Ant Bully (Released in 2006) - Animation film - Voices by Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Paul Giamatti

Released in 2006, the Ant Bully is a computer animated movie produced by Tom Hanks. It is based on a children’s book of the same name. The movie has some big names who have lent their voice for the characters in the movie. These names include Julia Roberts, Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep and Paul Giamatti.
The movie is about a 10 year old kid named Lukas Nickle (voice of Zach Tyler), who gets beaten up by his neighborhood bullies all the time. To get his frustration out, he then goes about attacking an anthill in his backyard with a squirt gun. There then follows a close up of the colony of ants. Amongst them is the ant wizard, Zoc (voice given by Nicholas Cage), and his girlfriend Hova who is an ant nurse (voice given by Julia Roberts). The ants along with Zoc and Hova try to fight back, but Hova almost gets killed in the process. Finally, a very unhappy Zoc decides it’s time to teach the ant bully-Lucas a lesson.
He creates a potion which will reduce Lucas’s size to that of an ant’s. Meanwhile, Lukas’s parents head out of town, leaving him with his older sister and a crazy grandmother. Left on his own, Lukas gets convinced into doing a pest control job by Stan Beals (voice of Paul Giamatti), who makes Lukas sign a contract for the same.
Once the potion is made, Zoc and the other ants pour the potion into Lukas’s ear while he is asleep. Lukas wakes up to find that he has shrunk down to size and is inside the ant colony facing the Ant Queen (voice of Meryl Streep). Instead of killing him, she sentences him to hard labour. Much to Zoc’s surprise and mortification, Hova volunteers to help train Lukas. Lukas and Hova both learn a lot from each other.




Lukas grows to like the ants and their way of living. He then remembers that the Pest control guy would come to exterminate the ant hill soon. He tries to help the ants by calling the exterminator to cancel the contract. However, when his plan doesn’t work out and Zoc finds out that Lukas had taken Hova to help him, thereby placing her in danger, he accuses Lukas of treachery and tells him that he would never help him with a potion to get him back to human size.
A dejected Lukas goes away from the ant hill only to be eaten by a frog. Zoc realizes that Lukas wasn’t bad after all and that he misses the little kid. He sets out to help free Lukas and together with all the other ants, Lukas and Zoc manage to stop the attempts of Stan Beals, thus saving the Ant hill. Zoc returns Lukas to normal size, that too just in time, because Lukas’s parents have returned from their trip.
Lukas manages to defeat his neighborhood bully and get all the other guys to become his friends. The movie is an enjoyable watch and is clean family entertainment. An important aspect, in which this animation varies from the other animated movies about ants, is the fact that it places strong emphasis on helping one another in order for the entire society to grow. It focuses on doing things for the greater good rather than for one’s own personal motives.
The movie will seem derivative and lacking imagination to an adult audience. But as far as kids are concerned, it sends across an important message of working together towards collective progress and development.

Rocky Balboa (released in 2006) - Starring Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Antonio Tarver, Milo Ventimiglia

A picture of Adrian (Talia Shire) rests on the side table, as boxing legend Rocky Balboa (Stallone) gets out of bed, and goes through the rituals of daybreak - feeding the turtles, refurbishing the seed tray, pull ups at the chin up bar; sixteen years since his retirement, and he is now a lonely, middle aged boxer, his wife dead from cancer. He is seated by Adrian’s grave, his brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young) has stood the test of time, and the two have an exchange about how slowly time moves past. Paulie is upset that Rocky’s son Robert (Milo Ventimiglia) hasn’t come for his mother’s death anniversary. But Rocky tells him he understands why Rob isn’t here; he has loads to do, as a corporate employee, whose boss is constantly hounding him.
Rocky walks in on an exchange between Robert and his boss William Tomilson, who tells him he doesn’t care how famous his father was - Balboa watches from a distance, sensing his son’s resistance to his presence. As he walks up to greet Robert, Tomilson also joins them and tells the legend he’s always wanted to meet him, but Rob has said on every occasion that his father’s a busy man. He asks Rob to click a picture of the two ‘old war horses’ together.
After setting up a date for the father and son later that evening, Balboa goes back to his restaurant - “Adrian’s”, where he gets busy organizing a special meal for Rob, and hosting guests, entertaining them with tales of his past victories. Unfortunately, Rob doesn’t make it to dinner. On his way home, he walks down memory lane to the time when he and Adrian had met, the dreams they shared and the home they built, their lives circling around Robert in his growing years. As Paulie and Rocky reminisce outside the birdhouse where Adrian worked and the gym that Micky had left for him, Paulie tells him that their world is falling apart, even as Balboa admonishes him not to talk crazy.




