Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone gears up for a men-on-a-mission film with the Nu Image/Millennium Films war picture, The Expendables. Jason Statham and Jet Li co-star alongside the brawny filmmaker as a group of mercenaries who undertake a near-impossible operation to overthrow a dictator in South America. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

When a group of missionary aid workers in Myanmar disappear into the vast green inferno, vigilante Vietnam War veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) leaves his job as a Salween River boatman behind to accompany a group of mercenaries on a daring rescue mission. It's been 20 years since Rambo helped mujahedeen rebels fend off Soviet invaders in Afghanistan, and these days the former soldier lives a simple life in northern Thailand. Meanwhile, the world's longest-running civil war rages into its 60th year on the nearby Thai-Burma border. One day, human rights missionaries Sarah Miller (Julie Benz) and Michael Burnett (Paul Schulze) show up asking Rambo to guide them up the Salween so they can get some much-needed food and medical supplies to the desperate Karen tribe. According to Sarah and Michael, the Burmese military has planted land mines all along the roads leading into the tribe's village, making it virtually impossible to reach the tribe via land. Two weeks after Rambo drops the group off in dangerous territory, pastor Arthur Marsh (Ken Howard) arrives with a chilling message: the aid workers never returned from their mission into the jungle, and the embassies refuse to help Marsh and his fellow missionaries find their missing friends. Now, despite the fact that Rambo has long since sworn off all forms of violence, the knowledge that innocent missionaries are being used as pawns in a brutal war leaves him with no other choice than to venture behind enemy lines on his most dangerous mission to date. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Shade, the first feature film from real-life card shark Damian Nieman, who wrote and directed the picture, stars Gabriel Byrne and Thandie Newton as a duo of con artists looking to beat the "Dean" (Sylvester Stallone), a legendary card shark, in a high-stakes poker game. Their first step is hiring two fellow tricksters -- Jamie Foxx and Stuart Townsend -- to provide the smooth talking and to procure the necessary funds. Unfortunately, Larry (Foxx) blows his hand and finds himself with 85,000 dollars worth of debt owed to a local crime boss. Shade premiered at the 2003 CineVegas film festival and also features Dina Merrill and Melanie Griffith. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Directed by Martyn Burke, Avenging Angelo centers around the life of bodyguard Frank (Sylvester Stallone) and his client, neurotic socialite Jennifer (Madeleine Stowe). Frank must constantly fight his emotions in order to maintain a strictly professional relationship with Jennifer, who has recently broken if off with her unfaithful husband. Matters are complicated further when Frank accidentally leads the sworn enemies of Jennifer's father, Mafia bigwig Angelo (Anthony Quinn), to her doorstep. Things are looking up for Jennifer, or so she thinks, when she meets Marcello (Raoul Bova), whom she believes to be a novelist. Unfortunately, Marcello is not what he claimed to be, and she finds herself in danger once more. With Frank by her side, she takes on the mob, and eventually, her feelings. Avenging Angelo was the late Anthony Quinn's final role. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay for this action-packed drama directed by Renny Harlin and set in the dangerous, high-stakes world of CART auto racing. Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) is an up-and-coming young star of the open-wheel circuit, but he's slipping in the rankings as the championships loom. Under pressure from his promoter brother Demille (Robert Sean Leonard) and wheelchair-bound owner Carl Henry (Burt Reynolds), Jimmy is given a mentor -- Joe Tanto (Stallone), a once great CART competitor whose career and marriage to Cathy (Gina Gershon) were destroyed by a tragic accident. Joe must earn the rookie's trust, while attempting a career comeback, dealing with persistent reporter Lucretia Clan (Stacy Edwards), and facing Cathy, who's remarried to rival racing sensation Memo Moreno (Cristian de la Fuente). Meanwhile, Jimmy is stirring up his own romantic trouble by pursuing Sophia (Estella Warren), the girlfriend of top driver Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger). Long interested in creating a car racing drama, Stallone penned Driven after abandoning a film biography of real-life Formula One legend Ayrton Senna. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

A man who has made murder his business is thrown into the underbelly of an unfamiliar criminal world in this thriller. Jack Carter (Sylvester Stallone) is a ruthless hired killer whose bloody career in Los Angeles has driven a wedge between himself and his family in the Northwest. When he learns that his brother has died, he flies back to Seattle, hoping to pay his respects and reconnect with his relatives. At the funeral, his brother's wife, Gloria (Miranda Richardson), and her daughter, Doreen (Rachael Leigh Cook), are wary of Jack's attempts to reach out to them, but when he learns that his brother's death was no accident, Jack forms an uneasy alliance with Doreen to find the killers and deal out his own brand of justice. Get Carter is based on the novel Jack's Return Home by Ted Lewis, which was previously filmed in 1971 with Michael Caine as the gangster seeking revenge. Caine also appears in this remake as Cliff, the boss of Jack's late brother; Mickey Rourke, Alan Cumming, and Gretchen Mol also highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

