks for $25 million cash, $25 million to establish a research foundation and $1.5 million per family per year for 30 years) and deciding that he must win at all costs. Pressures take their toll, with Jan and his partners going deeply into debt. Kevin mortgages every single possession he has to pay for the case, including the deeds to the houses of all 4 partners. The trial starts with Jan and his team presenting all the scientific evidence. Riley claims that he has no clue how his private property became the most polluted piece of real estate in New England. He says that he is a respectable member of the community, and he kept his tannery open and provided jobs for everyone when everybody else moved away. Judge Walter J. Skinner (John Lithgow) makes a key ruling against the plaintiffs. Skinner disallows the victims of Woburn from testifying on stand, as the case hasn't been proven yet that the poisonous chemicals ever reached the wells. Jerry convinced Skinner of the same. Skinner asks 3 questions from the jurors: whether contamination took place, when did contamination reach the wells, when did it start causing diseases in the local population. After a lengthy trial, the case is dismissed in favor of Beatrice (but Grace is convicted of contamination), after Jan turned down an offer of $20 million from Beatrice attorney Jerry Facher during jury deliberations. The plaintiffs are forced to accept a settlement with Grace (Al Eustis (Sydney Pollack) is the MD of Grace, who offer them $8 million) that barely covers the expense involved in trying the case, leaving Jan and his partners broke. The families are deeply disappointed (as they get $375,000 per family after expenses and no apology, and no promise of a clean-up), and Jan's partners dissolve their partnership, effectively breaking up the firm. Jan ends up alone, living in a small apartment and running a small-time law practice. He manages to find the last key witness to the case but lacks resources and courage to appeal the judgment. At a lunch he gets the idea that he should be looking for the people who helped the leather company clean up the mess. He finds them & passes their contact to a rival law firm to pursue the case further. The leather company is forced to settle & goes into bankruptcy. The files are archived while Jan later files for bankruptcy. A postscript reveals that the EPA, building on Jan's work on the case, later brought its own enforcement action against Beatrice and Grace, forcing them to pay millions to clean up the land and the groundwater. It takes Jan several years to settle his debts, and he now practices environmental law in New Jersey.

An NYPD police officer is recruited to an agency that protects Earth from extraterrestrial threats and gets involved in a mission that could determine the fate of the world.

New Jersey, 1950s. Two brothers run an Italian restaurant. Business is not going well as a rival Italian restaurant is out-competing them. In a final effort to save the restaurant, the brothers plan to put on an evening of incredible food. Primo and Secondo are two brothers who have emigrated from Italy to open an Italian restaurant in America. Primo is the irascible and gifted chef, brilliant in his culinary genius, but determined not to squander his talent on making the routine dishes that customers expect. Secondo is the smooth front-man, trying to keep the restaurant financially afloat, despite few patrons other than a poor artist who pays with his paintings. The owner of the nearby Pascal's restaurant, enormously successful (despite its mediocre fare), offers a solution, he will call his friend, a big-time jazz musician, to play a special benefit at their restaurant. Primo begins to prepare his masterpiece, a feast of a lifetime, for the brothers' big night.

During the film opening, we see a man, presumably Einstein (Walter Mathau) playing a violin, as another man walks past a poster advertising Boyd's comet. We then see Catherine Boyd (Meg Ryan) with her fiance James Moreland (Stephen Fry). She's working on some math referring to the comet. He comments that she's babbling when she tries to tell him a story. The scene cuts back and forth with a group of elderly men arguing about whether time exists. Meg and James are in his convertible when it develops engine trouble. We see Einstein discussing with his friends (the elderly men), whether there are 'accidents' and he says, "I do not believe God plays dice with the universe." Catherine and James pull into a garage, where Ed Walters (Tim Robbins) is arguing with his boss, Bob (Tony Shalhoub), about the car they hear coming into the shop, what make and model it is and what the trouble with it is, based on what they can hear. Bob sends out Ed to check because he sees the couple and assumes they're "college people" meaning they come from Princeton College. As soon as Ed sees Catherine, he falls for her. James, obnoxiously asks if someone there can work on a British engine, and Ed says, "May I look under the bonnet?" James, reassured by the use of the word 'bonnet' consents. Ed looks at it, looks at Catherie and pronounces, "You have no spark." There's clearly a double meaning here, referring to her relationship with James. James insists, "But what's wrong with it?" and Ed adds, "My guess is that you have a short stroke and premature ignition." He turns to Meg Ryan and says, "Does it ever feel that way?" She replies, "I'm sure I don't know what you mean" but it's clear that she gets the double entendre. Ed says he'll go check with his boss about fixing it, and goes in to tell his boss that he's in love, that time and space stopped, that he could see himself kissing Catherine in the future. Ed tells Catherine that fixing the car will take days, and she uses his phone to call a cab, giving the cab company and Ed her address for the invoice. In the process, she leaves behind a pocket watch. There's a brief moment where you see a hand move the watch under some magazines, but whose hand? And is it an accident? Or deliberate? The theme of accident versus deliberate intervention occurs repeatedly in the film. Ed goes to return the pocket watch and discovers that the address is the home of Albert Einstein, who is Catherine's uncle. Ed helps Einstein and his friends retrieve a badminton racket and in the process befriends them. It's clear to them that Ed likes Catherine. Einstein sees that his niece is unhappy with her fiance and wonders how to help Ed date her. She will only date a very intelligent man, and Ed is an auto mechanic. Ed says, "That's easy, lend me your brain for a couple of days." Einstein gets an idea. Einstein and his three friends hatch a plot to make Catherine think that Ed has developed cold fusion as a way to power a rocket to reach the stars so she'll desire him. They help Ed appear hyper-intelligent, helping him present a paper on cold fusion at a symposium and then helping him pass an IQ test administered by Catherine's fiance. Catherine, as a mathematician, is trying to figure out "Ed's" theory on cold fusion, but she struggles with it. Ed wants to tell Catherine he's a fake, but he can't quite seem to. Einstein and his buddies interfere with Catherine's relationship with James, and encourage Ed. James is presented as a sadistic, sexually cold man who puts Catherine down subtly. Of course, there's always a happily-ever-after ending, even though it takes President Eisenhower's appearance in the film, a convertible, a motorcycle, waltz music, engineered automotive troubles and a comet, to make it all come about.

