2005 Worst Movies (Page #11)

Based on Jonathan Larson's award-winning Broadway musical, "Rent" chronicles a group of New York village artists struggling with identity and artistic integrity in an HIV-positive world. Roommates Roger and Mark, a songwriter-recovering addict and a guerrilla filmmaker, respectively, must find a way to pay their former roommate-turned-landlord when he decides to reneg on his promise to provide them rent-free living.

Dahlia Williams is starting a new life; newly separated with a new job and a new apartment, she's determined to put her relationship with her estranged husband behind her and devote herself to raising her daughter, Ceci. But when the strained separation disintegrates into a bitter custody battle, her situation takes a turn for the worse. Her new apartment--dilapidated, cramped, and worn--seems to take on a life of its own. Mysterious noises, persistent leaks of dark water, and strange happenings cause her imagination to run wild, sending her on a puzzling and mystifying pursuit to find out who is behind the endless mind games. As Dahlia frantically searches for the links between the riddles, the dark water seems to close around her. But one thing trumps all others in Dahlia's world: no matter what it is that's out there, she'll stop at nothing to find it.

Jack lives on the site of his abandoned island commune with his 16-year-old daughter Rose. A single father, Jack has always sheltered Rose from the influences of the outside world, but now, his fatal illness and Rose's emerging womanhood pose troubling questions about the days ahead. A man who has lived a life motivated by environmentalism and other altruistic causes, Jack now rages at those who do not share his concerns, like developer Marty Rance, who is building a housing tract on the edge of his property. When Jack invites his girlfriend Kathleen and her teenage sons, Rodney and Thaddius, to live with them, Rose feels betrayed and the situation quickly becomes precarious. Rose acts out wildly, creating chaos. Everything flies out of control, Jack finds himself trapped in an impossible place and is forced to take action, as Rose undergoes a sexual awakening with both liberating and devastating consequences.

Journalism student Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) has been expelled from Harvard for a crime he didn't commit. His promising career ended and his future looking bleak, he heads for London to seek refuge with his married sister Shannon (Claire Forlani) and her husband Steve (Marc Warren).

Steve introduces Matt to his younger brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam) and, through their friendship, Matt enters the world of football fanaticism and the secrecy and intrigue of the football firm.

Pete Dunham and his close knit group of friends make up the Green Street Elite (GSE), a hard core group of West Ham United supporters – and one of the toughest London football firms. All the football clubs have a firm and they all have one aim – to be the most feared and respected mob in the country - no matter what it takes. As Pete explains 'West Ham's football is mediocre, but our firm's top notch and everyone knows it… it's really about reputation – humiliating the other mob by beating them in a row or doing things that other firms get to hear about.' Matt is not only drawn into the sheer excitement of the game of football itself, but also the brotherhood and loyalty of life inside the GSE. The buzz that violence brings to him produces a sense of power that he has never before experienced.

But Matt has been sparring with the truth about his past life and not every member of the firm considers him a 'brother'. Bovver (Leo Gregory), resents the presence of the outsider and his own apparent demotion within the ranks of the GSE. His continuing distrust and dislike of Matt creates a powder keg of jealousy and emotion that's just searching for an opportunity to blow.

When Bovver discovers hidden information about Matt it sets off a devastating chain of events that tests friendship, loyalty, honor and determination in battle. Tragic consequences force Matt to acknowledge the cost of his actions and the painful lessons learned lead him to re-evaluate his future.

Set in Shanghai in the late 1930s, it is the story of the relationship between a disillusioned former US diplomat and a refugee Russian countess reduced to a sordid life in the city's bars.

Todd Jackson (Ralph Feinnes), once an American diplomat filled with idealism, has become bitterly disillusioned by realpolitik and the seemingly unavoidable nature of war and conflict. Moreover, he is deeply bereaved by the deaths of his wife and children, who were victims of violent political events in 1930s China that also robbed Jackson of his sight.

