Michael Douglas

"I knew," says director Joel Schumacher, whose powerful and disturbing "Falling Down" opens Friday, "that we had to have someone with . . . edge."Yet when you look at Hollywood's champion of edge in the flesh, edge is the furthest thing from your mind and flesh is the nearest.Up close, without a script to give him cynical lines and a camera to emphasize the planes of his face, Michael Douglas seems almost fragile, in the way that many handsome men seem. He's . . . just flesh, thin to the point of scrawniness, dressed like a Gilman sophomore with a haircut at least as expensive as his sweater, which is also very expensive, worn with jeans and a clunky pair of hiking boots -- you know, the prep-punk look, very with-it in 15- and 48-year-old circles.

There's great fun to be had in seeing Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland chew up the scenery (as well as their fellow actors) as Secret Service agents struggling to unravel a plot to assassinate the president. Too bad The Sentinel doesn't offer much more. Instead, the movie - based on a novel by Gerald Petievich - offers a setup that inexplicably goes away about halfway through, characters who seem to have missed much of their Secret Service basic training, atmosphere that doesn't really have to do with anything and way too many guys with machine guns within easy reach of the president of the United States.

An air of rumpled desperation suffuses "Wonder Boys," as if human emotion were muffled under cottony layers of denial and angst, flailing to get out. A story of midlife crisis, creative paralysis and the liberating power of conscious choice, "Wonder Boys" exists in that mid-range between an arty small film and a star-driven Hollywood vehicle. It's that rare, thoroughly satisfying comedy that modestly reaches toward mature filmgoers, counting on their wry recognition of its chastened tone and graying pop references (Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young)

On March 10, 2004, BILLY DOUGLAS BARNES, loving husband of Dolores Barnes, devoted father of Michael Douglas and Clarissa Barnes, Robert and Laura Revere. Cherished grandfather of Christopher Allan and Mason Douglas Barnes. Beloved brother of Clyde, Garnet, and Gladys Barnes. Family request friends to call at the Gonce Funeral Service P.A., 4001 Ritchie Hwy, on Sunday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. and Monday 11 to 11:30 A.M. at which time Funeral Services will begin. Interment Cedar Hill Cemetery.

There's great fun to be had in seeing Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland chew up the scenery (as well as their fellow actors) as Secret Service agents struggling to unravel a plot to assassinate the president. Too bad The Sentinel doesn't offer much more. Instead, the movie - based on a novel by Gerald Petievich - offers a setup that inexplicably goes away about halfway through, characters who seem to have missed much of their Secret Service basic training, atmosphere that doesn't really have to do with anything and way too many guys with machine guns within easy reach of the president of the United States.

On March 10, 2004, BILLY DOUGLAS BARNES, loving husband of Dolores Barnes, devoted father of Michael Douglas and Clarissa Barnes, Robert and Laura Revere. Cherished grandfather of Christopher Allan and Mason Douglas Barnes. Beloved brother of Clyde, Garnet, and Gladys Barnes. Family request friends to call at the Gonce Funeral Service P.A., 4001 Ritchie Hwy, on Sunday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. and Monday 11 to 11:30 A.M. at which time Funeral Services will begin. Interment Cedar Hill Cemetery.

There's nothing more dispiriting than watching first-class talents try to breathe life into third-rate material. Sadly, that's the only thing on the screen at the UA Westview where a surprisingly good cast -- Vanessa Redgrave as "Grandma"! -- is wasting its time in the bizarre "Mother's Boys."Basically, the movie takes the plot of "Fatal Attraction" and reverses the values of the two women characters. The mom is now the psycho villain and the girlfriend the stalwart heroine. But they're fighting over . . . Peter Gallagher?

"Falling Down" goes boom. And it goes bang.This angry, self-congratulatory, self-important movie fancies itself a "Taxi Driver" for the '90s but it has such a clammy stench of hypocrisy that the taxi you'll cherish is the one that takes you home afterward. It's one of those jobs that disapproves of middle-class rage but can't help its grubby little self from exploiting the same. It doesn't mind if you purse your lips in disapproval or scream "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out," just as long as you pay for your ticket.

The most important thing to know about the new movie "Disclosure" is that it's about as controversial as flossing.Nobody walks out mad, that's for sure.What happened?After all, "Disclosure" is based on the hot-button book on sexual harassment -- in which the harassing boss is a woman. It's supposed to take a new, hard look at an explosive issue. And, if that's not enough to get you inside the theater, you also get to see Demi Moore, uh, act.Well, there is, as promised, a steamy scene between Moore and Michael Douglas.

About halfway through "Basic Instinct" I was seized with a primordial urge,a spasm of undeniable wanting that arose from deep within my being. I fought it, but what can a man do in the grip of such a demon? And so I gave in and . . . ZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZZ!Overpublicized and underbrained,"Basic Instinct" is a bitter disappointment, worth maybe a 10th of the hype that the media have so obligingly ladled out for its benefit. It makes you feel dirty in the morning. A thin and unconvincing mystery story, it is really driven forward not by plot or character but by the two or three quasi-hot scenes in which highly paid movie stars cavort like Erica and Long Dong in any of a half-million craftless tapes since porn moved to video.

