Browse Movies : Released : 2006 : Drama (Page #4)

In South Africa, Patrick Chamusso is a charming and loving husband to his wife Precious, and a caring father to his two young daughters. He works as a foreman at the centrally located Secunda oil refinery, which is a symbol of South Africa's self-sufficiency at a time when the world was protesting the country's oppressive apartheid system. In his spare time, Patrick coaches a local boys' soccer team. Carefully toeing the hard line imposed on blacks by apartheid, Patrick is completely apolitical. Nic Vos is a Colonel in the country's Police Security Branch. The shrewd and charismatic Vos strives to maintain order in volatile situations, which have become more and more frequent as the outlawed activist organization African National Congress (ANC) rallies blacks against apartheid. Vos is also concerned for the safety of his wife and two daughters. He and his family live a world away from the Chamusso family--until the innocent Patrick comes under suspicion and is arrested (in June 1980) for sabotage of the Secunda oil refinery. His alibi is compromised, and Patrick is desperate to shield Precious from a past indiscretion and keep his job. But he is ill-prepared to withstand brutal interrogations by Vos' men. As Vos further insinuates himself into the lives of the Chamussos, to Patrick's shock and shame, Precious herself is jailed and tortured. Although he and Precious are soon released from custody, Patrick is stunned into action and completely reorients his sense of self and purpose. He leaves his family to join up with the ANC. Becoming a rebel fighter and political operative, Patrick is radicalized on behalf of his people and his country. He ultimately envisions a formidable and dangerous follow-up strike against the Secunda refinery, risking his own life and future. Change must and will come, for Patrick and his family, and for South Africa itself.

The classic story of loyalty, trust, and sacrifice comes to life in this live-action adaptation. Fern (Dakota Fanning) is one of only two living beings who sees that Wilbur is a special animal as she raises him, the runt of the litter, into a terrific and radiant pig. As Wilbur moves into a new barn, he begins a second profound friendship with the most unlikely of creatures—a spider named Charlotte—and their bond inspires the animals around them to come together as a family. When the word gets out that Wilbur's days are numbered, it seems that only a miracle will save his life. A determined Charlotte—who sees miracles in the ordinary—spins words into her web in an effort to convince the farmer that Wilbur is "some pig" and worth saving.

"Children of Men" envisages a world one generation from now that has fallen into anarchy on the heels of an infertility defect in the population. The world's youngest citizen has just died at 18, and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction.

Set against a backdrop of London torn apart by violence and warring nationalistic sects, Children of Men follows disillusioned bureaucrat Theo (Owen) as he becomes an unlikely champion of Earth's survival. When the planet's last remaining hope is threatened, this reluctant activist is forced to face his own demons and protect her from certain peril.

Richard and younger brother Anthony return to the drugs and gang-ridden hometown they left eight years before. They set up camp in the hills overlooking the town, reminiscing over their shared past. But, they're not here to reminisce. Richard is here for revenge.

Dan Dunne is an idealistic inner-city junior high school teacher. Although he can get it together in the classroom, he spends his time outside school on the edge of consciousness. He juggles his hangovers and his homework, keeping his lives precariously separated, until one of his troubled students, Drey, catches him in a compromising situation. From this awkward beginning, Dan and Drey stumble into an unexpected friendship that threatens either to undo them, or to provide the vital change they both need to move forward in their lives.

A suburban town is full of perfect parents who are fully devoted to rearing their children for Harvard futures and keeping them safe from predators. The adults escape the excruciatingly bore-fests their lives have become via Internet porn and extramarital affairs. A stay-at-home mom has an affair with an ex-jock stay-at-home dad who rebels against his wife's wishes that he become a big-bucks lawyer.

The cocaine cowboys of the '80s are gone, but Miami's Casablanca allure, the undercover cops and the attitudes of Michael Mann's culturally influential television series have been enhanced by time in the feature film version of Miami Vice.

Ricardo Tubbs (Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx of "Ray", "Jarhead") is urbane and dead smart. He lives with Bronx-born intel analyst Trudy, played by British actress Naomie Harris ("28 Days Later"), as they work undercover transporting drug loads into South Florida to identify a group responsible for three murders.

Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell of "S.W.A.T.", "The New World") ]to the untrained eye, his presentation may seem unorthodox, but procedurally he is sound] is charismatic and flirtatious until-while undercover working with the supplier of the South Florida group-he gets romantically entangled with Isabella, the Chinese-Cuban wife of an arms and drugs trafficker. Isabella is played by the Chinese actress Gong Li ("Raise the Red Lantern, Memoirs of a Geisha").

The best undercover identity is oneself with the volume turned up and restraint unplugged. The intensity of this case pushes Crockett and Tubbs out onto the edge where identity and fabrication become blurred, where cop and player become one- especially for Crockett in his romance with Isabella and for Tubbs in the provocation of an assault on those he loves.

"Miami Vice", as a large-scale feature film, liberates what is adult, dangerous and alluring about working deeply undercover...especially when Crockett and Tubbs go to where their badges don't count...

