Recommended Movies From Us and You
Directed by Lee Unkrich, Woody, Buzz and the whole gang are back. As their owner Andy prepares to depart for college, his loyal toys find themselves in daycare where untamed tots with their sticky little fingers do not play nice. So, it’s all for one and one for all as they join Barbie’s counterpart Ken, a thespian hedgehog named Mr. Pricklepants and a pink, strawberry-scented teddy bear called Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear to plan their great escape.
Directed by John Lasseter and Ash Brannon, The adventures of toys Woody and Buzz Lightyear continue when their owner Andy goes off to summer camp, leaving them to their own devices. Things take a bad turn when an obsessive toy collector kidnaps Woody because he is a highly valuable collector’s item. Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, Rex and Hamm, all leap into action to rescue Woody and get home before Andy returns from camp.
Directed by John Lasseter, Woody, a traditional pull-string talking cowboy, has long enjoyed a place of honor as the favorite among six-year-old Andy’s menagerie of toys. Quick to calm their anxieties about being replaced by newer arrivals, Woody finds his own confidence shaken, and his status as top toy in jeopardy, upon the arrival of Buzz Lightyear, simply the coolest space action figure ever made. Woody plots to get rid of Buzz, but things backfire and he finds himself lost in the outside world with Buzz as his only companion. Joining forces to find their way home, the two rivals set out on an adventure that lands them in the clutches of Sid, a sadistic neighborhood kid who is notorious for dismembering and reassembling “mutant” toys in his bedroom.
Directed by Tom Tykwer and Andy Wachowski, Everything is connected: An epic story of humankind in which the actions and consequences of our lives impact one another, throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave dramatically through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future.
Directed by Jonathan Demme, Andrew has AIDS and is fired by a conservative law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit. Andrew is a young up-and-coming lawyer who has just been fired by his prestigious law firm. His former colleagues claim he’s just not good enough; Andrew says he’s been fired because he has AIDS. Determined to defend his professional reputation; Andrew hires fierce personal-injury attorney Joe to represent him as he sues his former firm for wrongful termination. Separated from Andrew by a deep social and cultural chasm, Joe is initially reluctant to take the case. For Andrew the battle is clear cut–he’s fighting for his reputation, his life and for justice. Joe, however, faces a different kind of struggle as he confronts his own fears and prejudices about homosexuals.
Directed by Ron Howard, Allen is vacationing with his family near Cape Cod. While taking a sight-seeing tour on a ferry, he gazes into the ocean and sees something below the surface that fascinates him. Allen jumps into the water, even though he cannot swim. He grasps the hands of a girl who is inexplicably under the water with him and an instant connection forms between the two. Allen is quickly pulled to the surface by the deck hands and the two are separated, though no one else apparently sees the girl. Twenty-five years later, the boy has grown up, Allen returns to Cape Cod, where he briefly encounters eccentric Dr Walter and again falls into the sea. He wakes up on a beach where he encounters a beautiful naked woman who unknown to him is the mermaid he met as a boy .
Directed by Nora Ephron, Kathleen owns a small children’s book store, but is coming under competition from Joe Fox’s giant Fox Books, a megastore with a cafe and discounted books. The two become arch rivals, without realising that the romance they are conducting anonymously on the internet is with each other. They agreed on a date to meet up, but when Joe sees Kathleen waiting for him in the restaurant, he puts two and two together, but cannot face her, given their agreement not to reveal each others’ names and professions. How can he reveal himself to her now, knowing that he is the cause of her misery? Hopefully, love will conquer all.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Forrest Gump is a simple man with a low IQ but good intentions. He is running through childhood with his best and only friend Jenny. His ‘mama’ teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny. Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, finding new friends called Dan and Bubba, he wins medals, inspires people to jog, starts a ping-pong craze, create the smiley, Gump who finds himself in every major event of the 1960s and ’70s. Along the way, he makes friends, changes lives and searches for a soul mate.
