"Heppy's Blog"

Transformers

2009-01-17T02:57:00.000-08:00

The film opens with Optimus Prime, heroic leader of the benevolent Autobots, describing in a voice-over the destruction of the Transformers' home world, Cybertron. It was destroyed by the evil Decepticon leader Megatron in his quest to obtain the All Spark. The Autobots want to find the All Spark so they can use it to rebuild Cybertron and end the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, while the Decepticons want to use it to defeat the Autobots and conquer the universe. Megatron found the All Spark on Earth, but crash-landed in the Arctic Circle and was frozen in the ice. Captain Archibald Witwicky and his crew of explorers stumbled upon Megatron's body in 1897. Captain Witwicky accidentally activated Megatron's navigational system and his eye glasses were imprinted with the coordinates of the All Spark's location. Sector 7, a secret United States government organization founded by Herbert Hoover, discovered the All Spark in the Colorado River and built the Hoover Dam around it to mask its energy emissions. The still-frozen Megatron was moved into this facility and was used to advance human technology through reverse engineering.

In the present day, the group of Decepticons — Blackout, Scorponok, Frenzy, Barricade, Starscream, Devastator and Bonecrusher — have landed on Earth and assumed the disguise of Earth vehicles (except Scorponok, who hides within Blackout). Blackout and Scorponok attack the U.S. SOCCENT FWD military base in Qatar and try to hack into the U.S. military network to find the location of Megatron and the All Spark. Their mission is thwarted when the base staff severs the network cable connections. While Blackout destroys the rest of the base, Scorponok chases a small group of survivors who have photographic evidence of the robots, but he is eventually repelled. During this battle, the military discovers the only effective weapons against the Transformers' armor are high-heat sabot rounds.

After Blackout's failure, Frenzy infiltrates Air Force One to again hack into the military network, planting a virus. He finds the map imprinted on the Captain Witwicky's glasses. Witwicky's descendant Sam Witwicky intends to sell the glasses on eBay. Frenzy and Barricade begin tracking Sam's location. Autobot scout Bumblebee is also on Earth, disguised as a 1976 Chevrolet Camaro,and is bought by Sam while shopping for his first car. Bumblebee helps him woo his crush, Mikaela Banes. Bumblebee leaves at night to transmit a homing signal to the rest of the Autobots and Sam sees him in robot mode. Barricade confronts Sam and demands Archibald's spectacles, but Bumblebee rescues him and Mikaela. They leave to rendezvous with the rest of the Autobots — Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet — who have landed on Earth and taken the forms of Earth vehicles as well. Sam, Mikaela, and the Autobots return to Sam's home and obtain the glasses; however, agents from Sector 7 arrive and take Sam, Mikaela and Bumblebee into custody. Frenzy, now disguised as Mikaela's cellphone, secretly accompanies the group to Hoover Dam and releases Megatron from his frozen state. Locating the All Spark, Frenzy sends an alert to the other Decepticons. Sam convinces the Sector 7 agents to release Bumblebee so that he can deliver the All Spark to Optimus Prime. Frenzy's virus has shut down government communications, but a group of humans manage to establish a signal to the Air Force in order to support the Autobot-human convoy, who have gone to nearby Mission City to hide the All Spark. The Decepticons attack and Bonecrusher, Frenzy, Jazz, Devastator and Blackout are all killed during the ensuing battle. Sam, who was instructed to put the All Spark into Optimus Prime's chest (subsequently destroying it and Optimus Prime) if the battle went in Megatron's favor, instead chooses to ram the All Spark cube into Megatron's chest, destroying it and killing Megatron. Optimus takes a fragment of the All Spark from Megatron's corpse, but realizes that with its destruction, their home world Cybertron cannot be restored. Consequently, Optimus sends a signal to other surviving Autobots in the universe, directing them to their new home, Earth. The government orders the closure of Sector 7 and has the dead Decepticons dumped into the Laurentian Abyss. Starscream, who fled the battle, escapes into space.

Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa

2009-01-17T02:50:00.000-08:00

As a cub, Alex the lion was called Alekey and was the son of Zuba (Bernie Mac), the alpha lion. Though Zuba tries to teach Alekey to be a hunter, the cub is more interested in dancing. When another lion named Makunga (Alec Baldwin) challenges Zuba to a fight for the position of alpha lion, Alekey is captured by poachers. Though Zuba tries to rescue his son, Alekey is forced into a crate. The crate falls into the ocean where it drifts to New York. There, Alekey is renamed Alex and sent to the Central Park Zoo where he grew up, meeting Gloria, Marty, and Melman there.

In the present time, Alex (Ben Stiller), Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), Melman (David Schwimmer), Marty (Chris Rock), the chimpanzees, King Julien, Maurice, and the penguins have fixed a crashed plane in the hopes of using it to fly back to New York (Mort manages to tag along as well, by clinging to the airplane wing). Though the plane does fly, it ends up crash-landing in Africa because of lack of fuel.

In Africa, the animals are amazed to find more of their kind. Alex is reunited with Zuba and his mother Florrie (Sherri Shephard). Marty quickly fits into a herd of zebra who all look, sound, and talk exactly like him. Melman takes on the position of Witch Doctor amongst the animals after discovering that sick giraffes have no other option but to die otherwise. Gloria, interested in finding a boyfriend, attracts the attention of a hippo named Moto Moto (Will.i.am).

Meanwhile, the penguins set about repairing the plane. They carjack several jeeps from New Yorkers on vacation (under "Operation Tourist Trap"), leaving the tourists stranded and lost in the jungle. A tough old woman called "Nana" (who had previously attacked Alex in a subway station in Madagascar) takes charge, reminding them that they are New Yorkers and always survive.

Unfortunately, life in Africa is not as wonderful as it first seems. Makunga, still determined to take the position of alpha lion, reminds Zuba that Alex must complete a traditional lion coming-of-age challenge. Alex, thinking that the challenge is a dance contest (it is actually a fight) competes against the strongest lion and loses quickly. To avoid being forced to banish Alex for failing, Zuba abdicates and Makunga immediately takes the position and banishes Alex and his family. Marty meanwhile begins to feel upset that all of the zebra are exactly the same as him, leaving him with nothing unique. Even Alex is unable to tell the difference between Marty and a different zebra, leaving Marty hurt. Melman is happy in his position as Witch Doctor until another giraffe tells him that he has a brown spot on his shoulder. Melman is initially not bothered (as he has brown spots all over his body), until he learns that the previous Witch Doctor apparently died two days after the "spot" appeared. Melman is also upset about Gloria dating Moto Moto, as Melman has secretly loved her for a long time. Gloria goes on a date with Moto Moto and quickly realizes that he only loves her for her body.

The next day, the animals are in a panic when they discover that the watering hole has dried up. Determined to make up for his earlier failure, Alex decides to risk being shot by hunters and leave the Reserve to discover what happened. Along the way, he makes amends with Marty by being able to pick his friend out of the herd of zebras. The pair discover that the stranded New Yorkers, under the instruction of Nana, have dammed the river and built a primitive civilization. Alex is captured and Marty runs for help. Meanwhile, Zuba hears what Alex did and goes to rescue him.

King Julien suggests that the animals sacrifice one of themselves into the volcano to appease the water gods and regain their water supply. Believing that he will die soon, Melman volunteers to be the sacrifice. Gloria stops him just in time and Marty arrives to tell them of Alex's fate. The trio, the penguins, and a cartload of chimpanzees use the newly-fixed plane to come to the rescue. Alex meanwhile manages to rescue both himself and his father by dancing for the New Yorkers, who quickly recognize him from the zoo. Zuba joins in as well. The other animals rescue the lions with the plane and destroy the dam, freeing the water. At the volcano, Mort arrives (he had fallen from the plane into the ocean). He was pursued the entire way from the beach by a shark, which falls into the lava just before the water returns.

Alex manages to remove Makunga from power by tricking Nana into attacking him. Skipper (a penguin) marries a bobble-head hula doll from the plane and leaves on a honeymoon, leaving the other animals to remain in Africa.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year

2009-01-16T04:32:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the Wildcats' championship basketball game against the West High Knights, where team captain Troy (Zac Efron) immediately rallies their spirits (Now or Never). With the teams' spirit raised, they win, thanks to the winning shot from their newest team member Jimmie "The Rocket" Zara (Matt Prokop). Later, at Troy's after-match party at his house, Troy and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) are seen thinking about their future and wishing that their last few months at East High would not end (Right Here, Right Now). Meanwhile, Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) meets Tiara Gold (Jemma McKenzie-Brown), a British exchange student whom she hires to be her personal assistant.

When drama teacher Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed) notices that there were so few sign-ups for the spring musical, Sharpay suggests she could do a one-woman show. This alarms Kelsi (Olesya Rulin), who is writing the show, so she signs up almost everyone in the class for it instead. This results in Ms. Darbus announcing they will create a play about their final days at East High. In addition, she reveals that Sharpay, Ryan (Lucas Grabeel), Kelsi, and Troy have all been considered for a scholarship at Juilliard, but only one of them is to be chosen. Sharpay becomes desperate to win the scholarship, and knowing that Kelsi will give the best songs to Troy and Gabriella in the musical, she gets Ryan to try to persuade Kelsi to give them a song, by predicting her (and Ryan's) future (I Want It All).

The next day, Gabriella and Troy meet on the rooftop and she teaches him how to waltz (Can I Have This Dance). Chad (Corbin Bleu) then asks Taylor (Monique Coleman) to go to prom with him. She initially refuses due to his lack of enthusiasm, but later agrees when Chad proves he can put in some effort and asks again in front of half the school. The group rehearse for the musical, a scene about their prom night (A Night to Remember). Meanwhile, Ryan walks in on Kelsi composing (Just Wanna Be with You) in the music room, and performs it with her, and then he asks her to prom halfway through. While Troy and Chad reminisce about their past (The Boys Are Back), Sharpay and Tiara discover that Gabriella has a chance to go to college early. Sharpay later convinces Troy that he is the only thing keeping Gabriella from her dream. Troy talks to Gabriella about this over pizza, and after sharing an awkward goodnight, Gabriella (Walk Away) leaves for college the next day.

Troy's dad, Jack (Bart Johnson), talks to him about his academic future. Troy becomes angry, confused, and runs away, storming around East High confused (Scream) until he finally screams at the top of his lungs in the theatre. Ms. Darbus is in the theatre and reveals that she sent in his application for Juilliard, as she knew how comfortable he was on stage and how much he liked it. Troy takes no offense and thinks about the advice given to him. Troy later gets a call from Gabriella saying she won't return to Albuquerque, as she is too used to being away. However, on the night of prom, Troy visits Gabriella at Stanford and convinces her to return, as everyone isn't the same without her.

Back at East High, Jimmie receives a text from Troy to tell him to cover for him onstage because he is going to be late. The Juilliard representatives are there, and watch as the show seems to go well, (Senior Year Spring Musical). During the opening number, Kelsi and Ryan debut. While during the second number, Chad, Jason (Ryne Sanborn), Zeke (Chris Warren Jr.) and Martha (Kaycee Stroh) debut, Ryan does his number with the many chorus girls, Jimmie then performs with Sharpay, receiving his own standing ovation. Troy and Gabriella appear during the second half of the show and sing their duet together. Tiara then betrays Sharpay and tells her how she is going to take over next year in the drama department. Sharpay finally learns how it feels to be humiliated, but does not wish to go down. While Tiara performs, Sharpay immediately crashes her performance and shows her up.

Ms. Darbus reveals that both Kelsi and Ryan have won the Juilliard scholarship (We're All in This Together (Graduation Mix)). Taylor will go to Yale University; Sharpay will go to University of Albuquerque and will assist Ms. Darbus in running the drama department in the fall. Troy decides to go to the University of California, Berkeley, where he can play basketball, study drama, and be close to Gabriella. After learning about Troy's decision, Chad runs offstage and into the school gym. There he and Troy work things out and learn that their college's basketball teams will play each other the upcoming fall.

At the graduation ceremony, Troy gives the class speech. Throwing their caps in the air, the graduates form a giant wildcat before breaking out into song and dance (High School Musical). The six friends walk down the field where a curtain closes off the graduation ceremony and turns into a stage. The six stars do their signature jump and then the camera does a close up of each actor. They take their final bow as the curtain closes.

Quantum of Solace

2009-01-16T04:25:00.000-08:00

The film continues immediately after the events of Casino Royale with Bond driving from Lake Garda to Siena, Italy. With the captured Mr. White in the luggage compartment of his car, Bond is attacked by chasing henchmen. After evading his pursuers, Bond and M interrogate White regarding his organisation, Quantum. M's bodyguard, Mitchell, is revealed as a traitor, attacking M and allowing White to escape; Bond chases Mitchell across Siena and kills him. Following a forensic investigation into Mitchell's apartment, Bond heads to Haiti to track down and kill Mitchell's contact. Bond learns that henchman Slate was sent to kill Camille Montes at the behest of her lover, Dominic Greene, the chairman of an ecological organization called Greene Planet. While observing her meeting with Greene, Bond learns that Greene is helping the Bolivian general Medrano – who murdered Camille's family – overthrow his government in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of desert.

Greene has Camille escorted away on Medrano's boat to "sweeten" their deal, but Bond rescues her. Bond then follows Greene to a private jet, which flies him to a performance of Tosca at Lake Constance, Austria. Bond infiltrates Quantum's meeting at the opera, and a gunfight ensues in a restaurant. A bodyguard of Guy Haines, an advisor to the British Prime Minister, is accidentally killed, and M has Bond's passports and credit cards revoked because she believes Bond has killed too many potential sources of information. Bond travels to Italy to reunite with his old ally René Mathis, whom he convinces to accompany him to La Paz. They are greeted by Strawberry Fields, an MI6 field operative from the British Consulate, who demands that Bond return to the UK on the next available flight. Bond disobeys and seduces her in their hotel suite.

Bond meets Camille again at a fund-raiser being held by Greene, and they leave hastily together, but are pulled over by the Bolivian police. The police order Bond to open the luggage compartment of his vehicle, revealing a bloodied Mathis. As Bond lifts Mathis out of the vehicle, the policemen open fire and fatally wound Mathis. After Bond subdues the police and deposits Mathis' body in a waste container, Bond and Camille drive to Greene's intended land acquisition and survey the area in a Douglas DC-3 plane. They are intercepted and shot down by an Aermacchi SF.260 fighter and a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. They escape from the crippled plane by parachuting into a sinkhole. While escaping the cave, Bond and Camille discover Quantum is blockading Bolivia's supply of fresh water, normally flowing in subterranean rivers, by damming it. The duo return to La Paz, where Bond meets M and learns Quantum murdered Fields by drowning her in petroleum. Believing that Bond has become a threat to both friend and foe, M orders him to disarm and end his activities in Bolivia, but he defies her and escapes.

Bond meets CIA agent Felix Leiter at a local bar, who discloses Greene and Medrano will meet at an eco-hotel in the Bolivian desert. After the meeting, Bond attacks and kills the departing Colonel of Police for betraying Mathis, and sets off a chain of explosions in the hotel when a hydrogen fuel tank is hit by an out of control vehicle. Camille kills Medrano, and Bond captures Greene. After interrogating him, he leaves Greene stranded in the middle of the desert with only a can of motor oil. Bond drives Camille to a train station, where they kiss before she departs.

Bond goes to Kazan, Russia, where he confronts Vesper Lynd's former lover, Yusef Kabira. Yusef is a member of Quantum who seduces high-ranking women with valuable connections, getting them to give up government assets as ransom for himself in fake kidnappings where he is supposedly held hostage. He is attempting to do the same with Canadian agent Corinne Veneau, even giving her the same kind of necklace he gave Vesper. Surprising them at Yusef's apartment, Bond tells Corinne about Vesper and advises her to alert the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. As Bond is leaving Yusef's apartment he is confronted by M, who is surprised that Bond did not kill Yusef, but rather left him alive for questioning. M reveals that Leiter has been promoted at the CIA to replace Beam, and that Greene was found in the desert, shot dead and with motor oil in his stomach. Bond doesn't volunteer any information on Greene, but tells M that she was right about Vesper. M then tells Bond that MI6 needs him and fully reinstates him as an agent. Bond walks off into the night telling M that he never left. As he leaves, he drops Vesper's necklace in the snow.

Bolt

2009-01-16T03:48:00.000-08:00

A girl named Penny and her dog Bolt star on a hit television series Bolt in which the titular character has various superpowers and must constantly thwart the evil plans of the nefarious Dr. Calico. Because Bolt has lived his entire life on a soundstage, and believes he really is his fictional counterpart, he doesn't know how to live like a normal dog. After filming completes for one episode, Bolt escapes from his on-set trailer mistakenly believing Penny has been kidnapped by the television villain. He attempts to break through a window, knocking himself unconscious as he falls into a box of Styrofoam. With no one aware Bolt is in the box, it is shipped from Hollywood to New York. In New York, he meets Mittens, a female alleycat who bullies pigeons out of their food. Because Mittens is a cat similar to one owned by the Green-Eyed Man, Bolt forces her to help him get back to Hollywood, and the two start their journey westward. Meanwhile, in Hollywood, Penny is deeply saddened over Bolt's disappearance but is forced by the studio to continue filming with a Bolt lookalike. Along the way, Bolt starts to notice that his regular superpowers aren't working, but he believes this simply the temporary effect that Styrofoam has on his body, much like Kryptonite affects Superman.

Surprised at his first feelings of both pain and hunger, Bolt manages to get food on the road thanks to the training of Mittens, who shows him how to look like a cute, needy dog. At a campsite, they meet Rhino, a fearless, TV-obsessed hamster and huge Bolt fan who joins their team. Mittens tries to convince Bolt that his superpowers aren't real, but their discussion is cut short by the arrival of Animal Control, who captures them both. Bolt vows to rescue Mittens, and does so with the help of Rhino and an exploding oxygen tank. The cross-country journey continues and Bolt learns to enjoy typical dog activities, (such as hanging his head out the window), but Mittens refuses to go farther than Las Vegas. She tells Bolt that his Hollywood life is fake and there is no real love for him there. Her emotional rant reveals that she was once a housecat, but was abandoned by her previous owner and left to brave the harsh streets alone and declawed. Bolt refuses to believe that Penny doesn't love him, and continues on alone, wishing Mittens the best. Rhino convinces Mittens that they must help him, and the two set off to find Bolt once again.

Bolt returns to the studio and is heartbroken to find Penny embracing his lookalike, unaware that Penny still misses him and that her affection for the lookalike was part of a rehearsal for the show. Witnessing this, and realizing that Penny truly does love Bolt, Mittens confronts Bolt and manages to clear up the misunderstanding. Back on the set, the Bolt-lookalike panics during filming and accidentally knocks over some torches, setting the soundstage on fire and trapping Penny. Bolt arrives and reunites with Penny, and manages to get themselves rescued. Penny's mom has her quit the show because she's has had enough of her agent caring about nothing but business and money. The show continues on with a replacement "Bolt" and "Penny", but seems to have jumped the shark with an alien abduction storyline that even Rhino considers silly. Penny herself adopts Mittens and Rhino, and moves to a rural home to enjoy a simpler, happy lifestyle with Bolt and her new pets.

Night At The Museum

2009-01-16T03:39:00.000-08:00

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is a divorced father who is unable to keep a stable job, the bulk of them being failed business ventures. He is desperate to win the support of his son Nick (Jake Cherry), whom he fears is beginning to look up to his more successful future stepfather, Don (Paul Rudd), a bond trader on Wall Street. Larry therefore applies for a job at the Museum of Natural History, where he is assigned as a night guard.

The three elder (soon to be unemployed) night guards, Cecil (Dick Van Dyke), Gus (Mickey Rooney), and Reginald (Bill Cobbs), give him a quick tour, advise him to leave some of the lights on, and warn him not to let anything "in...or out", which Larry meets with humorous skepticism. They also leave some odd instructions for him.

Once night comes, Larry discovers that the museum exhibits come to life. Larry barely manages to survive through the night. First, he discovers a Tyrannosaurus rex drinking from a water fountain; Larry distracts it by throwing a bone it has ripped from its own skeleton. Then, despite a narrow escape in the wildlife exhibits, Larry manages to lock up the lions. Finally, he double-checks his belt, only to discover that a capuchin monkey named Dexter has in fact stolen his keys. When Dexter destroys the old guards' instruction manual, Larry is forced into humiliating himself.

Eventually Larry is rescued from an odd feud between miniatures, pitting a Wild West buckaroo named Jedediah (Owen Wilson) against a Roman General named Octavius (Steve Coogan), by a wax model of Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), who later explains that ever since an Egyptian artifact— the Tablet of Akmenrah — was brought to the museum in 1952, everything comes to life each night. However, if the exhibits are outside of the museum by sunrise, they turn to dust. Roosevelt proceeds to help Larry by restoring order, but insists that it will be the last time he shall ever do so.

While initially unnerved, Larry decides to remain as a guard. On Cecil's advice, Larry begins to study the history of the events and people in the exhibits to prepare himself better for their animation. He meets Rebecca Hutman (Carla Gugino), who is writing a dissertation on the life and times of Sacagawea (Mizuo Peck), and learns much of the history of the various exhibits from her.

The next night, Larry uses what he has learned to better control the exhibits, but fails when a Neanderthal sets fire to his compatriots' display, which Larry extinguishes with a nearby fire extinguisher, while another escapes out a window and turns to dust when the sun rises. Larry barely manages to keep his job after the Museum's director, Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais), discovers the mess. Larry tries to tell Rebecca about what happens every night, even offering to let her meet Sacagawea to help with her dissertation, but Rebecca does not believe him.

Two nights later, Larry brings Nick to the Museum, but fails to impress him when nothing comes to life. Just as Larry convinces Nick to wait for the promised event, they find Cecil, Gus, and Reginald stealing the Tablet of Akmenrah. Cecil then reveals the truth to Larry that like the museum exhibits, the guards receive vital emanation from the Tablet. Now accustomed to this vigor, they are unwilling to forsake it and intend stealing the Tablet, along with various other Museum artifacts to fund their retirement, and to frame Larry for the theft. Nick, after prompting from Larry, reactivates the Tablet's power and brings the exhibits to life once more. Cecil then grabs the Tablet back and locks Nick and Larry in the Egyptian room.

Larry calls for Theodore Roosevelt for help, but Roosevelt insists that Larry solve this problem on his own. The only thing left for Larry to do is release the mummy of Pharaoh Akmenrah (Rami Malek) himself, the owner of the tablet. Surprisingly Akmenrah speaks English; when asked for to explain this, he informs Nick and Larry that he spent many years as an exhibit in the Egyptology Department at Cambridge University. After Larry introduces himself and Nick, Akmenrah then asks them to bestow his Tablet upon him, so he can "claim his kingdom". Larry informs Ahkmenrah that the Tablet has been stolen, convincing the Pharaoh to free them. The three new friends then set out to reclaim the Tablet.

Larry discovers that the other exhibits are fighting with each other; having attracted their attention with the intervention of an animated Moa, he rallies them around the common cause of saving their own ability to be animated and thus acquires their help in retrieving the Tablet. Though the exhibits manage to capture Gus and Reginald, Cecil escapes with the Tablet, whereupon Larry, Nick, Akmenrah, Jed, Octavius, and Attila the Hun pursue and capture him.

Because the exhibits who have come outside may be destroyed by sunrise, Larry gives the Tablet to Akmenrah, who immediately uses its power to return all the exhibits to the museum. Rebecca, in a taxicab, sees the exhibits crossing the road in front of her and realizes that Larry was telling the truth. Entering the museum, she is introduced by Larry to Sacagawea.

The next day, Dr. McPhee fires Larry despite his effort to clean up the museum; but when the reports issued by the news media begin increasing the Museum's popularity, he readmits Larry. Some time later, Larry appears in Nick's classroom during Career Day. Later that night, Larry returns with Nick and all the exhibits celebrate. Cecil, Gus, and Reginald eventually become janitors at the Museum; a stereotypical punishment in comedy films for defeated antagonists.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

2009-01-16T03:30:00.000-08:00

Eccentric, 243-year-old Mr. Edward Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) owns and manages a magical toyshop. The shop has many quirks, including animated toys, a ledger that can bring to the purchase counter any toy on command, and a doorknob that, when rotated, changes the interior of a magic room. This room variously contains Mr. Magorium's apartment, a room full of constantly bouncing balls of various sizes, and other divisions of the toyshop. All of the toys are magical in one way or another; their magic and behavior, however, appear to depend on those of the store, which is itself intelligent and changes its appearance and actions according to its emotions. Magorium's assistant is the young woman Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman). She is an aspiring pianist, has plans to quit the store and start a career in music composition (the story begins with her practicing her song and going to work), and is, unexplainedly, always addressed by her surname. Mahoney is Eric's only human friend, as shown by their first on-screen conversation, and is cherished in a paternal fashion by Mr. Magorium himself. Mr. Magorium's biographer and tenant is a strongman-like figure called Bellini, who lives in the shop's basement, runs errands for his employer, and sleeps with a doll. This doll, in addition to Bellini's task as Mr. Magorium's biographer, suggest the "soft" aspects of his personality that underlie his forbidding demeanor.

Unexpectedly, Mr. Magorium announces that although he is not ill, he intends to "leave" — that is, to die — and gives the shop to Mahoney in his will. Prior to this, he has given her an undecorated cube made of wood and the task of finding a use for it. This cube becomes instrumental in Mahoney's coming of age.

As a preparation for his "departure", Magorium hires accountant Henry Weston (Jason Bateman), giving him an interview wherein the latter demonstrates knowledge of Fibonacci numbers. Henry, nicknamed the "Mutant" as a play on his job's title of "accountant" (playfully misinterpreted as a portmanteau of "a counter" and "mutant"), wins Mr. Magorium's approval when he demonstrates this knowledge on command and states as a reply to a question "anything can happen". His task is to organize the shop's long-neglected paperwork, which contains numerous financial difficulties whose effects have evidently never harmed Mr. Magorium or his business in addition to records of transactions with historical figures such as Thomas Alva Edison. Weston is not popular with the children who continuously visit and play in the shop; later, when Eric tries to become friends with him, Henry declines to play checkers on grounds that he "never [stops] working". Mahoney already has a low opinion of Weston, because he is skeptical of the shop's magic.

In response to its founder's decision to die, the shop sulks and on the following day throws a tantrum wherein its walls turn grey, the toys and books sold in it begin behaving erratically, and the ledger produces a Ring-Tailed Lemur when Mahoney requests from it a lollipop. The erratic behavior of the toys and books frightens the customers out of the shop. Mr. Magorium then calls a meeting of himself, Mahoney, Henry, Eric, and some of the toys to explain the situation at hand. Worried by Mr. Magorium's plan to "leave", Mahoney rushes him to the hospital, where doctors decide that Mr. Magorium should be kept when he has explained his age and occupation. Here, Mahoney uses the doctors' skepticism of magic to convince them that Mr. Magorium is suffering from delusions as a result of imminent death. He remains in the hospital overnight, surrounded by a backdrop of stars organized by Eric, and is released on the next day on grounds that nothing is physically wrong with him.

Meanwhile, Eric befriends the Mutant and introduces him to an extensive collection of diverse hats kept by Eric himself. The two play with these hats until interrupted by Eric's discomforted mother, who had not expected Eric to befriend anyone of Henry's age.

Mahoney attempts to prevent Mr. Magorium's departure by showing him life's joys, but he does not decide against "leaving". After a heartfelt, affectionate conversation, Mahoney leaves in tears, whereinafter Mr. Magorium throws his will in the form of a paper airplane, peacefully dying as the airplane flies around the room, temporarily changing the surroundings to match the image of a star field. Many children and adults crowd the cemetery to witness his funeral, which is held on the next day. Strangely, his first name, Edward, does not appear on the headstone of his grave. The store reacts to Mr. Magorium's death by darkening itself and refusing to show any magic.

Mahoney, believing herself to be unworthy of the store, offers it for sale. Eric, desiring to see the Emporium continue as it has, approaches Weston with a "business proposal" wherein Eric is willing to invest his savings and pocket-money in the shop. Though he refuses, Weston agrees to persuade Mahoney against selling the store when a woman looked at the property and rejected it. Her son saw a toy and played with it (Mahoney thinks it's not magic, she says it's a magnet). The toy's magic is revived because of that. Henry is caused to believe in the store's magic when Mahoney, by talking passionately of her faith in it, causes the wooden cube she was given to move as if alive. Influenced by further urging, the cube moves with increasing speed and confidence, eventually flying around the shop and halting in front of Henry, who faints from sheer astonishment.

When he wakes, the cube has vanished, and Mahoney appears unaware that it or any of the events caused by it exist. Henry, who is now a firm believer in the store's magic, leads Mahoney to realize that she is able to revive the store's magic by magic of her own. She notices this when she touches the piano. The shop is delighted and colorfully revived as Mahoney finally takes her position as owner and unlocks her creative potential, unleashing a celebration of the shop's wonders. It is implied that Mahoney has completed her first musical composition. (The background music is "Everything's Magic" by Angels and Airwaves.)

The Day The Earth Stood Still

2009-01-16T03:11:00.000-08:00

In 1928, a mountaineer (Keanu Reeves) encounters a glowing sphere while on an expedition in the snowy mountains of India. He then finds himself awakening after a sudden loss of consciousness, with the sphere now gone and a scar on his hand. In the present day, Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), a Princeton professor, and other scientists are hastily assembled by the government in order to formulate a survival plan when it is feared that a large unknown object with a speed of 3x10⁷m/s is on a crash course to the Earth, due to impact Manhattan in just over an hour. Nothing can be done about it because a vital military satellite has been disabled. However, the object is a large spherical biological spaceship, which slows down and lands gently in Central Park. A being (taking on the appearance of the man from the opening scene of the film) named Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) emerges from the sphere while accompanied by a large robot. Klaatu, a representative of a group of alien races, has come to assess whether humanity can reverse the environmental damage it has inflicted on planet Earth. In the ensuing confusion, Klaatu is shot, but survives. The large robot activates and proceeds to disrupt all electrical systems in the city of New York, including many of the defense systems that the military has mustered in a perimeter around the spaceship. However, before it can do any further damage, Klaatu orders it to shut down. While recovering from the wound, Klaatu is detained by Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates), the United States Secretary of Defense, and is barred from speaking to the United Nations. Klaatu manages to escape, and he soon finds himself eluding the authorities throughout Northern New Jersey, specifically Newark and the forested Highlands with Helen and her stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith).

Meanwhile, the presence of the sphere has caused a worldwide panic, and the military manages to capture the robot after it thwarts their attempts to destroy the sphere using unmanned aerial vehicles and Sidewinder missiles. Klaatu decides that humans shall be exterminated so the planet – with its rare ability to sustain complex life – can survive. He orders smaller spheres previously hidden on Earth to begin taking animal species off the planet, and Jackson, reminded of Noah's Ark, fears that a cataclysm is imminent. The robot, dubbed "GORT" (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology) by the government, is being experimented on deep within an underground facility in Virginia when it transforms into a swarm of self-replicating insect-like nanites that begin destroying everything in their path back to Manhattan, including a large contingent of the U.S. Army.

After speaking with Nobel Prize-winning Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese) about how his own species went through drastic evolution to survive its sun dying out, Klaatu is convinced by Helen and Jacob that humans can change their ways and are worth saving. The three begin heading to the sphere in Central Park, but Klaatu warns that even if he manages to stop GORT there will be a price to the human way of life. The nanobot cloud arrives before they can reach the sphere and they have to hide under a bridge. There, it is revealed that Jacob and Helen have been infected by the nanites. She pleads with Klaatu to save Jacob. Klaatu saves both of them by transferring the infection to his own body, then sacrifices his physical form to stop GORT by walking through the nanites to the sphere and touching it. His actions cause the sphere to emit a massive pulse which stops GORT, saving humanity, but at the price of much of Earth's technology becoming apparently useless and immobile. Klaatu disappears, and the giant sphere leaves Earth.

Speed Racer

2008-10-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is an 18-year-old whose life and love has always been racing. Racing is "in his blood": his parents, Pops (John Goodman) and Mom (Susan Sarandon), run an independent business building race cars; and his older brother, record-setting racer Rex Racer (Scott Porter), was killed in Speed's childhood in the running of the Casa Cristo, an incredibly intense cross-country racing rally notorious for rough and foul play. Before his death, Rex was rejected by his father for his choice to run the Casa Cristo, and publicly defamed for appearing to cheat underhandedly in a race. Now, Speed Racer is quickly sweeping the racing world with his artistic skill, driving the Mach 5 (and later the Mach 6) of his father's design, but remains interested only in the art of the race and the well-being of his family.

When Mr. Royalton (Roger Allam), owner of conglomerate Royalton Industries, offers Speed an astoundingly luxurious lifestyle in exchange for signing to race with him, Speed is tempted but declines, knowing that his father would never wish Speed to sign with the very power-hungry corporations he so mistrusts. When Speed refuses Mr. Royalton's offer, Royalton reveals that top corporate interests, including Royalton himself, are fixing the races to gain profit, and then threatens Speed's career success and very life when he still does not agree to sign on. When Royalton later proves ready to make good on his threats, Speed teams up with his girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), his one-time rival, Racer X (Matthew Fox), and shifty racer Taejo Togokhan (Rain) to enter the Casa Cristo 5000 – known as "The Crucible" – in part of a plot to uncover the treacheries of Royalton and save the Racer business.

Speed begins to suspect that Racer X is actually his brother Rex in disguise, after they drive together and work naturally as a team. Despite his father's initial anger at his racing in the Crucible, Speed's family eventually joins up as well, as Speed overcomes Royalton's brutal team and many seemingly insurmountable obstacles to win the Casa Cristo 5000.^[4] It is, unfortunately, a sham victory, as it's revealed that Taejo's purpose was simply to make himself - and, by association, his father's racing company - look better, so the stock price would rise, and a proposed Royalton-arranged company buyout would be more expensive.

An angry Speed hits the old track his brother Rex used to take him as a boy, and the arrival of Racer X leads Speed to confront X, demanding to know the truth as to whether or not he is Rex. Racer X removes his mask, revealing an unfamiliar face, and tells Speed that his brother Rex truly is dead. Speed returns home, and Taejo's sister Horuko (Yu Nan) arrives, giving Speed Taejo's automatic invitation to the Grand Prix, as she felt bad for what her brother had done, noting that Taejo had declined to accept anyway. After 32 hours of family effort, the Mach 6 is rebuilt (having been destroyed in the race following Speed's refusal to sign with Royalton), and Speed hits the Grand Prix for the greatest race of his life, with a bounty on his head from the other drivers, and pitted against legendary Hall of Fame driver Cannonball Taylor.

