February is the month of love and lovers, so there are a number of romantic comedies coming out this time of year. Some of them might even be watchable. It’s thin pickings at the cinema unless you want to woo your lady friend. A few of the non-rom-com films coming out certainly look interesting, however, so there are enough films in the month to keep bachelor guys like me entertained.
Week of February 3, 2012
The Woman in Black
The Plot: A young lawyer travels to a small village where he must contend with a vengeful spirit haunting a lonely mansion in the marsh. Can the lawyer lift the curse from the local townspeople and end her reign of terror?
Who’s in it? Daniel Radcliffe
Ultimate Fate: The trailers for this one look really creepy. This is also Daniel’s first post-Potter starring role, and I’m very interested to see what he does with it. I hope that it’s as scary as it promises to be and that Radcliffe can flex his acting chops in a role that is very different for him.
Chronicle
The Plot: A few teenage kids gain super powers and then spend their time doing what any teenagers with super powers would do, creating chaos.
Who’s in it? Three kids I don’t know.
Ultimate Fate: This film has two major strikes against it.
The first is that it’s in the ‘found footage’ genre. It plays as a mock documentary with the kids videotaping their exploits. I’m really tired of this genre. Most of the recent ‘found footage’ films would have played better if they were shot as a regular film. Why waste making a special-effects heavy film if it’s presented to the audience by a shaky-cam?
The second major strike is that this film shows what happens when ‘real people’ get magical superpowers. I prefer my superheroes to battle it out with supervillians. Give me mutants versus mutants in X-Men, Thor versus Loki, even Iron Man versus a superweapon. A superhero without an equally powered supervillian is not a fair fight, and I lose interest. I’m guessing that at least one of the kids is a bad seed and does some evil stuff or else this one could be very dull indeed.
Big Miracle
The Plot: Three grey whales get trapped in the winter ice near Barrow, Alaska. It’s up to the local community to band together to save them.
Who’s in it? John Krasinski, Drew Barrymore
Ultimate Fate: Sure why not? Dolphin Tale was a big success, and this is a film in much the same vein. You know it’s going to have some cute moments that will be suitable for every audience. For a while the animal-themed movies were all about penguins. Now they’re about marine mammals. I can’t wait for the ‘manatee in peril’ film.
Where I’ll be this weekend: I can’t wait to see what Daniel Radcliffe does in a post-Potter world. Plus, it looks pretty spooky.
February 10
Safe House
The Plot: A CIA agent must look after a fugitive is a South African safe house. Things get crazy when the safe house is attacked and both the agent and fugitive must run.
Who’s in it? Ryan Reynolds, Denzel Washington
Ultimate Fate: It’s a pure action film starring a couple of good actors. It has a chance to be a decent film.
The Vow
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| Barf. |
The Plot: A car accident causes a young wife to lose the past five years of her memory. Her husband must romance her again to show her that they really were meant to be together.
Who’s in it? Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum
Ultimate Fate: I’m sure the ladies will love this film. It’s got a cute guy professing his undying love for a beautiful woman. It’s certainly February. Gag.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
The Plot: A couple of kids and their bodyguard hunt down their grandfather on Mysterious Island, an island forgotten by time where fantastical creatures roam.
Who’s in it? Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Michael Caine, Vanessa Hudgens
Ultimate Fate: The spiritual sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth this time replacing Brendan Fraser with The Rock. That’s a good upgrade, I would say. Johnson is hyper-charismatic and this is a great role for him. I’m betting this film is a bigger success than the first. Take the kids for a mindless adventure flick.
Star Wars: Episode I 3D
You should know all about the plot and who’s in it, so I’ll cut straight to…
Ultimate Fate: George Lucas has decided to go back to the Star Wars well once more, this time by giving all of the films the 3D treatment. If it works for Disney, then it should work here too, right? I bet it looks stunning in 3D, especially the pod race, but I don’t sense much excitement here. We just got the entire saga on Blu-Ray last fall, and this is arguably the worst film in the series. I’m sure it will draw an audience who want to see the film on the big screen, but I don’t see it performing gangbusters.
