A comedy/drama and fantasy film that tells the story of Michael Newman (Adam Sandler), an overworked architect so wrapped up in his job because of his boss (David Hasselhoff) that his family is forced to take the backseat.He gets a "universal remote" from an eccentric engineer named Morty (Christopher Walken), and finds he can literally control the universe around him. It began filming in late-2005 and was finished by early-2006.The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup.Michael Newman is a loving father and husband, but he's got an office and a career he sees more often than his own family. To only make matters worse is a boss who takes everything for granted, including advantage of Michael by dangling a promotion in front of his face.But when one late night trip to a Bed, Bath and Beyond store for a new remote control, Michael finds himself in the possession of a new kind of remote control, developed by an eccentric inventor.A remote control so significant that it allows Michael to be able to fast forward, rewind, pause and practically control all the events in his life. So much to an extent that it becomes a luxury for the overworked man who finally gets some quality time with his family and his life.Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) is a loving family man who just wants to be promoted to his boss John Ammer's partner in an architectural firm so that he can spend more time with his wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale), kids, Ben and Samantha, and his dog Sundance (who had developed a habit of continuous mating with a stuffed duck).While he is at a cookout at Ben's swim meet he is disturbed by teenagers with firecrackers. He ends up chasing them and warning them that he "kicked their father's ass in high school, and now he's gonna kick theirs." That night, after arguing with Donna and having trouble locating his TV remote control, he gets angry and drives to try to find a universal remote control.Finding most stores closed, he enters the still open Bed, Bath and Beyond. Michael Newman seems to have a perfect life- a beautiful wife, two small children, and a job with great potential. But as his jerky boss passes Michael up for promotion after promotion, Michael becomes fed up, and wishes he could find a way to just, oh, skip through the hard parts in life. He gets exactly that -and much, much more- when he stumbles upon the Beyond section of a Bed, Bath, and Beyond in search of a universal remote. But as it turns out, the remote controls, well, the entire universe! At first this seems a blessing, but as the remote begins to program itself Michael finds his life skipping by, sometimes a few months, sometimes years. Will he be able to get his life back before its entirely gone?
BABEL is the crowning achievement in the trilogy from the unstoppable creative pairing of screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga and director Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, which also includes AMORES PERROS (2000) and 21 GRAMS (2003). The movie focuses on four interrelated sets of situations and characters, and many events are revealed out of sequence. The following plot summary has been simplified, and thus does not reflect the exact sequence of the events on screen. The movie's first plot is interspersed with scenes of Richard and Susan. They came on vacation in Morocco to get away from things and mend their own marital woes. The death of their infant third child to SIDS (this is the implied cause) has strained their marriage significantly as they struggle to communicate their frustration, guilt, and blame. When Susan is shot on the tour bus, Richard orders the bus driver to the nearest village with a doctor (the village is named Tazarine in the film).
Main characters Pitt and Blanchett leave their two children in San Diego to spend quality time in Morrocco. Blanchett is shot by a stray bullet coming from a Morrocan goat farmer son who is testing out a new rifle. She almost dies while she is waiting to be transported to a hospital. Their trip gets extended and the Mexican housekeeper who is watching the two children has a son who is getting married immediately in Mexico. She has no one to watch the children so she takes them across the border for the wedding.
Nearly every performance of the film is devastating, offering an intimate, emotional experience that would approach melodrama if it weren’t rendered so realistically. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s color palette masterfully captures the muted tones of the harsh natural landscapes of Morocco and the Mexican border, as well as the fluorescent lights of Tokyo that denote another, though equally barren, end of the spectrum. The misunderstandings born of cultural, language, and class barriers are on par with those that occur between family members, depicting a world that, while connected in the least expected of ways, is also faced with a deep-seated crisis that threatens to alienate humanity from itself.
“Freedom Writers,” a true story about a white teacher trying to make a difference in a room crammed with black, Latino and Asian high school freshmen, has the makings of another groaner. It is inspired by a true story and the diaries of real Long Beach, California teenagers.directed by Richard LaGravenese.two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank stars as English teacher Erin Gruwell. At first, the children are very unfriendly to Gruwell, but she encourages them, and lets them write a diary.All of the diary entries in the film are true and all have been written by the children.After a few days of class, Gruwell and her students get into a debate about racism during which she compares a caricature of a black student with big lips, drawn by a Latino student, to the Nazis' caricatures of Jews with big noses.She then takes her students on a field trip to the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance to teach them about the Holocaust. One of the books the students read is The Diary of Anne Frank, and money is raised to have Miep Gies come over to talk about the Holocaust. Funny how point of view works. If so many films about so-called troubled teenagers come off as little more than exploitation, it’s often because the filmmakers are not really interested in them, just their dysfunction.“Freedom Writers,” by contrast, isn’t only about an amazingly dedicated young teacher who took on two extra jobs to buy supplies for her students (to supplement, as Mr. LaGravenese carefully points out, a $27,000 salary);it’s also, emphatically, about some extraordinary young people.Mr. LaGravenese keeps faith with the multiple perspectives in the book, which includes Ms. Gruwell’s voice and those of her students, whose first-person narratives pay witness to the effects of brutalizing violence, dangerous tribal allegiances and institutional neglect.The film pops in on Erin and her increasingly troubled relationship with her husband, Scott (Patrick Dempsey), and there’s a really lovely scene between the two that finds them talking ruefully over a bottle of wine about the divide between fantasy and reality in marriage, a divide one partner tries to bridge and the other walks away from.