Speed's battle in the race succeeds in exposing Royalton, and returning racing to its true purpose. Furthermore, it is revealed to the audience at the movie's end that Rex did not die (and also did not cheat), but instead underwent plastic surgery to re-emerge as Racer X, helping his younger brother finally save his family and his sport. He chose not to reveal his identity to his family, presumably for their protection. In the end of the movie, Rex is heard saying that even if he made a mistake hiding from his family it would be a mistake he had to live with, as he felt that it would do more damage to return to them rather than continue to live in hiding. As the cameras flash, Speed scoops Trixie up and kisses her, as he had promised to do at inspiration point, and Spritle starts getting overly excited; swinging the trophy from side to side while shouting. The "Magazine Montage" at the end confirms that Royalton's perversities were finally disclosed to the public and that he is sentenced to jail for life, and it also states that "Cheaters Never Prosper".

Zathura : A Space Adventure

2008-10-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Two boys, Walter (Josh Hutcherson) and Danny (Jonah Bobo), discover a space themed board game, where everything inside it becomes real. The boys are eventually drawn into an adventure when their house is magically hurtled through space. The story is similar to Jumanji, another illustrated book by Van Allsburg (in the book, the Zathura game is contained inside the Jumanji one, although paradoxically the astronaut is revealed to be the creator of Jumanji. Likewise in the movie versions Zathura takes place in the 1970's and Jumanji takes place in the 1960's).

During the course of the story, the boys must overcome their personal ill-feeling held toward one another in order to survive. They are aided in this by an astronaut (Dax Shepard) who appears as a result of the game. This astronaut is eventually revealed to be an older version of Walter, who had been trapped as a character in the game's world as a result of causing the disappearance of Danny, without whom he was no longer a player. Thus, the game could not advance without Danny taking his turn. This backstory becomes the basis, although the viewer only sees its role as such in retrospect, of parallels drawn between the two versions of Walter, including a revelation of the backstory without mention of his name or that of his brother. He is finally released when Walter summons his brother back to him. Both he and his brother seem to merge with Danny and Walter (after the astronaut turns back into another version of Walter) now that the future caused by Walter wishing Danny away has been erased.

Accompanying Danny, Walter, and the astronaut is their cantankerous elder sister, Lisa (Kristen Stewart), who while not a player is as vulnerable to the dangers present in the game. She is placed in cryogenic freeze for five turns. She develops a crush on the astronaut, and is thus horrified when she finds out that she fell for an older version of her brother Walter.

The main villains in the movie are the Zorgons; reptilian, biped tool-users who are fond of heat and are attracted to a heat source much like bees are attracted to nectar, because they are cold-blooded. The Zorgons, having burned their own planet to obtain more heat, are nomads who travel through space seeking more to burn and who keep a flock of four-eyed goats on their ship.

Another character, a robot (Frank Oz), first appears as a wind-up tin toy that quickly becomes life-size. It is supposed to defend the players, but as it is malfunctioning it mis-identifies Walter as an alien life form and begins rampaging through the house. Walter uses a "Reprogram" card on the robot, and it instead sets its sights on the Zorgons. A single Zorgon survives the robot's kamikaze attack and sneaks up behind Walter and Danny as they are wondering where Lisa is. Just as it's about to kill them, it is crushed and killed by Lisa with Danny's piano. Unfortunately, a massive Zorgon fleet arrives and attacks after Walter frees the astronaut and his brother.

Danny eventually completes the object of the game, whereupon the house is drawn into a roaring black hole, which Danny realizes is Zathura. The Zorgon fleet is pulled into the black hole, as are Lisa and Walter. Moments later, they have returned to Earth. All the "pieces" of the game (the house, its furnishing, and the players) have been replaced as they were before the game began. The brothers are thereafter much more cooperative with one another. The boys, and Lisa, retain their memories of the game's events in which they all agree never to speak of Zathura again.

As the kids get in the car with their mother and drive away, one of their bicycles which drifted off into space falls back to the lawn.

The SpongeBob SquarePants The Movie

2008-10-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

Eugene H. Krabs is about to open his new restaurant, the Krusty Krab 2, to boost his business venture's popularity. At the opening ceremony, SpongeBob does not receive the title of general manager, which is instead given to Squidward, severely depressing the sponge. Plankton, distraught that his archrival is getting all the attention, uses the dreaded Plan Z to steal the Krabby Patty formula. He arrives at King Neptune's castle to steal Neptune's crown as part of Plan Z and is successful. Plankton feeds false information to Neptune, stating Eugene H. Krabs stole the crown. Infuriated, Neptune heads for the Krusty Krab 2. Later that evening, SpongeBob has an ice-cream eating contest with Patrick to brood over his loss, and, after obtaining a hang-over, heads to Krabs to talk things out. When he arrives, he sees Neptune attacking Krabs and demanding him to return his crown. SpongeBob promises Neptune he will travel to Shell City (where the crown was seen last) and retrieve the crown in six days; in the meantime Neptune freezes Krabs as he is the only suspect. Should the crown not return in six days's time, Krabs will fry. SpongeBob and Patrick take the Patty-Wagon, and with a resounding KER-PATTY!, smash through the wall of the restaurant and head off on their adventure.

Carrying out his Plan Z, Plankton steals the secret formula of the Krabby Patty while Mr. Krabs remains frozen. Plankton's restaurant finally gets customers when the Patty is distributed, though this is only a portion of Plan Z. Meanwhile, SpongeBob and Patrick lose their car at a gas station, and they go to great lengths to retrieve it upon finding it at a bar for tough fish. They continue their journey, unaware of the trouble that is brewing at Bikini Bottom: Plankton has sent a hitman named Dennis to go after the two.

Squidward uncovers the truth about Plankton and Neptune's crown theft and attempts to alert the authorities. However, Plankton uses mind-controlling buckets, disguised as souvenirs, to control the residents of Bikini Bottom, including Squidward, and renames the city Planktopolis. Back on the road, SpongeBob and Patrick drive into a place littered with skulls and bones, but, due to their ignorance, buy ice cream. The whole setting turns out to be a frogfish's lure, but SpongeBob and Patrick escape when the frog fish is eaten by a giant eel from a trench. SpongeBob and Patrick are about to admit defeat from the danger of the trench when Neptune's daughter, Mindy, shows up and tells them what Plankton has done. Neptune, however, is more concerned about his baldness (the prime reason why he wants his crown back) than the safety of the underwater world, and it is entirely up to SpongeBob and Patrick to save the day. When the two still refuse to cooperate, Mindy falsifies things by attaching strands of seaweeds to their lips, lying to them that they have grown mustaches and have become men. The gullible SpongeBob and Patrick are motivated and dances their way across the monster-infested trench, while Mindy leaves. The two then come across Dennis, who, after ripping off their false mustaches and spitting the truth at them, tries to kill them. Unexpectedly, a giant boot belonging to a human squashes Dennis, and the human, known to marine life as "the Cyclops", (due to the old wet suit he wears) grabs SpongeBob and Patrick and takes them away to his gift store, which is in fact Shell City. The Cyclops owns the shop and is selling Neptune's crown for seven dollars.

When they arrive, SpongeBob and Patrick encounter a lethal drying-out process which nearly kills them. However, their tears short circuit the heat lamp, which releases smoke and activates the emergency sprinkler system, which revives them as well as the other hundreds of dried-out sea creatures (their bodies were being sold as souvenirs). While the sea creatures attack the Cyclops, SpongeBob and Patrick take the crown outside to the beach. David Hasselhoff offers the two a ride to Bikini Bottom, which they gladly accept. Dennis makes one final attempt to eliminate the two, but is struck by a catamaran. Back at the Krusty Krab 2, Neptune arrives to execute Krabs, while Plankton eagerly watches. In the nick of time SpongeBob and Patrick return with the crown, saves Krabs, and then confronts Plankton. In turn Plankton activates the mind buckets, even brainwashing Neptune. But before Plankton thinks he is triumphant, SpongeBob, cherishing the fact he is just a kid and that he accomplished a lot in the past six days, uses his imagination by playing a rock song, using his guitar to free Plankton's slaves. Realizing defeat once again, Plankton tries to escape, but is trampled by Bikini Bottom's citizens.

Plankton is arrested and incarcerated, being sent to the "Institution of the Criminally Tiny." King Neptune thanks Mindy for her braveness and unfreezes Mr. Krabs, who graciously gives the title of general manager of the Krusty Krab 2 to SpongeBob. SpongeBob declares this to be the greatest day of his life.

Superman Returns

2008-08-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

As the film begins, we learn that Superman has been missing for five years. He has traveled to where astronomers believed they had discovered the remains of Krypton. Superman returns to Earth, crashing back into his adoptive mother's corn field in a craft like the one that delivered him to Earth when he was a baby. He returns to the The Daily Planet and his life as Clark Kent in Metropolis. He learns that Lois Lane has won the Pulitzer Prize for her article "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." During Superman's absence, Lex Luthor has been released from prison. While away, Superman missed the appeals trial to testify against Lex. Upon his release, Lex marries a rich widow and obtains her fortune, immediately upon her death. Lex travels to the Fortress of Solitude, steals Kryptonian crystals, and returns to Metropolis to experiment with a tiny fragment. The growing crystal causes a blackout due to an electromagnetic pulse, interfering with the test flight of a new space shuttle tethered to a Boeing 777—a plane which Lois Lane is aboard while covering the story. Clark flies into action as Superman and stops the plane from crashing onto a baseball field.

The world rejoices in Superman's return, but Lois is more concerned with the blackout. Clark meets her fiancé Richard White, nephew of Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White, and their son, Jason. Clark is emotionally hurt when he overhears a conversation between Lois and Richard in which she says she never loved Superman. He buries himself in his work, including halting a bank heist and saving Kitty, Luthor's co-conspirator. While Kitty distracts Superman, Luthor steals Kryptonite from the Metropolis Museum of Natural History. Perry assigns Lois to interview Superman while Clark investigates the blackout. That night, Superman arrives at The Daily Planet and takes Lois for a flight, during which he apologizes for leaving her. After her latest Superman interview, Lois focuses her attention on the blackout again and ascertains its origin. She and Jason steal onto Luthor's ship, not realizing who owns it, and are captured. Luthor reveals his grand scheme: using one of the stolen Kryptonian crystals to grow a new continental landmass in the Northern Atlantic Ocean that will destroy much of Earth's existing continents, and in the process killing billions of people and leaving him as the new landmass' owner. After seeing Jason's adverse reaction to Kryptonite, Luthor inquires as to who Jason's father really is, but after Lois asserts that the father is Richard, he leaves to launch the crystal (now encased in green Kryptonite) into the sea. Under water, the crystal begins to create Luthor's new landmass. Lois faxes their co-ordinates to The Daily Planet and is attacked by a henchman. The henchman is hit by a piano, appearing as though Jason pushed it at him; afterward, Lois and Jason are imprisoned in a galley. Luthor hears of the incident and flees in a helicopter. The landmass's growth causes destruction in Metropolis, to which Superman attends, and Richard arrives in a sea plane to rescue Lois and Jason. Superman arrives to help, and then he flies off to find Luthor, who has returned to the still-forming continent. Meeting Luthor, Superman discovers the landmass is filled with Kryptonite, which weakens him to the point that Luthor and his henchmen are able to beat him. Superman falls into the ocean, after being stabbed with a shard of Kryptonite by Luthor. Lois makes Richard turn back to rescue Superman, and she removes the Kryptonite from his back. Superman, after regaining his strength from the sun, lifts the landmass by putting layers of earth between him and the Kryptonite. Luthor and Kitty escape in their helicopter, but not before Kitty, unwilling to let billions of people die, tosses away the crystals; she and Luthor are stranded on a desert island some time later. Superman throws the landmass into space, but is weakened by the Kryptonite and crashes back to Earth. Doctors remove more Kryptonite from Superman's wound, but after it is removed they cannot penetrate his skin with their surgical tools. While Superman remains in a coma, Lois and Jason visit him at the hospital, where, careful not to let Jason overhear, Lois whispers a secret into Superman's ear. Superman later awakens and flies to see Jason, reciting Jor-El's last speech to Jason as he slumbers. Lois starts writing another article, titled “Why the World Needs Superman". She goes outside, only to be greeted by the Man of Steel after he has just finished visiting Jason. Superman reassures her that he is now back to stay, and flies off.

The Legend of Zorro

2008-08-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

In 1850, the people of California were voting to decide whether or not to join the United States. During one of the votes, a wild gunsman named Jacob McGivens attacks to steal the box of votes. Before he makes off with the votes however, Zorro, who has been protecting the people of California for the past ten years, appears and chases after him and his men. Zorro succeeds in recapturing the votes and fights off all of McGivens men. When McGivens attacks, he succeeds in pulling off Zorro's mask, but Zorro manages to knock him out before he sees his face. Just then a pair of spies, the Pinkertons, see the face of Zorro, recognizing him as Don Alejandro de la Vega. Zorro then makes a make-shift mask out of his costume and rides off on his black stallion, Toronado, to deliver the votes to the governor. Upon returning to his mansion, Alejandro is greeted by his loving wife, Eléna. Eléna believes that Alejandro can now give up being Zorro, but Alejandro is not so sure that the people will no longer need him. Angered, Eléna kicks Alejandro out of the house. The next day, after sending her now 10-year-old son, Joaquin to school, Eléna is confronted by the Pinkertons, who reveal that they know who Zorro really is. Soon after, Alejandro is served with divorce papers from Eléna. Three months later, Alejandro is living in a hotel, having not been summoned as Zorro in all this time. His friend and childhood guardian, Father Felipe, convinces him to attend a party at a French count's new vineyard, and there Alejandro finds out that Eléna has been spending time with the count, Armand, revealed to be a schoolmate of Eléna's. Later, after drinking himself crazy, Alejandro watches an explosion go off close to Armand's mansion and becomes suspicious of his ex-wife's long-time friend. Afterwards, McGivens and his men attack a peasant family, the Cortezes, with whom Alejandro is friends. McGivens, siding with Armand, wants to buy their land to build a railroad, but the husband, Guillermo, refuses and Zorro arrives to stop McGivens. He succeeds in rescuing Guillermo's wife, Blanca, and infant son, José, but McGivens shoots Guillermo just before disappearing with his gang, the deed to the Cortez home in hand. Zorro then stakes McGivens out at Armand's mansion to confirm his suspicions and finds out that he is working for Armand and that the mansion is awash with Confederate soldiers. He then chases after McGivens to a shore where the count's cargo is being delivered. Thanks to Joaquin, who nearly gets himself killed when he goes after McGivens and his gang, Alejandro, hidden beneath Zorro's mask, rescues his son from danger. Luckily, Joaquin saved a bar of soap from one of Armand's cargo boxes and unknowingly shows it to his father. Together with this evidence, Felipe and Alejandro learn that Armand is part of a secret society, the Knights of Aragon, headed by a corrupt Confederate Army officer, Colonel Beauregard, who plans to conquer the Union States. Sometime later, Alejandro is captured by the two Pinkertons and is told that they blackmailed Eléna into divorcing him and getting close to Armand to find out his plans. Joaquin stumbles onto his father's whereabouts and frees him from prison after a run-in with several guards. Zorro then heads over to Armand's mansion, while Eléna also arrives there and follows Armand to his secret lair. She then attacks the guards, but is outnumbered. Luckily Zorro arrives and they fight off all the guards. They then eavesdrop on Armand and Beauregard's meeting and learn that the soap bars are actually used to create nitroglycerin, which they plan to distribute throughout the Confederate army to destroy the Union. After confessing her involvement with the Pinkertons and that the divorce was fake, Eléna then heads back to the mansion before Armand gets back and Zorro prepares to destroy the train carrying all of the explosive. McGivens meanwhile arrives at Felipe's church and shoots the priest as he tries to fight back. He also kidnaps Joaquin. At the mansion, Armand reveals to Eléna that he knows of her deceit when he presents to her the pigeon that she used to inform the Pinkletons as their dinner and she later discovers the two Pinkletons dead in a closet. Armand then captures Eléna, as McGivens arrives with Joaquin, informing the Count of Felipe's death and that Zorro's son is a witness. Zorro then lights a fuse that will destroy the train and seemingly disappears into the night with his horse, Toronado. But after seeing Armand, Eléna, and Joaquin approaching the train, he runs back and stops the fuse at the last second. McGivens then captures Zorro and unmasks him in front of everyone, including Joaquin. Armand then leaves on the train with Eléna and Joaquin, giving McGivens the order to kill Alejandro. Before he can however, Felipe arrives and helps Alejandro fight McGivens. He eventually is killed when a drop of nitro lands on his head and explodes. Felipe then reveals that his crucifix around his neck shielded him from McGivens' bullet and Alejandro goes to save Eléna and Joaquin. The next morning, Zorro catches up to the train on Toronado. After a long chase, Toronado lands on top of the train and into the cargo car just as it approaches a tunnel. Zorro then makes his way to the passenger car and engages Armand in a sword fight. Meanwhile, Eléna has Joaquin escape on Toronado to stop the train and then fights Armand's butler in the Nitro storage car, eventually stuffing a bottle of Nitro into him and pushes him off the train just as it approaches its rendezvous point with Colonel Beauregard. The butler lands in front of Beauregard and explodes, killing them both. Further along the tracks, the governor is signing the bill that will make California a state and a crowd are witnessing it. As the train gets closer, Joaquin has Toronado hit a track switch, causing the train pass around the governor's car. Zorro and Armand's duel takes them from the passenger car, to the locomotive, and to the very front. Zorro is incapacitated for a short time, which Armand uses to attempt to stab him, but Eléna blocks him and the two have a short fight. Zorro wakes up and sees a large pile of rails blocking the end of the track. Zorro attacks Armand and hooks him to the front of the train. Zorro then uses his whip and swings to safety with Eléna. Armand notices the railblock too late and is killed when the train plows him into the block. The crash causes the train to stop quickly, in turn, causing the nitro to explode, destroying the entire train. The governor later finishes the bill and California becomes the 31st state of America. Later, Felipe remarries Alejandro and Eléna with Joaquin as the only witness. Eléna then allows Alejandro to continue being Zorro, accepting that it is who he is, and Zorro rides off on Toronado into the sunset.

Hancock

2008-08-23T21:20:00.001-07:00

John Hancock (Will Smith) is an alcoholic with superhuman powers, including supersonic flight, invulnerability, immortality, and super-strength. Though he uses his powers to stop criminals in his current residence of Los Angeles, his activity inadvertently causes millions of dollars in property damage due to his constant intoxication. As a result, he is routinely jeered at the crime scenes. Hancock also ignores court subpoenas from the city of Los Angeles to address the property damage he has caused. When public relations spokesperson Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) departs from an unsuccessful meeting pitching his All-Heart logo for corporations who are extraordinarily charitable—or wish to be perceived as such—he becomes trapped on railroad tracks with an incoming freight train. Hancock saves Ray's life, but he causes the train to derail and nearly injures another driver. Hancock is jeered by other drivers for causing more damage, but Ray steps in and thanks Hancock for saving his life. Ray offers to improve Hancock's public image, and Hancock grudgingly accepts. The spokesperson convinces the alcoholic superhero to permit himself to be jailed for outstanding subpoenas so they can show Los Angeles how much the city really needs Hancock. When the crime rate rises after Hancock's incarceration, the superhero is contacted by the Chief of Police. With a new costume from Ray, Hancock intervenes with a bank robbery, rescuing a cop and stopping the leader of the robbers, Red Parker (Eddie Marsan). After the rescue, Hancock is applauded for handling the bank robbery. The superhero becomes popular once more, as Ray had predicted. He goes out to dinner with Ray and his wife Mary (Charlize Theron), with whom he reveals his apparent immortality and his amnesia from 80 years ago. After Hancock tucks a drunken Ray in bed, he discovers that Mary also has superhuman powers. He threatens to expose her unless she explains their origins, and she tells him that they have lived for 3,000 years with their powers, having been called gods and angels in their time. She explains that they are the last of their kind and that their kind are paired. Mary does not tell Hancock the entire truth, and Hancock departs to tell Ray about the conversation. The exchange results in a battle between Hancock and Mary that takes them to downtown Los Angeles, causing significant damage to the area. Ray, downtown in a business meeting, sees and recognizes Mary using abilities like Hancock's. Hancock is later shot twice in the torso when he intervenes in a liquor store robbery. After being hospitalized, Mary enters and explains that as the pair of immortals gets close, they begin to lose their powers. She also explains that Hancock was attacked in an alley 80 years prior, his skull was fractured, causing amnesia. Mary deserted him then in order for him to recover from his injuries. After her explanation, the hospital is raided by the bank robber Red Parker and two other criminals that Hancock had encountered during his incarceration. Mary is shot in the process. Hancock is able to stop two men but is further wounded by them. When Red attempts to finish Hancock off, Ray comes to the rescue and stops the bank robber with a fire ax. With Mary nearly dying, Hancock uses the last of his strength to flee from the hospital so that their parting would allow her to heal with her powers. He later winds up in New York City, working as a superhero. As gratitude to Ray, Hancock paints Ray's All-Heart logo on the moon and calls the spokesperson to look up to the worldwide advertisement.

The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl

2008-08-23T21:15:00.000-07:00

A boy simply called Max (Cayden Boyd), living in central Texas, is regularly bullied at his school, while his parents (David Arquette and Kristin Davis) are constantly arguing. Dissatisfied and lonely, he creates a dreamworld called Planet Drool where endless fun and brilliant dreaming are the norm. Many of the inhabitants of this world resemble people from Max's own life, including the two main villains. To inhabit this world, imagines two young superheroes, Sharkboy and Lavagirl, and records his dreams in his Dream Journal. One day, Max reveals the origin of Sharkboy, who is the son of a biologist whose houseboat laboratory was destroyed in a violent storm and who eventually became a warrior under the tuition of great white sharks, and describes his own meeting with both fighters. No one is at all kind to him, except Marissa (Sasha Pieterse), the daughter of the teacher, Mr. Electricidad (George Lopez). An overprotective father, Mr Electricidad does not want Max to befriend her, although he suggests that Max attempt to make friends in his real world, so as to distract himself from dreaming. Later, a bully called Linus (Jacob Davich) steals Max's Dream Journal. The next day, Max confronts Linus, who returns the now heavily scribbled Dream Journal to Max. As a storm gathers outside, the characters emotions become increasingly exaggerated. Max accuses Linus of spoiling the journal, who in turn demands that Max be expelled. Angered at having his authority challenged, Mr. Electricidad spitefully proclaims that they shall both report to the principal's office. Suddenly, the wall of the schoolroom is broken down by a cyclonic wind, revealing Sharkboy (Taylor Lautner) and Lavagirl (Taylor Dooley), who have come to enlist Max's aid in saving Planet Drool from a "Darkness" which encroaches upon it. Neither of them denies that they are Max's creations: Lavagirl, when describing Planet Drool, remarks "You should know, Max; you made it up". The three travel to Planet Drool, where it is revealed that Max's dreamworld has become a garish nightmare. After rescuing some children from a never-ending roller coaster, they confront the sadistic Mr. Electric, a now corrupt operator of the planet's electrical support, who overpowers them and sends them down the "Passage of Time" to the Dream Graveyard. There, Sharkboy and Lavagirl urge Max to dream, believing his imagination to be of great power; but Max is uncertain of how to proceed. Among the useless or forsaken dreams lying derelict in the Graveyard, Max discovers Tobor, a sapient, android robot Max once tried to build. Tobor advises them to catch the Train of Thought to a place of safety, allowing them to ride on his disembodied eyes and mouth, the only parts of his body he can still move. After they crash the Train of Thought in the Land of Milk and Cookies, Max is able to dream without the corrupting influence of the Darkness, abetted by some off-key singing by Lavagirl and a much better performance by Sharkboy. When they are attacked by Mr. Electric's seekers, the "plughounds", Max is able to dream up a banana split boat so that they are able to escape down the Stream of Consciousness. Here, Max reveals that they may try to obtain a thing called the Crystal Heart from its owner, the Ice Princess. In the Land of Ice, they must cross a long, narrow ice bridge. Lavagirl, whose heat threatens to melt the bridge if she is awake, attempts to sleepwalk across it. Mr. Electric ambushes them on the Ice Palace's side of the bridge. They are taken to the Dream Lair, the source of the planet's life, where they discover that Linus, who now styles himself Minus, has been empowered by Max's corrupted Dream Journal and now stands poised to destroy the world recorded within it. They manage to escape when Lavagirl encourages some tiny, bubble-like, soothing dream-creatures called Lalas to sing at a frequency which provokes Sharkboy into tearing apart the cage holding them captive. They reclaim the Dream Journal, but it burns to ashes in Lavagirl's overeager hands. Shattered, she fervently laments her tendency towards destruction, and fears that she is inherently evil. She angrily questions Max as to why he made her of lava and paired her with Sharkboy, claiming that, like Max's parents, they are incompatible. They return to the Ice Castle, where the Ice Princess, who more than slightly resembles his fellow-student Marissa, agrees to lend him the Heart, on conditions imposed by her father the Ice Guardian. Under the imposed conditions, Max must hold the Crystal Heart until death parts them. As they journey back, Mr. Electric challenges Sharkboy, who is then rendered insentient by electric eels. Spurning Max's warnings, Lavagirl sacrifices herself to rescue him. Max, grief-stricken, wonders what to do, whereupon Tobor's face appears like a helpful djinn and offers counsel. The two converse; concluding that Max should "dream a better dream", having hitherto only dreamed for himself, on purpose to escape from rather than improve on his real world. When Tobor has gone, Sharkboy wakes and is aghast to see Lavagirl in her state of near-death. Wishing to save her, Sharkboy carries her to an active volcano and throws her into its crater, while Max imagines that her nature is that of light, the most "positive" thing to emerge from sources of heat. She is immediately revived, whereupon her power manifests itself as a light that burns away the Darkness. Max, now in full possession of his power to dream, thaws the ocean for Sharkboy, who, aided by several mako sharks, pins Mr. Electric down. Max and Linus then duel, using escalating manifestations of thought to defeat each other, until Max realizes that at some time in the past, someone broke Linus' own dreams, with the result that Linus seeks to destroy everything that reminds him of what he has lost. Max offers him his friendship, and Linus accepts. Lavagirl and Sharkboy join the reconciled Max and Linus at the Dream Lair, each one elated at having achieved their respective ambitions; Lavagirl at having her nature as a light revealed and Sharkboy at his new status as King of the Ocean. Mr. Electric, who has becomes addicted to evil, sets off to kill Max, who is actually dreaming on Earth. Max reluctantly returns to his waking life, where Mr. Electric has stirred the local weather into a tornado, which sweeps up Max's parents as they attempt to rescue their son. During the struggle to avoid losing contact with each other, Max's parents realize that their affection for each other exists in spite of their recent quarrels. They are rescued by Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Mr. Electric, meanwhile, menaces Max and his classmates, on which occasion Mr. Electricidad urges the students to think of a plan by which to defeat Mr. Electric. Linus, having tried and failed to do so in single combat, suggests that Mr. Electric be frozen. Max, remembering that he has the Crystal Heart, gives it to Marissa, who being the Earthly version of the Ice Princess has the ability to use it. She confidently strides out into the windstorm (overriding her father's objections) and uses the Crystal Heart to change Mr. Electric into unseasonal snow. Mr. Electricidad, having learned "as much from his students as the students learn from him", thanks Max for having "awakened" him. Subsequently, Max reveals to the class that Sharkboy, now king of the ocean, travels in search of his father and cares for the ocean's creatures while above him Lavagirl tends to the volcanoes that originate on the ocean floor. They no longer visit Max, though he may visit them in his dreams. In the world of reality, Max finally builds Tobor.

The Incredible Hulk

2008-08-23T21:13:00.002-07:00

The film's back-story is detailed during flashbacks, which are mostly in the opening credits, and further exposition. General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt) hired scientist and radiation expert Dr. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) to revive a World War II era military bio-force enhancement research project in hopes of creating a new weapon for the military. Banner exposed himself to gamma radiation, which results in him becoming a giant, green-skinned monster called the Hulk (voiced by Lou Ferrigno), and hospitalizing Ross' daughter Betty (Liv Tyler), a cellular biologist who was Banner's colleague and lover. Now a fugitive from the United States Army, Banner went on the run for five years. When the film begins, Banner works at a bottling factory in Brazil while searching for a cure for his condition with the help of an Internet friend, "Mr. Blue". He is also taught martial arts and meditative breathing techniques by an expert (Rickson Gracie) to help control his emotions, and has not transformed for 158 days. After Banner suffers a cut, his blood drips into a soda bottle eventually drunk by an ill-fated consumer (Stan Lee) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This accident points Ross to Banner's location and he sends a team, led by the Russian-born British special operations expert Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), to capture him. Banner escapes Blonsky by transforming into the Hulk and battling his team in the factory. After Ross explains to Blonsky how Banner first became the Hulk, an astonished and vengeful Blonsky declares he wants Banner's power. Ross arranges for Blonsky to be injected with the Vita-ray serum, which has been kept in cold storage, giving him enhanced speed, agility, reflexes and healing ability. Banner returns to Culver University in the United States, where the Hulk was born. He reunites with Betty, who is dating psychiatrist Leonard Samson (Ty Burrell). On the day he decides to leave, Ross and Blonsky's forces attack Banner at Culver University, forcing him to transform. Blonsky proves to be athletic and agile enough to compete with the Hulk thanks to the serum, and Ross attempts to contain the Hulk with two sonic cannons. This ploy fails, when the Hulk shields himself with two sheets of metal. Additionally, every bone in Blonsky's body is broken when the Hulk kicks him, smashing him into a tree. The Hulk flees with Betty, who became unconscious after a helicopter he struck crashed nearby. After he calms down and becomes human again, Banner and Betty travel to New York City to meet "Mr. Blue". The two maintain a low profile as the Hulk's existence becomes public knowledge and a matter of national security following the university battle. Banner and Betty meet "Mr. Blue", who is cellular biologist Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), at a university. Accompanying him to his lab, Banner and Betty learn that Sterns has developed a possible antidote that may cure Banner's condition, or merely reverse each individual transformation. Despite the risk, Banner agrees to test Sterns' antidote, which requires triggering a transformation and reversing it. Successful, and utterly fascinated by Banner's transformation, Sterns reveals that he has synthesized Banner's blood sample into a large supply with the intention of using it to enhance the human condition to the next evolutionary level. Appalled by what Sterns had done and fearful of the Hulk's power falling into the wrong hands, Banner attempts to convince Sterns to destroy the blood supply, but he is attacked by Ross' forces and taken into custody. A recovered Blonsky forces Sterns to inject him with the Hulk's blood. Sterns warns that the combination of the supersoldier formula (which Blonsky has overdosed on, mutating his skeleton) and a gamma treatment would be an unpredictable combination that could turn him into an "abomination". Unconcerned, Blonsky makes Sterns administer the gamma charge, and he mutates into a powerful monster. He knocks Sterns aside and escapes, rampaging through Harlem to draw the Hulk out. At the lab, an irradiated sample of Banner's blood-derivative drips into an open wound on Sterns' temple, causing his cranium to mutate and expand. Banner, realizing that he is the only one who can stop the monster, convinces General Ross to release him. He falls from Ross' helicopter as it hovers over the city, hoping the fall will trigger a transformation. Banner's plan succeeds, and after a brutal battle, the Hulk defeats Blonsky by nearly strangling him to death with a huge chain, relenting his grip only after Betty's plea. After letting out a cry of victory, the Hulk kicks the beaten Blonsky towards the army, giving them the weapon they orignally intended to create. The Hulk then flees the scene with the army in pursuit. Thirty-one days later, Banner is in Bella Coola, British Columbia. Instead of trying to suppress his transformations, he is attempting to initiate them in a controlled manner. As his eyes turn green, a grin appears on his face. Meanwhile, General Ross is drinking in a bar when he is approached by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who reveals that a "team" is being put together.

Hulk

2008-08-23T21:13:00.001-07:00

David Banner is a genetics researcher who experiments on himself, trying to improve human DNA. Once his wife gives birth to their son Bruce, David realizes his mutant DNA has been passed on and attempts to find a cure for his son's condition. The government, represented by Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, shuts down his research after learning of his dangerous experiments. David, in a fit of rage, causes a massive explosion of the facilities' gamma reactor, and accidentally kills his wife. He is then put into a mental hospital, while 4-year-old Bruce is sent into foster care and adopted, taking on the last name of Krenzler, believing his biological parents are deceased. The events leave Bruce unable to conjure the memories into reality. Years later, Bruce is a brilliant researcher freshly graduated at the University of California, Berkeley. The military-industrial complex, represented by the unscrupulous Major Talbot, becomes interested in the research to build regenerating soldiers. David reappears and begins infiltrating Bruce's life, working as a janitor in the lab building. Ross, now an Army general, also begins to investigate. Ross, the estranged father of Bruce's ex-girlfriend and co-researcher Betty Ross, becomes concerned both for his daughter's safety around Bruce, but also because Bruce is working in the same field as the father he does not remember. Bruce succumbs to a scientific experiment accident. Afterwards, we see Bruce sitting in a hospital bed telling Betty that he's never felt better, which she can't fathom due to the fact that the nanomeds have killed everything else they've touched. The radiation has intertwined with Bruce's already-altered DNA. That night, his father confronts him, revealing their relationship and hinting at the mutation inside Bruce. Using Bruce's DNA, he begins experimentation on animals. Soon after, the building rage within him stemming from all of the stresses building up around him activates his gamma-radiated DNA, transforming Bruce into the Hulk. After the destruction at the lab, Bruce is found unconscious and at home by Betty. Bruce barely remembers his transformation, a sensation similar to birth. Ross arrives, suspicious, and places him under house arrest as well as taking over Bruce and Betty's lab. That night, David phones Bruce and tells him he has unleashed three mutant dogs to Betty's house. Enraged and attacked by Talbot, Bruce transforms again and, after seriously injuring Talbot and his henchmen, fights and kills all three dogs and saves Betty. The next morning, Bruce is tranquilized and taken to an enormous underground base in the desert. Betty tries to convince her father to allow her to attempt to help Bruce control his transformations, but Ross remains extremely skeptical, believing Bruce is "damned" to follow in his father's footsteps. In the meantime, David breaks into the lab and subjects himself to the nanomeds and the gammasphere, gaining the ability to meld with and absorb the properties of anything he can touch. Talbot, seeing an opportunity to profit from the Hulk's strength and regenerative capability, attacks and taunts Bruce, but fails. Talbot puts him in a sensory deprivation tank and induces a nightmare that triggers his repressed memories and transforms him into the Hulk, eventually leading to the death of Talbot. David confronts Betty and offers to turn himself in. In exchange, he asks to speak to Bruce "one last time." The Hulk escapes the base in the process. He battles the army in the desert, defeating four tanks and two Comanche Helicopters, and leaps all the way to San Francisco to find Betty again. Betty contacts her father and convinces him to take her to meet the Hulk, believing that he needs "a chance to calm down." Bruce's love for her comes through the Hulk, and he transforms back into his human form. David is allowed to visit the base and talk to Bruce. David, having descended into megalomania, fails to convince Bruce to give him his power. David transforms into a powerful electrical being after biting into a wire and absorbing the energy. Bruce then transforms into the Hulk and battles his father. Both are presumed dead after Ross orders a Gamma Charge Bomb to end the fight, leaving no trace of either men. A year later there have still been numerous sightings of the Hulk. Bruce finds exile in the Amazon Rainforest as a doctor in a medical camp.

Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer

2008-08-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

Set two years after the first film, Reed Richards and Sue Storm are preparing for their wedding. A silver object enters Earth's atmosphere, radiating cosmic energy that creates massive molecular fluctuations and causes deep craters at locations across the Earth. The government approaches Reed to build a sensor to track the movements of the object. As the wedding begins, Reed's systems detect the phenomenon approaching New York City, causing a massive power blackout. The object destroys the sensors while the Fantastic Four protect the crowd. The Human Torch pursues the object, discovering that it is a humanoid, a "Silver Surfer." He confronts the Surfer, only to be dragged into the upper atmosphere where the Surfer snuffs his flame out, then drops him back toward Earth. Johnny reactivates his powers and survives the fall. Later on when Sue tries to comfort Johnny, she touches his shoulders and their powers switch - he becomes invisible, and she is set on fire; when they touch again their powers revert back. Reed's examination of Johnny reveals that exposure to the Surfer has set Johnny's molecular structure in flux, allowing him to switch powers with his teammates through physical contact. Tracing the cosmic energy of the Surfer, Reed discovers that a series of planets the alien had visited before Earth have all been destroyed. The Surfer's movements around the globe bring him past Latveria, where the cosmic energy affects Victor von Doom, freeing him from two years as a metal statue. Doom, able to move again and returned to a human, but scarred, traces the Surfer to the Arctic and makes him an offer to join forces. When the Surfer rebuffs him, Doom attacks. The Surfer returns fire, blasting Doom through the ice. The cosmic energy of the Surfer's blast heals Doom's body, reversing the changes seen in the first film. Doom leverages his experience into a deal with the American military, who force the Fantastic Four to work with Doom. Deducing that the Surfer's board is the source of his power, the group develops a pulse generator that will separate him from it. While setting up the device, Sue is confronted by the Surfer, during which he reveals he is merely a servant to the destroyer of worlds, and regrets the destruction he causes. The military opens fire on the Surfer, which distracts him and allows the four to fire the pulse, separating the Surfer from his board. The military imprisons the Surfer in Siberia and forbids the Fantastic Four from interacting with him, while they torture him for information. Sue uses her powers to sneak into his cell, where she learns more information from the Surfer. He tells her his master was known by the people of his world as Galactus, a massive cloud-like cosmic entity which must feed on life-bearing planets to survive, and that his board is a homing beacon which even now summons him to the planet. Doom, pursuing the power in the board, steals it from the compound, using a device to gain control of the board and its powers. The Fantastic Four rescue the Surfer, and pursue Doom in the Fantasticar, confronting him in Shanghai. During the battle, Sue is mortally wounded. With the Surfer powerless, Johnny absorbs the combined powers of the entire team in order to battle the cosmic energy-empowered Doom. Johnny succeeds in breaking Doom's control over the Surfer's board, while Ben Grimm uses a nearby crane to knock Doom into the harbor where he is last seen sinking; however, Galactus has already arrived. The Surfer regains the control of his board, and his power is restored. He revives Sue and chooses to defend Earth, flying into Galactus and confronting him. The conflict results in a massive blast of energy, apparently destroying Galactus. The film ends with Reed and Sue marrying in Japan. The credits cut back to a shot of the Silver Surfer's seemingly lifeless body floating through space. Just as he drifts off the edge of the screen his eyes open and his board races towards him.

Fantastic Four

2008-08-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

Dr. Reed Richards, a brilliant but timid and bankrupt scientist, is convinced that evolution is triggered by clouds of cosmic energy in space, and has calculated that one of these clouds is soon going to pass near Earth. Together with his friend, the gruff yet gentle astronaut Ben Grimm, Reed convinces his equally brilliant but conceited MIT classmate Dr. Victor von Doom, now CEO of his own enterprise, to allow him access to his privately-owned space station. Von Doom agrees, in exchange for control over the experiment and a majority of the profits from whatever benefits it brings. He brings aboard his chief genetics researcher (and Reed's ex-girlfriend) Susan Storm, and her hot-headed brother Johnny, his private astronaut, who was Ben's subordinate at NASA but is his superior on the mission, much to Ben's disgust. The quintet travels to space to observe the cosmic energy clouds, but Reed has miscalculated and the clouds materialize well ahead of schedule. Victor refuses Reed's plea to abort the mission, knowing he must produce results to justify his expenditure, no matter the human cost involved. Knowing Ben is space-walking to set up equipment, Reed, Susan and Johnny leave the shielded inner area of the station to rescue him, and Victor closes the shield behind them. Whilst Victor is seemingly safe, the others are exposed to the cloud. Ben receives full exposure out in space, while the others receive a more limited dose within the station. The astronauts make it home intact; however, before long they begin to mutate, developing strange powers. Reed is able to stretch like rubber; Susan can become invisible (by bending light around objects) and create force fields, especially when angered; Johnny can engulf himself in fire at up to supernova-like temperatures, and is able to fly; and Ben is transformed into "The Thing", a large, rock-like creature with superhuman strength. After Ben, brooding about his situation on the Brooklyn Bridge, inadvertently causes a major traffic pile-up whilst attempting to stop a man from committing suicide, the four use their powers to prevent any loss of life and to rescue a fire truck and its crew from falling off the bridge. The media dubs the team the 'Fantastic Four'; whilst Johnny eagerly embraces his powers and new life, Ben - the only one whose transformed appearance is permanent - suffers. His disfigurement has caused his fiancee, Debbie, to abandon him and has seen him shunned and feared by much of New York. Blaming himself, Reed vows to return Ben to his human form. Therefore he, Susan and Ben work on a cure, constructing a healing chamber in Reed's high tech Baxter Building loft-turned-laboratory. During this time, Reed and Susan begin to rekindle their attraction to one another. Susan admits that she is not interested in Victor, but had turned away from Reed because he feared to make a binding vow, thinking only in terms of variables. His excessive caution was hard for Susan to deal with, and now it begins to test Ben's patience, as he is eager to return to his human form while Reed is taking his time on the machine. Unknown to the others, however, Victor's body is also mutating; he is turning into organic metal capable of absorbing and manipulating electrical energy. As a result of the disastrous expedition, his company is going bankrupt and he is losing public stature; blaming Reed for his misfortunes, Victor swears revenge. After killing a bank chairman who had pulled investment out of his company, Victor sees the opportunity to finish off his rival once and for all. Manipulating Ben's insecurity and anguish, Victor tricks Ben into thinking that his teammates are not working on a cure with due diligence; after a vicious argument between himself and Reed, Ben storms out of the Baxter Building. Reed experiments with the curative machine on himself and nearly dies in the process, but learns that the machine only needs more power to fully succeed. Victor, who has been spying on Reed, tricks Ben into entering the machine and provides the extra power. Ben becomes normal again, while Victor's own mutation increases exponentially, increasing his power but also physically disfiguring him. When Ben realizes that Victor merely wanted the super-strong Thing out of the way so that no one could stop him, Victor immobilizes Ben and attacks Reed after Reed discovers them, taking him prisoner and freezing him to prevent him using his powers of distention. When Susan and Johnny realize what has happened, Victor - now calling himself 'Doom' - fires a heat-seeker missile at the Baxter Building, intending it to target and kill Johnny. Johnny uses his powers of heat and flight to lead the missile to open water, where he ignites a garbage scow to dispose of the missile. However, he is thrown into the water, and whether he is alive is not shown. Meanwhile, Susan attempts to rescue Reed and confronts Doom. She soon proves no match for the powerful Doom, and he is on the verge of killing her when Ben - having activated Reed's machine and used it upon himself to restore his mutation - bursts into the room. Doom and Ben fight, until the battle spills onto the street below. But no matter how hard Ben attacks him, he is unable to overpower Doom, and Doom knocks him flat on his back. He is about to deal the finishing strike, when a recovered Reed and Susan arrive to save Ben. Doom begins to scorn them, when he is blasted from behind with fire from none other than Johnny, who survived his encounter with the missile unharmed. Doom absorbs all the electricity in the area that he can to begin the final showdown. At first, it seems that Doom has the advantage, as the team struggles under his onslaught of electric blasts. Reed manages to use his elastic body to temporarily restrain Doom, and then coordinates the team for an offensive attack, trusting his initial judgment for the first time. He starts by telling Johnny to unleash his supernova heat on Doom, despite the fact that even Johnny agreed this was dangerous. Johnny uses this to surround Doom in a vortex of fire, while Reed gets Susan to try to contain it (and its dangerous amount of heat) within a force field. She manages to do so while Doom makes futile attempts to break free with his electric blasts. When Johnny and Susan give out, it looks as if Doom is just starting to melt, but he is still on his feet and merely sneers "Is that the best you can do? A little heat?". Reed responds "What happens when you rapidly cool hot metal?". Ben then kicks the top off of a fire hydrant, and he and Reed direct the water shooting out of it at Doom. The steam created as the water hits Doom forms a thick cloud, and when it settles, Doom is seemingly left as a statue of inert metal. Ben informs Reed that he has accepted his condition with the help of Alicia Masters, a blind artist for whom he has developed feelings, and the team decide to embrace their roles as superheroes and unite officially as the Fantastic Four. Reed proposes marriage to Susan, who accepts. Doom's remains are being transported back to his homeland of Latveria when the ship carrying them experiences unusual electronic interference.

Iron Man

2008-08-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

During a business trip to Afghanistan to demonstrate Stark Industries' new weapon, the "Jericho" cluster missile, Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) military convoy is attacked. During the ensuing firefight, he is wounded by one of his own company's bombs, which knocks him unconscious and embeds pieces of shrapnel in his chest, one fragment dangerously close to his heart. Approximately 36 hours earlier, Stark avoids his own awards ceremony to gamble at a Las Vegas casino, leaving his deceased father's friend and business partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) to collect the award. As Stark leaves the casino with his entourage, he is approached by Vanity Fair reporter Christine Everhart, whom he charms into a one-night stand at his Malibu house. As she awakens in the morning, she is escorted from the house by Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), who tells her that Tony is away on a business trip to Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, Tony's convoy is attacked, and he is knocked unconscious. Waking up hours later in an Afghan cave, Stark discovers an electromagnet attached to his chest, powered by a car battery and designed to keep the shrapnel from piercing his heart and killing him. Stark has been captured by the terrorist group known as the Ten Rings, who order him to build a Jericho missile for them. Instead, he and fellow captive Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub) begin building a miniature "arc reactor", a smaller version of a power source previously invented by Tony Stark's father, Howard Stark. With the reactor powering his electromagnet, Stark and Yinsen secretly build a crude but strong power armor as a means of escape. Despite breaking free from their cell, Dr. Yinsen is killed whilst setting up a diversion for Stark in order for the suit to power up in time. In the suit, Stark kills several terrorists, destroys their weapons stockpile and flies away before crash-landing in the desert, destroying the suit in the process. After being rescued by the Air Force and returned to the United States, Stark declares at a press conference that his company will no longer manufacture weapons. Stane tells him shortly thereafter that this move is being blocked by the members of the board of directors of Stark Industries. Stark retreats from public view, focusing on the design of his power suit, refining its size and improving its flight and fighting capability while making an improved arc reactor for himself, which he uses to replace the old one. During his first public appearance since his return to the United States, he is accosted by Everhart, who shows him pictures of Stark Industries weapons in the hands of terrorist groups, including Jericho missiles. Realizing that Stane has been "dealing under the table" by supplying both the Americans and their enemies, and that Stane has been attempting to remove Stark from power, Stark dons the power suit and flies to Afghanistan, rescuing Yinsen's village from the Ten Rings. During the operation, Stark inadvertently attracts the attention of the United States Air Force and his friend and company military liaison, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard), who dispatches two F-22 Raptors to intercept and eliminate the unknown target. During the dogfight, one of the planes is accidentally destroyed, but the pilot is rescued by Stark, who privately calls Rhodes to reveal that he was the unidentified object. Rhodes later classifies the incident as a training accident to the press. Determined to amend his mistakes, Stark sends Potts to find the shipping records of Stark Industries, so he can track the illicit shipments and destroy them. While hacking into the system, she discovers that Stane hired the Ten Rings to kill Stark and the group reneged on the deal upon discovering his true identity. She also learns Stane has recovered the power suit prototype and reverse-engineered his own version, but his engineers are unable to engineer the miniature arc reactor to power the new suit. Stane ambushes Tony in his house, using an experimental Stark Industries device to temporarily paralyze him and removing the arc reactor from Stark's chest to power the new suit. As Stane leaves, the dying Stark manages to re-install his first reactor to save himself. Although his first reactor was not designed to power his latest armor, Stark takes it to battle with Stane atop Stark Industries and the surrounding streets, luring him atop the full-sized arc reactor at Stark Industries just as Potts overloads it, causing an electrical surge that kills Stane and destroys the Iron Monger suit. In the following days, the press has dubbed Stark's alter ego "Iron Man." During his press conference, Stark considers telling the cover story given to him by his S.H.I.E.L.D. contact, before abandoning it and announcing that he is Iron Man. Following the closing credits, Stark is visited by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who warns him that he is not the only 'super hero' in the world, and states he wants to talk to him about the "Avenger Initiative".

Ghost Rider

2008-08-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

In the days of the American Old West, Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) sent his bounty hunter of the damned, the Ghost Rider, to retrieve a contract for a thousand corrupt souls from the town of San Venganza. Because such a large amount of souls would cause Hell on Earth if taken on by one demon, the Rider refused to give the contract — and therefore, the souls — to Mephistopheles; instead, he outran Mephistopheles and hid himself and the contract. A century and a half later, Mephistopheles reaches out to seventeen-year-old stunt motorcycle rider Johnny Blaze (Matt Long/Nicolas Cage), offering to cure his father's lung cancer in exchange for Johnny's soul. Johnny inadvertently signs the contract when a drop of his blood lands on it. His father's cancer is cured, but he dies that same day in a horrific bike crash. Johnny accuses Mephistopheles of causing his father's death, but Mephistopheles just considers their contract fulfilled. Years later, Johnny has become a stunt rider famous for walking away from crashes unharmed. During his next stunt, Johnny meets his childhood sweetheart Roxanne (Raquel Alessi/Eva Mendes), now a journalist, and holds a dinner date with her that evening. At the same time, Blackheart (Wes Bentley), Mephistopheles' son, comes to Earth to find the lost contract and use its power to overcome his father. He calls forth the fallen angels known as the Hidden, a trio of demon spirits who represent three of the four elements — the water elemental Wallow (Daniel Frederiksen), the earth elemental Gressil (Laurence Breuls), and the air elemental Abigor (Mathew Wilkinson) — to act as his allies. In response, Mephistopheles makes Johnny the new Ghost Rider, offering Johnny his soul in return for defeating Blackheart. Johnny confronts Blackheart at a train station where the contract was once buried, and kills Gressil while the others escape. On his way out, he uses his 'Penance Stare', a supernatural ability which sears the pain of all whom a person has harmed into the wrongdoer's soul, on a mugger, leaving the man catatonic. The next day, Johnny wakes up in a cemetery chapel, where he meets a man called the Caretaker (Sam Elliott), who seems to know all the history of the Ghost Rider. When he arrives home, Johnny finds Roxanne and tries to explain his situation, which is why he missed their date. She leaves in anger and disbelief at his tale. The police arrive and take Johnny into custody for his connection to the damage done to the city and the deaths caused by Blackheart. He transforms into Ghost Rider in the cell and escapes to track down Blackheart. He fights and kills Abigor, in full view of Roxanne and much of the police force. Observing the scene after obtaining the location of the contract, Blackheart realizes that Roxanne is Johnny's weakness. Johnny goes for advice to the Caretaker, who tells him of his predecessor, Carter Slade, a Texas Ranger who was a man of honor before his greed placed him before the gallows for his misdeeds. Slade made a deal with Mephistopheles to break free; in return, Slade became the Ghost Rider who hid the contract of San Venganza. The Caretaker then warns Johnny to stay away from those whom Blackheart and the fallen angels can use against him. This advice is too late; Johnny returns home to find that Blackheart already has Roxanne. During their resulting fight, Johnny finds that his Penance Stare has no effect on Blackheart, who has no (human) soul. Blackheart threatens to kill Roxanne if Johnny does not deliver the contract to him. Johnny returns to the Caretaker to obtain the contract. Though reminded of the consequences, Johnny asks the Caretaker to trust him. The Caretaker then reveals that he is Carter Slade, having held on to his last bit of power in expectation of this moment. He informs Johnny that God is on his side because he made his deal with Mephistopheles because of love rather than greed or desperation, and shows Johnny the way to San Venganza. They ride together into the desert in Ghost Rider form. They stop a short distance from the town, and Slade gives Johnny his shotgun and the warning to "stick to the shadows" before fading away. After killing Wallow, the last of the Hollow, Johnny gives the contract to Blackheart. He quickly transforms into Ghost Rider in an effort to subdue Blackheart, but dawn comes and he is rendered powerless. Blackheart uses the contract to absorb the 1,000 souls into his body, taking the name "Legion." Legion is now more than a match for Johnny, but is distracted when Roxanne uses Johnny's discarded shotgun to separate them. After she fruitlessly fires off its remaining ammunition, Johnny takes the gun and moves it into the shadows. This allows him to create a "hellfire shotgun" to blast Legion apart. Legion reforms, but Johnny moves in and uses his Penance Stare, made effective by the thousand souls inhabiting Legion's body, to render him catatonic. Johnny turns away from Roxanne, ashamed of his monstrous appearance, but she shows him that she is not afraid of what Johnny has become. Mephistopheles appears and gives Johnny his soul, offering to take back the curse of the Ghost Rider. Johnny refuses, saying that he will use his power against Mephistopheles, and against all harm that comes to the innocent. Infuriated of being robbed of the power, Mephistopheles vows to make Johnny pay, to which Johnny in response recites his favorite saying: "You can't live in fear." Mephistopheles then disappears, taking Blackheart's body with him. Johnny and Roxanne share some parting words at the tree on which Johnny carved "J&R FOREVER" at the beginning of the film. Roxanne then tells Johnny that he got his second chance before sharing a final kiss with him. Johnny then rides away on his motorcycle, now a legend in his own right. The film concludes with a rendition of the song "Ghost Riders in the Sky".

Spider-Man 3

2008-08-23T21:01:00.001-07:00

Peter Parker has begun to feel secure in his life and plans to propose to Mary Jane. One night in a park, while Peter and Mary Jane are on a date, a small meteorite crashes nearby, and an alien symbiote oozes out, attaching itself to Peter's moped. Meanwhile, escaped convict Flint Marko falls into a particle accelerator, which fuses his body with the surrounding sand. The result allows him to shape shift at will, becoming the Sandman. Peter's best friend, Harry Osborn, who seeks vengeance for his father's death, which he believes Peter caused, attacks him. The battle leaves Harry with short-term amnesia, making him forget his vendetta. Later, during a festival honoring Spider-Man for saving Gwen Stacy's life, Sandman attempts to rob an armored car, and overpowers Spider-Man. Captain Stacy later informs Peter and Aunt May that Marko is the one who killed Ben Parker, and a vengeful Peter waits for Marko to strike again. The symbiote bonds with his costume while he is asleep; Peter discovers that not only has his costume changed, but his powers have been enhanced as well. The black suit also brings out the more vengeful, selfish, and arrogant side of Peter's personality, exemplified by a near lethal attack on Sandman during a battle underground. The shift in Peter's personality alienates Mary Jane, whose stage career is floundering, and she finds solace with Harry. Harry recovers from his amnesia, and, urged on by an apparition of his dead father, forces MJ to break up with Peter. After Mary Jane leaves Peter, stating she is in love with another man, Harry meets him at a restaurant and claims to be the other man. Later, Peter finds him at the Osborn mansion. With the help of the black suit, Peter is victorious in a brutal fight, which leaves Harry's face disfigured. Influenced by the suit, Peter exposes and humiliates Eddie Brock, Jr., a rival freelance photographer, who has sold fake pictures to The Daily Bugle supposedly showing Spider-Man to be a criminal. In an effort to make MJ jealous, Peter brings Gwen to the nightclub where Mary Jane works. Peter gets into a fight with the club's bouncers and knocks MJ to the floor. Peter realizes the symbiote-suit is changing him for the worse. He runs out of the nightclub and goes to a church bell tower to get rid of it. Initially he is unable to pull the suit off, but the sound of the church bell weakens the symbiote, enabling Peter to break free. Eddie Brock is at the same church praying for Peter's death when the symbiote falls from the tower and takes over his body. The newly-empowered Eddie finds Sandman and suggests that they join forces to destroy Spider-Man. The pair use Mary Jane as bait to force Spider-Man to confront them. Peter approaches Harry for help, but is turned down. However, Harry learns the truth about his father's death from his butler Bernard, and arrives in time to rescue Peter, teaming up against Brock and Sandman. As the fight progresses, Brock attempts to impale Peter with the glider, but Harry sacrifices himself and is fatally wounded. Peter recalls how the church bell's toll weakened the symbiote, and frees Eddie from it by clanging several pipes together. Peter throws a pumpkin bomb at the symbiote just as Eddie attempts to rebond with it. After the battle, Marko tells Peter that he had no intention of killing Ben Parker, and that it was an accident born out of a desperate attempt to save his daughter's life. Peter forgives Marko, who dissipates and floats away. Peter and Harry forgive each other, before Harry dies with Mary Jane and Peter at his side. After Harry's funeral, Peter and Mary Jane begin to mend their relationship.

Spider-Man 2

2008-08-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

The story begins two years from where the previous film ends, and Peter Parker is finding his double life increasingly difficult. Precariously struggling to balance his crime-fighting duties with the demands of his normal life, Peter often finds his personal life taking a back seat. He loses a job, faces financial difficulties, and struggles to maintain his physics studies at Columbia University. Moreover, he has become estranged from both love interest Mary Jane and best friend Harry Osborn, and Aunt May is threatened with foreclosure. Harry, now head of Oscorp's research division, has invested in the research of brilliant scientist Otto Octavius, Peter's idol. To perform a sustained fusion experiment, Octavius has developed a set of artificially intelligent mechanical arms, which are impervious to heat and magnetism. Though the experiment overloads and becomes unstable, Dr. Octavius refuses to halt it, with devastating results: his wife is killed; the neural inhibitor chip which enabled him to control the arms is destroyed; and the arms are fused to his spine. Unconscious, he is taken to hospital to have the tentacles removed, but the tentacles kill the surgeons, and he escapes. Uncontrolled, the tentacles begin to influence Octavius' mind, playing on his vanity and ego, and he decides he must complete his experiment at any cost. J. Jonah Jameson names him Doctor Octopus or "Doc Ock." Doc Ock attempts to rob a bank where Peter Parker and his Aunt May happen to be present. After a short glitch in his powers, Spider-Man manages to recover shortly after that and soon the two take their fight outside the bank, but Doc Ock takes Aunt May as a hostage. When Spider-Man rescues her, she revises her former opinion of him and realizes that he is a hero.
During a party, Peter learns that M.J. is planning to marry John Jameson. He also gets into a physical altercation with Harry, who is under the influence, over his loyalty to Spider-Man; shortly after he loses his powers while web-slinging across town. Meanwhile, Doc Ock rebuilds his experimental reactor. Peter questions if he could ever have what he "needs", a life as Peter Parker, which involves a vision of Uncle Ben, and resolves to give up being Spider-Man. Back home, after visiting Uncle Ben's grave, Aunt May is distressed by Peter's confession that he was somewhat responsible for his Uncle Ben's death. Aunt May and Peter reconcile, and she tells Peter of the hope that Spider-Man brings to others, in spite of what dreams he may have to sacrifice. Peter attempts to re-connect with Mary Jane, but she informs him it is too late. In the meantime, Doc Ock has completed rebuilding his reactor, and needs one final item: the tritium which fuels the reactor. He goes to Harry Osborn for it, dangling him over the edge of the Osborn mansion balcony when he refuses. Harry agrees to give Ock what he needs in exchange for capturing Spider-Man. Mary Jane meets Peter in a coffee shop to ask if he still loves her, but Peter tells her that he does not. Amidst this exchange, the two are ambushed by Doctor Octopus, who abducts Mary Jane in a ploy to lure Spider-Man into a trap. Peter's powers return, and he dons his costume and engages Doc Ock in a battle, which starts off at the top of a bell tower and then on top of a subway train. During the battle, Doc Ock manages to destroy the brakes to the train, forcing Spider-Man to rescue the runaway train.
Spider-Man manages to stop the train before it can plunge over the end of the track, but at great physical exertion. Weak, he is captured by Doctor Octopus and delivered to Harry Osborn. Harry unmasks Spider-Man and is stunned to discover that his sworn enemy is also his best friend. Peter awakens and convinces Harry to reveal Octavius' whereabouts so he can rescue Mary Jane. Spider-Man finds Doctor Octavius in an abandoned warehouse on a waterfront pier, where he's restarted his fusion experiment. After battling with Doc Ock, Spider-Man manages to stun the villain with an electric shock. Peter then reveals his true identity to Octavius and pleads with him to stop the machine. Returned to his senses and determined to end his doomsday experiment before it causes more harm, Octavius uses his mechanical arms to collapse the floor of the building, successfully drowning the device at the cost of his own life. Mary Jane sees Peter without his mask on, but Peter tells her they can never be together, as he will always have enemies. Across town, Harry has visions of his father, the late Norman Osborn, in a hanging mirror. The illusion demands that his son kill Peter Parker to avenge his death. Harry refuses and hurls a dagger at the mirror, shattering it and revealing a secret room, containing the Green Goblin's war gear. At the end of the film, Mary Jane leaves her wedding and finds Peter in his apartment, telling him that she has decided to be with him – despite the risks. She persuades Peter to finally let her in while accepting the need of his vows by letting him respond to a sudden call for help.

Spider-Man

2008-08-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

Peter Parker, his best friend Harry Osborn, and secret crush Mary Jane Watson visit a genetics laboratory at Columbia University with their high school class. While taking photos in the laboratory, Peter is bitten on the hand by a genetically engineered "super spider". Feeling unwell, he passes out shortly after arriving home. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn, Harry's father, is attempting to preserve his company's military contract, knowing that its loss will mean the end of his business. He experiments on himself with his company's new, but unstable, performance-enhancing chemical vapor which increases his speed, strength, and stamina. However, it also causes him to become insane and he kills his assistant, Mendel Stromm. The next morning, Peter wakes to find that his previously impaired vision has improved and that his body has metamorphosized into a more muscular physique. At school, he finds himself producing webbing and having the quick reflexes to avoid being injured in a fight with bully Flash Thompson. Peter escapes from the school and realizes that he has acquired spider-like abilities from the spider bite. He quickly learns to scale walls, long jump across building rooftops and swing via webs from his wrists. Lying to his aunt and uncle about where he is going, Peter decides to enter a wrestling tournament to get money to buy a car and impress Mary Jane. During an argument, Uncle Ben advises Peter, "With great power comes great responsibility." Peter lashes out at his uncle and leaves for the tournament. Peter wins, but is cheated out of the contest money. In retaliation he allows a thief to escape with the promoter's gate money. Afterward, Peter finds his uncle has been carjacked and killed. Peter tracks down the carjacker only to find out it was the same thief he allowed to escape earlier. After Peter disarms him, the carjacker tries to get away but falls out of a window and is killed. Upon graduating school, Peter decides to use his abilities to fight injustice, and dons a new costume and the persona of Spider-Man. Peter is hired as a freelance photographer when he arrives in newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson's office with the only clear images of Spider-Man.
Norman, upon finding out that Oscorp's board members plan to sell the company, attacks them at the World Unity Fair. Although he successfully murders them, Spider-Man arrives and drives him off. Jameson quickly dubs Norman the "Green Goblin". The Goblin offers Spider-Man a place at his side, but Spider-Man refuses, knowing that it is the right thing to do. At the Osborn and Parkers' Thanksgiving dinner, Norman, unknown to Peter, figures out Spider-Man's true identity; the Green Goblin subsequently attacks Aunt May. While Aunt May recovers in the hospital, Mary Jane admits she has a crush on Spider-Man, who rescued her on numerous occasions, and asks Peter whether he ever asked about her. Peter reflects on his own feelings, during which Harry enters. Feeling betrayed by his girlfriend and best friend, Harry tells his father whom Peter loves the most, unintentionally revealing Spider-Man's biggest weakness. The Goblin holds Mary Jane and a tram car full of children hostage on top the Queensboro Bridge where Spider-Man arrives. The Goblin forces Spider-Man to choose who he wants to save, and drops Mary Jane and the children. Spider-Man manages to save both Mary Jane and the tram car, while the Goblin is pelted by civilians showing loyalty to Spider-Man. The Goblin then grabs Spider-Man and throws him into an abandoned building where he begins to beat him [similar to how The Joker's black goon beats up Batman in the 1989 film]. The tables turn as the Goblin boasts of how he will later kill Mary Jane, and an enraged Spider-Man dominates over him, forcing the Goblin into being unmasked. Norman begs for forgiveness, but his Goblin persona attempts to remote-control his glider to impale Spider-Man. The superhero evades the attack, causing the glider to impale Norman instead, and he dies asking Peter not to reveal his secret to Harry. At Norman’s funeral, Harry swears vengeance toward Spider-Man, who he believes is responsible for killing his father, and asserts that Peter is all he has left. Mary Jane confesses to Peter that she’s in love with him, but Peter, feeling that he must protect her from the unwanted attentions of Spider-Man's enemies, hides his true feelings. As Peter leaves the funeral, he recalls Uncle Ben's words about responsibility, and accepts his new life as Spider-Man.

Norbit

2008-08-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

Norbit Albert Rice (Eddie Murphy) was brought up in the Golden Wonton Chinese Restaurant and Orphanage in Boiling Springs, Tennessee after being abandoned as a baby. Mr. Wong (Eddie Murphy), a Chinese man, owns the restaurant and orphanage. As a child, Norbit meets Kate Thomas (Thandie Newton), another orphan, and they became best of friends (they "got married" under the oak tree in the orphanage's back yard) and were always together until Kate was adopted two weeks later.

Norbit is slightly older when he meets Rasputia Latimore (Eddie Murphy) who makes Norbit her boyfriend. As they both grow up, they become closer and eventually get married. Rasputia mistreats Norbit, insulting and dominating him, and making sure she keeps him all to herself. Norbit works for Rasputia's three brothers: Big Black Jack (Terry Crews), Blue (Lester "Rasta" Speight) and Earl (Clifton Powell), at the Latimore Construction Company.

Norbit is performing a puppet show for the children at the orphange when he sees Kate. She tells him of her plans to buy the orphanage from Mr. Wong. Kate and Norbit agree to meet up and catch up with each other on Tuesday. However, when Norbit meets Kate, he finds out she is getting married to Deion Hughes (Cuba Gooding Jr.).

At a carnival, the Latimores find out that Kate is buying Wong's orphanage. This surprises them, as when they attempted to buy the place, Wong (the only one in the town not afraid of the Laitmores) sternly refused. They later confront Deion, who is mysteriously on the verge of leaving town. He tells them that he has his own "problems" to deal with. They tell him that if he married Kate, the orphanage would be as much his as it would be hers, and that they plan on turning it into a strip-club. Deion agrees to marry Kate so he can have a share in the club.

The Latimores need Kate to sign papers to have the liquor license in the restaurant transferred over when she buys it. To do this, they intimidate Norbit into giving Kate the papers to sign. Later, Kate invites Norbit to help her pick food for the wedding, however according to two ex-pimps: Pope Sweet Jesus (Eddie Griffin) and Lord Have Mercy (Katt Williams), the event is a date.

Rasputia finds out about Norbit and Kate's date and she drives around town to find them. Norbit and Kate then have a wedding rehearsal, where they end up kissing. Rasputia witnesses this and faints, crashing her car. Kate runs sobbing and Norbit goes after her, catching her at her doorstep. Norbit apologizes for kissing her, but she tells him that she wanted him to kiss her. When he gets back, he hands the Latimores the transfer papers, which he got Kate to sign during the date. Rasputia threatens to pour hydrochloric acid on Kate if Norbit should associate with her again.

Next day, Friday, Kate questions Norbit about the papers she signed the night before, after Deion tells her about the unknown clause. Remembering Rasputia's threat, Norbit claims that he doesn't care about the orphanage, that he was happier with Rasputia and that he was merely trying to "score" with Kate last night. She runs away upset. That night, Norbit prepares to leave town for good, and has a talk with Mr. Wong, who tells him not to run from his own problems. He checks his letterbox, and finds the results of a background check for Deion he had sent a few days earlier.

Upon returning home, Norbit tries to call Kate, but she doesn't want to talk to him. To make things worse, the Latimores and Rasputia lock Norbit in the cellar to stop him interfering with the wedding and their inevitable, evil plan, but not before making a few calls on the phone. On the day of the wedding, all but one of the Latimores (Blue stays behind to keep an eye on Norbit) heads to the church. He manages to escape and rides his bicycle to the wedding. On the way, Norbit is being chased by Big Jack, Earl and Rasputia. Pope Sweet Jesus and Lord Have Mercy managed to stall the wedding for as long as possible by preaching about love and condoms to the congregation and even having the choir performing a gospel song. Deion, impatiently, stops the ruckus, quiets the congregation down, and orders Pope and Lord to shut their mouths so that the wedding can comence. He bursts in reveals the background check on Deion. Deion had cheated his 3 ex-wives out of $300,000 in divorce settlements. He also reveals the Latimores' plot to take over the orphanage. Kate doesn't believe him at first, as the papers were ruined when Norbit fell into the pond during his escape and the chase. But when Norbit reveals he called each of Deion's ex-wives and told them to come to the wedding, Deion does a runner and the Latimores, enraged that their plans for a strip club have now been permanently ruined, advance on Norbit.

The townspeople protect Norbit and take up arms against the Latimores. Norbit attempts to run away but is tackled by Blue and has the wind knocked out of him. Rasputia grabs a spade and fights her way through the crowd towards Norbit. Before she can finish him off however, Wong throws a harpoon into bottom. This causes her to run around screaming, followed out of town by her brothers, who are being chased by the mob of townspeople, never to be seen or heard from again. Later, Kate and Norbit buy the orphanage and get married, while the Latimores set up "El Nipplopolis" in Mexico, with Rasputia working as one of the main strippers.

