A good comeback is like a great third act in American lives; it's the triumphant return, the end of the story. James Cagney retired in 1961, then made a triumphant comeback in 1981 with Ragtime. But a good movie never deals with the aftermath of the comeback. Just as often as not, the comeback leads to nothing. Cagney died a few years after the hubbub. Though we all love a good comeback, the following is a list of comebacks that weren't the end of the story, and didn't provide the inspiring coda that they could have.

1. Sylvester Stallone in Cop Land (1997)
Stallone's is one of the most fascinating, dramatic careers in cinema. His fame is so huge that his name and face -- or at least his characters -- are known the world over. He had a fairytale rise to fame with Rocky (1976), complete with tales of writing it in a weekend. He has a lot of charisma, and earned an Oscar nomination for acting. He has directed eight feature films and contributed to the screenplays for nearly twenty. People whisper about how smart and savvy he is behind the scenes.

"I'm in the Marlon Brando business." -- Marlon Brando

A nearly three-hour retrospective of the mercurial actor's life, Brando proceeds chronologically from his unrequited attachment to his distant drunk of a Nebraska mother to a post-war rise through the ranks of New York theater and fortuitous pairings with Stella Adler and Elia Kazan, to unexpected movie stardom, to has-been movie stardom, to political activism, to a measured critical rebirth and finally to an increasingly sad elderly life marked by erratic jaunts onto shows like Larry King Live and an elaborate prankishness that poorly camouflages an exhausted lothario's boredom with old age. "The first two-thirds of Marlon's life was in his body and the last third was in his mind," someone tells us, the implication being that Brando felt cheated by that trade-off and spent his final years playing with the only toy he had left, his celebrity. We hear about him summoning one well-known actor to his house on the pretense of collaborating on a film, only to tell them when they arrive that he's discovered a way to power his house with electric eels.

Since much of his life is old hat to the target audience, the pleasures of Brando mostly derive from the little moments snuck in here and there -- new memories from a fellow actor or new takes on one of his films, and so on. One the most interesting sequences, for my money, is a somewhat negative reassessment of Brando's role in Apocalypse Now. Robert Duvall, in his interview, feels obliged to point out that the performance is something of a non-starter because Kurtz was obviously supposed to be a military type, whippet-slim and muscled-up, while Brando practically had to be wheelbarrowed onto the set. It's also made clear that Coppola confided to the cast that Brando showed up for the film without having done any kind of mental preparation either. Dennis Hopper gets in a good jab, noting that "Marlon didn't care about your money" and digging up the old story about Brando demanding $75K for a five-minute close-up that was needed immediately after the point that he was no longer contractually bound to be there.

• Rod Colbin (1923-2007) - Actor who appears in Frances, John Hus and Yes, Giorgio. He was also a fencing master who taught Marlon Brando and James Dean. He died February 4. (Daily India)
• Peter Ellenshaw (1913-2007) - Oscar-winning matte artist (pictured) for Mary Poppins. He also received nominations for Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Island at the Top of the World and The Black Hole. He mostly worked on Disney pictures, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Darby O'Gill and the Little People, but his career spanned from René Clair's The Ghost Goes West to Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy. His son, Harrison, is also a matte artist and visual effects supervisor and was also nominated for The Black Hole. Peter Ellenshaw died February 12, in Malibu, California. (Cartoon Brew)
• Ray Evans (1915-2007) - Oscar-winning songwriter of "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" from The Man Who Knew Too Much, "Buttons and Bows" from The Paleface and "Mona Lisa" from Captain Carey, U.S.A. He was nominated another four times; all nominations and wins were shared by his partner Jay Livingston. The duo also wrote the hit Christmas tune "Silver Bells," which was introduced in The Lemon Drop Kid and they appeared together in Sunset Blvd. He died of a heart attack February 15, in Los Angeles. (LA Times)
• Pál Erdöss (1947-2007) - Hungarian director who won the 1983 Golden Camera at Cannes for The Princess. He also directed Countdown and Homo Novus. He died after a long illness February 14. (MTI)
• Ryan Larkin (1943-2007) - Oscar-nominated animator of the 1969 short En Marchant. He also supplied material for Agency. He died of brain cancer February 14, in Canada. (AWN)

