Sanctum 
Release Date: February 4, 2011
Cast: Richard Roxburgh, Ioan Gruffudd and Rhys Wakefield
Studio: Universal
Highlight: “Chaos ensues when an underwater cave diving team experiences a life-threatening crisis and must fight against insurmountable odds to survive in the disappointing aqua action-thriller, Sanctum.”
Grade: D
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Barney’s Version 
Release Date: February 4, 2011
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Minnie Driver and Rosamund Pike
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Highlight: One of Hollywood’s most consistent and underrated actors, Paul Giamatti stars in a melancholy story of true love, loss and it’s consequences in the drama, Barney’s Version.”
Grade: B
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The Mechanic 
Release Date: January 28, 2011
Cast: Jason Statham, Ben Foster and Tony Goldwyn
Studio: Columbia Pictures (Sony)
Highlight: “Action star Jason Statham channels his inner-Charles Bronson in the ultra-violent remake of the 1972 action film, The Mechanic. A cold-blooded assassin and cleaner is out for vengeance when his mentor is murdered and teams with his mentor’s son to exact revenge against his boss, played gleefully by Tony Goldwyn of Ghost fame.
Grade: B
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The Rite 
Release Date: January 28, 2011
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Colin O’Donoghue and Alice Braga
Studio: Warner Bros.
Highlight: “A skeptical priest comes face to face with pure evil in the Anthony Hopkins screen chomping thriller, The Rite. In his most menacing role since Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins stars as veteran priest and exorcist, Father Lucas who tries to convince a young convert with a lack of faith that not only is the devil is real but he’s everywhere.
Grade: C+
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Bitiful 
Release Date: January 28, 2011
Cast: Javier Bardem, Maricel Alvarez and Eduard Fernández
Studio: Roadside Attractions
Highlight: “A shadowry underworld figure facing his end tries to make amends before it’s too late in the haunting drama, Biutiful. Oscar winner Javier Bardem is Uxbal who is struggling with raising his two kids while running a series of illegal activities and dealing with a serious health challenge. Sensing the dangers of death and with his time running out on his personal road to redemption and seeing visions of the afterlife, he tries to place things right as they slowly spin out of control.
Grade: B-
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The Green Hornet
Release Date: January 14, 2011
Cast: Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz and Christoph Waltz
Studio: Columbia Pictures (Sony)
Highlight: “The Green Hornet, with its $120 million budget, should look and feel light years beyond my adolescent productions, and yet, on far too many counts, the film is every bit as ludicrous—witless, charmless, clumsy and appallingly unenjoyable.
Grade: F
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The Dilemma 
Release Date: January 14, 2011
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Kevin James and Jennifer Connelly
Studio: Universal
Highlight: “The real dilemma doesn’t have anything to do with infidelity, or living up to some code of dude ethics. It’s the tug of war going on with director Ron Howard as he struggles to decide if The Dilemma should be a comedy or an intensely personal drama..”
Grade: B-
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The Heart Specialist 
Release Date: January 14, 2011
Cast: Wood Harris, Brian J. White and Zoe Saldana
Studio: Freestyle Releasing
Highlight: “If you think after decades of “E.R.”, “House,” “Scrubs” and “Grey’s Anatomy” that young doctors coming of age, falling in love or in lust is a genre that has no surprises left in it, you’re right. And “The Heart Specialist,” a film written and directed by a physician with dreams of Hollywood glory, proves it.”
Grade: D
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Season of the Witch 
Release Date: January 7, 2011
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore and Robert Sheehan
Studio: Lionsgate
Highlight: “This is sword-and-sorcery film named after a Donovan song that features a joke swiped from “Jaws” — a priest looks balefully up at a looming demon and actually says, “We’re going to need more holy water.” It is a hopeless mish-mash that feels like they were making it up as they went along. It’s also dull.”
Grade: C-
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Blue Valentine
Release Date: January 7, 2011
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka.
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Highlight: “Blue Valentine is an agonizing film, a raw, soul-shattering dissection of a marriage’s end. This is not a film for incurable romantics whose perceptions of love are informed by romantic comedies. This is a profoundly honest and realistic testament to the intensity of love’s first blush and its equally passionate end.”
Grade: A
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Country Strong
Release Date: January 7, 2011
Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw & Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund.
Studio: Screen Gems
Highlight: “As far as I can tell, the moral of Country Strong seems to be: mothers, don’t let your kids grow up to sing country music. Good advice. That said, the music is easily the best part of the movie, and I don’t even like country music..”
Grade: C-
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