Ocean's Thirteen

2008-08-18T01:50:00.000-07:00

Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould) and Las Vegas' most hated businessman, Willy Bank (Al Pacino), are building a new hotel and casino in Las Vegas. After having secured crucial deals for Bank, Reuben is strongarmed into signing over his share to him. Bank leaves him with just a $10,000 poker chip and Reuben notices that Bank has changed the name of the hotel from "The Midas" to his own name, "The Bank". Reuben suffers a heart attack from the stress related to his financial loss. The remainder of Ocean's Eleven, Danny Ocean (George Clooney), Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), Virgil Malloy (Casey Affleck), Turk Malloy (Scott Caan), "The Amazing" Yen (Shaobo Qin), Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner), and Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison) – Tess and Isabel are left out by the simple explanation that this is "not their fight" – gather around his bed and are told that Reuben could survive, if he had something to live for. They offer Bank a chance to reinstate Reuben, referred to as a "Billy Martin", which he turns down. They then decide to ruin Bank in two ways.

First, the team decides to prevent Bank's new hotel from winning the prestigious Five Diamond Award, the highest distinction granted to a hotel (all of his other hotels have already received this award). Saul, under the name "Kensington Chubb", discreetly posing as the reviwer, gets Bank's attention by dropping his review folder exposing the "Five Diamond" logo. Believing Saul to be the reviewer and thus a VIP, Bank orders his entire staff to see to Saul's every need. Meanwhile, the "Ocean's" team engineers a series of mishaps for the real reviewer (David Paimer), a self-described "very unimportant person." Thanks to Ocean's crew, he is shown to a filthy room, gets food poisoning at a hotel restaurant, and is finally evicted by rude, brutish security guards (Virgil and Turk in disguise). After being evicted the reviewer approaches Bank and thanks him for having him evicted. Bank, of course, ignores this "nobody."

Second, they will rig the casino so that all the players (supplied by Denny Shields (Jerry Weintraub) win huge amounts of money on the opening night, so that Bank loses ownership of the hotel as he is expected by his board of investors to make $500 million in the first quarter to maintain control. Virgil is supposed to rig the casino dice at the source, a Mexican factory, so that the team can flip and stop them at the table using devices disguised as Zippo cigarette lighters. However, appalled by the dreadful working conditions in the factory and low pay, Virgil leads the workers in a strike. Virgil's brother Turk comes to Mexico to help, but Turk only joins the strike. When it was realized that the workers' meager demands was a lump sum of $38,000, the team agrees to write a post-dated check for the amount and the strike ends. They succeed in rigging the dice. Meanwhile, with the added help of new Ocean's team member Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), Bank is tricked into buying a rigged domino table run by Frank, posing as a domino dealer and his co assistant Mirage posing as an Expo girl. A slot machine is rigged to pay out a huge progessive jackpot once Rusty activates it and lets another player take over. Livingston and a twelfth man, Roman Nagel (Eddie Izzard), rig card machines.

To ensure that all games played at the casino are fair and not tampered with, Bank has installed a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence security system known as The Greco. The computer reads biofeedback data from players in real time, enabling it to determine whether a win was legitimate or expected by the player. Nagel informs Ocean and Rusty that The Greco is housed in an impregnable room, and that only something like a natural disaster or a magnetron could cause it to shut down. Ocean and Rusty subsequently rent a tunneling machine that would simulate a localized earthquake hitting the hotel, which would effectively shut down The Greco for three minutes and twenty seconds while it reboots. To ensure that all the players will leave the casino with their winnings instead of gambling until they run out, the team plans to simulate a second earthquake to scare everyone into cashing out and leaving. However, the drill, which had been used to dig the Channel Tunnel from the English side, breaks down. To purchase the only available replacement, the drill that had been used from the French side, the twelve make a deal with their old enemy, Terry Benedict. Benedict will put up the money only if the team makes him senior partner and double his investment of $36 million for the drill, and also steal Bank's four prized diamond necklaces (Personal trophies purchased for winning the Five Diamond Award) kept in a glass case in his penthouse. Though the team had considered stealing the diamonds earlier, they decided it would be near-impossible to get through the security that bank designed to protect them. Nonetheless, having no other choice, they agree to Benedict's demand.

Yen the acrobat is introduced as Mr. Weng, a high-roller and rich businessman. Linus, disguised with a distinctive nose, acts as his business manager. Yen infiltrates the elevator shafts and air conditioning ducts, but discovers that accessing the diamonds from the floor or ceiling will be borderline impossible. Instead, Linus uses a pheromone patch called "the Gilroy" to seduce Bank's hotel manager, Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin), who leads him to the diamond room for more privacy.

Livingston is seemingly caught "rigging" the card machines by the FBI; an agent (Bob Einstein) tells Bank that replacement machines will be sent over by the manufacturer; However, Livingston hadn't actually tampered with the machines: the replacements were the actual rigged ones. From Livingston's fingerprints, Bank's security team obtains a list of known associates: All of the Ocean's Eleven team. This is subequently sent to Bank's office. Basher, dressed up as the stuntman for the hotel's opening show, distracts Bank while Virgil and Turk modify the downloaded names and faces so that the team's cover is preserved.

Meanwhile, the drill is activated, causing a small earthquake - which fails to shut down the Greco. Concerned, Bank hurries down to the Greco's secure command center. Bank gets a call on his new cell phone (procured as a gift by Sponder), which should be impossible in the reinforced room. Unfortunately for Bank and the Greco, the phone (which was actually supplied to Sponder by Ocean's crew) was modified to include a magnetron, activated with a false call: "Plan B." This shuts down The Greco and it takes three minutes and twenty seconds to reboot. The rigged games are all activated. Team members in the casino, including Danny, Rusty, Saul, Yen, Frank, and a recovered Reuben, all make sure that everyone who plays at the casino wins, so the casino pays out millions. After a montage of everyone winning at the rigged games, the Greco reboots. Virgil and Turk activate the tunnelling machine again and another earthquake is simulated, prompting everyone in the casino to cash in their chips and evacuate, taking all their "winnings" with them.

Upstairs, the FBI agent abruptly interrupts Linus and Abigail and arrests Linus. As Linus is led away, the agent is revealed to be his successful criminal father Bobby Caldwell, who is also in on the scheme. When the two reach the rooftop helipad to leave, Francois Toulour (Vincent Cassel), alias "the Night Fox", the antagonist from Ocean's Twelve, reveals himself, having followed the whole crew from the start in partnership with Benedict. At gunpoint, Linus hands Toulour the stolen diamonds. The gun, as he finds out shortly, was not loaded. Toulour escapes, but the diamonds Linus handed over were actually the fake ones; shortly after, the team circumvents the impregnable display case by simply stealing the entire casing from the hotel, along with a good-sized chunk of the ceiling, with the help of explosives and a helicopter.

Danny confronts Bank, telling him he broke the rules and needs to learn from what he's done. Saul deliberately walks past the two and Bank realizes that "Kensington Chubb" was not actually the Five-Star hotel reviewer. Bank tries to threaten Danny, saying he knows people, highly invested in his survival, who really know how to hurt. Danny responded calmly, saying "I know all the guys that you'd hire to come after me... they like me better than you." Danny then says that he figures Bank would not go to the police. Ocean and Saul leave the casino and Bank watches the helicopter fly away with his diamonds. Right after, Toulour also sees the helicopter, realizing once again that he stole a replica. Minutes later, back at their place, the guys watch Bank's fireworks go off. Danny gives Reuben the deed to 4.6 acres of land on the Las Vegas Strip. The next day, Danny meets Benedict at his office, confronts him about hiring Toulour. As punishment for Benedict's double-crossing, Danny informs him that he donated Benedict's share of the money to "Camp to Belong", a camp for under-privileged kids, in Benedict's name. Benedict was obviously not pleased.

Days later, in the McCarran International Airport, Danny, Rusty, and Linus watch as Benedict gives an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show, announcing that he donated the money because he was touched by the kids. The three go their separate ways. Linus, the first to leave, has finally gotten a "part" in his father's work. Danny is the second to leave. After they have left, Rusty decides to hit the slots one last time. He starts to put some coins in the machine, but decides to give up his seat to the beleaguered hotel reviewer who happened to be at the airport. The machine turns out to be rigged and the hotel reviewer wins $11 million, and Rusty walks off smiling while a crowd gathers. (this is signifigant also because Saul and Turk had earlier discussed how he would get the "Susan B. Anthony" at the airport, with Saul claiming he would undergo the reviewer's plight if he were paid 11 million dollars)

V For Vendetta

2008-08-18T01:39:00.000-07:00

In the year 2038, Britain has become a totalitarian republic, ruled by the Norsefire party. About 20 years previously, many world governments were on the brink of collapse due to the War on Terror spiraling out of control. Little is mentioned of foreign countries, but the outside world is implied to be in chaos, with the "former United States" dissolving in an ongoing civil war. Britain was able to survive the crises by embracing a fascist government with large emergency powers, which managed to save Britain from total collapse and restore order. However, for the past decade or so the immediate danger has subsided, but Norsefire maintains a totalitarian grip on power. Norsefire also uses state-controlled mass media as a propaganda tool to support the government.

Evey Hammond, a young woman, is rescued from sexual assault by state police by a masked vigilante who introduces himself as "V". V then takes Evey to a rooftop location to witness his spectacular destruction of the Old Bailey, accompanied by Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. The regime explains the incident to the public as a planned demolition, but this is shown to be a lie when V takes over the state-run British Television Network (BTN) the same day. He broadcasts a message decrying the evils of the fascist regime, but also scolds the common everyday citizenry for allowing them to come to power in the first place. V urges the people of Britain to rise up against the oppressive government on November 5 (Guy Fawkes Night); one year from that day, when V says he will destroy the Houses of Parliament.

Evey, who works at the BTN, helps V escape, but in doing so, puts herself in danger. V saves Evey by bringing her to his lair, where she is told that she must stay in hiding with him for a year. She reluctantly stays for some time, but upon learning that V is killing government officials, she escapes to the home of one of her superiors, Gordon Deitrich, who is also a good friend (and, unlike in the comic, a homosexual who has hidden his true nature for fear of being arrested). However, the state police raid Gordon's home shortly afterwards in response to Gordon satirizing the High Chancellor in his talk show. Evey is captured as she tries to escape. She is incarcerated and tortured for days, including having her head shaved, finding solace only in notes left by another prisoner, Valerie. Evey is eventually told that she will be executed unless she reveals V's whereabouts. An exhausted Evey says she would rather die, and, surprisingly, is then released. V then reveals himself to have been her captor. Though at first angry against him for this torture, Evey comes to realize that having faced her own death, she can now live without fear. She leaves V, promising to return before November 5.

Meanwhile, Chief Inspector Finch, while investigating V's activities, learns how Norsefire came to power, and about V’s origins. Twenty years previously, Britain had suffered from war and terrorism due to their assistance in the War on Terror, which was spiraling out of control. The socially-conservative and openly fascist Norsefire party led a reactionary purge to restore order; so-called enemies of the state (foreigners, Muslims, homosexuals, liberals, and common war protesters) disappeared during the night, rounded up in massive prison camps where they ultimately died. The country was deeply divided over these events until a bioterrorist attack occurred, killing about 100,000 people (80,000 to be exact according to an article Finch is seen reading on his office computer). A pharmaceutical company owned by Norsefire soon discovered a cure to the virus, netting them vast wealth from its distribution. The fear generated by the attack allowed Norsefire to silence all opposition and win the next election by a landslide. With the silent consent of the people, Norsefire turned Britain into a bigoted totalitarian police state, with their leader Adam Sutler as High Chancellor.

However, the attack had actually been engineered by Norsefire as a plot to gain power. The virus - along with its cure - had been engineered through human experimentation on "social deviants" and political dissidents at Larkhill detention centre. Among them was the man who would become V. Although all the other test subjects died from the experiments, he gained heightened mental and physical abilities at the cost of significant physical disfigurement and warping his mind. These abilities enabled V to destroy the centre and escape, vowing to take revenge on Norsefire's regime.

From this revelation, the inspector predicts the chain of coming events. Narrated by him, he explains the brilliance of V's plan. His manipulation, hidden agenda, and finally the shipping out of hundreds of thousands of Guy Fawkes masks and cloaks to homes throughout Britain. The sheer number of these masks means anyone wearing one is effectively unidentifiable despite constant video surveillance, enabling people to act anonymously for the first time since Norsefire came to power. One man wears his mask while committing a crime, robbing a store and yelling "Anarchy in the U.K" as he departs; a reference to the Sex Pistols song as well as to the V of the comic book who thought himself more of an anarchist than a freedom fighter. Finch explains that "with so much chaos, someone will do something stupid": a young girl wears her mask while committing peaceful protest, spray-painting V's symbol over suitable targets such as Norsefire posters, and is eventually shot by one of the secret police. The shooter is then lynched by angry citizens regardless of his badge and gun. As Finch explains, this will provoke Sutler to do "the only thing he knows how to do": clamp down even further on the population by mobilizing more soldiers to police the cities and increase martial law, which really only serves as a catalyst for further rebellion because it will agitate the population even more. Finch ruefully surmises that public resentment against Norsefire will then be brought to the breaking point, "at which point, all V needs to do is keep his word" and destroy Parliament on November 5.

V then provokes high-level Party official Creedy, head of the secret police, into making a Faustian pact with himself. V couldn't get to Sutler due to tight security, but he could get to his right-hand man Creedy. As V accurately surmises, for years Sutler has known that if ever there was a popular uprising against Norsefire (however unlikely), he would be killed. So all of this time, Sutler's escape plan has been to use his lieutenant Creedy as his fall-man: he will blame all of the excesses and brutality of Norsefire on Creedy and claim that he was just Creedy's puppet. Creedy, however, is also no fool and his backup plan has been to turn on Sutler if Norsefire gets overthrown. V tricks the regular police under Finch into putting Creedy under surveillance and tapping his phones, then manipulates Creedy by pointing out the wiretaps but telling him they were set by Sutler, who he says is panicking and about to use Creedy as a scape goat. V makes a deal with Creedy whereby on November 5th, V will surrender himself to Creedy, on the condition that Creedy hands over Sutler to V first.

As November the fifth nears, V's various schemes cause chaos in Britain and the population grows more and more intolerant of and subversive towards government authority. On the eve of November 5, Evey again visits V, who shows her a subway train that he has filled with explosives in order to destroy Parliament through an explosion in the abandoned London Underground. He delegates the destruction of Parliament to Evey, believing that the ultimate decision was not his to make, but hers. He then leaves to meet Creedy, who has brought Chancellor Sutler, in the Victoria underground station. Creedy kills the Chancellor in front of V, but V does not surrender. He takes a barrage of bullets from a dozen men, and remains standing thanks to a hidden armour plate he is wearing and his super human strength gained from the experiment. He then proceeds to kill Creedy's men before they can reload, then strangles Creedy himself despite being shot six more times - just as he promised. V, mortally wounded in the fight, returns to Evey. He confesses his love to her, thanks her, and then dies. Evey then places his body upon the train with the explosives (in the graphic novel he asked on his deathbed to be placed in the train, as he wanted a Viking funeral, but no mention of this request is made in the film).

Evey is about to send the train down the track, when she is discovered by Inspector Finch. However, Finch, having learned much about the corruption of the Norsefire regime, allows Evey to proceed. Meanwhile, thousands of Londoners, all wearing Guy Fawkes masks, march on Parliament to watch the event. Because Creedy and the Chancellor are dead, the military stands down in the face of a civil rebellion. Parliament is destroyed by the explosion. On a nearby rooftop Evey and Finch watch the scene together, and Finch asks who V was. Evey answers by saying that he is all the people of Britain (The camera shows the crowd again as they remove their Guy Fawkes masks and reveal characters from the film, including deceased characters such as the young girl, Gordon, Valerie and her girlfriend Ruth).

10,000 BC

2008-08-18T01:33:00.000-07:00

A remote mountain range provides a home for a tribe of hunter-gatherers called the Yagahl, who survive by trapping and killing mammoths. Here, the young hunter D'Leh has found his heart's desire - the beautiful companion named Evolet. When another band of mysterious horse-riding raiders attack the Yaghal camp and enslave Evolet (along with many others), D'Leh is forced to lead a small group of hunters south to pursue the raiders to the end of their known world to save her. The band of rescuing warriors come in contact with terror birds and a saber-toothed cat in the desert. Along their journey they meet tribes of warriors, who have also had loved ones enslaved by the raiders. Together they form a coalition and march in pursuit of the captors.

At the journey's end through a vast desert, they discover a pre-egyptian civilization ruled by an enigmatic god-like figure known as "The Almighty", who is said to be the last survivor of his kind. It is implied through dialog, and a map in the room of the Almighty, that he is the last of three survivors from Atlantis, and possibly of extraterrestrial origin. The Almighty, who is regarded as a living god, possesses many thousands of slaves who he is using to build huge pyramids in his honor. D'Leh and his coalition attack the slavers, sparking a full-scale rebellion amongst the slaves. However, the Almighty attempts to stop D'Leh by threatening to kill Evolet. D'Leh feigns acceptance of this deal in order to approach the Almighty, killing him with a thrown spear and declaring him not to be a god. During the chaos that erupts around them, the raider who had kidnapped Evolet initially steals her away again on horseback. Evolet, slung behind him, reaches into the quiver of arrows that is near her and stabs the slave lord in the side. Both he and Evolet fall from the horse. D'leh rushes to her side when he sees them fall, but the slave lord succeeds in shooting her in the back with an arrow. She dies in D'Leh's arms. The slave lord tells D'leh that if he cannot have her, then no one will. D'leh kills him in revenge.

The scene shifts to the wise woman of the Yagahl as she breathes in deeply and then breathes out her last breath. Then it returns to D'Leh cradling Evolet's body when she suddenly awakens, fully restored by the wise woman's sacrifice. They depart for home and bid farewell to the other tribes. Time passes and we see that the seeds that D'leh had received during his travels have begun to grow. As he stands, he greets his wife Evolet and they passionately kiss as the screen fades.

The Dark Knight

2008-08-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

The film begins with the Joker robbing a mob-owned bank with his accomplices, whom he tricks into killing each other before killing the last one himself. That night, a trio of Batman impersonators interrupts a meeting between mobsters and the Scarecow. The real Batman appears and apprehends all of the criminals and impostors, but suffers injuries from dog bites, leading him to re-design his batsuit. Batman and Lieutenant James Gordon contemplate including new district attorney Harvey Dent in their plan to eradicate the mob, as he could be the public hero Batman cannot be. While hosting a fund raiser for Dent, Bruce Wayne discovers that the new D.A. is dating Rachel Dawes.

When mob bosses meet to discuss Batman, Gordon, and Dent, a Chinese mobster accountant, Lau, informs the gang leaders he has hidden their money to pre-empt a plan Gordon has hatched to seize the mobsters' funds. The Joker arrives unexpectedly, offering to kill Batman for half of their money, but the offer is refused. After Batman successfully abducts Lau in Hong Kong and delivers him to the Gotham City police, the mobsters agree to hire the Joker. The Joker tells Gotham that if Batman does not turn himself in to the police and publicly reveal his identity, people will die each day. When Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and the judge presiding over the mob trials are murdered, Bruce decides to reveal his identity. Before he can, Dent announces that he himself is Batman and is arrested as part of a plan to draw the Joker out of hiding. The Joker attempts to ambush the police convoy carrying Dent, but Batman and Gordon intervene and arrest him; in recognition of his actions, Gordon is appointed police commissioner.

At the police station, Batman interrogates the Joker, who reveals that Dawes and Dent have been captured by corrupt police and placed in warehouses rigged with explosives on opposite sides of the city; they are far enough apart that Batman cannot save them both. Batman leaves to save Dawes, while Gordon and the police head after Dent. With the help of a bomb planted at the police station, the Joker escapes with Lau. Having been deceived by the Joker, Batman arrives at Dent's location in time to save him, but the left side of Dent's face is burned in the explosion. Gordon does not arrive in time to save Dawes and she perishes. In the hospital, Dent is driven to madness over the loss of Dawes. The Joker frees Dent from the hospital and convinces Dent to exact revenge on the corrupt cops and mobsters responsible, as well as Batman and Gordon.

Dent, calling himself "Two-Face," goes on a personal vendetta confronting the cops and mobsters one by one, and deciding their fates with the flip of a coin. The Joker burns Lau along with his half of the mob's money, and announces to the public that anyone left in Gotham at nightfall will be subject to his rule. With the bridges and tunnels out of the city closed due to the Joker's bomb threat, the authorities begin evacuating people by ferry. The Joker places explosives on two of the ferries—one ferry with convicts, the other with civilians—telling all the passengers the only way to save themselves is to trigger the explosives on the other ferry; otherwise he will destroy both at midnight.

Batman locates the Joker and prevents him from destroying the ferries after the passengers on both decide not to destroy each other. The Joker acknowledges that Batman is truly incorruptible, but that Dent was not, and his madness has been unleashed upon the city. After Batman subdues him and leaves in search of Dent, the SWAT team arrives and arrests the Joker. At the remains of the building where Dawes died, Batman finds Dent holding Gordon and Gordon's family at gunpoint. Dent proceeds to judge the innocence of Batman, himself, and Gordon's son through coin tosses. He shoots Batman in the abdomen, but before Dent can determine the boy's fate, Batman tackles him, both falling over the side of the building. As Dent lies motionless on the ground, Batman and Gordon realize the loss of morale the city would suffer if Dent's acts of murder were to become known. Batman convinces Gordon to preserve Dent's image by holding Batman responsible for the murders. Gordon destroys the Bat-Signal, and a manhunt for Batman ensues.

WALL-E

2008-08-15T23:54:00.000-07:00

In the 22nd century, the megacorporation "Buy n Large"(BnL) assumed every economic service on Earth, including the government. Overrun by un-recycled waste, the planet eventually became so polluted that it could no longer support life. In an attempt to keep humanity alive,BnL CEO Shelby Forthright (Fred Willard) sponsored a five-year exodus from Earth aboard the Axiom, a luxury cruise ship/space station that would support every need for the humans with a fully-automated robot crew. Hundreds of thousands of waste-dispersal robots, known as "WALL-E" units, were left behind to clean up the planet by compacting the trash into cubes and stacking them into skyscraper-like towers for easy disposal. However, this plan was rejected when Forthright determined by 2110 that Earth was too toxic for return to ever be feasible. By 2815, some seven hundred years later, only one WALL-E unit (voice created by BenBurtt) remains operational.

Centuries of prolonged activation have granted this particular WALL-E sentience and a sense of curiosity. He collects items that he finds interesting among the refuse, saves spare parts for himself from other inactive WALL-E units, and frequently watches a videotape of the 1969 musical film Hello, Dolly!, especially the performances of "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" and "It Only Takes a Moment" (with both songs becoming a key motif). This teaches him emotion, emphasizing the act of holding hands, which he interprets to be an act of showing love; however, with no one to hold hands with, WALL-E is forlorn.

One day, WALL-E discovers a seedling plant, which he replants in an old boot. Shortly afterward, a spaceship lands on Earth and deploys EVE (ElissaKinght), a feminine, robotic probe sent from the Axiom, and WALL-E falls in love with her upon first sight. Although she expresses fascination and amusement in his personality, she does not reciprocate his feelings of love as her only concern is for her directive of, incidentally, finding signs of plant life, which would allow humanity to return to Earth. She does not disclose this directive with WALL-E who, by chance, decides to show her the plant he found. Her mission fulfilled, EVE stores it inside herself and enters standby mode. WALL-E goes to great lengths to protect her motionless body (and even takes her on a 'date") until she is retrieved by the ship that delivered her. Distraught, WALL-E races after the ship, clinging to the outer hull as it departs into the depths of space, eventually arrivingonboard the Axiom.

After centuries of living in micro-gravity and having all manual labor handled by robots, the humans aboard the Axiom have lost considerable bone mass, rendering them too obese and weak to stand or move without robotic assistance. Even the ship's Captain (Jeff Garlin), has delegated all his duties to the ship's autopilot, aptly named "Auto" (voiced by the MacIn Talk system). As WALL-E follows EVE to the bridge of the ship, his peculiar behavior causes both humans and robots he meets on the way to act outside their normal routines, which they take to be quite refreshing.

EVE tries to present the plant to the Captain to place in the ship's holo-detector, a device which will activate an automatic hyperjump to Earth once it scans the plant, only to find it is missing. She is deemed to be malfunctioning and sent to the robot repair ward with WALL-E. Mistakenly thinking that the diagnostic machine is trying to hurt EVE, WALL-E takes and accidentally usesEVE's detached cannon arm to free the other malfunctioning robots in the repair ward, and both become fugitives from security. Annoyed with the situation WALL-E has landed her in, EVE tries to send him back to Earth in an escape pod when Auto's assistant GO-4 arrives and deposits the missing plant in the pod, revealing that he had stolen it. GO-4 sets the pod to self-destruct and launches it with WALL-E inside, but WALL-E manages to escape with the plant just before the pod detonates. EVE is so happy that she gives WALL-E a "kiss" (which causes an electrostatic discharge), and they share a dance around the Axiom.

EVE returns the plant to the Captain, with WALL-E following shortly after. Curious to see images of Earth, the Captain projects EVE's security camera footage, which allows EVE to see all of the romantic things WALL-E had done for her while she was on standby, and she falls in love with him. Having been enthralled by earlier images depicting life as it was before the rise ofBnL, the Captain is shocked by the environmental devastation on Earth depicted in EVE's recordings, and decides that humanity must return to Earth to make amends. However, Auto insists that they cannot return to Earth, and is forced to reveal that Shelby Forthright ordered the autopilots never to do so after his cleanup plan failed. Unable to disobey his directive, Auto stages a mutiny and tries to dispose of the plant. In the ensuing struggle for the plant, Auto violently shocks WALL-E when he tries to protect it and temporarily deactivates EVE. With both WALL-E and EVE out of his way, Auto drops them into a garbage chute along with the plant and locks the Captain in his quarters.

After managing to avoid ejection into space among the trash in the ship's waste disposal facility, EVE dismisses her directive of bringing the plant to the ship'sholo -detector in favor of attempting in vain to repair WALL-E. WALL-E, however, insists that EVE carry out her directive and tells her that if they return to Earth, he may be saved with the spare parts he had stockpiled there. WALL-E and EVE escape with the plant and set out to find theholo-detector. They are aided by the Captain, who directs them to the holo -detector from the confines of his quarters, and the malfunctioning robots, who help them fight off security. After tricking Auto into believing he has retrieved the plant, the Captain confronts and battles with Auto, during which the Captain opens theholo -detector and Auto tilts the ship on its side, piling the immobile humans in a corner. While EVE protects the humans from harm, Auto retracts theholo -detector. WALL-E attempts to hold it open by jamming his body inside, ultimately crushing him. At this point, the Captain summons the strength to stand up unaided and manually overrides Auto, restoring order aboard the ship. The plant is placed in theholo-detector, releasing the mortally damaged WALL-E and activating the hyperjump back to Earth.

Having arrived on Earth, EVE frantically yet successfully repairs and reactivates WALL-E. However, the extent of the damage seems to have erased his memory and personality completely. Heartbroken, and believing that the WALL-E she knew and loved is gone forever, EVE takes hold of his hand and gives him a parting "kiss". The resulting spark reboots WALL-E's memory, and he suddenly recognizes her as they clasp hands in joy and kiss once more. With a renewed sense of purpose, humanity and robots begin working together to restore Earth's biosphere, directed by the enthusiastic Captain.

Toy Story 2

2008-08-15T03:09:00.000-07:00

Some time after the events in Toy Story, Andy is getting ready to go to Cowboy Camp with Woody. But as the two play, Woody's arm is accidently torn. Unable to take him to camp, his mom stores Woody on the shelf where broken toys are eventually abandoned. The next day Woody finds his friend, the toy penguin Wheezy. Wheezy was left on the shelf after his squeaker failed. Woody fears the same fate will sometime befall on him, particularly as Andy's mom takes old items (including Wheezy), from the room for a yard sale. Woody sets off to rescue his fellow toy with the assistance of Andy's dog Buster, but ends up stuck on a table after saving Wheezy. Al McWiggin, an obsessive toy collector, spots Woody and first attempts to bargain with Andy's mom for him. But after that fails, he distracts her and steals Woody instead. Buzz Lightyear tries to save Woody but is unable to keep up with Al's car. However he is able to use the license plate and a feather from the car to identify McWiggin as the owner of "Al's Toy Barn". Buzz enlists Mr. Potato Head, Rex, Slinky Dog, and Hamm on a rescue mission to recover Woody before Andy returns home.

Al brings Woody back to his apartment where he meets other toys: a hyperactive yodeling cowgirl named Jessie, Bullseye the horse, and the wise and paternal Stinky Pete, the Prospector. An unsold toy, Pete remains inside his original box. They reveal to Woody that he is a vintage "Sheriff Woody" collectible doll and the star of the long forgotten children's TV show, Woody's Roundup. Furthermore, he is the last piece needed before Al can sell the toys and assorted memorabilia to a Japanese toy museum. Woody, though initially astounded at his past fame, refuses to go to Japan and abandon Andy. This causes conflict with Jessie, who fears returning to storage. Woody is put off by Jessie's foul behavior and is eager to leave after Al brings in a toy cleaner to fix his arm. But the Prospector manages to persuade him to talk it over with Jessie. The cowgirl describes her past of being a toy once loved by a little girl called Emily, but then left forgotten as Emily grew up. As her owner discovered other pleasures like fashion and make-up, Jessie was eventually dropped off in a charity box. Woody sympathizes with Jessie, since an extremely similar fate nearly befell him when Buzz first came into Andy's life. The Prospector also points out how unlikely it is that Andy and Woody's own relationship will last into the boy's adulthood. Feeling he may not last for much longer, Woody decides to stay, and he and Jessie come to terms with each other.

Buzz and the other toys make their way to Al's Toy Barn, located across the street from Al's apartment. During the search Buzz is distracted by the displays of other Buzz Lightyear figures. Later trying to take a utility belt from another model, which is an upgrade to all new Buzz Lightyear toys. However he is overpowered and stuffed into an empty display box by the second Buzz. Who as it turns out, (like the first Buzz in the first movie) thinks himself a real space ranger. Buzz #2 meets the rest of the rescue group who mistake him for Andy's Buzz (here, Buzz #2 thinks the group are actually working to defeat the evil Emperor Zurg). The group discover Al in his office and stow away in a duffel bag as he goes back to his apartment. Andy's Buzz manages to escape the display box and gives chase across the street, but unknowingly releases an Emperor Zurg action figure. Zurg also believes himself to be real and sets off in pursuit.

The other toys (left in Al's car), find a route to the elevator shaft to get to Al's apartment. There they finally meet up with Woody, also Andy's Buzz arrives and proves quite quickly to be the one they know. Woody tells them he doesn't want to be rescued and intends to go with his new friends to Japan, since he is now a "collector's item". Andy's Buzz, in a role reversal from the first movie, tells Woody that he is a toy, meant to be played with instead of being on display in a museum. At first, Woody refuses to listen but then feeling rather downcast, he realizes that he would be far happier watching Andy grow up come what may. Woody abandons his plans to go to Japan and makes to leave the room (through a grill in the wall) to go home. Then he has an idea and invites the rest of the Roundup Gang to be Andy's latest toys. Jessie is rather indecisive, yet Bullseye proves willing to go. However the Prospector — having an extreme hatred of the "space toys" like Buzz who drove cowboy toys like him out of fashion — actually leaves his box and locks Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye into the room. Saying that the museum trip is his first chance of being loved (since he was never sold) and won't have Woody messing it up for him. Al shortly returns and packs up the toys before Buzz's group can break inside again to rescue them.

The other toys attempt give chase, but encounter Emperor Zurg in the elevator. While the rescue team escape, Buzz #2 battles Zurg who informs him "Buzz, I am your father!" (an obvious reference to Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back). Rex inadvertently manages to defeat the Emperor by accidentally knocking him down the elevator shaft with his tail. Although he manages to survive, his mind has been affected by the fall. Buzz #2 decides to stay behind with his 'father' and the two engage in a ball game. The original Buzz and the other toys hijack a Pizza Planet delivery truck and drive to the airport. Entering the luggage area, they find the briefcase containing the Roundup Gang and rescue Woody. Despite the Prospector's attempts to stop them (tearing Woody's arm again in the process), they escape and the toys manage to beat and send Stinky Pete off with a face painted Barbie doll. Finally giving him the chance of being played with by a child, an experience which he will certainly not enjoy. While the others manage to get Bullseye out, they are unable to rescue Jessie before the briefcase is loaded onto the plane. Giving chase, Woody, Buzz, and Bullseye manage to rescue her as the plane is taking off.

Some time later the toys have returned to Andy's room, just in time to be there for Andy's return from camp. Andy is pleased by the appearance of Jessie and Bullseye (thinking they're presents from his mother), and carefully repairs Woody's arm himself. Jessie and Bullseye are happy to be accepted as toys once again. The group also learn that Al's Toy Barn went bankrupt and out of business over failing to deliver the toys to the museum. Woody admits to Buzz that he knows that Andy will someday outgrow him, but that Buzz will be there with him, "for infinity and beyond."

Toy Story

2008-08-15T03:06:00.000-07:00

Old-fashioned Cowboy doll Woody (Tom Hanks) is coordinating a reconnaissance mission around his owner Andy's birthday party in the days before Andy's family move to their new house. To Woody's dismay, Andy receives a new action figure in the form of space ranger Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), whose impressive features soon see Buzz replacing Woody as Andy's favorite toy. Woody - the former de facto leader of Andy's toys including Hamm (John Ratzenberger), Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), Bo Peep (Annie Potts), Rex (Wallace Shawn) and Slinky Dog (Jim Varney) - is dismayed by his replacement and resentful towards Buzz. Buzz, for his part, does not understand that he is a toy: he believes himself to be an actual space ranger, and sees Woody as an interference in his "mission".

Woody plans to trap Buzz in a gap behind Andy's desk, thus allowing him to replace Buzz on a family outing with Andy, but it goes disastrously wrong and Buzz is knocked out of Andy's room into the driveway outside. The other toys accuse Woody of attempting to murder Buzz out of jealousy, but are unable to punish him before Andy leaves the house with Woody for the outing at the space-themed Pizza Planet restaurant. Buzz sees Andy getting into his mother's car with Woody and manages to climb aboard, where he confronts Woody while Andy's mother refuels the car. The two fight, and accidentally land outside the car, which drives off and leaves the two stranded.

Woody spots a truck bound for Pizza Planet and plans to rendezvous with Andy there. He convinces Buzz that the truck will take them to a spaceship. Once at Pizza Planet, Buzz makes his way into a claw game shaped like a spaceship, thinking it to be the ship Woody mentioned. While Woody climbs in to try and get him out, they are later captured by Andy's neighbor, the toy-destroying child Sid Phillips (Erik von Detten), who plays the claw game and pulls both out.

The two attempt to escape from Sid's house before Andy's family's moving day. There they encounter nightmarish "mutant" toys inhabiting his room, as well as Sid's vicious dog, Scud. Buzz stumbles into the living room, where he sees a television commercial for Buzz Lightyear figures. In denial of his true nature, Buzz attempts to fly but falls and breaks his arm from its socket. Woody is unable to get a despondent Buzz to participate in their rescue, even as the mutant toys repair Buzz's arm and Sid prepares to destroy Buzz with a firework rocket. In the film's turning point, Woody admits that Buzz is a "great toy" and that he stands no chance of being Andy's favorite. Buzz changes his mind and decides that life is worth living even if he's not a space ranger, but Sid wakes up before they can escape and takes Buzz, strapped to the rocket, to his backyard launchpad.

In cooperation with the mutant toys, Woody stages a rescue of Buzz and simultaneously terrifies Sid into running away in fear of his own toys. Woody and Buzz miss Andy's car as it drives away to his new house. Chasing the moving van, they attract the attention of Scud. Buzz saves Woody by tackling Scud but dooms himself. Woody attempts to rescue Buzz with Andy's radio-controlled car R.C. At first, the other toys in the moving van mistakenly believe Woody is attempting to murder R.C. and throw him off the truck, but then they realize Woody is trying to help Buzz and do everything in their power to help them back on. Buzz and Woody attempt to catch up, but R.C.'s batteries run out. Woody realizes that he can ignite Buzz's rocket, and all three toys make their way back to Andy safely.

At Christmas, a reconciliated Buzz and Woody are now both Andy's favorite toys and have become best friends, inspiring confidence among the other toys. Together they stage another reconnaissance mission to determine the threat, if any, presented by the new arrivals - one of whom is revealed to be a puppy.

The Incredibles

2008-08-15T02:25:00.000-07:00

The film starts during a Golden Age of superheroes, also known to the public as "supers", when government-sponsored superheroes assist a grateful public with everything from freeing cats stuck in trees to foiling bank robberies. The plot itself begins when Bob Parr, a.k.a. Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), who is gifted with super strength, saves a man attempting a suicide. He then foils a robbery by the villain Bomb Voyage, while being harassed by Buddy Pine (Jason Lee), a young fan who wishes to be his sidekick. When Bomb Voyage plants a bomb on the young would-be superhero, Mr. Incredible manages to dislodge it, but in doing so, causes a train wreck that injures many. He then races to his wedding, where he marries Helen, a.k.a. Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), a dexterous, flexible super. Βoth the suicidal man and the victims of the train wreck sue the superheroes community for prevention of suicide and injuries sustained in these events respectively. As part of the government's settlement, all superheroes are placed into a government-sponsored protection program similar to witness protection, and forbidden to use their powers for heroism.

The film then jumps 15 years later; Bob and Helen Parr have settled into relatively normal suburban lives raising three kids, Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dashiell ("Dash") (Spencer Fox) and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile). The children have powers which reflect their personalities; Violet (a shy 15-year-old) has the power of invisibility and the ability to create force fields, while Dash (a hyperactive 10-year-old) has super speed. Jack-Jack appears to be a normal baby without powers. Bob, stuck in a thankless job at a corrupt insurance agency, laments the passage of his superhero glory days. He and his friend Lucius Best, a cryokinetic super and fellow retiree called Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson), still occasionally listen to police radios and secretly aid the authorities, much to the consternation of Helen. On one such night, the two are watched by a mysterious white-haired woman. The next day, Bob is called into the office of his unsympathetic boss. As he is receiving a lecture, Bob notices a man getting mugged outside. Bob offers to go help, but his boss threatens to fire him if he does. Enraged, Bob throws his boss through several walls, ironically losing his job anyway.

Upon arriving home, Bob discovers a video message in his briefcase featuring Mirage (Elizabeth Peña), the white-haired woman from before. She appears to know his secret identity, and offers to hire him (at a salary triple that of his current one) to subdue a renegade robot, the Omnidroid 8000, on Nomanisan, an uncharted island. After telling Helen and his family that he is going on a business trip, Mr. Incredible completes the task. Upon returning, Bob finds his life has begun to improve. He begins spending more time with his family and starts to work out more (Bob had become immensely obese due to his years of inactivity). Over the next two months, Bob maintains the image of still being employed, but secretly works out in preparation for his next assignment. One day, Bob notices his super suit had gotten damaged in the Omnidroid battle. He takes the suit to his costumer, Edna Mode (Brad Bird), who instead offers to create a new suit for him and made it clear about the two words she uses: "No capes!" Meanwhile, Helen begins to have doubts and starts to suspect Bob of having an affair.

Bob is again summoned to Nomanisan, but is overpowered by an improved Omnidroid, and encounters Buddy Pine again, now revealing himself to be a psychotic villain and wealthy weapons designer called Syndrome. Buddy had been embittered upon rejection by Mr. Incredible, and wished vengeance upon his former hero. Mr. Incredible escapes and dupes Syndrome into thinking he is dead. He then learns that Syndrome used previous versions of the Omnidroid to kill other supers, and that the device learns and adapts from any previous defeat.

Discovering Bob's old patched up suit, Helen contacts Edna, who insists she come visit. Edna reveals she's designed matching super suits for the entire family, and also that each suit has a homing beacon on it. Using this, Helen learns where Bob really is, but her use of the signal device results in Bob's capture. Reluctantly donning her new super suit, Helen flies a private jet to the island. Nearing the island, she discovers Violet and Dash have stowed away, wearing their own suits. The jet is attacked by missiles from Syndrome's base, and Helen attempts to evade them, while telling Violet to put a force-field around the plane. Neither are successful, and the plane is destroyed by the missiles. Helen and the children narrowly escape the explosion, and make it to the island.

Helen urges the children to stay hidden in a cave, and pursues Bob herself. However, the cave is found to direct the flames of a rocket, and the children are forced to flee it. Upon being discovered, the children are pursued by Syndrome's henchmen. Meanwhile, Helen discovers Bob with Mirage, but realizes that Mirage was merely there to rescue Bob from capture (Syndrome had previously allowed Mirage to be used as a hostage by Bob, though Bob had proved too "weak" to kill her). After a brief argument while running through the island, Bob and Helen later meet up with their children, and together impressively take down their pursuers. Syndrome, however, appears and personally takes the family captive. He informs the family of his ultimate plan: unleash the Omnidroid on Metroville, and use his most impressive weapons technologies to stop it, making himself appear to be a superhero. After playing the superhero game for long enough, he would sell his weapons, so everyone could be "super", thus making the true superheroes less impressive.

Violet is able to release herself and her family from confinement, and the family attempt to return to Metroville to battle the Omnidroid. They find themselves in need of the same kind of rocket used to launch the Omnidroid to Metroville, and Mirage gives them the command codes to operate it. In the city, the Omnidroid "learns" that Syndrome's remote controls it and blasts it off of Syndrome's wrist. Shooting one of his rocket boots, Syndrome is knocked unconscious into a building. Bob and his family then arrive and with the help of Frozone, subdue the robot. Returning home, they discover Syndrome attempting to kidnap Jack-Jack, who then flies off to his jet above. Jack-Jack then begins to display a whole slew of powers, causing Syndrome to drop him. Bob then throws Helen to catch Jack-Jack, as well as his car at Syndrome, knocking him into one of the jet's turbines. Syndrome's cape is caught in the turbine and he is sucked in, causing the jet to explode; the wreckage falls on the family's house, but Violet creates a force field to protect them from the falling debris.

Three months later, Bob is now content with their civilian life, Dash controls the use of his powers in track events, and Violet, having found confidence, is asked by her heartthrob on a date. However, a new villain, The Underminer (John Ratzenberger), appears and attacks the city. The family members don their masks, and prepare to fight anew.

Stuart Little 3 : Call of the Wild

2008-08-14T00:33:00.000-07:00

PLOT SUMMARY

In the third installment of the Stuart Little series, the family goes camping in the mountains. But Stuart gets lost and makes his own adventure. he finds a skunk named Reeko and he tells him that there is a beast living in the forest which is a puma.

CHARACTERS AND CAST

Stuart Little - Michael J. Fox
Mr. Frederick Little - Hugh Laurie
Mrs. Eleanor Little - Geena Davis
Snowbell - Nathan Lane
George Little - Corey Padnos
Reeko - Wayne Brady
Troopmaster Bickle - Peter MacNicol
Brooke - Tara Strong
Monty - Rino Romano
The Beast - Virginia Madsen
The Bird - Sunny Khangura

Stuart Little 2

2008-08-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

Questioning his ability after a grueling soccer match alongside George (Jonathan Lipnicki), Stuart (Michael J. Fox) gets even more downhearted after George's plane gets broken in an accident because of him. However, Stuart's dad (Hugh Laurie) tells him that for every Little, there is a "silver lining", or a solution to every problem. On his way home from school, Stuart encounters a female yellow canary named Margalo (Melanie Griffith) that is pursued by a giant falcon (James Woods). He drives her to safety. In a matter of time, Margalo, the canary, and Stuart have become best friends.

But, Margalo has a secret. The falcon pursuing her was a crime lord, and he soon catches up to her, reminding her that if she doesn't find an object of wealth soon, the sanctuary he promised her will be called off. But Margalo can't seem to concentrate on her assignment, as she begins to harbour tender feelings for Stuart.

The Falcon eventually comes back, this time threatening to kill Stuart if she doesn't retrieve a wealthy object.

Margalo sadly takes Stuart's mom's (Geena Davis) ring. When the family sees it is missing, Stuart thinks it has fallen down the sink. He offers to go get it, nearly succeeding.

When he is in danger, Margalo saves him, and he thanks her, making her feel more guilt. She decides to leave.

When Stuart can't find her, he assumes she has been kidnapped. He leaves on a quest with Snowbell (Nathan Lane) the cat, but not before setting up a plan with George.

Stuart and Snowbell decide to get information on the Falcon's whereabouts, so they enlist the help of the alley cat Monty (Steve Zahn). It is revealed the Falcon's lair lies at the top of the fabled Pishkin Building. The next morning, Stuart and Snowbell hatch a plan to get to the top. Snowbell gathers some balloons for Stuart, and the mouse ties to a small basket, ascending him to the top.

He soon finds out the canary is the Falcon's slave, and took the ring. He tries to save her, but the villain stops him short, and drops him into a garbage truck.

Meanwhile, Snowbell struggles to get to the top, as Stuart's family leave the house to save him. Up at the top, Snowbell hears that Stuart is dead, not knowing he is in the truck, from Margalo. He swears revenge as he frees Margalo revealing that he trully does care about Stuart, but when the Falcon returns, Snowbell loses his confidence and hides in a paint bucket, which the Falcon kicks off the tower and causes to fall from the top. Snowbell survives the fall, as it is delayed, so the impact is not hard and the bucket protects him.

On the barge, Stuart blames himself for everything, and gives up. But suddenly, he finds George's broken plane, and with some materials, fixes it up, and flies to save Margalo, who has just fled the evil tyrant. Stuart begins an aerial adventure through the park, with Margalo at his side. The Falcon eventually loses them while the Little Family finds them and follows them in a taxi. Unfortunately Falcon catches up and rips off the top of the plane's two wings.

Stuart knows he can't run from the Falcon, and lets Margalo off. Stuart turns and flies the damaged plane in a kamakaze run while Falcon goes into an attack dive. Stuart temporarily blinds him using Mrs. Little's ring and jumps using a hankerchief as a parachute. The kamakaze attack works and Falcon is struck and defeated. Although Falcon survives the attack he's seriously wounded and lands in a garbage can that Monty is desperatly scavenging in just after Monty asks if he can get a decent meal. Monty prepares to eat the villan and presumably Falcon is killed by Monty and becomes his dinner. Stuart's parachute is destroyed by the propeller of the destroyed plane but Margalo saves him.

At the park square, Stuart is congratulated by his family and Margalo and Snowbell reunites with them as well. That evening, Margalo leaves with the other birds to migrate south, but not before saying goodbye to her friends, including Snowbell, who is at the point of tears. Stuart says the silver lining is that she'll be back in the spring. Stuart's baby sister says her first word, or words, "Bye bye, birdie."

Stuart Little

2008-08-13T23:32:00.000-07:00

The film opens with Mr. and Mrs. Little (Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis) and their son George (Jonathan Lipnicki) on the day of adoption. While George is at school, the parents go to the orphanage where they see many kids, but fall in love with one mouse named Stuart (Michael J. Fox). Who knows almost everything about the other children due to having been at the orphanage for so much time. Despite the warnings of Mrs. Keeper (the woman in charge), the Littles decide to take Stuart and adopt him as their second son.

Immediately after getting home Stuart meets George and Snowbell (Nathan Lane) the family cat. Although neither are happy to see him, Snowbell tries to eat Stuart and George is generally unimpressed. That night, Snowbell visits Stuart and requests that he keep a low profile, so as to avoid getting seen by the other cats and damaging Snowbell's image (being a cat with a mouse for an owner).

Over time Stuart gradually becomes part of the family, but also earns Snowbell's wrath when Snowbell's friend, Monty the Mouth (Steve Zahn) visits for food and sees Stuart. Collapsing with laughter upon discovering that Stuart is a mouse with a pet cat. Enraged, Snowbell tries to kill Stuart who narrowly escapes by jumping into the basement. Here Stuart learns that George keeps a playroom and the two play together for a while. George finally coming to like having Stuart as his brother. They decide to work together to finish George's homemade model boat, the Wasp, for the Central Park Boat Race the following week.

Snowbell, however, isn't finished. He and Monty go to an alley that night to visit Smokey (Chazz Palminteri), a Mafia Don-like cat who is the leader of the alley cats. Since Snowbell doesn't want Stuart killed, he makes a plan with the alley cats to remove Stuart from the house. The next day, George and Stuart along with their parents, enter the boat race, and Stuart is forced to pilot the boat himself when a stranger carelessly steps on the remote control. Despite the cheating of George's rival, Anton (who smashes the other boats with his stronger one and is not disqualified for it), Stuart manages to win. Happily taking home with him the trophy.

The celebration is short lived however, as during the party that night, the Littles are visited by Reginald and Camille Stout (Bruno Kirby and Jennifer Tilly), a mouse couple claiming to be Stuart's parents. After discussion Stuart sadly decides to leave with his real parents, taking a small car with him as a goodbye present from George. Just then, Snowbell returns home satisfied.

Stuart and his parents arrive at a small castle on a golf course which is revealed to be their home. Stuart, still miserable does his best to settle in. Three days later, the Littles are visited by Mrs. Keeper whom they had asked to do a little background research on Stuart. She tells them that, according to the records Stuart's parents died years ago after getting crushed by a pile of creamed soup tins. Convinced that they have been tricked, the Littles call the police.

A terrified Snowbell rushes to the alley and warns Smokey and the others about the Littles' discovery. Smokey then decides that the only way to rectify things is to kill Stuart. They call a meeting with Reginald and demand that he and Camille hand Stuart over. But the Stouts, having grown to care for Stuart, reveal the truth and advise him to escape before the cats find him. Stuart does so after telling his "fake parents" goodbye.

Meanwhile, the Littles decide to place "missing" posters around the city to get help in finding Stuart. Stuart meanwhile is on his way home. While going through Central Park, is ambushed by Smokey and a few cats. He succesfully manages to evade them by driving his car into the sewer, but at a high cost: he loses the car and his luggage while escaping the storm drain.

Eventually, Stuart finds his way home just as the Littles leave to hang the posters. The only one home is Snowbell, and he tells Stuart a lie about how the Littles are enjoying life without him. Proving his story by revealing that Stuart's face has been cut off the family photo (really done so to enlarge Stuart's face for the posters). Tears falling from his eyes, Stuart leaves home yet again.

Later on Monty visits Snowbell and informs him that Smokey and the others have spotted Stuart in the park. Reluctantly, Snowbell joins them and is ultimately the first one to find Stuart, sitting alone in a bird's nest. Snowbell captures Stuart and is ready to drop him to the cats, but he turns on them at the last moment and decides to rescue Stuart. The cats give chase, and eventually corner Stuart hanging from a tree branch. The cats group together on a lower branch to catch Stuart, but Snowbell breaks it at the last minute and sends the cats into the water below. Smokey sneaks up behind Snowbell and attempts to knock him out of the tree, but Stuart releases a thin branch that hits Smokey in the face and knocks him into the water. Enraged, Smokey walks off only to be mauled and killed by dogs upon turning a corner.

Snowbell and Stuart walk home and Stuart shares a warm reunion with his family, telling them that Snowbell helped him home. The Littles bring Stuart and Snowbell inside, and close the windows, ready for bed.

Shrek the Third

2008-06-21T00:44:00.000-07:00

Harold has fallen ill and his ogre son-in-law Shrek and daughter Fiona are next in line to be king and queen. Shrek declines, insisting that an ogre as king is a bad idea and that there has to be someone else for the job. With his final few breaths, the king tells Shrek that there is one other heir who can become the new King of Far Far Away: his nephew, Arthur. After a mournful (yet somewhat humorous) funeral, Shrek sets out to find this new king, along with Donkey and Puss in Boots. As they're sailing off, Fiona runs to the dock and announces to Shrek that he's going to be a father. Shocked, Shrek begins to have nightmares about his future children on the journey to Worcestershire Academy, where they eventually discover that "Artie," who is an academy student, is a loser picked on by the other students - even the nerds. Artie is initially thrilled to be the new king, and excited to be on his way to the throne, until Donkey and Puss inadvertently scare him by talking about things like plague and famine. Panicked, Artie tries to take control of the ship and ends up crashing it on an island where they meet Artie's retired wizard teacher, Merlin.

Meanwhile, Prince Charming has gone to the Poison Apple Bar, where he encounters a slew of fairy tale villains including Captain Hook, the Wicked Queen, Polyphemus, Gollum, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Riding Hood, Mabel the Ugly Stepsister, the Headless Horseman, Stromboli the Puppet Master, and an assortment of black knights, elves, goblins, ents, and witches. Although they initially despise Charming, he persuades them to join him in a fight for their "happily ever after". The villains feel their side of the story has never been told and now is the time to do it. Charming and the other villains invade the kingdom and pillage for a time before attacking the castle, disrupting Fiona's baby shower. They capture all of Shrek's fairy tale friends (Gingerbread Man, Pinocchio, The Big Bad Wolf (a cross between the Three little pigs and Little Red Riding Hood's wolf), The Three Blind Mice and The Three Little Pigs, Dragon, and Donkey and Dragon's children. Fiona and Lilian try to escape through an underground passage, along with Doris the Ugly Stepsister, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel; the ladies are captured, however, when Rapunzel betrays them and leads them into a trap. They learn that she is in love with Charming, who plans to make her his queen once he claims the throne.

Captain Hook and some of his pirates track Shrek and company to Merlin's island, where they attempt to capture Shrek and kill the others. Shrek and Artie tag-team them effectively, however, and send the villains running, but not before Hook mentions "King Charming" and the takeover of Far Far Away. Concerned for his wife and their child, Shrek urges Artie to return to the safety of Worcestershire; Artie, however, has other ideas. He cons Merlin into coming out of retirement long enough to use his magic and send them all back to Far Far Away; the spell works, but accidentally causes Puss and Donkey to switch bodies because they were touching each other. They find that Charming is bent on revenge against Shrek for 'stealing' his "happily ever after," and plans to kill Shrek in a play later that night. Charming's men arrive shortly, but another clever ruse by Artie tricks the knights into not taking them into custody. They then break into the castle, where play rehearsal and set design are in full swing, but Charming is not good at rehearsing. In Charming's dressing room, Shrek menaces Charming but Charming is able to summon his men, who burst in and take the four captive.

Charming prepares to decapitate Artie. In an effort to save him, Shrek tells Charming that Artie was just a patsy to take his place as King of Far Far Away. Charming believes Shrek and decides not to kill the boy. Artie, who had just been growing to trust Shrek, is crushed by this and runs away. Donkey and Puss are thrown into the tower with Fiona and the other ladies, where Fiona is growing frustrated with the other princesses and their lack of initiative. Queen Lilian grows fed up when Snow White calls her an old lady, and successfully smashes the stone wall of the prison by head butting the walls. While the women launch a rescue mission for Shrek, who is being held captive elsewhere, Donkey and Puss work to free Gingy, Pinocchio, the wolf and pigs, Dragon, and the Dronkey. As they prepare to enter the castle and join the ladies, they encounter Artie, and Puss and Donkey explain to him that Shrek lied so Charming wouldn't kill him. Artie seems hesitant to believe them.

As the kingdom watches, Charming stages a theatrical performance in which he heroically rides to the rescue of Rapunzel in her (fake) tower and sings, somewhat badly. To Charming's profound annoyance, the chained Shrek wins the audience's support by ridiculing his singing and acting. Just as Charming is about to kill Shrek, Fiona and her friends, along with Puss, Donkey and the Fairy Tale characters, leap onto the stage to confront the villains. It goes awry, however, as the villains largely outnumber the heroes and take them prisoner again. In the nick of time, Artie arrives and convinces the villains to stop and turn over a new leaf, proving himself to possess effective leadership skills. He says a word of wisdom-"Just because some people treat you like a loser, it doesn't mean you are one. The thing that matters most is what you think of yourself. If there is something you really want or someone you really want to be then you are standing in your own way." The villains drop their weapons and release their captives. Charming, furious at having been thwarted by this boy, lunges for him with his sword. Shrek blocks the blow and appears to take it in his own chest, leading Charming to exult; the attack missed, however, and the sword is lodged harmlessly under Shrek's arm. Shrek informs Charming that he needs to keep looking for his own happily ever after, "because I'm not giving up mine." Dragon slyly knocks over Rapunzel's tower, which lands on Charming, and the crowd cheers. ( he may have lived because the glassless window if seen in the movie lands on him.) Charming's crown is sent rolling across the stage by the impact and is caught by Artie. Shrek tells him that the throne is his if he wants it, but it is his decision to make. Artie lifts the crown toward the audience, who cheer him loudly, then sets it on his own head. While the kingdom celebrates their new monarch, Merlin appears and restores Puss and Donkey to their proper bodies, though their tails remain switched.

As Far Far Away is left in the capable hands of young King Arthur, Shrek retires with Fiona to their swamp, having three ogre babies.

Shrek 2

2008-06-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

The film begins with Prince Charming riding to Dragon's Keep in an attempt to save Princess Fiona, while narrating her backstory from the previous film. However, on arrival, Charming finds out from the Big Bad Wolf that Fiona has already left on her honeymoon with Shrek. Shrek and Fiona are then shown on said honeymoon.

When they return to their home in the swamp, a Royal entourage appear and invite the newlyweds to attend a Royal Ball being held by Fiona's parents, taking place in the kingdom of "Far Far Away" (Fiona's home). Shrek, Fiona and Donkey set off to attend the ball.

On arrival at the Royal castle, Doves are released to honour the newlyweds, but once Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey step out of the onion carriage, the crowd and Fiona's parents are shocked by their appearance. Despite this, the couple are invited to attend dinner with the King and Queen.

During the meal, Fiona's father Harold gets involved in an argument with Shrek, which ends with Shrek telling Fiona that they are leaving Far Far Away. Upset, Fiona heads to her room and is crying on the balcony when The Fairy Godmother appears to her, giving her a business card. However, The Fairy Godmother also plots with King Harold to usurp Shrek so that her son Prince Charming can marry Fiona in Shrek's place. They secretly hire Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), to kill Shrek on a hunting expedition that Harold suggests. Shrek agrees to the expedition in an attempt to bond with Fiona's parents.

The next morning, Shrek and Donkey are lost in the woods when Puss In Boots ambushes them. They are able to subdue the cat, who agrees to join them after Shrek decides not to take revenge on him. Shrek remembers the card Fairy Godmother gave him, and decides to enlist her help in winning over Fiona's parents. Shrek, Puss and Donkey use the card to travel to her Potion Factory. However, Fairy Godmother refuses to help Shrek on the grounds that "Ogres don't live Happily Ever After". Undeterred, the three friends sneak into the Potion Containment Room, where they steal a Happily Ever After potion.

Back in the woods, Shrek and Donkey drink the potion, but nothing happens. Shrek sniffs the potion and sneezes on a toadstool. Once it begins to rain, Shrek, Donkey and Puss head for a barn and stay there for the night, failing to notice that once the rain touches the toadstool, it turns into a rose. Inside the barn, Shrek and Donkey faint. Back in Far Far Away, Fiona is affected by the potion too and faints. The next morning, Shrek and Donkey wake up to realize they have changed. Shrek is a handsome human while Donkey is a noble white stallion. Shrek needs to find Fiona and kiss her before midnight to stay the way they are.

On returning to Far Far Away, Fairy Godmother tricks Shrek into thinking that Fiona loves Charming, while Fiona is led to believe that Charming is actually Shrek himself, in human form. Because she does not like this "New Shrek", Fairy Godmother gives Harold a potion which will cause Fiona to fall in love with the first man to kiss her (Charming). Harold is to slip this potion to his daughter in a cup of tea. Meanwhile Shrek and his friends have been arrested by The Royal Knights. However while watching the Royal Ball coverage on the Magic Mirror, Gingy, Pinocchio, the Three Little Pigs, the Three Blind Mice, and Big Bad Wolf see a trailer for a show named KNIGHTS (A parody of COPS), revealing Shrek's arrest. They head off to Far Far Away to help Shrek.

Meanwhile, King Harold slips the love potion into a cup of tea for Fiona. After he finds her up in the castle, watching the ball, she says she wants her old Shrek back. She then takes a cup of tea. Harold encourages her to go to the ball, telling her that "People change for the ones they love", and after Fiona drinks her tea she goes to the ball.

Back in the dungeon of a far away jail, the fairy tale creatures save Shrek, Donkey, and Puss and create a giant gingerbread man named Mongo with help from the Muffin Man. They use the giant cookie to break into the ball. Fiona and Charming begin to dance at the ball, while Mongo begins to pull down the drawbridge, but the guards dump hot milk on him and his arms fall off. Shrek manages to get through the cracks of the drawbridge and lowers it. Shrek and Donkey charge into the ballroom and the fairy tale creatures begin to fight Fairy Godmother. Fiona realizes it's not Shrek she's dancing with. Fairy Godmother tells Charming to kiss Fiona to activate the potion. But once Charming is done kissing her, she knocks him out with a head butt, revealing that Harold gave her the wrong tea on purpose, after feeling guilty about his actions. Shrek and Fiona embrace one another, but Prince Charming gets the wand and tosses it to the Fairy Godmother and she proceeds to turn on Shrek, telling once again that ogres don't live happily ever after. She then sends a blast of magic out to kill Shrek. Harold uses his armor to deflect the spell which bounces off and hits her. Fairy Godmother disappears, with only her glasses and wand left. Harold is back to his true form, a frog. Shrek and Fiona are about to kiss, but Fiona tells Shrek she wants to live happily ever after, with the ogre she married. Shrek, Fiona and Donkey return to their true forms. Harold apologizes to Shrek and tells him that he only wanted Fiona to be happy. He gives the couple his blessing and goes to leave, however Queen Lillian tells him that she still loves him, even though he's a frog. That night, the gang dance into the night, having a big party.

After the party, Donkey is all alone, singing a song. Puss and two girls are about to head off to the "Kitt Katt Klub" when Dragon comes and tells Donkey that she has had babies. Donkey and Dragon are now proud parents of a litter of mutant dronkeys - donkey/dragon hybrids.

Shrek

2008-06-21T00:38:00.000-07:00

The story begins with Shrek (voice of Mike Myers) peaceably enjoying life within his home: a swamp. This is shattered when he inadvertently rescues the stubborn and talkative Donkey (voice of Eddie Murphy) from soldiers sent by the ruthless ruler of the Kingdom of Duloc, Lord Farquaad (voice of John Lithgow). Farquaad is obsessed with ruling a "perfect kingdom", without any fairy tale creatures in it, and uses the Magic Mirror to select a princess bride he can marry in order to become a king. He chooses Princess Fiona (voice of Cameron Diaz), who is held captive in a castle surrounded by lava and guarded by a fire-breathing dragon.

Much to Shrek's chagrin, Lord Farquaad has relocated all the fairy tale creatures to his swamp. Shrek and Donkey head off to the Kingdom of Duloc so they can complain to Farquaad and Shrek can get his swamp back. When Shrek and Donkey get to the Kingdom, they interrupt a tournament Farquaad is holding in order to select a knight worthy of rescuing Princess Fiona. Lord Farquaad then sends the knights to kill Shrek. Shrek fights the knights, with some help from Donkey, and defeats them. Lord Farquaad, getting an idea, proclaims Shrek the winner of the tournament and agrees to remove the fairy tale creatures from the swamp if Shrek rescues Fiona.

When they get to the castle Shrek and Donkey split up to search for Fiona. As Shrek, after putting on the helmet of a fallen knight finds the princess, Donkey runs into the fire-breathing dragon, which he gets cornered by, and begins to give compliments to her to stop her from killing him. Dragon takes these compliments seriously and she subsequently takes Donkey away to her chambers.

After escaping, Fiona orders Shrek to remove his helmet so they can share true love's first kiss. Shrek refuses her request at first, but then shows her his true face. Upon realizing that he is an ogre and not her true love, she angrily refuses to go with Shrek back to Dulot so Shrek takes Fiona by force instead, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder. The three set off back to Dulot.

On their way through the woods, Fiona insists that they should stop and make camp as sunset comes. Fiona sleeps in a little rock cave while Shrek and Donkey talk under the stars, where Shrek reveals he is upset that people judge him as nothing but a monster without getting to know him.

The next night, Shrek and Fiona are about to kiss when Donkey reminds them of the sun setting. Surprised, Fiona rushes into the old windmill near which they are camping. Donkey now thinks that Shrek and Fiona are beginning a romantic liking towards one another, but Shrek realizes that he and Fiona could never be and storms off.

Donkey enters the windmill, but finds an ogress instead of Fiona. He instantly starts screaming and yelling, until he realizes that the ogress is Princess Fiona. She then explains that she was cursed by an enchantment: human by day, ogress by night, until she receives her true love's first kiss and takes "love's true form". Donkey brings up Shrek's name, saying that the two of them have a lot in common. Meanwhile, Shrek is outside the door waiting to tell Fiona how he feels about her, but overhears the conversation between Donkey and Fiona, thinking that Fiona is calling him a horrible monster. Shrek leaves, angry and heartbroken, without listening to the rest of the exchange: Fiona requests Donkey not to reveal the secret to anyone. Before Fiona has the chance to tell Shrek, the sun rises, turning Fiona into her human form. Fiona tries to tell him, but he is too angry about what he heard last night. As she still does not understand why he was upset about it, Shrek repeats what she said, "who could love a beast so hideous?" Unfortunately, Fiona misunderstands this as Shrek saying even he thinks she was hideous. Farquaad and his knights then simultaneously appear to escort Fiona back to Duloc, which Fiona gladly accepts. Farquaad gives Shrek his deed to his swamp and he begins to head off. Farquaad takes Fiona back to Duloc and begins the preparations for the marriage, while Donkey rushes to Shrek, telling him to stop Farquaad from taking Fiona. Shrek refuses to listen to him and sets off for his swamp, leaving an upset Donkey behind him.

Shrek goes home to return to his normal life, even more miserable than before. Donkey returns to Shrek's swamp to confront Shrek and tells him that Fiona was talking about somebody else rather than him. Shrek wants to end the wedding before it is too late, but would not be able to make it in time. Donkey then whistles and Dragon appears offering to take them. Upon arriving, Shrek storms in and objects to the wedding.

Shrek tells Fiona that Farquaad only wants to marry her so that he can be king and that he is not her true love. Farquaad then realizes that Shrek has fallen in love with the princess. He and the rest of the citizens begin to laugh before he reminds Fiona that they are one kiss away from their happily ever after. The sun then sets, revealing Fiona's ogre form. Farquaad, disgusted, orders his knights to kill Shrek and lock Fiona back in her tower. Shrek whistles and Dragon smashes through a stained glass window and swallows Farquaad. Shrek tells Fiona that he truly loves her and they share a kiss that turns Fiona into an ogress permanently. She is initially confused, as she was expecting to become beautiful, but Shrek assures her that she is beautiful.

At the end, the two get married and set off on their honeymoon in an onion carriage. In a post-credits scene, Shrek hosts a variety of songs sung by many of the characters of the movie.

Shark Tale

2008-06-21T00:29:00.000-07:00

The story begins with an underachieving fish named Oscar (Will Smith), who is fantasizing about being rich and famous ... while making his way to work as a tongue scrubber at the Whalewash, a business much akin to a car or truck wash. Soon after arriving he is called to the office of his boss, Mr. Sykes (Martin Scorsese), to discuss the fact that he owes "five thousand clams" and has to pay it back by the next day. After explaining this to his best friend Angie (Renée Zellweger) (who harbors a secret love for him), she offers him a chance to pay back the money by pawning off an heirloom pink pearl. Oscar brings the money to the race track to meet Sykes, but becomes distracted by his wishes of grandeur and places it all on a long-shot bet. Such a large bet is noticed nearby by a beautiful fish named Lola (Angelina Jolie), who flagrantly flirts with Oscar until quickly discovering the truth. Sykes is furious that Oscar bet the money but nonetheless agrees to see how the race turns out. Moments before their "horse" crosses the finish line he trips and falls. The race is lost and Oscar is set to be surreptitiously killed.

Meanwhile, on another side of the ocean, a family of criminally-inclined sharks has a problem with one of their sons, Lenny (Jack Black). Lenny refuses to act the part of a killer and wishes to not have to live up to those expectations. With this, his father, Don Lino (Robert De Niro), decides that he must learn to kill, by being taught by Lenny's more savage brother, Frankie (Michael Imperioli).

As the two sharks set out to go in accordance with their father's wishes, Frankie spots the scene where Oscar is being electrocuted by Ernie and Bernie (Doug E. Doug & Ziggy Marley), Sykes' two Jamaican jellyfish thugs, and sends Lenny off to attack. The jellyfish spot Lenny and swim off, leaving Oscar alone with him. Lenny tries to calm Oscar down by telling him that he will not eat him, but Oscar will not listen and continues on screaming. Frankie becomes annoyed and tries to attack, but suddenly an unknown anchor falls and kills him. Lenny is panged with guilt and flees. As no one saw the deed done and Oscar was seen near the body, everyone thinks he did it, and Oscar sees this as the chance to both redeem himself and receive his fame.

Oscar comes back to the city with a new title of the Sharkslayer. Sykes becomes his manager, Lola becomes his girlfriend, and Oscar moves to the "top of the reef" to live in luxury. At the same time Don Lino has everyone out looking for Lenny, and when several get close to Oscar's town the other fish expect him to drive them away. On the way he meets Lenny once more who forces Oscar to let him stay with him because he does not want to go home. Soon Angie finds out about the lie and threatens to tell everyone but Oscar and Lenny convince her to keep quiet.

Although Oscar desires to please everyone, he soon discovers that he pleases no one; his paramour Angie is heartbroken by the fact that Oscar is no longer honest, while her hedonistic rival Lola repeatedly reminds Oscar that he has her only as long as he is famous. With Don Lino planning revenge, Oscar and Lenny stage an event where Lenny pretends to terrorize the town and Oscar must defeat him, throwing him into the depths of the ocean. Though this further cements Oscar as the Sharkslayer, it greatly angers Don Lino. Oscar dumps Lola, to her extreme anger, having never been dumped before. She vows revenge. Oscar buys some Valentine's Day gifts for Angie, but before he can present them to her, he finds that Don Lino has abducted Angie in order to force a meeting. Lenny comes along, now disguised as a dolphin named Sebastian. Angie is bound and gagged and presented to Don Lino on a plate, who prepares to eat her if Oscar doesn't comply. However, Lenny lunges forward and eats Angie up, so Oscar has dominance over the sharks. However, he spends too much time threatening the sharks that he does not realise how much pain Lenny is in, and Angie (along with a lot more scrap metal) is thrown up. Don Lino realizes it's Lenny and pursues Oscar through the reef. Oscar lures both sharks into a trap. Given an ovation by the other fish, Oscar confesses that he is not a Sharkslayer and that it was an anchor that had killed Frankie. However, he lectures Don Lino on. He lectures Don Lino not to prejudge people before he knows them properly and to not make the mistake he made in prejudging his wealth, so Don Lino and Lenny reconcile. Oscar forsakes all the wealth he has acquired, makes peace with the sharks, becomes manager of the Whalewash, and marries Angie. His business grows, as the sharks and whale sharks need to use it as well.

Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott make a cameo appearance in the end of the movie.

Ratatouille

2008-06-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

Remy is a rat who lives in the attic of a French country home with his brother Emile and his father Django, the leader of a rat colony. Inspired by a television show hosted by France's recently deceased top chef, Auguste Gusteau, Remy does his best to learn how to cook. Underappreciating his exceptionally discerning sense of smell, his clan puts him to work sniffing for rat poison in their food.

The old woman who lives in the house discovers the rat infestation and the colony is forced to flee. Remy lags behind to grab Gusteau's cookbook and is separated from the others. He floats through a storm sewer on the book, ending up by chance at his idol's namesake restaurant, now run by former sous-chef Skinner.

Linguini, a young man with no culinary talent, shows up at the restaurant with a letter of introduction from his recently deceased mother. Because she is fondly remembered by the staff as Gusteau's old flame, a reluctant Skinner is pressured into hiring him to clean up. Linguini accidentally spills a pot of soup and attempts to cover up his mistake by adding nearby ingredients at random. A horrified Remy, watching from a skylight, falls into the kitchen. While desperately trying to escape out the window, Remy cannot help but try to fix the ruined soup. Linguini catches Remy in the act, just as Skinner confronts Linguini. During the confusion, some of the soup is served to a critic, who is favorably impressed. Colette, the kitchen's sole female cook, convinces Skinner not to fire Linguini; Skinner agrees, provided Linguini recreates the soup.

When Skinner spots Remy, pandemonium breaks out. After Linguini traps Rémy in a jar, Skinner orders him to dispose of him. Knowing Remy was responsible for the soup, Linguini cannot bring himself to kill him. He tells Remy his problems and discovers that Remy understands him. The unlikely pair form an alliance. Remy secretly directs Linguini like a marionette; Remy tugs at Linguini's hair to control his (involuntary) movements while remaining hidden under his toque blanche. Meanwhile, Skinner learns from Linguini's letter of introduction that, unknown to everyone but his mother, Linguini is in fact Gusteau's son and stands to inherit the restaurant, imperiling Skinner's ambition to exploit Gusteau's image to market low-quality prepared frozen foods.

When customers ask for another dish besides the soup, Skinner tries to sabotage Linguini by ordering him to prepare an old Gusteau recipe that had been a disaster. Remy changes the dish, over Colette's determined opposition, and it proves to be another hit. Skinner, suspicious of Linguini's success, plies the boy with vintage Château Latour wine in an attempt to discover his secret. However, the sly questioning yields nothing.

That same night, Remy and his colony are reunited. At the ensuing celebration party, he surprises his father by saying that he is not going to stay, but continue to associate with humans. Django tries to get Rémy to change his mind by showing him the storefront of a rodent control business, with dead rats in traps displayed in the window. Remy, though horrified, refuses to believe that enmity is inevitable between the two species and leaves.

The next morning, Linguini nearly confides his secret to Colette. Desperate to stop him, Remy makes him fall on Colette. They end up kissing and begin dating.

Remy finds the letter from Linguini's mother, along with Gusteau's will, in Skinner's office. He is discovered in the act by Skinner, resulting in a chase through the streets of Paris. Remy gets away and presents the documents to Linguini, which results in Linguini assuming ownership of the restaurant and firing Skinner. Linguini becomes a rising star in the culinary world. Skinner becomes obsessed with ruining Linguini and catching Rémy; he anonymously informs a health inspector that the restaurant is infested with rats.

Meanwhile, demanding food critic Anton Ego shows up and issues a challenge to Linguini by announcing that he will return the following night to review his cooking. (Ego's contemptuous review of Chef Gusteau's dishes had reduced his coveted five-star rating to four and eventually led to the chef's untimely death, which dropped his restaurant's rating another star.) Later, Remy and Linguini quarrel; Linguini decides that he no longer needs Remy's help. Remy retaliates by leading a kitchen raid by his fellow rats. Linguini looks for Remy to apologize, only to catch the rats in the act.

Things come to a head the next night with Ego's visit. Remy returns to help Linguini, who picks that ill-timed moment to finally admit the truth to the staff. They all think he has lost his mind and walk out, even Colette. However, she returns, remembering Gusteau's mantra, "Anyone can cook!" Django, impressed by his son's determination, has his rats work under Remy, while Linguini waits tables using roller skates. The health inspector chooses that night to show up and sees the rats in the kitchen; he is promptly tied up, gagged, and thrown in the closet. When Skinner bursts into the kitchen later, he suffers the same fate.

Remy decides to prepare Ratatouille for Ego, much to Linguini and Colette's surprise. It is a humble traditional dish not considered haute cuisine, but Remy prepares it so well that the first taste of it causes Ego to relive a childhood memory of his mother making it for him. When Ego insists on thanking the chef, Linguini and Colette insist that Ego wait until after the rest of the customers have left, whereupon Remy and the rest of the rats are revealed. A changed man, Ego writes a glowing review, declaring the chef at Gusteau's the greatest in all of France.

In the dénouement, Gusteau's is closed by the health inspector, and Ego loses his job and credibility when the news gets out that he has praised a rat-infested restaurant. However, with Ego as investor and regular patron, Linguini, Colette, and Remy open a successful new bistro called "La Ratatouille", which includes a kitchen modified to accommodate Remy and a separate dining area for rats in its attic. A line of people is shown waiting outside the filled restaurant, under a sign with a rat wearing a toque and wielding a cooking spoon.

The Polar Express

2008-06-20T23:57:00.000-07:00

STORY TO FILM

The film expands a story that can be read in under three minutes into a ninety-nine-minute movie, while remaining true to the visual style of the original. The "Hot Chocolate" production number was derived from a single sentence and a single illustration. The "Hobo," "Lonely Boy," and "Know-it-All" characters, the scenes on rooftops and on the locomotive, and the runaway observation car sequence were all new to the film. PLOT

The Polar Express is a story of a young boy on Christmas Eve in the late 1950s who is hoping for belief in the true spirit of Christmas. After he had fallen asleep, a magical train called the Polar Express pulls up in front of his house and he is invited by the train's mysterious conductor to journey to the North Pole.

The boy is handpicked by Santa Claus to receive the first gift of Christmas. Realizing that he could choose anything in the world, the boy asks for one beautiful-sounding silver bell from Santa's sleigh. The boy places the bell in the pocket of his robe and all the children watch as Santa takes off for his yearly delivery.

Later, the boy discovers that the bell has fallen from his pocket. On Christmas morning, his sister finds a small present wrapped under the tree. The boy opens the box and discovers that it is the bell, delivered by Santa who found it on the seat of his sleigh. When the boy rings the bell, both he and his sister marvel at the beautiful sound.

Monster, Inc

2008-06-20T23:42:00.000-07:00

The story is set in Monstropolis, a 1930's retro city inhabited by monsters, and centers around Monsters, Inc., the city's power company. Monsters, Inc. sends its employees to children's bedrooms to scare the children, through teleportation doors set up on the work floor. The screams of children then generate electric power for the city. In addition, the monsters believe that human children themselves are toxic (part of the skill involved in scaring includes avoiding contact with the children). The chairman and chief executive officer of Monsters, Inc. is a crab-like monster called Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn). The top scarer at Monsters, Inc. is James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (John Goodman), a furry, blue, behemoth-like giant who is partnered with the short, green, one-eyed Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal).

The two of them are best friends and roommates. Sulley is a gentle and easy-going creature, while Mike is obsessed with his car and with marrying his girlfriend, the Medusa-like Celia Mae (Jennifer Tilly). Sulley's main rival as a scarer is the chameleon-like Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi), who possesses the ability to change the color of his skin to match his surroundings, and is second only to Sulley in the scarer ranks.

As Sulley and Mike are going to work one day, their discussion reveals that the city is suffering a power shortage because children have become desensitized to fear by over-exposure to television, making screams harder to provoke. Just before they are about to leave after a long day, the secretary, the slug-like Roz, asks Mike to hand in his paperwork. Mike had forgotten about it, and leaves it to Sulley to fill up his papers and hand them in, since Mike is in a hurry to leave on a date with Celia. As Sulley reaches the work floor to find Mike's papers, he finds a lone door on the work floor after hours, which is a violation of policy.

After inspecting the door, Sulley discovers a toddler human girl (Mary Gibbs) behind it. Because Sulley lacks the access card required to open the door, he cannot return her home. Frightened, Sulley tries his best to hide the girl from coworkers, believing he could be blamed for her presence. After several misadventures, Sulley finally takes the girl to Mike, who is enjoying a romantic dinner with his girlfriend at a sushi restaurant. The girl escapes from Sulley's grip at the restaurant, creating havoc amongst the monsters, and triggering the CDA (Child Detection Agency) troops to take action; Mike and Sulley grab the girl and hasten home, trying to avoid the CDA's attention at all times.

The girl stays overnight at Mike and Sulley's flat and is soon named Boo, for her habit of saying "Boo!" to surprise Sulley. The two come to know she is not dangerous as thought, but still plan to return her to her world the next day to avoid trouble from the CDA. They disguise her as a monster and sneak her inside Monsters, Inc., where they lose and regain track of her on two or three accounts. Eventually, Mike is caught by Randall, who offers to return Boo's door to the work floor. When Sulley mistrusts Randall, Mike enters the door himself to prove its safety and is mistaken for Boo by Randall, who places him in a box and takes him to a room hidden in the basement of the scream factory. There, Mike and the film's viewers are shown a large vacuum-based device designed to drain energy from children, called a Scream Extractor. Sulley and Boo, who have followed Randall, distract him and free Mike from the machine, leaving Randall's assistant in his place.

Sulley decides to inform Waternoose of Randall's evil scheme, but is forced to participate in a scare demo to teach new scare recruits. Boo is frightened by Sulley's roar, and running away, she trips; the hood of her costume reveals that she is the escaped human child. Sulley, guilty, looks up at the images of the scare in action, revealing Boo's crying face. Sulley understands how children really feel when scared.

Mike quickly reports Randall's scheming to Waternoose before he can seize Boo. But it turns out that Waternoose is in favor of Randall's scheme. Because of the decline in productivity, he fears for the company's future, and sees Randall's machine as the only way of ensuring Monsters Inc's survival. Waternoose betrays Sulley and Mike, and exiles the two into the Himalayas through a one-way teleportation door.

The two stay with the Abominable Snowman (John Ratzenberger) at a cave until the Snowman tells Sulley of a village far below the mountain. After an argument with Mike, Sulley sneaks back to the monsters' world through a closet door in a child's bedroom in the village; Mike soon follows. The two confront Randall and attempt to rescue Boo from scream extractor. Mike, Sulley, and Boo then lead Randall on a chase through moving teleporation doors, before Randall seems to have the upper hand on Sulley. Boo, no longer afraid of Randall, attacks him. Then Mike and Sulley push Randall through a teleportation door that sends him to a remote motorhome in a Louisiana swamp, where he is beaten senseless with a shovel by the family living inside, who mistake him for an alligator. Mike and Sulley destroy the door Randall went through, thus ensuring that he doesn't return soon.

Upon returning to the scare floor, Mike distracts the CDA while Sulley and Boo run off with Boo's door. Waternoose, however, spots this and pursues them. Sulley lures Waternoose onto the company's scare rehearsal stage. At the stage, Sulley infuriates Waternoose to such an extent that Waternoose blurts out his heinous plans in a rage: "I'll kidnap a thousand children before I let this company die!". Waternoose's statement is caught on tape, and he is taken into custody by the CDA. It is also revealed that the secretary, Roz, was in fact the leader of the CDA and had been doing undercover work for the agency. Boo is soon sent home and her door is put through a wood chipper.

During his time with Boo, Sulley has learned that children's laughter is much better than screams at generating power. Using this revolutionary approach, Sulley is made the new chairman and CEO of Monsters, Inc. and the company is redefined. Now the monsters enter through the teleportation doors and make kids laugh; in this way, ample power is created for Monstropolis, thus ending the power shortages in the city. Meanwhile, Mike has secretly reassembled Boo's splintered door, and the only part missing from it is the wood chip that Sulley had salvaged as a memory of Boo. Mike shows this to Sulley, and Sulley puts the wood chip in place and the door becomes functional. Then, Sulley enters through the door to take one more peek inside. Boo is heard but not seen, and the movie ends with a surprised and pleased smile on Sulley's face.

At the end, several comical "out-takes" are shown where the movie's characters are portrayed as actors. These are also available on the 'bonus features' section of the DVD

Kung Fu Panda

2008-06-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

Po (Jack Black) is a chubby panda who works in a noodle restaurant owned by his goose father Mr. Ping (James Hong). He is a kung fu fanatic with secret dreams of becoming a great master in the discipline, however this ambition seems to be impossible due to his weight and clumsiness. Mr. Ping hopes that Po will one day take over the restaurant.

The tortoise Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) has a premonition that the evil snow leopard warrior Tai Lung (Ian McShane), the former student of his own protégé Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), will escape from prison and return to threaten the Valley of Peace. While Shifu sends Zeng (Dan Fogler), a messenger goose, to Chorh-Gom Prison to have the security increased, Oogway orders a formal ceremony to choose the mighty Dragon Warrior who can defeat Tai Lung. Everyone assumes that one of the Furious Five — Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane (David Cross) — a quintet of supremely skilled martial artists trained by Shifu, will be chosen for this honor.

While the Five demonstrate their skills at the ceremony, Po finds himself locked outside the walled palace square. As a last-ditch attempt to get over the wall, he makes a chair out of fireworks, which lights up unexpectedly (when Po farts) and sends him flying through the air and into the center of the arena. Inspired by this sudden appearance, the old master designates Po the Dragon Warrior to everyone's shock. Despite Po's protests and Shifu's pleas to reconsider, Oogway stands by his decision.

Revolted at having this slovenly and obese noodle vendor with no martial arts training whatsoever under his tutelage, Shifu attempts to make Po quit by berating and humiliating him. The Five, profoundly disappointed at being upstaged by the panda, similarly dismiss Po as a worthless interloper. Although he becomes aware of Shifu's true intentions and is deeply hurt by his heroes' disdain for him, Po endures their abuse willingly for the growing dream to become something better than the failure he thinks he is, gradually earning some sympathy from them. In addition, Master Oogway, still certain that the clumsy panda is the right choice, strengthens Po with sage advice to encourage the panda to believe in himself. Eventually, the affable Po endears himself to the Five (except for the extremely disdainful Tigress) with his tireless tenacity, good cooking, and sense of humor.

Meanwhile, Zeng's errand backfires disastrously when a tour of the prison given to him by the overly confident head of security, Commander Vachir (Michael Clarke Duncan) inadvertently enables Tai Lung to escape. Tai Lung orders Zeng to send word of his arrival. In the Valley of Peace, Oogway passes on, his final wish that Shifu train Po. However, upon learning of Tai Lung's return, and realizing that he has to face such a villain without any skill in fighting, Po attempts to flee. Shifu stops the panda and promises to train him if he is truly destined to be the Dragon Warrior. When Po confesses his deep self-loathing due to his obesity and the fact that he will never be a match for Tai Lung, Shifu is at a loss for a solution. Overhearing the argument between Po and Shifu, the Five take it upon themselves to intercept Tai Lung, especially Tigress, who is confident in her training. After a long night of pondering, Shifu discovers the following morning that Po is capable of impressive physical feats when motivated by food. Realizing that he has found the right focus for the panda, Shifu leads Po to the countryside for an intensive training regime in which Po is offered food as a reward for learning his lessons properly. Thus motivated, Po learns swiftly and finally becomes a talented martial artist in his own right.

The Five battle Tai Lung but are eventually subdued and paralyzed with a specialized nerve-striking technique. When they return defeated, Shifu finally decides Po is ready to face the villian and gives him the sacred Dragon Scroll, which promises great power to the possessor. When Po opens it, he finds nothing but a blank reflective surface. Stricken with despair at the scroll's apparent worthlessness, Shifu orders his students to lead the villagers to safety while he stays to delay Tai Lung from pursuing them for as long as he can.

As Po participates in the evacuation, he comes across his father, who tries to cheer him up by telling him the secret ingredient of the family's popular noodle soup: nothing. Things become special, he explains, because people believe them to be special. Realizing that this truth is the very point of the Dragon Scroll, that the power promised is already inside him, Po rushes off to help Shifu. At this time, Tai Lung confronts Shifu and savagely fights and berates him for not granting him the title of Dragon Warrior just because Master Oogway did not choose him. To remedy that, the leopard wants the Dragon Scroll for himself to complete his training. While fighting, he expresses that he gave in to his aggression and anger so he could make Shifu proud of him. For his part, Shifu is crippled by his profound feelings of guilt and responsibility for his former protégé, whom he loved like a son, turning to darkness.

Tai Lung angrily discovers the Scroll is gone, and before he can kill his former mentor, Po arrives to challenge him as he had already believed in himself. Although the snow leopard scoffs at the fat panda being the Dragon Warrior, the ensuing fight proves Po to be an extremely formidable opponent. Despite Po's skill, Tai Lung temporarily stuns him and gains the Dragon Scroll, but is horrified when he examines it, unable to understand its symbolism. As he recovers, Po delivers some words of wisdom to strengthen Tai Lung's spirit. Deeply frustrated with an apparently useless prize and having worked so hard for the "Powerful" Dragon Scroll, Tai Lung tries to subdue Po with his nerve strikes. However, the attack proves useless on the panda, as his nerves are difficult to find due to his body fat. Emboldened, Po effectively counter-attacks with a unique improvised combat style that takes advantage of his girth to absorb and deflect the force from Tai Lung's attacks back at him. In the end, Po uses the Wuxi Finger Hold on Tai Lung (which he claims to have "figured out" on his own), and destroys him with a devastating explosion that ripples through the valley.

The Five return to the valley to investigate the cause of the explosion and find a slightly dazed but triumphant Po. Deeply impressed at Po's victory, Tigress leads the Five to acknowledge the panda as a Kung Fu master. The villagers, including Po's father, follow suit and hail Po as a hero. Po remembers that his teacher is wounded, and rushes back to Shifu, who is now finally at peace. At first, he appears to be dead, but it turns out that he is only resting after such a trying battle.

Chicken Little

2008-05-22T01:46:00.001-07:00

The film is inspired by the fable The Sky is Falling (also known as Chicken Licken, Henny Penny, or Chicken Little). In the small suburban town of Oakey Oaks, Chicken Little rings the school bell and cries for everyone to "run for your lives!" This sends the whole town into a frenzied panic that causes so much havoc that it destroys a small part of the town; eventually they calm down enough to ask him what's wrong, and Chicken Little explains that a piece of the sky shaped like a stop sign had fallen on his head when he was sitting under the big oak tree in the town square. He's unable to find the piece now. His father, Buck Cluck, ashamedly assumes that this "piece of sky" was just an acorn that had fallen off the tree and had hit him on the head. Chicken Little becomes the laughing stock of the town.

A year later, Little has become famous in the town for being crazy, which has led to people avoiding him because of his supposed insanity, his only friends are outcasts like himself: Abby Mallard, who is called "Ugly Duckling" (who has a crush on Chicken Little); Runt of the Litter, who is extremely large despite being the smallest in his family; and Fish out of Water, who wears a helmet full of water and does not speak. All have been mocked and teased by neighborhood bully Foxy Loxy and her friend Goosey Loosey.

During a dodgeball game (the coach pits the popular vs. the unpopular), Abby tells Little to talk to his dad, when Little wants his dad to be proud. While Little, Abby and Fish are dodging, Runt is getting hit by every ball thrown at him. To help Chicken, Abby hands Little magazines about talking to your parents, but he hands them to Fish, who immediately starts ripping pages out of each one, making a miniature building and airplanes. Fish then proceeds to pull a King Kong impersonation. Foxy and Goosey bully Little and Friends soon after.

Chicken Little joins his school's Little League baseball team in an attempt to recover his reputation and his father's pride, but is unfairly made last, while Foxy Loxy impresses spectators and the newspapers with her pitches and "miracle catches" -- until the ninth inning when Chicken Little, reluctantly called to bat by the coach, who tells him not to swing as he's certain that if Chicken Little tries to swing, he'll lose the game for them, scores an inside-the-park home run after two strikes.

But that night back at home, while celebrating his victory by singing "We Are The Champions" by Queen in his own style, and his father's praise, he is hit on the head - by what appears to be a chunk of the sky shaped like a stop sign - only (after narrowly avoiding telling his father about it) to find out that it is not a piece of the sky, but something else. It has chameleonic characteristics- it's not invisible, but it blends into the background (which would thereby explain why Chicken Little was unable to find it last time). Meanwhile his friends are singing karaoke to the Spice Girls' "Wannabe", until Little calls them over to help figure out what it is.

When Fish pushes a button on the back of the octagon, it flies back up into the sky, taking Fish with it. It turns out to be part of the camouflage of an invisible alien spacecraft. They chase the flying ship until it lands; they go inside, encounter a small orange alien, find Fish, and are about to escape when two aliens in robotic suits spot them. A chase ensues that goes outside the ship and into town (the orange alien still following in secret). Little manages to ring the bell to warn everyone, but the aliens see the crowds coming and manage to escape, leaving the orange one behind. No one believes the story of an alien invasion; Little is ridiculed all over again, and everything seems to be going down the tubes for him, until the next day; he and his friends discover the orange alien, and a few minutes later a whole fleet of alien ships descends on the town.

The invasion is actually a misunderstanding, as two aliens (who are red and yellow making their child orange) are looking for their lost child (whose name is Kirby) and attack only out of concern. It's not an invasion, it's a rescue mission. As the aliens rampage throughout Oakey Oaks, vapourising people and objects (among them Foxy Loxy and the mayor) seemingly at random, Little realizes he must return Kirby to his parents to save the planet. At first he tries to do it covertly but once the aliens attack, he's forced to confront his father and regain his trust first. They share a caring moment in a movie theater. Abby interrupts them and requests that they hurry up. Little and Cluck are seen leaving the theater, but before leaving, Chicken Little admits his romantic feelings for Abby and kisses her.

In the invasion, Buck Cluck, now regaining his pride and trust in Little, defends Little from the aliens, even going as far as deflecting an incoming vaporiser ray with a garbage can lid, throwing the lid at the creatures, and punching them away at the top of town hall. Abby, Runt and Fish also aid Chicken Little in his quest to return Kirby to his parents. It is then discovered that the aliens weren't vaporising people, the ray guns teleported them aboard a spaceship. Afterwards, the aliens return everything to normal (though Foxy Loxy's mind was slightly scrambled after she was restored, making her more girly and kind), and Hollywood makes a heavily dramatized film about Chicken Little. The actor portraying Little is a handsome, muscular rooster while Abby is an attractive looking goose. Runt is a brutish hog with horns who dies a heroic death while fighting the aliens and the actor who plays Fish looks exactly the same in the same but is able to converse in English. At the end of the movie, Little and Abby are seen secretly holding hands in their popcorn bucket, and everyone cheers for Chicken Little's efforts to save the town.

Monster House

2008-05-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

The plot revolves around a preteen boy, Douglas J. "D.J." Walters (Mitchel Musso), who spends lots of his free time spying the house (which bears resemblance to that of Norman Bates from the Hitchcock film Psycho) across the street and its owner, Mr.Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi), a crotchety old man who terrorizes anyone who steps anywhere on his lawn or close to his house.

Even though DJ has seen Nebbercracker take several toys from kids that have stepped in his grounds, his parents (Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard), dismiss his comments easily as "kid talk". They then leave town for the weekend for a dental convention.

Charles "Chowder" (Sam Lerner), a chubby teenage boy who is DJ's best friend, shows up with a new basketball to play with DJ. When they lose it in Nebbercracker's lawn, DJ ventures there to recover it, thinking he might be asleep. However, he appears and grabs DJ lifting him and screaming at him. This causes him to collapse, seemingly dead, causing DJ to feel responsible. While Nebbercracker is being carried away by the paramedics, he drops a gold key on his lawn, which DJ scoops up.

DJ's apathetic Punk babysitter Elizabeth (Maggie Gyllenhaal), or "Zee" as she prefers to be called, arrives taking over the house and sending DJ to his room. At night, DJ gets a call apparently from Nebbercracker's house. Also, Zee's boyfriend, Bones (Jason Lee), comes over to the house and start making fun of DJ, scaring him.

After they leave, DJ calls Chowder and they agree to meet at a construction lot. As he leaves, he overhears Zee and Bones talking about Nebbercracker, and how he took a kite from Bones when he was a 10 year old. Bones also tells of how he has seen the old man speaking to his house and about a legend around town that he fattened up his wife and ate her. However, Zee ends up kicking him out after he pounces on her.

A drunk Bones goes over to Mr. Nebbercracker's house and rants at it while stepping on the lawn and ripping the grass off it. As he does it, the door opened revealing Bones' "awesome kite". He attempts to retrieve it, only to be swallowed up by the house.

After DJ meet Chowder, they decide to investigate the house. Chowder goes up to it, and tries to ring its doorbell and run, but the house comes to life and attempts to eat him. They run back to DJ's house and spend the night watching across the street.

The next morning, a girl named Jenny Bennet (Spencer Locke) comes up to DJ's house and sells Zee some Halloween chocolates. After giving the kids the chocolates, they see the same girl going to Mr. Nebbercracker's house to sell too. The boys run out to tell her to go away, but the house tries to eat her as well. However, DJ and Chowder manage to catch Jenny before she is eaten. When Zee sees them outside she goes out but doesn't believe anything and drives off to look for Bones.

Scared by what happened, they return to DJ's room where both kids try to impress Jenny, pretending to be older and more mature. As they keep watching the house, they see how a small dog is swallowed when he is about to pee on the lawn. Jenny, shocked, decides to send for the police. The police officers Landers and Lester (Kevin James and Nick Cannon respectively) do not believe their story, mainly because the house doesn't react to any teasing while the cops are in front of it. If anything they get in trouble because DJ attempted to make the house move by throwing a rock at it.

The children then go to an arcade and talk to a video-game addict nicknamed Skull (Jon Heder) looking for advice. They learn that the house is actually a monster known as "domus mactibilis" (deadly home in Latin), which is created when a human soul merges with a man-made structure, such as a house. They conclude that the house is Nebbercracker back from the dead and that the only way to 'kill' the house is to destroy its heart which Skull reveals is its only weakness. Upon returning to DJ's house, the three draw out a plan to destroy the house, after deciding that the furnace is the heart. They conclude this since smoke has been coming out of the chimney ever since Mr. Nebbercracker died.

The kids devise a plan to make a dummy using a vacuum, and filling it with cold medicine stolen from Chowder's father's pharmacy intending to "drug" the house. As the house is about to swallow the dummy, the cops arrive again prompting the house to "hide" again. Officer Landers decide to take the three kids to jail after discovering the stolen medicines. After putting them in the car, Lester hears a sound from inside the house and the two go investigate it. As they approach, a tree disarms Lester and the house swallows him. Seconds later, it also devours Landers. The kids watch, horrified, and the house soon also eats the police car, though the kids survive by jumping out the broken back window.

As the group is trapped inside the house, they notice it's asleep probably, assuming that it had gotten rid of the kids. They start to explore the house, finding boxes of explosives (indicating that Nebbercracker used to work in demolition), a pair of binoculars on the end of an extender facing DJ's house (meaning that he was watching DJ just like how DJ was watching him), and pictures of a very large woman, among other things. They conclude that Nebbercracker did have a wife. As they descend to the basement they find the stash of stolen toys Nebbercracker has taken from kids. They also see a locked circus-style cage. DJ opens it with the key the old man had dropped previously and they see the body of the wife covered in cement. She was once known as Constance the Giantess, and Nebbercracker had built a shrine around her after she died.

When DJ trips and lands on Constance's body, revealing her skeleton, the house wakes up and starts attacking the kids. However, they manage to escape as they force the house to "vomit" them outside by pulling a large lamp in the foyer that the house apparently uses as its uvula. As they are returning home, they see Nebbercracker being brought back to his house, with an arm in a sling. DJ confronts him and tells him how he knows about Constance. Nebbercracker breaks down and reveals his story.

Nebbercracker tells of how he met Constance (Kathleen Turner), a very obese lady who was an unwilling member of a circus freak show, and fell in love with her. After helping her escape they moved to a new land and he started building the house she always wanted. However, children taunted her for her weight and threw things at her, making her hate children. One day, as a consequence to her attacks, Constance lost her footing and as she fell from the edge of the foundation of the house she grabbed the lever of a cement mixer, which covered her in cement after she fell several meters below to her death.. A saddened Nebbercracker finished the house because he knew she would have wanted that.

Apparently, after Constance's death, her spirit possessed the house she wanted to see finished, further attacking any child who approaches. To protect the children from the wrath of his house, Mr. Nebbercracker pretended to be a child-hating old man to keep them away from the house — especially during Halloween. However, Nebbercracker feels it is time for the house to be destroyed. The house overhears, and becomes very angry attacking him and the kids.

As they flee from the now-walking house, they run to the construction lot where Chowder and DJ met earlier. Reluctantly, Nebbercracker attempts to throw a stick of dynamite inside the house, but he fails. Chowder then attacks the house with a backhoe saving Nebbercracker. this destroys the house's structure, but since the chimney is intact (which DJ realizes is the heart not the furnace after all), the body rebuilds itself, but as a mangled pile of wood and bricks with broken eye-windows. DJ then takes the dynamite and climbs with Jenny to the top of a crane to throw the stick down the house's chimney. As they attempt to do it, DJ is scared and doesn't think he can do it, but Jenny kisses him to encourage him.

DJ falls from the crane, clinging to the hook at the end of the cable. As he swings forth he throws the dynamite down the chimney, and as he swings back he grabs Chowder who was being attacked below, and they jump into a trench to protect from the explosion which destroys the house and since the chimney was destroyed this time it doesn't regenerate as its heart is gone. As the trio reunite, they see Nebbercracker dancing with the spirit of Constance as he let goes of her and she fades away. DJ apologizes to him and Nebbercracker thanks him for freeing him and Constance.

The film ends with the kids returning to the hole where the house was, and Chowder, DJ, and Jenny helping Nebbercracker return all the toys the house had taken from kids. Jenny is then picked up by her parents and she says that they should hang together again sometime. Chowder gets his ball back from Nebbercracker and after playing ball for a minute the two decide to go trick-or-treating after all.

During the credits, it is shown that everyone that was eaten by the house, including the dog, steps out of the basement bewildered but unharmed, and that Bones and Zee are not together anymore, since she has decided to go out with Skull. Bones doesn't care, as he has his long-lost kite back. Officers Landers and Lister decide to spend the rest of the night "inspecting" candy to shake off their little "experience" of being eaten. In the end, the house comes back to life, reminiscent of the conclusion to Clive Barker's "The Thief of Always."

Meet the Robinsons

2008-05-02T03:20:00.000-07:00

A young woman leaves her baby boy on the steps of an orphanage. Twelve years later, Lewis (Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry), the baby, has yet to be adopted. Confident that his birth mother abandoned him against her will, he attempts to invent a memory-scanner that will allow him to remember his mother in the hopes that he can find her. He keeps his roommate, Mike "Goob" Yagoobian (Matthew Josten), up every night working, which causes Goob’s Little League baseball team’s performance to suffer. Goob attempts to be supportive but is finding things more and more difficult himself.

At Lewis’s school science fair, Inventco. representative Dr. Krunkelhorn (Laurie Metcalf) is judging the event. Lewis is approached by a thirteen-year-old boy named Wilbur Robinson (Wesley Singerman), who claims that he is a "time cop" from the future, and that a man wearing a bowler hat stole a time machine. The sinister Bowler Hat Guy (Stephen Anderson), for whom Wilbur is searching, sends Doris (Ethan Sandler), a robotic hat with mechanical arms, to sabotage Lewis’s machine. As Lewis begins demonstrating his machine, it explodes, throwing the science fair into chaos. Lewis runs out, leaving his machine, and Bowler Hat Guy steals the memory scanner.

At the orphanage, Lewis goes to the roof, crushed by his "failure". Wilbur appears and tells Lewis to go back to the science fair and fix the machine. Lewis agrees, under the condition that Wilbur proves he is from the future. Wilbur then takes Lewis to a flying time machine, and uses it to take them to the year 2037, thirty years forward.