It's been almost ten years since Tony Kaye's American History X debuted. Okay -- it's been exactly eight years last week, but it's been close enough to ten for the director to be prepping for a 10th Anniversary DVD. In order for everything to run smoothly with the special edition release, he's patched up things with New Line, the studio he fought with over the final cut of History, which was his first feature. In these eight years since that film's release, Kaye has not been able to put out another feature -- possibly because of his reputation following the New Line battle. However it's not as if Kaye was idle during that time-- and has been screening his newest project, a documentary about abortion titled Lake of Fire. The doc premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was reportedly well-praised, but Kaye's still trying to find distribution for it. It is unclear whether distributors are apprehensive in dealing with Kaye out of fear that he will put them through a similar battle as he had with New Line. Since Kaye claims to have spent 16 years and upwards of $8 million on the film, it would be a shame if no company bites with a substantial deal, especially since Kaye's announced that he does not need to make anymore changes to it, even though he kinda wants to.

In addition to shopping Lake of Fire, Kaye is keeping very busy and with many projects for the future. Aside from his success directing commercials and music videos (including the new Johnny Cash video for "God's Gonna Cut You Down"), he's apparently doing well as a director-for-hire and is currently working on special assignments for Johnson and Johnson and the United Arab Emirates. For his next fictional feature, he will be concentrating on a script by Robert McKee titled Madness (this would ironically be the first feature film written by McKee, who is famous for his books and seminars on the craft of screenwriting -- he is the guy portrayed by Brian Cox in Adaptation), which focuses on a doctor with a cure for schizophrenia who marries a former patient.

Jen and Vince Engaged!

Though I'm not big on celebrity weddings and engagements, I felt obligated to let you all know that, apparently, Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn are engaged to be married. After dating for only one year, the couple has decided to take the plunge, leaving us here at Cinematical with only two words for the happy lovebirds: Mazel Tov! Detailed accounts of the actual proposal will be available in this week's edition of Us Weekly, though you can currently check them out online for free. Long story short: He got down on one knee and she said yes. There, I just saved you three minutes.

Nicholson to Demolish Brando's Crib!

After purchasing Marlon Brando's old estate for a whopping $6.1 million, Jack Nicholson plans to demolish the entire thing in order to -- wait for it -- plant a bunch of flowers. With the property currently plagued by mold, Nicholson has been advised it would be too expensive to renovate. Heck, for $6.1 million, those flowers better stand up and dance on command. Seriously though, flowers? Jack -- my man -- and here I thought you were such a cool dude.

Mel's "Moron" Tapes Kept Under Lock and Key!

Yeah, so it looks like we're not going to be able to watch or hear Mel Gibson make as ass of himself. Darn. Authorities have refused to release video and audio tapes of Gibson's arrest because they are part of an ongoing investigation. TMZ, the celebrity news website which first broke the Gibson story, asked for the tapes to be released in order to drive a ton of traffic towards their site let the public judge whether the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department actually gave the actor preferential treatment. Based on the absurd amount of coverage given to this story, I'd say enough damage has been caused. How about we give the guy a break and let him correct his idiotic behavior?

• Some independent films opening in Austin this week: The Mostly Unfabulous Life of Ethan Green at Dobie, Shadowboxer at Arbor.
• The Paramount's Summer Classic Film Series is going 70mm this weekend, with special screenings of Jacques Tati's Playtime and the cult classic It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World on Saturday and Sunday. On Tuesday night, you can catch a Henry Fonda double-feature of Mr. Roberts and Twelve Angry Men. And Wednesday and Thursday's double-bill focuses on "cool cops" -- Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry and Steve McQueen (sigh) in Bullitt.

Every once in a awhile, I like to do something different with the little thing we call Trailer Park. Seeing as today is Father's Day (in the US, anyway), I figured we ought to take a look back at some of the great movie dads over the years -- dig up some old trailers and pay tribute to the man, the myth, the legend -- the Dad.

Like with real fathers, movie fathers come with a whole host of flaws. These aren't the perfect men by any means, but if there's one thing they all have in common, it's that they love their family. Sure, they may not understand why their kids refuse to be around them and constantly argue their decisions but, at the end of the day, everything always seems to work out ... unless your last name is Corleone.

What follows are the trailers for five films in which Dad is the hero ... or villain, depending on how you look at things. Personally, these are some of my favorite movie fathers. While they may not be the greatest of all time, I've found something inside each one of them to connect with on, ya know, one of them higher levels. We're celebrating Father's Day in this week's Trailer Park: