Universal Pictures (USA): 245

The film Knocked Up (2007), written, produced, and directed by Judd Apatow, follows the story of ambitious Los Angeles reporter Alison Scott. She lands an on-air job with E! and resides in her sister Debbie’s guest house. On the other hand, Ben Stone is a careless Canadian slacker who relies on injury compensation money to get by. He also works sporadically on a celebrity porn website with his roommates who are constantly high. While celebrating her promotion, Alison crosses paths with Ben at a local club. They engage in a night of heavy drinking and end up having a one-night stand. However, due to a ...

American Gangster (2007), a biographical crime film, was directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian. Set in 1968, it follows the story of Frank Lucas, who worked as the right-hand man for Ellsworth ‘Bumpy’ Johnson, a Harlem mob boss. After Johnson’s death from a heart attack, Frank delves into the heroin trade by sourcing it directly from Thailand and smuggling it into the United States through returning Vietnam War soldiers. He markets his product under the name ‘Blue Magic’, which quickly gains popularity due to ...

Hot Fuzz (2007) is an action-packed buddy cop comedy directed by Edgar Wright and co-written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg also takes on the lead role alongside Nick Frost. After his promotion to Sergeant in the Metropolitan Police Service, highly capable constable Nicholas Angel is transferred to Sandford, Gloucestershire – a quaint town that regularly wins the title of ‘Village of the Year’. Meanwhile, ...

Breach (2007) is a American spy thriller film directed by Billy Ray, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Adam Mazer and William Rotko. The movie follows Eric O’Neill, a young and ambitious FBI employee who is tasked with going undercover as a clerk to Robert Hanssen, a senior agent suspected of deviant behavior. Despite being recalled from his position at the State Department to head a new division focused on Information Assurance at FBI headquarters, Hanssen maintains a strict formality with O’Neill. He ...

The action-thriller film, The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), directed by Paul Greengrass, has an entirely different plot than the 1990 novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum. After being pursued by Kirill, Jason Bourne must evade Moscow police while wounded and confront more memories of his time in Operation Treadstone. Six weeks later, CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy reveals a taped confession from Ward Abbott, the former head of Treadstone, to Director Ezra Kramer. Meanwhile, journalist Simon Ross from The Guardian discovers information about Bourne and Operation Blackbriar ...

James Wan directed and Leigh Whannell wrote an American supernatural horror film titled Dead Silence (2007). Jamie Ashen and his wife Lisa receive an unmarked present containing a ventriloquist doll named ‘Billy’. When Jamie leaves the house, Lisa is tragically killed by an unknown assailant. Following the incident, Jamie is cleared of suspicion by detective Jim Lipton due to insufficient evidence. However, during this time Jamie discovers a peculiar note inside Billy’s box mentioning ‘Mary Shaw’, a deceased ventriloquist from their hometown ...

Written and directed by Richard Kelly, Southland Tales (2006) is a dystopian black comedy thriller film. In an alternate reality of the United States on July 4, 2005, twin nuclear attacks destroyed two Texas towns (El Paso and Abilene) causing mass destruction and loss of life. This triggered a catastrophic chain of events that threw the country into chaos and panic, leading to a Third World War (based on the effects of the War on Terror). As a result, the draft was reinstated by the government, while US-IDent, a new agency with extended powers under the PATRIOT Act, constantly monitors citizens’ activities ...

The movie Miami Vice (2006) was written, directed, and co-produced by Michael Mann. Based on the hit TV show from the 1980s, for which Mann served as executive producer. While undercover at a club to arrest a pimp named Neptune, Miami-Dade detectives James ‘Sonny’ Crockett and Ricardo ‘Rico’ Tubbs receive an urgent call from their former informant Alonzo Stevens. Worried for his wife’s safety, Stevens reveals he is leaving town and asks Rico to check on her. It turns out that Stevens had been working as an FBI informant but has now been compromised. The detectives quickly contact FBI ...

The Holiday (2006) is an American romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Nancy Meyers. Iris Simpkins, a society columnist for the Daily Telegraph in London, is hopelessly in love with her ex-boyfriend, Jasper Bloom; despite his infidelity and current relationship, he has maintained a close friendship with Iris. However, when he reveals his engagement at their company’s Christmas party, Iris is heartbroken. Meanwhile, Amanda Woods, owner of a Los Angeles film trailer company, ends things with her cheating composer boyfriend Ethan due to her own emotional unavailability. By chance, Amanda stumbles ...

Smokin’ Aces (2006) is a thrilling American action film written and directed by Joe Carnahan. Infamous Las Vegas magician and aspiring criminal, Buddy ‘Aces’ Israel, finds himself holed up in a Lake Tahoe hotel while his agent negotiates for him to receive immunity from the FBI. With mob boss Primo Sparazza offering a million-dollar reward for Israel’s heart, various hitmen have been summoned to collect the bounty: master of disguise Lazlo Soot, contract killers Sharice Watters and Georgia Sykes (hired by Sparazza’s right-hand man), mercenary Pasquale Acosta, and three merciless neo-Nazis ...

