DJ B-Clear's Winter Movie Preview - February

Here's what's coming out in February 2013. Pickings look pretty slim for the this month as the Hollywood award shows take precedent. Please be advised that I get the release dates from Rotten Tomatoes.

February 1st

• Warm Bodies: Director Jonathan Levine, gives a new spin on the zombie genre. A teenage zombie, Nicholas Hoult, finds that life as a brain eater isn't what it's cracked up to be and he falls in love with Teresa Palmer. Despite the fact that R is undead, Julie kind of digs him and they start to date. As they grow fond of each other a funny thing starts to happen...R starts to come alive! Yes true love is the cure for zombie-ism, it turns the undead back into humans. I pretty much cringed when I saw this trailer but I do give props for taking the zombie films in a new direction. Not my cup of tea as I prefer my zombies to be the bloodthirsty type and not all warm & fuzzy.
• Bullet to the Head: At 68 years old, Sly looks to be in excellent physical condition for his latest action vehicle. Sly plays a hitman in NOLA who teams up with the cop who's been trying to bring him to justice in order to take down a group of killers who killed each others respective partners and who kidnapped Sly's hot daughter. This is apparently based on a graphic novel and I even heard a conspiracy theory about how the plot to this film was allegedly the plot to a possible 5th John Rambo installment. Be that as it may, this film certainly looks better than Ah-nuld's latest picture.
• Stand Up Guys:  Fisher Stevens directs an all-star cast that includes Al Pacino, Chris Walken, Alan Arkin and Julianna Margulies. Pacino gets released from prison and is met by his old pal Walken and they engage in some hi-jinx. The issue is that Walken is also supposed to whack Pacino. Watching the trailer I can't help but feel that this is less comedic version of Tough Guys. The trailer even has a scene where Pacino dances with some hottie, 45 years his junior!, a la Scent of a Woman. This could also be a good film as well. Pacino's pal, Bobby DeNiro has gone for more comedic roles in his twilight years, Pacino tries to go for more meaty roles and he's not chewing up scenery like he was in Oceans 13.
• Girls Against Boys: Danielle Panabaker plays Shae, a nubile co-ed who runs into some serious man trouble in a short period of time. Enter Lu, played by Nicole LaLiberte, who convinces Shae that she can take care of her problems...by brutally offing her enemies. Yes, Lu is a sadistic serial killer. Mind you, Shae doesn't seem to be bothered by the violence and she eventually starts enjoying chopping up dudes. I wouldn't normally go for something like this but the movie poster has a hottie in a denim skirt with a gun and a kitana blade. Suffice to say I have a thing for hot chicks who know there way around a kitana blade and the fact that they could be in a short denim skirt is like extra icing on the cake.

February 8th

• Identity Thief: Melissa McCarthy steals the identity of Jason Bateman and more or less ruins his lame suburban existence. The police are of course powerless to do anything so Bateman decides to take the law into his own hands and goes after McCarthy. Naturally Bateman gets more than he bargained for and hilarity ensues. There's a lot of inappropriate humor (which doesn't bother me if it's original) which makes sense because it's produced by Scott Stuber (Ted) and directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, starring Batmen!) so there's a lot of experience in this genre. Bateman seems to play the same guy he plays in all films as of late but I sill like him as an actor. This could be hit or miss, if I see this film it will probably be at the Brew & View.
• Side Effects:  Steven Soderbergh directs the likes of Rooney Mara & Jude Law in this pharmaceutical thriller. Law prescribes a drug to Mara that starts off an almost miracle cure to her "depression" like state. However things start to go awry as Mara starts to go off the deep end and dragging down Law in the process. The trailer looks very interesting to say the least. Despite my problems with Channing Tatum (he of the McCaunaghey School of Acting) thefact that Soderbergh is at the helm and it's got Rooney Mara is enough to give it try.
• The Playroom: The trailer is vague at best, but it's set in the 70's so you've got the kind of vibe that was given to me by the The Ice Storm. The kids of the couples hide themselves in the attic and make their own mischief while the adults downstairs engage in 70's style intrigued. John Hawkes, straight off his excellent performance in The Sessions, heads up the cast (be advised...the collar of his suit shirt seems more 80's style than the hang-glider size collars of the 70's) and it's directed by Julia Dyer and written by Gretchen Dyer, a sister team with limited experience in film but it might be worth a look.
• A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III: It's a little difficult to describe this trailer. It's directed by Roman Coppola , son of the legendary Francis Ford Coppola,who's worked on several Wes Anderson films as well as the films of his sister, Sofia Coppola so he's got penchant for telling an interesting story. The film sometimes does look like a Wes Anderson film and stars Charlie Sheen, Wes Anderson regulars Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. I doubt this film will be for everyone but after doing a little research, I will probably be inclined to see this film. Since it appears to be a small indie film it may not show up at the cineplex but if you're fortunate to have access to an art house theater, it might be worth checking out.

