Dont Tell NetflixDont Tell Netflix

by Emily Nagle

Streaming customers have lots to look forward to in the first few weeks of the new year, as some of the streaming wars’ biggest competitors have planned a vast slew of content for January 2022.

To ring in 2022, Netflix is adding family favorites such as “Nacho Libre”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Happy Feet”, and “Annie” (1982). Making their premiere on the platform next year include Mexican teen drama “Rebelde” (January 5) and Tiktok reality show “Hype House” (January 7). Film series set to arrive on Netflix include the first three “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movies, “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer”, and the second and third “Terminator” films (in addition to “Terminator Salvation”).

Disney+, which reached 118 million subscribers by the final quarter of 2021, also has big plans for the new year. The company’s fast-growing streamer, which recently announced its biggest content slate in years, will be releasing new episodes of “The Mandalorian” spin-off “The Book of Boba Fett” – which premiered today – every Wednesday starting January 5. Marvel’s recent film “Eternals” will be added to the catalogue on January 12. Many of the new arrivals for January are family-oriented shows and movies including “The Sandlot”, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days”, and “Like Mike”, as well as its sequel.

by Emily Nagle

The long Christmas weekend was the second highest-grossing box office weekend for this month. Continuing from last weekend, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has continued to dominate ticket sales, and the film has now made $1.08 billion worldwide. With so many new films across a wide variety of genres coming out in time for the holiday weekend, the rest of the films in the top 5 were new releases.

Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for December 24-26, 2021:
5. American Underdog
4. The King’s Man
3. The Matrix Resurrections
2. Sing 2
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

Universal’s “Sing 2” was the second highest-grossing film for the weekend, bringing in $22.3 million (as well as a total domestic gross of $46.9 million). Starring Scarlett Johansson, Reese Witherspoon, Matthew McConaughey, and Bobby Canavale as well as popular musicians including Pharrell Williams, Bono, and Halsey, this sequel to the 2016 Illumination film follows koala Buster Moon (McConaughey) and his friends as they try to convince elusive rockstar Clay Calloway (Bono) to join them for the opening of an upcoming show. While the original film received generally positive reviews and thrived financially, “Sing 2” has been met with mixed reviews from critics, who have argued that the sequel isn’t much different from the first movie, as it’s just another simple movie about cartoon animals singing popular songs.

Warner Bros.’ “The Matrix Resurrections” is available both on HBO Max and in theaters, and seems to be doing fairly well in the box office so far. It raked in $12 million over the weekend, and has grossed a total of $22.5 million in the United States since its release on December 22. The final installment in “The Matrix” film series is the first in 18 years, and follows video game developer Neo (Keanu Reeves) as he must once again escape from the Matrix and figure out his true reality. In addition to Reeves, the cast includes actors from the previous Matrix films like Jada Pinkett Smith, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Lambert Wilson, but also brings in new talent, including Neil Patrick Harris, Jonathan Groff, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

by Emily Nagle

Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of December 17-19, 2021
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home
2. Encanto
3. West Side Story
4. Ghostbusters: Afterlife
5. Nightmare Alley

The release of Spider-Man: No Way Home made this past weekend the most profitable for the entire year. The Marvel and Sony co-production grossed $260.1 million in its first weekend, accounting for more than 90% of total box office profits during those 3 days. In “No Way Home”, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) turns to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help after the whole world discovers his alter ego. Casting a spell in hopes of the world forgetting Peter’s secret identity only creates more problems, unleashing the multiverse and leading to Spider-Man’s greatest challenge yet.

Not only has “No Way Home” become the best-selling movie for the entire year in only a few days, but it’s also been met with glowing reviews from critics and audience members alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s received a 99% audience rating and a 94% on the Tomatometer. IMDb users rated the film 9/10. Among many other aspects, critics praised the film’s story, soundtrack, and action sequences.

Another new arrival to theaters this weekend was psychological thriller “Nightmare Alley”, based on the 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham (and a remake of the 1947 film based on the novel). Set in 1940s New York and directed by Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water”, “Pacific Rim”), the film tells the story of Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), who joins a traveling carnival where he learns the art of swindling. Soon, he hatches a scheme with psychiatrist Lilith (Cate Blanchett) to deceive one of the most dangerous tycoons in the city (Richard Jenkins). It has been praised by critics for its direction, cinematography, and production design, but many have compared it to the 1947 film, arguing that it is inferior.

by Emily Nagle

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” swung into theaters Thursday night, and not even 24 hours into its release, the film is already smashing box office records. The co-production between Sony Pictures and Marvel raked in $50 million during previews, making it the third-highest opening in cinematic history, right behind “Avengers: Endgame” ($60 million) and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($57 million).

