Andy Garcia

Shortly after coming to Hollywood, Andy Garcia got one of his first gigs -- as a waiter at the 1978 Golden Globe Awards.He remembers serving a salad to Jon Voight, who had just won for "Coming Home.""I looked at him and thought, 'There's just a plate of chopped lettuce standing between where you are and where I am,' " he says, laughing.Mr. Garcia understands ambition, passion and loyalty. He just doesn't believe in talking about them too much. In the current "When a Man Loves a Woman," for example, he plays a man who might be accused of loving too much.

Watching The Lost City is like falling into a delirious dream on a marathon train ride only to be roused every 15 minutes by a conductor punching your ticket or barking out the next stop. Director Andy Garcia and screenwriter G. Cabrera Infante stick to their admirable purpose of portraying Cuba under President Fulgencio Batista in all its confusion and complexity. They don't reduce history to Castro's forces sweeping into Havana on Jan. 1, 1959, and ousting a monolithic dictator. These moviemakers strive for a nuanced portrait of bourgeois democrats struggling to fight Batista after his regime turns bloody and repressive, then finding themselves without a home in Castro's Cuba.

LOS ANGELES-- --Andy Garcia can finally sit down, relax and light a cigar. As he takes a puff, the smoke rising above him in his Los Angeles hotel suite, he begins to describe what it took to direct his newest film, The Lost City. He brought the stogie back from the Dominican Republic, where much of the film's production took place. He acted, co-produced and oversaw the movie's soundtrack, too. The film chronicles the events leading up to the Cuban revolution, as seen through the eyes of a nightclub owner in Havana played by Garcia.

LOS ANGELES-- --Andy Garcia can finally sit down, relax and light a cigar. As he takes a puff, the smoke rising above him in his Los Angeles hotel suite, he begins to describe what it took to direct his newest film, The Lost City. He brought the stogie back from the Dominican Republic, where much of the film's production took place. He acted, co-produced and oversaw the movie's soundtrack, too. The film chronicles the events leading up to the Cuban revolution, as seen through the eyes of a nightclub owner in Havana played by Garcia.

The title of "Desperate Measures" is supposed to refer to the lengths two diametrically opposed men will take to get what they want, but it more accurately reflects what audiences should take to escape from the movie.By turns depressing, laughable and shockingly dumb, this may be the one movie where a grisly bone-marrow transplant is a visual relief.Starring Michael Keaton, in what is commonly referred to as a "bold dramatic departure," and Andy Garcia, who should know better, "Desperate Measures" wants to be so many things that, of course, it winds up being nothing at all.As a psychological thriller, action drama, dark comedy and contemporary portrait of pure evil it fails miserably.

Critic's Pick-- His wife's alcoholism forces a pilot (Andy Garcia, above) to look in the mirror in When a Man Loves a Woman (8 p.m.-10 :30 p.m., AMC).

Watching The Lost City is like falling into a delirious dream on a marathon train ride only to be roused every 15 minutes by a conductor punching your ticket or barking out the next stop. Director Andy Garcia and screenwriter G. Cabrera Infante stick to their admirable purpose of portraying Cuba under President Fulgencio Batista in all its confusion and complexity. They don't reduce history to Castro's forces sweeping into Havana on Jan. 1, 1959, and ousting a monolithic dictator. These moviemakers strive for a nuanced portrait of bourgeois democrats struggling to fight Batista after his regime turns bloody and repressive, then finding themselves without a home in Castro's Cuba.

"Jennifer 8" was calculated to make a star out of Andy Garcia, but it will only make a star out of John Malkovich, who doesn't need to be made a star because he already is one.And you can see why. "Jennifer 8" meanders murkily all over creation for close to two hours, following the tortured Garcia's peregrinations as he attempts to find a serial killer who specializes in raping and dismembering blind women. Problem One: The killer may not exist. Problem Two: If he does exist, he may be Andy Garcia.

Stars share their recipes In many ways, actors -- like the rich -- are different from you and me. But when it comes to food, they are very much like us, savoring favorite recipes and meals. In "Autograph Celebrity Cookbook" (DuPont), 25 stars contributed recipes, ranging from Sauteed Scallops and Spring Vegetables (Andy Garcia) to Lamb Wrapped in Phyllo (Richard Belzer). The book, which benefits charitable meal programs, is available at a promotional price of $19.99 by calling 877-353-5877.

