Browse Movies : 2005 (Page #5)

Each winter, alone in the pitiless ice deserts of Antarctica, deep in the most inhospitable terrain on Earth, a truly remarkable journey takes place as it has done for millennia. Emperor penguins in their thousands abandon the deep blue security of their ocean home and clamber onto the frozen ice to begin their long journey into a region so bleak, so extreme, it supports no other wildlife at this time of year. In single file, the penguins march blinded by blizzards, buffeted by gale force winds. Guided by instinct, by the otherworldly radiance of the Southern Cross, they head unerringly for their traditional breeding ground where--after a ritual courtship of intricate dances and delicate maneuvering, accompanied by a cacophony of ecstatic song--they will pair off into monogamous couples and mate. The females remain long enough only to lay a single egg. Once this is accomplished, exhausted by weeks without nourishment, they begin their return journey across the ice-field to the fish-filled seas. The male emperors are left behind to guard and hatch the precious eggs, which they cradle at all times on top of their feet. After two long months during which the males eat nothing, the eggs begin to hatch. Once they have emerged into their ghostly white new world, the chicks can not survive for long on their fathers' limited food reserves. If their mothers are late returning from the ocean with food, the newly-hatched young will die. Once the families are reunited, the roles reverse, the mothers remaining with their new young while their mates head, exhausted and starved, for the sea, and food. While the adults fish, the chicks face the ever-present threat of attack by prowling giant petrels. As the weather grows warmer and the ice floes finally begin to crack and melt, the adults will repeat their arduous journey countless times, marching many hundreds of miles over some of the most treacherous territory on Earth, until the chicks are ready to take their first faltering dive into the deep blue waters of the Antarctic.

The true story of Italian businessman Giorgio Perlasca, who passed himself off as the Spanish consul in an effort to save more than 5,000 Jews from the Nazi. Based on Perlasca's diaries and his book "The Banality of Goodness."

This comic tale, set in a small town in Wales, revolves around a funeral director (Alfred Molina) madly in love with a local woman (Brenda Blethyn), even as he's losing business to a flashy American funeral parlor rival (Christopher Walken).

"Pretty Persuasion" is a dark satire of our present day do-it-yourself scandal, manipulate-the-media, easy fix pill-popping, overnight celebrity obsessed culture. When worldly-wise beyond her years high school student Kimberly Joyce (Evan Rachel Wood) accuses her English teacher (Ron Livingston) of sexual harassment, she turns her exclusive Beverly Hills private school, and everything else in her wake, upside down. Hell hath no fury like a teenager scorned...

A devoted daughter comes to terms with the death of her father, a brilliant mathematician whose genius was crippled by mental insanity, forcing her to face her own long-harbored fears and emotions. She adjusts to his death with the help of one of her father's former mathematical students, who searches through her father's notebooks in the hope of discovering a bit of his old brilliance. While she comes to terms with the possibility that his genius, which she has inherited, may come at a painful price, her estranged sister arrives to help settle their father's affairs.

Mirabelle is the "shopgirl" of the title, a young woman, beautiful in a wallflowerish kind of way, who works behind the glove counter at Neiman Marcus "selling things that nobody buys anymore..." Slightly lost, slightly off-kilter, very shy, Mirabelle charms because of all that she is not: not glamorous, not aggressive, not self-aggrandizing. Still, there is something about her that is irresistible. Mirabelle captures the attention of Ray Porter, a wealthy businessman almost twice her age. As they tentatively embark on a relationship, they both struggle to decipher the language of love - with consequences that are both comic and heartbreaking.

A retro science-fiction epic set in Victorian England, Steam Boy features an inventor prodigy named Ra Stim who receives a mysterious metal ball containing a new form of energy capable of powering an entire nation. This young boy must use it to fight evil, redeem his family, and save London from destruction. The lush Victorian interiors and the elegance of the era's mechanical design allows Otomo to create dazzling visual backgrounds and machines for this film.