The Black Dahlia (2006), an American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Brian De Palma and written by Josh Friedman, is based on the 1987 novel of the same name by James Ellroy. The plot is inspired by the widely sensationalized murder of Elizabeth Short. LAPD detectives Dwight ‘Bucky’ Bleichert and Lee Blanchard are partners, paired after engaging in a boxing match to raise public support for the department. During this time, Lee introduces Bucky to his girlfriend Kay Lake, and the three become ...

Inside Man (2006) is an American crime thriller film directed by Spike Lee and written by Russell Gewirtz. It centers on an elaborate bank heist-turned-hostage situation on Wall Street. In August 2005, inside a small, dimly-lit cell, Dalton Russell brags about committing the perfect bank robbery. In New York City, masked robbers seize control of a Manhattan bank, using variants of the name “Steve” as aliases and dressed in painter coveralls. They hold patrons and employees hostage and divide them into groups, rotating them among various rooms while disguised ...

The American spy film, The Good Shepherd (2006), was both produced and directed by Robert De Niro. Following the disastrous end of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, suspicions arise about a potential ‘mole’ within the CIA. Senior officer Edward Wilson returns home to find a photograph and audio tapes that have been tampered with, leaving some details unclear. Flashing back to his time at Yale University in 1939, Wilson is invited to join the Skull and Bones fraternity where he reveals that he discovered but never read his father’s suicide note. His father, an admiral who had been considered for ...

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) is an action-packed film directed by Justin Lin and written by Chris Morgan. As the third movie in the Fast & Furious franchise, it serves as a standalone sequel to both The Fast and the Furious (2001) and 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). In Oro Valley, Arizona, high school student Sean Boswell finds himself in trouble when he races against classmate Clay. Their cars collide, resulting in a crash that leads to Sean being sent to live with his father – a U.S. Navy lieutenant stationed in Tokyo – instead of ...

The Skeleton Key (2005) is an American Southern Gothic supernatural horror film directed by Iain Softley and written by Ehren Kruger. Caroline Ellis, a hospice aide, leaves her job at a nursing home and takes on the role of caretaker for an isolated plantation house in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Violet Devereaux, the elderly matriarch of the house, is in need of assistance caring for her husband Benjamin, who has been mostly paralyzed following a stroke. Upon the suggestion of the family’s estate lawyer, Luke Marshall, Caroline accepts the position. During a ...

White Noise (2005) is a supernatural horror thriller film directed by Geoffrey Sax. Jonathan Rivers, an architect, is married to his wife Anna, a best-selling author. Together, they have a young son from Jonathan’s previous marriage and Anna is pregnant with their second child. One night, Anna mysteriously disappears and is missing for five weeks. During this time, Jonathan is approached by Raymond Price, who has recently lost his son. Raymond shares that he has been receiving messages from his deceased son through electronic voice phenomena (EVP). He also claims to have recordings of Anna’s voice, ...

Land of the Dead (2005) is a post-apocalyptic horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. Following the zombie apocalypse, human civilization has reorganized and established a chain of protected city-states across America. One such sanctuary is located within the triangular peninsula of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where a feudal-like government governs its citizens. Surrounded on two sides by rivers and barricaded on the third with an electrified fence guarded by a militia, this city provides relative security for its inhabitants. Beyond its borders lies a desolate landscape with abandoned suburbs and ...

The epic historical drama film, Munich (2005), was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth. It is based on Vengeance, a 1984 book by George Jonas that details Mossad assassinations in the aftermath of the Munich massacre. The events take place during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, where a terrorist attack by the Palestinian militant group Black September resulted in the deaths of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team. To carry out this mission, Mossad agent Avner Kaufman, ...

King Kong (2005), a monumental adventure monster film, was co-written, produced, and directed by the talented Peter Jackson. In the midst of the Great Depression, New York City’s struggling vaudeville performer Ann Darrow is offered a role by filmmaker Carl Denham, who is facing financial troubles. Despite her initial reservations, Ann agrees to join the project upon discovering that her favorite playwright, Jack Driscoll, is involved as well. The filming takes place on the SS Venture, with Captain Englehorn at the helm and Carl claiming that they are heading to Singapore. However, his true intention is to capture ...

Serenity (2005), an American space Western film, was written and directed by Joss Whedon in his feature directorial debut. In the 26th century, humanity has colonized a new solar system with the central planets forming the Alliance. After winning a war against the rebellious Independents who refused to join them, tensions continue to simmer between the two groups. The Tam siblings, River and Dr. Simon, face their own struggles when she is taken by Alliance scientists and transformed into both a psychic and an assassin. But thanks to her brother’s bravery, River is saved as a teenager. During her training, she ...