February 14th

• A Good Day To Die Hard: It's been 25 years since the original Die Hard and to commemorate this occasion we have a 5th installment of the franchise (a franchise that should've ended with the 3rd film but why stop when you can milk a few more dollars out of it). John McClane finds himself in Russia of all places on a vacation (???) and he runs into his son who's there for work. The son just has to be a secret agent and John decides to join his son on his mission that includes several running firefights, dodging bullets, exploding buildings and Russian thugs. If Live Free or Die Hard dealt with McClane's daughter then it makes sense that the 5th installment deals with his son. If you're like me and you thought that the last Diehard film was ridiculous, then you won't be disappointed by the trailer for this film. The 1st 3 installments provided some great times, I saw the 4th and will not give any more to this franchise.
• Beautiful Creatures: Directed by Richard LaGravenese (who's best work has been as a screenwriter) this film takes place in an old Southern town (probably like Savannah) where Alice Englert, plays a teen age witch who will be claimed by either the forces of evil or good (evil seems to have the upper hand) so it's natural for her to seem a little down in the dumps. Then she runs into Alden Ehrenreich and they fall in love (here's where you get the Twilight connection, the human and meta-human getting together despite the odds) but there's that whole dark destiny thing getting in the way. Other film connections include Night Watch, any Twilight film and The Craft to name a few. Another film not for my demographic.
• Safe Haven: The latest adaption of the work of Nicholas Sparks. Super stud Josh Duhamel and uber hottie Julianne Hough are the newest star-crossed lovers that come from different sides of the tracks or something to that effect. There's the obligatory rain soaked make out scene that have come to define Sparks' films. Yet another film where a 40 year male's (Duhamel) life gets better after getting together with a 24-28 year old nubile hottie (I can't say it enough, it's funny how that happens. Admittedly I would like to put this test to the theory, as would most guys in my demographic). I will pass on this for sure.
• Escape From Planet Earth 3D: A 3D, CGI animation feature from the Weinstein Company (so these guys are going to try and hone in on this market now. Great! That's sarcastic btw). A Solid cast of voices lend their skills to a story where a superhero from another planet (a Captain Amazing type) gets a distress call from Earth, gets captured by the U.S. Government and taken to Area 51. His brother (the brainy wimpy type) tries to rescue him but he in turn is captured and meets up with all the other aliens that have been captured over the years. Lots of wise cracking aliens and fish out of water humor. Heavy references to Monsters v. Aliens, mostly for the kids.

February 22nd

• Snitch: An action type film where Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, stars as a father who's son is in the wrong place at the wrong time and is looking at hard time. In order to save his son from prison, "The Rock" goes undercover for the Feds in order to nab the drug lord that his son went down for. I'm not completely sold on this.
• Dark Skies: Another in the long line of supernatural thrillers that "they" can't seem to make enough of apparently (I wish I knew who "they" were). Keri Russell plays the mother of a family where the children start to run into creepy problems that eventually spread to the adults. Again since the market is flooded with this type of film, it's hard to judge what could be good or not.
• Inescapable: The Trailer for this film isn't much of a trailer at all. It's really just a 75 second scene where Alexander Siddig crosses the border into Syria to meet with Marisa Tomei. So not much detail there! I guess what happens is that Siddig's journalist daughter goes missing in Syria and he goes over to save her.