By: Henry J. Fromage –

It’s been a pretty dire last couple of weeks as far as quality goes, although if you haven’t seen Cloud Atlas yet, for the love of all that is filmmaking holy go give that movie your money.  Or, toss it at one of this week’s slate of quality-looking flicks.

Flight -

Early buzz is that Denzell Washington delivers an Oscar-caliber performance as a Sully Sullenberger-type pilot whose heroics come into question when his troubles with substance abuse surface.  Yep, coming from director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump), this smacks a bit of Oscar-bait, but at least it’s not another one of those horrifying motion capture flicks…

Thank God he’s finally over this phase…

Beer Prediction -

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a nice juicy Denzell role to enjoy, and the plane crash sequence is supposed to be amazing.  Might be a touch on the generic side, though.

Wreck-It Ralph -

Here’s an original pitch from Disney- arcade game villain escapes his game and tries to make himself a hero by giving other titles a shot.  Sounds more like Pixar than what we’ve come to expect from the separate Mouse House animation division, which can only be a good thing.

Nobody wants to return to these days

Beer Prediction

That being said, that Sarah Silverman-voiced teen girl in the preview looks like she’ll be straddling the line between overly cutesy and damn annoying the whole time, which probably means you should keep at least one more beer handy for this one.

Man With the Iron Fists -

Rza steps into the director’s chair with old buddy Quentin Tarantino helping produce his throwback martial arts labor of love.  Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu’s presence is also pretty damn encouraging, and holy shit!  Did that guy’s eyeball just get punched out of his head?  Yes, yes it did.

Beer Prediction

I hate to be Debbie Downer over here, but Quentin Tarantino’s genre pic tastes can sometimes run a bit over the top.

Or, more than a bit

That being said, hell yes I will watch Rza put the wuxia back into Wu Tang!