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Kam's Kapsules by Kam Williams

Around the World in 80 Days (PG for violence, crude humor, and language). Jackie Chan plays in a film loosely-based on the Jules Verne novel-turned-screen classic which swept the Oscars in 1957. Set in the 19th Century, the makeover recasts Jackie's character as a jewel thief rather than a servant of British inventor Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) and creates a role for Cecile De France.

The Chronicles of Riddick (PG-13 for profanity and scenes of intense violence). Vin Diesel reprises his role as escaped con with x-ray eyes in the first of three planned sequels to Pitch Black. This installment of the scary, sci-fi series adds Dame Judi Dench for a 26th Century intergalactic showdown between the Necromonger and Elemental races.

Control Room (Unrated). Documentary contrasts the Western media's coverage of the Iraq War with that of the Al-Jazeera network.

The Day after Tomorrow (PG-13 for scenes of intense peril). Special effects driven disaster epic with Dennis Quaid as a scientist with 48 hours to save the planet after the cataclysmic change which has shifted the Earth's climate from global warming to the brink of another Ice Age.

Dodgeball (PG-13 for profanity and rude, sexual humor). Underdog sports flick about a bunch of average Joes who take on a dodgeball team sponsored by the corporate fitness chain threatening to turn their local gym into its next the franchise. With Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn.

Garfield (PG for brief profanity). The wisecracking orange tabby created by cartoonist Jim Davis in 1978 finally makes his way to the silver screen for an animated adventure. Bill Murray provides the voice for the fat furry feline and the rest of the cast includes Jennifer Love Hewitt, Mo'Nique, Brad Garrett, Jimmy Kimmel, Nick Cannon, and Debra Messing.

Gloomy Sunday (Unrated). Romance drama, set in the 30s, about the sticky love quadrangle which unfolds at a Budapest nightclub when the half-Jewish owner, his piano bar keyboardist, and an occupying Nazi customer all fall in love with the same waitress. In German with subtitles.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PG for frightening images, creature violence, and mild epithets). Third installment in J.K. Rowling's chldren's series has hero Harry (Daniel Ratcliffe) and his Hogwarts classmates on the run from a renegade wizard (Gary Oldman) who has escaped from prison after being convicted of murder.

Mean Girls (PG-13 for sex, profanity, and underage partying). Lindsay Lohan stars in this revenge comedy created by Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey about a new teen in town who gets blacklisted after she crosses a clique of vindictive witches at her new high school.

Raising Helen (PG-13 for adult themes). Heartwarming comedy with Kate Hudson in the title role as a carefree, New York City glamour girl who tames down her lifestyle to care for her sister's three kids suddenly orphaned when their parents perish in an auto accident.

Saved! (PG-13 for profanity and themes involving teen sexuality, pregnancy, and smoking). Dark teen farce about a girl at a Baptist high school who finds herself ostracized after she beomes pregnant.

Shrek 2 (PG for crude and sexually suggestive humor, and a drug reference). Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow, and Conrad Vernon lend their voices to another animated adventure about the ornery ogre with a donkey (Murphy). The sequel has Princess Fiona (Diaz) taking her new hubby (Myers) home to meet her disappointed parents (Julie Andrews and John Cleese).

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (R for graphic sexuality). Coming-of-age drama about a boy raised in a temple as a Buddhist monk who abandons his ascetic lifestyle to indulge his carnal yearnings for a sickly girl who visits the monastery in search of healing. In Korean with subtitles.

The Stepford Wives (PG-13 for expletives, sex content, and mature themes). Remake of the 1975 film based on the Ira Levin best seller about a suburban town whose eerily-subservient housewives seem a little too plastic and too perfect to be believable. Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, and Faith Hill appear as spouses of Matthew Broderick, Jon Lovitz, Christopher Walken, and Matt Malloy, respectively.

Strayed (Unrated). This World War II tale of survival, set in 1940, traces the desperate plight of a quartet of Parisian refugees (a widow with her two young kids and a 17 year-old stranger) who flee to the forest to escape from the Nazis. In French with subtitles.

Super Size Me (Unrated). Muckraking documentary written by, directed by, and starring New York University film school graduate Morgan Spurlock, in which he exposes the unhealthy side of junk food by eating only at McDonald's for a month.

The Terminal (PG-13 for profanity and drug references). Stephen Spielberg directs Tom Hanks in this romantic comedy about a refugee from Eastern Europe, escaping civil war in his homeland, who is denied entry into the U.S.A. because his country no longer exists. Unable to clear customs, the immigrant makes friends and finds love in a New York City airline terminal.

Troy (R for sexuality, nudity, and graphic violence). Homer gets the Hollywood treatment in this 165-minute adaptation of the Iliad with Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, Diane Kruger as Helen, Brian Cox as Agamemnon and Peter O'Toole as Priam.