January 2026 Film Releases Ranking and Reviews

With the month of January at an end, it is time to share my ranking of the January new releases that I saw. I managed to see 6 new releases this month, with 2 of them being on streaming. January is typically not a big month for releases, and this one was no exception. I saw a lot more smaller films, but not a lot that were actually good. We did get a new Sam Raimi film, which was probably the film I was looking forward to the most this month. With all of that said, here are my thoughts and ranking of the 6 new releases that I saw.

6. Greenland 2: Migration

Greenland 2: Migration is the newest Gerard Butler disaster movie and is as mediocre as one would expect. There just isn't anything in this movie to make it worthwhile. There are a few mass destruction sequences, but even those are lacking. The movie largely consists of the family moving from place to place and meeting someone new, which makes for a bit of a clunky plot. Characters that have been around for a while get killed off like nothing, with no send-off for them. There is also a random daughter character that has been added in for the last 20 minutes for no reason at all. This random guy just meets John's family and suddenly trusts them with his daughter. It makes no sense. The movie also turns John, an everyman structural engineer, into an expert plumber, boat repairman, and marksman for some reason. Overall, this is just another generic disaster movie that isn't worth watching, as other disaster movies do things much better.

Score: 5/10 Grade: C

5. Mercy

Mercy is a new Chris Pratt detective thriller. The basic premise of the movie is interesting, where Chris has to defend himself in court in 90 minutes against an AI judge. The screen life aspects were fun as they kind of put you right in the middle of the action, just as Chris is viewing things from his chair. However, this movie would have worked much better as a streaming movie than a big IMAX blockbuster. It is entertaining enough to turn on at home, but not worth the $20 ticket to see in the theater. There is a lot of cheating and lapses in logic that have to happen to make the movie work. Very early in the movie, there is enough reasonable doubt that Chris didn't kill his wife to stop the trial, but the movie just kind of brushes things off to keep the story going. The plan of the main villain also had to have a lot go right for his plan to work, and the reasoning behind his motivation didn't make a lot of sense. Chris is also able to access a lot more resources from his chair than another person would be able to. In the end, the movie had an interesting enough premise, but it was nowhere near good enough to justify its expensive theater experience.

Score: 6/10 Grade: C+

4. Wrecking Crew

Wrecking Crew is a harmless enough buddy action movie starring Dave Batista and Jason Mamoa streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Jason Mamoa and Dave Batista are fun together and have some brotherly bickering throughout the movie. There is an investigation aspect that was interesting but the best part was the big action in the second half of movie. It was a lot of fun to see the two guys mowing down a bunch of bad guys. When those parts are on screen, it is a lot of fun but I just wish there was more of it. The first half of the movie doesn’t have much action or chemistry between the two leads which made the movie a bit disappointing. In the end, this movie handsome fun moments but there weren’t enough fun moments to consider this movie a success.

Score: 6.5/10 Grade: B-

3. Primate

Primate is a new small-scale animal-gone-wild horror film. This movie delivers on some gnarly kills where the monkey rips people's jaws off and other things of that nature. The movie also does a great job of building in the suspense whenever a character wanders into the house, as they never know when the monkey is going to show up. I appreciate how fast the movie goes, leaving no time to get bogged down by character drama that would be poorly written. However, the movie still left a bit to be desired. While there is some good monkey action, the main characters also spend an awful lot of time stuck in a pool and trying to get a phone. I wish we could have gotten more of the fighting with the monkey and wandering through the house. I also wish we could have gotten a bit more of the monkey-human relationship before he goes bad, so that there is more weight to it when he goes crazy. Overall, this movie achieves what it is going for. It is just trying to be a B-level horror movie, and I'd say it does that.

Score: 6.5/10 Grade: B-

2. The Rip

The Rip was a bit of a pleasant surprise for me. This movie was a nice grounded cop thriller, which is a nice change of pace from the generic blockbuster stuff that Netflix usually puts out. It was fun to see Matt Damon and Ben Affleck together in a film again. The Rip does a great job of slowly building the tension and mystery. As this team is counting the money, the distrust and paranoia slowly start to build, and you begin to wonder who is going to try to steal the money. The movie also has a bit of a whodunnit aspect to it, as there is this added mystery of who killed the team's captain at the beginning of the movie. I also like how grounded all of the action is. There is a decent action sequence at the end of the movie, but it is very much a street-level sequence and not big and over the top like Netflix normally does. This is pretty much a throwback 90s cop thriller. It isn't trying to reinvent the genre, but it does give a solid entry into the space.

Score:7.5/10 Grade: B

1. Send Help

Send Help is the newest film from Sam Raimi and was a big surprise for me this month. Send Help blends your typical desert island relationship story with a psychological horror thriller that keeps you engaged from beginning to end. Both Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien deliver outstanding performances, portraying both their normal selves and those who are starting to become unhinged. Sam Raimi does a great job of sprinkling his typical horror gore and flair throughout the movie, though not in places you would expect. The movie as a whole gives this creepy vibe to it as the relationship between these two characters begins to change. It does a great job of taking a typical power dynamic shift and adding some horror and psychological elements to it. The second half of the movie gets really interesting, and the choices these characters made earlier on finally come to a head. The movie also sprinkles in some dark humor at just the right moments to lighten the tension. Overall, this is a great horror thriller film, and Sam Raimi is back at what he is good at. We need more original movies like this to get made.

Score: 8.5/10 Grade: A-