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Kam's Kapsules by Kam Williams

The Forgotten (PG-13 for violence, profanity, and intense themes). Sci-fi thriller with Julianne Moore as a bewildered single mom who hooks up with an equally frustrated father (Dominic West) to find the missing kids they suspect might have been abducted by aliens but who their psychiatrists say never even existed.

Friday Night Lights (PG-13 for mature themes, alcohol abuse, sex, expletives, and violence). Billy Bob Thornton and Derek Luke co-star in this high school football feature based on H.G. Bissinger's best-selling book which recounted the 1988 season exploits of the Permian Panthers from economically-ravaged Odessa Texas.

Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry (Unrated). Supportive biopic, narrated by Ben Affleck, focuses on both the military service, anti-war activism, and political career of the Democratic presidential hopeful.

The Grudge (PG-13 for horror fare). Halloween horror film starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as a nurse working in Tokyo where a supernatural, easily-spread virus has been unleashed which sends its victims into an uncontrollable, fatal rage.

Head in the Clouds (R for violence, sexuality, and nudity). Charlize Theron stars in this World War II romance drama, set in occupied Paris, as a fashion photographer who discovers that her boyfriend (Stuart Townsend) has been hiding his political persuasion. With Penelope Cruz.

I Heart Huckabees (R for expletives and a sex scene). Introspective romantic comedy starring Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman as a married couple who help an assortment of neurotics handle existential crises. Ensemble cast includes Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Mark Wahlberg, Isabelle Huppert, Jason Schwartzman, Tippi Hedren, and Shania Twain.

Ladder 49 (PG-13 for profanity, and intense fire and rescue situations). Flashback drama about a firefighter (Joaquin Phoenix) trapped in a burning building whose life passes before his eyes while he patiently waits to see if his comrades can save him before he is consumed by the conflagration. With John Travolta and Morris Chestnut.

Maria, Full of Grace (R for drug use, graphic images, and profanity). Harrowing tale about a pregnant, 17 year-old, Colombian peasant who agrees to smuggle heroin into the U.S. for a vicious kingpin in return for a big payday. In Spanish with subtitles.

The Motorcycle Diaries (R for profanity). Biopic based on the journals of Che Guevera, written in 1951-52, when the future leader of the Cuban Revolution was a carefree, 23 year-old medical student.

Napoleon Dynamite (PG for adult themes and mild epithets). Coming-of-age comedy about a weird teen raised by his uncle and grandmother in rural Idaho where his commitments to dancing and to the path of the ninja have left him socially-isolated.

Raise Your Voice (PG for mature themes and language). Coming-of-age melodrama with Hilary Duff as a sheltered, small town teen who decides to study performing arts in Los Angeles for the summer after her brother dies in a freak car accident.

Red Lights (Unrated). Taut Hitchcockian thriller about the harrowing ordeal which ensues for an alcoholic desperate to find his wife who abandoned him at a bar after an argument on the way to pick up their kids from camp in the south of France. In French with subtitles.

Rosenstrasse (PG-13 for mature themes, violence, and drug use). World War II drama, set in Berlin, recounts the fight of a group of Aryan wives for the lives of their Jewish husbands who had been rounded up by the Gestapo for deportation to Hitler's concentration camps. In German and English with subtitles.

Shall We Dance (PG-13 for sexual references and brief profanity). Remake of the 1996 Japanese hit about a bored accountant whose marriage gets inadvertently revitalized when he secretly signs up for lessons with the attractive, young dance teacher he has admired from afar. Here, Richard Gere plays the jaded, middle-aged student opposite Jennifer Lopez. Cast also includes Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Nick Cannon.

Shark Tale (PG for crude humor and language). Undersea Mafia animated adventure about a bragging bottom feeder (Will Smith) who claims to be the shark-slayer who killed the son of a mob boss (Robert De Niro) only to learn that pretending can lead to trouble.

Silver City (R for profanity). John Sayles wrote and directed this political potboiler about the effect of a murder investigation on the campaign of a corrupt Colorado gubernatorial candidate (Chris Cooper).

Surviving Christmas (PG-13 for sex, expletives and a drug reference) Pre-seasonal comedy with Ben Affleck as a just-dumped record exec who asks the family now living in his childhood home to let him move in for the holidays. With Christina Applegate, James Gandolfini, and Bill Macy.

Taxi (PG-13 for sex, expletives, and violence) This buddy comedy pairs a cabbie (Queen Latifah) with a rookie cop (Jimmy Fallon) for some outrageous hijinks as they set out to solve a string of recent burglaries.

Team America: World Police (R for graphic, crude and sexual humor, violent images, and profanity). Trey Parker and Matt Stone supply the bulk of the voicework in this puppet adventure about a band of superheroes out to save the world from terrorism and annoying celebrities.

We Don't Live Here Anymore (R for sex and expletives). Provocative drama adapted from the Andre Dubus novella, about the effect of an affair on the close friendship of two married couples. With Naomi Watts, Laura Dern, Mark Ruffalo and Peter Krause.

What the [Expletive] Do We Know ? (Unrated). Daring docudrama, mixing live-action and animation, stars Marlee Maitlin as a present-day Alice in Wonderland who finds herself in a paprallel universe where 14 intellectuals and clerics are debating whether religion or science has all the answers.

Wimbledon (PG-13 for sex, expletives, and nudity). Romantic comedy about a washed-up tennis pro (Paul Bettany) who makes the most of his last shot at glory while falling for the rising star (Kirsten Dunst) of the female circuit.