Ten years in planning, Sergio Leone's epic Once Upon A Time In America portrays 50 years of riveting underworld history and offers rich roles to a remarkable cast. Robert De Niro and James Woods play lifelong Lower East Side pals whose wary partnership unravels in death and mystery. Strong support comes from Tuesday Weld, Joe Pesci, Jennifer Connelly, Elizabeth McGovern and the young actors playing the central characters as ghetto kids.
The so-called spaghetti Western achieved its apotheosis in Sergio Leone's magnificently mythic (and utterly outlandish) Once upon a Time in the West. After a series of international hits starring Clint Eastwood (from A Fistful of Dollars to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly), Leone outdid himself with this spectacular, larger-than-life, horse-operatic epic about how the West was won.
George Clooney comes into his own as a leading man in the role of inveterate bank robber Jack Foley. Incarcerated, he uses another inmate's prison break as a cover for his own escape. Waiting for him, according to plan, is his partner, Buddy (Ving Rhames). Also waiting for him, not according to plan, is federal agent Karen Sisco (the ravishing Jennifer Lopez). She finds herself disarmed in more ways than one when she is deposited in the getaway car's trunk with Jack.
In the emotionally-charged adventure The Patriot, Academy Award-winner Mel Gibson stars as Benjamin Martin, a reluctant hero who is swept into the American Revolution when the war reaches his home and threatens his family. A hero of the fierce French and Indian conflict, Martin had renounced fighting forever to raise his family in peace.
Sean Connery is back for his final performance as superagent James Bond in this high-velocity action thriller from the director of The Empire Strikes Back. When two atomic warheads are hijacked by the evil SPECTRE organization, Agent 007 is hurled into an explosive, pulse-pounding race to save the world from nuclear terrorists.
Nick Nolte stars in this brutally honest entertainment about one man's rebellion against the bureaucratic, manipulative world of professional football. Based on the popular novel by former Dallas Cowboy Peter Gent, North Dallas Forty depicts Nolte as an aging ballplayer who, through a woman he meets (Dayle Haddon), is drawn away from the masculine, violent world in which he has lived so long. In doing so, he finds himself at odds with the team's management.
There's really been only one rival to James Bond: Derek Flint. That's because of James Coburn's special brand of American cool. He's so cool, in fact, that he doesn't care to save the world. That is, until he's personally threatened. He's a true libertarian, with more gadgets and girls than Bond, but with none of his stress or responsibility. Here he's totally unflappable as he thwarts mad scientists who control the weather--and an island of pleasure drones. Lee J. Cobb costars as Flint's flustered superior, and Edward Mulhare plays a British nemesis with snob appeal.
You won't need a bottle of rum to enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, especially if you've experienced the Disneyland theme-park ride that inspired it. There's a galleon's worth of fun in watching Johnny Depp's androgynous performance as Captain Jack Sparrow, a roguish pirate who could pass for the illegitimate spawn of rockers Keith Richards and Chrissie Hynde.
Peter Sellers and David Niven are flawless exclaims Variety of this riotously funny film about an almost flawless - and quite priceless - diamond, and the lengths people will go to obtain it! Arriving at a posh resort with her precious "panther" - a large gem with the image of a leaping feline inside - sexy princess Dala (Cardinale) meets the debonair Sir Charles (Niven). She is unaware, however, that Charles, a.k.a "The Phantom," is a professional thief who steals from the rich and gives to...himself! Enter Jacques Clouseau (Sellers), the clumsiest Inspector ever to trip over a case.
Woody Allen stars in Picking Up the Pieces, playing a butcher named Tex who cuts up his adulterous wife (played by Sharon Stone) in a jealous rage. On his way to bury the pieces, he loses her hand on the side of the road, where it's found by a blind woman--and miraculously gives her back her sight. Before long, the hand has become a religious relic, drawing huge crowds to the small town of El Nino, New Mexico, and testing the faithlessness of a straying priest (David Schwimmer), who's in love with the town's leading prostitute (Maria Gracia Cucinotta, from Il Postino).
