Here are the movies to look forward to (and avoid) over the first half of the new year:
JANUARY
9 – “Taken 3” (a third dose of those “special skills”), “Inherent Vice” (Wide), “Selma” (Wide)
16 – “American Sniper” (Wide), “Blackhat” (hacking movie NOT from Sony), “Paddington”, “The Wedding Ringer”, “Still Alice” (Limited)
23 – “Mortdecai”, “The Boy Next Door”, “Strange Magic”, “Cake” (Limited)
30 – “Project Almanac”, “Black or White”, “The Loft”
FEBRUARY
6 – “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water”!!!, “Jupiter Ascending”, “Seventh Son”
13 – “Fifty Shades of Grey” (No comment), “Kingsman: The Secret Service”
20 – “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” (Believe it or not), “McFarland, USA”, “The DUFF”
27 – “Focus” (Will Smith needs a hit), “The Lazarus Effect”
MARCH
6 – “Chappie” (Crappie?), “The Coup”, “Unfinished Business”, “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Another ‘Believe it or Not’, Limited)
13 – “Cinderella” (Yet again), “In the Heart of the Sea”, “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension”
20 – “The Divergent Series: Insurgent”, “The Gunman”
27 – “Home”, “Get Hard” (Ferrell & Hart)
APRIL
3 – “Furious 7”
10 – “The Longest Ride”, “The Moon and the Sun”, “Underdogs” (NOT a sequel to Disney’s ’07 cartoon reboot)
17 – “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” (Kevin James in a Comedy), “Monkey Kingdom”, “Child 44”, “Run All Night”, “Unfriended”
24 – “The Age of Adaline”, “Little Boy” (Kevin James in a Drama)
MAY
1 – “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (Summer’s Here!)
8 – “Untitled Reese Witherspoon/Sofia Vergara Comedy” (For now)
15 – “Pitch Perfect 2”, “Mad Max: Fury Road”
22 – “Tomorrowland”, “Spy” (Good Box Office Battle)
29 – “San Andreas”, “Cameron Crowe Untitled”, “Monster Trucks”
JUNE
5 – “Entourage”, “Paper Towns”, “Insidious Chapter 3”
12 – “Jurassic World”
19 – “Inside Out” (The Return of Pixar!), “The Transporter Legacy”
26 – “Ted 2” (It better be funny)
Release dates courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com. All subject to change.
Lights Camera Jackson (a.k.a. Jackson Murphy) began his career as a film critic in 2006 at the age of 7. To date, Jackson has written nearly 1,000 reviews of new releases and, in total, has seen more than 1,500 films. In 2010, Jackson became the youngest person to win a NY Emmy Award, for his on-air movie reviews on Time Warner TV station, Capital News 9. And in 2011, Jackson was inducted into the Broadcast Film Critics Association as their youngest member. The BFCA’s annual Critics Choice Awards is one of the industry’s most recognized and prestigious awards shows. Jackson is also a member of SAG-AFTRA and votes annually for the Screen Actors Guild Awards.