A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood. In the wake of his early but undeniable theatrical success in Broadway, the idealistic author of the proletariat and self-pitying 1940s New York playwright, Barton Fink, finds himself lured to dazzling Hollywood to write scripts for eccentric Jack Lipnick's Capitol Pictures. But, instead of writing a story pivoting around the common man, Fink's first screenplay turns out to be a Wallace Beery wrestling movie, and, before he knows it, he develops a severe case of writer's block. Now, holed up in the seedy, run-down Hotel Earle, before his silent Underwood typewriter, Barton comes to realise that his only hope to meet the deadline is to take inspiration from the burly insurance salesman living next door, Charlie Meadows, and the unassuming secretary, Audrey Taylor. In the meantime, the suffocating stranglehold of artistic bankruptcy tightens. Does self-destructive Barton Fink have the stomach for confronting Hollywood's bitter reality? —Nick Riganas The film opens in New York City during the year 1941. Barton Fink is a novice Jewish-American playwright, who has just had his first great success at the Broadway stage. He wrote a play about the struggles and aspirations of common fishmongers. He aspires to write more plays about the lives of the working class, as he finds them more interesting than the kings and the aristocracy. His agent instead convinces him to sign a lucrative screenwriting contract with Capitol Pictures, a Los Angeles-based film studio. Fink settles into the life of a hack writer, though he is not truly suited for the job. His first assignment is to work on the script of a B-Movie about wrestling, though he does not even know the basics about this form of entertainment. Fink becomes a long-term resident of the Hotel Earle, a decaying relic of the art deco era. Feeling lonely, Fink befriends his next door-neighbor, the insurance salesman Charlie Meadows. He views Meadows as a typical working stiff, but he likes sharing drinks with him. Fink seeks writing advice from the experienced novelist and screenwriter W. P. Mayhew, but soon realizes that the man is an abusive alcoholic whose career has declined. Fink finds a love interest in Audrey Taylor, Mayhew's personal secretary, long-term mistress, and the ghost writer behind most of Mayhews' recent works. After Taylor is murdered in Fink's bedroom, a traumatized Fink becomes increasingly emotionally dependent on Meadows. Shortly after, two police detectives inform Fink that Meadows is actually wanted serial killer Karl Mundt, who typically decapitates his victims. Fink slowly realizes Meadows' hidden agenda, while finding himself out of favor with his boss at the film studio. —Dimos I In 1941, New York intellectual playwright Barton Fink comes to Hollywood to write a Wallace Beery wrestling picture. Staying in the eerie Hotel Earle, Barton develops severe writer's block. His neighbor, jovial insurance salesman Charlie Meadows, tries to help, but Barton continues to struggle as a bizarre sequence of events distracts him even further from his task. —Scott Renshaw <as.idc@forsythe.stanford.edu> Barton Fink is a troubled New York playwright obsessed with bringing his new idea of "Theater of the Common Man" to the producers he loves to hate. After his first budding success his agent convinces him to travel to Los Angeles to write for Capital Pictures. When he arrives he checks into the dark Hotel Earle and meets with Capital Pictures President Jack Lipnick, who tells him of the movie he's writing: a B-Movie wrestling picture for Wallace Beery. Fink travels back to his hotel room to begin, but when he arrives he types one sentence and then falls into the horror of writer's block. He tries getting help from his neighbor, "Common Man" Charlie Meadows; famed writer Mayhew; Mayhew's girlfriend Audrey and producer Ben Geisler. But as Fink drifts further away from his script strange things start happening, and eventually two detectives show up at his door... —Monte_Man167