While confirming Jack Nicholson's status as an American national treasure, About Schmidt is sure to provoke polarized reactions. Stoked by the success of Election, director Alexander Payne and cowriter Jim Taylor have altered Louis Begley's novel to suit their comedic agenda, turning Nicholson's titular character into a 66-year-old, newly retired Omaha insurance actuary, weary from decades of drudgery and passionless marriage.
Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy make one of the most unusual and entertaining teams ever in Walter Hill's roller-coaster thriller, 48 Hrs. Nolte is a rough-edged cop after two vicious cop-killers. He can't do it without the help of smooth and dapper Murphy, who is serving time for a half-million-dollar robbery. This unlikely partnership trades laughs as often as punches as both pursue their separate goals: Nolte wants the villains; Murphy wants his money and some much-needed female companionship.
Rob Lowe doesn't want to get serious. Demi Moore doesn't want to get used. Together, they're an unforgettable couple in the sexy contemporary comedy, About Last Night... After drinks at a favorite Chicago hang-out, Danny Martin (Lowe) and Debbie Sullivan (Moore) head to Danny's place to indulge in the predictable singles quest - the one-night stand. Their affair is casual, sensual and supposedly over until something surprising happens. They want to see each other again.
One of the best comedies of the 1970s, Blake Edwards's ode to midlife crisis and the hazards of infidelity now plays like a valentine to that self-indulgent decade, and it's still as funny as it ever was. In the signature role of his career (along with "Arthur"), Dudley Moore plays a songwriter with a severe case of marital restlessness, and all it takes is a chance encounter with Bo Derek (in her screen debut) to jump-start his libido.
