Mika Boorem

The movie begins with Katey (Romola Garai) narrating on how she ended up in Havana to a montage of postcards and Havana sights. Her father, mother, and sister are riding in the car with her to a fancy hotel. Katey explains that Castro is leading a revolution against the current government of Cuba, but everyone at the hotel seems at ease. At the hotel pool Katey finds her sister sitting with some other Americans, including James (Jonathan Jackson), who introduces himself as the son of her father's boss. At this point the waiter, Javier (Diego Luna), arrives with the drinks and Katey accidentally knocks the tray over. One of the girls calls him a derogatory name and tells him to get more drinks. Katey feels bad and tries to talk to Javier, but he is not interested. Katey watches a movie of her mother and father dancing and wishes she was as good as they were. She and her father dance a bit. The next day in class Katey is asked to read aloud from The Odyssey and it is a passage about love and passion (foreshadowing!). After class James asks Katey to a party at the country club and she agrees. While walking home from school she sees Javier dancing at a street party and he offers to walk her home. They stop to listen to a street band and police show up, stopping Javier while Katey runs away. The next day Katey tries some of the dance moves she saw. Javier sees her and asks her to come see the real dancers Saturday night, but she says she is already going to the country club. Javier gets upset and leaves. Katey wears one of her maid's sexy dresses to the party and impresses James. Katey convinces him to take her to the Cuban club where Javier is dancing with the ladies. Javier dances with Katey while James sits at the bar. Soon he is accosted by Javier's brother, who tells him that they will eventually kick the Americans out of Cuba. Javier comes over and argues with his brother. James takes Katey back to the car and tries to seduce her, she refuses and runs away. Katey goes back to the club and Javier agrees to walk her home. The next day Katey walks by a dance class in progress and sees Patrick Swayze (gasp!) teaching it. He asks if anyone wants to enter the big dance contest and then dances with Katey for a bit. She grabs a flyer for the dance. While walking to the pool, James apologizes to her and then tells her that Katey's sister saw Javier with her and got him fired. Katey argues with her sister and goes to find Javier. He is now working at a chop shop with his brother. She asks him to enter the dance contest with her, but he refuses. Meanwhile, it is becoming apparent that Javier's brother is helping the revolutionaries. The next day Javier shows up at Katey's school and agrees to enter the dance contest with her. They start teaching each other dance moves and Javier convinces her to "feel the music". They practice all the time, Katey dances some more with Patrick Swayze (gasp!), until it is the night of the dance. They dance with the other couples on the floor and are chosen to go on to the next round. Katey's parents, however, disapprove of her relationship with Javier but Katey reconciles with them. On the night of the final round of the contest, while Katey and Javier are on the dance floor, Javier sees his brother and some revolutionaries disguised as waiters and the police soon try to arrest them. The contest stops as everyone flees the club and Javier has to save his brother from the police. Javier and his brother talk about how they miss they dad, then they hear that Batista has fled the country and join the celebration. Later, Javier comes to the hotel and finds Katey. He takes her to the beach and they do the horizontal mambo. The next day Katey's parents tell her they are leaving Cuba and she has one last night with Javier. They go to the Cuban club where they first danced and the floor is theirs. Katey's family is there to see her and Katey narrates that she doesn't know when she will see Javier again, but this will not be their last time to dance together.

Desperate to improve their social status, four best friends enter into an all-night scavenger hunt against the popular clique in their school. On the last day of 8th grade before their freshman year in high school, Julie has a slumber party with three best friends: Hannah, Farrah, and Yancy; and they have the time of their lives. To win the legendary high-school lunch spot by the fountain, they must win an all-night scavenger hunt against their popular-girl rivals. Unfortunately, Julie's mom has firm rules about the party. First rule: Don't leave the house. But Julie and her friends won't let a little thing like parental authority stand in the way of social domination, and they sneak out of the house, steal a car, snatch a cute boy's boxer shorts, crash a high-school dance, and torment an egomaniac security guard. Aong the way, some of the girls might just find love. Because anything is possible at Julie's sleepover. —Sujit R. Varma, Emily Moore and Spring Blachly In the summer before their freshman year in high school, Julie has a slumber party with her best friends: Hannah, Farrah, and Yancy. To try to cast off their less-than-cool reputations once and for all. Julie and her friends conduct an all-night scavenger hunt against their rivals. Hijacking dad's car, sneaking into clubs, evading Julie's mother, and even a first kiss--anything is possible at Julie's sleepover. —Sujit R. Varma

Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth), Eden (Michelle Rodriguez), and Lena (Sanoe Lake) are best friends. Anne Marie and her friends have been raising her 14-year-old sister, Penny (Mika Boorem), ever since their mother took off to Las Vegas with a boyfriend, who was not comfortable with the idea of bringing the two girls along. While Penny is at school, Anne Marie, Eden, and Lena work as maids at a large resort hotel, but more importantly, they are surfers. Anne Marie rises every morning before dawn to train for her surfing comeback. The girls train by chasing the perfect waves all along the shoreline and using that for practice, before heading to work during the normal workday. Her local network of surf nuts tells her every morning which beach to hit that day. Anne was once considered a rising star in women's surfing and competed as a youth, but a bad wipe-out and near-drowning incident temporarily halted her career and left her with deep-seated fears. Anne was competing in a surfing event and caught a perfect wave, but the wave turned quickly in the middle of her run, ending in a wipe-out. It left deep scars on Anne, and she is still trying to regain her confidence. Her friends, especially Eden, have encouraged her to try it again. Anne used to date Drew (Chris Taloa), who does not believe Anne has what it takes to make a surfing comeback. Anne talks a big game, but somehow, every time she faces a big wave, it triggers her deepest fears, and she backs out. Drew goads her into catching the big wave, and again Anne wipes out. Anne Marie has been invited to join in an upcoming surf competition at the famed North Shore surf spot, Pipeline. The competition is seven days away. Professional surfers like Keala Kennelly are already arriving in town to get a feel of the local conditions. Anne hopes to gain the attention of sponsors and get herself and her friends out of the near poverty they are living in. The friends know that sponsored girls like Keala Kennelly get paid $1,000 per photo, and $5,000 for every cover photo. They get flown all over the world and get paid to surf. They don't have to pay for sunglasses, surfboards or the other accessories. As the Pipeline competition gets closer, Anne Marie struggles to keep Penny under control and deal with her own personal issues. Penny is drinking beer out of their fridge and when she is unsupervised, Penny goes to attend adult parties where she drinks alcohol and smokes. Penny blames Anne for making their mother leave as she was messing up all the time. At work, Anne Marie meets and catches the eye of Matt Tollman (Matthew Davis), a National Football League quarterback in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl (it is hinted that he plays for the Minnesota Vikings). Matt is obviously instantly attracted to the surfer especially after she boldly confronts another NFL Pro Bowler that had trashed his hotel room, leaving a mess (vomit and feces all over the room) for Anne Marie and her friends to clean. Anne is fired by her manager for the little stunt she pulled. The manager argues that the NFL are their biggest customers and pay the highest rate, so the staff has no right to confront them, no matter what they did. The next day, Drew interferes with Anne's surf training, and this leads to her breaking her surfboard. After a few encounters, Matt says he wants to learn to surf, and Anne Marie agrees to teach him and several of his rowdy teammates to surf for $150 per hour (Girls wanted $20 per hour, but Matt says that he will pay $150 as that's what the hotel charges), with Lena, Eden, and Penny acting as coaches. Anne needs the money as she is out of a job. Anne Marie sees Matt again when she goes to the hotel room to get the money, but a call comes in for Matt from another woman. Anne Marie asks if it is Matt's wife, but he explains it is his niece. Later, they sleep together. Her acceptance of a non-local begins to cause friction between her and many of the young men in her surfing social circle. Anne Marie faces more problems when she and Eden argue about Anne Marie's lack of dedication to training for the Pipeline contest due to the sudden appearance of Matt. She also has to hear vicious comments from several of the other football players' wives and girlfriends staying at the hotel about how she is undergoing the "Matt Tollman makeover" while attending a luau at the resort. Anne Marie confronts Matt about their situation, and soon resolves to step up her game as she finally commits herself to the Pipeline Masters. On the day of Pipeline, Anne Marie wipes out during her first heat, but advances to the next heat after narrowly beating pro surfer Kate Skarratt. She is shaken, but Matt tells her a story about his first game as a quarterback and helps her regain her wavering confidence. Determined, but still afraid, Anne Marie returns to the water. Competing in the same heat is Keala Kennelly, one of the first professional female surfers, playing herself. While Keala surfs the first few sets of waves without wipe-outs, Anne Marie still has inhibitions about riding one, visions of another near-drowning incident holding her back. Keala finishes her turn, then paddles out and takes Anne Marie under her wing and encourages her to take the best wave of the day, on which Anne Marie manages to score perfectly. Although she does not advance to the next heat, she has regained her lost confidence, but more importantly, attracted the notice of sponsors, one of which includes an offer to join the Billabong women's surf team.

