
            Léon (Jean Reno) is a hitman (or "cleaner" as he would rather be known) living a solitary life in New York City's Little Italy. Most of his work comes from a mafioso named Tony (Danny Aiello), who operates from the "Supreme Macaroni Company" retail store. Léon spends his idle time engaging in calisthenics, nurturing a houseplant that early on he describes as his "best friend", and (in one scene) watching old Gene Kelly musicals.Léon is highly motivated and efficient. He kills plenty of bodyguards (Ed Ventresca) so that a fat guy called Fatman (Frank Senger) receives a phonecall threatening him. A dumb blonde (Ouin-Ouin) walks away non-noncommittally and says she will call him later, not wanting to get involved in the matter.On a particular day on his way home, he sees Mathilda Lando (Natalie Portman), a twelve-year-old girl with a black eye and smoking a cigarette, living with her dysfunctional family in an apartment down the hallway. Mathilda's father (Michael Badalucco) attracts the ire of corrupt DEA agents, who have been paying him to store cocaine in his residence, after they discover that he has been stealing some of the drugs for himself. A cadre of DEA agents storm the building, led by a ragged and drug-addicted Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman). Stansfield shoots Mathilda's entire family with a shotgun; the whore-looking mother (Ellen Greene), the aerobic-obsessed elder sister (Elizabeth Regen) and the friendly little brother (Carl J. Matusovich)- missing Mathilda only because she is out shopping when they arrive. An elderly lady (Jessie Keosian) comes back inquiring what the rackas is about, and Stansfield shoots the glass behind her, but considers her harmless so he lets her be, just barking at her "go back inside".When Mathilda returns with the groceries she was sent to buy and notices the carnage, she calmly continues down the hallway past the open door of her family's apartment, and receives sanctuary from a reluctant Léon. One of the agents () looks at Mathilda, quizzingly, as she has to insistently ring the bell on and on before Léon lets her in. Stansfield realises that there's a little girl missing because of a family photograph he's found. When the news reaches the door guard, he approaches Léon's apartment, wondering whether the girl who was accepted there was the missing girl. Léon prepares himself to shoot him, watching through a hidden peephole, but at that moment, Mathilda turns on the TV with some  Transformers  cartoons, which convinces the guard that he saw another girl who had nothing to do with the situation.León offers some consolation to Mathilda, making her smile when he argues than pigs smell well and are better than many people, and make-pretends that the puppet pig he's using is talking to her. Mathilda, who soon discovers that Léon is a hitman, begs him to become her caretaker, and to teach her his skills as a "cleaner": she wants to avenge the murder of her four-year-old brother, the only member of her family that she actually loved. In return, she offers herself as a maid and teacher, remedying Léon's illiteracy. Mathilda says that he could have let her to die outside that door, but as he opened it, now he's responsible for her well-being. At first, Léon refuses point blank: being a "cleaner" is not a job for girls, and then he alleges that she's not made for that. To answer to that, Mathilda shoots some pigeons with one of the guns Léon is cleaning. Léon hesitantly accepts her offer and the two begin working together, slowly building an emotional attachment, with Léon becoming a friend and father figure.They leave Léon's apartment, and Léon begins to settle some rules. Mathilda carries León's plant, accepting everything, and convinces the hotel clerk (George Martin) that she's preparing for an audition, and that she won't practice after 10. When the hotel clerk asks Léon to fill up the registration form, Mathilda jumps right in and says "You know how much I love registering. Can I do it, daddy?" Léon breaths, and apprecciates that Mathilda is resourceful. The hotel clerk congratulates Léon because he's got a good daughter, but he's got a 17-year-old who can't do anything. León leaves his plant at reception. He checks everything in the room, the exits, the windows, while Mathilda fills up the form. As they work together, Mathilda admits to Léon several times that she is falling in love with him, in spite of him making her drink a glass of milk every day.Tony has been keeping Léon's money, instead of it being put into a bank. As Léon was illiterate, he didn't want to have to deal with it. Léon asks if he could give it to somebody; Tony tells him that he's like a bank, only that there's no paperwork involved, but that he's got all the accountancy in his mind, and that is security enough. Tony wants Léon to renew work, as training won't earn him any money. Léon prevents Mathilda from flirting with a guy (Michael Mundra), a cute teenage boy a little older than herself - she replies that they were only sharing a cigarette - to which Léon answers that he wants her to quit smoking. Léon adds that she should stay away from him, as he looks like a weirdo. Léon walks to work. Mathilda tells the hotel clerk that she's fed up of practicing her instrument and that Léon is not her father, but her lover. Mathilda walks back to her old flat. She slips past a police guard and picks up a teddy bear and a stack of bills hidden under a loose floor plank. She has to hide, because the FBI is questioning Stansfield, who is being a jackass about the people he killed in the line of duty. He shouts to the FBI guy that kids should be at school, and also shouts his office number.Mathilda follows Stansfield by taxi to the police station. Mathilda is watching cartoon  Transformers  again when Léon arrives with blood dripping down an arm and a pink dress for her. The hotel clerk arrives with two men, and throws Leon and Mathilda out. In another hotel, Léon takes a shower and stitches a wound in the chest, where he's been hurt. Mathilda wants to pay Léon to kill her brother's killers, but Léon doesn't want to. He tells her that life changes after the first time you kill somebody. She wants to play Russian roulette with him. She threatens him with killing herself - and at the last second he pushes the pistol away. Mathilda and Léon go talk with Tony.As Mathilda increases her confidence and experience, she locates Stansfield, follows him to his office in the DEA building. She attempts to kill him, only to be ambushed by Stansfield in a bathroom. Léon finds a note she left him declaring her intentions and rushes to the federal building. He rescues her, killing two of Stansfield's men in the process.Stansfield is enraged that the "Italian hitman" has gone rogue and is killing his men. He confronts Tony and threatens him, eventually beating him into surrendering Léon's whereabouts. Later, as Mathilda returns home from grocery shopping, an NYPD ESU team, sent by Stansfield, takes her hostage and attempts to infiltrate Léon's apartment. Léon ambushes the ESU team and takes one of their members hostage, rapidly bartering him for Mathilda's freedom. As they slink back into the apartment, Léon creates a quick escape for Matilda as he reassures her and tells her that he loves her moments before they come for him.In the chaos that follows, Léon sneaks out of the apartment building disguised as a wounded ESU officer, almost unnoticed except for Stansfield. Stansfield follows Léon into the hotel lobby and shoots him from behind. Looming over the dying Léon, Stansfield jeers him haughtily. However just before he gives out, Léon places an object in Stansfield's hands, which he explains is "from Mathilda". Opening his hands, Stansfield recognizes it as grenade pin. He rips open Léon's vest to discover several grenades on his chest. Stansfield lets out a brief "Oh, shit" before a massive explosion destroys the hotel lobby.Mathilda heads to Tony's place as she was instructed to do by Léon. Tony will not give Mathilda more than a few dollars of the fortune Léon had amassed, which was being held by Tony. His reasoning is that she is not old enough to receive the large amount of money and that school should be her priority until she's older. When Mathilda asks Tony to give her a 'job', and insists that she can 'clean' as Léon had, Tony sternly informs her that he 'ain't got no work for a 12-year-old kid!' Having nowhere else to go, she is then seen going to Roosevelt Island using the Roosevelt Island Tramway. The next day, she returns to school in NJ. Seemingly readmitted to the school, Mathilda walks into a field in front of it with Léon's houseplant in hand, she digs a hole and plants the houseplant in the grounds of the school, as she had told Léon he should, "to give it roots."
    

