Danny Devito

Elmore Leonard, that rare pulp mystery author whose work has been turned successfully into movies, returns to the screen with many members of the same team that produced "Get Shorty," the ebullient tale of Hollywood corruption that starred John Travolta.The new film, "Out of Sight," mostly lives up to the light heart and hip vibe of its predecessor, even if it doesn't strike the same satiric chord. And it certainly doesn't lack for star power. George Clooney, as the crinkly-eyed bank robber Jack Foley, is the sexiest guy on the lam since John Robie the Cat. And as Karen Sisco, the federal marshal who makes it her life's work to track him down, Jennifer Lopez wields sexily slinky powers that are anything but standard-issue.

Danny DeVito, Tim Conway and George "Goober" Lindsey are among the guests stars helping make sweeps month such a special time of year."Beverly Hills, 90210" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- Proving it's not always fun being on television, Donna (Tori Spelling) gets held hostage at the campus TV station by a dude who's been stalking her who now demands she tell everyone how much she loves him. Fox."Coach" (8: 30 p.m.-9 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Tim Conway copped an Emmy last year for playing Coach Hayden's former gardener, Kenny.

Jack Nicholson as the president of the United States. Jack Nicholson as a Las Vegas hustler. Little green men who say "ack-ack," leer at Playboy centerfolds and turn the entire U.S. Congress to toast. Tom Jones as Tom Jones. Disembodied heads falling in love with each other. Songs by Slim Whitman."Mars Attacks!" has it all, and more. How could this movie not be a riot?Ask Tim Burton, who somehow has managed the impossible. Never has a movie so brimming with potential failed so utterly to deliver.

There's no intelligent life out there in "Space Jam." If you get out of the theater and have a little headache, it's because your brain has been deprived of wit for 87 minutes.There are a few genuine laughs and a few scenes of exceptionally nifty animation in this cartoon-meets-live-action basketball flick, along the lines of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." But there's really no comparison in story, dazzle or -- dare we say it -- acting.Michael Jordan plays himself, or an idealized version of himself, living an idyllic life with his family in a beautiful house after he quits the NBA and starts striking out a lot in minor-league baseball.

LOS ANGELES -- Danny DeVito is waving a cigar, explaining how hard it was to direct a classroom full of rambunctious children for his latest movie, "Matilda," when the film's star, Mara Wilson, enters the room.She and a friend crawl all over DeVito, picking his pockets and cackling uncontrollably."What're you doing?" DeVito mock protests. "Look at this, see? Now tell me, you direct 20 of these in a movie."The girls kiss DeVito and take off, laughing joyously, leaving a pretty good indication of just how he handled all those kids.

It seems so logical that you wonder why somebody didn't think of it before. No two sensibilities are more perfectly matched than those of Danny DeVito and Roald Dahl. Both are mean, rotten, scary, nasty and vicious. Perfectly matched for each other and perfect for a kid's movie!So here's "Matilda," based on a book by Dahl and directed by and starring DeVito, which is, just as I had hoped, mean, rotten, scary, nasty and vicious. Kids will love it, little beasts that they are. And for the longest time, it's terrific.

There is much that "Get Shorty" doesn't get -- Elmore Leonard, for one thing -- but it gets one thing right, and that's enough: the star power of John Travolta.As Chili Palmer, made guy and loan shark, Travolta swaggers through this movie blasting out radiant waves of happy machismo and fearless good cheer, bending the whole thing around him until ugly memories of "Grease" are exiled and "Pulp Fiction" is all that remains. It's not that he's a tough guy -- although he is -- but that he simply can't imagine people denying him anything and that he's so full of confidence, he just takes what he wants.

Managing District Court Commissioner Salvatore N. Butta has retired from the front lines of Baltimore County's criminal justice system after 26 years, leaving murder and mayhem to chase punk pigeons from his backyard bird feeder.At 5 feet 4 inches -- some liken him to actor Danny DeVito -- Mr. Butta has plenty of tales to tell, including the time he confronted an angry juvenile almost a foot taller."He was young -- from the old Maryland Training School. There were no police and we didn't have a cage -- just a room with a metal door.

WHAT'S in a name, you ask? To hear American Joe Miedusiewski tell it, there's a promise of political music in the joyous jumble of vowels.American Joe Miedusiewski. It's as American as baseball and as ethnic as kielbasa. It's a statement, it's a slogan. It's a bumper sticker. It's a political consultant's dream. It's the only name on the roster of candidates for governor that comes with its own guide to phonetics, Med-a-SHEV-ski.And who else on the campaign circuit could get away with this smarmy riff: "I am not a career politician.

Get Danny DeVito started on a topic he has a boundless enthusiasm for, and then get comfortable.Today, the topic is controversial former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, a man both celebrated for helping the working class wrest livable wages from employers and reviled for his thuglike tactics and misappropriating money from the union's pension fund. Which, not coincidentally, is also the topic of Mr. DeVito's latest movie, "Hoffa," which opens Christmas Day. It's the third film Mr. DeVito has directed and, by far, the most ambitious, assured and polished.