French

There's Something About Mary is one of the funniest movies in years, recalling the days of the Zucker-Abraham-Zucker movies, in which (often tasteless) gags were piled on at a fierce rate. The difference is that cowriters and codirectors Bobby and Peter Farrelly have also crafted a credible story line and even tossed in some genuine emotional content. With Mary, the Farrelly brothers have created a consistently hilarious romantic comedy, made all the funnier by the fact that you know that they know that some of their gags go way over the line.

In this compelling drama, a cadet major (Timothy Hutton) leads his fellow military students in an armed revolt to prevent authorities from turning their school into a condominium complex. His surrogate father, who is also the academy's commander (George C. Scott), vows to fight the closing as well. But when an unexpected accident leads to the school's demise, military discipline goes haywire and tragedy results. Sean Penn, Tom Cruise and Ronny Cox co-star in this thought-provoking film that questions the values and morals of today's society.

A high-ranking judge with a vendetta against drugs learns his own daughter is a cocaine addict - a San Diego housewife must suddenly take over her husband's drug dealing business when he is arrested - a Mexican police officer struggles to do the right thing in the midst of corruption. Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Benicio Del Toro star in Steven Soderbergh's amazing intertwined stories of the failing war on drugs.

Melanie leaves her small, Alabama town for the glamour and fame of the New York fashion world. Successful in the business and in love, her boyfriend proposes. It should be a happy moment, but Melanie can't marry him until she gets a divorce from her husband, still in Alabama. As her first marriage is unbeknownst to her NYC friends, Melanie returns to her hometown to demand a divorce. There is something about getting back to your roots and Melanie realizes maybe her fast-track life isn't exactly what she wants after all.

I feel like I've been handed a new life, says Tom Ripley at a crucial turning point of this well-cast, stylishly crafted psychological thriller. And indeed he has, because the devious, impoverished Ripley (played with subtle depth by Matt Damon) has just traded his own identity for that of Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), the playboy heir to a shipping fortune who has become Ripley's model for a life worth living.

It's the boys' night out, time for bawdy fun. Yet revelry alone can't satisfy these community leaders out on a lark. There's still an adventure they can be duped into trying, one that will transform a certain Count from moldering dust into blood-lusting flesh. Taste the Blood of Dracula, the fourth film in Hammer Studios' cycle of hemogobbling Victorian-Era horror, is a showcase of why Hammer became the name in Gothic terror. The solid cast and rich production design raise goosebumps to real-life fear and otherworldly dread.

One of the most memorably offbeat romantic comedies of the 1990s begins when a talk-radio veterinarian named Abby (Janeane Garofalo) takes a call from Brian (Ben Chaplin), the owner of a roller-skating Great Dane. Brian is intrigued by Abby's voice and asks if she'll agree to meet him. Insecure about her looks and her nonexistent love life, Abby agrees, but describes herself as a tall blonde, then begs her attractive neighbor Noelle (played by Uma Thurman) to meet with Brian in her place.

He's the star of the show - but he doesn't know. Jim Carrey wowed critics and audiences alike as unwitting Truman Burbank in this marvel of a movie from director Peter Weir about a man whose life is a nonstop TV show. Truman doesn't realize that his quaint hometown is a giant studio set run by a visionary producer/director/creator (Harris), that folks living and working there are Hollywood actors, that even his incessantly bubbly wife is a contract player. Gradually, Truman gets wise.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is special agent Harry Tasker, a top spy in the ultra-secret Omega Sector - although to his wife Helen, he's just a boring computer salesman. When Harry's two lives enexpectedly collide, both he and Helen find themselves in the clutches of international terrorists, fighting to save not only their marriage, but their lives. Jammed with incredible special effects, True Lies is an exhilarating mix of non-stop action and romantic comedy.

There are many reasons to recommend Troy as a good ol' fashioned Hollywood epic, especially if you've never read Homer's The Iliad. Dispensing with Greek gods altogether, this earnestly massive production (budgeted at upwards of $200 million) will surely offend historians and devoted students of the classics (for them, there's the History Channel's Troy).