AMC estimates that 1 million moviegoers flocked to theaters to see the long-awaited film, which released its first teaser back in August. Ever since then, the hype for the newest installment in the “Spider-Man” film series has only been increasing with each update, from the trailers premiering on YouTube to the official poster getting released.

Cinemark’s senior vice president of global content Justin McDaniel reacted to the film’s profitable opening night, announcing in a statement, “The sheer volume of people who came to see this film on the biggest screen, many for the first time since the pandemic, underscores the irreplaceable value of the in-theatre experience, which we are thrilled to continue to offer in collaboration with our studio partners. Congratulations to the entire Sony team for a remarkable opening performance for their latest blockbuster.” The company also posted a tweet announcing that “No Way Home” was their best opening night of all time.

The successful premiere for “No Way Home” shows that even with the quick spread of Omicron, movie theaters are bouncing back from where they were earlier this year. Personally, I haven’t set foot in a movie theater since the month before the pandemic shut everything down (when I saw Sonic the Hedgehog). That means it’s been nearly two years since I even set foot in a movie theater. I might have to break this streak to see “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which has an exclusive theatrical release. Reviews are out, and they’re overwhelmingly positive, with a 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 9.2/10 on IMDb.

by Emily Nagle

See you, space cowboy! Less than a month after its debut, Netflix’s “Cowboy Bebop” has been cancelled.

The live-action series starring John Cho, Mustafa Shakir, and Daniella Pineda is based on the critically acclaimed 1998 anime that introduced anime to a Western market. In a world where fans debate whether anime is better to watch with subtitles or dubbed over, the English dub for “Cowboy Bebop” is regarded as being one of the best. So, why did the live-action adaptation get cancelled?

Unsurprisingly, the show’s cancellation after only 10 episodes is most likely due to the ratings. Following its November 19 premiere, “Cowboy Bebop” was met with mixed reviews. It holds a 46% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 68% rating on IMDb. While viewers praised the casting, they had issues with the writing and special effects.

“What’s missing from this gratuitous adaptation…is the atmosphere,” Judy Berman of TIME Magazine described of the series. “Though it does have a certain pulpy, shoddy-chic, Doctor Who visual style and benefits greatly from a jazzy, dynamic new score by original Bebop composer Yoko Kanno, it can’t match the collage of aesthetics, vibes and cultural references that made its predecessor feel more like a dispatch from the future than an attempt to simulate it in the present.”

She hits the nail right on the head. Personally, I watched the first episode and stopped there, because I really didn’t know how to feel about it. I remember a few years ago when it was announced that a live-action adaptation of “Cowboy Bebop” was in production, and initially, I was pretty psyched. I’d watched the anime several times, and loved that it would be coming to a whole new generation of viewers many years later. However, once I saw it onscreen, it felt…weird. The aesthetic and art style of the original worked so well, to the point where it seemed unnecessary to recreate it in live-action. With that being said, the live-action “Cowboy Bebop” didn’t add anything to the original, or accomplish something that it didn’t already do back in 1998.

“Cowboy Bebop” is available to stream on Netflix.

by Emily Nagle

Tails the Fox’s original voice actor Colleen O’Shaughnessey has joined the cast for the second “Sonic the Hedgehog” live-action film, as confirmed in a tweet posted Tuesday afternoon.

“Taking my old pal Tails for another adventure,” O’Shaughnessy wrote. “Thrilled to announce I’m the voice of Miles “Tails” Prower in #SonicMovie2! Can’t wait for y’all to see him on the big screen.”

Having voiced Sonic’s double-tailed sidekick in games and television since 2014, O’Shaughnessey joins Ben Schwartz (who voices Sonic) and Idris Elba (the voice of Knuckles). She voiced Tails in a post-credits scene for the 2020 film, where he is seen emerging from a mysterious portal in the sky before zooming over to Green Hills in search of Sonic, using his fluffy orange tails as a propeller.

Paramount seemed to be teasing the possibility of a sequel with that post-credits scene, and speculations were confirmed in February 2021 when the studio uploaded a teaser to their YouTube channel. Not much else is known about the film yet, but with the “2” bearing a resemblance to Sonic’s fuzzy orange sidekick, it’s highly likely Tails will have a prominent role in the upcoming film.

Although it may not be surprising at first to hear of O’Shaughnessey bringing Tails to the big screen, it’s actually rare for video game voice actors to reprise their roles in film adaptations. The recently announced Mario movie, for example, has casted Chris Pratt as the mustachioed plumber instead of Charles Martinet, who has portrayed the iconic Nintendo character for over 30 years (however, Martinet has been confirmed to still have a small role in the film).

“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” is set to premiere in theaters on April 8, 2022.

Until then, if you’re itching for your Sonic fix, you can tune into Watch It KID! to watch The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on demand, or en español on ZAZ, exclusively on Galxy TV.