January 2019

January was once the dumping ground for many movies, now it seems there are movies that are specifically made for this month. After awards season and before February, when at least 2 big movies get released to capitalize on Valentine's day, it's a tricky time. A movie that once had promise but got bumped for whatever reason may wind up in January or perhaps a B movie with an A cast may feel more at home in January than an Awards season or Spring/Summer release. The stuff coming out this month may not make appear at next years Awards ceremony but there is still fun to be had.

After decades of flops studios may be getting tired of making video game movies and no on in their right mind wants to go up against Marvel so studios are starting to make movies out of games. Quija, Battleship, Jumanji and you can even throw Game Night. Now this brings us to Escape Room. Escape rooms started popping up all over a few years ago and people seem to enjoy them. The ideas is you and a few friends are locked in a room, you're given a couple of clues and you have to find the key to get out of the room before time is up. When a group of people accept an invite to a new escape room they find themselves dealing with dangers not found in the ones that have taken over empty store fronts in recent years. This one is deadly and if you don't solve the riddles you lose a lot more than a free t-shirt.  This is like the definitive January release. It's perfect for the college aged and high schoolers home from school and it looks to be fun but bordering on mindless entertainment for film goers.

Back in 2011, The Intouchables was a massive worldwide and was receiving rave reviews and some awards attention. It's about a wealthy paraplegic who is holding interviews for a new caretaker. When a man with no interest in the job, he just wants a signature showing he attended the interview to show the unemployment office, comes to the interview he makes an impression and gets the job on a temporary basis. I didn't see this movie but people love it and, as with any popular foreign film, an American remake was probably going to happen. The Upside stars Kevin Hart as the caretaker and Bryan Cranston as the paraplegic. It was actually made back in 2017 and was one of the last films to be produced by someone who is now persona non grata in Hollywood (and everywhere else) and that association, and middling reviews, pushed it to a January release. The word 'sentimental' appears in a couple reviews and the leads have good chemistry but when compared to the original this one is seemingly just okay

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Back in 2011 Joe Cornish made Attack the Block which comes from the Shaun of the Dead corner of the film world. It's a super fun, fast paced action horror film starring the future leads of the new Star Wars films and Dr. Who. I've waited 7 years to see what he would do next and besides a couple writing credits there was nothing on the horizon. I have not checked his IMDb page in a couple years and had no idea he had already written and directed The Kid Who Would Be King and that it was coming out next month. Ordinarily I ignore these sword and sorcery stories, I even passed on watching Game of Thrones until nearly every person I know told me I had to check it out. This is definitely something I would have no interest if it were not for the creative power behind it. I'm giving his film high praise before I even see a trailer, that's how much I enjoy Attack the Block.

Every so often an actor will appear in something and you have to think 'what did they do to wind up in something like this?' For Nic Cage it's that he didn't pay taxes and spent too much on weird expensive stuff. For Keanu Reeves it seems he owed a producer friend a favor and that's why he is in Replicas a very Direct to Video looking movie that I only recently saw a poster for at a theater. It's about a man trying to clone his family after they died tragically. We've seen this story before. It doesn't go well but Reeves is usually entertaining.

A few years ago a movie called A Dog's Purpose came out and, like many dog movies, it made people cry. I learned what the 'purpose' was and skipped the movie entirely but A Dog's Way Home, from the same writer as Purpose, looks like another sappy dogventure and looks cute and charming. The movie features real life people and animals but the dog is voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard. This is the kind of cute family stuff that works real well in the month of January.

A movie with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway about intrigue on the ocean sounds like a pulpy summer thriller but alas Serenity will be a January release. Not sure why because the director has written and directed some great thrillers in the past few years and the leads are still pretty big. It does have the same name as a beloved sci-fi movie so maybe that's why it doesn't appear to have a big release. It also is a noir-ish femme fatale story and those aren't as popular as they were 60 years ago. Hathaway is McConaughey (he is your cousin; you should know how to spell his name)'s ex wife and asks him to kill her abusive boyfriend to save their child from him. This story isn't new but I have to imagine it'll be performed well enough since the director, actors and supporting cast are all solid.   

Remember when M. Night Shyamalan was THE name in in Hollywood? It lasted for a couple years. He had a hot streak with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs then things took a turn. His next 5 movies didn't wow audiences and he then he quietly came back with a few lower budget thrillers. It wasn't until 2016's Split that a lot of people jumped back on the Shyamalan train. It was a great movie and as a bonus it turned out to be a secret sequel to Unbreakable that ended with a cliffhanger featuring Bruce Willis reprising his character. Now 3 years later we have Glass which is Samuel L. Jackson's terrorist alias in Unbreakable. He has teamed up with McAvoy's Beast, who has multiple personalities and the deadliest seems to be taking over, from Split and they are up against Willis' super strong David Dunn. I'm very excited for this one and I think that the January release is more tactical that damning as I believe this will do very well.