In Theaters: ‘Youth In Revolt,’ ‘Daybreakers,’ ‘Leap Year’

The new year is upon us and January, like September, is typically a time for studios to scrape the bottom of the barrel while America recovers from the holidays and watches NFL playoffs. With last year’s “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Taken” unexpectedly cleaning up around this time last year, there is renewed interest in the potential of the winter box office. “Avatar” just passed the one billion mark and is now already the second highest grossing film of all time worldwide and several holdovers are also still performing strong, so we don’t really see much of the dreck rising above the pack. There are still great films expanding to tide us over through the next cold, difficult weeks.

In Wide Release: Certainly one of the more interesting looking films coming out in the next couple months, Miguel Arteta’s “Youth In Revolt” opens today. The coming-of-age comedy stars Michael Cera as Nick, a teenager on a journey to ditch his white trash extended family, hang out with his best friend, and finally lose his virginity. While we have been following the film, and had decent expectations, we caught the adaptation of C.D. Payne’s novel and didn’t love it, but we didn’t hate it either. It’s not a bad film though, has its funny moments and is worth a look if you are on the hunt for something a little different this weekend. The critics are mostly on the same page with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 71% rating with a 64 score from Metacritic.

From directors Michael and Peter Sperig comes the vampire flick “Daybreakers.” It has been sitting on the shelf since 2007, even with a solid cast including Ethan Hawke, Willem DaFoe, and Sam Neill. The buzz hasn’t been great and the movie landed a spot on our Least Anticipated of 2010. We reviewed the film yesterday and it was worse than bad, it was boring. With vampire fatigue finally beginning to set in, we can’t imagine many kids choosing this rather than giving “Avatar” another go. Critics are a little kinder with some praising the shlocky B-movie feel, RT gives it a 62% rating and Metacritic a 61 score.

Also opening wide, Amy Adams and Matthew Goode in the generic looking “Leap Year.” Adams has built a very solid career so far avoiding material like this, so we can only hope it isn’t a sign of things to come. Unless, y’know, it’s a hit. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 19% rating with a 31 score from Metacritic.

In Limited Release: Not too much excitement here either, folks. Another film from our Least Anticipated 2010 feature, director/star Tim Allen’s “Crazy on the Outside” hits 74 screens. It hasn’t been screened for critics and was cut from wide release, so we’re going to stay away from this one for now. The Matthew Broderick starring “Wonderful World” from first-time writer-director Josh Goldin is also out today. The film has a 25% rating from Rotten Tomatoes and a 44 score from Metacritic. Oh, there’s also the wacky looking, “Bitch Slap” which B-movie lovers or lesbian action-porn enthusiasts will surely dig, but it has a dismal 33% RT score.

Not a lot of choices. Our thought are see “Youth In Revolt,” or stay home and rent.