DreamWorks and Pacific Data Images collaborated on this all computer-animated comedy-adventure about the ant angst of misfit worker ant, Z (voice of Woody Allen), who feels trapped by the conformist confines of his totalitarian ant civilization and eventually sets forth in search of Insectopia. After DreamWorks began animating Prince of Egypt June 1, 1995, the company launched Antz in Palo Alto a year later (5/20/96), the same month the DreamWorks/PDI partnership was announced. The screenplay by Chris and Paul Weitz and Todd Alcott has uncredited input by Woody Allen (who matched dialogue to fit his usual style of verbal delivery). The story suggests the possible influence of Yevgeny Zamatin's classic novel We (1923) and Ayn Rand's similar-themed Anthem (1936), filmed in the early '70s in a rarely seen unauthorized film adaptation (which Rand never allowed to be shown commercially). Following the 1995 Toy Story (1995), Antz is the second fully computer-animated feature, preceding the release of Disney's all-CGI A Bug's Life by seven weeks. Antz begins with worker ant Z discussing his feelings of insignificance with a shrink (voice of Paul Mazursky) before heading off to his tunnel-digging job, work supervised by General Mandible (Gene Hackman) and Colonel Cutter (Christopher Walken). Mandible has big dreams of conquest, and he convinces the Queen (Anne Bancroft) an attack is necessary to prevent a termite invasion. Her daughter is Princess Bala (Sharon Stone), who's not overly enchanted by her engagement to Mandible. The Princess goes slumming, visiting the bar where Z hangs out with his friend Weaver (Sylvester Stallone). To the tune of "Guantanamera," Bala dances with Z -- in a scene with allusions to the dance in Pulp Fiction (1994). Entranced by the encounter, Z convinces Weaver to swap places, so a military parade will allow him to see Bala in the reviewing stand. Befriended by soldier ant Barbatus (Danny Glover) during the parade, Z nervously realizes he's actually marching into battle. Attacked by termites, the troops experience horrors highly reminiscent of the Starship Troopers (1997) bug battles. The dying Barbatus tells Z, "Don't follow orders all your life." As the only survivor of the slaughter, Z returns home a war hero. Threatened by Mandible, Bala and Z are thrown together in a journey into the outside world, and they travel toward the legendary Insectopia. Major city newspaper critics were almost unanimous in their praise of Antz. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This 1997 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Sylvester Stallone and features musical guest Jamiroquai. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide

The second film from writer/director James Mangold, the corruption drama Cop Land stars Sylvester Stallone as Freddy Heflin, the much-denigrated sheriff of tiny Garrison, NJ, a community which -- thanks to a technicality -- is populated almost entirely by members of the New York City Police Department. When young cop Murray "Superboy" Babitch (Michael Rapaport) becomes embroiled in a controversial shoot-out which leaves two black youths dead, he apparently commits suicide rather than face the wrath of an official investigation. In reality, however, he flees to safety back home in Garrison. In the wake of the controversial events, NYPD Internal Affairs lieutenant Moe Tilden (Robert De Niro) arrives in Garrison to uncover the truth, attempting to enlist Freddy to help watch the watchmen, including Superboy's uncle, veteran cop Ray Donlan (Harvey Keitel); coked-out Gary Figgis (Ray Liotta); and Joey Randone (Peter Berg), the husband of the woman (Annabella Sciorra) Freddy loved and lost. A rich, complex film about redemption, Cop Land's portrayal of Freddy's struggles to prove his worth mirrors Stallone's own return to thoughtful, character-driven drama after years of vacuous action roles. Like Freddy, he faces an uphill battle, fighting for respectability in the face of a superb cast including Janeane Garofalo, Cathy Moriarty, and Paul Calderon. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner helms this action-adventure yarn in which Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone), a veteran, burned-out hit man for hire who's looking to leave his profession, meets a younger, crazier, more ambitious competitor, Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas), who is out to best Rath and make him a target in the process. Rath signs on for one last hit, but complications ensue when he falls in love with the mark, a beautiful, mysterious woman named Electra (Julianne Moore). Bain sets out to murder Electra as well, and the chase leads the two assassins into a deadly game of wits that takes them from Seattle to Puerto Rico. Critics and audiences both turned away from this thriller, which was co-scripted by Bound writer/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski and L.A. Confidential screenwriter Brian Helgeland. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

A violent, effects-heavy science fiction adventure, Judge Dredd depicts a nightmarish future in which overcrowded cities are terrorized by brutal gun battles and policed by "Judges," law officers who act as judge, jury, and executioner. Sylvester Stallone stars as Judge Dredd, a punishing enforcer with an unswerving dedication to law and order. Little does Dredd know that a nasty villain (Armand Assante) and a corrupt Judge (Jurgen Prochnow) are plotting to take over the city and plan to frame Dredd for murder in order to prevent him from interfering. Dredd winds up in prison, but he fights back with the help of Judge Hershey (Diane Lane), his partner and romantic interest, and Fergie (Rob Schneider), his friend and comic relief, developing a plan to clear his name and stop the bad guys. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

The plot of this action film begins in 1996, with Los Angeles in a violence-crazed conflagration. One of the LAPD's most notorious cops, John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), known as "the demolition man," is in hot pursuit of blonde-haired psychopath Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), who is so nasty he even kills sometimes just because he feels cranky. John captures Simon, but not before Simon kills innocent hostages. John is blamed for the deaths of the hostages, and both he and Simon are cryogenically frozen to remove their brand of ultra-violence from a society that is simply just too violent. The film shifts to the future world of 2032, where Los Angeles has become a megalopolis called San Angeles. There is no poverty, Arnold Schwarzenegger was (at one time) president of the United States, and Taco Bell is the sole survivor of the Franchise Wars. Into this peaceful and bland society, Simon is summarily defrosted by reigning benevolent dictator Dr. Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne) to have Simon murder Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary), the leader of a group of underground rebels. But Cocteau bites off more than he can chew when the melted-down Simon proceeds to go on a murder-and-looting spree. Reluctantly, Cocteau defrosts John to hunt down his old adversary. As John adjusts to self-driving cars and having sex wearing helmets, he pairs up with Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock), a bored cop with a nostalgic fascination for 20th-century culture. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide