The Specialist (Released in 1994) - Fight between 2 specialists - Starring Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods

Captain Ray Quick (Sylvester Stallone) and Colonel Ned Trent (James Woods) are explosive experts working for the CIA. Once partners, they worked for the CIA, but soon fell out over Trent’s lack of sensitive work ethics. In 1984, they are asked to take out a drug dealer in a heist; Ray was upset that Ned made an executive decision which resulted in the loss of life of a young child, even though it also killed a drug dealer. The Captain is of the opinion that children’s lives cannot be the collateral damage in policing. Colonel Trent and Ray come to blows over this and their partnership fall out.
After some years, Ray settles in Miami and is now working as a hit man. He is known as The Specialist as the explosives he plants do not harm innocent bystanders. His services are in great demand, yet he is extremely picky about the cases he takes. Most of the demands are made over the Internet, and one such person who contacts him is May Munro (Sharon Stone), he becomes her confidante and she discloses to him that her parents were killed by three men who work for Tomas Leon (Eric Roberts), incidentally, Trent heads security for Joe, his father. May persuades Ray to help her infiltrate Leon’s circle, he refuses and tries to talk her out of it - but she insists that she will go ahead irrespective of whether or not he helps her. May uses the alias Adrian Hastings.
The lower rung of the ladder in Leone’s organization is hit by police, which is when Trent uses his influence to get onto the bomb squad. Tomas on the other hand is attracted to May alias Adrian, who takes advantage of this new angle to their relationship to get closer to him. Ray kills two of the men May identified as her parents murderers - however, Ned gets suspicious and forces Adrian to side up with him, so that Ray’s cover is blown and he can also get even with his enemy from the past - he has sworn vengeance as the CIA asked Trent to quit.




Ray sets up a trap for Tomas, he is killed and since Adrian was with him at that time - everyone believes that she is dead, too. Joe Leon is livid, and spares Trent his life only so that he can sniff out his son’s murderer before the funeral. Ray and Ned are both under the impression that Adrian has also perished in the bomb blast - however, when he gets a message on the Internet and replies thinking its May - it turns out to be a hoax, for which Trent is responsible. A crestfallen Ray goes to attend May’s funeral, only to be pleasantly surprised that she is alive and well. Trent, also expecting this to be Adrian’s last rites, is in for a rude shock, when he sees that the body in the casket is someone else’s. Furious, Trent meets Adrian and she makes a feeble protest, lamely excusing herself - not one to be conned twice, Trent asks his sidekick to escort her out to his car - on the way out she goes to the restroom and calls Ray up to warn him.
The Captain wires the entire hotel room, and detonates it when Trent’s men enter. A persistent Ned is relieved that he can still have his revenge when the two are led into a much booby trapped building - however, he walks into one himself and is killed. The Specialist was the third highest grossing box office hit for Stallone in the ‘90s, and although audiences were disappointed with the lack of romance between two of the most desirable onscreen pairings - Stone and Stallone - yet, worldwide audiences also welcomed the new look sported by Ray aka Sly - clean and cool, not sporty or jungle maverick!

Antz (Released in 1998) - An animation movie with the voices of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Gene Hackman

This is a story about Z-1495 (voice of Woody Allen), an ant who displays neurotic traits in his behavior and lives in a colony in Central Park NYC. Z is a workaholic who is typically individualistic and has few friends, the two closest to him are Azteca (Jennifer Lopez) and Weaver (Sylvester Stallone). Z is surprised that he has survived in NYC, given his apprehensions regarding crowds, claustrophobia - he owes it all to the fact that he had a ‘very anxious childhood’, he lies on a leafy couch pouring his heart out to an ant shrink, cribbing that handling dirt is not his idea of a career. He feels insignificant - to which the shrink says he’s finally made a breakthrough for he has hit the nail on the head - he is indeed insignificant!
So Z goes back to join the five million socially adept formicidae, a larvae recruitment drive is on - each ant larva is equipped with either a shovel or soldier’s helmet. In the workshop, all that the little ants do is work, work and more work - they are almost indefatigable!
In the mega tunnel, as the rest of his clan toils tirelessly, Z is giving himself a pep talk about keeping a good attitude, ‘insignificant but with attitude.’ His friend Azteca tells him he’s finally getting it, because ants are all about team work, she tells him he thinks too much. He should be happy and just enjoy building them a better colony.



