The bad news first: absolutely no sign whatsoever of ANY Episode One commercials during the Big Game. The good news is that a handful of other films took advantage of the opportunity to launch their ad campaigns with a big bang and even some style. For your eager moviegoing curiosity, we've culled together brief snapshots of the movies whose commercials you may have caught during the Super Bowl, so that you can hear a bit more about the fast-paced special effects and top Hollywood stars that whizzed past your eyes last Sunday.

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The Corruptor
February 26, 1999

Starring: Chow Yun Fat, Mark Wahlberg, Elizabeth Lindsey

Plot: Lindsey and Wahlberg portray a pair of cops trying to trap Fat's character, a crooked cop who's on the payroll of a notorious Chinatown crime organization. Expect much Hong Kong-style gunplay and urban warfare. No word on potential casting for the part of Wahlberg's unit. The kick is up, and it's...GOOD! Though The Replacement Killers had little to offer other than high-speed gunplay, it featured some very fine high-speed gunplay. Teaming Fat with the ultrahot Wahlberg should make for a big box-office draw, and a key February placement means that not much other action fare is out there for competition.

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True Crime
March 19, 1999

Starring: Clint Eastwood, James Woods, Dennis Leary, Diane Venora, Sidney Poitier

Plot: It's sorta like All the President's Men meets Dirty Harry. Eastwood's a reporter who is trying to save the life of a soon-to-be executed prisoner by uncovering some new evidence at the last minute. The kick is up, and it's...GOOD! Who can say if it'll make any dent at the box office. But with Eastwood in the director's chair, it's a guaranteed good film. He hasn't helmed a stinker yet.

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Ed TV
March 19, 1999

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Ellen Degeneres, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Hurley, Jenna Elfman, Martin Landau, Dennis Hopper, Rob Reiner

Plot: This average Joe--named Ed, not Joe--agrees to be taped 24 hours a day for a new cable network, and must deal with all the wacky fame and fortunes that can change when you skyrocket into celebrity. The kick is up, and it's...INSTANT REPLAY. On one hand, it's really just a variation on The Truman Show, and even the most vapid moviegoer won't miss that. On the other hand, check out the behind-the-scenes crew: Ron Howard in the director's chair, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel as screenwriters, and Brian Grazer producing. That's some big moneymaking talent. It has huge suck potential, but there's enough star power that it could summon just the right light comic tone to wash the dark, dank taste of Truman Show out of the collective moviegoing mouth.

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The Matrix
April 2, 1999

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne

Plot: Thomas Anderson (Reeves) discovers that the world he's been living in is a virtual reality copy of some actual reality somewhere. ("Dude, this world is so not real, dude," Reeves will exclaim.) He then joins Morpheus (Fishburne) and a gang of rebels in trying to free this fake reality from the grips of some dastardly fake-reality maker. The kick is up, and it's...NO GOOD! Matrix has languished in Release Date Hell for months trying to find the right spot for release. Though the special effects revealed in the Super Bowl spot were impressive, Keanu plus cerebral sci-fi hasn't equalled either quality or box-office success yet. It would be cool if this film were cool, but don't hold your breath.

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Life
April 16, 1999

Starring: Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy, Lisa Nicole Carson, Ned Beatty, Cicely Tyson

Plot: Lawrence and Murphy are two men wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in a Mississippi jail. The movie follows their time in the slammer, as their friendship grows deeper and they offer humorous observations on prison life, such as "Ooooh! It sure is weird to have anal sex in the shower!" Certain wackiness will ensue. The kick is up, and it's...INSTANT REPLAY. Lawrence and Murphy are a HUGE star combination. But with this type of storyline, it will take some careful writing to walk the tightrope between schtick and schmaltz. If the script holds up, expect Murphy and Lawrence to turn in career performances and expect a sure-fire critical and commercial blockbuster.

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The Mummy
May 7, 1999

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Arnold Vosloo

Plot: Universal launches a full-scale plundering of its classic horror back catalogue with this remake of the 1932 Boris Karloff film. Brendan Frasier is a mercenary hunting for treasure who stumbles upon a reincarnated Egyptian priest bent on conquering the world with an army of corpses. Whoops! The kick is up, and its...GOOD! Man, this film looks so cool. It's a big-budget blockbuster that opens a solid three weeks before the new Star Wars movie, and it's got an entirely different tone. The special effects look phenomenal, and the source story for this remake is definitely strong. Not only should it make for a great time at the movies, but it has the potential to slide in as an early summer sleeper hit, especially when the lines for The Phantom Menace drive moviegoers into other films at the cineplex.

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Wild Wild West
July 4, 1999

Starring: Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek, Musetta Vander

Plot: A big-screen remake of the 1960's television series, Smith takes the lead role as super-cowboy and government agent James West, who teams up with Artemus Gordon (Kline) to stop a crazy inventor, Dr. Arliss Loveless (Branagh), from assassinating the president with a giant tarantula contraption. The kick is up, and it's...GOOD! "This summer, it's a whole wild world." At least, that's what the taglines claim, and after Episode I has been seen thirty times, West is poised to pick up the big box office numbers and further establish July 4 as the Weekend of Willie Styles. In addition, director Barry Sonnenfeld has demonstrated gifts in the past (especially on Men In Black) to combine big special effects with a buttload of energy and some true wit. Plus, can you really miss a Will Smith summer blockbuster? We didn't think so.