MONTHLY MOVIE PREVIEWS: January 2014

January is typically the worst month of the entire year for movies, and I hate it.  The more potent twin of August, it is one of two major dumping grounds for the particularly poor films that may only hope to pull themselves together when competing against rival trash.  The horror genre must be pretty difficult to make good of, because January gets a real glut of  the lowest-common denominator horror films in wide release, and there's also a few formulaic thrillers, which have come to be referred to as "January thrillers," given their regularity.  There's always the slim possibility of a surprise hit that's sneaks past into the less competitive field, and this year, there's at least one unusually high-profile film that's found it's way into January over scheduling conflicts the previous year, but mostly, the moviegoer's best hope of surviving the first month of the year are the awards season hopefuls which trickle into wider releases following their limited releases from December in the major cities.

January 3rd
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES  (HORROR/THRILLER)
Starring: Andrew Jacobs, Molly Ephraim
Rated R for pervasive language, some violence, graphic nudity and some drug use.
In this spin-off of the surprisingly successful PARANORMAL ACTIVITY series of films, some young party goers in California stumble upon the remains of black magic rituals and the tapes from PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3.  When one of the young people is "marked" he is pursued by dark mystical forces in this found footage supernatural thriller.  Described as a "cousin" to the popular film series, THE MARKED ONES is written and directed by Christopher Landon, who wrote the script for the overrated REAR WINDOW rip-off, DISTURBIA.  It wasn't actually intended for a January release, but it didn't its deadline for October 2013, so there's a slim chance of it being better than the average January horror film, but it isn't likely at all to bring anything original or fresh to the table.

January 10th
THE LEGEND OF HERCULES  (ACTION-ADVENTURE)
Starring: Kellan Lutz, Scott Adkins, Gaia Weiss
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense combat action and violence, and for some sensuality.
In an apparent attempt to get the jump on Brett Ratner's HERCULES: THE THRACIAN WARS, due out in July (but which isn't likely to be significantly better), Summit has thrown together this would-be epic of the legendary Greek demigod Hercules (Kellan Lutz), who is banished by his treacherous king and stepfather, and returns to depose the wicked king.  Co-written and directed by Renny Harlin, the man who effectively bankrupted a studio with CUTTHROAT ISLAND, listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest box office loss of all time, this is likely to be the worst sort of quickly thrown-together straight-to-DVD-style trash on a theatrical budget.

January 17th
DEVIL'S DUE  (HORROR)
Starring: Allison Miller, Zach Gilford
Rated R for language and some bloody images.
This doesn't seem at all interested in masking the fact that its another rip-off of the horror classic ROSEMARY'S BABY, as yet another story about a young married woman who seems to be pregnant with the Spawn of Satan, but without the subtlety.  Ho-hum.

January 17th
JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT  (ACTION/THRILLER)
Starring: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branaugh
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and intense action, and brief strong language.
This reboot of the late Tom Clancy's most popular character, Jack Ryan, CIA analyst, is an unusual release for January, but it was only recently moved to January from its initial release date of Christmas Day 2013 back in October in order to accommodate the delay of THE WOLF OF WALL STREET.  I'm not sure what to think of the movie, but it will be interesting to see how a high-profile tent pole film goes over in January.  They've applied the CASINO ROYALE (2005) formula to the character, rebooting Agent Ryan with Jason Bourne's mixed martial arts and a youthful star, Chris Pine, in this case.  It looks sort of like an "America: F*** Yeah!" movie in the manner of JACK REACHER, but it's directed by a Brit, Kenneth Branaugh, who also plays the film's Russian villain.

January 17th
THE NUT JOB  (ANIMATED/CHILDREN'S)
Featuring the Voices of: Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson
Rated PG for mild action and rude humor.
About this time of year, you also see a couple of bargain basement animated films made by bargain basement animation studios and picked up cheap by distributors, packed with shameless stunt casting of big stars who can be bought at a lower price if they only need to show up in a recording booth for a few hours, and an over-reliance on flatulence gags.  This one, happens to be a rip-off of OVER THE HEDGE, about a scrappy and grumpy squirrel who is kicked out of the park and into the city where he convinces other city varmints to help him break into a nut store.  These types of movies have been known to cause birth defects in some cases.

January 17th
RIDE ALONG  (ACTION-COMEDY)
Starring: Ice Cube, Kevin Hart
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence, sexual content and brief string language.
Comedian of the moment Kevin Hart plays opposite of O'Shea "Ice Cube" Jackson as a loud-mouthed security guard who joins Ice Cube's hard-ass beat cop on his rounds for a day in order to prove himself worthy to marry his sister.  Originality is not the name of the game here, but Hart's a funny and likable guy, so maybe it will only be dumb, and not downright awful.

January 24th
I, FRANKENSTEIN  (ACTION-FANTASY)
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Jai Courtney, Bill Nighy, Miranda Otto
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense fantasy action and violence throughout.
Based on a graphic novel, this is yet another stale rip-off of the UNDERWORLD films with Frankenstein's creation (Aaron Eckhart) still alive 200 years later, and now caught in between an eternal between two clans; the Demons and the Gargoyles.  Basically, it's an excuse to show an hour and a half of CGI monsters smashing into each other, and within a PG-13 rating to boot. 

January 31st
LABOR DAY  (DRAMA)
Starring: Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Tobey Maguire
Rated PG-13 for thematic material, brief violence and sexuality.
Directed by Jason Reitman, director of JUNO and UP IN THE AIR, Kate Winslet plays a depressed mother who discovers a bloody homeless man on the street and takes him in to nurse him better.  She begins to fall in love with him, but discovers that he's an escaped convict.  This dark drama has already shown at some film festivals and the response has been on the better end of mixed.

January 31st
THAT AWKWARD MOMENT  (ROMANTIC COMEDY)
Starring: Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan, Mile Teller, Imogen Poots
Rated R for sexual content and language throughout.
Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller play best friends and roommates who each find themselves at points in their romantic relationships where they question where things are going for them.  The concept has some promise, but there's nothing too remarkable about the advertising, and there isn't a clear balance between whether it's meant to be more raunchy or sweet.  The cast is promising and seems to have good chemistry though.