It's new movie day, and I'll be spending a few hours in the theater this afternoon to bring you a few reviews, but let's start the morning off right by talking about what dropped this weekend. We're sort of in the January lull, but there's at least one interesting-looking flick in The Book of Eli and a new Jackie Chan movie that could bring the concussions, even though it's more likely to just be another chapter in Chan's hokey, family-friendly American career. Let's get on it.

The Book Of Eli - I'm a sucker for a good post-apocalypse, and this new drama from the Hughes brothers looks like it's going to scratch that itch. Denzel Washington channels his inner Ghost Dog as Eli, a lone wanderer packing a samurai sword and a Bible across a ruined America, wasting sleazy gang members on the way. But when he rolls into a town controlled by a corrupt Gary Oldman, he needs to make a stand to protect the big chief's abused wife and her teenaged prostitute daughter. Looks like a blast.

The Spy Next Door - Oh, Jackie Chan. I'm glad you're making bank in America instead of giving yourself near-fatal injuries for peanuts over in Hong Kong, but you've gotta stop this stuff. Hollywood directors seem content to just have you flash a stupid grin and fall down a lot, and this espionage comedy looks like more of the same. Chan actually does have remarkable physical comic timing, having been compared to Buster Keaton - why not use those skills for something more ambitious? I'll see it for the stunts.

Fish Tank - Interesting-looking indie about a club kid that looks like a British anodyne to Precious. Getting rave reviews for the cast, including the lead who was cast after the director overheard her arguing with her boyfriend at a train station. With Michael Fassbinder, last seen in Inglourious Basterds, as the new man who threatens to upset the whole applecart.