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What’s new on Netflix: ‘The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie’ is totally nuts – Metro US

What’s new on Netflix: ‘The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie’ is totally nuts

SpongeBob SquarePants
Paramount Pictures

‘The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie’

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You don’t need to have seen a second of the undying “SpongeBob” show to enjoy the second movie, which is essentially “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” for kids (and kid-like adults), meaning it’s an unfettered blast of non-sequitur weirdness. The plot really does matter, because it’s totally insane: our hero (voiced by the great Tom Kenny) tries to rescue a burger recipe stolen from his aquatic land, which, without their prime product, has become a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Eventually he winds up on the live-action surface, doing battle with pirate Antonio Banderas, but it’s batty well before then, with at least two Kubrick references and one drawn-out nod to Sergio Leone. You know, for the kids!

‘Angel Heart’

It’s sad to think Mickey Rourke’s career was better before his “The Wrestler” comeback. Through the 2000s he quietly (well, not that quietly) wormed his way back into viewers’ good graces, stealing scenes in “Spun,” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and “Sin City.” They were reminiscent of his early, pretty boy days, like this once notorious 1987 noir-horror, in which he oozes magnetism as a detective snooping around New Orleans at the behest of a mysterious gentleman, who’s played by Robert De Niro and named Louis Cyphre (see if you can guess the twist from the name; it’s not hard). A blood-soaked sex scene with then-TV star Lisa Bonet ruffled some feathers, but it’s a solid mood piece that’s more than its predictable twist ending.

‘Unexpected’

Cobie Smulders is having a good 2015. We’re not talking about her appearing (briefly) in the second “Avengers” movie. Freed of “How I Met Your Mother” detail, she’s thrown herself into indies, giving alert, cranky, funny turns in Andrew Bujalski’s “Results” and Kris Swanberg’s pregnancy dramedy. Here, she’s a teacher surprised to be knocked up. As her body rebels against her, she has to contend with hesitantly marrying her baby daddy (Anders Holm), trying to find when she can return to work after maternity leave and trying to help a low-income student (Gail Bean) who’s also preggers. Swanberg’s script acknowledges that the latter plight is mired in well-meaning but partly clueless liberal guilt, but any rough patches are smoothed over by Smulders.

Follow Matt Prigge on Twitter @mattprigge