Previews Before Reviews - In theaters 1/22/10

January is usually a dumping ground for Hollywood's bottom of the barrel, but this month hadn't been so bad ...

... until this week, when we start to head over the falls. As is so often the case, one must turn to the arthouses to find appealing fare.

Broken Embraces: This opens in Dayton this week. I'm always up for Almodovar, even though acclaim for this hasn't been that high, because even his lesser films are always interesting.



Extraordinary Measures: It's appropriate that this is the first venture by CBS Films, because for all the world this looks like a TV disease-of-the-week movie that somehow escaped to theaters. And Harrison Ford - what in the world are YOU doing in this? Aren't there better projects floating around? I know people pick on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a lot, but even people who (unjustly) hate that movie admit you weren't the problem. C'mon, man!



Legion: This action flick with Biblical overtones sports a good cast including  Paul Bettany and  Dennis Quaid. But when I see the trailer, the only word that comes out of my mouth is "Meh."



The Tooth Fairy: As far as kid comedies go, this looks a heck of a lot more entertaining than last week's The Spy Next Door - not that that's saying much. Dwayne Johnson has proven himself with this kind of material, and it's always fun to see Julie Andrews, but it seems to be just this side of too sweet - maybe not to the point of a root canal, but a cavity is distinctly possible.



To Save a Life - TV movie that got a theatrical release take 2 AKA "Let's see if we can be a below-the-radar Christian hit like Fireproof."



If I see anything this weekend it will be the Almodovar. What say you?