In 2037, Wilbur takes Lewis to the garage where Wilbur tells the house robot Carl (Harland Williams). Lewis meets Wilbur's grandfather, Bud (Steve Anderson). Bud takes Lewis on a tour of the house, during which Lewis meets the rest of the strange and fun-loving and overly-eccentric Robinson family, ranging from Wilbur’s friendly mother Franny (Nicole Sullivan), the family's squid-like butler Lefty (Nathan Greno), Bud's wife Lucille, Uncle Fritz and his "wife" Aunt Petunia (both voiced by Ethan Sandler), their children Talula (Steve Anderson) and Laszlo (Ethan Sandler), lazy Uncle Joe and his wife Aunt Billie (Kellie M. Hoover), and twin uncles Spike and Dimitri (both voiced by Ethan Sandler) as well as daredevil Uncle Gaston (Don Hall) and intergalactic super pizza guy Uncle Art (Adam West) whom are Franny's brothers. Assured that no one Lewis met knows that he’s from the past, a relieved Wilbur explains that his father, Cornelius, the only member of the Robinson family that Lewis did not meet, invented practically everything Lewis has witnessed, coining the motto "Keep moving forward". Together, and with the help of the large and multi-talented Robinson family, Wilbur and Lewis have to overcome the menace to the future posed by the time-machine-stealing Bowler Hat Guy and DOR-15 (aka Doris - the bowler hat) in order to ensure that the utopian future that the Robinsons live in will come to pass - and so that Wilbur will take Lewis to see his mother. After failing to kidnap Lewis with a Mini-Doris possessing one of Franny's frogs, Bowler Hat Guy uses the time machine to bring back a Tyrannosaurus named Tiny (Joe Mateo) to abduct Lewis. After it was defeated, Lewis' secret was revealed as Wilbur explains that the Bowler Hat Guy broke into the garage that had the time machine Cornelius Robinson invented. As Lewis runs away knowing that Wilbur wouldn't uphold his promise, Franny grounds Wilbur for his actions. Lewis runs into the Bowler Hat Guy who abducts him before Wilbur can bring him back.

At the abandoned orphanage, the Bowler Hat Guy reveals himself as an aged and deeply bitter Goob. He then proceeds to tell Lewis what had happened: Having been kept up all night from Lewis' inventing, Goob was unable to stay awake during the big game. Thus missing the winning catch. The resulting inner anger inside of him had kept him from making friends or finding a family, so he simply stayed in the orphanage (even after it had closed down) for 30 years.

It was after those 30 years that Goob adopted the belief that it wasn't his fault; it was Lewis'. So he concocted a plan to gain his revenge...by throwing eggs at the Robinson Indistries building entrence. It was then that he met DOR-15, a future invention of Lewis' that went horribly wrong. Both of them had a score to settle with Lewis, so they waited untill the right time to strike (Ironically, they were able to acquire the time machine when Wilbur had left the garage door open).

The Bowler Hat Guy and DOR-15 then take Lewis to the roof of the orphanage and prepare to present "Their" invention to Invent Co. Wilbur and Carl save him but Carl is killed by Doris, who retrieves the memory scanner. The Bowler Hat Guy then says "Take a good look around boys because your future's about to CHANGE!" then leaves, laughing wickedly.

What follows is a montage of Wilbur trying to encourage Lewis to fix the broken time machine and the Bowler Hat Guy presenting the memory scanner (and Doris).

The Bowler Hat Guy suceeds and Wilbur is erased from existance. Unfortunately, the future is horrifyingly altered where DOR-15 and the helping hats control the world....something he did not intend at all.

Dodging the controlled Robinson family, a giant spider-legged bowler hat, and several smaller hats, Lewis fixes and uses the time machine to go to the brecise moment and location where the Bowler Hat Guy signs the contract and doomes humanity. He tells him that, once she has what she wants, Doris will get rid of him. Doris tries to kill Lewis, but he merely says "I will NEVER invent you!", which causes the hat to vanish into oblivion.

Lewis then shows him Doris' future, which is transformed into the utopian future. After they land near the Robinson house, Wilbur is put back into existance. He attacks the Bowler Hat Guy at first, but is convinced by Lewis that they shoud adopt him. However, having seen the horror he had caused, the Bowler Hat Guy runs away in shame and is unsure what to do next.

After returning to the Robinson's aboad, they thank Lewis for fixing the future. Just then, Cornelius (voice of Tom Selleck) finally comes home and is discovered that he is actually an adult version of Lewis. He does allow Wilbur to take Lewis to when his mother left him at the orphanage. Lewis says his goodbyes to the Robinsons and their new pet Tiny. Though wanting to know her, Lewis changes his mind and returns to the past. With his memory scanner, Lewis heads to the school yet manages to wake 'Goob' up in time to make the catch, causing him to win the game, and ensuring him a better future. At the science fair, his memory scanner is successful upon Dr. Krunklehorn as Lewis discovers that she's married to who would later be Grandpa Bud and one of his classmates is a younger Franny. Lewis allows Dr. Krunklehorn and Bud to adopt him as he starts to live up to his future family's legacy.

Madagascar

2008-04-15T05:47:00.001-07:00

Alex the lion, Marty the starry-eyed zebra, Melman the hypochondriac giraffe and Gloria the "hip", slightly chubby hippo have a pampered life at the Central Park Zoo in New York City where they show off to the crowds and generally enjoy themselves. But Marty, celebrating his tenth birthday, longs to see the rest of the world and dreams of life in the wild. When he learns that the zoo's penguins are planning to escape he decides to follow suit, and return by morning. He has a vague notion that the wild can be found in Connecticut, so one night he sneaks out of the zoo and sets off on foot for Grand Central Terminal, where he hopes to take the Metro-North Railroad to Connecticut.

When the others find him gone, they head for Grand Central Station via the Subway to try and get him back. Arriving at Grand Central, they scare away most of the passengers (except for one determined old lady who leaves Alex on his toes) and catch Marty. They then manage to wreck the information desk before being shot with tranquilizer darts, along with the penguins and Mason and Phil, two chimpanzees who also escaped. Anti-zoo campaigners use the incident as evidence that animals should not be locked up. Because of this, all the animals soon find themselves in wooden crates aboard a cargo ship to Kenya.

The penguins succeed in taking over the ship and changing its course, following their initial plan of making their way to Antarctica. During the penguins' takeover, the crates containing Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria fall overboard and they become separated on the ocean. Alex is washed ashore on a tropical beach. All night he is alone, but in the morning finds Melman stuck in his crate. Gloria and Marty soon wash ashore on the beach too. At first Melman assumes they are in San Diego, and Alex is upset that he will be outshone by Shamu, but when they discover a large tribe of lemurs led by King Julien XIII (voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen), they realize they are not in the United States anymore. They are actually in the wild, on the island of Madagascar.

Alex is furious with Marty, blaming him for the group's situation. He divides the island between them and forces Gloria and Melman to help him build a beacon-holding Statue of Liberty lookalike. His plan is to ignite the beacon, making them easy to notice for the boat, which Alex believes is coming to rescue them. However, Melman accidentally sets the whole statue on fire and destroys it. Gloria and Melman then join Marty, and Alex soon decides that he has been a jerk to his friend and joins the others to live on Madagascar.

Meanwhile, the penguins arrive in snowbound, windswept Antarctica and decide that "Well, this sucks..."

Julien hopes that the lemurs' new friends, whom he calls the "New York Giants", will scare away the foosa, enemies of the lemurs who have been preying on them. Despite the protests of his advisor Maurice (who thinks that Alex, as a carnivore, might be dangerous), Julien convinces the lemurs to welcome Marty and the others to their own little corner of paradise.

Unfortunately Alex, who has only ever eaten pre-cut steaks until now, is beginning to regain his natural predatory instincts. After losing control and attacking Marty, he is considered too dangerous to be a friend to his zoomates, or to any of the lemurs. Julien admits that Maurice has some sense in fearing Alex, and banishes the lion to the side of the island dominated by the foosa, just before everyone ends up running for their lives. Alex came to his senses for a time after a knock on the head by a coconut, and made the decision to leave his friends behind rather than do something he'd later regret. Marty, now completely aware of the predatory factor of the wild, is devastated at the realization that this is happening to him.

The penguins soon arrive in the ship. Realizing this may be a way back into New York, Marty goes to find Alex (against Gloria's advice). He ends up deep in foosa territory where he unsuccessfully tries to get Alex to come with him. The foosa eventually attack him, and soon he, Melman, Gloria and the penguins end up fighting for their lives, hopelessly outnumbered by the hungry creatures. Then Alex appears. At first he seems to have completely returned to his hunting instincts and claims Marty as his own prey. But this turns out to be a ruse: Alex has managed to overcome his predatory instincts. Using the foosa's natural fear of him, Alex drives the predators away from lemur territory forever. Needless to say, Julien made it clear that his original plan was a huge success.

Following a celebration dinner, at which Alex's hunger is finally sated by the discovery that he likes fish even better than steak, the friends return to the ship, leaving the penguins behind, and plan a round-the-world cruise, unaware that the ship is out of fuel, thus making this their permanent home.

Jimmy Neutron : Boy Genius

2008-04-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

The film opens and Air Force base somewhere in Colorado. Their radar picks up a UFO and they send planes up to examine the situation. The pilots are surprised to find that it is a rocket carrying two boys and a robotic dog: Jimmy Neutron (Debi Derryberry), Carl Wheezer (Rob Paulsen), and Goddard (Frank Welker). Jimmy needs to launch a communications satellite (which is really a toaster) to communicate with an alien species who sent him a message that was garbled in the ionosphere. Unfortunately, the pulse rockets fail, and the rocket cannot leave the atmosphere. Jimmy tapes some soda to the toaster and throws it for a lost musical, propeling the soda into space. Then the rocket falls down to town and lands on his roof. He is reprimanded by his parents (Megan Cavanagh and Mark DeCarlo), gets ready for school, but his antics caused him to miss the bus for a lost musical again. He catches up with the school bus, In the classroom, Cindy Vortex (Carolyn Lawrence), Jimmy's arch rival, is giving a report on dinosaurs.

Jimmy proceeds to correct her with technical data and they argue. During show and tell, Jimmy shows Ms. Fowl (Andrea Martin) and the class a shrink ray. He attempts to shrink Cindy's head, but the ray malfunctions and does not work. When walking home, Jimmy, Carl, and their friend Sheen Estevez (Jeff Garcia) spot a poster for an amusement park. However, their parents will not let them go, so they sneak out. By now, the shrink ray is working again, so Nick Dean also had the Golden Rule.

Meanwhile, the toaster is found by an alien race called the Yolkians. They seem to be a green goo (or yolk, possibly) with eye stalks. They use pods with hovering capability and robotic arms to move, but they fly spaceships in space (that look like robots). King Goobot (Patrick Stewart) and his assistant, Ooblar (Martin Short), watch the message, Then, all the ships in the armada head to Earth. They take all the parents in the city and leave, putting obviously fake notes on the refrigerators to tell the kids where they've gone but there's something in ther kitchen.

On the way home, Carl spots a shooting star, so he, Jimmy, and Sheen wish for no more parents so they could have fun all the time. The next morning, Jimmy spots the Note set and reads it. The notes are the same for everyone, so Jimmy has Goddard scan for adult life forms. When the report comes back (none within radar range), the kids celebrating and doing things they couldn't do normally, like riding, fridge peeing in the shower,horses, games,running up the down escalator,clothes don't match, STILL peeing in the shower,pies, flooding the school to jet ski in it, underwear flags and popcorn snowmans and sledding.

The next morning, the craze has worn off, and at home, Jimmy is upset that his parents didn't say goodbye. Jimmy goes to his lab and compares the note the Yolkians left with notes his parents wrote. When the writing doesn't compare, Jimmy realizes that the notes are fake. Goddard finds evidence of aliens on the computer, and Jimmy tracks them to another system. He organizes the other kids in town to build rockets from the theme park rides to travel there.

While staying on an asteroid, everyone recalls what their parents did at bedtime before they were abducted by aliens. The next day, they reach the planet Yolkus (a spoof of courage from Esther) are captured by Goobot. He says the parents are to be sacrificed to their god, Poultra. They're taken to the dungeon, but Ooblar takes Goddard to his workshop to take him apart after Goddard assaults Goobot. Jimmy calls Goddard on Libby's cell phone and tricks Ooblar into thinking Goddard will self-destruct in an explosion covering 30 square miles. Goddard frees the kids using a glitch in his obedience program (when told to play dead, he detonates in a small explosion, which blows down the door), and they make it to the arena were the parents will be sacrificed to Poultra. When they reach it, an unusual ceremony is finishing (with mind-control devices, the parents do the chicken dance!), and Poultra, a gigantic three-eyed chicken with reptilian legs, hatching from her egg. Jimmy quickly comes up with a plan: Sheen heads to an airfield to obtain a transport, he gets the mind controller, and the rest of the kids keep the guards busy.

They escape, but Goobot follows them in his ship at the head of the Yolkus fleet. He orders the ships to open fire.During the battle, Jimmy skims the surface of Yolkus's sun, and flares destroy all but Goobot's ship. The king sends a taunting message to Jimmy, who flies out with Goddard. He uses his shrink ray to make himself the size of a planet, and blows the ship into an oncoming asteroid. Goobot vows he'll be back. The kids are reunited with their parents, and they make it home without further incident. Hugh decided to watch LarryBoy and the Bad Apple and taking a gander and see my mole and says "Look, I made a forsting cow" saying going to Doylie's ice cream parlor told to Neturon "A BORED GOURD, A SOUR GRAPE AND A CUCUMBER WHO WANTED TO BE COOL..." and Cindy had sold by a slave and it named was changed.

Ice Age 2 : The Meltdown

2008-04-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

In the opening scene, Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel climbs up a glacier side, hoping to take back his acorn. He pulls it out, unknowingly opening a hole in the glacier, which water soon jets out of. With that, Scrat is shot down with the stream. The world of ice is slowly melting.

In the next shot, the creatures of the Ice Age are all shown enjoying themselves on slides and pools made by the melting ice; among them the three protagonists of the first film: Manfred, Sid, and Diego. Sid opens a day camp, where none of the younger creatures take him seriously, nor do Manfred and Diego, which leaves Sid seeking a daring deed for more respect. Soon, the trio discover Fast Tony and Stu, a pair of local con artists claiming that the earth will flood and that the bark and reeds which they sell are needed to snorkel and stay aloft. Manfred dismisses the idea, but is distracted when he sees that Sid will try to high dive from a giant waterfall; as Manfred goes with Diego to the top of the waterfall to save Sid from his act of daredevilry, they see that the global warming caused the ice of the valley to melt, and it is kept from destroying the valley only by the glaciers, which have formed a dam. It is then that a turkey vulture known as the Lone Gunslinger tells the animals that a giant piece of a fallen tree can act as a boat and save them from the floods; all soon set out to find it.

During the time that the masses of animals escape, a glacier which contains two sea reptiles from the Mesozoic era, (Cretaceous and Maelstrom), breaks off. The con-man Stu is an example of these reptiles' hunger as he is soon devoured, leaving behind his shell alone.

Along the way, Manfred grows unhappy when other animals tease him about being the last mammoth alive. Manfred takes his leave for a moment, leaving Diego and Sid alone, unknowingly to be heckled by two opossums named Crash and Eddie. The opossums proceed to torture Sid and Diego, shooting pebbles at them and baiting them to fight in the manner of Whac-A-Mole. Meanwhile, Manfred meets Ellie, a female mammoth who believes she is an opossum and the sister of Crash and Eddie. Sid invites her to tag along with the group to escape the flood, and she brings her brothers, who spare no chance at their pranks.

After a perilous ordeal with Cretaceous and Maelstrom, Sid finds out that Diego is afraid of water. As they walk Ellie plays with her brothers and gets stuck under a log. Manfred lifts it off her and it opens up an area which Ellie recalls from her childhood as the place where she was adopted by her brothers' mother. She finally realises she is a mammoth and starts getting along with Manfred but grows apart from him when he suggests "saving their species". In time, when the situation calls for it, to save them all from falling into a gorge of pointed rocks, they make up. During the night, while all are asleep, Sid is kidnapped by a tribe of mini-sloths (small multi-coloured sloths) who believe Sid to be a god. Sid lights a fire for them, and believes that he has found respect as their deity, but they plan instead to sacrifice him to a volcano. Sid escapes this fate and returns with his herd.

The next morning, Manfred and the others regroup with Sid, who regales them with his experience with none convinced, and they all find out that they had overslept. As they all rush to reach salvation, they find a field of hot geysers, which separate Manfred, Sid, and Diego from Ellie and her brothers. Each group believes in espacing the geysers differently(Namely Manny and Ellie).

When the flood comes, Manfred saves Ellie from drowning as she is caught in a grotto of rocks, while Diego overcomes his fear of water to save Sid. All is about to be ruined when Cretaceous and Maelstrom come about, but due to Manfred's quick thinking, they are finished off by a rock which falls on them maybe they got killed. While all this happens, the other animals are taken on a death ride on the "boat" as it floats about, and are off at the mercy of the water currents.

Meanwhile, Scrat climbs up the glacier, and at the top sticks the acorn he has into the ice. This forms a crack in the glacier, which widens into a fissure, diverting the flood and saving the animals. Scrat is then washed away in the raging water.

In the final scene, a herd of mammoths shows up, removing the need for Manfred and Ellie to mate and proving to other animals that mammoths are not extinct; however, love triumphs and they decide to remain together anyway, taking Sid, Diego, and the opossum brothers along. Now they are one big happy family: a sloth, a sabre toothed cat, two opossums and two mammoths.

The epilogue shows Scrat having a near death experience after falling into the fissure he mistakenly opened. He enters a heaven full of acorns, amazed completely. He sees a gigantic acorn, reaches for it and nearly grabs it. Suddenly, he finds himself torn away from heaven (The music stopping abruptly). He wakes up in the arms of Sid the sloth, who had resuscitated him. Taken from his heavenly, giant acorn, Scrat is enraged and proceeds to attack his savior.

Ice Age

2008-04-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

The film begins with a squirrel known as Scrat, who is trying to find a location to store his prized acorn. Eventually, as he tries to hide it, he causes an avalanche.

In the beginning, most animals are trying to avoid the ice age by migrating south. Sid, a clumsy ground sloth left behind by his family, is attacked by two Brontops whom he angered. Sid is soon saved by Manfred ("Manny"), an agitated mammoth who fights off the two Brontops. Not wanting to be alone and unprotected, Sid follows Manny.

Meanwhile, Soto, the leader of the Smilodon pride wants revenge on a group of humans by eating the chief's son, Roshan, because the humans had wiped out half of his pack. During the attack by the Smilodon pack on the humans, the baby's mother evades the cats who are pursuing her by jumping into a waterfall. With that, Soto orders Diego to find the baby and bring it to him alive.

Sid and Manny spot Nadia near the lake having survived her fall, having only enough strength to trust her baby to Manny before she disappears. After much persuasion by the sloth, they decide to return the baby (nicknamed "Pinky") but when they get to the human camp, the humans are gone. Diego convinces the pair to let him help by tracking the humans. The four travel on, with Diego secretly leading them to an ambush. Soon they reach a cave where Sid and Diego learn about Manny's past and his previous interactions with the humans.

At the end of the film, Diego, Manny and Sid battle Soto's pack and a short fight ensues. Diego fights against Soto, and Soto knocks Diego out. As Soto closes in for the kill on Manny, Diego leaps and stops Soto, who wounds Diego in the process. Manny, in vengeance, knocks Soto into a wall of rocks, where icicles fall and kill Soto. Manny and Sid manage to return the baby to his tribe, and Diego rejoins them, as the group begin heading off to warmer climates.

Years later, Scrat is shown on a tropical island, with a coconut to replace his lost acorn, but as he proceeds to pack the coconut, it causes a volcanic eruption.

Alert viewers will notice the plot has some similarity to Disney's animated version of The Jungle Book (1967), though it also has a lot of themes and jokes from Three Men and a Baby. During a speech given at the Tokyo Film Festival in 2006, producer Bill Mechanic stated, "I had been at Disney, we had success with Three Men and I thought we had picked the ice age as a good milieu, and then what story could we tell in there? And I thought the way to do it was Three Men and a Baby."

DELETED PORTION

Originally, Sid was trying to avoid another sloth named Sylvia. He manages to lose her by putting her in the path of some migrating glyptodons, who unknowingly carry her off when she got caught on their backs. Later he makes it look like Diego had killed him, but she saw he was faking, so she deserted him in anger. This segment was still used in the movie, but was used for Sid to avoid the two brontotheres who were still after him, as they fell for the trick. It was kept in the storybook version, however. The deleted scenes can be viewed separately, or in Nutty Movie Mode, both of which are included on Disc 1 of the two-disc Special Edition DVD.

Finding Nemo

2008-04-15T04:56:00.000-07:00

When the clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) loses his wife, Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), and all but one of his unborn children to a barracuda, he promises that he will never let anything happen to the remaining egg, which he names Nemo.

Years later, Nemo (Alexander Gould) begins his first day at school and is frustrated and embarrassed by his overprotective father. Marlin has constantly warned Nemo about the dangers of the ocean. To show his father that there's nothing to be afraid of, Nemo deliberately disobeys his father by swimming out into open water but, in the process, is captured by a scuba-diver. Marlin races after the diver's boat but quickly loses it. He soon runs into a regal tang named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), who unfortunately suffers from short-term memory loss. Seemingly abandoned, she decides to help Marlin search for his son. She helps him recover a diver's mask that had fallen from the diver's boat and finds he has been taken to Sydney.

Meanwhile Nemo is placed in a fish tank and soon finds out that he is to be the birthday present of a young girl named Darla (LuLu Ebeling), who is described as "a fish killer" (she inadvertently killed the last goldfish she was given by violently shaking the bag it was in). He soon discovers the other fish in the tank are all bent on escape, with Gill (Willem Dafoe) proposing an escape plan that involves Nemo jamming the filter in the tank. The first attempt fails and Nemo is nearly killed by the filter.

While Marlin and Dory are traveling with sea turtles on the East Australian Current, Marlin tells some of them about how he is looking for his son. This story travels among the sea creatures and eventually Nemo hears it. Nemo is inspired by this and attempts to jam the filter again. The tank begins to get dirty, which the fish believe will make the dentist take them out of the tank to clean it. However, he instead installs a laser filter which cleans the tank while the fish are sleeping.

Marlin and Dory arrive in Sydney and meet a brown pelican named Nigel (Geoffrey Rush) who agrees to take them to the dentist's office. The dentist has put Nemo in a bag to give to his niece, but Nemo pretends to be dead so that the dentist will flush him down the toilet. Marlin, Dory and Nigel arrive at the office and, seeing Nemo, believe he is truly dead. After they are thrown out the window, Gill helps Nemo escape down the dentist's sink to the ocean.

Marlin thanks Dory and heads home on his own. Dory then bumps into Nemo and she is able to reunite them. Moments later, Dory is caught in a fishing net. Nemo has a plan to save Dory by telling the fish caught in the net to swim down, but Marlin is reluctant to let him go for fear that he will lose him again. Marlin, however, realizes he must let him go and they are able to save Dory. After the rescue, Marlin apologizes to his son for being overprotective.

In the epilogue, Nemo leaves for school, with Marlin telling him to "go have an adventure" and the fish in the dentist's tank are able to escape; however, they are still in their plastic bags. In the last line of the movie, one of the fish asks "now what?". As the credits scroll, the dentist's fish are shown swimming freely, having somehow escaped their bags. The viewers also see Monsters, Inc.'s Mike Wazowski swimming by near the end.

Cars

2008-04-15T04:51:00.000-07:00

Cars opens in the final race of the 2005 Piston Cup stock car racing season and championship in the Motor Speedway of the South, where a skilled but arrogant rookie racecar, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), has overtaken his opponents, avoided a car accident, and built a large lead over two other prominent figures; the cup's defending (and soon retiring) nine-time champion, Strip "The King" Weathers (Richard Petty), and perennial runner-up and cheater Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton). Because of his refusal to make regular pit stops for new tires, opting only to refill his gasoline tank, Lightning's worn rear tires burst on the final lap, causing him to skid and ultimately crawl to the finish line, barely managing to tie The King and Chick Hicks in a photo finish. Race officials announce that, because the three racers are also tied in overall season points, they will compete in one final tiebreaker race to be held at the Los Angeles International Speedway, and give them one week to prepare.

While traveling down Interstate 40 to California, McQueen becomes separated from Mack (John Ratzenberger), his transport truck, and while trying to catch up he becomes lost on U.S. Route 66, catching the attention of the local sheriff (Michael Wallis) in the process. A chase ensues, during which McQueen crashes and gets tangled in wires, damaging part of the main street of a town called Radiator Springs. McQueen is taken to traffic court, where the town's attorney Sally Carerra (Bonnie Hunt) pleads against McQueen. He is sentenced to repave the road using "Bessie", a non-anthropomorphic asphalt-laying machine. McQueen attempts to escape to California, only to find that his gas tank is drained to a minimum, much to his dismay.

McQueen rushes through his first day of paving; as a result, the new road surface is so bumpy, uneven, and unusable that he is ordered to scrape it off and start again. The town's judge and doctor, Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), offers McQueen the chance to leave, provided that he outrace Doc in a race around Willy's Butte. McQueen eagerly accepts, and leaves Doc behind at the starting line, but loses control on a sharp turn in loose dirt and crashes into a cactus patch. Doc effortlessly cruises to the finish line, remarking that McQueen races as badly as he fixes roads. McQueen is forced to scrape the botched pavement clean and start paving again.

As the ensuing days pass, McQueen starts to befriend the town's residents, from whom he learns that Radiator Springs was once a thriving town until the completion of the nearby interstate highway, which bypassed the town, depriving it of its business traffic and visitors and ironically, depriving those passing visitors of the natural beauty found in the scenery along the old highway. He also learns that Sally had left behind a wealthy but unhappy life as a lawyer in California, and that Doc Hudson was once a famous racecar (the "Hudson Hornet", and a three-time Piston Cup champion at that). When Doc catches him looking at his trophies, McQueen asks the reason for which he abandoned racing in the first place. Doc, suddenly offended by this, shows McQueen a newspaper article and states that a crash in 1954 ended his racing career. Doc bitterly refuses to reveal much about his past, dismissing his old trophies as "a bunch of empty cups". McQueen comes to realize that the same racing world that brought Doc fame eventually destroyed him.

By the time McQueen finishes repaving Radiator Springs' main road, he has formed a friendly bond with the town and its residents. Rather than immediately leaving for California (as he had initially intended to do), he spends the day touring the town's businesses, receiving a fresh coat of paint, organic fuel, stickers for his bumper, and new tires in the process. When the town throws a cruise party that night, he is suddenly found by a multitude of journalists, then whisked away in his truck, Mack, without even a chance to bid farewell to Radiator Springs. The town's residents are sad to see him leave, while Sally, who has fallen in love with McQueen, is angry to learn that it was Doc who informed the media of McQueen's whereabouts.

The final race between McQueen, The King, and Chick Hicks is described by commentators Bob Cutlass and Darrel Cartrip as the "biggest race in history". Country Gas, East Honkers, and Ermyville are closed for the Dinoco 400, while nearly 200,000 cars watch the race at the racetrack. McQueen is distracted by his memories of Radiator Springs, losing time to the other racers. To his surprise, Doc arrives at the race, accompanied by others from Radiator Springs (except for Sally, Lizzy and Red who stayed behind to watch the race on TV), to serve as McQueen's pit crew. With Doc's coaching, a record-breakingly fast and efficient pit stop for new tires, and a few tricks learned from the small town's inhabitants, McQueen is able to get back into the race after being two laps behind .

As McQueen approaches the finish line, Chick sideswipes McQueen into the infield. McQueen initially skids through the infield, turning this skid into a controlled drift and heading into first place. Chick sideswipes The King in a desperate attempt to avoid finishing behind him, sending The King into a terrible rollover crash. McQueen sees this on the Jumbotron and fears that The King's racing career will end in the same way as Doc's had ended. McQueen comes to a full stop before the finish line, allowing Chick to cross. He then backtracks to push The King across the finish line ahead of him, saying that "I think The King should finish his last race" and quoting Doc's description of the trophy as "just an empty cup". Chick's official victory is hollow, as he is jeered and despised for taking out The King, while McQueen is cheered as a hero for his good sportsmanship. Dinoco corporation offers to sponsor McQueen, but he respectfully declines, saying that his current sponsor Rust-Eze gave him his big break and that as a result he wants to continue with them.

Two days after the race, McQueen returns to Radiator Springs, announcing that he will establish his racing headquarters there, helping to revitalize the town, with the once-abandoned Route being reclassified as "Historic Route 66."

Beowulf

2008-04-15T04:40:00.000-07:00

Set in Denmark, King Hrothgar has constructed a new mead hall, Heorot. A noisy celebration at the hall disturbs the deformed monster Grendel, who is pained by the noise even from miles away on the high moors. He attacks the hall, killing many of the men inside. Hrothgar challenges Grendel to fight him instead, but the monster, after quietly staring at Hrothgar for a few moments, runs screaming off into the night. Back at his lair, Grendel is admonished by his (unseen) mother for attacking the humans and possibly inviting retribution. She calms down after Grendel tells her that he did not harm Hrothgar. The following morning, Hrothgar closes Heorot and proclaims that he will give half the gold in the kingdom to any man who can defeat Grendel. Soon Beowulf and his men arrive by ship from Götaland, and Beowulf offers to destroy Grendel. He convinces Hrothgar to reopen Heorot and let Beowulf's men stay there. Unferth, the King's adviser, challenges Beowulf's credibility. The warrior tells a tall tale of how he slew several sea serpents, and is capable of slaying Grendel too. Hrothgar offers Beowulf his precious golden drinking horn taken from the dragon Fafnir as a reward for Grendel's death. Beowulf is more entranced by Hrothgar's young queen, Wealtheow.

That evening, Beowulf asks his men to sing loudly. He undresses in order to fight the unarmored Grendel on equal terms and elects to sleep until the monster arrives. As expected, Grendel is infuriated by the noise and attacks the hall. Beowulf fights him with his bare hands, proving more than a match for the demon. After Beowulf punches out the monster's sensitive ear, Grendel tries to flee for his life, only to have Beowulf taunt him and eventually rip his arm off. The dying Grendel flees back to his cave, where he tells the name of his killer to his mother. Beowulf is proclaimed a hero. That night, a private conversation between Hrothgar and Wealtheow indirectly reveals that Hrothgar was in fact the father of Grendel. Wealtheow has been refusing to sleep with her husband out of revulsion. This is why the king has no heir.

Enraged by grief over her son's death, Grendel's mother flies to Heorot. She distracts Beowulf in a dream by taking the guise of Wealtheow. When Beowulf awakes, he finds that all of his men in the hall have been killed, skinned and hung from the rafters like hunting game. Only his friend Wiglaf survived, only because he had been at the beach preparing their ship for departure. Beowulf confronts Hrothgar, who tells Beowulf that Grendel's mother is indeed the last of the monsters. Unferth apologizes to Beowulf for having doubted him, and offers his sword Hrunting for use against Grendel's mother.

Beowulf and Wiglaf seek out the cave of Grendel's mother, which is filled with water since she is a water demon. Beowulf enters the cave alone to find it filled to the ceiling with treasure. Grendel's mother appears to him in the form of a beautiful woman, offering him fame and power if he will give her another son. She also asks for the Dragon Horn of Hrothgar, with the promise that Heorot will be safe as long as it is in her possession. Beowulf gives in to her temptations.

Beowulf returns to Heorot, claiming to have slain Grendel's mother. He brings back Grendel's head as proof of his deeds. He says that he lost Unferth's sword and Hrothgar's horn during the battle. In private, Hrothgar points out inconsistencies in Beowulf's story and asks if he did indeed slay Grendel's Mother. When Beowulf doesn't give a straight answer, Hrothgar knowingly says that all he cares about is Grendel's death: with Grendel dead, his mother is no longer Hrothgar's curse. King Hrothgar names Beowulf heir to the throne. Hrothgar then leaps from the balcony to his death to the surprised horror of everyone. Beowulf is crowned king and takes Wealtheow as his wife.

Many years pass. King Beowulf is unable to enjoy his power and glory, and his relationship with Wealtheow has grown cold. When Unferth's slave Cain finds the Horn of Hrothgar on a barren hill, Beowulf understands that Grendel's mother has reneged on their bargain, and Heorot is in danger once more. That night he dreams of his son he had with Grendel's mother. The son, who appears as a golden youth before transforming into something infinitely more foul, threatens to kill Beowulf's wife and his young mistress Ursula. The next morning before dawn, a fierce dragon attacks a village outside of Heorot. The dragon gives a message to Unferth to take to Beowulf: "The sins of the father!" Beowulf realizes that the only way to save his people and his kingdom is to kill Grendel's mother and her new son. He says his last goodbyes to Ursula and Wealtheow, then leaves.

Beowulf and Wiglaf ride to the cave of Grendel's mother and Beowulf confronts her in an attempt to re-establish the deal, but it is too late: his son, in the monstrous form of the dragon, attacks, easily defeating an attempt by Beowulf's army to trap and kill it. The dragon flies to Beowulf's castle, but Beowulf is able to cling to its back. The monster smashes Beowulf into a cliff and throws him into the sea in a vain effort to kill him, but Beowulf survives. The dragon spots Wealtheow and Ursula on the castle wall and attempts to burn them. Beowulf, remembering what Hrothgar told him earlier, plunges his sword into the weak spot in the dragon's throat, robbing it of its ability to breathe fire, though Beowulf loses one arm and burns the other in the process. The dragon tries to destroy the battlements in an effort to kill the two women, causing Beowulf to drop his sword. In desperation, he thrusts his hand into the wound he has inflicted on the dragon and rips out its heart. Mortally wounded, the two fall to the shores far below. The dragon changes back to its human form, the golden young man whom Beowulf saw in his dreams. Beowulf looks upon his son one last time before he is washed away into the sea, apparently retaken by Grendel's mother. Wiglaf arrives at the beach in time to hear Beowulf's last words. Beowulf leaves his kingdom to Wiglaf.

Wiglaf prepares a Viking funeral for Beowulf. As Wiglaf watches the burning boat that serves as Beowulf's funeral pyre, he sees Grendel's mother kissing the corpse. The Dragon Horn also washes ashore and Wiglaf finds it. As he does, Grendel's mother then appears in the water and beckons to Wiglaf. It is unknown if the cycle will continue.

Bee Movie

2008-04-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

This movie is about a bee by the name of Barry B. Benson who just graduated from his three days of college and finds out he has only one chance of picking his lifelong job. He is going to go outside the hive before he makes his big career choice. He breaks the most important bee rule "Never talk to a human", who happens to be a New York City florist named Vanessa Bloome. He is shocked to discover that the humans have been stealing and eating the bees' honey for centuries, and ultimately realizes that his true calling in life is to set the world right by suing the human race for stealing their precious honey. Barry wins the lawsuit, and all honey in the world is confiscated and returned to the bees. But now, Barry and Vanessa realize that although all the honey in the world is back, every bee has been put out of a job, and thus have nothing to do, since working was the only thing bees did all these years. Barry also realizes that without bees pollinating the flowers, all plant life was dying. To set things right, he and Vanessa find a way to save all the flowers by going to the rose parade in California, and bringing back with them all the pollen-filled flowers to re-pollinate the world. Barry and Vanessa fly the flowers as luggage on a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport. During the flight, Barry and Vanessa take control of the plane from the pilots and land safely in Terminal 4. Afterwards, the bees get all their jobs back and give the honey back to the humans, realizing that without their jobs they were not truly happy when they had all their honey, though the humans and bees treat each other better now. Barry becomes a member of the Bee Brigade, helping to pollinate the plants while running a law firm inside Vanessa's flower shop.

