Articles by Paul Hall

New to On Demand and DVD: Invisible Man Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) is trying to get away from an abusive relationship. Her boyfriend Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) controls every aspect of her life and has even told her she will never get away from him. Cecilia’s sister Emily (Harriet Dyer) picks her up and hides her with a police officer friend, James (Aldis Hodge), and his daughter, Sydney (Storm Reid). When Emily gives Cecilia the news that Adrian has taken his own life, Cecilia starts to relax just a bit. But creepy coincidences are just around the corner. As strange things start […]

I feel the need, the need for speed. I really do. Sure, I know Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards utter the phrase in Top Gun, but I feel it. So quote me as saying it now, too, long after that pair. Top Gun was require viewing for those of us who grew up in the 1980s. With a sequel on the flight deck now scheduled for December and a new 4K Blu-ray transfer headed to your homes May 19, I put on my aviator sunglasses and sat back in the home theater to take another peek at this classic gem. […]

When Jeremy Camp (KJ Apa) leaves his Midwestern town to begin his college career, it is just the start of a journey. He has no idea where this journey will lead him, but knows his love for music will join him on the ride. It doesn’t take long for Camp to use his charm to find a way to learn about the music business. He becomes friends with Jean-Luc (Nathan Dean Parsons), a member of a popular band who takes him under his wing. It is a friendship that helps launch Camp’s career and so much more. At one of […]

In the 1980s, my SEGA game system was a lifeline. I would disappear into the power of the game system as I was early to jump into the sports games that defined it. While the sports games were truly revolutionary compared to their competitors, there was one character who defined the system: Sonic the Hedgehog. Now, fresh from a strong run at the box office, Sonic the Hedgehog is available to watch at home On Demand. When I sat down with the film in the theater, I wondered aloud if it made sense to release a Sonic film in 2020. […]

Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has a story to tell us. Joker and her have split up. Now that the college-educated psychiatrist gone mad is free of Joker, she is also free of his protection and her bad behavior has produced a slew of enemies. Those enemies are about to extract their long-sought revenge on the feisty Quinn, and her emancipation, as the extended title exclaims, is not as easy as one would think. The biggest threat is Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), also known as Black Mask. He has longed to put Quinn in her place, and now, without the threat […]

Drugs, gangsters, schemes and double-crosses are all the elements you would expect to find in a movie with the title of The Gentlemen, right? Well, when Guy Ritchie is in the director’s chair, it is absolutely the case. Ritchie’s cast includes an attractive assemblage of actors who are put through the paces of a plot that veers through a plethora of English locales with style, humor and, of course, plenty of gunplay. The players include Mickey (Matthew McConaughey), who used the smarts that sent him to Oxford to develop one of the biggest and most sophisticated marijuana empires ever assembled. […]

In 1995, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence became Bad Boys. The film brought together two heavyweights of the television ranks. People were laughing at Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Lawrence in Martin. They brought huge audiences from the small screen to theaters to see the dream pairing. The film prompted a sequel, 2003’s Bad Boys II, and 17 years later we get a third film in the franchise, Bad Boys for Life. Though time has passed, Mike Lowrey (Smith) is still the ladies’ man with the fast car and large, um, ego. He still partners with Marcus […]

Miles below the surface of the ocean in the Mariana Trench, a research and drilling facility is shaken by an earthquake, causing irreparable damage. And that is just the beginning of our voyage to the depths of these murky waters. Anomalies exist everywhere in the world. Strange tremors, weather phenomena and unexplained occurrences dot our landscape, but for the crew at Kepler Center, Tian Industries’ command and control center for the Roebuck deep water drill site, the latest anomalies put Norah (Kristen Stewart) and her colleagues on the run. Together they work to exit the mazelike facility and find an […]

Fun and frivolity are usually right at home in animated films. While many of these offerings lean on a throwaway, light plot to deal with the youngest moviegoers in attendance, the film Onward from Disney and Pixar deals with death, growth and familial love during the awkward teenage years and allows the older kids a moment to connect. Ian (voice of Tom Holland) is an elf ready to celebrate his 16th birthday. He’s shy and has always been a kid who internalizes his feelings. But as he prepares to face his new life as a 16-year-old, he yearns to do […]