January – the precipice of the winter season and the strange limbo where the days are endless and the nights even longer. The time when the lights are constantly dim and the roads are slick with ice; when mid year testing starts and sets students on a path to study feverishly as their candle (or rather battery percentage) dies out. If you have the time, The Buzz has some great options for films to fill some free time and welcome those wintery feelings.
- The Buzz picks…The Murder on the Orient Express
As if the 5 degree wind chill didn’t make you cold enough, you can now watch the same level of intense weather on your screen! This film takes place in snowy Europe somewhere in Yugoslavia when an avalanche stops the train’s journey and tragedy strikes on the Orient Express. A murder is committed and the guests call the most famed Belgian detective in the country; Hercule Poirot. A classic whodunnit that will keep you entertained and saying “I knew it!” every time they reveal a new suspect. It will test your deductive reasoning and tangle your thoughts in knots as you try to crack the case before the detective himself.
Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Willem Dafoe, Penelope Cruz, Leslie Odem Jr. & Micheal Rouse
MPA: PG-13
Rating (IMDb): 6.5
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Awards: 2 wins & 31 nominations total
- Vintage Find! With Honors
A film set in the very heart of our city, With Honors follows Monty, a pretentious and stuck-up Harvard student who drops his thesis down the grates of the school boiler room. What he finds in that room is not only his partially burned thesis but a witty homeless man named Simon who strikes a bargain with the stressed college senior; for every meal or night spent lodging in Monty’s dorm we would return one page of his mile-long thesis. Starring Joe Pesci and Brendan Fraser, the dynamic duo stuns with their acting performance and pulls heartstrings to this day every time Simon said, “boy, oh boy!” Over the course of their tedious friendship, Monty learns that there’s more to life than graduating from Harvard with honors – in fact it’s wholly unimportant when you could graduate from life with honors.
Stars: Joe Pesci, Brendan Fraser, Moira Kelly, Patrick Dempsey and Josh Hamilton
MPA: PG-13
Rating (IMDb): 6.7
Director: Alek Keshishian
Awards: 4 nominations total
- Family Friendly: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Relive your childhood or step into another – The Chronicles of Narnia or more commonly known as just “Narnia” is a timeless classic for kids of all ages. Quite frankly, Narnia changed the game for classic fairytales and reminded us of the glory of knights, princesses, and talking animals. Children around the world gasped in wonder as the Pevensie siblings stepped through the seemingly ordinary wardrobe. What they find beyond it is a world unlike their own; where swordfighting is a pastime and lions offer wise words. But this world is in peril and it is up to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy to save it. With stunning scenic backdrops and strong performances from all the young actors, it’ll sweep you into the story and make you wish your closet ended with a portal and not a pile of dirty laundry.
Stars: Tilda Swinton, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Georgie Henley and Skander Keynes
MPA: PG
Rating (IMDb): 7
Director: Andrew Adamson
Awards: Won 1 Oscar, 18 wins & 46 nominations
The Buzz 
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