Movies Not to Miss: January 2019

Writer: Casey Lee

Which of these are you going to watch?

As Oscar season is slowly heating up, unfortunately we will be missing most of the action in our cinemas with a few exceptions.

Although January means there isn't lot to expect from Hollywood, some of our juiciest titles have chosen to warm this month's release schedule, however, if you are not planning to start your year with Hollywood, there is a healthy dose of titles from other countries to keep us entertained, especially if you are of the animation variety.

So start your year the way you like with these movies not to miss for January 2019!

One likely Oscar contender we can this see month comes from one of the oldest directors who is still working and consistently making a presence at the Oscar race. This time, however, Clint Eastwood would be self-directing himself since "Gran Torino" as a war veteran forced to become a drug mule on the Mexican border to make amends with his family. Based on a true story from the New York Times, this reads almost like a real-life Breaking Bad that will break hearts, directed and carried by a lead performer, who is made even stronger surrounded by dramatic workers Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Pena, and Andy Garcia.

General Release Date: 10 January

Escape rooms were all the craze to test your logic and problem-solving skills, along with being a healthy team building activity, but it would also be the perfect setting for a death trap. Taking that idea to its extreme by screenwriters Bragi F. Schut and Marla Melnik, they leave it in the hands of "Insidious: The Last Key" director Adam Robitel to devise the perfect death trap for six perfect strangers. So if you want to cross off another place you don't want to find yourself caught in, or see how Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine, Jay Ellis, and Nik Dodani make their escape, then you know where to find the clues.

General Release Date: 10 January

If you are looking to start an upbeat year, then getting into some tap dancing will help to set the rhythm. "Swing Kids" is a dance movie with special circumstances. Set during the Korean War, a North Korean POW, an American officer from Broadway, a South Korean separated from his wife and a Chinese communist are brought together in a rare troupe to perform for the soldiers in a base. Based on a Korean musical and directed by Kang Hyeong-cheol, three years since "Tazza: The Hidden Card", this is one movie to give you the right vibes and get you dancing.

General Release Date: 17 January

While Marvel and DC are not starting the superhero war so early in the year, there will be superheroes of a different sort at the beginning of 2019. Assembled in a facility for those who believe they have superpowers, David Dunn, Kevin Wendell Crumb and Elijah Price are brought together as they dig deeper to find the truth of their powers. Ending with a surprise in "Split", this has been the anticipated sequel and completion of a trilogy that could set M. Night Shyamalan back to glory, and one of the important twisters of plot and expectations on the genres he touches.

General Release Date: 17 January

While January marks the beginning of the year, it will also mark the end of an animation franchise. As Hiccup finds his footing as the new chief of his village, Toothless finds love in a female of his species that was thought to be lost. Director Dean DeBlois returns to complete the "How to Train Your Dragon" trilogy, Also returning is the sterling cast of dragon riders starting with Jay Barcuchel Cate Blanchett, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Kit Harrington. Brace for impact on this one, this one might be going for the tear ducts to flow as we say goodbye to our favourite dragons.

General Release Date: 31 January