Jim Carrey’s movie output has been somewhat sporadic of late, having only a handful of starring roles in the last decade. The latest of these, action adventure film Sonic the Hedgehog, is now placing on the Netflix Top 20 most-watched global chart, currently sitting at #19.
The story sees the blue furry speedster hiding out on Earth in a small Montana town to escape enemies who covet his powers, only to inadvertently trigger a blackout across the entire Pacific Northwest and cause the government to send investigators, including the robotics genius and mad scientist Dr. Robotnik. He ends up allied with the town sheriff Tom, who he’s also been secretly idolizing during his exile, and the pair travel across country to locate a way to send Sonic somewhere safe.
Carrey stars as primary villain Robotnik, in the process going full-on ‘90s Jim Carrey, recreating the jittery, rubber-faced lunacy of his early starring roles before he began being taken seriously by both audiences and himself. The role drew comparisons to his performance as the Riddler in Batman Forever, with both characters beginning as ostracized outcasts who go on to use their intellect to impose their warped vision of order upon the world, in addition to, y’know, both being utterly insane.
Sonic the Hedgehog was a massive success, drawing positive reactions from both audiences and critics, and served as a further example of recent releases bucking the trend of video game movies being ‘cursed,’ in the process breaking several related box office records previously held by Detective Pikachu.
Jim Carrey is set to return as Robotnik next year in in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which will most likely see the madman team up with the superhumanly strong echidna Knuckles in search of the Chaos Emeralds as the ultimate source of power. Until then, we’ll have Sonic the Hedgehog to rewatch and be reminded how good video game adaptations can be when done right.