I will continue to wonder why January has to be the month where we seem to always get pointless and awful movies. This year it is worse after we had about 12 movies released in December as everyone wanted the Holiday release area. Why can’t studios just move some of those to January? People only have so much money to spend on movies. Why can’t releases be spread out more? Instead, we will continue to get mediocre movies in the theaters and nonsense on streamers. I can dream though. On to the reviews.

#7 Self Reliance

This was just borderline pointless movie to sit through. It’s about a dude who volunteers for a dark web reality show where he will be hunted down over the next 30 days, and is only safe if he is immediately right next to someone. I’m always happy to see Anna Kendrick in movies, but I saw where her storyline was going before the movie wanted me to. This does make sense it’s on a streaming site though. This would have bombed so hard if it was in theaters. It’s just interesting enough to keep you from switching to something else on Hulu at the moment. 2.5 out of 5 Danish Krones

#8 I.S.S.

When I say studios just throw out anything in January just to release it and get it off their hands, this is a good example. This one felt like it too should have been on streaming. The concept is strong though. Nuclear war breaks out on Earth, and both the US and Russia want full control of the International Space Station. It’s the execution of the concept that falls apart. We are given at best 15 minutes to get to know the characters before the plot kicks in, and it doesn’t really help. It isn’t hard to not trust any character when you are never given a reason to. It is just manufactured paranoia that only baffles itself. We have dumb decisions that lead to the death of one character, only for him to be found again, to then follow that up with him immediately fighting another character to their mutual death. It’s just lazy story writing when you take a step back. One last question I had was this. The surviving characters at the conclusion of the movie leave for Earth. Only problem is every time we are shown the Earth, it is glowing orange. Where do those characters think they are going? 2.5 out of 5 Space Mice

Welp, another pair of duds in January. Next week, I have at least two more streaming movies, so the hope that one of them will be good lives on. Also, the chances I finally see Zone of Interest next weekend are going up the closer we get. So that is promising.