Rocky decides to have a drink at the bar one night, at Lucky Seven, a tavern where Little Marie (Geraldine Hughes) works as a bartender. Balboa used to frequent the tavern as a youngster, and had met Marie, then ‘Little’. She is now mother to a son – Stephenson (James Francis Kelly III) fondly called ‘Steps’. Rocky rescues Marie from an unpleasant situation and offers her a lift home. She introduces Rocky to her son, he seems surprised the child is not Irish looking, Marie tells him that the father was Jamaican. He meets the boy, leaving his card on the steps, inviting the duo to visit him for dinner sometime.
But where Rocky Balboa is, boxing will follow shortly after; Mason Dixon ‘The Line’ ( Antonio Tarver) is the reigning champion, whose popularity has taken a slump. ESPN  broadcasts a simulated version of a fight between Rocky and Dixon, Rob and his friends are having a drink in an Irish Pub, as his friends rally for his father, the video shows Balboa win the fight. Elsewhere an irked Dixon watches on.
Directed and written by Stallone, Rocky Balboa or Rocky VI as it is also known as, is a cult favorite of Stallone’s fans the world over; it is as if the actor is defined by the role. Rocky Balboa takes off on the similar theme of the prequels - a man pitted against circumstance and opponents bigger than himself; when he was younger - it was someone richer, better trained, and stronger. As he got older, his opponents got younger, he fought his own physical limitations, battling injuries, financial crises, emotional upheavals, always the underdog who comes out a winner by a surprise KO, just like in the ring! Worth a watch, Adrian is sorely missed though!

Firewall (released in 2006) - Starring Harrison Ford, a thriller movie

Jack Stanfield has everything in his life, a loving wife, great children, beautiful house and a great job as Vice President of Security at Landrock Pacific Bank in downtown Seattle. He is approached by another firm with a better offer and Jack agrees to meet Cox the manager. As he leaves for the day to meet cox little does Jack know the nightmare he is walking in to.
Cox follows Jack as he leaves the restaurant and informs him discreetly at the rear seat of the car about the abduction of his family. He threatens to kill them unless jack wires him $ 10000 from each account of the bank, thus robbing a tune of 100 million from his employers. Jack reaches home and finds his family captive and agrees for the transfer.
As he reaches the office Cox enters his office and forces him to give a guided tour of the security systems in place. Cox introduces a virus in to the system and leaves. Jack on reaching home try to escape by bribing the henchmen and all his attempts fail. Cox entices Jacks son Andy in to eating a cookie with nuts which makes him go in to shock as he is allergic to it. Cox withholds the treatment till Jack acquiesces to his demands.



Jack reaches his office and downloads the files necessary for transfer in to his daughter Sarah's i-pod mini and also slyly takes a photograph of the account information with an employee's camera phone. Cox on the other hand wipes the memory bank and security system clean to enable Jack to take the fall for embezzlement. He also makes Jack fire his secretary Janet for being suspicious.
Jack in the mean time kills two Hench -men and calls his friend. But Cox has one ace up his sleeve, and he kills Harry and with a planted message from Beth makes it look as though Jack had killed Harry in a fit of jealousy over Beth. Cox then transports the entire family to his hideout. Jack in the mean time goes to the bank and with the information in the photograph remove all money from Cox's account. He then calls him to announce that the ransom will be paid only if his family is released.
Cox tries blackmailing him again but it does not work as Jack has the tap of all the cash. During the conversation Jack hears his family dog and gets a brain wave of tracking the GPS unit attached to its collar. With Janet's help they drive over to the hideout and Janet leaves to call the police. Jack kills the henchmen in search of his family. But a panicky Cox take them up the tower for the final push. But jack climbs the treacherous incline, kills him ultimately rescuing his family. This movie was blasted by the critics, but was a box office success. It was also nominated for awards, the Taurus World Stunt Award for Best Fight. A must see for action buff's.