The film centers on two cops, Det. Mitch Preston (Robert De Niro) and Officer Trey Sellars (Eddie Murphy), who are paired for a reality police show and run into real trouble with a crime lord. The beginning of the story closely parallels that of the 1988 film The Dead Pool, in which Harry Callahan intentionally breaks a news camera and is subject to favors for the news channel as a result. In this film, Mitch breaks a news camera after a failed confrontation with a drug lord, who escapes by using a custom-built gun. Maxxis Television, the network that employed the cameraman, decides to sue the police department for $10 million, but will drop the lawsuit if Mitch agrees to star in a reality cop television show, which Trey later calls Showtime!.
To Rome with Love tells four unrelated stories taking place in Rome. The second story, Antonio's, is a direct lift with some amendments of an entire Fellini film, The White Sheik (1952).
On February 1, misanthropic TV meteorologist Phil Connors (Bill Murray), news producer Rita Hanson (Andie MacDowell), and cameraman Larry (Chris Elliott) of the fictional Pittsburgh television station WPBH-TV 9 travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities. The following morning, Phil, who does not like the assignment or Punxsutawney, grudgingly gives his report on the festivities. He then gets his team on the road back to Pittsburgh, but a blizzard shuts down all travel. The team is forced to return to Punxsutawney and stay another night.
A man, known only as "The Counselor", and his girlfriend Laura are talking sexily in bed. Meanwhile, somewhere in Mexico, cocaine is packaged in barrels and concealed in a sewage truck, driven across the border and stored at a sewage treatment plant.
The film centers on Manuela, an Argentine nurse who oversees donor organ transplants in Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid and single mother to Esteban, a teenager who wants to be a writer.
The film revolves around three characters who work in television news. Jane Craig (Hunter) is a talented, neurotic producer whose life revolves around her work. Jane's best friend and frequent collaborator, Aaron Altman (Brooks), is a gifted writer and reporter ambitious for on-camera exposure who is secretly in love with Jane. Tom Grunick (Hurt), a local news anchorman who until recently was a sports anchorman, is likeable and telegenic, but lacks news experience and knows that he was only hired for his good looks and charm. He is attracted to Jane, although he is also intimidated by her skills and intensity.
Conjoined twins Bob and Walt Tenor try to live as normally as possible. Outgoing and sociable Walt aspires to be a Hollywood actor, however, whereas shy, introverted Bob prefers the quiet life. They run Quikee Burger, a diner in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, that guarantees free meals to customers whose orders are not completed in three minutes, a testament to how skilled and in sync Bob and Walt are with each other. Though Walt is comfortable socializing with women, Bob is the shyer of the two, and carries on a long-distance relationship with a pen pal named May Fong whom he has never met in person, and who is unaware that they are conjoined twins.
A serial killer/vigilante known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of a local drug dealer. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
The President of the United States is caught making advances on an underage "Firefly Girl" less than two weeks before Election Day. Conrad Brean (De Niro), a top-notch spin doctor, is brought in to take the public's attention away from the scandal. He decides to construct a diversionary war with Albania, hoping the media will concentrate on this instead. Brean contacts Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Hoffman) to create the war, complete with a theme song and fake film footage of a photogenic orphan (Dunst) in Albania.
The film begins with a nightmare of Bruce Lee's father (Ric Young), who sees a terrifying phantom (Sven-Ole Thorsen) in black samurai armor that haunts the young Bruce Lee (Sam Hau). Bruce is shown as a child receiving instruction in traditional Chinese martial arts in a montage that passes quickly through his teenage years in Hong Kong. As a young adult, Bruce (Jason Scott Lee) becomes involved in a fight with British sailors (who are harassing a young Chinese woman) and this results in him having to leave Hong Kong because of the incident. His father suggests that Bruce go to the US, since he was actually born in San Francisco when his father was on a tour there and has a US birth certificate. His father asks Bruce to become a success, so big a success that his name will be famous even back in Hong Kong.
Frank Cross (Bill Murray) is a successful but cynical television programming executive for the IBC network headquartered in New York City. He has demanded the network put on a extravagant live production of A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve to seize the ratings opportunity, forcing the network's staff including his direct assistant Grace Cooley (Alfre Woodard) to work on the holiday. When some of his decisions are questioned, he fires timid yes-man Eliot Loudermilk (Bobcat Goldthwait) on the spot. Frank's boss Preston Rhinelander (Robert Mitchum) takes the liberty of hiring an assistant for Frank, Brice Cummings (John Glover), who is transparently after Frank's job. Hours before the show is set to start, Frank is alone in his office when he is visited by the ghost of his mentor Lew Hayward (John Forsythe), who warns him of the errors of his ways and that three ghosts will visit him over the course of the night. Before he leaves, Lew causes Frank's phone to call Claire Phillips (Karen Allen), Frank's true love who he had foregone when he became a television executive. Claire comes to visit Frank, but finds him too busy with preparations for the show, though leaves him the address of the homeless shelter that she helps out at.
During a prologue that is not directly related to the main plot, CBS producer Lowell Bergman (Pacino) convinces the founder of Hezbollah, Sheikh Fadlallah, to grant an interview to Mike Wallace (Plummer) for 60 Minutes. While preparing for the interview, both Wallace and Bergman firmly stand their ground against the Sheikh's armed and hostile bodyguards' attempted intimidation and disruption.
Aspiring news producer Becky Fuller has dreamed since childhood of working for the Today show, but her dedication to her career is off-putting to potential suitors. After being laid off from her job at the local Good Morning New Jersey, her mother advises her to give up her dream before it becomes an embarrassment. However, Becky perseveres, sending many different résumés out. She finally receives a call from IBS, which is looking for a producer on its struggling national morning show, DayBreak.
The film begins with Emil Slovak (Karel Roden) and Oleg Razgul (Oleg Taktarov) arriving in America. They were former criminals and after getting out of prison have come to the U.S. to claim their part of a bank heist in Russia (or somewhere in Czech Republic). Within minutes of arriving, Oleg steals a video camera. They go to the run down apartment of their old partner and demand their share. He doesn't have it so Emil stabs him and his wife to death, as Oleg tapes it with the camera. The couple's friend, Czech immigrant Daphne Handlova (Vera Farmiga), covertly witnesses the murders from the bathroom, but she escapes before they can get her too. To hide the crime, Emil burns down the apartment.
Set in 1953, during the early days of television broadcast journalism. Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and his dedicated staff — headed by his co-producer Fred Friendly (George Clooney) and reporter Joseph Wershba (Robert Downey, Jr.) in the CBS newsroom—defy corporate and sponsorship pressures, and discredit the tactics used by Joseph McCarthy during his crusade to root out Communist elements within the government.