The cold month of January usually means a cold month at the box office. Not this year however, as more movies than I can ever recall have been released in this typically slow month. Even more surprising is that many of them are worth seeing. Read on to find out which ones.

Title: The Gift (R) 2hrs Opens January 19th
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi, Hillary Swank, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear

Cate Blanchett plays a young woman who has been granted the gift of ESP. She is a widower who lives in a small home with her three boys, and she makes a modest living reading cards for friends and other people that believe in her "Gift". Things begin to change with the disappearance of a local businessman's daughter (Holmes). Having exhausted all leads, the authorities consent to listening to what Blanchett can uncover about their case. Strange things begin to happen after this reading, and it becomes apparent that Holmes is not the only one in danger.

Katie Holmes gets naked. Near the end of the movie in a flashback, that's all I can say without revealing too much about the plot of the movie. Back to the story at hand, I'm not a huge fan of these "Psychological Thrillers"; I tend to find them a bit too creepy for my liking. I suppose that I don't like watching good people suffer because of weird things that happen to them. Sure that's the whole point of a Psychological Thriller, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. The second biggest shock after seeing Ms. Holmes nude was seeing Keanu Reeves convince me that he can play a part other than a dufus. Face it, he wasn't too impressive in The Matrix, though it was a good movie, he did little to help out. Whoa. In The Gift, he plays a quite unlikeable character and does quite a nice job, I was actually wishing he had a bit more screen time. If you've seen the list of stars in this movie you've no doubt got high expectations. I didn't expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised with this film.

You may like this movie if: You're into this genre of film, or are in for a creepy evening.
Bottom line: Good stuff, January continues to amaze me with quality films.

3 controllers out of 4

Title: Snatch (R) 1hr 50 mins. Opens January 19th.
Starring: Vinnie Jones, Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, Dennis Farina

A bunch of English morons (There morons who happen to be English, not morons because they are English) get caught up in some idiotic caper over a huge diamond. Wacky Hi-jinx ensue as all these moron's paths cross on an other. Some underground boxing, lots of violence, and lots of terribly exciting British humor accompany a tired plot.

This movie was barely tolerable the first time I saw it, when it was called Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. If you told me this movie was shot at the same time, with half the same cast, and the same basic script outline, I'd have absolutely no trouble believing you. Unfortunately that is most likely the case, and we have two movies that are ridiculously similar. Both are directed by the same guy, Guy Ritchie, and both have Jason Flemyng in them. Both have a bunch of idiot criminals that speak in a barely decipherable (No offense to anyone English) English accent. Brad Pitt makes an appearance, I guess to work off some of that extra testosterone he had from fight club, and in this movie he plays a gypsy boxer. He's a worthless part of the story and it looks to me as if the producer knew he could squeeze a bigger box office out of the film if he used Pitt's mug. He's on screen for about 15-20 minutes of the film, yet his face is plastered on the article on the front page of Movietickets.com. Just look at the poster, there he is front and center. You can make your own assumptions.

You may like this if: I can't think of a soul who will like this, but I'm underestimating the poor cerebral functions of much of the world's youth.
Bottom Line: If you are having trouble sleeping, this might be the best thing I can recommend. Guy Ritchie, spare me anymore of this garbage.

1 controller out of 4

Title: Finding Forrester (PG-13) 2hrs 15min. Opens January 12th
Starring: Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes, Zane Copeland, Jr.

A sixteen year-old black kid, Jamal plays basketball with his friends everyday before school. They notice that someone in one of the apartments is always watching them, and rumors fly about the mysterious figure in the window. On a dare, Jamal climbs the fire escape and enters the apartment. The man in the apartment discovers him, and Jamal flees the scene, leaving his backpack behind. The pack is eventually returned, and Jamal finds the mysterious character critiqued all of his personal writing. He goes back to the apartment seeking help and guidance with his writing skills, only to learn there is quite a bit more to his mentor than meets the eye.

I was pretty excited about going to see this movie. I'm a fan of Sean Connery, and this film looked like it had an interesting plot, so I awaited its arrival in theaters. Of course, as is the problem with many movies these days, almost the entire movie is revealed through the trailer. This drives myself and many other moviegoers nuts, but the studios show no sign of bucking this trend. Anyways, back to the movie. It's a good movie, but it's not quite as good as I was expecting, maybe it's about fifteen minutes too long. Busta Rhymes makes a complete ass of himself delivering one of the worst on screen performances in recent memory. The man can barely speak his lines, much less deliver them convincingly. Although he plays a likeable character, well, he sucks. Matt Damon has a brief cameo near the end of the movie. I have no idea why, maybe he was an associate producer or something and I just missed it. All in all this is a pretty good movie that will most likely be lost in the shuffle of Oscar season.

You may like this movie if: You like Sean Connery, or you are an aspiring writer.

Bottom line: Not a bad way to kill two and a half-hours. This might be a good compromise movie for all you couple s who can't settle on a particular movie.

2.5 Controllers out of 4




Title: Antitrust (PG-13) 2hrs. Opens January 12th.
Starring: Ryan Philippe, Tim Robbins, Claire Forlani, Rachel Leigh Cook

Ryan Phillippe plays some sort of l337 haxor or something that has just graduated from college. He and a few friends have the idealistic code of coming up with a revolutionary communications product, and making the source code available to the whole world. Just as they are getting ready to start their company, Phillipe is offered a position at NURV, a huge software company. His friends feel that he is going off to the Dark Side, and they blah blah blah. The plot is crap.

I like Ryan Phillippe, he plays some cool characters, including every young man's role model in Cruel Intentions. Claire Forlani was really good in MallRats, Rachel Leigh Cook is pretty hot, and Tim Robbins is a good actor. Add all this up and you would think you had a pretty good movie on your hands. Ah ha! We forget to add in a retarded script, how silly of us. Now that we have figured out that this movie is destined to be dismal we can move on. The movie has a lame plot, a bunch of BS technical mumbo jumbo that is supposed to show how l337 Ryan Phillippe is, but it just made me sleepy. Rachel Leigh Cook, who has a total of 5 minutes on screen still managed to achieve a high-level of suckiness. This is a waste of film.

You may like this if: You recently underwent a frontal lobotomy

Bottom Line: Clean your room, do the dishes, rake the yard, get beaten up. These are all better alternatives than watching this garbage.

1 controllers out of 4



Title: Save the Last Dance (PG-13) 2 hrs. Opens January 12th.
Starring: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas

Julia Stiles plays Sarah, an aspiring ballet dancer. On the biggest day of her life, her audition for Julliard, her mother is killed while rushing to see her daughter dance. Sarah is forced to move to a poor neighborhood outside of Chicago to live with her estranged father. After struggling to fit in, Sarah eventually becomes friends with a classmate Derek, and he teaches her not only how to dance, but other important lessons in life.

Julia Stiles is pretty hot, too bad all her movies tend to suck. While Save the Last Dance is not a great movie, it's a step in the right direction of making decent movies. I saw this trailer a few months ago and began to dread this movie's release. I was dreading it because it looked terrible, yet I knew I would watch it because it had Julia in it. After seeing it advertised like crazy on MTV I knew I was in trouble. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this movie was worthwhile and although it had a "message" it delivered it without getting to preachy. I typically hate movies that deliver a message on race relations, because I don't need a movie to tell me that I should treat people with respect. Do you think that people that are racist are going to change their minds because Julia Stiles said to? No, they aren't and it seems that the director knew this and chose not to beat us over the head and force his conclusions on us. I wouldn't watch this movie again, but I wouldn't discourage anyone that wants to see it from watching it. By the way Julia really only dances during the club scenes, the ballet stuff is a horrible mix of a double and her waving her arms. Blech.

You may like this movie if: You are a dancer or are interested in dancing, or drive by shootings.

Bottom Line: If you want to see it, see it. If you aren't sure, you should probably see something else.

2 controllers out of 4



Title: State and Main (R) 1hr 45 mins. Opens January 12th
Starring: William H. Macy, Rebecca Pidgeon, Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Stiles, Charles Duning.

William H. Macy plays a director who is trying to film a movie called The Old Mill. He finds the perfect small town in which to shoot it, and moves the production. Upon arriving in the town he finds that his reason for filming there, the Old Mill, has been burned down for forty years. Undaunted, he tries to keep the film together despite everyone involved with the movies suffering a personal crisis at the same time.

This is a David Mamet (The Spanish Prisoner) film, so those of you familiar with his work likely know what to expect. For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Mamet's style, nothing I can write here will prepare you for this style of movie. You'll either love it, hate it, or you'll walk away scratching your head, which is sort of how I walked out. All of the characters give excellent performances, so even though there are several main characters, their stories still remain important. I'm not even sure what else I can say about this movie, except that if you are even remotely curious about it, you should check it out.

You may like this movie if: You liked The Spanish Prisoner

The Bottom Line: Original movies are pretty rare these days, so when one does come out, you should try to check it out.

3 controllers out of 4