What to Watch This Weekend: May 1, 2020

Redbox: Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is an entertaining re-imagining of the classic video game.  It's wonderful performances, great special effects, and abundance of humor and callbacks to the game will quickly entertain you!  For more information, check out our review!

Redbox: Like a Boss
Like a Boss has charismatic leading ladies, who form a strong foundation for both the funny and dramatic parts of this makeup friendship comedy.  For more information, check out our review!

Digital: The Incoherents
The Incoherents will get you to follow your dreams with its strong cast, fantastic music, and plenty of heart.  For more information, check out our review!

Digital: Dennis and Lois
Dennis and Lois highlights two mainstays of the rock scene doing what they love.  It has fantastic clips from a variety of bands, interesting stories from the legendary pair, and a wonderful soundtrack.  For more information, check out our review!

Digital: James Vs. His Future Self

James Vs. His Future Self has a wonderful conflict between future and present James, with plenty of funny and introspective moments in this timely, time-obsessed comedy.  For more information, check out our review!

Streaming (Netflix): All Day and a Night

All Day and a Night uses its emotional characters, story, and authentic setting to deliver a powerful film with important underlying messages of self discovery and empathy.  For more information, check out our review!

Streaming (Hulu, Amazon): Creed II

The follow-up to the surprisingly good Creed, this movie manages to make the tried-and-true Rocky formula feel fresh thanks to some fantastic performances and the introduction of characters from Rocky's past.

Streaming (Showtime): Hustlers

Hustlers provides an unreal story about some slick leading ladies.  It is a female wolf of wall street, with a decent amount of craziness, high risk scams, and strong personalities.  For more information, check out our review!

Streaming (Netflix): The Foreigner

The Foreigner adheres strictly to the action thriller formula, but benefits from strong performances by veteran stars Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan.  The film has plenty of twists and turns while allowing Chan to showcase his dramatic chops and Brosnan to flex his bad guy persona.

Streaming (Amazon): A Simple Favor

Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick make quite the pair in this mystery thriller with plot layered on plot.  Although there is a weird twist that just doesn't seem to add much to the film, the story will keep you guessing right up until the end.

What to Watch: Best of February and Most Anticipated of March

Our selection of the best movies of February and our most anticipated movies of March.

Best of February:

Sonic the Hedgehog: Sure it is not a great movie, but I have been waiting a very long time for both a good video game movie and a good sonic adaption.  Sonic the Hedgehog keeps just enough of the Sonic properties to give you that nostalgic hit, but also changes enough to make it into a fun movie.  Jim Carrey's performance is just flat out funny and crazy, and I can't wait to see where this next movie goes.

Sonic the Hedgehog: As a true fan and consumer of this franchise there were a ton of reservations going into this movie. That first trailer's horrible animation left a bad taste in many mouths and very low expectations.  However from the opening studio scene to the stingers at the very end, this movie delivered like no other.  Achieving the best ever box office opening for a video game movie, this film gave its die-hard and new fans all that they wanted and then some with amazing performances, animation, and comedy.

Most Anticipated of March:

Mulan: I have not been a fan of Disney's live action / computer generated remakes of their old properties because they tend to just be the same stories with a coat of touch up paint.  However, Mulan looks like it will truly redefine the original movie, with a redone story and more serious, gritty tone of the film.  I'm excited to see where this one goes, and the PG-13 rating makes me think that this one is going to places that the animated classic wouldn't dare to go.

Bloodshot: VIN DIESEL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OK, I guess I have to say more than just that to justify this.  I am a sucker for a Vin Diesel action film and the that fact is, this movie is based on a comic book that I am very familiar with.  The combination of the two is a win win for me!  I can't promise it will be good but it will be entertaining for sure. And the trailer absolutely looks intriguing enough to draw a bigger audience.

What to Watch This Weekend: February 14, 2020

In Theaters: Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is an entertaining re-imagining of the classic video game.  It's wonderful performances, great special effects, and plenty of humor and callbacks to the game will quickly entertain you!  For more information, check out our review!

In Theaters: The Photograph

The Photograph tells a fresh romantic drama, with realistic characters in a modern story layered with an amazing jazz and hip-hop soundtrack and believable dialog.  For more information, check out our review!

At Redbox: Ford v Ferrari

Ford v Ferrari is a high octane experience with fantastic acting, a compelling story, and a combination of exhilarating sound and heart pumping race scenes that will make you think you are on the track!  For more information, check out our review!

Streaming (Netflix): To All The Boys P.S. I Still Love You

The follow up to Netflix's surpisingly entertaining teen rom-com continues the story of the characters that we met in the first movie and fans of the original should definitely put this on their Valentine's schedule.  And if you haven't seen the first one, make sure to check that out first! 

Streaming (Vudu Free With Ads): La La Land

La La Land is a celebration modern day Los Angeles and tells the story of two people pursuing their dreams in a city that is known to either make those come true, or crush them mercilessly.  This story is set against a backdrop of music and style that is intoxicating and exciting.   

Streaming (Amazon): Pati Patni Aur Woh

Pati Patni Aur Woh has entertaining moments with a likable cast who are put in some very ridiculous situations.  However, the film's rush to conclusion and desire to shoehorn a happy ending hurts the overall message.  For more information, check out our review!

Review: Sonic the Hedgehog

Release date: February 14, 2020
Running time: 99 minutes
Starring: Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, James Marsden

Who would have thought that a movie based on a 90s videogame with a less than stellar recent track record would be good?  I definitely didn't think so after the debacle of the first trailer.  But thankfully, the Sonic movie is a really fun movie!  It quickly endears itself to you with enough references and callbacks to the film to keep you entertained.  In it, Sonic is an alien from another planet blah blah, who cares!  The story itself, like most sonic video games, is only a vehicle for good effects, a sense of speed, and the hedgehog putting himself into ever more perilous moments.  

The hearts of this movie really comes from two sources.  The first is the enjoyable camaraderie between Sonic (perfectly voiced by Schwartz) and Sheriff Wachowski (Marsden).  The two play off each other well with Sonic speaking quickly, telling good and bad jokes, and getting into all sorts of trouble.  Marsden, is the perfect foil to Schwartz, a calmer, more confident figure to counteract Sonic's crazy style.  Schwartz does a fantastic job as Sonic and really seems to get the character and his mannerisms.  The other source is Jim Carrey's amazing performance as Dr. Robotnik.  It seems like the filmmakers just told him to go crazy and do what he wanted to.  He has some really funny lines, some outbursts that come from nowhere, and even a part where he just dances during his evil plan.  It doesn't always make sense for the character, but it is always enjoyable.  In fact, most of the Sonic movie doesn't really tie itself to the video games, and that is a good thing.  The filmmakers took the characters and many of the elements, and rather than being saddled by them, made a thoroughly enjoyable film on top of them.  

As with the Sonic video games, Sonic the Hedgehog has really good effects and an amazing sense of speed.  The risk in a computer generated film is that the CG can break your immersion, but here they do just enough to bring Sonic to life without pulling you out of the movie.  And as you would expect from a film based on a video game series, the movie also has plenty of throwbacks to the Sonic games.  From ring sound effects, to actual rings, to some animations and expressions that are inspired by the video game, there is definitely enough nostalgia here to please Sonic fans.   

Sonic the Hedgehog is an entertaining re-imagining of the classic video game.  It's wonderful performances, great special effects, and plenty of humor and callbacks to the game will quickly entertain you!

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