Directed by Stephen Daldry, Oskar, who lost his father in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, is convinced that his dad left a final message for him somewhere in the city. Upon finding a mysterious key in his father’s closet, Oskar sets out in search of the lock it fits. Feeling disconnected from his grieving mother and driven by a tirelessly active mind, Oskar has a journey of discovery that takes him beyond his loss and leads him to a better understanding of the world.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis, A young boy lies awake in his room one snowy Christmas Eve, excited and alert. Breathing silently. Hardly moving. Waiting. He’s listening for a sound he’s afraid that he might never hear–the ringing bells of Santa’s sleigh. The time is five minutes to midnight. Suddenly, the boy is startled by a thunderous roar. Clearing the mist from his window he sees the most amazing sight–a gleaming black train rumbles to a stop right in front of his house, the steam from its powerful engine hissing through the night sky and the softly falling snowflakes. The boy rushes outside, clad only in his pajamas and slippers, and is met by the train’s conductor who seems to be waiting just for him. “Well, are you coming?”
Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Goldthwait is a charlatan professor who has assembled a gang of experts for the heist of the century. The thieves are experts in explosions, tunneling and muscle. The professor is their critical inside man. The base of operations is the root cellar of an unsuspecting,church-going, little old lady named Mrs. Munson. The ruse: the five need a place to practice their church music. The problem: it quickly becomes evident that Dorr’s thieves lack the mental capacity to do the job. The bigger problem: they have seriously underestimated their upstairs host. When Mrs. Munson stumbles onto their plot and threatens to notify the authorities, the felonious five decide to ‘do her in’ before she ruins their heist. After all, how hard can it be to knock off an old lady?
Directed by Tom Hanks, Until he was downsized, affable, amiable Larry Crowne was a superstar team leader at the big-box company where he’s worked since his time in the Navy. Underwater on his mortgage and unclear on what to do with his suddenly free days, Larry heads to his local college to start over. There he becomes part of a colorful community of outcasts, also-rans and the overlooked all trying to find a better future for themselves…often moving around town in a herd of scooters. In his public-speaking class, Larry develops an unexpected crush on his teacher Mercedes Tainot, who has lost as much passion for teaching as she has for her husband. The simple guy who has every reason to think his life has stalled will come to learn an unexpected lesson: when you think everything worth having has passed you by, you just might discover your reason to live.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Opening with the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion under Cpt. Miller fight ashore to secure a beachhead. Amidst the fighting, two brothers are killed in action. Earlier in New Guinea, a third brother is KIA. Their mother, Mrs. Ryan, is to receive all three of the grave telegrams on the same day. The United States Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, is given an opportunity to alleviate some of her grief when he learns of a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, and decides to send out 8 men to find him and bring him back home to his mother.
Directed by Mike Nichols, In the early 1980s, Charlie Wilson is a womanizing US congressional representative from Texas who seemed to be in the minor leagues, except for the fact that he is a member of two major foreign policy and covert-ops committees. However, prodded by his major conservative supporter, Joanne Herring, Wilson learns about the plight the people are suffering in the brutal Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. With the help of the maverick CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos, Wilson dedicates his canny political efforts to supply the Afghan mujahideen with the weapons and support to defeat the Soviet Union.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, An FBI agent tracks down and catches a young con artist who successfully impersonated an airline pilot, doctor, assistant attorney general and history professor, cashing more than $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in 26 countries. A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks.
Director Ron Howard’s much-anticipated, big-screen religious conspiracy thriller with the tagline “Seek the Truth” was faithfully based upon Dan Brown’s best-selling fictional book. It told about an investigation by symbologist and Harvard professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and French police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) after the discovery of the murder of the Louvre Museum’s elderly curator Jacques Sauniere (Jean-Pierre Marielle). The man’s naked body was found with symbols and an enigmatic encrypted code written in blood, a scrambled numerical sequence, and a revealing pose. [He was murdered by self-flagellating albino monk Silas (Paul Bettany) in the employ of devious Bishop Aringarosa (Alfred Molina).] This information led the wrongly-accused murder suspect Langdon and Sophie through a byzantine trail of clues — to a millenarian secret sect called The Priory of Sion (with heretical theories about the marriage of a mortal Jesus Christ with Mary Magdalene and fathering a child – the real Holy Grail!).