If love is an adventure, it's one yet to be embarked upon by Kenya Denise McQueen. A beautiful L.A. career woman, Kenya works as senior manager at a prestigious accounting firm, and is on the verge of making partner. But she has yet to find her own partner and a fulfilling personal life. It's not that she's stopped looking; her (mental) checklist is at the ready. After another Valentine's Day spent working late, Kenya agrees to a blind date with Brian Kelly, a sexy and free-spirited landscape architect who turns out to be not exactly what she'd pictured for herself. Then again, she does need the yard of her new house fixed up. Her girlfriends Cheryl, Suzzette, and Nedra are there for her with advice, while Cheryl's new beau Walter shares a male perspective with Brian. Kenya's socially prominent parents Joyce and Edmond and womanizing younger brother Nelsen also voice their own opinions. But it's when her perfect match, Mark, enters the picture that Kenya is truly thrown into confusion. Ultimately, Kenya has to decide for herself and follow her heart--no matter where it takes her.

The project centers on the dark mystery surrounding a young woman's death, which is gradually revealed when the lives of seemingly uninvolved people intersect.

In an incredible twist of fate, a Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) on a Ugandan medical mission becomes irreversibly entangled with one of the world's most barbaric figures: Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). Impressed by Dr. Garrigan's brazen attitude in a moment of crisis, the newly self-appointed Ugandan President Amin hand picks him as his personal physician and closest confidante. Though Garrigan is at first flattered and fascinated by his new position, he soon awakens to Amin's savagery - and his own complicity in it. Horror and betrayal ensue as Garrigan tries to right his wrongs and get out of Uganda alive.

Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as Joanna Mills, a tough young Midwesterner determined to learn the truth behind the increasingly terrifying supernatural visions that have been haunting her. Joanna has made a successful career for herself, as sales representative for a trucking company. But her private life has been difficult; estranged from her father (Mr. Shepard), stalked by an obsessed ex-boyfriend (Mr. Scott), and with few friends, Joanna fears that she is losing control. She sees and feels the brutal murder of a young woman she's never met, at the hands of a heartless killer – a man who appears to be making Joanna his next target. Determined to fight back, Joanna is guided by her nightmares to the murdered woman's hometown. Once there, she will discover that some secrets can't be buried; some spirits never die; and that the murder she is trying to solve may be her own.

The story of a lawyer who occasionally transforms into, well, a large, shaggy sheepdog. Needless to say, the spontaneous changes don't help his legal career, but they do help him learn how to be a better family man.

Four siblings struggle to banish the ghost of their dead father and create some semblance of harmony using a college on New York's Upper East Side as their surrogate home. Flashing between the chaos of Manhattan and the seemingly perfect sanctuary of Charleston, this unflinchingly honest drama with comedy explores and explodes the myths of family and friendship. As three sisters and a brother recall the simpler life the family left in their childhood home, they peel back the layers of their pretensions and self-deceptions with wit and candor escalating to moments of shocking power. Their final realization is that chaos and violence lie within the heart, and the only defenses are love and honesty.

It's Christmas Eve and five kids have just been snowed in at the airport -- and there isn't a parent in sight. "Unaccompanied Minors" follows awkward Spencer (Dyllan Christopher), rich-girl Grace (Gina Mantegna), tomboy Donna (Quinn Shephard), geeky Charlie (Tyler James Williams) and bashful Beef (Brett Kelly) as they try to outwit a disgruntled airport official (Lewis Black) and reunite with their families. Using "borrowed" golf-carts, a canoe on a snow hill and the help of a reluctant flight attendant (Wilmer Valderrama), these kids are about to prove the holidays aren't about where you are, but who you're with.

"16 Blocks" follows Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis), an aging cop assigned the mundane task of escorting a fast-talking, wise-cracking young witness (Mos Def) to the courthouse—sixteen city blocks away—and the action-packed thrill ride that takes place in those "sixteen blocks."

Based on the novel by Peter Mayle, the film is about failed London banker Max Skinner (Crowe) who moves to Provence to tend a vineyard he inherited from his uncle, played by Albert Finney. There he encounters Cotillard's character, a beautiful California woman who says she is a long-lost cousin and lays claim to the property.

A heart-warming, triumph-over adversity drama, "Akeelah and the Bee" centers on a precocious eleven-year-old girl, Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), from south Los Angeles, who is discovered to have a talent for words. In spite of the objections of her mother Wanda (Angela Bassett), Akeelah enters a spelling contest. Her gift takes her to compete in the National Spelling Bee, the most famous competition of its kind in the world. On the way, she is helped by a forthright, mysterious teacher, Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne) and a cast of colorful characters from the community. Her journey evokes pride in the neighborhood, bringing them together and, in the end, all witness the courage and inspiration of one amazing little girl.

"All the King's Men" is a story of human nature, power, corruption, idealism, romance and betrayal. A uniquely American story, it is steeped in the atmosphere of the South during the 1940s and 50s, but its message is still timely and relevant today. "All the King's Men" uses politics as a framework to delve into the more profound dilemmas of human existence—sin, guilt and redemption. In its exploration of the corrupting aspects of power, the story focuses on a once just man who has lost his moral center and will use any means possible to achieve his goals.

"Bubble" is the story of an unlikely love triangle at a doll factory in a small Midwestern town that has fallen on hard times. Lonely and isolated, long time employees Martha and Kyle have become friends by default in spite of their drastic age difference, but their dynamic is upset by the arrival of a new worker: young, attractive single mother Rose. As Martha grows increasingly wary about Rose's dubious character, she discovers Kyle and Rose developing a relationship of their own.

One morning, Rose is found dead, strangled in her own home. An investigation begins, one that will call into question our established assumptions about these characters and life in their small town.

Featuring a cast of non-professional actors from the Ohio location, Soderbergh brings this tragic story of characters striving to establish and maintain meaningful connections to life with startling realism.