Léon: The Professional

One Moment


            Mookie (Spike Lee) is a young man living in a black and Puerto Rican neighborhood in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn with his sister, Jade (Joie Lee), and works as a pizza delivery man for a local pizzeria. Salvatore "Sal" Frangione (Danny Aiello), the pizzeria's Italian-American owner, has owned it for 25 years. His older son, Giuseppe, better known as Pino (John Turturro), is a racist and "detests the place like a sickness" and holds racial contempt for all the neighborhood blacks. Sal's younger son, Vito (Richard Edson), is friends with Mookie, who is black, which Pino feels undermines their fraternal bond. Mookie himself takes a very casual attitude toward his job: he often takes a long as he pleases to deliver food to the neighborhood residents, much to the consternation of both Sal and Pino. Mookie also has a young son with another neighborhood resident, Tina (Rosie Perez). Tina often criticizes Mookie for being unambitious and uninterested in planning a future for their son.The story takes place on one of the hottest days of the summer and the street corner is filled with distinct personalities, most of whom are just trying to find a way to deal with the intense heat and go about their regular day-to-day activities.An old drunk called Da Mayor (Ossie Davis) is constantly trying to win both the approval and affection of the neighborhood matron, Mother-Sister (Ruby Dee).A young man named Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) lives for nothing else but to blast Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" on his boombox wherever he goes. He wears a "love" and "hate" four-fingered ring on either hand which he explains in one scene to symbolize the struggle between the two forces.A mentally disabled man named Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith) constantly meanders about the neighborhood, holding up pictures of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. that he hand-colors himself and occasionally sells.A fast-talking young black man, Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), wanders around the neighborhood, talking to anyone who will listen about black civil rights.The local radio disc jockey, "Mister Señor Love Daddy" (Samuel L. Jackson) rounds out the neighborhood.Upon entering Sal's shop, Buggin' Out questions Sal about the "Wall of Fame" and demands he place some pictures of black celebrities (or as he puts it, "brothers") on the wall, since, he explains, Sal's pizzeria is situated in a black neighborhood and sells most of his product to black people. Sal replies that it is his store; he is proud of his Italian heritage and he doesn't have to feature anyone but Italians on his wall. Mookie tries to defuse the situation by taking Buggin' Out outside and telling him to wait a week before coming back. Buggin' Out attempts to start a boycott of Sal's over the "Wall of Fame," but no one will support his protest: all the people of the neighborhood have been eating at Sal's all their lives. The only person who will join Buggin' is Radio Raheem, who earlier got into an argument with Sal about playing his boombox loudly in the store.That evening, as the shop is closing, Radio Raheem and Buggin' Out march into Sal's and loudly demand that Sal change the pictures on the wall. Radio Raheem's boombox is blaring at the highest volume causing Sal to yell and demand that they turn the radio down or leave the shop, but the two belligerent men refuse to do so. Finally, Sal snaps and destroys Radio Raheem's boombox with a baseball bat. Raheem is enraged and attacks Sal. A fight ensues that spills out into the street where it's witnessed by a crowd of spectators. The policemen arrive at the scene and try to apprehend Radio Raheem and Buggin' Out. Buggin' Out is arrested while Radio Raheem is placed in a chokehold by one officer, killing him.Afterwards, the large crowd of onlookers are enraged about Radio Raheem's death. A tense moment ensues when the crowd contemplates violence against Sal, Vito, and Pino. Suddenly, Mookie grabs a trash can and throws it through the window of Sal's restaurant, which turns the collective anger towards the property and away from the owners. The angry crowd becomes a riotous mob, rushes into the restaurant, and destroys everything within, while Smiley sets the restaurant on fire. From there, the mob begins to head for the Korean market. Sonny, the owner, tries to fight them off with a broom, yelling that he is one of them: "I no white! I black! You, me, same! We same!" causing the mob to spare his store. Firefighters arrive and begin spraying Sal's building as the crowd is held back by riot police. The firefighters, after several warnings to the crowd, turn their hoses on the mob, further enraging them. Meanwhile, Smiley wanders back into the smoldering restaurant and hangs a picture of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. on what's left of Sal's "Wall of Fame".The next day, Mookie returns to Sal whom is sitting in the remains of what was once his restaurant. Mookie demands his weekly pay he had earlier been demanding to receive early. Sal gives Mookie his money by throwing it at him and tells him that he is fired since he blames him for starting the riot the other night by throwing a trash can through his restaurant window. After a few minutes of arguing, where Mookie throws back any extra money that Sal tried to give him, the two cautiously reconcile. Mister Senor Love Daddy announces that the mayor of New York has founded a blue-ribbon committee to investigate the incident and dedicates the next song to Radio Raheem. The film ends with two quotations that demonstrate the dichotomy of the film's theme: The first, from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who argues that violence is never justified under any circumstances. The second, from Malcolm X, argues that violence is not violence, but "intelligence" when it is used in self-defense.
    

