PREVIEW – JANUARY MOVIES

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Happy New Year and welcome to 2010 everyone. A new decade has begun and here is a list of some real good movies that you shouldn't miss out on this month.

1.      Daybreakers

Daybreakers is a vampire film written and directed by Peter and Michael Spierig. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill.

Think Zombieland, only instead of nearly the entire population turning into zombies........... It’s Vampires. Ten years after a plague turned most of the world's population into vampires, a critical blood shortage is causing panic and gruesome mutations within the undead community. Edward (Ethan Hawke), a vampire hematologist, is trying to develop a blood substitute when he meets Lionel (Willem Dafoe) and Audrey (Claudia Karvan), two fugitive humans who claim to have a possible cure for vampirism. Edward casts his lot in with Lionel and Audrey in the hope of perfecting the cure before it's too late.

Opens: January 8, 2010 Runtime: 1 hr. 38 min. Rated: N/A

2.      Leap Year

Leap Year is a romantic comedy about a woman so desperate to get married that she adopts another tradition so she can propose to him. Directed by Anand Tucker, the movie stars Amy Adams and Matthew Goode.

The plot follows Anna (Amy Adams) who travels to Dublin, Ireland to propose to her boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) on February 29, leap day, because according to Irish legend, a man who is proposed to on a leap day must accept.

Opens: January 8, 2010 Runtime: 1 hr. 37 min. Rated: PG

3.      Youth in Revolt

Youth in Revolt is a film adaptation of C.D. Payne's epistolary novel of the same name. This Comedy Drama was directed by Miguel Arteta and it stars Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Long, Ray Liotta and Steve Buscemi.

Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is a cynical sex-obsessed 16-year-old who, while on vacation in a trailer park, meets Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), an intellectual and beautiful girl. The only things really standing in his way are Sheeni's poetry-writing ex-boyfriend Trent (Jonathan B. Wright), Nick's temperamental divorced parents (Steve Buscemi and Jean Smart), and Nick's mom's boyfriends (Zach Galifianakis and Ray Liotta).

Opens: January 8, 2010 Runtime: 1 hr. 30 min. Rated: R

4.      Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil

A.k.a Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil is the sequel to 2005’s Hoodwinked! Directed by Mike Disa; and it stars Hayden Panettiere, Patrick Warburton, Joan Cusack, Andy Dick, Glenn Close, Martin Short and Bill Murray.

A teenage Red Riding Hood trains in a distant land with a mysterious, covert group called Sisters of the Hood. She is then called upon by Nicky Flippers--head of the Happily Ever After Agency--who teams her with the Wolf to investigate the disappearance of Hansel and Gretel. 

Opens: January 15, 2010 Runtime: n/a. Rated: N/A

5.      The Book of Eli

The Book of Eli is a post-apocalyptic action film directed by the Hughes brothers and starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis and Michael Gambon.

In the not-too-distant future, some 30 years after the final war, a solitary man walks across the wasteland that was once America. Empty cities, broken highways, seared earth--all around him, the marks of catastrophic destruction. There is no civilization here, no law. The roads belong to gangs that would murder a man for his shoes, an ounce of water... or for nothing at all.
But they're no match for this traveler.
A warrior not by choice but necessity, Eli seeks only peace but, if challenged, will cut his attackers down before they realize their fatal mistake. It's not his life he guards so fiercely but his hope for the future; a hope he has carried and protected for 30 years and is determined to realize. Driven by this commitment and guided by his belief in something greater than himself, Eli does what he must to survive--and continue.
Nothing--and no one--can stand in his way. Eli must keep moving to fulfill his destiny and bring help to a ravaged humanity. 

Opens: January 15, 2010 Runtime: n/a. Rated: R

6.      Extraordinary Measures

Extraordinary Measures is a drama whose screenplay is based on Geeta Anand's Pulitzer-winning book The Cure. Directed by Tom Vaughan, it stars Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford, and Keri Russell.

John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) is a man on the corporate fast-track, with a beautiful wife (Keri Russell) and three children. Just as his career is taking off, his two youngest children are diagnosed with a fatal disease. John leaves his job and devotes himself to saving their lives. He joins forces with Dr. Robert Thornhill (Harrison Ford), a brilliant but unconventional scientist. Together the two men battle the medical and business establishments as they race against time to find a cure.

Opens: January 22, 2010 Runtime: n/a. Rated: PG

7.      Legion

Legion is an apocalyptic fantasy film directed by Scott Stewart, which fans of Supernatural should enjoy, and it stars an ensemble cast with Paul Bettany, Tyrese Gibson, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black and Kate Walsh.

After God loses faith in humanity, the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) is the only one standing between mankind and the apocalypse. This time using angels as the act of Biblical judgment, God's wrath descends on Earth to exterminate the world's population. In a desperate, last-chance gambit, Michael leads a group of strangers to a small New Mexico diner to protect a young waitress who may be pregnant with Christ in his second coming.

Opens: January 22, 2010 Runtime: n/a. Rated: N/A.

8.      Edge of Darkness

Edge of Darkness is a film adaptation of the 1985 BBC television series, Edge of Darkness. The film stars Mel Gibson and Ray Winstone, and is directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) and produced by Michael Wearing, who also directed and produced the series respectively.

Thomas Craven is a veteran homicide detective for the Boston Police Department and a single father. When his only child, 24-year-old Emma, is murdered on the steps of his home, everyone assumes that he was the target. But he soon suspects otherwise, and embarks on a mission to find out about his daughter's secret life and her killing. His investigation leads him into a dangerous looking-glass world of corporate cover-ups, government collusion and murder -- and to shadowy government operative Darius Jedburgh who has been sent in to clean up the evidence. Craven's solitary search for answers about his daughter's death transforms into an odyssey of emotional discovery and redemption. 

Opens: January 29, 2010 Runtime: n/a. Rated: R

9.      When in Rome

When in Rome is a comedy directed by Mark Steven Johnson, and starring Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Alexis Dziena, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard, Danny DeVito and Anjelica Huston.

A successful and single art curator (Kristen Bell) goes to Rome to attend her younger sister's impulsive marriage. While there, she picks up coins from a reputed “fountain of love,” and when she leaves she is pursued back to New York by a band of aggressive suitors whose coins she took, which includes a sausage merchant, a street magician and an artist.

Opens: January 29, 2010 Runtime: n/a. Rated: PG-13