Rain Man is the kind of touching drama that Oscars are made for--and, sure enough, the film took Academy honors for best picture, director, screenplay, and actor (Dustin Hoffman) in 1988. Hoffman plays Raymond, an autistic savant whose late father has left him $3 million in a trust. This gets the attention of his materialistic younger brother, a hot-shot LA car dealer named Charlie (Tom Cruise) who wasn't even aware of Raymond's existence until he read his estranged father's will.
When '90s teens David and Jennifer (Maguire and Witherspoon) get zapped into the perfect suburbia of the black & white '50s sitcom, Pleasantville, what results is a "visionary adventure" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) that Siskel and Ebert give "Two big thumbs up!" Pleasantville's perfect people includes a mild-mannered soda jerk (Daniels), a socially repressed mom (Allen) and a father who always knows best (Macy). But, when '90s pop culture clashes with '50s family values, chaos ensues, turning the town of Pleasantville upside down and black and white into color.
This disturbing little film is even more unsettling when you think about the fact that it's based on an actual case. Troubled teen Samson murders his girlfriend Jamie for no particular reason, leaves her nude body by the river's edge, then brings his friends to see the corpse to prove he did it. They look at her, prod her, and talk about her, but no one seems to manage to feel anything. River's Edge is ultimately a study of kids who are so numbed by drugs, casual parenting, and the ever present threat of nuclear war that not even death can get a rise out of them.
They had "the world on a string." Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, known as "The Rat Pack," set the style and the pace for 1950s America as the nation roller-coastered its way toward the swinging '60s. The pack makes Vegas their kingdom with Frank and the boys ruling generously - a private corner of America, where anything goes. This safe haven proves invaluable to entertainers, politicians and the Mob, all of whom share restaurants, bars, cocktails...and more.
For Norman and Ethel Thayer, this summer On Golden Pond is filled with conflict and resolution. When their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) arrives, the family is forced to renew the bonds of love and overcome the generational friction that has existed for years. Norman (Henry Fonda) must find his way through his anger and fear of growing old, while Chelsea struggles to rebuild their relationship. Ethel's (Katharine Hepburn) consistent support of her "knight in shining armor" is inspirational in its simplicity. This is a movie to ponder and always keep in your heart.
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.
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.
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.
A vast improvement over its immediate predecessor, The Karate Kid III, this appealingly understated 1994 drama features a compelling performance by Hilary Swank, who would later win a Best Actress Oscar® for her work in Boys Don't Cry. Swank plays 17-year-old Julie Pierce, the recently orphaned and troubled granddaughter of an old war buddy of Miyagi Yakuga (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, the lone holdover from the previous Karate Kid films). Harassed at school by adolescent boys under the sway of an evil coach (Michael Ironside), Julie reluctantly finds refuge in the calm teachings of Mr. Miyagi.
Philip Seymour Hoffman adds another great performance to his gallery of losers in Owning Mahowny, an engrossing, fact-based comedy-drama about the perils of compulsive gambling. The subject is hardly new to movies, but as Toronto bank-loan manager Dan Mahowny, Hoffman brings fresh depth and tortured humanity to his portrayal of a man who helplessly feeds his pathological need to gamble with millions in embezzled bank money that he can't afford to lose.