Do the Right Thing


            
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The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Neighborhood


            Helicopters in Nam. We are at the Mekong Delta, 1971. Suddenly, all the soldiers have splitting headaches and go wild. They are attacked. Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) doesn't even move; he just stares at the mess and cruelty of war. He survives but has to run away on his own. He is wounded.He wakes up alone at a dirty subway car. He fell asleep while reading a book. He goes to another compartment where there is an old woman (Antonia Rey) and inquires if they have passed Bergen Street, but she doesn't understand him. There's a tramp sleeping there. He thinks he sees something like a tail. He leaves the train at his station but the doors are locked and chained. The exit is at the other side of the railway, he is alone in the station. He splashes into a pool of water; lights are flickering, another train is approaching menacingly - and he thinks he sees faceless people staring at him from the windows, one of them waving him goodbye.It's a sad, downtrodden New York neighborhood he lives in. Finally, he gets home to Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña), who was worried about him being so late. He has a shower and Jezzie showers with him.In Nam, he is crawling in the jungle. He notices a spiderweb. He wakes up in the morning, after having made love to Jezzie. They stare at some old photographs: one of them is Sarah's (Patricia Kalember). There is also a picture of Jacob's dead son, Gabe (Macaulay Culkin) which makes him cry. Jezzie offers some consolation, but she wants to destroy the photographs because they make Jacob cry. Later on, she throws the photographs into an incinerator, except for the one Jacob keeps in his wallet of his late son.Jacob driving while singing. He's a postman now. He flirts at work and goes for a massage to Louis (Danny Aiello), who feels that Jacob is terribly tense today. He comes back to the moment he was found in Nam. Jacob feels so relaxed, suddenly, and Louis looks like an angel to him.Walking down the street in his uniform, a group of young women (Kisha Skinner & Dion Simmons) sing to him Hey, Mr Postman. A car tries to run him over, with the same blurry faces as on the train. He goes to Doctor Carlson's. The reception nurse (Suzanne Shepherd) says that there is no such doctor and never was. She suggests he sees a psychiatric doctor. Jacob bangs on the table, breaking a flower vase. When the nurse picks it up, he notices she's got a weird dead thing on her head. Jacob runs away and is followed by a security guard. He interrupts a group meeting. He says he's waiting for Dr Carlson. The new doctor (Doug Barron) says that Dr Carlson died in a car accident a month ago, it just "blew up".Jezzie thinks he's exaggerating. She touches his back.He is in a house party dancing to Lady Marmalade . A woman wants to read his future. She says that according to his palms, he's already dead. He dances with Jezzie, one of the party-goers, but feels the need to go. He notices a young man staring at him and several birds flying around. He stumbles and his glasses fall after seeing the man become a dizzy faceless man. He sees one of the party-goers strip down and a weird lizard tail hurting and killing her. The party stops because he panics and faints.He remembers about Nam. Jezzie tells him off because she felt mortified at the party. Jacob has a temperature, so Jezzie calls a doctor. She prepares a bath with ice so that the fever goes down. She calls for the help of her neighbors to ask for more ice. Mrs Carmichael (Gloria Irizarry) brought a bag full of ice. Some of them put them in the freezing water and he screams in pain.Back in bed, he thinks that he's with Sarah, and that his son enters his bedroom to complain of the cold. They talk father-to-son. It looks like he's been hallucinating. He wakes up dazed and confused, with Jezzie and a dog looking at him. He closes his reddened eyes, and remembers a helicopter picking him up.Jacob sees pictures in a book of torture and hell. Jezzie screams at him "Anybody home?", and he interprets it as her being a demon, so he pushes her away. She leaves, wishing he was dead. At that moment the phone rings; it's Paul Flanagan (Pruitt Taylor Vince).They meet at a bar. Paul thinks that he's being followed, and is scared to death. They start wondering what they did to them that night in Nam which they can't remember. Somebody is looking at them. They are going out of the bar together. Jacob stops to pick up a penny saying "my lucky day". Paul starts his car and smiles: it blows up, killing him instantly. The man who was staring at them tries to help Jacob, but then he