2005 Film Review
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The start of a new year brings much excitement as distributors jostle for particular opening weekends. Already the distributors have published their expected calendar for releases. Even though the release dates may slide and change, here is our guide to a select few of the more anticipated films in 2005.
January
Meet the Fockers
Greg has managed to earn his way inside the Circle of Trust and things are going great. He and his fiancée Pam are excitedly planning their wedding and there’s only one tiny, itsy-bitsy little thing left to smooth the way to the altar: the future in-laws need to spend a weekend together. Things start off well enough, but that’s before Jack discovers that the lawyer and doctor Greg presented are, in fact, a stay-at-home dad and a sex therapist. Ready or not, it’s time to Meet the Fockers...
Starring Robert DeNiro & Ben Stiller
Official Site -
Trailer 1 (3.46mb) -
Trailer 2 (5.74mb)
February
Ocean's 12
It’s been three years since Danny and his crew pulled off one of the most lucrative heists in history, robbing Benedict of every dime stored in his Las Vegas vault. After splitting the take they have tried to go straight, lay low and live a legit life... but that’s proven to be a challenge, much to the chagrin of Danny’s wife Tess. When someone breaks Rule Number One and rats them out - Benedict wants his $160 million back -- with interest -- or else...
Starring George Clooney,
Brad Pitt &
Matt Damon
Official Site -
Trailer:
Small (4.8mb),
Large (21.4mb)
The Magic Roundabout
 Based on the children's series, the animated film features a group of friends who embark on a dangerous journey in an effort to imprison their oppressor -- the evil wizard Zebedee.
Voices of
Tom Baker,
Ian McKellen &
Joanna Lumley
Official Site
Trailer:
Small (2.8mb),
Medium (5.1mb),
Large (12.5mb)
Flight of the Phoenix
An action-adventure movie in which a group of survivors from a plane crash are stranded in the Gobi desert with no chance of rescue. Facing a brutal environment, dwindling resources, and an attack by desert smugglers, they realize their only hope is doing the impossible: building a new plane from the wreckage to escape the desert.
Starring Dennis Quaid
Official Site
Trailer:
Small (5.3mb),
Medium (10.9mb),
Large (20.8mb)
March
Hostage
Jeff Talley, a former LAPD hostage negotiator, has moved himself away from his failed career outside of Los Angeles, and away from his wife and daughter. When a convenience store robbery goes wrong in his turf, the three perpetrators move in on an unsuspecting family. But the family's father has a secret which might compromise his kin, and one of the criminals is about to jump over the edge. Jeff Talley has to get everybody to survive the night......if he can.
Starring Bruce Willis
Trailer (23.2mb)
Constantine
Born with the ability to recognize angels and demons that walk the earth in human guise, Constantine was driven to take his own life to escape the tormenting clarity of his vision. Resuscitated against his will, he found himself cast back into the land of the living. Now, he patrols the earthly border between heaven and hell, hoping in vain to earn his way to salvation by waging war on the earthbound minions of evil.
Starring Keanu Reeves
Official Site
Trailer:
Small (5.1mb),
Medium (8.9mb),
Large (22.1mb)
Robots
Rodney is a small town robot who has a gift for inventing things. Armed with this unique talent, Rodney embarks on a journey to Robot City to meet his idol, the inventor Bigweld. As he navigates his way around this new city, Rodney befriends the Rusties - streetsmart bots who know the ropes. On their adventures, they encounter characters who try to derail Rodney's plans to find Bigweld and save Robot City.
Voices of
Ewan McGregor &
Halle Berry
Official Site
Trailers:
Small (2.1mb),
Medium (5.8mb),
Large (9.8mb),
April
Unleashed
Danny, a slave who has lived his whole life without any sort of normal human education, has only one lesson learned: how to fight. Treated like a dog by his owner/boss, Danny has been raised to be a lethal fighting machine who fights in illegal gladiator-style fight clubs where he earns lots of money as the undisputed champion. After a car accident that lands his owner in a coma, on the run Danny meets a kind elderly blind piano tuner...
Starring
Jet Li,
Morgan Freeman &
Bob Hoskins
Trailer (27.3mb)
Sin City
Sin City is a violent city where the police department is as corrupt as the streets are deadly. In this movie, we follow three stories, the central of which is Marv, a tough-as-nails and nearly impossible to kill street fighter who goes on a rampage of vengeance when a beautiful woman, Goldie (King), he sleeps with for only one night is killed while lying in bed with him
Starring
Bruce Willis,
Clive Owen,
Josh Hartnett,
Elijah Wood &
Benicio Del Toro
Trailer (14.8mb)
XXX : State of the Union
Ice Cube replaces Vin Diesel in the lead role of a Gen-X James Bond prototype whose extreme sports skills and criminal record make him an effective and expendable secret agent. Samuel L. Jackson will return as NSA agent Augustus Gibbons, the handler of the incorrigible agent drafted to tackle unsavory thugs around the world.
Starring Ice Cube
Official Site
Trailer:
Small (5mb)
Medium (10.4mb)
Large (20.1mb)
May
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Don't Panic . . . Stick out your thumb to join the most ordinary man in the world on an extraordinary adventure across the universe. Arthur Dent is having a very bad day. His house is about to be bulldozed, he discovers that his best friend is an alien and to top things off, Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Arthur's only chance for survival: hitch a ride on a passing spacecraft. Based on the Douglas Adams' series.
Official Site
Trailer (10.2mb)
Kingdom of Heaven
Set in the 12th century, a common man finds himself thrust into a decades long war. A stranger in a strange land, he serves a doomed king, falls in love with an exotic and forbidden queen, and rises to knighthood. Ultimately, he must protect the people of Jerusalem from overwhelming forces - while striving to maintain a fragile peace.
