Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022):

The setting for this live-action-animation piece of frenetic activity remains the town of Green Hills, Montana, only now it is played by Port Coquitlam, instead of Ladysmith, but still an entirely made-in-B.C. movie. Sonic, hero of the SEGA video game on which the characters are based, presents a rare treat here - a sequel that is actually even better than the original. This doesn't happen very often - "The Empire Strikes Back" was arguably better than the first "Star Wars" film, but it's unusual to see a story pick up and run with even more speed than the original. At the heart of it is Sonic, from a galaxy far, far away, now living with his human caregivers Tom and Maddie (James Marsden, Tika Sumpter) and spending his nights as a sort of vigilante who helps people in distress, although that doesn't work out too well most of the time. Things change when Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) is freed from the Mushroom Planet to which he was exiled in the first film, and along with his echidna sidekick and partner in crime (voice of Idris Elba), he is back on earth searching for a large gem that will allow its owner to change the course of life as we know it. Carrey's energy and his capturing of the role make the character come to life and actually has him outpacing the animated characters, including Sonic himself, and his new pal Tails (voice of Catherine O'Shaughnessy) a fox who teams up with Sonic to thwart the evil plans of Carrey's moustachioed villain. The jokes come fast and loose and are interesting in that there are many that only adults will truly understand, like the movie's fixation on product placement with Olive Garden and Four Seasons Hotels, and many more that only ardent gamers will pick up. Rated PG.

Men (2022):

This horror thriller set in the UK is all about mood, as is the case in any good scary movie. It concerns the challenges of a woman named Harper (Irish actress Jessie Buckley) who loses her husband in a tragic fashion. We learn, in flashbacks, that he had threatened suicide if she continued with her plan to leave him. Now, widowed and shrouded in guilt, Harper tries a change of scene by booking herself into an old manor house in the English countryside, presided over by its owner Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear) who is a jolly, helpful, and engaging older gentleman. Written and directed by Alex Garland ("28 Days Later," "Ex Machina," "The Beach''), I lay all the blame, and there is a lot of it to go around, at his feet for what I found to be a colossal waste of time and energy. I feel as though this director got some financing, and then used it to his own self-aggrandisement and artistic desires, to the complete exclusion of his audience. Harper's very first day at the property turned out to be a frightening one as she was walking alone in the woods, viewing her surroundings through the eye of the director, meaning many, many shots of rolling green moors, of lily pads on water reflecting the surrounding trees and the clouds above, and a threatening man at the end of a tunnel under an old railway track. Harper panics and runs. Later she sees a man outside her window, completely naked, who then tries to break into the house. She calls police, they arrive and take the man away. We realize at this point that the man, the police officer, and later the vicar in the churchyard, and all the men in the local pub, are versions of Geoffrey, and it's not long before they are all after her in one way or another. The ending is completely ambiguous, and director/writer Garland said, when interviewed, "the nature of the way it's interpreted by different people is what the film is." In other words, he has no idea what it's about either, and he doesn't much seem to care. Rated 18A.

Crimes of the Future (2022):

Canadian writer/director/actor David Cronenberg takes this sci-fi horror feature to Greece for filming, rather than using Toronto as he has done in such previous films as "The Dead Zone," "The Fly," and "Scanners." Despite his many mostly international awards and award nominations - never an Oscar, but Canadian Genies - I haven't been able to take a liking to his work, and "Crimes of the Future" is no exception. It's a near-future world where our planet and its society seem to be on the downswing, but things are changing around the characters here at an enormous rate. In our present world, we are used to hearing about trans-gender issues as it relates to choices and preferences for some individuals. This movie takes "trans" to a new level, to a place called "trans-humanism." The human body is evolving at an enormous rate and one of the things happening is the progression of various organs in the body, some of which are so unusual and different as to be almost unworldly. Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) has taken this new form of evolving humanity to a performance art, happily showing off what he has wrought. In fact, Tenser is an artist of sorts, opening his chest and his abdomen, offering opportunities to look at what new things are growing there, and offering the ability for others to participate too. What is the point of the film? I honestly do not know ... it is graphic, it is at times disgusting, and at other times through the shock and horror, requires eyes being glued to the screen ... not removed surgically mind you ... just glued there so as not to miss what's happening. Not my cup of plasma, I'm afraid. Rated 18A for blood, guts, and some sex.

13 The Musical (2022):

This Netflix original is a romantic drama, or a dramatic romance, take your pick, about two young people from very different worlds, who come together with a common cause. He is Luke (Nicholas Galitzine who played Prince Charming in the recent Cinderella movie), a handsome young man from a troubled background, who has just enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. She is Cassie (Sofia Carson), a struggling singer/songwriter, and her past and present is very different from that of Luke. They agree to marry, but only so that she can have access to his military benefits such as healthcare, after a diagnosis that will change her life. As her illness becomes more pronounced, the couple must decide which part of their life was a marriage of convenience, and which part might be for much more than that. Rated 14A.

Day Shift (2022):

This film, based on actual events in WWII, was released by Warner Bros in the UK theatrically, and is being released by Netflix in North America. Colin Firth stars in this ingenious story of an espionage operation in 1943 that turned the tide of the war when a pair of British operatives used a combination of a corpse and false identity documents to deceive the Germans at a critical point when a huge build-up of troops was set to quash the allies. It tells the story of those who fight in the shadows, and whose true exploits are sometimes unknown and lost in the fog of war and the mirage of history. Rated 14A.