A reporter, trying to lose himself in the romance of war after his marriage fails, gets more than he bargains for when he meets a special forces agent who reveals the existence of a secret, psychic military unit whose goal is to end war as we know it. The founder of the unit has gone missing and the trail leads to another psychic soldier who has distorted the mission to serve his own ends.

Former British pop star Gary Shaller (Martin Freeman) is at a crossroad in his life: his job in New York City is going nowhere, his American wife, Dora (Gwyneth Paltrow), drives him crazy, and he passed his thirtieth birthday four years ago. Add to that his best friend Paul (Simon Pegg) seems to become more successful every time he breathes. Gary is feeling depressed and dejected, until he meets Anna (Penélope Cruz). She's glamorous and smart; she's seductive and witty. Best of all, she's crazy about Gary. Anna is the girl of Gary's dreams, literally. And that's the problem. Gary can only see Anna in his dream life, so he has to find a way to carry on the most satisfying relationship of his life, in his dreams. His quest for lucid dreaming techniques introduces Gary to some crazy characters who ultimately give him a new perspective on life.

Henry Chinaski never cared for the American dream, the thought of needing to become 'something' and fit into the system disgusts him. He believes that life is free and yours to live like you see fit, and if that in some cases involves copious amounts of whiskey then so be it. Henry spends his days drinking and listening to the radio, and he spends his nights drinking and fighting against Eddy who he thinks personifies shallowness and shameless self promoting. Sometimes in the middle of this he finds the time to jot down a few lines of poetry or a short story. After fighting Eddy and winning for a change Henry is thrown out of his regular bar where Eddy is a bartender. This leads him to seek another watering hole where he happens to find Wanda who is a barfly, in her own words "if another man came along with a fifth of whiskey, I'd go with him". Henry is not fazed by this thou and moves in with her. Of course Wanda immediately goes off and sleeps with Eddy, but after some clothes throwing and two visits from the paramedics Henry and Wanda manage to patch up their relationship. Then Henry gets a visit from a literary agent who has decided to publish one of his stories that he sent in because he "liked the name of the mag". He follows the agent home to her place in order to receive his payment and with the help of a little whiskey sleeps with her. When he leaves to go back to the bar and back to Wanda the agent is heartbroken, she sees something special in Henry and has fallen in love with him. She follows him to his usual bar and gets into a cat fight with Wanda that Wanda wins. In celebration of new found love, happiness and money Henry buys a round for everyone at the bar and toasts them "to my friends!"

Self-declared aspiring writer Hank Chinaski has neither qualifications, ambition nor ethics. Any dead-end job he lands is soon lost through laziness or mischief. His relationship with fellow deadbeat Jan gets strained to crisis through her insecurity, so he even gives up betting on horses which brought in easy money.

Civilization and its discontents. Paul, an actor preparing for "Uncle Vanya" on Broadway, is mired in ennui. His agent tells him about an office where he can put his soul in storage. He does so then discovers that being soulless helps neither his acting nor his marriage; he returns to the office and rents, for two weeks, the soul of a Russian poet. His acting improves, but his wife finds him different, he sees bits of the borrowed soul's life, and he's now deep in sorrow. He wants his own soul back, but there are complications: it's in St. Petersburg. With the help of Nina, a Russian who transports souls to the U.S., he determines to get it back. Who has he become?

An actor and would-be screenwriter, who at the very moment of his meeting with Fate, comes to discover that life is random and fortune is sightless. He is thrown into a vortex where time, dreams, and reality collide in an increasingly whirling slipstream. It's a surreal and dreamlike tale of one man's journey.

John Alighieri, formerly of Las Vegas, now works as a claims adjuster for Townsend Insurance LLC in Albuquerque. John used to think he was lucky, but now doesn't, which is why he, a gambler, moved away from Vegas to wherever his car would take him. That move, however, didn't cure his gambling addiction as he has turned instead to scratch and win tickets. The one lucky thing he sees in his current life is sitting in the next cubicle to Jill, to who he is attracted, she who most secretly know is sleeping with Mr. Townsend. When John goes into Mr. Townsend's office to ask for a raise, John walks out of the office instead with a new job/promotion: fraud investigator, working alongside the senior man in the position, Virgil. John's first case with Virgil is to investigation an automobile accident claim, which includes personal injury, made by a stripper with the stage name Tasty D Lite, who says that she was rear ended out in the middle of the desert which Virgil does not believe looking at the claim on paper. John will find that working with Virgil means that Virgil has total control of what they do, from who questions who, where they go, and how much he will allow John in expenses regardless of the actual policy. John and Virgil will meet an odd assortment of characters as they travel the US southwest trying to find the vehicles and people involved in or having witnessed the purported accident, all the while John tries to initiate a relationship with Jill over the telephone. The one thing John may not be willing to do but that is seemingly required for this case is to go to Las Vegas, where the temptation may once again take over his life. If he does end up going back to Vegas, he will probably test if Lady Luck is still eluding him.

Fun-loving Bobby is a mail boy in a big firm, but he has a trump card, his best friend Waymon, a "white" African-American who is almost a partner in the firm. They make a deal: Waymon will try to move Bobby to the trainee broker programme if he will help him meet Natalie, the girl of his dreams. There's only one problem, everyone will have to change...

Les, a small-time celebrity photographer desperate to make it big, befriends Toby, a homeless young man with no direction except a vague desire to become an actor. When by chance Toby becomes romantically involved with K'Harma Leeds, the hottest pop star of the moment, Les grows jealous and plots revenge.

A fool for love becomes an accidental celebrity only to lose it all.

When Sebastian tells his old-school Italian immigrant father Salvo that he is going to propose to his all-American girlfriend, Salvo insists on crashing a weekend with her tony parents.

Two old friends reconnect at a funeral and decide to revenge on the widower who messed with them decades before.

Kevin Carson is a young man living in the projects who has to survive a three-day weekend after his opportunistic neighbors find out he's holding a winning lottery ticket worth $370 million.

Eddie Griffin is Miles Waise, a fast rising nightclub comedian. His life is made difficult by his manager, who wants him to sell out for big bucks, and his brother Fifty Dollah, a scheming hood whose dream is to start a comedy club with Foolish.

Benjamin Finnegan is a deep-sea treasure hunter certain he's onto the find of the century in waters near an island close to Key West owned by a murderous rap star to whom Ben is in debt. Ben's flat broke and recently divorced from Tess, his long-time research and diving partner whom he still loves. She's nearby, working as a steward aboard the yacht of Nigel Honeycutt, a multimillionaire. The rapper has hired a rival treasurer hunter. Can Ben convince Nigel to bankroll his search, convince Tess to work with him, keep the rapper and his thugs at bay, and find a Spanish treasure hidden for centuries and rich beyond imagination?

Ronnie Barnhardt lives with his alcoholic mother. He's chief security guard at Forest Ridge Mall, where he's in love with Brandi, a cosmetic sales clerk, and gets a free coffee each day from Nell, a cheery clerk in the food court. A flasher haunts the mall's parking lot, and at night, thefts occur. Ronnie is intent on catching the criminals but has no investigative skills, is delusional about his abilities, and makes mad accusations. His bête noire is Detective Harrison, the city cop sent to investigate. Ronnie thinks he could be an officer, thinks he stands a chance with Brandi, and slowly loses his self control. Will reality set in? What about redemption?

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