Starring Orlando Bloom,
Liam Neeson &
Jeremy Irons
Official Site
Trailer (21.8mb)
Star Wars Episode 3
After three long years of relentless fighting, the Clone Wars are nearly at an end. The Jedi Council send Obi-Wan to bring General Grievous, the leader of the Separatist droid army, to justice. Meanwhile, back on Coruscant, Chancellor Palpatine has grown in power. His political changes transform the war-weary Republic into the mighty Galactic Empire. To his closest ally, Anakin, he reveals the true nature of power and the secrets of the Force in an attempt to lure him to the dark side.
Starring Ewan Mcgregor
Official Site
June
Mr and Mrs Smith
A sexy, action-packed thrill ride about a bored married couple who discover that they are enemy assassins. John and Jane Smith are an ordinary suburban couple with an ordinary, lifeless suburban marriage. But each of them has a secret -- they are actually both legendary assassins working for competing organizations. When the truth comes out, John and Jane end up in each other's cross-hairs.
Starring Brad Pitt &
Angelina Jolie
Trailer: Medium (17.1mb),
Large (29.1mb)
Batman Begins
As a young boy, Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of him. After fleeing to the East, Bruce returns to his now decaying Gotham City which is overrun by organized crime. The discovery of a cave under his mansion, along with a prototype armored suit, leads him to assume a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong...
Starring Christian Bale,
Michael Caine &
Morgan Freeman
Official Site
Trailer:
Small (2.3mb),
Medium (4.0mb),
Large (9.9mb)
July
The War of the Worlds
Next summer, the earth goes to war. From Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures comes the motion picture event of the year: Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, starring international superstar Tom Cruise. A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells’s seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it.
Starring Tom Cruise
Official Site - Teaser Trailer (18mb)
The Fantastic Four
When an experimental space voyage goes awry, four people are changed by cosmic rays. Reed Richards, leader of the group gains the ability to stretch his body. Sue Storm, gains the ability to turn invisible and create force fields. Her brother Johnny gains the ability to control fire, including covering his own body with flame. Pilot Ben Grimm is turned into a super-strong rocky Thing. Together, they use their unique powers to explore the strange aspects of the world, and to foil the evil plans of the rising Doctor Doom.
Starring
Ioan Gruffudd,
Jessica Alba &
Chris Evans
Official Site,
Trailer (11.8mb)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Long isolated from his own family, Willy Wonka launches a worldwide contest to select an heir to his candy empire. Five lucky children draw golden tickets from Wonka chocolate bars and win a guided tour of the legendary candy-making facility that no outsider has seen in 15 years. Dazzled by one amazing sight after another, Charlie, a good-hearted boy from a poor family who lives in the shadow of Wonka's extraordinary factory, is drawn into Wonka's fantastic world.
Starring Johnny Depp
Trailer:
Small (3.5mb)
Large (9.3mb)
August
Bewitched
A beautiful young witch named Isabel, determined to live without witchcraft, transports herself to Hollywood in search of true romance. She soon meets Jack, a handsome but bumbling actor, who is cast as Darrin in a remake of the TV series Bewitched and who doesn't realise the girl he persuades to be his 'Samantha' really is a witch...
Starring Nicole Kidman
Official Site
Trailer (6.7mb)
September
Pride and Predujice
The story is based on Jane Austen's novel about five sisters - Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia Bennet - in Georgian England. Their lives are turned upside down when a wealthy young man (Mr. Bingley) and his best friend (Mr. Darcy) arrive in their neighborhood.
Starring Keira Knightley &
Judi Dench
The Legend of Zorro
Picking up several years after the first film, 'Legend' finds Alejandro, a.k.a. Zorro, and Elena married with a 10-year-old son, Joaquin. Zorro continues to protect the poor and oppressed residents of the California territory. But when he tries to foil the nefarious plans of prominent land barons and businessmen who are trying to undermine the new statehood of California, Zorro suddenly finds his own family in danger.
Starring Antonio Banderas & Catherina Zeta Jones
October
The Pink Panther
A world-famous soccer coach has been murdered and his priceless ring has been stolen - a ring set with the stunning diamond known as the Pink Panther. Can anyone solve the case? The French government needs a master detective to solve the crime and recover the gem...but he's not available, so they recruit Inspector Jacques Clouseau.
Starring
Steve Martin,
Jean Reno &
Kevin Kline
Official Site
Trailer (12.6mb)
November
The New World
An epic adventure set amid the encounter of European and Native America cultures during the founding of the Jamestown Settlement in 1607. This classic story delves into a sweeping exploration of love, loss and discovery. Against a dramatic and historically accurate Virginia backdrop, two strong willed characters are torn between the requirements of their civic duties and the inescapable demands on the human heart.
Starring
Colin Farrell
Official Site
Trailer:
Small (3.1mb)
Medium (6.3mb)
Large (12.4mb)
December
Chronicles of Narnia
A spectacular live-action/CGI motion picture adaptation of C.S. Lewis' beloved literary classic that tells of the exploits of four siblings - Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter - in World War II England who enter the world of Narnia through a wardrobe whilst playing hide and seek. They discover a charming, peaceful land that has become a world cursed to eternal winter by an evil White Witch. Under the guidance of a mystical ruler, the lion Aslan, they fight to overcome the Witch's powerful hold over Narnia and free Narnia from her icy spell forever.
Official Site
Special Effects Feature (19.3mb)
What do you think?
We've posted our comments on our forum, so please come along and let us know which of the above you're excited about and which fill you with dread!
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