leaves before Jacob has time to assimilate everything. For a second, Jacob remembers how the pilot got shot and blood spilled everywhere.It's Paul's funeral: it's raining, and everybody is carrying an umbrella. Frank (Eriq La Salle) trembles. George (Ving Rhames) spills his bottle. Jacob says to his friends that everything is too suspicious. Jacob and his 5 friends contact a lawyer, Geary (Jason Alexander) to sue the military department. He says it'll be expensive as hell while munching some crappy food. Somebody watches them leaving the office.Later, Jezzie tells Jacob that the lawyer is not taking his case as his friends have all backed down. Frank says that he's backed down because of having been threatened. Jacob insists that Geary take his case. He says that he's just checked his background and he and his friends were left out of the army draws on psychological grounds.Some guys kidnap Jacob in a car. They are official-looking men. A lady with a buggy sees that. Jacob hits the man and jumps out of the car, where a man dressed as Santa Claus (Jan Saint) stares at them. He's begging for money and he steals Jacob's wallet.Jacob is admitted to hospital. A young police officer (Raymond Anthony Thomas) has found him. A nurse (Bellina Logan) tells him that they will do for him everything they can. The resident doctor (Scott Cohen) looks as though he's having fun. Jacob starts seeing a broken bike, and weird demented people all over him. He passes through some butcher's place with human parts all over the place, and watches a faceless man (Alva Williams) trembling again.An evil doctor (Davidson Thomson) is getting ready to operate on him and tells him that he's dead. Jezzie is a nurse there. He insists he's alive and sane. An eyeless doctor (Ed Jupp Jr.) punctures his forehead with a needle and reaches his brain.Sarah and two children visit him in hospital. Jacob insists he's alive. A voice says "Dream on", and Jacob panics again. His doctor tries to take him out of hospital. He's heavily bandaged. The nurses and paramedics cannot stop them. Louis gives him a massage: Jacob says that he was in hell. Louis's treatment is rough and painful, but he says that now, Jacob is well.Jacob checks on his honorable discharge documents. He also sees a drawing made by Gabe. He was playing with his bike, and started to pick up his baseball cards from the road. A car ran over him. He thinks he sees him at home but sees a blurry man again. He caresses his temples.Jezzie enters with some groceries. She asks where he's been, as he's been away for two days. She looks very concerned. She called every hospital in the city, but he was nowhere. The phone rings, and Jacob tells her not to pick it up. She picks up and says she hasn't seen him all night. Jacob picks the phone up when she asks "what experiment?". Jezzie looks terrified and asks him not to go. He hugs her, says "sorry and leaves. The voice tells him to make sure he's not being followed.Michael Newman (Matt Craven) has been following him for some time, as he was one of the survivors. He claims to have been a chemist who used to work for the Army's chemical warfare division in Saigon. They had invented a new drug called "The Ladder". It was designed to increase aggression, bringing soldiers' most primal urges to light in such a way that the conscious mind could not repress them. The ladder was first tested on monkeys and then on a group of captured enemy combatants, with gruesome results. It was deemed that the drug had created the effect wanted by the army officers, so the next step was to give small doses of the drug to the soldiers in Jacob's battalion in secret. Here it was when all hell turned loose, as each private attacked his fellow soldiers. The result was a carnage, so one of his fellow soldiers was responsible for wounding Jacob, not the enemy.Jacob leaves and takes a taxi. Jacob gives the taxi driver (Sam Coppola) all his money and tells him to take him home. The driver asks where his home is. Jacob finally remembers the moment when he was wounded, and it was somebody from his platoon.The Doorman (Thomas A. Carlin) greets Jacob as "Doctor Singer", saying that it's a long time since they have seen each other. They shake hands.He is alone at home; he sits in the dark and reminiscences about playing with Gabe. He sees Gabe. Jacob and his son hug each other. Gabe takes him by the hand upstairs, into the shining light.Newman is in Nam: he says that Jacob is gone. He and another doctor (Jaime Perry) leave his body behind carelessly.Fade to black.Some captions say that "It was reported that the hallucinogenic drug BZ was used in experiments on soldiers during the Vietnam war. The Pentagon denied the story."End credits.Photographs of Jacob and Gabe walking together, from behind.
    

