Tim Robbins

John Cusack (Grosse Point Blank), Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs) and Nicollette Sheridan ("Knots Landing") star in this charming tale of true love that's at once "intelligent, fun, a bit devilish...[and] delightful, frisky and perceptively funny" (The Hollywood Reporter)! College freshman Walter "Gib" Gibson (Cusack) has a "sure thing" going - a date with a very hot and very sex-craved blonde (Sheridan) across the country in LA. Crossed by fate - and the ride-share bulletin board - Gib makes the trip with a studious and abrasive coed (Zuniga).

As far as superheroes go, Green Lantern may lack the clean, iconic lines of his more respectable DC counterparts Superman and Batman, but the very wonkiness of the premise (earthling joins elite force of space cops) lends itself to a pulpy, operatic, not-entirely-serious approach. (One of his teammates is a talking carrot, after all.) Capitalizing on a charming performance by Ryan Reynolds, the feature-film adaptation is a big, messy movie that, at its best, generates a feeling of aw-shucks wonder. Much like Thor, it isn't afraid to loosen up on the inner turmoil of its hero and go macro.

Catch a Fire is an intelligent, fact-based apartheid thriller that tells the story of Patrick Chamusso (sympathetically played by Derek Luke), a South African wrongly accused, in 1980, of sabotaging the oil refinery where he worked. After both he and his wife are tortured by agents of the Boer government (led by a conflicted security chief played by Tim Robbins), Chamusso becomes a radicalized guerilla for the MK, or military wing, of the African National Congress.

Like Gattaca did before it, Code 46 extrapolates from the present to posit a chilling, dystopian look at our genetically regimented future. In the corporate-controlled, near-future scenario presented by prolific director Michael Winterbottom and his regular screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, nations and languages have merged to form a polyglot society in which genetic imperfections are avoided by the strict enforcement of Code 46, which prohibits sex between people who share 100%, 50%, or even 25% matching DNA.

uperior acting, writing, and direction are on impressive display in the critically acclaimed Mystic River, Clint Eastwood's 24th directorial outing and one of the finest films of 2003. Sharply adapted by L.A. Confidential Oscar-winner Brian Helgeland from the novel by Dennis Lehane, this chilling mystery revolves around three boyhood friends in working-class Boston--played as adults by Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, and Kevin Bacon--drawn together by a crime from the past and a murder (of the Penn character's 19-year-old daughter) in the present.

I.Q. has all the elements of a classic romantic comedy. Certainly Meg Ryan has demonstrated she has the stuff for funny love with films such as When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle, and director Fred Schepisi's Roxanne ranks among top contemporary romantic comedies. Even though Tim Robbins received acclaim for dramatic work in Jacob's Ladder and The Shawshank Redemption, his early comedic work shouldn't be forgotten (well, maybe Howard the Duck, but not the hilarious Sure Thing). And Walter Matthau? No explanation needed.

Two of America's favorite pastimes - baseball and sex - team up in this winning comedy. Set in the bedrooms and ballfields of a minor league town, this love triangle leads off with Crash Davis (Costner), a seasoned catcher whose best years on the ballfield are behind him... but whose finest moments in the bedroom still lie ahead. Crash is assigned to prepare a cocky young pitcher, "Nuke" LaLoosh (Robbins), for the majors.