January 2010 Movie Preview

January used to be viewed by studios as a month to either expand movies that opened in limited release to qualify for Academy Award consideration or as a dumping ground for films with low potential. That isn’t the case anymore as January has proven to have the produce some hits. A couple movies release this coming month that look to reinforce the new way of thinking.

January 8th

Daybreakers
Starring: Ethan Hawke
Quality Potential: Average
Box Office Potential: Average
Synopsis: As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human or find a blood substitute before time runs out. However a covert group of vampires makes a remarkable discovery, one which has the power to save the human race.

Youth in Revolt
Starring: Michael Cera
Quality Potential: Average
Box Office Potential: Low
Synopsis: The journal of Nick Twisp, an 18-year old high school student who goes on a quest to lose his virginity after his parent’s breakup.

Leap Year
Starring: Amy Adams
Quality Potential: Low
Box Office Potential: Average
Synopsis: Following an Irish tradition in which a man must say yes if proposed to on a leap day, a woman travels to Dublin to propose to her boyfriend.

January 15th

The Book of Eli
Starring: Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis
Quality Potential: High
Box Office Potential: High
Synopsis: A solitary man walks across the wasteland that was once America and must keep moving to fulfill his destiny and bring help to a ravaged humanity.

The Spy Next Door
Starring: Jackie Chan
Quality Potential: Low
Box Office Potential: Average
Synopsis: Former CIA spy Bob Ho takes on his toughest assignment to date: looking after his girlfriend’s three kids. When one of the youngsters accidentally downloads a top-secret formula, Bob’s longtime nemesis (a Russian terrorist) pays a visit to the family.

The Lovely Bones (Wide)
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz
Quality Potential: High
Box Office Potential: Average
Synopsis: Susie Salmon, a young girl who has been murdered, watches over her family (and her killer) from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.

January 22nd

Tooth Fairy
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ashley Judd
Quality Potential: Low
Box Office Potential: High
Synopsis: When a pro hockey player, nicknamed the Tooth Fairy for his ability to knock out other players’ teeth, dashes the hopes of a young boy, he is ordered to one week’s hard labor as the real Tooth Fairy.

Extraordinary Measures
Starring: Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser
Quality Potential: Average
Box Office Potential: Average
Synopsis: A drama centered on the efforts of John and Aileen Crowley to find a researcher who might have a cure for their two children’s rare genetic disorder.

Legion
Starring: Paul Bettany
Quality Potential: Average
Box Office Potential: High
Synopsis: After a terrifying biblical apocalypse descends upon the world, a group of strangers stranded in a remote truck stop diner in the Southwest unwittingly become humanity’s last line of defense when they discover the diner’s young waitress is pregnant with the messiah.

January 29th

Edge of Darkness
Starring: Mel Gibson
Quality Potential: Average
Box Office Potential: High
Synopsis: As homicide detective Thomas Craven investigates the death of his activist daughter, he uncovers not only her secret life, but a corporate cover-up and government collusion that attracts an agent tasked with cleaning up the evidence.