Browse Movies : 2005 : Comedy (Page #5)

"The Ice Harvest" is a wickedly funny thriller about thick thieves and thin ice. It's Christmas Eve in rainy, icebound Wichita, Kansas, and this year Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) just might have something to celebrate. Charlie, an attorney for the sleazy businesses of Wichita, and his unsavory associate, the steely Vic Cavenaugh (Billy Bob Thornton), have just successfully embezzled $2,147,000 from Kansas City boss Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid). Even so, the real prize for Charlie would be the stunning Renata (Connie Nielsen), who runs the Sweet Cage strip club. Charlie's fondest Christmas wish is to slip out of town with Renata. But, as daylight fades and a storm whirls, everyone from Charlie's drinking buddy Pete Van Heuten (Oliver Platt) to the local police begin to wonder just what exactly is in Charlie's Christmas stocking. For Charlie, the 12 hours of Christmas Eve are filled with nonstop twists and turns, both on the ice and off.

Due to a bizarre turn of events the fictional world of Royston Vasey is facing annihilation and the only way for its strange inhabitants to avert this disaster, is for them to somehow find their way into the real world and confront their creators. Based in a combination of present day Soho in London and 17th Century Britain, the residents must overcome a series of peculiar events to return their beloved village to safety.

Set in the world of up-and-coming artists, "Undiscovered" is a heartfelt and comic film that tells the story of an aspiring model who falls in love with a struggling musician when they suddenly cross paths on a NY subway train. Having achieved success as a NY model, Brier (James) decides to move to L.A. to launch an acting career. With the support of her acerbic agent and sometimes surrogate mom, Carrie (Fisher), Brier lands a spot in a highly sought after acting class where she befriends another would-be actress, Clea (Simpson). While out on the town discovering the music scene, Brier again crosses paths with Luke (Strait), a singer/songwriter who has been toiling for years without a record deal. Brier and Clea decide to help Luke and unbeknownst to him, they set out to create some L.A. style hype to get him noticed. As Luke's profile rises, so do the demands of his budding new career. When Luke and Brier can't hide the spark that was always there, they both discover that the price of fame may be higher than anyone expected.

In the dead of the night, near the Czech-Slovak border, two smugglers discover their truckload of illegal Indian immigrants have left a baby behind. In a small Prague apartment, Franta (Jiri Machacek) and Mila (Natasa Burger) dream of having a child, but Franta—on probation because of his soccer hooliganism past—is not allowed to adopt, and Mila is unable to conceive. After cashing in on her savings, Mila decides to buy a baby from a pawnshop that fronts a den of thieves and pickpockets. Meanwhile, an unusual family reunion is taking place: Academy professor Otto (Jan Triska) collapses while teaching, prompting his estranged son Martin (Petr Forman, son of director Milos) to return to Prague from Australia to see his father and his mother, Vera (Emilia Vasaryova), long separated from Otto whom she still pines for. Otto is now living with the beautiful and much younger Hana (Ingrid Timkova), who works in a refugee aid center helping immigrants to adjust to their new lives.

Steven Chesterman (Kenneth Branagh), a physics lecturer, has just discovered how to move an object from one side of the room to another. Years of research into teleportation have finally borne fruit. Elated, he returns home to tell his wife, Alice (Courteney Cox-Arquette). Alice has some rather fantastic news of her own: she tells Steven that she is a male alien trapped in a human female body. Her signal has finally been intercepted and she will soon be returning to the planet Nulark. As Steven's life falls apart around him, the doorbell rings. Elizabeth (Heather Graham) enters. She has green skin and pointy ears and she is wearing a space suit. To make matters worse, she has come to take her husband, Alice, back home.

A successful community theatre company is turned upside down when the director of an upcoming production of "Cyrano" casts an inexperienced young man with no apparent talent in the lead. The young man, Peter Rooker (Marcus Thomas), soon becomes caught up in the various intrigues of the "theater people," including the charming but mercurial Michael (John Corbett), the beautiful leading lady Grace (Amy Smart), and a colorful cast of eccentric players (including Sean Astin, Patty Duke and Alan Corduner). Peter soon discovers that in the world of theater the normal rules do not apply–but in the end there is a role for everyone.

A dysfunctional family is at the core of the story that unfolds as the matriarch, Magda, attempts to cope with the aftermath of a deadly accident. She dotes on her 20-year old son while her daughter and her husband live upstairs. Seven characters struggle to survive against odds that become more complicated than any of them could have contemplated. Greed, betrayal, homosexual politics, manipulation, blackmail, and a ferocious race to take ownership of a family owned plot of land, all combine to make this a modern day Greek tragedy, However, as in most tragedies of this nature, farce is never far behind.

