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The Omega Man

Science fiction took a grim turn in the 1970s--the heyday of Agent Orange, nuclear peril, and Watergate. Suddenly, most of our possible futures took on a "last man on Earth" flavor, with The Omega Man topping the doom-struck heap. Charlton Heston plays the government researcher behind the ultimate biological weapon, a deadly plague that has ravaged humanity. There are two groups of survivors: a dwindling band of immune humans and an infected, psychopathic mob of light-hating quasi-vampires.

Ocean's Eleven

Ocean's Eleven improves on 1960's Rat Pack original with supernova casting, a slickly updated plot, and Steven Soderbergh's graceful touch behind the camera. Soderbergh reportedly relished the opportunity "to make a movie that has no desire except to give pleasure from beginning to end," and he succeeds on those terms, blessed by the casting of George Clooney as Danny Ocean, the title role originated by Frank Sinatra.

Ocean's 11

Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack prove how to win in Las Vegas: rob the casinos! He, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Angie Dickinson and more are the epitome of cool in this hot heist caper. The tone of the film is curiously serious--one somehow expected that the Rat Pack would have made a more buoyant first picture. But it is something to see these guys together, if largely for nostalgia reasons.

Night Shift

The world of Wall Street drove Charles Lumley III up the wall. His new job at the New York City Morgue is much quieter - until Billy "Blaze" Blazejowski arrives one night. An idea man with more solutions than there are problems, Billy has a cool idea on how to liven things up. Night Shift is a breakneck comedy rife with ideas, mostly hysterical. Henry Winkler is low-key Lumley in a delightfully offbeat performance. Shelley Long also scores in a role light years from prim barmaid Diane (Cheers).

Nine Months

In this hilarious comedy about pregnancy, parenthood and panic, Sam (Hugh Grant) has it all: a wonderful girlfriend, a successful child psychology practice and a red Porsche. But all that changes when his girlfriend (Julianne Moore) tells him she's pregnant. Torn between advice from an overbearing couple (Tom Arnold, Joan Cusack), his bachelor buddy (Jeff Goldblum) and a crazy Russian gynecologist (Robin Williams), Sam's got nine months to grow up - or risk losing it all!

Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin is in glorious form in this legendary satire of the mechanized world. As a factory worker driven bonkers by the soulless momentum of work, Chaplin executes a series of slapstick routines around machines, including a memorable encounter with an automatic feeding apparatus. The pantomime is triumphant, but Chaplin also draws a lively relationship between the Tramp and a street gamine. She's played by Paulette Goddard, then Chaplin's wife and probably his best leading lady (here and in The Great Dictator).

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

This holiday season Clark Griswold vows his clan will enjoy "the most fun-filled family Christmas ever." Before you can sing "fa-la-la-la-lah," he decks the halls with howls of folly in the perennial favorite National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Seeing is believing. There are 25,000 lights on the roof. An exploding turkey on the dining room table. And a SWAT team taking siege outside. Yule love it!

Miracle

The miracle about Miracle is that it gets so many details right in telling its 24-year-old story about the historic victory of the U.S. hockey team at the 1980 Olympic Games.

The Money Pit

Tom Hanks and Shelley Long star in this offbeat, slapstick comedy about a young couple duped into buying a large mansion only to find that the problems and rennovations needed may be more than they can handle... in both their pocketbooks and relationship. The unfinished domicile becomes a metaphor for their troubled relationship, as evidenced by Long's character's attraction to a madman violinist (Alexander Godunov).

Mr. Baseball

Emmy Award winner Tom Selleck stars as a major league ballplayer who is reluctantly traded to the Chunichi Dragons in Nagoya, Japan, in this fish-out-of-water sports comedy. Replaced by a rookie, the resentful Jack Eliot (Selleck) feels superior to the other Dragons, but he has a lot to learn about Japanese baseball, which is more about teamwork than about being an arrogant hotshot. Japanese superstar Ken Takahura is their hard-headed manager, Uchimaya, whom Jack treats with disrespect, while the beautiful Hiroko (Takanashi) helps him learn to live in - and love - his new home.

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