Just when the calendar changes and you all those pretty Oscar nominations are announced, all seems right in the world of cinema. The days become just a little more bearable as the weather begins to drift away from Jack Frost’s silky fingertips. The nights are brisk but the moon becomes a second sun. Then, you look at imdb and a sheet of clouds suffocates the skyline, assaulting the ground with a snowy stupor, knocking you unconscious with hail as you make your daily commute. All the gloves on the globe aren’t going to help us this weekend.

From Paris with Love

Around this time last year, Taken opened in US theaters, bringing with it a tightly constructed narrative contained in a near non-stop action spectacle. One might assume that the director’s follow up, From Paris with Love,  would end up commanding a good deal of attention, especially with Travolta's name attached to the project. The trailer indicates that this film is, unlike Taken, a tongue-in-cheek approach to the generic action film. Though clearly not as heavy handed as more recent spoofs, it's also likely not as overtly hysterical as the brilliant Hot Fuzz. However, Travolta appears to be going far too over the top. Perhaps that performance will mesh well with what appears to be the joke of the film. In theory, this film is fairly fascinating, but the trailer is alienating and utterly distancing, so I would only enter this film with massive reservations seated directly next to my hope.

Dear John

Next up, we have one of two highly publicized Nicholas Sparks adaptations to be released only months apart. Dear John, according to the trailer, plays by most clichés in the romance/self-discovery handbook, but at least a few elements in the trailer do standout and offer a few glimmers of hope. First, the brilliant color scheme that runs throughout most of the title cards. If this aesthetic is played up in the film and carried throughout, I can imagine, at the least, a visually pleasurable film. The second is the inclusion of Amanda Seyfried. She's shown talent in the past and this film could provide a breakout role for her, but she appears to have her work cut out for her if she hopes to keep this lifeless romance afloat. And yes, there is a kiss...in the rain.

Frozen

If you are looking for a film to remind you that the weather could be considerably worse, then Frozen, hot off its Sundance premier, seems ready and willing to deliver. Frozen's tone seems similar to Open Water and, as the trailer states, Jaws. The tense thriller music running throughout the trailer screams generic, and all the screaming and crying going on only adds to the amateur feel of the production, but buried in this pool of cliché does appear to be an enjoyable film. The severity of the situation is established incredibly well, though I believe that ski and snowboard resorts, or the one I was at a few years back, make scans of all the lifts during the final run, so the premise of this film may be logically flawed, but the situation is still frightening nonetheless. The tension, for me, is cut a bit when we see that, at some point, these people will make it back on the ground. I 'm not sure if fun, or enjoyment for that matter, is to be had with this film, but the possibility of a good film still exist.

District 13: Ultimatum

Also opening in limited release this week is District 13: Ultimatum, an action piece that places a focus on parkour and free running. Both of these are endlessly fascinating to me, but I find it hard to believe that I can sit through 90 minutes of what the trailer seems to offer. Perhaps set up to be more like Taken than From Paris with Love, the emphasis here never seems to stray very far from the action, so if you’re looking for a bunch of ass kicking loosely connected by a plot than this film has been tailor-made for your consumption. Certainly, the sleek look and brilliant choreography on display is capable of providing all the action and enjoyment one can hope to derive from this type of film, but the lack of focus on plot has me very worried about how much I can tolerate.

So perhaps the fire just needs to be kept alive a little longer as we fight through these barren months. The obvious standouts, depending on what you are in the market for, are Dear John and Frozen, but I am not prepared for any of the releases this week to offer much in the way of lasting pleasure. With a slew of Oscar nominees getting re-released and with more niche films from 2009 trickling out to a few more theaters, I am aware that far better options exist, but at least the future is starting to look promising once again. The year has finally started.