Want to know what’s coming soon to digital and what to watch right now on FandangoNOW and Vudu? Here is your weekly guide to the latest releases:
What are the latest new releases to watch right now?
The latest animated feature starring your favorite absorbent, yellow fry cook from under the sea is now available to rent as a Home Premiere release. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On the Run follows the titular Mr. SquarePants on an adventure with his best friend, Patrick, as they set out to rescue SpongeBob’s beloved pet snail, Gary, from King Poseidon (voiced by the always hilarious Matt Barry). And along the way, they meet a sage tumbleweed played, in live-action, by the face of Keanu Reeves!
When you rent the movie on FandangoNOW or on Vudu by March 10th, you’ll receive a special offer to buy other kid-friendly titles, including two more SpongeBob SquarePants features, as well as Sonic the Hedgehog, at half their regular price.
The award-winning Western drama News of the World is now available to purchase following its Home Premiere release. Reuniting with Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass, Tom Hanks stars as a Civil War veteran who travels around reading newspapers to large crowds. Twelve-year-old breakout Helena Zengel joins him as an orphaned girl he’s tasked with escorting to her remaining kin. The movie is filled with beautiful landscape shots, so I recommend playing it on your biggest screen.
Also newly available to purchase or rent digitally, from Vudu, is the latest punk rock music doc from The Filth and the Fury director Julien Temple. Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan is a uniquely told biographical profile of the titular Irish singer/songwriter best known as the ex-frontman for the Pogues. MacGowan continues to be a raw personality and is absolutely captivating on screen, sometimes joined by his pal Johnny Depp, who is one of the documentary’s producers.
What movies are great to pair with those new releases?
If you love the new SpongeBob movie, you’ll also love his other feature films. There’s 2004’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and 2015’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, and you can save money on both when you buy them together in a double-feature pack. Three seasons of the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon series are also available for purchase, and for the completist, you can pick up The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!, Nickelodeon’s presentation of the hit Broadway show.
The easiest pick for News of the World is Tom Hanks’ previous movie with director Paul Greengrass: Captain Phillips, which depicts the true story of a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates. Or, if you prefer another period piece starring Hanks alongside a kid as they travel the land, go with Road to Perdition. And if you want a very different movie where Hanks is involved in the news business, there’s The Post. News of the World also makes for an interesting pairing with the classic Western film The Searchers.
I recommend watching Julien Temple’s essential 2000 punk rock doc The Filth and the Fury: A Sex Pistols Film alongside his latest, Crock of Gold. I also have to again spotlight another favorite music doc from the past year, Zappa, which is about fellow unconventional rock icon Frank Zappa. But if you want another punk film, check out American Hardcore. And if you like documentaries in which the subject hangs out with Johnny Depp, For No Good Reason is a wonderful profile on artist Ralph Steadman.
What are some great Women’s History movies to rent this month?
March is Women’s History Month, so I recommend renting some great movies about real important women. On the dramatic side, there’s Hidden Figures, which spotlights three Black women who were instrumental to the American space program, A League of Their Own, about women baseball players during World War II, and Radium Girls, North Country, Made in Dagenham, Confirmation and Bombshell, which all depict true stories of women who fought against unsafe and/or uncomfortable working conditions.
There are also inspiring biopics of all varieties to choose from. Like the brave women who fight for a cause, including Harriet Tubman in Harriet and the titular hero of Joan of Arc. The artists portrayed in Frida, about Frida Kahlo, Big Eyes, about Margaret Keane, and the eponymously titled Georgia O’Keefe. And the singers of Selena (Selena), What’s Love Got to Do With It (Tina Turner), La Vie en Rose (Edith Piaf), Bessie (Bessie Smith), Judy (Judy Garland) and Coal Miner’s Daughter (Loretta Lynn).
Other biopics I recommend include Gorillas in the Mist, starring Sigourney Weaver as primatologist Dian Fossey, Jackie, starring Natalie Portman as widowed First Lady Jackie Kennedy, Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts as the titular legal clerk/activist, Frances, with Jessica Lange as actress Frances Farmer, Calamity Jane, starring Doris Day as the titular Wild West icon, Hilary and Jackie, about sister musicians Hilary and Jacqueline du Pre, and The Miracle Worker, about Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan.
I also recommend documentaries celebrating women in history. See the life of chimpanzee-focused primatologist Jane Goodall in Jane, get to know the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Oscar-nominated RBG, learn more about author Toni Morrison in The Pieces I Am and discover the incredible truth about a Hollywood icon who was also a pioneering inventor in Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. Also: Oscar-winner 20 Feet from Stardom, which shines a spotlight on backup singers.
Can you recommend some great movie deals on Vudu?
Speaking of exceptional women, this week’s Actor’s Spotlight deals at Vudu are focused on the actresses Scarlett Johansson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jennifer Garner, Regina Hall, Michelle Yeoh and Vera Farmiga. Out of their movies on sale, my top recommendations for each of them are Under the Skin (Johansson), the first Resident Evil (Rodriguez), The Kingdom (Garner), Girls Trip (Hall), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Yeoh) and Martin Scorsese’s Best Picture-winner The Departed (Farmiga).
There are also sales this week on historical epics and ‘90s movies, so let’s see what we can recommend that reflect the women’s history theme. In addition to the aforementioned Frida, there are the royalty biopics The Queen, The Duchess, A Royal Affair and the series Victoria plus the war dramas The Guardians and Frantz and the documentaries Dolores and The Roosevelts. For the ‘90s, go with Clueless, Point Break, Wayne’s World and Four Rooms, which are all directed or co-directed by women.
Are we celebrating any big movie anniversaries this week?
This week is the 25th anniversary of the U.S. theatrical release of the Coen brothers’ Fargo, Mike Nichols’ The Birdcage and Pedro Almodovar’s The Flower of My Secret. Also, New Jack City turns 30 this week while Highlander, My Beautiful Laundrette, Almodovar’s Matador, the animated sequel Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation and the cult classic anime Fist of the North Star all turn 35. Plus, Albert Brooks’s Modern Romance turns 40 and the Robin Hood romance picture Robin and Marian turns 45.
Going back further, the Michael Crichton adaptation The Andromeda Strain and George Lucas’ feature directorial debut, THX 1138, are both 50 years old this week. Also, the Universal Monsters plus comedy mashup Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man and the Fred Astaire musical Royal Wedding both turn 70 while the Frank Capra classic Meet John Doe turns 80.
More recent movies with anniversaries include the doc American Hardcore and the horror remake The Hills Have Eyes, which both turn 15, plus Duncan Jones’ Source Code, Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block, Ti West’s The Innkeepers, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre, the MMA film Fightville, the Oscar-winning football documentary Undefeated and the hilarious Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, which all turn 10. The action comedy Keanu, the sci-fi thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane, Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!! and Fede Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe are all already five years old!
Can you recommend some great binge bundles to rent?
Back to recognizing women directors, I’ve selected some binge bundles where one of the movies is by a woman filmmaker. Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty is part of a two-pack with Black Hawk Down. Penelope Spheeris’s Wayne’s World is in the Late Night Laughs collection with Coneheads, The Ladies Man and Superstar. Betty Thomas’s Dr. Dolittle is in a two-movie collection with its sequel. And Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird is part of an A24 Best Actress awards collection with Eighth Grade and Room.
Also, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s Blackfish is bundled with Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Food, Inc. in the Best Documentaries collection. Mary Lambert’s original adaptation of Pet Sematary is grouped with the 2019 remake in a two-movie collection. Catherine Hardwicke’s Lords of Dogtown is in a two-pack with the original documentary it remade, Dogtown and Z-Boys. And Hardwicke’s Twilight is available as part of the Twilight: The Complete Saga bundle that also includes its four sequels.
Which must-see movies are coming soon to FandangoNOW and Vudu?
One of my favorite films of the past year, Florian Zeller’s The Father, arrives on digital later this month — specifically on Friday, March 26 — as a Home Premiere title following its theatrical release. The brilliantly executed drama, which is based on Zeller’s own stage play, is receiving tons of awards recognition, particularly for lead actor Anthony Hopkins and supporting actress Olivia Colman, who play an aging man with severe memory loss and his concerned daughter, respectively.
What are the 10 most popular new movies on FandangoNOW?
1. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Sponge on the Run
2. Monster Hunter
3. The Croods: A New Age
4. The Mauritanian
5. Wonder Woman 1984
6. Girl in the Basement
7. Land
8. Wrong Turn
9. Vanguard
10. Minari
What are the 10 most popular movies on Vudu?
1. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Sponge on the Run
2. Monster Hunter
3. The Croods: A New Age
4. Wonder Woman 1984
5. Wrong Turn
6. Greenland
7. Promising Young Woman
8. Land
9. The Mauritanian
10. Willy’s Wonderland