Jacob's Ladder

Dinner Rush

29th Street


            Thirty-seven-year-old Loretta Castorini (Cher), a Sicilian-American widow, is an accountant in Brooklyn Heights, New York, where she lives with her family: her father Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) who is a successful plumber, her mother Rose (Olympia Dukakis), and her paternal grandfather (Feodor Chaliapin, Jr). Her boyfriend, Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello) proposes to her before leaving for Sicily to attend to his dying mother; she accepts, but is insistent that they carefully follow tradition as she believes her first marriage was cursed by her failure to do so, resulting in her husband's death when he was hit by a bus. They plan to marry one month later, and Johnny asks Loretta to invite his estranged younger brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage) to the wedding. Loretta returns home and informs her parents of the engagement. Cosmo dislikes Johnny and is reluctant to commit to paying for the "real" wedding Loretta insists on, while Rose is pleased that Loretta likes Johnny but does not love him; she believes that one can easily be driven crazy by a partner whom one loves.The next day, Loretta goes to see Ronny at his bakery after he refuses to speak to her on the phone. He reveals that he has a wooden prosthetic hand, and he explains that he blames Johnny for the loss of his hand and his own fiancée; Ronny became distracted while talking to Johnny as he cut bread for him, his hand was mangled in the slicer, and his fiancée left him. Loretta insists that they discuss the matter upstairs in his apartment, where she cooks for him and then tells him that she believes he is a "wolf" who cut off his own hand to escape the trap of a bad relationship. Ronny reacts furiously and passionately, kissing Loretta (who responds to his kiss) and then sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her to his bed where they make love.That evening, Rose's brother Raymond (Louis Guss) and his wife Rita (Julie Bovasso) join Rose and Cosmo for dinner, and they all wonder where Loretta is. Raymond recalls that when he was a boy and Cosmo was courting Rose, he thought that a particularly bright moon one night was somehow brought to the house by Cosmo because of his love for Rose. That night, Loretta remains at Ronny's apartment and sees such a moon; Raymond sees it as well, and it leads him and Rita to make love. The next morning, Loretta tells Ronny they can never see each other again. She slaps him when he claims to be in love with her ("Snap out of it!) and he agrees to never see her again if she will attend the opera (his other great love) with him that night. She agrees. After closing out the cash register in Raymond and Rita's store, Loretta impulsively has some long-neglected beauty treatments, including having the gray removed from her hair, and buys a glamorous evening gown. She then goes to church and confesses her infidelity. She unexpectedly sees her mother there, and Rose tells her that Cosmo is having an affair; Loretta is doubtful, but Cosmo is in fact dining with his mistress Mona (Anita Gillette) at that moment and giving her jewelry.Loretta and Ronny (wearing a tuxedo) meet at Lincoln Center, and each is impressed with the other's appearance. Loretta is deeply moved by her first opera, Puccini's La bohème. But as they leave, Loretta sees Cosmo and Mona, and she confronts her father. He sees that she is with Ronny, and he suggests that they simply agree that they didn't see each other at all, but Loretta is conflicted. Loretta then intends to return home alone, but Ronny leads her back to his apartment where he passionately and desperately persuades her into another tryst. The same night, Rose dines alone at a restaurant and sees a college professor, Perry (John Mahoney), being dramatically dumped by a female student, a similar scene having played out with a different girl the night Johnny proposed to Loretta. Rose invites Perry to dine with her, asks him why men pursue women, and then shares with him her belief that men pursue women because they fear death. Perry walks Rose home and tries to convince her to invite him in; she refuses, citing the fact that she knows herself. Later, Johnny unexpectedly returns from Sicily after his mother's "miraculous" recovery and goes to Loretta's house; Rose explains that she's not there and then asks him why men chase women. He tells her it may be because they fear death, and Rose realizes, as she had suspected before, that he is right. After this exchange he leaves, planning to return in the morning to see Loretta.In the morning, Loretta returns home in a reverie but is then distressed to learn from Rose that Johnny will be there soon. Ronny then arrives, and Rose notes their matching "love bites" and invites him for breakfast over Loretta's objections. Cosmo and his father emerge from upstairs, and the older man cajoles Cosmo into agreeing to pay for Loretta's wedding. Rose then confronts Cosmo and, after he acknowledges in response to her questioning that she has been a good wife, demands that he end his affair; he is upset but agrees and, after insistence from Rose, also agrees to go to confession, and they then affirm their love for each other. Raymond and Rita also arrive, concerned and seemingly reluctantly suspicious, to find out why Loretta didn't make the previous day's bank deposit; they are relieved to learn that she merely forgot and still has the money. When Johnny finally arrives, he breaks off the engagement, superstitiously believing that their marriage would cause his mother's death. Loretta, momentarily offended by his breaking the engagement, chastises Johnny for breaking his promise and throws the engagement ring at him. Seizing the moment, Ronny borrows the ring and asks Loretta to marry him; she accepts. To Rose's chagrin, Loretta declares that she loves Ronny. The family toasts the couple with champagne and a befuddled Johnny joins in at the grandfather's urging, as he will now be part of the family after all.
    

Moonstruck

On Our Own

Stiffs


            At the 41st Police Precinct in the South Bronx 18-year veteran Murphy (Paul Newman) is pretty much on auto pilot, looking to be a good cop, but also determined to do it with as little aggravation as possible by combining good police work with a social conscience. But new Precinct Captain Connolly (Ed Asner) arrives, having volunteered for the assignment, and intends to get the cop killer who has been shooting police officers.The neighborhood begins to rebel by rioting against the police force and Fort Apache, the nickname for the 41st Precinct because of the salvation role it plays in the borough. Connely mandates arrests to be made regardless of severity of infractions in order to find the killer responsible for the police murders, but when Murphy sees fellow officer Morgan (Danny Aiello) murder an innocent man, he must address his conscience to decide whether to confront his fellow cop. Given that his girl/pal Dominican nurse Isabella (Rachel Ticotin) is also shooting up drugs only adds to the internal conflict Murphy goes through in having to balance his sense of right with community solidarity. After a shoot out in the hospital where many casualties touch him personally, Murphy decides what's best for the community and his conscience.
    

Fort Apache the Bronx

Rich in Died

2 Days in the Valley

Unforgotten: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook

Brooklyn Lobster


            This complex 1996 drama directed by Harold Becker (Sea of Love) attempts to explore big-city corruption and the flexibility of what's right and wrong in the political arena. John Cusack plays the senior aide to mayor John Pappas (Al Pacino), a popular and seasoned politician whose administration is threatened when what seems to be an accidental shooting of a child reveals a nest of corruption and lifelong personal debts. This tests Cusack's loyalty to the man he thought he knew. Pacino turns in a finely textured performance as a man who has his own lofty ideals, but whose pragmatism sets in motion a series of events with tragic results. Cusack admirably captures the essence of someone polished and savvy at his job but must cope with fundamental disillusionment. This political thriller suffers at times from a lack of focus, but still offers an insightful and poignant treatise on the quagmire of politics in the modern age and the human toll it sometimes exacts.
    