A 10-year-old outcast is shunned by his classmates and forced to spend summer vacation alone. With his two imaginary friends, he goes on a mission to prove dreams can become reality.

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."

Kat Ellis is looking for the right man. NOW. The position comes with a few requirements: willingness to travel, keen social skills, good looks, suave demeanor, sharp mind—and a tux. The qualified candidate should also have the ability to make ex-boyfriends jealous, to turn heads whenever entering a room and to reduce any woman within eye-and earshot to a week-kneed, besotted admirer. Kat wouldn't be so urgently in need were in not for her spoiled half sister's wedding where the best man happens to be Kat's handsome ex-boyfriend. What's worse, the currently single Kat has to schlep all the way from New York to London, where her wildly dysfunctional family lives. And since the wedding is happening next week, Kat does what any enterprising single woman would do—she hires a professional. So what if her solution crosses a few morally dubious lines plus costs her a tidy six thousand bucks which she'll have to drain from her 401K? And so what if her escort happens to be—well, an escort? Lucky for her that her hiring skills are pitch-perfect and she zeroes in on smooth heart-stopper Nick Mercer, one of New York's better known and in-demand professional male escorts. Once in England, the insightful and charismatic Nick—part actor/part shrink/part bon vivant—helps Kat navigate the choppy waters of her screwy family and caddish old flame Jeffrey and convinces everyone he meets that he and Kate are an item. As Nick charms Kat's parents, Bunny and Victor Ellis, her self-absorbed half sister Amy, Amy's fiancée Edward, as well as every living, breathing woman within a 100-kilometer radius, Kat too finds herself feeling things she's never felt before. For Kat, what begins as merely a face-saving ruse with a dashing guy-for-hire quickly starts to become more than she ever expected.

Set in a 19th century European village, this stop-motion, animated feature follows the story of Victor, a young man who is whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious Corpse Bride, while his real bride, Victoria, waits bereft in the land of the living. Though life in the Land of the Dead proves to be a lot more colorful than his strict Victorian upbringing, Victor learns that there is nothing in this world, or the next, that can keep him away from his one true love.

Nick Cannon plays Tracy "Tre" Stokes, a streetwise LA cop in "Underclassman" which combines frenetic action with sharp-eared comedy. When a student at an elite private school gets murdered, the rough-edged rookie, Stokes gets assigned as the undercover detective to track down the killer. The resulting culture shock is only one of his difficulties. The ever-resourceful Stokes resorts to using his unique blend of sharkish good cheer and rakish charm to woo his beautiful teacher Karen Lopez (Roselyn Sanchez) to help him pass Spanish and his arrogant athletic prowess to make the school streetball team. Once Stokes gets "in" with the edgy team captain and lead suspect Rob Donovan (Shawn Ashmore) he discovers that Donovan is being coerced into participating in a student car theft operation. Using his talent for hunches, Stokes wastes no time employing unorthodox methods of investigation. Although disapproving of Stokes behavior, Captain Victor Delgado (Cheech Marin) is worried for his safety and assigns two of his detectives as back up – Detective Lisa Brooks (Kelly Hu) and Richard Gallecki (Ian Gomez) to keep an eye on him. With their help, Stokes is able to track down the killer, Headmaster Powers (Hugh Bonneville) who turns out to be trading the stolen cars as payment for drugs.

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.

It's 'vege-mania' in Wallace and Gromit's neighborhood, and our two enterprising chums are cashing in with their humane pest-control outfit, "Anti-Pesto." With only days to go before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, business is booming, but Wallace & Gromit are finding out that running a "humane" pest control outfit has its drawbacks as their West Wallaby Street home fills to the brim with captive rabbits. Suddenly, a huge, mysterious, veg-ravaging "beast" begins attacking the town's sacred vegetable plots at night, and the competition hostess, Lady Tottington, commissions Anti-Pesto to catch it and save the day. Lying in wait, however, is Lady Tottington's snobby suitor, Victor Quartermaine, who'd rather shoot the beast and secure the position of local hero—not to mention Lady Tottingon's hand in marriage. With the fate of the competition in the balance, Lady Tottington is eventually forced to allow Victor to hunt down the vegetable chomping marauder. Little does she know that Victor's real intent could have dire consequences for her and our two heroes.

