Wednesday, November 18, 2009

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 November 25, 2009

 

                           

BIG BUDGET FILMS

 

Ninja Assassin (R for profanity and graphic violence) Korean singing sensation Rain stars as the title character in this high body-count, martial arts saga about a renegade from a secret society of trained killers forced to fight his former comrades when they trail him from the Far East to Berlin. With Naomie Harris, Rick Yune and Ben Miles.

 

Old Dogs (PG for crude humor) Disney family comedy about a couple of freewheeling bachelors and business partners (John Travolta and Robin Williams) who get a big lesson in what’s really important in life when they’re suddenly left in charge of the 7 year-old twins (Ella Bleu Travolta and Conner Rayburn) one of them never knew he’d fathered with his ex (Kelly Preston).

Ensemble includes Seth Green, Matt Dillon, Ann-Margaret, Amy Sedaris, Tom Hanks’ wife Rita Wilson, and features the final screen performance of the late Bernie Mac.

 

The Princess and the Frog (G) Animated, musical tale, set in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter, where a jazz-loving frog (Bruno Campos) gets turned back into a prince with the help of a fateful kiss from a beautiful waitress (Anika Noni Rose). With voiceover work by Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, John Goodman, Keith David, Jenifer Lewis and Randy Newman.

 

The Road (R for violence, profanity and disturbing images) Viggo Mortenson and Kodi Smit-McPhee co-star in this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a father and son’s post-apocalyptic, cross-country road trip in the wake of a nuclear disaster which has transformed America into a barren wasteland where starving scavengers resort to cannibalism to survive. Supporting cast includes Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce.   

 

 

INDEPENDENT & FOREIGN FILMS

 

Brooklyn’s Finest (R for pervasive profanity, nudity, drug use, gory violence, and graphic sexuality) Gritty crime saga, directed by Antoine Fuqua, about three NYPD cops (Don Cheadle, Richard Gere and Ethan Hawke) whose paths cross serendipitously despite the fact that they work in three different outer boroughs. With Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin, Will Patton and Vincent D’Onofrio.

 

Gigante (Unrated) Uruguayan romance drama revolving around a Montevideo mall security guard (Horacio Camandule) whose infatuation with an attractive, overnight janitor (Leonor Svarcas) escalates from salivating while watching her on supermarket surveillance cameras to stalking her during the day when he’s off-duty. (In Spanish with subtitles)

 

Home (Unrated) Eminent domain drama about a back-to-nature family which refuses to move when bureaucrats build a new highway across from their rural property, thereby threatening to ruin their idyllic utopian existence. With Isabella Huppert, Olivier Gourmet and Adelaide Leroux. (In French with subtitles)

 

Me and Orson Welles (PG-13 for smoking and sexual references) Zac Efron stars in this screen adaptation of Robert Kaplow’s historical novel, set in 1937, about the ill-fated love affair between a young actor cast in a NYC production of Julius Caesar and an ambitious stage assistant (Claire Danes) who’d just as soon sleep with the play’s womanizing director, Orson Welles (Christian McKay).

With Eddie Marsan as John Houseman and James Tupper as Joseph Cotten.

 

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (R for profanity, sexuality, drug use and brief nudity) Dysfunctional family drama, based on the Rebecca Miller best seller about a miserably-married, middle-aged mom (Robin Wright Penn) who has an affair with a younger man (Keanu Reeves) to deal with the adjustment to her new humdrum life after her 80-year old husband (Alan Arkin) forces the family to move from a luxurious Manhattan apartment to a quiet retirement village in suburban Connecticut. With Winona Ryder, Maria Bello, Julianne Moore and Zoe Kazan, Elia’s granddaughter.

 

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