Browse Movies : 2005 : Will Ferrell

Just when his career hits an all-time low, a conceited and frustrated movie star, Jack Wyatt, gets one last shot when he's cast to do a remake of a cult TV series, Bewitched, playing the lead role of 'Darren'. In search of his leading lady, 'Samantha', the competitive, insecure Wyatt makes it pretty clear to his producers that his co-star needs to be an unknown, so as not to steal his thunder. Finally, after weeks of searching, he finds the perfect witch in the shy Isabel Bigelow, but he has no idea just how 'perfect' she really is. So, as the script for the popular show is being re-tooled to, instead, center around Darren's character, the actor Wyatt soon discovers that his increasingly annoyed new leading lady, Isabel—who begins to wreak havoc on set—is an actual witch, who can truly cast spells.

Will Ferrell stars as Phil Weston, an everage Joe who's had to put up all his life with his overly competitive father, Buck (Robert Duvall). When Phil decides to coach his 10-year old son's soccer team, he goes head-to-head for the league championship against Buck, who coaches his own young son on the preeminent team of the league. Old scores come into play as Phil and Buck find themselves going to extreme measures to win the championship trophy.

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."

Melinda and Melinda combines romantic comedy and drama in a way that Woody Allen, unique among filmmakers, likes to contrast. It takes place in Manhattan and chronicles a pair of crises that give great reign to the funny and serious talents of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Will Ferrell, Jonny Lee Miller, Radha Mitchell, Amanda Peet, Chloë Sevigny and Wallace Shawn. All the usual Allen areas are explained - the fragility of love, marital infidelity, sophisticated romance, the inability to communicate. As a character in the movie puts it, "He's despondent, he's desperate, he's suicidal. All the comic elements are in place."