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

by Kam Williams

For movies opening June 22, 2007

Big Budget Films

1408 (PG-13 for horror violence, disturbing images, terror, profanity and mature themes) Fright flick adapted from a Stephen King short story about a skeptic (John Cusack) who has built his career selling books debunking claims of paranormal phenomena. Everything changes the day he decides to spend a night in a haunted hotel room. With Samuel L. Jackson as the night manager.

Captivity (R for graphic violence, grisly images, profanity, sexuality and torture) Erotic thriller about a famous cover girl (Elisha Cuthbert) and a chauffeur (Daniel Gillies) who fall madly in love with each other while imprisoned in the dungeon of a sadistic serial killer.

DOA: Dead or Alive (PG-13 for nudity, sexuality and pervasive violence) Screen adaptation of the best-selling video game of the same name about four, scantily-clad, fearless females (Helena Carter, Holly Valance, Jaime Pressley and Devon Aoki) picked to compete against men in a martial arts tournament being staged on an exotic island in the middle of nowhere. With Eric Roberts, Brian J. White and Matthew Marsden.

Evan Almighty (PG for peril and crude humor) Sequel to Bruce Almighty sans Jim Carrey instead stars Steve Carrell in the title role as a newscaster-turned-congressman implored by God (Morgan Freeman) to build an ark in anticipation of another great flood. Cast includes Wanda Sykes, John Goodman and Molly Shannon, with a cameo by Jon Stewart.

A Mighty Heart (R for profanity) Adaptation of the memoir of Mariane Pearl (Angelina Jolie), widow of Daniel (Dan Futterman), the kidnapped Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter whose beheading in Pakistan in 2002 was videotaped by jihadists who then posted it on the internet.

Independent & Foreign Films

Black Sheep (Unrated) Horror comedy about an experiment in genetic engineering gone wrong which turns the normally tranquil sheep on a scenic New Zealand ranch into a horde of bloodthirsty, man-eating zombies.

Broken English (PG-13 for sex, expletives and drug use) biological clock comedy featuring Parker Posey as a thirty-something old maid without much luck in the Manhattan dating scene till she encounters a freewheeling Frenchman (Melvil Poupaud) who gives her a new lease on life. With Gena Rowlands, Drea de Matteo and Griffin Dunne.

Lady Chatterley (Unrated) French adaptation of the banned D.H. Lawrence classic, published in 1928, revolving around the adulterous exploits of a sexually-frustrated aristocrat (Marina Hands) enjoying an increasingly-steamy liaison with her gamekeeper (Jean-Louis Coull'och), thereby cuckolding her impotent, wheelchair-bound spouse (Hippolyte Giradot) in the process. (In French with subtitles)

Longing (Unrated) Iron Curtain era romance drama revolving around complications which ensue for a volunteer fireman (Andreas Muller) cheating on his wife (Ilka Welz) when he decides to break off the affair he's been carrying-on with a waitress (Anett Dornbusch) from another town. (In German with subtitles)

Manufactured Landscapes (Unrated) Behind the Bamboo Curtain documentary examines the fallout visited upon China since the country's headlong rush to modernization. With an artist's eye, moving and still pictures capture everything from recycling junkyards to hollowed-out strip mines to depleted rock quarries to soul-sapping assembly lines.

White Palms (Unrated) Zoltan Mikos Hadju stars in this semi-autobiographical docudrama about a Hungarian Olympic gymnast-turned-coach who's hired to whip a temperamental Canadian hopeful (Kyle Shewfelt) into world-class shape. (In Hungarian and English with subtitles)

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