After the harrowing death of his partner, detective and author Alex Cross retreated to retirement. But when a criminal kidnaps a senator`s young daughter, Alex is lured back into action.

Middle-aged photographer and businessman Robert "Bobby" Garfield (Anton Yelchin) returns to his old hometown upon learning that his best friend, decorated soldier John "Sully" Sullivan (Will Rothhaar) has died in a traffic accident and begins recollecting his past when he visits an abandoned house where he used to live. Bobby finds that his other friend Carol also died a few years ago. During a summer in the 1960s, an eleven-year-old Bobby lives with his widowed mother, self-centered Liz Garfield (Hope Davis) (she is a bitter and vain woman), and has two friends, Carol Gerbe (Mika Boorem) and Sully. They experienced many things together, the most mysterious of which was meeting an older gentleman named Ted Brautigan (Sir Anthony Hopkins), whom Liz takes in as a boarder. Liz does not trust Ted at all (as he has all his belongings in a paper bag) but needs the money. Liz is having an affair with her boss Don Biderman (Adam LeFevre). Carol & Bobby have a special affection for one another including sharing a kiss "by which all others will be measured". Mrs. Gerber (Deirdre O'Connell) is Carol's mother. Ted takes the lonely Bobby under his wing, while his mother is busy with her job. The two form a paternal father-son bond, and it slowly becomes evident that Ted has some psychic and telekinetic powers. After reading Bobby's mind and realizing that the boy dreams of owning a bicycle; Ted kindly offers Bobby $1 a week in exchange for his reading a newspaper out loud. Bobby quickly figures out that Ted has some other purpose in mind. These same powers are the reason that Brautigan has come to this sleepy town. In due course Ted entrusts Bobby with the knowledge that he has escaped the grasp of the "Low Men", strange people who would stop at nothing to get him back in their control. dark clothes and dark hats, moving in packs in flashy cars. Ted says they want him back under their control. Ted reads Bobby's mind and tells him tales about how Ted and Bobby's father were at the same football game. He tells how an aging footballer was playing that day. His team was losing. He kept fighting and kept crawling 5 - 10 yards at each pass. Eventually, it was a miracle, and the aging footballer won the game for his team. Mysteriously, Ted asks Bobby to keep an eye on the neighborhood looking for any signs of announcements about missing pets (which could allude to the presence of "low men"). Ted can sense that Bobby also has mind reading abilities and is almost training him for it. Bobby attends the carnival and is able to play the card guessing game really well. He wins every time. He has the gift, and he scares himself with it. Bobby sees "low men" in town, but does not tell Ted, afraid to lose his new friend (Ted had told him that he would have to leave, in case the "low men" came to town). Bobby, Carol and John have frequent conflicts with the local town bully, Harry Doolin (Timmy Reifsnyder), whom Ted is able to scare away by looking into his mind and finding out that his violence is used to cover up the fact that he is secretly a cross-dresser. Liz leaves Bobby in Ted's care when she goes with her boss for the weekend for a seminar. She was reluctant, but there was no other babysitter available, who would do it for free. Ted and Bobby have a close shave with the "low men", when they pass by in their car. Ted asks Bobby to think about happy memories to confuse them. Ted prepares to leave town. However, at one point, Harry harasses and injures Carol, and when Ted manipulates her dislocated shoulder into place. Liz arrives, after being sexually assaulted by her boss, and mistakenly believes that Ted is a child molester. She is confronted by Ted's ability to tell her the truth about what she has been through, and how her behavior is affecting her relationship with her son, providing another reason that Ted must leave. That and the "low men" are closing in on him. Ted is eventually captured with the help of a tip from Liz. As some form of closure, Ted yells to Bobby as he is being driven away that he wouldn't have missed a moment "not for all the world", and later Bobby mirrors the same feelings. Bobby is later confronted by Harry, but Bobby grabs the latter's baseball bat and beats him with it. Liz later finds a new job in Boston and moves the family there. Before he leaves, Bobby and Carol say their goodbyes and share a final kiss. Returning to the present, Bobby turns to leave his old home wherein he meets a young girl named Molly. The two strike up a conversation wherein Molly reveals that she is Carol's daughter and that Carol died in recent years. Bobby gives Molly a photograph of a young Carol and the two become friends.