Happy Feet is an Academy Award-winning Australian-produced 2006 computer-animated comedy-drama musical film.Set in an Antarctic emperor penguin colony, the film establishes that every penguin must sing a unique song (called a "Heartsong") to attract a soul mate. This is based in fact, since emperor couples court each other and recognize one another by their unique calls. One particular female, Norma Jean, sings her Heartsong, "Kiss", whereupon the male Memphis sings "Heartbreak Hotel". Norma Jean chooses him as her mate. They couple and Norma Jean lays an egg. The egg is left in Memphis's care while Norma Jean and the other females leave to fish for several weeks. While the males are struggling through the harsh winter, Memphis drops the egg, briefly exposing it to the freezing Antarctic temperatures. The resulting chick - the film's protagonist, Mumble - has a terrible singing voice. However, Mumble has an astute talent for something that none of the penguins had ever seen before: tap dancing.
When Mumble was still an egg, his father Memphis accidentally dropped him, briefly exposing Mumble to sub-zero temperatures. As a result of this, Mumble hatched with a horrible singing voice but with an affinity for tap dancing, which was completely unique. Though Mumble's mom, Norma Jean, thinks this little habit is cute, his dad, Memphis, says it"just ain't penguin." Besides, they both know that, without a Heartsong, Mumble may never find true love. As fate would have it, his one friend, Gloria, happens to be the best singer around. Mumble and Gloria have a connection from the moment they hatch, but she struggles with his strange "hippity- hoppity" ways. Mumble is just too different--especially for Noah the Elder, the stern leader of Emperor Land, who ultimately casts him out of the community. Our hero's salvation comes in finding out what's happening to all the fish - though he's warned by an elephant seal (the late Steve Irwin) that it will be a very perilous quest.
Dream Girls is a 2006 American musical film jointly produced and released by DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures. The film debuted in three special road show engagements beginning December 15, 2006, with a nationwide release on December 25, 2006 and a home video release on May 1, 2007. Dreamgirls won three awards at the 64th Golden Globe Awards ceremony in 2007, including Best Picture - Musical or Comedy, and won two Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards.
Dream Girls is based on the 1981 broadway musical. It is the story of of greed, tough hate, and romance.Three young women - Deena Jones, Effie White, and Lorrell Robinson - desire to become pop stars and get their wish when they're picked to be backup singers for the legendary James "Thunder" Early.
American comedy film that was released on June 16, 2006, by Paramount Pictures, though it was released in select theaters earlier. The script was written by Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess and Mike White. It was loosely based on the story of Fray Tormenta ("Friar Storm"), aka Rev. Sergio Gutierrez Benitez, a real-life Mexican Catholic priest who had a 23-year career as a masked luchador.
Nacho (Jack Black) is a young man who was raised in a monastery in Mexico and now works there as the cook. Fueled by his passion for wrestling, he dons a mask and cape and picks up a partner to compete in a local Lucha Libre tournament to try for the $200 prize so he can buy better food for the kids and achieve respect.
As the luchadores are; that he is particularly hostile to one friar, who behaves in a sanctimonious way toward him; and that he harbors feelings for the newly arrived denizen of the monastery, Sister Encarnación, with whom he has many favorites in common. It is partly to impress Sister Encarnación with the idea that he is a good man that Ignacio calculates his later actions.
Employee of the Month Focuses on two men's competing to wn Amy's heart( Jessica Simpson). A beautiful woman, is added to the Super Ckub staff as a cashier. .Zack (Dane Cook), a slacker box boy who lives with his grandma, works at Super Club (a fictional warehouse store) with his fellow slacker buddies Lon (Andy Dick), Russell (Harland Williams) and Iqbal (Brian George). Vince (Dax Shepard) has received the "Employee of the Month" award for seventeen months in a row with some assistance from his very loyal and subdued sidekick Jorge (Efren Ramirez). The store manager in a storewide meeting announces that if Vince wins "Employee of the Month" for the 18th time in the following month he'll be put on the fast track to management, he'll also win a car.
While Vince instantly impresses Amy with his crowd pleasing, flamboyant style behind his checkstand register, Zack�s feeble attempts to charm his beautiful new co-worker quickly backfire against him. With the race to win Amy�s affections slipping away, Zack determines his only chance rests in winning the store�s next �Employee of the Month� award. A battle to the end, ''Employee of the Month'' shows that the only failure in life is when one fails to try.
