The Bottom Line: The Top Stars of ’05

Jessica Alba wants to shed her good-girl image, and Sin City is the best place to do it. Yup, a scantily clad Alba shakes her moneymaker to no end in this adaptation of Frank Miller’s tough-as-nails graphic novel. And no doubt she’ll flash more flesh in Into the Blue, reportedly a loose reworking of The Deep. But it’s The Fantastic Four that could finally transform Alba from a superheroine into a genuine film star. She’s certainly not the most obvious choice to play Marvel Comics’ oh-so white-bread Invisible Woman, but TV’s Dark Angel definitely knows how to handle herself when it’s clobbering time.

Orlando Bloom

Will Orlando Bloom ever put down his trusty sword? No and yes. In the first epic he’s required to carry, Bloom goes all medieval for the Crusades-era Kingdom of Heaven. Bloom, though, is under the experienced command of Ridley Scott, whose Gladiator conquered all at the 2001 Oscars. Bloom quickly washes the blood off his hands for Elizabethtown, the new dramatic comedy by Jerry Maguire‘s Cameron Crowe. How Bloom handles life in the 21st century remains to be seen, but with Crowe by his side, the journey from Troy to Elizabethtown should prove eventful.

Ice Cube

Vin Diesel‘s loss should be Ice Cube‘s gain. He’s not had much luck in recent years when it comes to flexing his muscles. So replacing Diesel–who treats sequelitis like it’s the plague-in the new XXX mission appears readymade to reestablish Ice Cube as a man of action. But before he saves the world, he reveals his warmer, softer side in Are We There Yet? Predictable and moderately amusing, this family-friendly comedy offers enough Home Alone-inspired antics-and pee-pee jokes-to keep kids giggling deep into the New Year.

Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell obviously doesn’t need to catch up on his beauty sleep between gigs. Nor does he mind being the most obnoxious loudmouth in the room. It worked for Anchorman. It should work for Kicking & Screaming, in which Ferrell plays the pushy and uptight coach of his young son’s soccer team. Things then get kinda twitchy for Ferrell when he becomes the first actor not named Dick to play Darren Stephens in Bewitched. SNL‘s Marty Culp also bursts into song again, this time as the lunatic writer of Springtime for Hitler in the musical version of The Producers. Oh yes, and he goes all mushy in Woody Allen‘s Melinda and Melinda, gets serious for Winter Passing, and goofs it up in small roles in Owen Wilson‘s The Wedding Crashers and Luke Wilson‘s The Wendell Baker Story. Slow down, Will, we can’t keep up.

Jamie Foxx

Thank goodness a possible Oscar win means Jamie Foxx will never inflict upon us a Booty Call sequel. Instead, the Ray crooner’s going to war. Foxx‘s red-shot status in Hollywood should generate much-needed heat for Stealth, which is flying under the radar as far as summer must-sees go. But this toys-for-boys popcorn extravaganza-about an out-of-control military fighter plane-won’t challenge Foxx as much as Jarhead. Sam Mendes‘ provocative Gulf War drama, which requires Foxx‘s Marine sergeant to keep tabs on enlistee Jake Gyllenhaal, should lead the charge in next year’s Oscar race.

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Nicole Kidman

Let’s forget last year’s remake of The Stepford Wives ever happened. That way, the prospect of Nicole Kidman taking Samantha Stephens’ broom for a ride seems all the more, er, bewitching. Kidman needs to drop her chilly facade if she intends to cast a spell over audiences as everyone’s favorite witch. And the Sydney Pollack-directed The Interpreter should fare better than The Peacemaker if Kidman and Sean Penn speak the same language when it comes to suspense.

Jennifer Lopez

Unlike ex-beau Ben Affleck, J.Lo wisely kept a low profile last year–at least when it came to her fleeting appearances in Jersey Girl and Shall We Dance?–to live down the fiasco that was Bennifer. This summer, though, Mrs. Marc Anthony should bounce back with Monster-in-Law, or Meet the Parents in high heels. Lopez clearly hasn’t lost her luster. How else to explain Jane Fonda coming out of retirement to torment Lopez‘s as her future-and extremely reluctant-mother-in-law? Or Robert Redford playing Lopez‘s estranged father-in-law in the oft-delayed An Unfinished Life?

Naomi Watts

King Kong lives again, and this time the big ape’s sweet on Naomi Watts. Aside from the final Star Wars saga, Peter Jackson‘s remake of the 1933 monster mash ranks as 2005’s most anticipated blockbuster-to-be. That bodes well for Watts, who spent last year toiling in a string of messy art house flops. She may not scream hard enough to make us forget Fay Wray–or even Jessica Lange, for that matter-but King Kong is bound to run amok at the box office. As will The Ring 2, which is now back in the hands of Ringu director Hideo Nakata. Fingers cross that means more scares and less static than The Ring.

Ewan McGregor

The Force is with Ewan McGregor, who finally gets to administer a severe beating to some intergalactic goon by the name of Darth Vader. Also this summer, he lands on The Island, a sci-fi thriller from director Michael Bay that’s bound to attract many visitors. He will be seen but not heard in Robots, programmed to dominate by the creators of Ice Age, and Disney’s Valiant, about a carrier pigeon fighting for king and country during World War II. With four potential hits to his name, McGregor may even celebrate the release of his long-on-the-shelf psychological thriller Stay.

Bruce Willis

Five years without a hit and Bruce Willis finally decides against playing it safe. Sin City could do for Willis what Pulp Fiction did for him back in 1994, when he also seemed like he was one flop from a Moonlighting TV reunion movie. In the star-studded Sin City, Willis costars as a cop framed for a crime he did not commit. Surprise, he also stars as a cop in Hostage. Do we really need another Willis hostage drama? No, but this one appears to mercilessly screw around with the longstanding Die Hard formula. Yippie-kay-ay … or so we hope, for Bruce’s sake.