Here's something to do in Denver that would be more fun by far than seeing "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead." You could die. Really, it would be more enjoyable."

Critic's Pick-- His wife's alcoholism forces a pilot (Andy Garcia, above) to look in the mirror in When a Man Loves a Woman (8 p.m.-10 :30 p.m., AMC).

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julia Roberts crash the boy's club of Ocean's Twelve and commit the only notable thefts in the movie. You don't want to look at anything else when Zeta-Jones is on-screen. All her neurons click as a Europol sleuth who used to be Brad Pitt's lover; her sizzling alertness would be hard to resist even if she weren't a knockout. Roberts, as George Clooney's wife, doesn't do as much as Zeta-Jones. But she pulls off a climactic bout of good-natured self-parody that makes these silly fellows look self-satisfied.

Stars share their recipes In many ways, actors -- like the rich -- are different from you and me. But when it comes to food, they are very much like us, savoring favorite recipes and meals. In "Autograph Celebrity Cookbook" (DuPont), 25 stars contributed recipes, ranging from Sauteed Scallops and Spring Vegetables (Andy Garcia) to Lamb Wrapped in Phyllo (Richard Belzer). The book, which benefits charitable meal programs, is available at a promotional price of $19.99 by calling 877-353-5877.

The title of "Desperate Measures" is supposed to refer to the lengths two diametrically opposed men will take to get what they want, but it more accurately reflects what audiences should take to escape from the movie.By turns depressing, laughable and shockingly dumb, this may be the one movie where a grisly bone-marrow transplant is a visual relief.Starring Michael Keaton, in what is commonly referred to as a "bold dramatic departure," and Andy Garcia, who should know better, "Desperate Measures" wants to be so many things that, of course, it winds up being nothing at all.As a psychological thriller, action drama, dark comedy and contemporary portrait of pure evil it fails miserably.

Here's something to do in Denver that would be more fun by far than seeing "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead." You could die. Really, it would be more enjoyable."

A melancholy pattern reasserts itself in "Steal Big, Steal Little" -- the one about the director who finally hits the big time and as his reward gets to make any movie he wants. So he hauls out his dream project, the movie he's been fantasizing about making all these years; the movie that got him in the film business in the first place.When the film is finally released, he learns why everyone said no to him for all those years. Barry Levinson learned all about it with "Toys." William Friedkin did with "Sorcerer."

A 16-year wait is nearing its end as one of Hollywood's most impatiently anticipated sequels moves toward final cut and a winter release.It has not been an easy route to "The Godfather Part III." The docketed Christmas release will climax years of false beginnings, immeasurable production problems, a stretched shooting schedule and overruns on a budget that was steep to begin with at $44 million.Paramount Pictures' latest chapter in the Corleone family saga brings Don Michael's organized crime odyssey to nearly the end of this century.

Kenneth Branagh is one of those actors who is able to transform himself on the screen. He looms large on screen, he's almost handsome and he's certainly persuasive.Branagh is equally persuasive in person, but he is not that tall and looks almost ordinary. You might never assume he is an actor.He is, however, direct and honest in person. He wouldn't know how to dissemble, but then he is only 30 years old."Yes," he says, "I was only 29, a mere slip of a boy when I was nominated for the best actor Academy Award for 'Henry V.'"I have a huge cannon of work," he adds, explaining that he's done only four films.

Shortly after coming to Hollywood, Andy Garcia got one of his first gigs -- as a waiter at the 1978 Golden Globe Awards.He remembers serving a salad to Jon Voight, who had just won for "Coming Home.""I looked at him and thought, 'There's just a plate of chopped lettuce standing between where you are and where I am,' " he says, laughing.Mr. Garcia understands ambition, passion and loyalty. He just doesn't believe in talking about them too much. In the current "When a Man Loves a Woman," for example, he plays a man who might be accused of loving too much.

"Jennifer 8" was calculated to make a star out of Andy Garcia, but it will only make a star out of John Malkovich, who doesn't need to be made a star because he already is one.And you can see why. "Jennifer 8" meanders murkily all over creation for close to two hours, following the tortured Garcia's peregrinations as he attempts to find a serial killer who specializes in raping and dismembering blind women. Problem One: The killer may not exist. Problem Two: If he does exist, he may be Andy Garcia.