On March 6th fans will finally get to watch these Watchmen.

For movie fans, outside catching up with the glut of Oscar films, winter is a wasteland. The place where movie studios dump their trash. Because December is really part of the previous year’s fall Oscar push and May is now firmly the beginning of the summer movie season, January through April is its own season. A few big weekends pop up around holidays, but the pickings are usually slim. It’s too early to know the indie surprises that always shine bright in the less star-studded field, so there will be much to talk about later. Several scheduled spring releases have jumped to the fall including: THE WOLFMAN, starring Benico del Toro; Steven Soderbergh’s THE INFORMANT; Richard Kelly’s THE BOX; and Peter Jackson’s THE LOVELY BONES. Several anticipated, but delayed, films of fall 2008, such as THE ROAD and CROSSING OVER, could pop up in the spring as well. This will be the last Getting Buzzed column of 2008, check back on Jan. 1st for my top 10. So with no further ado, here are the 10* films that are set for the first four months of 2009, at this time, which look the most promising.

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Check Out the Trailer

Like Errol Morris, Werner Herzog addresses the fringe elements of humanity and the world in his documentaries. Within he finds universal human experiences, only displayed in the extreme. Inspired by the gorgeous underwater photography taken in Antarctica, he wondered, “what kind of people live at the end of the world?” His encounters with these sometimes-strange worldly people are what make his latest documentary fascinating. The visuals make the experience ethereal.

Herzog, in his distinct German accent, narrates his examination of this remote harsh environment. He states right from the start that his interest with the icy continent isn’t in fluffy penguins. That said, fluffy penguins do make an appearance, but Herzog is more interested in the solemn man who has spent 20 years observing them, asking the scientist if there are any gay penguins and whether penguins go crazy. We then watch as a rogue penguin inexplicably heading off toward the mountains on a crash course with certain death. Herzog informs us that the scientists could catch the penguin and bring it back to the group, but it would just head right back toward the mountain.

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