A single mother, with dreams of becoming a writer, has a son at the age of 15 in 1965, and goes through a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father. Seriocomic story based on the memoir by Beverly Donofrio, the movie follows a young woman who finds her life radically altered by an event from her teen years. Born in 1950, Beverly grew up bright and ambitious in a working-class neighborhood in Connecticut; her father was a tough but good-hearted cop who listened to his daughter's problems, and her mother was a nervous woman eager to imagine the worst. From an early age, Beverly displays a keen intelligence and an interest in literature, and dreams of going to college in New York and becoming a writer. However, she also develops an early interest in boys, and at 15 finds herself madly in love with a boy from her high school. However, an attempt to get his attention leads to an embarassing incident at a party, and Ray, a sweet but thick-headed 18-year-old, steps forward to defend her. Beverly and Ray end up making out, and after one thing leads to another, Beverly discovers she's pregnant. Telling Ray is only marginally less difficult than informing her parents, and at 16, Beverly is a wife and mother. Against the odds, Beverly is determined to still finish high school and go on to college, but that goal becomes more difficult with time, especially after Beverly's marriage begins to fall apart. Ray tries to do the right thing but has trouble holding a job, and becomes addicted to heroin.

Jack Frost is the lead singer in a rock band based in the fictional town of Medford, Colorado. His focus on his music and hopes that the band will sign a record deal leads him to neglect his family, including his 11-year-old son Charlie. Charlie and Jack build a snowman together, and Jack gives Charlie his best harmonica, which he bought the day Charlie was born. He jokingly tells Charlie that it is magical and that Jack will be able to hear it wherever he is. Jack promises his wife Gabby that he will attend Charlie's hockey game, but misses it in favor of recording a new hit song. To make up for it, Jack then promises to take his family on a Christmas trip to the mountains but is then called in on a gig that could make or break his career. While traveling to the gig, Jack realizes his mistake and borrows his band mate's car to take the family to the mountains. Unfortunately, Jack crashes the car in a snowstorm, and is killed. A year later, Charlie has fallen into depression over his father's death. One night, he makes another snowman that bears as much resemblance to Jack as he can remember and plays Jack's harmonica just before going to sleep. The harmonica is magical after all, as it revives Jack, transferring his spirit into the snowman. Jack attempts to greet Charlie, but terrifies him instead. After Jack uses his nickname "Charlie boy", Charlie realizes that the snowman is his father. Jack reconnects with Charlie and teaches him the values that he never got when he was alive. Jack convinces Charlie to rejoin his hockey team instead of continuing to grieve over his death. Meanwhile, Mac continues to be a friend of the family, while also becoming a father figure to Charlie. On a warm Christmas Eve, Jack begins melting and struggles to get to Charlie's hockey game but makes it. Afterward, Charlie decides to take Jack to the mountains where it is colder, but has a difficult time convincing Gabby. Jack and Charlie arrive at the isolated cabin that the family was going to stay at for Christmas before Jack's death. Jack calls Gabby, nonchalantly asking her to come to the cabin to pick up Charlie; Gabby is shocked, but recognizes his voice and obliges. Jack tells a disheartened Charlie that he must leave. When Gabby arrives, the snowman shell dissipates, revealing a human Jack in an ethereal form. Jack tells Charlie he will always be with him and, after bidding his wife and son farewell, returns to the afterlife.

Little Tree is an 8-year-old Cherokee boy who loses his parents during The Great Depression and begins living with his Indian grandparents and learning the Cherokee way of life. Little Tree is an 8-year-old Cherokee boy, who, during the time of the depression, loses his parents and starts to live with his Indian grandma and grandpa and learn the wisdom of the Cherokee way of life. —Anonymous Eight year old Little Tree lives in depression-era America. After his parents pass away, he goes to live with his grandparents in the rugged country side. There he is taught by them, as well as by Willow John, the Cherokee way of life. The history of how the Caucasians settlers first befriended them, then using the army forcibly took over their lands, forced them to re-locate resulting in many deaths. When the state's social services finds out that Little Tree is not attending school and is assisting his grandfather in selling liquor, they compel him to re-locate to an oppressive state run school, where things take a turn for the worse. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)