Kam's Kapsules: Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun

OPENING THIS WEEK
Kam's Kapsules:
Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun
by Kam Williams
For movies opening January 25, 2008


BIG BUDGET FILMS

How She Move (PG-13 for profanity, sexuality and drug use) Inspirational dance saga about a promising high school student (Rutina Wesley) who has to return to her crime-infested ‘hood when her parents can no longer afford the tuition at the exclusive prep school she’d been attending. Co-starring Tre Armstrong and Melanie Nicholls-King, with cameos by Keyshia Cole and DeRay Davis.

Meet the Spartans (PG-13 for profanity, sexuality, crude humor and slapstick violence) Silly spoof of 300 from the purveyors of parodies who brought us Scary Movie, Date Movie and Epic Movie. Besides the Spartan saga, this irreverent comedy satirizes everything from Transformers to Rocky Balboa to You Got Served to Britney Spears to Ghost Rider to Paris Hilton. Ensemble includes Carmen Electra, Method Man and Diedrich Bader.

Rambo (R for profanity, sexual assaults, grisly images and graphic violence) For the first time in 20 years, Sylvester Stallone reprises the title role as Vietnam vet John Rambo, now returning to Southeast Asia to lead a team of mercenaries on a mission to save Christian mercenaries kidnapped by sadistic Burmese soldiers. With Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden and Tim Kang.

Untraceable (R for profanity, torture and grisly violence) Diane Lane stars in this cat-and-mouse thriller as an FBI Agent on the trail of a brazen, cyber serial killer who broadcasts his murders over the internet, streaming live on his own website. Cast includes Colin Hanks, Mary Beth Hurt and Billy Burke.


INDEPENDENT & FOREIGN FILMS

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Unrated) Eventful day-in-the-life drama, set in Romania in the late Eighties, during the last gasp of Communism, chronicles the harrowing ordeal of a pregnant college student (Laura Vasiliu) who, with the help of her roommate (Anamaria Marinca), travels to Bucharest in search of a black market abortion.

The Air I Breathe (R for nudity, profanity, sexuality and violence) Inspired by an ancient Chinese proverb, this quartet of overlapping sagas examines the four cornerstones of human emotions (love, sorrow, pleasure and happiness) through a businessman (Forest Whitaker) who bets his life on a horse race, a clairvoyant gangster (Brendan Fraser), a pop star (Sarah Michelle Gellar) mixed up with the mob, and a doctor (Kevin Bacon) desperate to save the love of his life.

Alice’s House (Unrated) Skeletons out-of-the-closet soap opera, set in Brazil, about the goings-on inside the home of a dysfunctional family comprised of a hairdresser (Carla Ribas) taken for granted by her philandering husband (Ze Carlo Machado) and their three spoiled sons while her voyeuristic mother (Berta Zemel) keeps score. (In Portuguese and English with subtitles)

Elite Squad (Unrated) Action thriller, set in Rio de Janeiro in 1997, revolving around a couple of idealistic police recruits (Caio Jungueira and Andre Remiro) assigned to rid a dangerous slum of drug dealers prior to the pope’s impending visit. (In Portuguese with subtitles)

How to Rob a Bank (Unrated) Crime comedy about a bank employee (Erika Christensen) and a customer (Nick Stahl) who find themselves locked in a vault and having to handle the hostage negotiations between the cops and a gang of robbers. Cast includes Terry Crews, David Carradine and Leo Fitzpatrick.

Lost in Beijing (Unrated) Modern China melodrama about a masseuse (Bingbing Fan) whose window washer husband (Dawei Tong) blackmails her boss (Tony Leung Ka Fai) into letting him sleep with his wife (Elaine Jin) after catching the creep raping his. (In Mandarin with subtitles)

Orthodox Stance (Unrated) American Dream documentary traces the quest for the title and his place in the U.S. of 23 year-old Dmitriy Salita, a Russian immigrant who’s both a professional boxer and an Orthodox Jew.