City Hall

Henry & Me

Defiance

Harlem Nights

The Lucie Arnaz Show

The Cemetery Club


            In an introductory scene, Leonardo da Vinci is in his studio, working on a variety of projects. The largest, a complex mechanical machine which focuses the sun's rays, is intended to turn lead into steel, but when activated, it turns out that the machine has turned the lead into something far more valuable: gold. Realizing the danger such a machine could wreak, he decides to hide the essential gemstone component, made of three pieces, by hiding them amongst his various works.In the present, Eddie "Hudson Hawk" Hawkins (Bruce Willis) is being released from Sing Sing Prison after doing 10 years, presumably for burglary. As he is checking out of prison, he is met by his corrupt parole officer, Gates, who offers to excuse him from community service in exchange for pulling off an art heist. Hudson declines, and meets his buddy (and presumable partner-in-crime) Tommy Five-Tone (Danny Aiello), who offers him his favorite drink, a cappuccino, but spills it when he slams on the brakes. The pair return to their old haunt: their co-owned bar Five-Tone in Hoboken, but when Hudson enters, he finds it converted from a comfortable hole in the wall full of working-class regulars, to an elite, upscale urban professional bistro. While attempting to enjoy a fresh cappuccino, he is interrupted by local crime bosses Cesar Mario (Frank Stallone) and Antony Mario (Carmine Zozzora), who reveal they are behind the art heist proposed by Gates, and try to pressure Hudson into doing it.Hudson decides to go through with the heist, and plans the job with Tommy, while his desires to live a straight life fight against it. Sneaking into an auction house, the duo mislead the guards by rewinding the security camera recorders, playing back earlier footage of a quiet building, while Hudson cracks the safe, retrieving a bronze statue of a horse. All the while, the duo are singing a song -- "Swinging On A Star" -- to themselves, separately, in order to keep time with each other. As they reach the end of the song, the guards discover them, but the two manage to escape by jumping off the building's roof.In a surreal cut-scene, Hudson, statue in hand, finds himself landing in an armchair in Gates' living room, with Gates and the two Marios waiting. Gates gleefully takes the statue from Hudson. Soon, an English butler, Alfred (Donald Burton) arrives, taking the statue from Gates, admiring it as one of da Vinci's finest works, then smashing it over his head. It shatters, and Alfred retrieves a fist-sized gemstone from the remains. Alfred then dispatches Gates, releasing a switchblade machete from his sleeves and slashing Gates' throat, and then leaves, with the Marios in tow.The next morning, Hudson appears at the Five-Tone, telling Tommy the story of the previous night, but Tommy is already ahead of him. Reading from the morning paper, he tells Hudson about their heist, which is reported as an attempted heist, foiled by guards, and the horse statue, the Sforza, will be auctioned off that night as planned. Intrigued, and confounded, Hudson rents a tuxedo and attends the auction, where he meets Anna Baragli (Andie MacDowell), a Vatican antiquities expert, who is invited onstage to verify the authenticity of the statue; to Hudson's bemusement, she does. During the auction for the Sforza, a flamboyant and impetuous man, Darwin Mayflower (Richard E. Grant) storms in and declares his bid of $1,000,000. Immediately afterwards, an equally flamboyant and impetuous woman (Sandra Bernhard) trots in, dog in tow, and declares a bid of $1,000,001, outbidding the man, who is identified as her husband. As the auctioneer calls for closing bids, the man and woman, as well as an assorted cadre of people eating candy bars scattered in the audience, duck; as the auctioneer's gavel hits the podium, it violently explodes, killing the auctioneer and scattering art pieces everywhere. The man and woman promptly leave, unscathed. Meanwhile, Hudson tackles Baragli to save her from a falling column; and is subsequently knocked out by a swinging hung sculpture.Hudson awakes to find himself in an ambulance, but instead of doctors, is surrounded by the Mario crime family, ecstatic about their latest gig. The Marios are planning to kill Hudson, but instead, he manages to hit the ambulance's driver, and incapacitate Antony with a rack of syringes. Cesar kicks Hudson out of the ambulance, shuttling the gurney he is lying on onto the freeway. The disruption in the ambulance causes it to run offroad and flip over, killing the Marios. Hudson, still strapped to the gurney, manages to dodge traffic and even a toll booth, and direct the gurney to an offramp, before it eventually comes to a stop in the industrial district, where he meets up with a group of characters he recognizes as the candy-eating people from the auction. The first introduces himself as Snickers (Don Harvey), who shocks Hudson with a cattle prod. Hudson is released from the gurney from a mute man (David Caruso) who shows him a white card identifying himself as Kit Kat. A young black woman appears (Lorraine Toussaint), identifying herself as Almond Joy, explaining their names as code names. A tall muscular man with a crew cut (Andrew Bryniarski) exits a portable toilet, which he accidentally knocks over, and then introduces himself as Butterfinger. Finally, the team is revealed to be led by a seasoned CIA veteran, and former nemesis of Hudson, George Kaplan (James Coburn). The Sforza heist is revealed to be part of a CIA sting operation against the Mayflowers, in which Hudson is now an unwilling accomplice. Hudson is knocked out and stashed in a wooden crate of packing peanuts. Hudson wakes up from his induced sedation, escaping from the packing crate, and finds himself in an ornate room. Looking out a nearby window, he sees the Coliseum; Alfred appears, and welcomes him to Rome. He is taken to the Mayflowers' corporate board room, where Darwin Mayflower announces