ABOUT SCHMIDT

GENRE:  Comedy/ Drama
MADE:  2002
CAST:  Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates
DIRECTOR:  Alexander Payne
WRITER:  Louis Begley, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

PLOT:  Warren Schmidt has just retired, his wife has just suddenly died, now he embarks on a trip to his daughter's wedding that will also become a trip of self-reflection.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE:  Broken Flowers, Sideways, The Squid and the Whale

SCORE:

THESPIAN OF THE WEEK: Jack Nicholson

Name:  John Joseph Nicholson

AKA:  Jack Nicholson

From:  New York City

Date of birth:  April 22, 1937

Specialty:  Actor

Jack Nicholson Films To Watch:

The Shining

Horror

As Good As It Gets

Drama Comedy

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Comedy Drama

CHINATOWN

GENRE:  Crime/ Drama/ Mystery
MADE:  1974
CAST:  Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
DIRECTOR:  Roman Polanski
WRITER:  Robert Towne, Roman Polanski

PLOT:  Approached by the wife of one of the owners of the Los Angeles Water Department detective Gittes agrees to take on an adultery case when the husband is murdered, leading Gittes into investigating a scheme behind the scenes of the people running the water department.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE:  The Ghost Writer, L.A. Confidential, Gone Baby Gone

SCORE:

A FEW GOOD MEN

GENRE:  Crime/ Drama/ Mystery
MADE:  1992
CAST:  Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak
DIRECTOR:  Rob Reiner
WRITER:  Aaron Sorkin

PLOT:  When a marine is murdered military attorney Kaffee takes the case and sets out for justice.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE:  Primal Fear, Courage Under Fire, Fracture

SCORE:

THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK

GENRE:  Comedy/ Fantasy/ Horror
MADE:  1987
CAST:  Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer
DIRECTOR:  George Miller
WRITER:  John Updike, Michael Cristofer

PLOT:  Three single women with unknown magical powers in a small town get a new neighbor by the name of Daryl Van Horne, their perfect man, or so it seemed.

PARALLLEL UNIVERSE:  Practical Magic, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, The Craft

SCORE:

AS GOOD AS IT GETS

GENRE:  Comedy/ Drama/ Romance
MADE:  1997
CAST:  Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear
DIRECTOR:  James L. Brooks
WRITER:  Mark Andrus, James L. Brooks

PLOT:  Melvin has some problems, some Obsessive Compulsive problems.  Carol, a single mother and a waitress just making do finds Melvin impossible... and so does his gay neighbor Simon.  A series of events however takes the three of them on a road trip where they find themselves becoming friends.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE:  Spanglish, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Little Miss Sunshine

SCORE:

MARS ATTACKS!

GENRE:  Comedy/ Fantasy/ Sci-fi
MADE:  1996
CAST:  Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Annette Bening, Lukas Haas
DIRECTOR:  Tim Burton
WRITER:  Len Brown, Woody Gelman, Wally Wood, Bob Powell, Norman Saunders, Jonathan Gems

PLOT:  Earth is invaded by evil martians, in Earth's attempt to be welcoming and non-hostile it becomes cruelly under attack.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE:  Coraline, Edward Scissorhands, Independence Day

SCORE:

THE SHINING

GENRE:  Drama/ Horror
MADE:  1980
CAST:  Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
DIRECTOR:  Stanley Kubrick
WRITER:  Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson

PLOT:  A family, alone and isolated, hired to take care of a hotel during the winter off-season.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE:  Eyes Wide Shut, 1408, Amityville Horror

SCORE:

THE DEPARTED

GENRE:  Crime/ Drama/ Mystery
MADE:  2006
CAST:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson
DIRECTOR:  Martin Scorsese
WRITER:  William Monahan, Alan Mak, Felix Chong

PLOT:  Two men from opposites sides of the law go under cover, their targets: the police and the Irish mafia.  Things go down badly when they are made.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE:  Blood Diamond, Munich, Training Day

SCORE:

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

GENRE:  Drama
MADE:  1975
CAST:  Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Danny DeVito
DIRECTOR:  Milos Forman
WRITER:  Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman, Ken Kesey, Dale Wasserman

PLOT:  A man enters a mental institute and plots to make terrible Nurse Ratched's work-life a living hell by using the force of the other patients.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE:  Girl Interrupted, As Good As It Gets, American Beauty

SCORE: