Which of these are you going to watch?

As Oscar season is slowly heating up, unfortunately we will be missing most of the action in our cinemas with a few exceptions.

Although January means there isn't lot to expect from Hollywood, some of our juiciest titles have chosen to warm this month's release schedule, however, if you are not planning to start your year with Hollywood, there is a healthy dose of titles from other countries to keep us entertained, especially if you are of the animation variety.

So start your year the way you like with these movies not to miss for January 2019!

January starts with an odd couple and depending on your mood, you can pick a pair that makes you laugh or a pair that makes you cry. If your money is in for drama and some unexpected performance work, then "Stan & Ollie" might just fit that bill. A biopic that focuses on the American and English comedic act Laurel and Hardy during the darker days of their careers. Performed by Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly as the leading duo, with Coogan receiving a British Independent Film Award nomination for Best Actor, this will be showing a sobering side of the life of comedians, and the strain of celebrity partnership on friendships. However, if you want a little more humor on another pair of dynamic duo, then the cruder telling of "Holmes and Watson" with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly (again) may tickle those funny bones for you.

General Release Date: 3 January

If you are looking to start an upbeat year, then getting into some tap dancing will help to set the rhythm. "Swing Kids" is a dance movie with special circumstances. Set during the Korean War, a North Korean POW, an American officer from Broadway, a South Korean separated from his wife and a Chinese communist are brought together in a rare troupe to perform for the soldiers in a base. Based on a Korean musical and directed by Kang Hyeong-cheol, three years since "Tazza: The Hidden Card", this is one movie to give you the right vibes and get you dancing.

General Release Date: 10 January

While Marvel and DC are not starting the superhero war so early in the year, there will be superheroes of a different sort at the beginning of 2018. Assembled in a facility for those who believe they have superpowers, David Dunn, Kevin Wendell Crumb and Elijah Price are brought together as they dig deeper to find the truth of their powers. Ending with a surprise in "Split", this has been the anticipated sequel and completion of a trilogy that could set M. Night Shyamalan back to glory, and one of the important twisters of plot and expectations on the genres he touches.

General Release Date: 17 January

2018 had an all-star, all-female heist movie that didn't get a lot of stars in reviews, but we were also denied from watching the other all-star, all-female heist movie that got all the stars from last year. After losing their husbands from a botched heist job, their surviving widows are forced to finish the job for the sake of their families. Directed by Steve McQueen as his next feature since his Oscar-winning "12 Years a Slave", this may be his closest work to a genre film, but don't be fooled that he will be chaining himself to the genre conventions, especially with a script co-written by "Gone Girl"'s Gillian Flynn. Featuring a less glamourous, but no less compelling cast led by Oscar-powered Viola Davis, with Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Cynthia Erivo, the heavy work doesn't just lie on the women with the likes of Liam Neeson and Collin Farrell, and Robert Duvall also paying their dues. So if "Ocean's Eight" left you a little disappointed or underwhelmed, then it might be good to watch "Widows" and see that 2018 wasn't all lost.

General Release Date: 17 January

One likely Oscar contender we can this see month comes from one of the oldest directors who is still working and consistently making a presence at the Oscar race. This time, however, Clint Eastwood would be self-directing himself since "Gran Torino" as a war veteran forced to become a drug mule on the Mexican border to make amends with his family. Based on a true story from the New York Times, this reads almost like a real-life Breaking Bad that will break hearts, directed and carried by a lead performer, who is made even stronger surrounded by dramatic workers Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Pena, and Andy Garcia.

General Release Date: 17 January

Aside from power fantasy of a child finding himself to be the chosen one, what got us more excited when we found out that this would be the next directorial output from Joe Cornish. Those who have seen "Attack the Block" where John Boyega was discovered, would be anticipating for some heart-pumping action dashed with some savvy writing. Instead of having a lesser known cast as he did with "Attack the Block", Cornish will be working with some top of the line names like Rebecca Ferguson and Patrick Stewart, and also introducing Louis Ashbourne Serkis, son of the famed Andy Serkis, who could be turned into a future star after being chosen.

General Release Date: 17 January

Gundam and anime fans will be having an early start to their year. Released in November last year in Japan, the story of the Mobile Suit Gundam UC universe continues with this adaptation from the Unicorn novel series. Set a year after the Laplace Incident chronicled in the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn series, as the Newtype continue their struggle to win their rights, a new model of the Unicorn reappears, forcing an unprecedented cooperation by the Federation and the Neo-Zeon to hunt down their new enemy. Directed by "Thunderbolt" director Toshikazu Yoshizawa based on the Gundam Unicorn novels, Sunrise brings to bear their high level of production quality, and it is only right for Gundam fans to see their mecha battles in its full glory on the bigscreen.

General Release Date: 17 January

Escape rooms were all the craze to test your logic and problem-solving skills, along with being a healthy team building activity, but it would also be the perfect setting for a death trap. Taking that idea to its extreme by screenwriters Bragi F. Schut and Marla Melnik, they leave it in the hands of "Insidious: The Last Key" director Adam Robitel to devise the perfect death trap for six perfect strangers. So if you want to cross off another place you don't want to find yourself caught in, or see how Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine, Jay Ellis, and Nik Dodani make their escape, then you know where to find the clues.

General Release Date: 24 January

While January marks the beginning of the year, it will also mark the end of an animation franchise. As Hiccup finds his footing as the new chief of his village, Toothless finds love in a female of his species that was thought to be lost. Director Dean DeBlois returns to complete the "How to Train Your Dragon" trilogy, Also returning is the sterling cast of dragon riders starting with Jay Barcuchel Cate Blanchett, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Kit Harrington. Brace for impact on this one, this one might be going for the tear ducts to flow as we say goodbye to our favourite dragons.

General Release Date: 31 January