Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Previous movies in the franchise (who knew there was more than one other?) bombed hard, but this reboot fares a lot better among critics and general audiences. It's worth noting that a tabletop role-playing game makes for a much more flexible source material than a video game -- no preestablished heroes, for one thing. To my mind going in, it was quite a gamble.

In a high fantasy setting, bard-cum-rogue Edgin (Chris Pine) and his barbarian partner in crime, Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), escape from prison two years after their arrest for helping to steal the fabled Tablet of Reawakening, hoping to revive Edgin's wife (Georgia Landers). They discover that Forge (Hugh Grant), a comrade to whom Edgin had entrusted both the tablet and care of his 12-to-14-year-old daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman), has betrayed them and convinced Kira that they abandoned her. They reunite with unconfident young sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith), who in turn recommends recruiting his unrequited crush, shapeshifting Doric (Sophia Lillis), to steal the tablet again, with temporary aid from obnoxiously awesome yet stuffy paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page). This will not be as easy as before, given Forge's defensive measures, not least Red Wizard Sofina (Daisy Head), who has a darker scheme cooking.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

A preview for the threequel in this series has generated some talk in my circles, which encouraged me to check out the first entry. Sure, the second is a mixed bag and has the same IMDb rating, but my reaction to Paddington 2 didn't stop me from going back to its predecessor.

In early childhood, the super-fast blue alien biped (then voiced by Benjamin L. Valic, later by Ben Schwartz) is forced to go through a portal to Earth to escape enemies. Taking the final advice of his guardian (Donna J. Fulks), he lies low in the woods of the fictitious Montana town of Green Hills for a decade, until he accidentally causes enough trouble to garner the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense. Commander Walters (Tom Butler) authorizes the unpopular but resourceful Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to apprehend the perceived threat. I'm not sure what Walters has in mind, but Robotnik plans to take Sonic apart to see how he works.

Gran Turismo (2023)

I first assumed that this would be a video game movie in the usual sense, but the subtitle "Based on a True Story" told me otherwise. Like the same year's Tetris, it pertains to a game series but is not an adaptation thereof. That would explain its relative popularity.

British youth Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) has played the eponymous racing sim obsessively, to the annoyance of his father, former soccer pro Steve (Djimon Hounsou), who thinks it'll never be useful. Imagine their surprise when Jann's record arcade score yields an invitation from Nissan marketing exec Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom, looking like Tom Hiddleston) to enter another race to qualify for the new GT Academy, which hopes to turn a player into a real world-class racecar driver, albeit with a PlayStation controller-based steering wheel. Yup, a gamer bro's dream come true. But the path to stardom involves a lot more challenges than in The Wizard -- not to mention physical danger.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

So this is how I break my Oscar nominee streak: with something the Academy would probably never honor. It is extraordinarily popular for a video game adaptation, even among adults in my circles, but professional critics aren't as thrilled. I went in with cautious optimism.

Brooklynite fraternal twins Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) have a failing plumbing business when they happen upon a long-hidden pipe that sucks them into another world, albeit in separate directions. In the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario meets friendly fungal fellow Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), who surmises from his details that Luigi wound up in the clutches of King Bowser (Jack Black), a sort of turtle-dragon hybrid bent on world conquest. Their best bet for saving Luigi is to team up with another displaced human, Princess Peach Toadstool (Anya Taylor-Joy), who's already planning to stop Bowser via an alliance with gorilla king Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen) and his son Donkey (Seth Rogen). Mario may be short, but he is dedicated, and his past unlucky antics have honed his athletic skills even before he's introduced to power-up items.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)

It's a pretty pathetic evening when the most promising showing at the multiplex is a video game adaptation sequel. I never even watched a whole video game movie before, because none had been reputedly better than mediocre. So why'd I go at all? Because my apartment building would have no power until at least 8 p.m., possibly 10, and I could think of no other way to fight boredom that long. Hmm, perhaps I'm pretty pathetic that way.

The teenage anthropomorphic hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) presently lives in a U.S. suburb with two quasi-parental humans, Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter). He wants to use his Flash-like speed for good but accidentally causes about as much trouble as he foils. Not feeling ready for heroic responsibility, he contents himself with partying while Tom and Maddie are attending a distant wedding. That's when his archnemesis, mad engineer Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik (Jim Carrey), returns from exile with the help of Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba), who considers Sonic a tribal enemy and the key to recovering the Master Emerald, an extremely powerful creation. Of course, Robotnik has his own priorities for the emerald. But lest you think that Sonic has to handle them both alone, in comes Miles "Tails" Prower (Colleen O'Shaughnessey), a two-tailed, aerodynamic fox wunderkind with engineering skills rivaling Robotnik's, who's admired Sonic from afar and knows a few things about Knuckles.