The In-Laws is a high-concept remake of a 1979 wild comedy that clicked with fans because of the offbeat chemistry between Alan Arkin as a slow-boiling dentist and Peter Falk as a soft-shoe secret agent - mismatched parents thrown together by the marriage of their kids. The idea seems to have been "let's do it over like a family-film-cum-Bond-movie," but Spy Kids beats it silly on that score. This picture's notion of a Bond parody is to play Paul McCartney songs over an action scene. The odd couple this time is Albert Brooks as a punctilious podiatrist and Michael Douglas as a brasher sort of CIA man enmeshed in a deep-cover operation.

Don't Say A Word packages male hysteria so slickly there isn't an ounce of real life in it. Michael Douglas stars as a high-powered New York psychiatrist who specializes in problem adolescents. On the evening before Thanksgiving he agrees to treat a teen-age patient (Brittany Murphy) in a psychiatric hospital - only to find on Thanksgiving morning that he has to crack her case by 5 p.m. Bad guys have kidnapped his 8-year-old daughter and will kill the precocious tyke if the shrink doesn't retrieve a secret number from Murphy's scrambled brain.

Ever wonder where celebrities get their chic shades? More and more, the hip (and sometimes edgy) frame designs of Paris-based Frederic Beausoleil are showing up on the noses of Hollywood's elite. Here are some you might have seen: * Michael Douglas' professorial reading glasses in "Wonder Boys" (style No. 104 070) * Julia Roberts' cat-like shades in "Erin Brockovich" (style No. 26 293) * Sandra Bullock's sun-blocking hangover helpers in "28 Days" (style No. 171 300) Lucy Liu also wore them in "Charlie's Angels," Cameron Diaz in both "Any Given Sunday" and "Being John Malkovich," and Matt Damon in "Legend of Bagger Vance."

The sad truth that colors every moment of "Traffic," Steven Soderbergh's distressingly clear-eyed take on the so-called War on Drugs, comes through most clearly in one of the film's last lines, as a shell-shocked veteran of the conflict tries to rationalize what's going on. "If there is a war on drugs," this fighter says, "then many members of our family are the enemy. And I don't know how you wage war on your own family." A scathing, wearying and ultimately frustrating dissection of the Sisyphean conflict, "Traffic" benefits from strong performances, sure-handed direction and explosive subject matter: It's every bit as thrilling and engrossing as the best spy thriller or cop flick.

Pre-nup blues for Douglas and Zeta-Jones A row over a potential divorce settlement is rocking the pre-wedding plans of Hollywood couple Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas. London's Sun newspaper is reporting that the couple are at odds over how big a slice of Douglas' $224.9 million fortune the Welsh actress would receive if the couple's planned September marriage ended in divorce. The Sun said Douglas, 54, had rejected Zeta-Jones' request for $4.4 million for every year they are married and a home for life if she splits from the actor.

THE INFINITE capacity of people to delude themselves is on display everywhere, but nowhere more than in Hollywood, where it's practically at epidemic proportions. Take this creepy (at least to me) romance between Michael Douglas and mega-babe Catherine Zeta-Jones. As practically everyone in the world knows, Douglas, 55, and Zeta-Jones, 30, are engaged to be married. In fact, Zeta-Jones is reportedly pregnant with Douglas' baby. OK, no big deal. This kind of thing happens all the time in Hollywood.

About halfway through "Basic Instinct" I was seized with a primordial urge, a spasm of undeniable wanting that arose from deep within my being. I fought it, but what can a man do in the grip of such a demon? And so I gave in and . . . ZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZ!Overpublicized and underbrained,"Basic Instinct" is a bitter disappointment, worth maybe a 10th of the hype that the media have so obligingly ladled out for its benefit. It makes you feel dirty in the morning. A thin and unconvincing mystery story, it is really driven forward not by plot or character but by the two or three quasi-hot scenes in which highly paid movie stars cavort like Erica and Long Dong in any of a half-million craftless tapes since porn moved to video.

Dribs and drabs from Cannes FestivalSharon Stone, waxing serious on her role as the ice queen co-star of "Basic Instinct," said that her part opposite Michael Douglas in the megahit thriller was "the most exciting and interesting and most profoundly moving [role] I have ever been offered." Ms. Stone's resume lists such work as "King Solomon's Mines" and "Police Academy 4."Winning films and filmmakers at the the 12-day festival, selected by a 10-person jury headed by Gerard Depardieu (with Jamie Lee Curtis, director John Boorman and Pedro Almodovar also on board)

An air of rumpled desperation suffuses "Wonder Boys," as if human emotion were muffled under cottony layers of denial and angst, flailing to get out. A story of midlife crisis, creative paralysis and the liberating power of conscious choice, "Wonder Boys" exists in that mid-range between an arty small film and a star-driven Hollywood vehicle. It's that rare, thoroughly satisfying comedy that modestly reaches toward mature filmgoers, counting on their wry recognition of its chastened tone and graying pop references (Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young)

"A Perfect Murder," a sleek, chic re-telling of Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder," is an altogether respectable adaptation, taking one of the master's least compelling suspense movies and giving it a few extra twists and high gloss -- not to mention a couple of extra corpses.In fact, aside from its '90s-style ending -- which replaces psychological finesse with coarse brutality -- "A Perfect Murder" is, in many ways, better than its antecedent.In the 1954 film, Grace Kelly played a wife who has been cheating on her husband (Ray Milland)