The Best Movies On Redbox Right Now
So, much of the world has been stuck at home for some time now, and if you're anything like us, you may be getting a little bit tired of all of the content your streaming services of choice have to offer (Okay, if you're like us, you've finished the entirety of Netflix, but that's neither here nor there). If there's one thing that was cool about the good old days of Netflix, it was that you could have shiny new releases delivered right alongside your library selections at no additional cost. These days, you've just gotta wait — sometimes for months on end — for that awesome-looking flick you missed in theaters to hit the streamer (For our younger readers, Netflix began as a service that delivered movies to your mailbox on physical media called "DVDs." No, really).
Fortunately, there's Redbox. Oh, sure, you can still pick up a selection from one of those Blu-ray vending machines the next time you're at McDonald's, but you may not know that the company has changed with the times, and now offers online rentals of all the new releases and legacy selections for pretty darned cheap. In light of the whole "stuck at home" thing, there's never been a better time to check it out, and it just so happens that among the new releases gracing the site at the moment are some of the best flicks of recent months. Here are the best movies on Redbox right now.
Bad Boys for Life: A belated sequel better than it has any right to be
It sure doesn't seem like anybody was exactly clamoring for a third installment of the Bad Boys franchise, which had been in a holding pattern since the release of Bad Boys II in 2003. But Bad Boys for Life, featuring the return of Martin Lawrence and Will Smith as buddy cops Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowery, shocked everybody by being a ridiculously satisfying piece of action-packed entertainment.
The movie far outperformed both of the other films in the series and, with a $419 million worldwide take, it currently stands as the highest-grossing film of 2020. It's a well-written, briskly plotted, adrenaline-fueled kick in the rear end, and if you missed it in theaters, we highly recommend jumping on it now.
Sonic the Hedgehog: One of the best video game adaptations ever
Speaking of movies that turned out to be way better than anyone expected, you can also now rent Sonic the Hedgehog, one of the better video game adaptations we've ever seen. The flick had fans worried when its first trailer revealed Sonic to look ... well, horrifying ... but a VFX overhaul fixed that problem, and the film, itself, is a ton of fun.
Ben Schwartz and James Marsden are great as Sonic and his human buddy, Tom Wachowski, but for our money, the real attraction here is Jim Carrey, in full-on, rubber-faced, manic cartoon mode as the evil Dr. Robotnik. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll believe a hedgehog can run super-fast (Well, at the very least, you'll laugh).
Joker: A performance for the ages by one of our greatest actors
A lot of physical and digital ink has been spilled about Joker, the stand-alone origin story for the iconic DC villain. To be sure, the flick isn't for everyone; it's a hard-R rated, violent, bleak character study of an extremely disturbed man, and it's decidedly unlike literally any other comic book film you've ever seen.
It's also, in our humble opinion, one of the very best films of 2019, and there's a reason why the flick finally netted its star Joaquin Phoenix an Academy Award for Best Actor. It's certainly not a movie anybody would call "fun," but it's incredibly well-crafted and impeccably acted, and will stick with you long after the credits roll.
Knives Out: An old-fashioned murder mystery with an all-star cast
Now, if it's simply a rollicking good time you're looking for, look no further than writer-director Rian Johnson's throwback whodunit Knives Out. The ensemble cast, labyrinthine plot, and square-jawed detective determined to discover the perpetrator of a murder most foul are all in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie, and Johnson's execution of his vision is nothing short of masterful.
Oh, and about that cast: We're talking Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Jamie Lee Curtis, Katherine Langford, Christopher Plummer, Lakeith Stanfield, Don Johnson, Ana De Armas, and Frank Oz, and that's an incomplete list. Knives Out is a thriller in every sense of the word, and one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2019.
Ford v Ferrari: A great historical drama and an acting master class
The historical drama Ford v Ferrari deals with the efforts of Ford's design team to finally unseat Italian automaker Ferrari from its perpetual place atop the racing world by fielding a muscular new entry at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race. When it's not serving up nail-biting racing scenes, it's schooling future filmmakers, thanks to masterful performances by Christian Bale as Ford driver Ken Miles and Matt Damon as designer Carroll Shelby, and breathlessly efficient direction from James Mangold.
The flick won two Oscars for its editing (film and sound), and was nominated for two more, including Best Picture. You don't have to be an aficionado of racing, or even cars, to appreciate it, because Ford v Ferrari is simply a spectacularly-crafted film from a director who is slowly revealing himself to be one of the best of his generation.
Terminator: Dark Fate: An underappreciated sequel to an all-time classic
The poor Terminator franchise has been through a lot since the smashing high of 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, one of the greatest science fiction-action films ever made. The three sequels foisted on the world since that success had largely served only to muddy the franchise's already complicated timeline and muck up the gears of the overarching story, but Terminator: Dark Fate, which ignored those sequels and was positioned as a direct sequel to T2, fixed that in a hurry.
Unfortunately, the film was a box office bomb, and likely will stand as the final installment of the storied franchise. That's not, however, the fault of the filmmakers: Dark Fate is really good, with excellent performances from its cast (which includes Linda Hamilton, returning for the first time since T2) and a well-crafted story that actually, you know, makes sense. It may be the final Terminator film we ever get, but it's definitely the best one we've gotten since 1991, and it's well worth a watch.