MOVIE ★

"Sonic the Hedgehog 3" is wired-up, synthetic pleasure. It's a frivolous child film that moves at the speed of your thoughts when playing video games. Video-game films seldom have that quality; they are typically overproduced and dreary. However, "Sonic 3" lends hyperactivity a positive label. Jeff Fowler, who directed all three of these films, is a faster and wittier energy magician than he was when he filmed the first "Sonic" in 2020. ' Sonic the Hedgehog 3. ' Paramount Pictures and Sega of America, Inc "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" is a vivaciously produced throwaway, yet its attitude is reminiscent of the beautiful tomfoolery of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Ralph Breaks the Internet." And it is anything but mindless. Though it never says it, the entire film — nuclear light displays, a plan to blow up the globe, a squad of heroes who can run circles around physics — is a mockery of the grandiosity tha...

Midway through the punishingly dull Kraven the Hunter, Ariana DeBose — playing a high-powered lawyer linked to a string of gangster killings who flees a team of hitmen in her London office and lands in Siberia — says with a straight face, "I don't like the feel of this at all." Not joking. The moment was definitely not supposed to be funny, but it makes you wish director J.C. Chandor and the writers had embraced the ridiculousness of this confused Marvel villain origin story with a little more winking comedy. Aaron Taylor-Johnson in ' Kraven the Hunter. '  Sony Pictures Instead, those indications of a so-bad-it's-good guilty pleasure are a brief glimmer in an action thriller that pours a lot of blood but never increases the stakes or sparks enthusiasm. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with his rock-hard abs, plays the main character with great physique and knife abilities, but he's too wooden to enjoy it. Overlong and punctuated with anticlimactic killin...

Eight years ago, Moana (impressively voiced by Auli'i Cravalho), the strong-willed Polynesian wayfinder — don't call her a princess — made a mark with her eponymous Disney debut. Her one-of-a-kind marine journey with the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson in top form) grossed over $665 million worldwide for the studio and won an Oscar nomination for best animated film. But it was the heroine's charm and tenacity in saving her people from environmental devastation that gave Moana her most lasting features.  ' Moana 2. ' Walt Disney Moana, like other economically profitable Disney creations, was destined to become a franchise. Four years after the original's popularity, Disney revealed plans for an animated television series. Then they abandoned the idea in favor of a more typical movie sequel and announced a live-action remake. However, Moana 2, directed by Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller, and David G. Derrick Jr. from a script by Jared Bush and Ledoux Mille...

It's not on Barbenheimer's level, but the combination of Universal's musical Wicked and Paramount's Gladiator II — dubbed Glicked, Wikiator, or whatever you want — resulted in the finest pre-Thanksgiving weekend in more than a decade. ' Wicked ', ' Gladiator II. ' Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures; Paramount Pictures Wicked grossed an estimated $114 million domestically, topping the charts. While it falls short of Friday's forecast of $120 million, it is still a record-breaking sum for a film based on a Broadway production and is among the greatest debuts of all time for a big-screen musical, as well as one of the year's top openers. Globally, the film has grossed $164.2 million. Gladiator II is expected to launch at $55.5 million domestically, a solid start for a male-skewing, swords-and-sandals film. It is likely to garner a large audience internationally, where it has already made $165.5 million for a total of $221 million. In North A...

Wicked movie director Jon M. Chu is urging moviegoers to make an unusual request when they see the film in theaters. Chu, who directed Universal Pictures' movie adaptation of the popular Broadway musical, turned to X (previously Twitter) on the opening night to request that viewers urge their theater to turn up the volume for the musical's sound. Wicked depicts the story of The Wizard of Oz's characters prior to Dorothy's arrival, with Ariana Grande playing Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. Ariana Grande is ' Glinda ' and Cynthia Erivo is ' Elphaba ' in ' Wicked. ' Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures "Tell your movie theater to increase the volume to a 7. Chu wrote, "I've been to a couple screenings, and they're more like a 6.4." "If you want it the way it was intended 7 is the way." Dana Fox, the film's co-writer, commented on the post, saying, "We turned it up a clock tick at our screening a...

Denzel Washington stars in Gladiator II as a glamorous armaments trader and former gladiator plotting to take control of Rome. The character, Macrinus, is based on a historical individual. But filmmaker Ridley Scott believes Macrinus resembles a specific modern-day politician. Denzel Washington plays Macrinus in ' Gladiator II ,' from Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures When detailing the character's (spoiler-free) past, Scott told The Hollywood Reporter, "[Macrinus] was a prisoner of war — probably in a North African state — and was taken to Rome, most likely as a gladiator. Survived. I got free. I got into the business of perhaps creating wine and bread. He became a wealthy trader who sold goods to the Roman troops, including food, oil, wine, fabric, and weaponry. He may have had a million men distributed over Europe. So he was a millionaire at the time; why wouldn't he [aspire to the throne]? 'Why not me?' He is also a mobster, extremely...

The Christmas season must be here, since Netflix's December offers are many. But be warned: not every title is joyful. To begin, Squid Game Season 2 is being released more than three years after the Korean drama launched, and anybody who has binge-watched Season 1 knows there is nothing joyful or festive about the series — though the notorious challenges modeled on children's games may trick you at first. ' Lee Jung-jae ' as ' Gi-hun ' in Squid Game. Netflix At first sight, the new series No Good Deed may appear to be an optimistic comedy. However, the show's primary protagonists, Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano, are about to establish that not all is as it appears in the magnificent property they're attempting to sell. In December, Netflix will release an adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez's 1967 classic One Hundred Years of Solitude as well as a music biography starring Angelina Jolie. Here are the Netflix shows and movies that we are most...

Christmas has come early to the box office. Amazon MGM Studio's Christmas picture Red One, starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, grossed $3.7 million in Thursday previews before launching throughout North America on Friday. The big-budget tentpole will be shown in 4,032 theaters this weekend, including Imax, Dolby Cinema, and other premium large-format screens. Chris Evans and Dwayne Johnson in ' Red One. ' Amazon Studios/Courtesy Everett Collection According to tracking, the film will earn between $30 million and $35 million in its American debut. Warner Bros. Pictures is releasing the Seven Bucks picture internationally, where Red One grossed $28 million this year, to avoid a direct competition with Paramount's Gladiator II, which opens this weekend at the foreign box office a week before its home release. (Ridley Scott's Gladiator sequel might gross $80 million or more in its international debut.) Red One's box office success will be keenly e...

The realm of Game of Thrones might finally make it to the big screen.  Movie Above has heard that Warner Bros. is discreetly producing at least one picture set in George R.R. Martin's huge fantasy realm. ' Game of Thrones. ' HBO According to many reports, the project is still in extremely early stages of production, with no filmmaker, actor, or writer involved. However, the firm is interested in investigating the concept of Westeros invading theaters. The move might indicate a shift in the company's strategy for the property. The showrunners of the first Game of Thrones series (David Benioff and Dan Weiss) notoriously planned to end the series with three feature films rather than a 2019 finale. Martin was also interested in the notion of making a movie, and the author told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014 that ideas were being discussed. For a long time, HBO rejected the notion, preferring to keep the prestige series as an HBO product. However, since the end o...

Paramount and Temple Hill are beaming broadly. Their new film, Smile 2, is leading the US box office with an estimated $23 million after grossing $9.4 million on Friday, including more than $2 million in previews. That would place the film's premiere just ahead of the first Smile, a sleeper smash that opened to $22.6 million in late September 2022 and went on to generate more than $217 million globally against a $17 million budget. Naomi Scott in ' Smile 2. ' Paramount Pictures According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film, written and directed by Parker Finn, follows an evil spirit that jumps hosts via a diabolical grin, this time infecting a troubled pop diva (Naomi Scott) with a ton of pain to feed on. Scott stars alongside Lukas Gage, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Miles Gutierrez-Riley. This time, the budget was $28 million, which is a low figure for a large studio. Smile 2 received a B CinemaScore from audiences, matching the score of the first picture. It faces s...

Samara Weaving and Radio Silence are strolling down the aisle once more. The actresses and filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella are reunited for Ready or Not 2, a sequel to their 2019 dark comedic horror blockbuster for Searchlight Pictures. Samara Weaving. Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images The film, written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, recounted the story of a bride (Weaving) who learns about her new family's wedding night ritual: pulling a card from a puzzling card game. If someone pulls the Hide and Seek card while playing, as she does, a violent game ensues, all in order to appease an ancient family's agreement with the Devil. Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, and Andie MacDowell were among the cast members. Ready or Not, which cost only $6 million, generated more than $28 million domestically and was Searchlight's most widely distributed film at the time. It received positive critical reviews for its abili...

Terrifier 3 is not joking around. The slasher thriller is comfortably winning a weekend of curiosity and carnage at the domestic box office, while Joker: Folie à Deux is seeing the worst drop in history for a comic book film and one of the largest of any movie. David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown in ' Terrifier 3. ' Cineverse /Courtesy Everett Collection According to official data, Cineverse and Icon Events' Terrifier threequel grossed an estimated $18.9 million from 2,514 screens, exceeding expectations for Chris McGurk's new business. That's up from Sunday's projection of $18.3 million, a good haul for an unrated picture that cost $2 million to make. The next closest film is The Wild Robot, which has continued to shine for DreamWorks Animation and Universal. Now in its third weekend, the family film earned an additional $14 million from 3,854 theaters, up from Sunday's predicted $13.4 million, for a domestic total of $84.3 million. It also...

Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson will feature in Focus Features' Song Sung Blue, about a Neil Diamond tribute band. Craig Brewer (Dolemite Is My Name) wrote and will direct the film, which is based on director Greg Kohs' 2008 documentary of the same name about two struggling artists who establish a tribute band to the "Sweet Caroline" singer. Hugh Jackman ,  Kate Hudson Jamie. McCarthy/Getty Images; Gilbert Flores/Penske Media via Getty Images Michael Imperioli, Fisher Stevens, and Jim Belushi will also appear, along with Ella Anderson, King Princess, Mustafa Shakir, and Hudson Hilbert Hensley. Davis Entertainment, owned by John Davis and John Fox, is producing alongside Brewer. Erika Hampson and Greg Kohs will executive produce. Focus, which was in cinemas this weekend with Piece by Piece and will shortly release the awards-worthy Conclave, will distribute locally, with Universal handling overseas. Jackman was most recently seen in Deadpool and Wolverine, and...

