New Movie Friday

As I said in "3 for January," this is a particularly weak month for movie opening, even for January. I'm going to chalk it up to 2010 hangover and give 2011 a 6 week-grace period to get itself together. Goodness knows I need a recovery period after what 2010 did to me; I can only imagine how bad 2011 feels right now. Hang in there little buddy, it'll be better soon.

"Season of the Witch" - Nicholas Cage, Ron Perlman, Claire Foy
Upon returning from the Crusades, a veteran soldier (Cage) is put in charge of a girl (Foy) who is considered to be a witch. He is to transport her into the care of the kingdom's priests/doctors/exorcists. This looks terrible, right? I feel like some people I generally trust are holding out hope that "Season" is going to be good but I can't figure out why. It's been re-purposed and re-cut numerous times, shifted around all over the calendar, and finally landed on an early January release date and a completely different trailer (and rating)? Nothing about that says, "good movie" to me. Side note: does anyone really care about Nicholas Cage anymore? I mean the guy has squandered chance after chance and now that he's bankrupt, he's going to have to take on even more terrible, terrible movies. I don't get his appeal.

"Country Strong" (wide release) - Gwyneth Paltrow, Garrett Hedlund, Tim McGraw
An aging, drunken country songstress (Paltrow) gets one last chance at an impactful record while falling for a younger man (Hedlund). So basically "Crazy Heart" for girls but without any sort of critical appeal. A few months back "Country Strong" was supposed to put Paltrow in contention for an Oscar. Instead, it came and went with a whisper at the end of 2010 and now quietly debuts across the country with zero fanfare. Seems to be one of those projects that just misses the mark across the board. Even the title is off. But hey, if nothing else, it's launched Paltrow as a recurring character on "Glee." So there's that.