Where I’ll be this weekend: Safe House for me. It features two good actors (okay, one good actor and one so-so actor) squaring off in a shoot-em-up across South Africa. I’m game. You couldn’t drag me to The Vow with any amount of persuasion.
February 17
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
The Plot: The Ghost Rider tries once again to lift the curse on his soul, this time by stopping the devil from taking human form.
Who’s in it? Nicholas Cage, Ciaran Hinds, Christopher Lambert
Ultimate Fate: This movie looks bonkers. It’s directed by the guys who did Crank, so there should be no shortage of insanity, but that’s no guarantee it will be any good. You never know which Cage is going to show up for any given movie. It could be the cracked-out lunatic Cage (in a good way) or the cracked-out lunatic Cage (in a bad way). I don’t know what to think about this one, except for my general amazement that this sequel actually exists.
This Means War
The Plot: Two best buddy CIA agents find themselves dating the same girl. Their friendship turns to all-out war to win the girl.
Who’s in it? Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon
Ultimate Fate: This might actually be a decent date movie. It’s got two of the coolest leading men in an action movie fighting it out over one of Hollywood’s leading ladies. I wish it were a lady a bit more, I don’t know, provocative than Reese Witherspoon, but what the heck, I’ll play along. The film also took the brilliant strategy of shifting its release to February 14. That’s right, a decent-looking date flick opening on Valentine’s Day. It’s going to kill that night.
Where I’ll be this weekend: Well, The Human Centipede: Full Sequence comes out on Blu-Ray in an unrated directors cut version on Valentine’s Day, so I’ll probably be recovering from watching that over the weekend. It’s a terrible film on every level, yet I feel compelled to watch it.
February 24
Act of Valor
The Plot: Navy SEALs take on a mission to save some CIA operatives and uncover a terrorist plot in the US.
Who’s in it? Several actual Navy SEALs
Ultimate Fate: The filmmakers are hyping up the realness of this film. It stars Navy SEALs and many of the set pieces are taken from actual SEAL missions. It is supposed to be a glimpse into how those guys accomplish their incredible missions time and time again. Given the media coverage of the SEALs lately, particularly of SEAL Team Six after their takedown of Bin Laden, this could be another way to draw some positive attention their way. It’s too bad these guys are silent warriors; they deserve all kinds of credit.
Good Deeds
The Plot: A third generation successful businessman takes a single mother under his protective wings.
Who’s in it? Tyler Perry
Ultimate Fate: It’s a Tyler Perry film, but not one of his Madea outings. Perry cut his teeth with his own brand of comedy and drama films that catered primarily to the African American crowd, which is a fairly limited movie-going audience. He appears to be taking a more mainstream approach with this film, which could make it be a broader success.
Wanderlust
The Plot: A couple of recently unemployed socialites from New York City find themselves living in a commune in the woods with a bunch of hippie free-love types.
Who’s in it? Jennifer Aniston, Paul Ruud
Ultimate Fate: This film seems like a return to the safe romantic comedies that are Jennifer Aniston’s bread and butter. Her bold performance in Horrible Bosses must have been an anomaly. The premise seems a touch goofy, and it involves a commune full of hippies, which is seldom a good thing. It might be decent, but I doubt it. Hippies have a way of sucking the fun out of everything.
Where I’ll be this weekend: I have a lot of friends in the military, and a few who aspire to be Special Forces. I’m curious to see what Act of Valor has to offer.
Movie of the Month: This one’s actually easy for me. It’s all about Radcliffe this month. I’m really amped to see The Woman in Black. If a horror film isn’t your style and you’re looking for a romantic comedy in February, then maybe you’ll fancy Act of War.
Thanks for reading the previews. I hope you guys find a movie in there that you like. Let me know in the comments below, and while you're at it, Follow me on Twitter!
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