Jackson is trying to retreat into a smaller, more controllable world by creating here, in one of the world's most licentious, glittering and sordid ports, the perfect bar. After countless hours spent critically examining dive after dive in the city's pleasure districts, Jackson has become a connoisseur of decadence. One day, after a chance meeting with Matsuda - a mysterious Japanese man who appears to share his refined eye for the beauty of low-life establishments - Jackson gambles his savings on a horse, wins, and sets about realizing his masterpiece: a bar that will achieve the exquisite balance of romance, tragedy, and political tension.

Matsuda is a decidedly shadowy figure, but that fails to worry Jackson, and they partner to create the perfect bar. When rumors circulate that Matsuda has come to Shanghai to oversee a Japanese invasion of the city, Jackson still willfully refuses to listen.

Sofia (Natasha Richardson) is a White Russian countess in her thirties who fled the Bolshevik Revolution as a child. Her immediate family have perished, and she now lives in a Shanghai slum with members of her late husband's aristocratic family and her ten-year-old daughter, Katya. The household's sole breadwinner, Sofia works as a taxi-dancer in dingy night spots, resorting to prostitution when times are hard. The rest of the household show their gratitude by endlessly ostracizing her for bringing disgrace to the family.

Jackson encounters Sofia one night working at her taxi-dance hall, decides she is the perfect blend of tragedy and sensuality and asks her to become the centerpiece of his perfect bar. Thus begins a relationship that will see Jackson - despite his best efforts - slowly coaxed out of his enclosed world. He gradually comes to concede that Sofia may be more than a beautiful picture, becomes drawn to the spirited young Katya, and ultimately, into the intrigues within the family to separate Sofia from her child.

The story ends as the Japanese invade Shanghai, with the entire world on the brink of World War II. Ironically, it is at this point that Jackson, in acknowledging his love for Sofia and her daughter, finds reawakened his own idealism for a world free from war.

Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in. Michael is stunned to discover that fast talking Rory, who can move only his right hand, can understand his almost unintelligible speech. Rory's dynamic and rebellious nature soon sparks a flame in Michael, introducing him to a whole new world outside of Carrigmore.

Capturing the essence of the Halloween Carnival, 'Hellbent' follows four young men through a night where flamboyant costumes, beautiful people, drugs, music, dancing and sex are everywhere. Authentic footage from the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival lets filmgoers experience the most exciting night of the year.

"Prime" is a sophisticated, character comedy set in New York City about Rafi (Uma Thurman), a recently divorced 37-year-old career woman from Manhattan, and what happens when Dave (Bryan Greenberg), a talented 23-year-old painter from Brooklyn, falls in love with her.

"Prime" looks at love from everyone's point of view—friends, relatives and in this case, Rafi's therapist (Meryl Streep)—and follows all who come apart, and some who pull it together, when two people fall in love.

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."

Jennifer Lopez stars in this drama about a struggling mother who must move in with her father-in-law (Robert Redford), with whom she has an icy relationship, in order to take care of her young daughter. By living together, the woman and older man learn to get along and put the past behind them.

A high-school ugly duckling transforms into a swan in Walt Disney Pictures' "Ice Princess." Brainy Casey Carlyle (Michelle Trachtenberg) has never quite fit in. Caught between her fantasy of becoming a championship figure skater and her strong-willed mother (Joan Cusack), who has her on the fast track to Harvard, she can only hope to be like Nikki, Tiffany and Gen (Hayden Panettiere) - three elite skating prodigies who are ruthlessly competing on the US Figure Skating circuit (and have attitudes to match). But when Casey gets the chance to train with Gen and her coach, a disgraced former skating champion who also happens to be Gen's mother (Kim Cattrall), she must dash her own mother's hopes in order to pursue her dream. Now, with only the support of Gen's teenage brother, a hunky Zamboni driver (Trevor Blumas), Casey takes on the challenge of her life when she finds herself competing against the best to make it into the championship circuit and become a real "ice princess."

Suffocating in a failed marriage with Anthony, She, an Irish-American scientist, sparks an affair with He, a Lebanese surgeon exiled in London where he now works as a cook. As their passion ignites, each will find themselves on their own personal journey as they try to come to terms with their lives and losses. The bittersweet affair will bring them on a global ride from London to New York, Beirut and Havana and force them to reevaluate their faiths, beliefs, and ultimately, each other.