January in the movie world is always a month where the movie studios dump the films that are not … good.  Studios give us those films that are not expected to do much or maybe that has been waiting on the shelf.

January is notorious for bad movies.  Unfortunately, 2020 was especially poor.  In fact, I would go as far as to say that there may be 4-5 films released in January 2020 that could end up int he Top 10 Worst list at the end of the year.

There were two good movies in the month.  Bad Boys for Life surprised me in how good it was.  When I first heard that Bad Boys for Life was being released in January, I knew what to expect.  It was able to overcome those expectations.  The other great movie in January was streamed on Amazon Prime.  It was called Troop Zero.  A third film, Guy Ritchie’s The Gentleman was okay, the end of the film really saving it.

Then there are the Oscar films that come out wide in January, but these do not count.  1917, Just Mercy, Pain and Glory.  These are 2019 films that I only see in January.

The rest of the films…

The Grudge (2020).  Dolittle.  The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.  Gretel & Hansel.  Underwater.  The Turning.  The Rhythm Section.  A Fall From Grace.

Eight of them.  Some of these are just horrendous.  The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, which I streamed on Vudu, is perhaps in the Top 10 of my all-time worst list.  Dolittle had Robert Downey Jr and yet it was just a a trainwreck of a film.  The Grudge is a reboot that should have stayed unbooted.

Personally I was kind of enjoying The Turning until the ending sent that film tumbling off the cliff.  Netflix’s A Fall From Grace was probably the best of this sorry bunch.  Gretel & Hansel looked great but that does not excuse the lack of story.  Saw The Rhythm Section today and found it needlessly convoluted.

Thankfully, today marks the beginning of February.  Next week is the Birds of Prey film and things will now pick up… hopefully.