Action Movies 2006 List

With Johnny Depp • Keira Knightley • Stellan Skarsgard • Gore Verbinski • Jerry Bruckheimer • Kevin McNally • Naomie Harris • Jonathan Pryce • Mackenzie Crook • Terry Rossio • Jack Davenport • Bill Nighty • Lee Arenberg • Chad Oman • Mike Stenson • Ted Elliott • Peter Kohn • Eric McLeod

This time around, Johnny returns as Captain Jack Sparrow and is caught in yet another tangled web of supernatural intrigue. It turns out, Captain Jack owes a blood debt to the legendary Davey Jones, ruler of the ocean depths and captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman. If Jack can't figure a crafty way out of this one, he'll be cursed to an afterlife of eternal servitude and damnation. And as if that weren't enough, Captain Jack's problems throw a huge wrench into the wedding plans of the blissful Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who quickly find themselves thrust into Jack's misadventures.

With Morgan Freeman • Kevin Spacey • Cary Elwes • Justin Timberlake • Dylan McDermott • Piper Perabo • John Heard • LL Cool J • David Burke

In "Edison", a young journalist (Justin Timberlake) uncovers an elite unit of corrupt cops. Realizing that he's over his head, he makes an uneasy alliance with a burnt-out reporter (Morgan Freeman) and the DA's ace investigator (Kevin Spacey).

With Jason Lee • Kevin James • Steve Buscemi • Robert Zemeckis • Nick Cannon • Steven Spielberg • Maggie Gyllenhaal • Gil Kenan • Jack Rapke • Jason Clark • Kathleen Turner • Dan Harmon • Catherine O'Hara • Sam Lerner • Steve Starkey • Rob Schrab • Mitchel Musso • Fred Willard • Spencer Locke

Monster House is an exciting and hilarious thrill-ride tale about three kids (Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner and Spencer Locke) who must do battle with a mysterious home that is determined to eat every trick or treater in sight on Halloween.

With Tom Hanks • Nicolas Cage • Paul Giamatti • Alan Cumming • Regina King • John Davis • Lily Tomlin • Zach Tyler Eisen • Cheri Oteri • Julia Roberts Meryl Streep • Ricardo Montalban • Gary Goetzman

"The Ant Bully" is based on a book by John Nickle, which tells the tale of a young boy who floods an ant colony with his water-gun, and is magically shrunken down to insect size and sentenced to hard labor in the ruins. Before returning to half-pint stature, he comes to appreciate the selfless nature of the ants and learns a valuable lesson about tolerance and empathy.

With Robert Downey Jr. • Keanu Reeves • George Clooney • Winona Ryder • Woody Harrelson • Steven Soderbergh • Richard Linklater • Rory Cochran • Philip K. Dick

Set in the future, "A Scanner Darkly" follows an undercover agent, Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves), who can change his face and identity. But when he ingests too much of the drug Substance D, his personality splits in two.

With Jamie Foxx • Colin Farrell • Naomie Harris • Danny Trejo • Wes Studi • Michael Mann • Gong Li • Pieter Jan Brugge • Anthony Yerkovich

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...