his plan for world domination via recomposing da Vinci's La Maqunia d'Oro and convert lead into gold, flooding world markets and making the commodity worthless. The company has reverse-engineered da Vinci's plans for the machine, and have identified the three pieces containing the shards of the machine's essential gemstone; the Sforza was the first. The second is contained in a secret pocket of da Vinci's Codex, which is on display in the Vatican.Hudson visits the Lateran museum in Vatican City to case the joint; while there, he happens into Baragli, who is giving a tour. At the end of the tour, the Codex is shown, kept it it's own basilica and protected with a glass case and a security cage hanging overhead. Hudson grabs a young girl's toy elephant and flings it towards the case, which triggers proximity sensors, releasing a gas cloud and causing the security cage to suddenly drop over the glass case. Baragli finds Hudson, and brings him through a secret door which leads to the Vatican postal railway. Charming her, he arranges to meet her for dinner. Meanwhile, he has planned out the job to snatch the Codex. While phoning Tommy to tell him about his latest adventure, he manages to miss seeing Tommy, already in Rome, living it up with the Mayflowers just feet away from the phone booth. He runs into Kaplan's team, where Kit Kat warns him about "the blue wire." Snickers informs Hudson that he has to do the Codex job tonight, which he protests, but Almond Joy takes his materials list and the team begins procuring the items.That night, Hudson sneaks into the Lateran museum, using mirrors to deflect the security lasers, and a fishing pole to hook the Codex. When a security guard notices the mirrors missing, he runs down the stairs to the Codex, seeing Hudson's setup. Upon reaching the setup, frantically calling for backup, Hudson yanks the Codex off its plinth, causing the gas to escape and trapping the guard inside the security cage, while Hudson escapes through the glass basilica roof. Running from remaining gendarmerie, Hudson is chased along rooftops, eventually escaping by falling into a chicken truck, which, it happens, drives right past the restaurant where he is meeting Baragli for dinner. Kaplan's "candy bars" CIA team is also there, watching their table. Baragli fawns over Hudson, and they retreat to her place, where she gets intimate, but she demurely rejects his sexual advances. Suddenly, a secret intercom behind a crucifix in her apartment lights up and sounds an alarm, announcing that there's been a break in at the Lateran museum -- upon which, she trips over Hudson's satchel, revealing the Codex. Hudson tries to explain, but it turns out Baragli already knows he was going to steal the book, and confronts him with the fact he's working with the Mayflowers. They chat about his role in the Mayflowers' plot, but he insists that he's an unwitting patsy, "just a guy that's good at stealing stuff." Baragli knocks him out with a spiked cappuccino, and the Candy Bars enter; Baragli scolds them for not informing her and "her people" that the Codex theft was happening that night, and demands to meet with Kaplan. Kit Kat brings Baragli to see Kaplan, who tries to smooth out the rough edges with her. Upon leaving, she happens to spot the Mayflowers' dog there. After she leaves, Kaplan reveals that he's letting Baragli tag along in order to get closer to the "mysterious Vatican organization" she works with. Later, Baragli is seen in a confessional, talking to a priest, who it turns out is her superior in a clandestine Vatican counter-espionage operation. Upon exiting, she is wearing a nun's habit. She explains to her boss that, while the Vatican organization believes they are working with the CIA in order to stop the Mayflowers' plan, that in fact the CIA is working with the Mayflowers to help the plan succeed.Hudson is brought again before the Mayflowers where he is given the details on his next job, a heist of da Vinci's aerial screw helicopter from the Louvre. Hudson shuts them down, insisting he is not going to do another job for them. They blindfold him, then leave the room; he removes the blindfold to find Tommy, who explains that he was informed of the whole plot ahead of time, thinking it would be a lot of fun and give Hudson a breath of fresh air after his time in prison. Hudson and Tommy get into a struggle over a gun, bursting out of the room, past the Mayflowers and Candy Bars, and off the balcony, onto the ground below, where the gun goes off, and Tommy is shown bleeding. An ambulance appears, taking Tommy and Hudson away; the Mayflowers turn to Kaplan and direct him to execute "Plan B."The ambulance, then out of sight, drives into a rolling Vatican box truck, and Hudson, Five-Tone (unwounded, but covered in ketchup), and Baragli exit. They retire to Baragli's apartment, confident that the ruse has fooled the Mayflowers and the CIA team. With Hudson no longer working the job, the Mayflowers' plan is thus foiled. Hudson attempts another romantic advance on Baragli, which she again politely declines, to his dismay, asking him (and Tommy) to sleep on the couches. The next morning, Hudson and Tommy are awoken to find the Candy Bars in Baragli's apartment, with Baragli nowhere to be found. Almond Joy sedates the pair with curare-laced blow darts. Hudson insists that this will still not get him to pull off the Louvre job, but Kaplan tosses him a newspaper, showing that the Louvre was hit the previous night by a well-armed commando team -- Kaplan's team, who stole the da Vinci helicopter in a much more violent and excessive way than Hudson's cat burglar techniques. The last piece of the gemstone is revealed from the base of the helicopter, and Kaplan declares Hudson and cohorts to be "irrelevant." Just then, Baragli enters the apartment, aiming a gun at Kaplan, to Hudson and Five-Tone's joy. However, Almond Joy no-sells Baragli's threat, confident that Baragli won't shoot (over Hudson and Five-Tone's encouragement), because "I've read your