The Ant Bully

2008-04-15T04:18:00.001-07:00

The story is about a lonely 10-year-old boy named Lucas Nickle (Zach Tyler Eisen) who has just moved to a new neighborhood. His parents, who fail to understand his problems, go on a honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta, leaving him with his older sister and his Grandmother (Momma), who obsesses over aliens and UFOs. Tormented by a local bully and his gang, Lucas in turn attacks an anthill, stomping on it and flooding it. This terrifies the ants, who call him Peanut the Destroyer. One ant, an eccentric wizard named Zoc (Nicolas Cage), tries to fight back. His girlfriend, a nurse ant named Hova (Julia Roberts), believes in finding a more peaceful solution by attempting to communicate with Lucas. She is almost crushed by Lucas while trying to do so but is rescued by Zoc. After a devastating attack floods the hatching chambers, the leaders of the colony decide to use a potion (which Zoc made from some magical gemstones) to shrink Lucas down to size of an ant.

Meanwhile, the local exterminator, Stan Beals (Paul Giamatti), tries to convince Lucas to sign a contract to kill the local vermin. Lucas is hesitant about signing it at first, but after the exterminator calls him a baby and accuses him of only saying what his mother wants him to say, he signs it. Late that night, Zoc and a small troop of ants steal into Lucas's house and pour the potion into is ear. Lucas wakes up and discovers that he is now as tiny as an ant. The boy is then carried to the anthill and cast down into a world of giant caves, caterpillars, and ants. Zoc insists that the Lucas should be killed, but he overruled by the imposing, awe-inspiring Queen ant (Meryl Streep). In her wise reasoning, she sentences Lucas to hard labor until he can be considered an ant, for she believes that the colony could be improved this way. Hova volunteers to train Lucas, much to Zoc's mortification. Hova develops a delicate friendship with Lucas when they both learn more about the differences between ants and humans. But when she forces him to undertake a foraging mission under the supervision of a tough female ant named Kreela (Regina King) and a macho scout leader named Fugax (Bruce Campbell) Lucas is ultimately unsuccessful. Suddenly, the ants tending the caterpillar herds are attacked by wasps. Lucas tries to save himself at first; when he finds a discarded firecracker, he uses it to scare away the wasps. This earns him the admiration and respect of all the ants – with the exception of Zoc, who believes him to be still an incorrigible Destroyer who only cares about himself.

Lucas is then invited to eat with the ants; he is introduced to honeydew, a preparation made from the feces of caterpillars. This disgusts Lucas, who is soothed by Hova and a delicious alka-root in a water drop. Lucas is later shown a painting which depicts the Great Ant Mother and the evil “Cloud-Breather”, whom Lucas recognizes as Stan Beals. He and his new friends go back to his house, where he tries to call the Exterminator. However, they are attacked by his sister. When Zoc finds out about the contract, he accuses Lucas of further treachery. Lucas runs away, frightened, and Hova becomes angry with Zoc. But when Lucas is swallowed by a frog, a repentant Zoc uses an emetic root to free him. Afterwards, while the others sleep, Zoc and Lucas discuss the differences between ant society and human society. Zoc states that in essence humans work for personal gain whereas ants work for the benefit of the colony.

Lucas reveals everything to the other ants; although initially angry at him, they are plactated by his plan of defence. He enlists the aid of their natural enemies, the wasps. During the battle with the exterminator, Lucas saves the lives of Hova and an injured wasp. Finally, with the help of the leader of the wasps, he injects Stan Beals with a potion that reduces him to infantile size. The queen then pronounces Lucas an ant. She names him Rokai, as such to be forever known by the entire colony. Zoc gives him the antidote to the shrinking potion. Once full-size, Lucas showers the colony with jelly beans, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the Great Ant Mother. Later, Lucas stands up to the bully and inspires other kids to do so, including members of the bully’s own gang.

Happy Feet

2008-04-15T04:03:00.000-07:00

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.

This ability is frowned upon by the colony's elders, who don't tolerate deviance of any kind. As a result, Mumble is ostracized throughout his childhood, with only his mother and his friend Gloria to turn to for help. Mumble then grows to an adult, still half-covered in fluffy down. Through a series of mishaps - mainly getting chased by a hungry leopard seal - the penguin finds himself far from his home and within the carefree colony of adelie penguins - penguins small in stature, but fiercely loyal to those they call friends. He quickly befriends a small group of bachelors who form a club of sorts called the Amigos: the leader, Ramon, the brothers Raul and Nestor, and twin brothers Rinaldo and Lombardo. The Amigos quickly embrace Mumble's dance moves and assimilate him into their misfit group.

Mumble's joy at finding acceptance for his difference is cut short when strange "alien discoveries" occur; after his accidentally starting an avalanche a long-frozen human excavator tumbles out from a glacier, and Mumble is intrigued. Driven by curiosity, he sets out to find the "aliens" responsible for the machine.

In Mumble's old home, it is mating season, and Gloria is the center of attention with her heartsong "Boogie Wonderland", as was Mumble's mother. However, although she is surrounded by a large horde of suitors, none of their Heartsongs interest her. At this point, Ramon stands behind a newly come Mumble and sings a Spanish version of "My Way". Gloria likes the song, but is wary because she knows that Mumble can't sing. She pushes him forward, revealing Ramon. She turns back to the other males, and Mumble is temporarily heartbroken. He then tries persuades her to sing to his tapping rhythm, and surprisingly succeeds. The other penguins are equally worked up; they all begin dancing, much to Mumble's delight.

Noah, the elder, sees the lack of fish as punishment from the Great 'Guin, their god, regarding Mumble's dancing. Noah exiles Mumble from the colony as a result; before Mumble leaves, he vows that he will find the real cause of the famine, and travels across vast territories with the Amigos and Lovelace, a self-worshipping rockhopper. Gloria tries to help him; Mumble, out of fear for her safety, does whatever it takes to get rid of her - namely, insulting her singing talents.

The Amigos, along with Mumble and Lovelace, travel many miles under harsh conditions. During their journey, they meet a group of elephant seals, who warn of "Annihilators", who are presumably the same "aliens" Mumble seeks. After narrowly escaping from two killer whales, the penguins finally come face to face with a legion of huge trawlers, all laden with fish caught around the Antarctic coast. Mumble follows after them fearlessly, leaving his friends behind to bear testament to his legacy.

After swimming and being tossed around by sea currents, Mumble ends up in a penguin exhibit at a marine park (Closely resembling the Penguin Encounter at SeaWorld, a massive zoom-out hinting at the one in Orlando, Florida), and fervently tries to communicate with the "aliens" (humans) who surround him. When his pleas fail, Mumble nearly succumbs to madness after three months of confinement in the sterile glass prison. When a child taps on the glass wall one day, Mumble is woken from his stupor and dances in response, whereupon the child appears to run away. He becomes disappointed until she comes back with her mother. Soon, a large crowd gathers around the exhibit, taking pictures and telling their friends of this marvel. He is released to the wild, now with fewer of his fluffy down feathers and a tracking device strapped to his back, and leads the "aliens" home to his native colony. The other penguins, formerly skeptical, are now convinced that the aliens do exist.

Soon, a research teams arrives and film the penguins dancing and dance along with the rhythm. They bring this footage back to the human world. Different governments debate what to make of this footage and a worldwide debate ensues. They soon realize that they are overfishing the Antarctic waters, and conclude that perhaps the penguins were trying to communicate that to them. Antarctic fishing is banned, and the fish population returns. At this, the Emperor Penguins and the Amigos dance and celebrate their triumph. A dancing baby penguin seen at the end is implied to be the child of Mumble and Gloria.

X-Men Legends II : Rise of Apocalypse

2008-04-12T20:36:00.000-07:00

When Apocalypse kidnaps Professor X and Polaris, the X-Men and Brotherhood of Evil Mutants unite to save them. Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine meet up with Magneto, Mystique, and Sabretooth at a military prison outpost in Greenland to free the Professor. Upon freeing him, the teams relocate to Genosha to work through the wreckage and find out what Apocalypse wanted with the area. Finding Quicksilver also kidnapped, the teams prepare to return to the X-Mansion, but Apocalypse arrives first. He plants a bomb, which more or less destroys the X-Mansion, and kidnaps Beast, who manages to point the team in the direction of the Savage Land.

The teams work their way through the Savage Land, freeing Beast and hindering Apocalypse's plans, and continue to fight against his forces; however, Apocalypse manages to conquer New York and seize control. The teams work at sabotaging his army and resources, but Emma Frost and Angel are soon kidnapped as well. Angel is transformed into Archangel to act as a Horseman of Apocalypse, to defend Apocalypse's tower. When the teams infiltrate it, they find Beast, too, is working against them under the name Dark Beast; he kidnaps Sabretooth and escapes with Apocalypse and Mr. Sinister to Egypt while the teams deal with Archangel.

The teams learn that Apocalypse's plan is to use Polaris, Quicksilver, Emma Frost, and Sabretooth - four mutants with Harmonic DNA - to power an experiment to grant him massive amounts of power. The teams then follow him to Egypt to defeat him once and for all, after first defeating Sinister and Dark Beast (returning the latter to normal). After besting the final guard, the Living Monolith, the teams take on Apocalypse and defeat him by stealing the powers from his machine. In the final cutscene, Magneto and Xavier part once again as adversaries, noting that Apocalypse was defeated but not destroyed. Beast ponders why the machine did not work properly, wondering if sabotage was a factor. As the X-Jet flies away, Sinister is seen on top of the pyramid, laughing.

X-Men Legends

2008-04-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

The game begins with a news report of a growing mutant menace. A young mutant with a forcefield defies the Russian military as seen two weeks ago and a super-strong mutant leads an uprising in the Far East and even attacks the authorities. Just recently, Alison Crestmere (Magma) has recently been identified as a mutant on the verge of discovering her powers and is being dragged away by a soldier of the Genetic Research and Security Organization (G.R.S.O.). Mystique disguises herself as a guard and knocks out that soldier as Blob comes into view. Wolverine witnesses the abduction and attacks Blob just as Alison's powers activate when she wanted the fighting to stop. Blob eventually seizes Alison and he and Mystique take off. After recovering and taking out a soldier, Wolverine chases Mystique and Blob to rescue Allison. Wolverine battles through Anti-Mutant troops and is attacked by Mystique (disguised as Cyclops), some Brotherhood grunts, Pyro, and Mystique again. Going through the tunnel, Wolverine teams up with Cyclops and catches up with Blob.

After defeating Blob, evading Brotherhood grunts, and safely escaping in the X-Men's jet, Alison is brought to the Xavier Institute where she can talk with the X-Men and students, and explore her powers. The X-Men continue to explore leads that might indicate why Mystique and the Brotherhood of Mutants are interested in Alison.

The X-Men then go to a H.A.A.R.P. base and fight their way pass the guards until they run into Mystique (disguised as a lab technician) who unleashes Pyro on them. After a battle with several H.A.A.R.P. guards, the X-Men face off against Toad, who manages to slip info to Mystique about the Sentinels.

After flashbacks with Sentinels and the Juggernaut, the X-Men head into the sewers of New York City to save Gambit from the Morlocks. After fighting their way through, the X-Men encounter Marrow and Healer in the Morlock's Haven. After fighting more Morlocks, the X-Men fight and defeat Marrow and rescue Gambit.

Professor X contacts the X-Men and tells them that Mystique is preparing to lead a strike on the U.S.S. Arbiter. At the Arbiter, Blob attacks the ship, causing heavy damage, and the X-Men are forced to leave. While on the Arbiter, Mystique finds and releases Magneto from his prison.

Back in the Xavier Institute, Magma completes her training and learns about Wolverine's past through a flashback at the Weapon X facility.

The X-Men then head to Russia to find and help Colossus when they learn the Brotherhood are stealing weapons grade plutonium. After finding him, they fight some Acolyte Warriors and thwart the Brotherhood's plot. They learn that Colossus' sister, Illyana, is sick, so they take her to Muir Island.

At Muir Island, Magma talks with Dr. Moira MacTaggert and helps Forge to restart his computer so that a life-support system for Illyana can be activated.

At the X-Mansion, the X-Men learn that cloaked G.R.S.O. soldiers have infiltrated the facility, and with the help of Jean Grey, they locate and defeat the soldiers. Jean Grey, Emma Frost, and Professor X then enter the Astral Plane, where they fight Shadow King and rescue Illyana. But as they leave, Professor X is captured by the Shadow King.

Cyclops is given a message by his brother, Havok, to meet him at the Weapon X facility. Cyclops learns that Havok has joined the Brotherhood, and they fight until Wolverine breaks it up. After freeing some Morlocks from their holding cell, they tell the X-Men that Gen. William Kincaid, a staunch anti-mutant supporter, has restarted the Weapon X facility, and is rebuilding Sentinels.

After arriving back at the X-Mansion, Jean Grey mentions that Professor X has been captured. Magneto arrives to see Professor X. When the X-Men won't join his cause, Sentinels attack and capture Magneto.

The X-Men learn that Magneto has returned to Asteroid M, his base, and has asked mutants to go to "The Mount". Gambit believes that the Morlocks may have a connection to the Mount, so they return to the sewers. They learn that Marrow has taken Healer hostage and has sided with the Brotherhood. The X-Men fight the Morlocks and free Healer. They then meet Gateway, a mutant who takes them to the Mount. At the Mount, the X-Men face Sabretooth and Avalanche. They escape, and Avalanche destroys the portal to Asteroid M in the process.

Back at the X-Mansion, Beast finally repairs the Astral Gate that Cyclops and Wolverine took from the Weapon X facility so that the non-psychic X-Men can rescue Professor X. They recover the parts of Professor X's mind while fighting dark versions of Blob, Avalanche, and Pyro. When they find out that Professor X has been brainwashed, Professor X unleashes four enemies: Ultimate Predator, Champion of Rhodes, the Sun Goddess and the Chaos Lord. These four enemies have powers that mimic the powers of Wolverine, Colossus, Jean Grey and Cyclops. However, Shadow King disappears with Professor X.

The X-Men infiltrate a Sentinel facility in Europe. The X-Men learn from a lab technician that General Kincaid is behind this facility. After fighting multiple Sentinels, the X-Men find Gateway and a Morlock in a cage. Gateway creates a portal to NYC in order to get the 5 trapped Morlocks out of the facility. After the Morlocks are back in NYC, General Kincaid appears and taunts the X-Men.

The X-Men head to the Astral Plane to rescue Professor X, who then battles and defeats the Shadow King in a battle similar to a Greco-Roman colosseum fight.

The X-Men head to Asteroid M and fight their way through Acolyte soldiers to get to the control room where Magneto is. After fighting Magneto, Mystique, and Sabretooth, the X-Men save the people on the space station when the Sentinels attack. After freeing Havok, the X-Men fight General Kincaid who arrives in Master Mold. When the X-Men defeat Master Mold, Magma uses Magneto's Graviton device to steer the asteroid back into space. The war against mutants has been prevented, but now the X-Men must prepare for the coming of Apocalypse.

Worms World Party

2008-04-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

Worms World Party is an artillery game, which is a type of Turn-based strategy game. It was developed by Team17 as the seventh game in the Worms series, and was released in 2001. It was the last 2D Worms game before the series' three year stint in 3D, starting with Worms 3D.

Like its predecessors, Worms World Party involves controlling a team of worms and using a collection of weaponry to eliminate the opposing team(s). The player can play against the computer, or can play against people on the same computer or over the Internet or LAN (TCP/IP and IPX supported).

The player can set up many options prior to battle to tailor the experience. There are also single-player and multiplayer missions available to help refine the player's skills with the various weapons and utilities.

There is a plan to make Worms Armageddon and Worms World Party cross compatible when WA reaches v4.0. Since the development of new WA patches is quite slow it can take quite a long time until that cross compatibility ever happens.

THE WEAPONS MENU

Virtua Cop

2008-04-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

Virtua Cop (known as Virtua Squad for the North American PC version) is a shooter arcade game created by Sega-AM2, and headed by Yu Suzuki. Its original incarnation was an arcade game in 1994 and it was later ported to the Sega Saturn in 1995, and the PC in 1997. It was later bundled with Virtua Cop 2 in Japan and Europe on the PlayStation 2 as Virtua Cop: Elite Edition (Virtua Cop Rebirth in Japan) on August 25, 2002 and November 29, 2002 respectively. It included gallery extras and implementation of Namco's G-Con 2 lightgun support, being the best port of the games yet. In 2004, a port was developed for the handheld Nokia N-Gage, but this was cancelled by the quality control team before its release. Very few beta units were manufactured.

Virtua Cop was followed by two sequels, Virtua Cop 2 and Virtua Cop 3.

STORY

A detective in the player's department uncovered an illegal gun-running operation and was able to trace it back to a powerful crime syndicate. He compiled a large amount of evidence and was ready to take them down, but he was discovered and assassinated. Some of the evidence managed to make its way back to headquarters and a special task force was put on the case.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

2008-04-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (THPS), released as Tony Hawk's Skateboarding in Europe, is a skateboarding video game, and the first in the Tony Hawk's series. It was originally released for the PlayStation in September 30, 1999 and was later ported to the Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and N-Gage and also received a Game Boy Color adaptation.

SKATERS

The game features the following professional skaters:

* Tony Hawk
* Bob Burnquist
* Kareem Campbell
* Rune Glifberg
* Bucky Lasek
* Chad Muska
* Andrew Reynolds
* Geoff Rowley
* Elissa Steamer
* Jamie Thomas

The game also features the unlockable fictional skaters:

* Officer Dick
* Private Carrera

LEVELS

* Warehouse (Woodland Hills, CA)
* School (South Miami, FL)
* Mall (New York)
* Skatepark (Chicago, Il)
* Downtown (Minneapolis, MN)
* Downhill Jam (Phoenix, Arizona)
* Burnside (Portland, OR)
* Streets (San Francisco, CA)
* Roswell, NM
* The Hangar from THPS2 (N-Gage version only)
* New York City from THPS2 (N-Gage version only)
* Philadelphia from THPS2 (N-Gage version only)
* Venice Beach, CA from THPS2 (N-Gage version only)

Tomb Raider

2008-04-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

The story opens with a prologue in Los Alamos County, New Mexico. A nuclear test causes an earthquake which exposes an ancient device buried beneath the desert. The device is set into motion and reveals a frozen lifeform. The story then continues in the present day.

After Lara Croft returns from an expedition in the Himalayas she is contacted by an American named Larson, who works for the wealthy businesswoman Jacqueline Natla, owner of Natla Technologies. At Natla's request, Lara sets out on an expedition to recover a mysterious artifact called the Scion from the lost tomb of Qualopec, in the mountains of Peru. However after successfully retrieving the object, she is nearly robbed of it when Larson attempts to kill her outside the tomb. Wasting no time, Lara sets out to discover why Natla double-crossed her, and breaks into her office to find out more about the truth behind the artifact, of which there appears to be more than one piece. She discovers a medieval manuscript which reveals the whereabouts of a second piece of the Scion, which is buried beneath an ancient monastery of St. Francis in Greece. It appears Natla has sent Pierre Dupont, a rival French archaeologist, to recover the fragment from the site. Hot on each others trail, Lara and Pierre race each other through the catacombs of the monastery to get to the second Scion first. The battle comes to a head at the tomb of Tihocan, where Lara recovers the second Scion and finally kills Pierre Dupont. An inscription inside the tomb reveals that Tihocan was one of three joint rulers of Atlantis. At some point a calamity struck which sunk the continent into the ocean and scattered their culture over the world. Qualopec continued to rule in South America, Tihocan in Greece, and it appears a third ruler thrived in Egypt.

Lara travels to the Valley of the Kings where she quickly discovers the third Scion, and is faced with Larson one last time. Upon leaving the tomb however, she is awaited by Natla and her henchmen, who steal the three artifacts from her and nearly kill her. Lara escapes and follows their trail to a remote island, where mining operations of Natla Technologies have partially exposed the Great Pyramid of Atlantis. After making her way through the mines dispatching Natla's goons, Lara reaches the heart of the pyramid chamber, where the three Scions are fused together as a source of power. In a flashback, it is revealed that Natla was the third ruler of Atlantis, and that she betrayed her co-rulers by abusing the power of the Scion amulet for genetic experimentation. As punishment, she was locked into a stasis cell by Qualopec and Tihocan, and buried beneath the ground. The power released by the pyramid and the Scion caused a major cataclysm destroying the once powerful and advanced civilization. As a result (similar to Easter Island) the survivors lost all their knowledge and power, and had to slowly rebuild from the ground up. Centuries later Natla awoke when the cell was exposed by an earthquake. With her cunning and knowledge she quickly became incredibly rich and powerful around the world.

Having regained the power of the artifacts, Natla now attempts to restore her former power with an army of genetic mutants. However Lara manages to destroy the Scion and kills Natla. The pyramid is destroyed along with the mutants, and the remains of the Atlantean civilization.

LOCATION

Before commencing the actual game, players may choose to complete a training course set in Lara's home. This tutorial is designed to get the player acquainted with the basics of the game and includes jumping and climbing techniques on ten vaulting boxes. The story mode begins with an introductory sequence, after which the player is taken to the first level in Peru. Throughout the game, Lara travels across the globe in search for the three artifact parts in four different locales:

* Peru (4 levels): The game begins in the mountains of Peru, where the player discovers the entrance to the long lost city of Vilcabamba. Deep within the mountains near Vilcabamba, she finds the ancient tomb of Qualopec. The action takes place in valleys and tombs around an Incan city.

* Greece (5 levels): The levels in Greece are set inside the medieval monastery of St. Francis, which was built upon the side of a mountain that conceals layer upon layer of civilization, hearkening back to the Golden age of Greece and Rome.

* Egypt (3 levels): In Egypt, in a hidden canyon near the Valley of the Kings, Lara explores buried pyramids and a sphinx in a place called the Sanctuary of the Scion.

* Atlantis (3 levels): The final part takes place on a remote island in an unspecified location, where mining operations of Natla Technologies have partially exposed the great pyramid of Atlantis. This is where the mystery unfolds.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell : Chaos Theory

2008-04-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

MAIN STORY

The plot of Chaos Theory sees a return to the original Splinter Cell's theme of information warfare, with Sam on the trail of the Masse Kernels used by Georgian President Kombayn Nikoladze to attack America's infrastructure. The main focus in this game is Japan, North Korea, and South Korea.

The main focus of the game takes place in East Asia, 2007, with tensions running high between China, North Korea, and Japan, following Japan's formation of an Information Self Defense Force (I-SDF) (an event mentioned in a news report in Pandora Tomorrow). Considering this to be a violation of the Post-World War II Constitution, Chinese and North Korean forces establish a blockade in the Yellow Sea against Japanese shipping. Because Japan and the I-SDF are allies of the US and Third Echelon, the U.S. dispatches its most advanced cruiser, the USS Clarence E Walsh, to the Sea of Japan. The US hopes this show of strength will get China and North Korea to back down.

Meanwhile, in a seemingly unrelated incident, Sam is dispatched to locate Bruce Morgenholt, a missing computer programmer who was captured by a Peruvian separatist group called "The People's Voice", led by Hugo Lacerda, and worked on deciphering Phillip Masse's algorithms. Masse, whom Sam assassinated in the original Splinter Cell, was a genius far ahead of his time, and the algorithms he used to launch his attacks on America have been extensively studied by the UN. The resulting Masse Kernels are being touted as the superweapon of the 21st century. Sam is tasked with making sure they do not fall into the wrong hands.

Sam arrives too late to prevent Morgenholt's death. He is also unsuccessful in stopping the release of the Masse Kernels. Sam is told to go on board the Maria Narcissa to kill Hugo Lacerda and track the weapon deliveries so they can find out who they are dealing with. After completing the mission, and a mission in a Panamanian bank, unknown parties use the algorithms to black out Japan and the Eastern Seaboard, including New York City. Japan has previously suffered similar attacks that crashed its economy, and Admiral Otomo of the I-SDF contacts Third Echelon and warns them that North Korea and China are probably responsible. Meanwhile, following a lead discovered in a bank in Panama, Sam travels to New York to investigate Abrahim Zherkhezi, a man who worked with Morgenholt on Project Watson. He finds that Displace International, owned by Douglas Shetland is protecting him. He breaks into the Displace offices and learns of one Milan Nedich, later identified as "Milos Nowak", a Bosnian war criminal. Fisher finds that Nowak secretly relocated him to Hokkaido.

Sam travels to Hokkaido and meets with Shetland, who claims that Nedich is clean. Regardless, Fisher infiltrates the hideout that Zherkezi is being held in. There, Sam kills Nedich, and witnesses Shetland murdering Zherkezi. Shetland escapes and goes underground.

Meanwhile, the American show of force backfires when the Walsh is sunk by a North Korean anti-ship missile on July 4, initiating a war between North Korea and South Korea/United States. Since North Korea claims the missile was launched unintentionally, Sam is sent to the Korean peninsula (including the South Korean capital city of Seoul), to determine if North Korea is truly responsible for sinking the Walsh, or if the Masse Kernels are involved. (Note that the sinking of the Walsh and the U.S.-North Korea war is the plot for the PlayStation 2 and Gamecube versions of Ghost Recon 2.)

Sam eventually learns that the entire war has been orchestrated by American private security corporation Displace International. Displace used the Masse Kernels gained from Zherkhezi to hijack North Korea's missile systems, and sink the Walsh, in order to draw the U.S. into a war from which Displace could profit through its status as a leading American PMC. Sam also realizes the mastermind behind the entire plot is none other than his old war comrade and friend, Douglas Shetland. Ultimately, Third Echelon sends him to spy on a meeting between Shetland and Shetland's unknown accomplices, who shockingly turn out to be the I-SDF. At the meeting, the I-SDF betray Shetland, and a firefight subsequently breaks out between Shetland's soldiers and I-SDF assault troops. Amidst the chaos, Sam pursues Shetland to the roof, where, after a tense Mexican standoff, Sam kills Shetland.

Even after Shetland's death, one loose end remains. Admiral Otomo of the I-SDF has acquired a copy of the Masse Kernels from Shetland, and attempts to return Japan to Imperial rule by blackmailing the Japanese government officials and senior JSDF officers. He threatens to use the algorithms to launch a North Korean missile against a Japanese city. Because North Korea would be supported by China, and Japan would be backed by the U.S, the incident would spark World War III. Although Otomo's loyalist I-SDF soldiers manage to fight off the JGSDF commandos sent to stop him, Sam infiltrates the I-SDF's lowest levels and manages to put an end to Otomo's plans, possibly after being captured and interrogated by, and escaping from, I-SDF troops. Otomo attempts to commit seppuku, but Sam saves his life and captures him. Otomo stands trial at the UN and takes full responsibility for the entire Korean crisis, returning stability to the Far East.

CO-OP STORYLINE

Two NSA operatives start off the campaign with basic training, introducing the players to the game-play elements of the cooperative play. Uncharacteristically, they are given similar weapons as Sam Fisher, boosting them to lethal status. After passing training, the operatives are sent to Panama, tying up the loose ends and clues that Sam Fisher picked up from Hugo Lacerda. The Operatives interrogate the Vice President of the bank and sifted through all available records to find out that other than aiding Hugo Lacerda, the bank had aided North Korea in smuggling nuclear and chemical weapons through Panama. A name, Jong-Pom-Chu appears in the records. Shortly after completing the mission, Lambert promotes the operatives into "Splinter Cells-in-Training."

The action then picks up in a war-torn South Korea, with the operatives trying to locate Jong-Pom-Chu. The operatives were tasked to destroy any anti-air vehicles and look for the Korean scientist. Unfortunately he was moved during the mission, and Sam Fisher needed to interrogate a North Korean Special Forces soldier to find out where. The operatives dismiss the idea that he is another Splinter Cell, as they believe they are the first. The trainees eventually evacuate Jong in a truck.

The operatives were then sent to a chemical missile bunker in North Korea, sometime after the end of the single-player campaign. The operatives were tasked to investigate what type of weapons development Jong was involved with. The operatives then later found out that the North Koreans were developing viral weapons, using monkeys as the guinea pigs. Lambert ultimately gives the order to create an anti-virus and retrieve a viral sample from a warhead. The operatives managed to exfiltrate by boat.

The operatives were then placed in New York City, tasked to disarming bombs in the train systems planted by rogue North Korean personnel attempting to recover a virus stashed in a locker. With help from Jong, the operatives recover the virus and manage to thwart the investigating North Korean soldiers.

The operatives are sent on a return trip back to North Korea, this time investigating a nuclear power plant. The operatives were tasked to finding out who helped Kim, the leading North Korean officer behind the weapons fiasco.

The operatives' final mission ends up at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, putting a stop to a now-desperate Kim's plan to blow up the building before an important meeting takes place. The operatives kill Kim and disarm the bomb the North Korean agents planted.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

2008-04-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

For his first assignment as a Splinter Cell, Sam Fisher is dispatched to T'bilisi, Georgia to investigate the disappearance of two CIA agents (Blaustein and Madison). During his investigation Fisher uncovers a campaign of systematic ethnic cleansing and mass murder being waged by Georgian President Kombayn Nikoladze against the neighboring Muslim population of Azerbaijan in an attempt to seize that country's vast oil resources. When NATO intervenes in the situation against Georgia and Nikoladze, Nikoladze goes underground and retaliates against the U.S. by initiating an information crisis in America, using advanced computer algorithms developed by Canadian hacker Phillip Masse to wreak havoc upon America's electronic infrastructure. Fisher is dispatched to hunt down Nikoladze and stop the crisis. Fisher eventually discovers that Nikoladze is working with rogue Chinese general Kong Feirong to develop nuclear weapons, and has even gone so far as to place a nuclear suitcase bomb codenamed the ARK on American soil. Infiltrating the Georgian Presidential Palace, Fisher assassinates Nikoladze, ending the information crisis and stopping Georgia from detonating the ARK.

The Xbox and PC versions of the game feature 3 additional levels, available over Xbox Live or a special patch from the Chaos Theory collector's edition, that continue the storyline. Since Sam killed Nikoladze, Phillip Masse is still loose, and Fisher travels to the Kola Peninsula in Russia to neutralize him. The second mission has him trying to prevent the 'Vselka', a nuclear submarine, from being taken over by Alekseevich's remaining troops. In the third mission, Alekseevich's remaining troops have taken over 'Vselka', and Fisher must determine if they have removed its nuclear warheads. The warheads in question belonged to R-39 SLBMs (mentioned by the NATO reporting name SS-N-20 Sturgeon in the game), which would make the Vselka a Typhoon class submarine.

Spider-Man 2

2008-04-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

It is two years following the events of the first game. Spider-Man is trying to balance his civilian and superhero life, frequently late or absent for school, work, and leisure time with his friends. Following dinner with Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn, Peter thwarts an armed looting of a museum, and tracks down an escaped robber, the Black Cat. Soon after this, he thwarts an attack in the streets of Manhattan by The Rhino. Meanwhile, Doctor Otto Octavious attempts to recreate Nuclear fusion of that seen in the sun to provide an energy source for Manhattan. To control this fusion, he creates four metal arms which he can mentally control. His fusion creates a strong magnetic field, destroying the lab, killing his wife Rose, and grafting his metal arms to his spine and giving his arms control over him. He blames Spider-Man for the incident.

Octavius, now known as Dr. Octopus, kidnaps Aunt May, but she is saved by Spider-Man. In the time following, special effects artist Quentin Beck tries to prove that Spider-Man is a fraud by challenging Peter in a series of "games". Spider-Man emerges successful. Consequently, Beck tries to kill Spider-Man, but is thwarted. The embarrassment causes Beck to assume the identity of Mysterio, attacking journalists attending his press conference, and commands his "UFOs" to "invade" the Statue of Liberty. Both of these attacks are thwarted by Spider-Man's efforts, with no casualties. Spider-Man eventually teams up with Black Cat, who leads him to the Shocker, who escaped during Beck's initial competition with Spider-Man. Shocker is apprehended in a warehouse after attempting to use an experimental propulsion system to enhance his powers, while Mysterio is knocked out with one punch from Spider-Man while trying to rob a Speedy Mart. Black Cat then leads Spider-Man to an illegal weapons trade, where she tries to convince him to permanently become Spider-Man, but he rejects the idea, saying that he cannot stop being either Spider-Man or who he is.

Dr. Octopus kidnaps Mary Jane Watson and steals Tritium from Harry Osborn to repower his nuclear fusion in exchange for Spider-Man. A long battle on top of a bridge leads to Peter being delivered to Harry. Peter reveals his identity to Harry, and sets off to defeat Dr. Octopus a final time. The fusion reactor is shut down, and Dr. Octopus regains control over his mind and his sanity back, and sacrifices his life to permanently destroy his fusion reactor.

The next day, Peter gets a surprise visit from Mary Jane, who tells Peter that she cannot live without him, and wants to offer her full support to his life as Spider-Man. With his confidence renewed, Spider-Man continues to defend the city from evil.

SonicN

2008-04-12T19:50:00.000-07:00

SonicN is essentially Sonic Advance for the Nokia N-Gage. It was a launch title for the N-Gage and was released in North America on October 7, 2003. Packaging is a box the same width and thickness as the popular DVD "keep case", but exactly half the height. Media for the game itself is an MMC ROM, which means that progress can be saved in the deck. English-language versions are not region coded.

The game itself is identical to the Game Boy Advance version except for the exclusion of the Tiny Chao Garden. It runs a bit slower on the N-Gage hardware. The biggest issue is the screen resolution, which was changed to be taller instead of wider like the game was intended. The N-Gage's screen is portrait, so the most notable change in gameplay is the choice between a full resolution mode with a narrow view, or a letterboxed 4:3 mode with scaled-down graphics. Many fans and veterans of the game regard this as a lesser gaming experience.

While copy protected, the protection was defeated within days of the release by a group calling itself Blizzard

The Sims Bustin' Out

2008-04-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

The Sims: Bustin' Out is the second title in The Sims console series. Bustin' Out was released for the Playstation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance and N-Gage in the fourth quarter of 2003. As the title suggests, Sims can get out of the house to visit other locations such as Shiny Things Lab or Casa Caliente. There are two modes. Bust Out Mode which has mission based gameplay and Freeplay Mode which is open-ended gameplay very much like the original The Sims PC game. It was the first Sims game to not be on the PC. The PlayStation 2 version also features the option to play online.