The right movie diet for 2010: Part I

Let's get 2010 off on the right note. The New Year is in full swing and so is the recession. After paying $17.50 for a 3-D Imax showing of “Avatar,” it got me thinking about what it would be like to go on a movie diet.

As a film lover and movie critic, I’ve gotten used to seeing 150+ (cinema and Netflix) movies a year but if I had to pick a much smaller number of theatrical releases alone, how would I select which ones to see? I would need to make sure the diet is balanced – some appetizing action/adventure films, a few comedy entrees (romantic or otherwise), a course of indie movies, a side order of horror and thrills, another course of drama and maybe some musicals and animation for dessert. Add in a side order of anything with great and/or critical buzz.

So what constitutes an acceptable number of trips to the cinema? With a year to play with, let’s say we can carve it down to about three or four a month. With the box office bursting at the seams, there are no quiet periods anymore, so let’s take it month by month.

January
Treat yourself to apocalypse flicks by choosing either Paul Bettany in Legion or Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli. Bettany as machinegun-wielding archangel Michael or messiah figure Washington with the last Bible on earth – I’ll go with Denzel.

Be sure to also catch Cannes fave Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon about children in a German village before World War I and Fish Tank, a British indie drama about a 15-year-old struggling with an attraction to her mother’s boyfriend and a secret love of hip-hop dancing.

An honorable mention goes to the action return of Mel Gibson as a homicide detective in Edge of Darkness and Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe bringing back respect to vampires with Daybreakers.

Legion photograph courtesy: http://www.postergeek.com/