A young drifter enters strangers' houses - and lives - while owners are away. He spends a night or a day squatting in, repaying their unwitting hospitality by doing laundry or small repairs. His life changes when he runs into a beautiful woman in an affluent mansion who is ready to escape her unhappy, abusive marriage.

Nick is a smooth operator trying to land a date with a young, attractive divorcee, Suzanne. Problem is Suzanne is stuck working in Vancouver and miserable because she misses her kids. Seizing the opportunity, Nick gallantly offers to make her wish come true—and his own in the process--by bringing seven-year-old Kevin and eleven-year-old Lindsey up from Portland, Oregon to be reunited with their mom. What Nick doesn't know is that Suzanne's children think that no man is good enough for their mom and will do everything they can to make the trip a nightmare for him. Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Stella Raphael, a cultured and elegant but restless young woman, lives with her husband, Max, a forensic psychiatrist, and their small son, Charlie, at a high-security mental hospital in rural England. Isolated from the urban excitement she craves, Stella is unhappy with her husband and her life, and when she comes into contact with the brilliant and attractive sculptor Edgar Stark, a patient who is engaged in rebuilding the asylum's decrepit Victorian conservatory, she begins to fall in love. Her discovery that Edgar was confined to the hospital after he brutally murdered and disfigured his wife in a psychotic, jealous rage fails to deter Stella from her growing passion, and eventually her love for Edgar is pitted against her husband, her child, the institution, and the entire fabric of her society. Finally Stella makes her choice, precipitating an appalling tragedy and changing the course of several lives.

John Travolta is back as Chili Palmer in "Be Cool", a sequel to the comedy smash "Get Shorty". This time, Chili becomes a different kind of "hit" man—he abandons the movie industry to bring his wiseguy skills and negotiation tactics to the music business. When a friend is offed while they're at lunch, Chili takes the opportunity to visit the guy's wife, Edie (Uma Thurman), and pitch himself as her new business partner at an independent record label. With a promising young pop-star-in-training as his protégé (Christina Milian), Chili has to juggle her faux-urban manager (Vince Vaughn), his gay, wannabe-actor bodyguard (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), Russian mobsters, and an eloquent gangsta music producer (Cedric the Entertainer,) to save the label and land a hit—and keep from getting popped himself.

The determined Mrs. Bakshi sets out to find marriage matches for her four beautiful daughters while there's a lavish wedding party in town. Right away, the smart and headstrong Lalita (Aishwarya Rai) announces she will only marry for love, giving her mother nightmares. Then Lalita meets the wealthy American Will Darcy (Martin Henderson) and sparks immediately fly. But is it love or hate? Darcy comes off to Lalita as an arrogant California snob. Lalita looks to Darcy like a small-town Indian beauty who knows nothing of the world. Alternately enchanted by and suspicious of one another, Lalita and Darcy nearly fall prey to assumptions, gossip and a comedy of errors . . . until pride is humbled and prejudice overcome so that love can triumph.

From the producer of "Scarface" and "Carlito's Way", comes the action thriller "Carlito's Way: The Rise to Power". This is the gripping tale of the early years of gangster legend Carlito Brigante. Seduced by the power of the brutal New York underworld, he enters a deadly circle of greed and retribution. Carlito, with his two brothers in crime, is on the fast track to becoming Spanish Harlem's ultimate kingpin, but quickly learns that the only way to survive at the top is through loyalty to his friends and respect for the rules of the street. Starring Jay Hernandez, Mario Van Peebles, Luis Guzman and Sean Combs.