Mamie is being blackmailed. This filmmaker named Nick claims to know Mamie's son—the one she gave up for adoption—but Nick won't introduce her to him unless he can film the reunion. Enter Javier, Mamie's massage therapist boyfriend, who convinces Nick to film him instead. Now they're all making a movie about massage. And ‘happy endings'…

Charley has a longtime boyfriend named Gil. Their best friends, Pam and Diane, once tried using Gil as a sperm donor. They said his sperm didn't take, but Charley thinks those selfish, control-freak lesbians are lying. Pam and Diane's two-year-old son looks exactly like Gil. And it's time to set the record straight…

Jude is pissed. Not at anyone in particular. Just in general. When her cousin kicks her out of the house, Jude shacks up with Otis, who's still trying to convince his father, Frank, that he's straight. Frank's a widower. And he's rich. So Jude decides to sleep with him, too. Really. The last thing she expected was to fall in love…

Jiminy Glick (Martin Short), an entertainment critic for a television station in Butte, Montana, arrives at the Toronto Film Festival, a complete unknown, intent on finding fame among the rich, famous and fabulous. His dreams of becoming the most celebrated and renowned star interviewer are realized when he is granted an exclusive with elusive young megastar Ben DiCarlo (Corey Pearson). This catapults Jiminy from obscurity to being the most talked about guy in town. Filmmakers and studio executives want to schmooze him and every actor wants to be interviewed by him, including fading Hollywood star Miranda Coolidge (Elizabeth Perkins). When Miranda is later found dead in Jiminy's bed, he thinks he is to blame and suddenly gets embroiled in a murder mystery whodunit complete with sex, scandal, rappers and glamorous celebrities.

The film comprises Silverman's performance before a live audience interwoven with stylish musical numbers and backstage intrigue. Comedians Bob Odenkirk and Brian Posehn make appearances along with Silverman's band, The Silver Men.

Silverman, who has been compared to the legendary Lenny Bruce, is known as one of the funniest and most provocative people in comedy. Despite the current political climate, in "Jesus is Magic" she takes on such pitch-black topics as September 11th, unwanted body hair, and the Holocaust, and spins them into decidedly un-PC comedic gold. As she says in the film, "When God gives you AIDS, (and God does give you AIDS, by the way) make LemonAIDS."

Schultze is an accordion player and newly unemployed. When the local music club celebrates its 50th anniversary, his taste of music changes unexpectedly.

Elliot Kelman (Joe Pantoliano) is a failed publishing executive who can't get back into the business. He supports himself selling suits at the local mall and relies on hand-outs from his mother, ex-wife, and son. He also self-publishes a weekly newsletter on the perils of self-delusion. Afraid his writings will be rejected, he hires a high school kid to post them on supermarket bulletin boards and stuff them under windshields in his New Jersey hometown. After he meets the sexy Carole (Jennifer Tilly) and his newsletter begins to find an audience, things start looking up for Elliott. However, the return home of his oldest friend Richard (Boyd Gaines), a prominent movie producer, and the only one of his friend's to have found success, brings Elliot's feelings of inadequacy and squandered potential back to the surface. With Richard in town, the competitive tensions rise, and once Carole takes an interest in his friend, Elliot must confront his envy of Richard's success and his disenchantment with his own failure.

This heartwarming comedy centers on two brothers, John Joe and Jimmy, who haven't seen each other in twenty years. Having parted on bad terms, they meet at the All Ireland traditional music finals as leaders of rival Irish dance bands. Romance ensues between Anne (Andrea Corr), a beautiful fiddle player, and Teddy, a brilliant young flute player, members of the rival bands leading to more than just a musical rivalry.

Federal Agent Derrick Vann (Samuel L. Jackson) walks the walk, while affable dental supply salesman Andy Fidler (Eugene Levy) talks and talks in the odd couple action comedy The Man. A case of mistaken identity forces the mismatched duo to team up and sets off an intense and hilarious adventure as they speed through the streets of Detroit to pull off a sting operation and solve the murder of Vann's former partner. Along the way, they uncover much more than they could have ever anticipated.

Two-time Tony Award winners Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick return to their celebrated roles as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, a scheming theatrical producer and his mousy CPA who hit upon the perfect plan to embezzle a fortune: raise far more money than you need to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop and then (since no one will expect anything back), Max and Leo can pocket the difference. To do this, they need the ultimate bad play, which they find in the musical "Springtime for Hitler". Their plans come to naught and the duo are taken completely by surprise when their new production is hailed as a toast-of-the-town hit. Uma Thurman stars as Ulla, the Swedish secretary/slash/receptionist and would-be showgirl, and Will Ferrell brings his spot-on comic talents to the role of Franz Liebkind, the neo-Nazi playwright (and pigeon fancier) responsible for penning the "worst play ever written."

When Steve Barker (Johnny Knoxville) finds himself running dead last in the corporate rat race, he sinks to an all time low...he attempts to rig the Special Olympics by pretending to be intellectually challenged. But, Barker is completely out-classed by his fellow Olympians, who are not only better athletes; they're just plain better people. And they're on to him. But rather than rat-out the rat, they join forces with him to once and for all beat Jimmy, the cocky reigning champion of the annual games. With a work-out regime uniquely their own, they train Barker to go for the gold and, in the process, show him what's at the heart of a true winner.

A widow and widower fall in love and get married, but the resulting combined eighteen children make for a hair-raising situation under one roof.