JANUARY 13th
CONTRABAND
Universal Pictures
An action-thriller starring Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, Caleb Landry Jones, and Kate Beckinsale, Contraband is the story of former criminal Chris Farraday (Wahlberg) being forced back into the criminal lifestyle when his brother-in-law, Andy (Jones), botches a drug deal for his boss (Ribisi). Farraday begins to run contraband to settle Andy’s debt, but, despite his history as a legendary smuggler, his deal—which includes a trip to Panama and millions of counterfeit dollars—goes bad quickly. He has to remember the life he left to avoid being killed by drug lords or captured by cops—and he has to do it all before his wife (Beckinsale) and their sons become the new target. Will he be able to finish the deal before the clock runs out? Or will he and his family become another casualty in the war of crime he tried to leave so many years ago?
BIG MIRACLE
Universal Pictures
Big Miracle is an adventure based on true events. When a family of grey whales is trapped in the Arctic Circle, one man, Alaskan newsman and Greenpeace volunteer Adam Carlson (played by The Office’s John Krasinski) decides he’s going to save the majestic animals. At the beginning of the story, he’s lamenting his small-town news market and is looking for something bigger and better—of course, that’s when he finds the story of a lifetime. The whales are stranded because ice forming in the Arctic Circle is blocking them in. Many people descend on the small Alaskan town—most notably, Carlson’s environmentalist ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Drew Barrymore). Though they initially balk at working together again, they are able to assemble a rag-tag group of people who, though they are from different backgrounds, are united in their desire to save the whales—a goal that proves how much more people can accomplish when they work together. The movie also stars Dermot Mulroney, Tim Blake Nelson, Ted Danson, and Kristen Bell.
JANUARY 20th
UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING
Sony Pictures/Screen Gems
Underworld: Awakening is the continuation of the Underworld vampire series. Kate Beckinsale reprises her role from the first two films as a vampire warrioress named Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered that Vampires and Lycans exist. She must find a way to fight in the war between the humans and the immortal creatures, since the humans are desperate to eradicate both races.
HAYWIRE
Relativity Media
A thriller with an ensemble cast, Haywire, directed by Steven Soderbergh, follows the story of Mallory Kane (MMA superstar Gina Carano), a trained government operative who works for a government security contractor in a dangerous part of the world. She frees a captive Chinese journalist but is shortly thereafter double-crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. She’s pursued by skilled assassins—all of whom used to work with her and know how to track her movements—and she must find the truth of who she’s working for in order to survive. The other cast members include Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Michael Douglas, and Michael Angarano. Perhaps most excitingly, due to her career as an MMA fighter, Carano is able to do all of her own stunts in this demanding lead role that introduces her to the big screen.
RED TAILS
20th Century Fox
Toward the end of the Second World War, Pentagon brass realized that they would need to use all of their resources to win, so in 1944, they have no choice but to consider the untested African-American pilots of the Tuskegee training program. Though the program is about to shut down when they get orders, the young men are given a dangerous choice—to fight for their country and against the notion that because of their skin color, they are less capable than other soldiers. These pilots take to the skies and display more than just one kind of bravery. Red Tails stars Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston, and Nate Parker.
JANUARY 27th
MAN ON A LEDGE
Summit Entertainment
Man on a Ledge is a mystery starring Sam Worthington and Elizabeth Banks. Worthington, who plays an ex-cop and now a wanted fugitive, spends the movie on the ledge of a high-rise building in New York City, while a hardened police negotiator (Banks), tries to talk him down. The longer they are on the ledge, however, the more suspicious she gets of his reasoning. Why is he really on the ledge? And does he have ulterior motives?