dossier, Sister," and likewise immobilizes her with a curare dart. They then reveal that Baragli is a nun, which everyone in the room knew except for Hudson; Hudson is upset at the deception, but Baragli reveals that she does have special feelings for him.The Candy Bars take Baragli away, as they need her Vatican expertise for the "next level." However, they don't need two cat burglars anymore, and plan to set timed bombs in the apartment, using a unique adhesive-timed-bomb-launching gun. Hudson and Five-Tone begin to overcome the sedation of the curare, just as Almond Joy is about to re-administer it; they quickly get the jump on her, causing her to swallow a curare dart, immobilizing herself. As Snickers is about to set another bomb, they trip him; causing him to drop the gun, which spins around, launching a bomb onto his head. As Hudson and Five-Tone jump off Baragli's balcony, the bomb on Snickers' head explodes, destroying the apartment, with Snickers and Almond Joy along with it.Planning to stop the Mayflowers as well as rescue Baragli, Hudson and Five-Tone get to Castle da Vinci, where La Maquina is being restored, and proceed to breach the grounds, again timing their efforts with a song as they did in the auction house, this time singing "Side By Side." Meanwhile, the Mayflowers and Kaplan are trying to get Baragli to show them how to assemble the three shards into the correct final gemstone for the machine, but Baragli is feigning hallucinations from the curare. They then inform her that (as they believe) Hudson is dead. As the sounds of Hudson's and Five-Tone's breach (using the bomb-launcher taken from Snickers), Kaplan and Butterfinger leave to investigate, leaving Baragli alone with Minerva Mayflower and Kit Kat. Mayflower, with an iron crossbow trained on Baragli, suddenly turns on Kit Kat, shooting him fatally. Kit Kat, in his dying moments, releases Baragli from her bindings; meanwhile, Butterfinger, sent by Kaplan to report back to Minerva, is instead shot by her. Mayflower then returns her aim to Baragli, who overpowers her and escapes. Meanwhile, again at the moment the song ends, Five-Tone is caught by sleeve-machete-wielding Alfred, who takes him to the Mayflower's car, locking him in the back with Darwin, who he punches out. Hudson encounters Kaplan, who begins attacking him with martial arts; he seems to trap Hudson in an induced muscle spasm, but Hudson interrupts it, causing Kaplan to mis-aim a timed flying kick, sending Kaplan off the roof and onto the Mayflowers' car. Then, Baragli shows up -- "We're supposed to be saving you!" "I got bored, so I saved myself!" Meanwhile, with Five-Tone tied up in the back, Darwin leaves the car, and Alfred knocks it into neutral. Darwin calls up tauntingly at Hudson, as the car coasts off a cliff and explodes, with Five-Tone trapped inside and Kaplan on the hood. Hudson is devastated.Hudson and Baragli are taken inside the castle, where the Mayflowers are stumped, unable to combine the shards into the right gemstone. Hudson takes a shot at it, over Baragli's protests, and eventually crams the shards together into a completed gem. Ecstatic, the Mayflowers put the gem in place, and start the machine, proudly boasting their achievement. Baragli is disgusted at Hudson for helping the Mayflowers win, but Hudson reveals he left out one of the shards, which she happily acknowledges is "very bad." Shortly thereafter, the machine explodes, covering Minerva in molten lead, and burning Darwin to a crisp. Hudson and Baragli run, but are caught by Alfred, who extends both machetes. Hudson fights with Alfred, managing to shove both of Alfred's long knives into one of the castle's thick wooden doors, then slams the door shut, causing Alfred to be decapitated by his own blades. Subsequently, they are blocked by the Mayflower's dog, Bunny, who begins to attack Baragli's neck. Hudson, remembering that Bunny liked chasing tennis balls, takes a tennis pitching machine previously used by Darwin, and, getting Bunny's attention, launches a tennis ball out a window, which the dog gleefully chases out of it. With the castle rapidly catching fire and crumbling from the explosion of the giant gold machine, Hudson and Baragli escape using the da Vinci flying machine, landing eventually in a field near a small village. There, they visit a cafe and talk about their future, Baragli suggesting that God wants her to "keep an eye on him." Baragli mourns Five-Tone, but just then, to their amazement, Five-Tone emerges from a taxi, alive, declaring that the Mayflower's high-end town car had an interior fire suppression system, saving his life. With friends alive, love interest kindled, and having successfully defeated both the Mayflowers and the Candy Bars, Hudson finally gets to drink his cappuccino.
    

Hudson Hawk

Little Italy

The Protector

A Brooklyn State of Mind

Samuel L. Jackson: Did I Stutter?

The Preppie Murder

Alone in the Neon Jungle

Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis

The Pick-up Artist

Mojave Moon

Prince of Central Park

Off Key

The Moviemakers: Spike Lee

18 Shades of Dust

The Pickle


            Nobody likes to be made a fool of, especially not the mafia. So when it comes to light that a number of men from the New York mob have fallen for a Russian mail-order bride, who has blatantly ripped each of them off, their boss is not impressed. In fact, Tony Santini thinks the only way to prove that you shouldn't mess with the mob is to send his nephew to Russia to bring back the beautiful but manipulative Nina (Ivana Milicevic).But when Tony's nephew Anthony arrives in Moscow, he gets distracted by the very alluring 'Butterfly' and quickly falls for her. Little does he know, but 'Butterfly' is actually Nina and it doesn't take long for her to use him as a pawn in one of her money making scams.Now poor Anthony not only has his Uncle Tony to answer to, but the KGB and the FBI. Will he make it back to New York unscathed?
    

Danny Aiello

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