On the other hand, General Mandible (Gene Hackman) is hatching a sinister plan to use the ants to build a tunnel, after which the poor ants and their queen shall perish, and the colony will be inhabited by more powerful ants. However, before his dream is realized, he must send his troops to fight against an army of termites; Colonel Cutter (Christopher Walken) tells him that the mission is doomed from the start - ants cannot hold up against termites, it would be suicide! Mandible has just the plan to deal with this niggling problem - he decides to send the units loyal to the Queen, into the termite colony.
The Queen (Anne Bancroft) is surprised that things have reached this extent - after all, they’ve been friends with that colony for years! Mandible convinces her that the termites are greedy and want to expand their foraging territory. The Queen wants to deal with the problem through diplomatic channels, she suggests sending and ambassador to negotiate on their behalf - Mandible however tells the Queen that it is imperative they strike first to have an advantage. The Queen agrees grudgingly and the General praises her for her decision.
On his way out, Princess Bala (Sharon Stone) who is betrothed to General Mandible, requests that they spend some time getting to know each other before they marry. Mandible agrees quickly, although their conversation is cut short because time has run out and he has more important business to attend to. Bala complains to her mother the Queen, who says she knows that the General is high handed and overbearing, however, she thinks he loves her. She intones to her daughter that things aren’t all that bad - after all, she is a princess, and not a worker. Bala however, envies the workers for having a life!
Weaver and Z are at a bar, and the soldier is telling his friend how lucky he is because the worker girls are all around him, Z tells him that there focus is different - they’re persistent diggers! Z thinks his prospects with regard to meeting the love of his life are really bleak and this when he meets Princess Bala. Antz is based on the video game by the same name, directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson, the film received critical acclaim, opening the door to a fresh genre of animated computer films. Worth a watch for the message as well as the evolving technology!

Casino (1995) - Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone

Casino was a movie released in 1995, and ranked to be one of the best movies made by Martin Scorsese. The movie was somewhat of a departure from the traditional New York setting of many of his other movies, although the use of mafia, violence, and rough language was still common (in fact, the movie was somewhat controversial because of the use of the word 'fuck' for almost 400 uses in one movie). The movie was based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi, with the screenplay for the movie written by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese. The movie was based on a some real incidents, including the fight between a mob guy named Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal (a real life person based from the 1970's and early 80's who used to oversee multiple casinos for the mob) and his wife Geri McGee, a former topless dancer).
This concept was the idea of Nicholas Pileggi, who approached Martin Scorsese for the movie, and Scorsese was an eager supported of this thought, and decided to make a movie. When the movie was released, Martin Scorsese also have a tremendous reception, and this movie continued the trend, with the movie having got an overall positive acclaim. However, the movie did not do anything great at the Academy Awards, with a single nomination for Sharon Stone.



Robert De Niro stars as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, called in by the mob to oversee the operations of the Tangiers (non-existent in real life) casino in Las Vegas. In addition, Nicky Santoro (played by Joe Pesci) is a mob enforcer sent in to ensure that money keeps on coming to the mob, and that the mob's investments in the casinos are kept safe. Sharon Stone plays the role of Ginger, a devious lady who is also the wife of Ace (the skillful portrayal of a woman on the edge did get her a Golden Globe award for Best Actress).
The movie starts with an explosion in the car of Sam 'Ace', but he survives, and then the movie starts in flashback, moving back to the time in 1973 when Ace is brought in to run the Casino Tangiers. Ace is good at his job, and in a short period of time, he doubles the profits of the casino; however, the mob takes its cut before reporting to the tax authorities. Nicky is sent in to ensure that Sam has protection as he does his work. However, not everything works as intended; since Nicky works out to be nuisance with his attitude, and is banned from many casinos. Sam meets Ginger McKenna, and marries her after they have a baby girl.
Their is a difference that starts growing between Sam and Nick, and he also draws public attention when he gets into a dispute with the County Commissioner, and getting public attention is something that is bad for the mob. Things reach a boil pretty quickly after that, when Sam gets into a dispute with Ginger, and soon after, also begins a sexual affair with Nicky (something very severely frowned upon in the mob). This dispute between Sam and Nicky gets the FBI involved when some loose comments are overhead, and things quickly reach a stage where the entire business starts to unravel. And then the mob bosses, who are now in trouble themselves, have to decide whom to silence to ensure their safety. What happens to Sam, Ginger and Nicky ?