Thriller

Bill Duke (A Rage in Harlem) directed this edgy action yarn that stretches the barriers of the genre. It explores the fine line between good and evil, while testing the resolve of a moral man seduced by an easier, more pleasurable lifestyle. Although the plot eventually becomes too overblown and earnest, Deep Cover proves far more intelligent than the average action pic. Laurence Fishburne is the straight-arrow undercover cop who gets so far into his assumed identity that he has trouble recognizing the good guys from the bad.

Action, arias and assassins all collide in "Diva," a romantic thriller directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix. When Jules, an 18-year-old postal worker, bootlegs the concert of a superstar diva, he finds himself with more than he bargained for. His tape is mixed up with one that identifies a top mobster involved in an international sex and drug ring, and suddenly blackmailers, hitmen and the police are chasing him through the streets of Paris.

With a voracious trio of mako sharks wreaking havoc, Deep Blue Sea dares to up the ante on Jaws, but director Renny Harlin trades the nuanced suspense of Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster for the trickery of the digital age. In other words, why build genuine terror when you can show ill-fated humans getting torn into bloody chunks?

From the director of Presumed Innocent and The Pelican Brief comes this suspense drama of two complex, proud and passionate men. When New York cop Tom O'Meara (Harrison Ford) agrees to open his family home to Rory Devaney (Brad Pitt), he doesn't know that he is about to shelter a dangerous and wanted terrorist. Accepted into Tom's family, Rory discovers a tranquility that he has never experienced. But Rory's terrorist mission is calling - and when he finally has to answer, it is Tom who must hunt him down...and who becomes Rory's sole chance of getting out alive.

On a hot Brooklyn afternoon, two optimistic losers set out to rob a bank. Sonny (Al Pacino) is the mastermind, Sal (John Cazale) is the follower, and disaster is the result. Because the cops, crowds, TV cameras and even the pizza man have arrived. The "well-planned" heist is now a circus. Pacino and director Sidney Lumet, collaborators on Serpico, reteam for this boisterous comedy/thriller that earned six Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture), and won an Oscar for Frank Pierson's streetwise screenplay.

This lavish, suspense-filled film was made from Peter Benchley's best-selling novel. Gail Berke (Bisset) and David Sanders (Nolte) are on a romantic holiday in Bermuda when they come upon a sunken wreck of a WWII freighter. Near it, they find an ampule of morphine, one of tens of thousands still aboard the wrecked ship. Their discovery leads them to a Haitian drug dealer, Cloche (Gossett), and an old treasure hunter, Romer Treece (Shaw). With Cloche in pursuit, Gail, David and Treece try to recover the sunken treasure.

His career, marriage, and future are all on the line for DigiCom executive Tom Sanders (Michael Douglas). He rejected the passionate advance of his new boss (Demi Moore). Now she's charging him with sexual harassment. Tom must scramble for his corporate life - a scramble that will lead him into the dazzling cyberworld of DigiCom's new virtual reality corridor... and bare a shocking conspiracy among key company personnel.

Harrison Ford returns as intrepid CIA agent Jack Ryan in this critically acclaimed box-office smash from the producers of Patriot Games. When his mentor Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones) becomes gravely ill, Ryan is appointed acting CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence. His first assignment: investigate the murder of one of the President's friends, a prominent U.S. businessman with secret ties to Colombian drug cartels. Unbeknownst to Ryan, the CIA has already dispatched a deadly field operative (Willem Dafoe) to lead a paramilitary force against the Colombian drug lords.

Impeccably crafted and smarter than your average thriller, Changing Lanes proves that revenge is a dish best served cold. A high-powered attorney (Ben Affleck) learns that lesson the hard way after he flees the scene of an accident involving an insurance salesman (Samuel L. Jackson) who holds a powerful advantage in his retaliatory strike against the lawyer's arrogant behavior. Affleck has everything to gain if he can retrieve a lost document from Jackson, who has everything to lose (wife, family, savings) when threatened with financial sabotage.

Collateral offers a change of pace for Tom Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted thriller. It's from Michael Mann, after all, and the director's stellar track record with crime thrillers (Thief, Manhunter, and especially Heat) guarantees a rich combination of intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles, during which he will execute five people in a 10-hour spree.