Amaliyat Khasa (Special Missions)

Move over Tom Cruise and his Mission Impossible team — now Egypt has its own commandoes, namely the hunks Khaled Selim, Tamer Hagrass, Amir Karara and Nabil Eissa, who are recruited by a cryptic mastermind (Fahmy) and his sexy assistant (Saba) to become special agents for a mysterious organization. Shooting of the LE 7 million film was problematic: a driver named Gamal died during a chase scene on the Cairo-Alexandria desert road.

After romantic turns in El-Eshq Wel Hawa and Taymour We Shafika, Ahmed El-Sakka returns to what he does best: action and mayhem. Written by Mohamed Diab, El-Sakka’s new vehicle dramatizes the real-life story of Ezzat Hanafy, who led a drug empire in Upper Egypt. The movie is set in the small islands of the Nile river. El-Sakka, rumored to perform his stunts without proper choreography or security measures, reportedly sustained an eye injury last May mid-filming, but finished the film on schedule.

Following Mostafa Shaaban’s turn in Juba, it seems that hitmen are the character du jour in new Egyptian films. Rising actor Mohamed Ragab plays a super assassin whose life is changed when he falls in love with a beautiful innocent woman (Adel).

The new drama from director Khaled Youssef and writer Nasser Abdel-Rahman focuses on the troubled lives of the poor in Cairo’s back alleys. El-Khashab plays Nahed, forced by traumatic experiences to become a belly dancer and a prostitute working for a mysterious madame (Ghada Abdel-Razek). Mohamed Fouad sings the title track.

In the fourth remake of Richard Matheson’s 1954 science fiction novel, Will Smith follows screen legends Vincent Price and Charlton Heston in the role of Robert Neville, a brilliant scientist and possibly the only survivor of a man-made virus that wiped out the planet. When Neville discovers that he is surrounded by infected victims transformed into bloodthirsty vampires, finding a cure becomes his and mankind’s only hope.

Based on the cartoon series, this is a live action/CGI family-oriented musical comedy about a trio of chipmunks led by Alvin (voice of Long) who invades the house of Dave (Jason Lee of Almost Famous, My Name is Earl), urging him to become their music producer.

An epic story-telling of the life of legendary gunslinger Jesse James, here played by Brad Pitt, also credited as producer. While planning his next great robbery, James wages war on bounty-hunters trying to collect reward money. But Robert Ford (Affleck), who idolized James since childhood and eventually joins his gang, starts to have second thoughts about his loyalties.

This is the sequel to the 2004 spin-off science fiction flick that brought together the most notorious outer space monsters ever. When a Predator spaceship crash-lands in a small town, the Aliens on board break loose and the town’s people find themselves helplessly caught in the middle of intergalactic battle between these two mythic creatures.

Since John Woo (Mission Impossible: II, Broken Arrow) landed in Hollywood, many American films cling to his slow-motion choreographed shootouts. Shoot ’Em Up follows the same formula with only one difference: It stars American and European actors. Sin City lead Clive Owen portrays Mr. Smith, a hitman reluctantly protecting the beautiful Donna (Bellucci) and her newborn child from psychotic gangster Hertz (Giamatti), who is tracking them down.

Following The Ring and The Grudge, this is yet another American remake of an Asian horror flick. Beth (Sossamon) is traumatized after witnessing the gruesome deaths of two close friends who had both received chilling voice messages predicting their fates. Police detective Andrews (Burns) is the only one who believes Beth’s theory since his own sister was killed in a freak accident that bears a strange similarity to her friends’ deaths.

Based on a novel by Cecelia Ahern, this is a new romantic drama that has nothing to do with the short-lived TV series P.S.I. Luv U (1991) starring Greg Evigan and Connie Sellecca (which used to air on Egyptian national television). After she loses her husband Gerry (Butler), the still young and beautiful Holly (Swank) starts to receive letters he wrote before his death to guide her not only through her grief, but in rediscovering herself.

This is the sequel to the action-packed 2004 adventure film that scored $350 million worldwide. When a missing page from John Wilkes Booth’s diary surfaces, Ben Gates’ great-great grandfather is suddenly implicated as a key conspirator in Abraham Lincoln’s death. Determined to prove his ancestor’s innocence, Gates (Cage) follows an international chain of clues that takes him from Paris to London and ultimately back to America.

Are They Contenders?

Washington and Crowe are reunited for the first time since the sci-fi Virtuosity (1995). This is the true story of 1970’s gangster Frank Lucas (Washington), who dominated the Harlem inner-city drug trade, and police detective Richie Roberts (Crowe) who swears to put Lucas behind bars. Just after wrapping-up American Gangster, Crowe went to Morocco to shoot Bed of Lies, his fourth film with Ridley Scott, co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

I n this adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel, a newly budded romance between the wealthy Cecilia (Knightley) and Robbie (McAvoy), the housekeeper’s promising son, is torn apart when her 13-year-old sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan) accuses Robbie of a crime he didn’t commit. After he is enlisted during WWII, Robbie departs to France while the two sisters become nurses in London. But Briony, now 18 (Garai), tries to atone for what she realizes was a tragic error. et