Five January movies that could be fun

Good news, moviegoers: It's January!

I realize that January is unofficially known as Bad Movie Month, a dumping ground for films too weak to compete during busier seasons. You definitely don't see many January releases go on to sweep the Oscars. This is a time for second-rate genre pictures -- horror flicks, rom-coms, actioners.

So how is this good news? In January, the movies become fun again. After a long autumn of wrestling with deep subjects like the nature of power ("J. Edgar") and the attacks of 9/11 ("Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"), we can start asking other pressing questions: Can Dolly Parton beat Queen Latifah in a gospel sing-off in "Joyful Noise" (Jan. 13)? Why don't more movies have easy-to-grasp titles like "Man on a Ledge" (Jan. 27)?

I think of January as a remnant of the old B-movie tradition, in which the big-budget A-feature came with a smaller and sometimes more enjoyable B-grade picture. Hollywood long ago stopped selling two movies for one ticket, but the B's come back to life each January. In 1992, Curtis Hanson's gleefully over-the-top thriller "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" (released Jan. 10) became a surprise success, grossing $88 million; in 2008, "Cloverfield" (Jan. 18) pleased audiences and critics alike with a stylish mix of sci-fi and horror; in 2010, the samurai-Western "The Book of Eli" (Jan. 15) became one of my favorite guilty pleasures, a devil-may-care mix of quasi-theology and comic-book action.

Here are five flicks I'm looking forward to seeing this month. I can't promise that they'll be any good, but I'm positive they'll be more fun than "J. Edgar."

Contraband (Jan. 13) This looks like Crime Flick 101, with Mark Wahlberg (exposing his abs even in the poster) as a former criminal reluctantly taking one last job. It's a remake of the 2009 Icelandic film "Reykjavík-Rotterdam" and directed by that film's star, Baltasar Kormákur. With Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi and Ben Foster ("The Messenger").

Haywire (Jan. 20) Ever since Steven Soderbergh's cool crime thriller "Out of Sight" (1998), I've been waiting for his return to the action genre. Now comes this zippy-looking entry, starring mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano as a freelance dirty-deeds agent. The intriguing cast includes Michael Fassbender and Ewan McGregor -- and Michael Douglas, too? I'm there.

Red Tails (Jan. 20) Cuba Gooding Jr. stars in a true-ish story about the Tuskeegee Airmen, the all-black squadron of World War II fighter pilots. I'm hoping for less historical drama, more explosions, especially since the script comes from two comic-book authors, Aaron McGruder ("The Boondocks") and John Ridley ("The American Way").

The Grey (Jan. 27) Somehow, 59-year-old Liam Neeson has become a rather convincing action hero, even if his recent films ("Taken," "Unknown") haven't quite matched his intensity. In this movie, he and a planeful of others are stranded in Alaska and hunted by wolves. The director is Joe Carnahan ("Smokin' Aces").

One for the Money (Jan. 27) Katherine Heigl tends to waste her charm on crummy rom-coms, but she looks rather appealing in this action-comedy about an inexperienced bounty hunter. It's based on the 1994 Janet Evanovich novel that launched the Stephanie Plum series. (Did someone say "franchise"?) With Jason O'Mara (Fox's "Terra Nova") and John Leguizamo.