In a year when sultry romances like "The Idea of You" and "Babygirl" feature younger men courting older women, writer-director Susannah Grant's "Lonely Planet" feels genuinely novel in that it avoids addressing the issues that arise when an older woman falls in love with a man who is nearly half her age. She would rather to investigate the intricate webs of life that brought these people together in the first place. Even if there are a lot of finer elements in the film that really need to be worked out, the intricacies of these two people' lives are interesting enough. Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth in ' Lonely Planet. ' Anne Marie Fox/Netflix Katherine, a renowned novelist played by Laura Dern, is in a rut. She was just forced out of their house and separated from her cancer-surviving ex-husband, a sculptor, and is currently struggling to create her next book. To get over her annoyances and concentrate on her editor's dead...

In an unexpected twist, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice squeezed out the bots at the weekend box office. Transformers One, produced by Paramount and Hasbro Entertainment, was predicted to gross between $30 million and $35 million in North America, more than enough to top the box office chart. Instead, it earned an estimated $25 million from 3,978 theaters, compared to $26 million from 4,172 venues for Warner Bros.' Beetlejuice sequel, which is currently in its third weekend. Transformers One. Paramount Pictures Transformers One had a modest lead as of Saturday AM, but the necessary traffic to secure a victory did not materialize. The disappointing news comes despite glowing reviews, awards buzz, an A CinemaScore, and exceptional PostTrak exit scores, but Paramount and Hasbro knew they were taking a risk by returning to the franchise's roots and producing a CGI-animated film with a family-friendly PG rating rather than a PG-13 live-action extravaganza aimed at fans. The film...

The first teaser trailer for season two of Squid Game shows that the game never ends, even when you believe it has. Netflix released the new footage at an in-person fan event in Atlanta on Thursday, finishing off its Geeked Week flood of genre-focused announcements. It was previously reported that the streamer's most popular series would return on December 26, more than three years after its debut installment became a global hit in 2021. ' Squid Game ' Season 2 . Netflix In the teaser, a fresh game is about to begin, but an agitated Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) finds himself back in the game as Player 456, this time donning the green tracksuit. "We're ready to start the game," a Korean voice adds. See the teaser below. https://youtu.be/1GqzyjUbT4c In addition to Lee, the Emmy-winning series' second season will feature Lee Byung-hun, Wi Ha-jun, and Gong Yoo. They are accompanied by Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-uk, Park Sung-h...

On Sunday night, FX's Shogun extended its reign over the Emmys for 2024. Going into the evening, the hit samurai series already owned the record for the most victories by any show in a single year, having won 14 awards at the Creative Arts Emmys a week prior. However, the show cemented its dominance inside the Peacock Theater at the Primetime Emmys, winning four more awards, including best drama series, best actress in a drama series for Anna Sawai, best actor in a drama series for Hiroyuki Sanada, and best drama directing for Frederick E.O. Toye. Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai. Katie Yu/FX Shogun's victory is significant on multiple fronts. The historic awards haul signals a significant victory for FX and parent company Disney for a costly series that took nearly ten years to develop and originally appeared to be a risky venture. It's also a significant milestone for Asian representation and non-English-language television. Shogun is the first majority non-Eng...

The Hollywood landscape has sparked a decade-long debate: Where are the movie stars of the past? The solution is in the changing nature of stardom, as IP and franchises take up the box office. However, John Crowley's We Live in Time, starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh, deviates from this tendency with a romantic dramedy that focuses on the strength of its leads, reminiscent of vintage Hollywood films that built star power. Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield in ' We Live in Time. ' A24 We Live in Time follows the love story of Almut (Florence Pugh), a fiery chef, and Tobias (Andrew Garfield), a newly divorced businessman, as they navigate the ups and downs of their relationship. The film's non-linear storytelling and thematic purpose distinguish it from typical romance dramas, making it a welcome addition to the genre. The film's technical prowess is notable, with cinematographer Stuart Bentley combining the warmth of remembrance with the brutal ...

Hollywood has a history of resurrecting the decaying corpses of long-dead films with belated sequels, so it was only a matter of time before someone dug into the tomb marked Beetlejuice. That someone was always going to be Tim Burton, the director of the original 1988 film, and despite rumors that a Beetlejuice sequel was in the works for decades, Burton insisted that he would only consider it if Michael Keaton reprised the title role and any sequel remained true to the spirit of the morbidly eccentric original film. On both criteria, Beetlejuice succeeds. A suitably manic Keaton as the mischievous demon "bio-exorcist" scuttles across the film like a huge cockroach in a striped costume, while the decaying DNA of the original picture is evident in every hyperstylised frame of the sequel. Michael Keaton in ' Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. ' Parisa Taghizadeh/Warner Bros. Possibly a touch too much at times. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice teeters on the brink of the same ...