A New Day

It's all sports all the time as SportsMap website debuts in Houston

SportsMap is up and running.

Courtesy image

Houston sports is now officially on the map. Gow Media announced the launch of its newest venture: Houston-based sports website SportsMap, which will feature an ambitious variety of written, video, and audio content about Houston's sports scene.

SportsMap is the latest addition to the multi-platform media company’s fast-growing business ventures, which also include CultureMap; ESPN 97.5 FM and SportsMap 94.1 FM in Houston; the SBNation national radio network; PodcastArena; and Gow Media Audio Publishing, an audio book hosting site.

SportsMap, the brainchild of Gow Media CEO David Gow, will work in tandem with CultureMap and the other properties to build the company’s profile.

“SportsMap.com is an exciting next step for our company, as we believe we have all the ingredients for success,” Gow said. “With Fred Faour, we have a leader for SportsMap.com with both experience and vision. With our two sports radio stations and our national sports radio network, we have more sports experts in our building than any media company in the city.

"And with CultureMap.com, we have a strong digital platform. With all these assets and our combined promotional power, we believe SportsMap.com can become the leading online destination for sports content in Houston.”

SportsMap will be directed by Faour, a Gow Media vice president who will act as the website's editor-in-chief in addition to continuing to host The Blitz on ESPN 97.5 and heading up the audio book division.

SportsMap will have day-to-day coverage of all the important local sports teams, but will also weigh in on soccer, gambling, the outdoors, health and fitness, auto, and more. Initially it will focus solely on Houston.

“We want to be the one-stop shop for all things sports in Houston,” Faour said. “Whether you are watching or participating, we will have you covered. We want to bring together the sports knowledge of our radio team with the concept of CultureMap to create something truly unique.”

The site will feature written content initially, but will soon launch daily video content. In addition to the Gow Media team, several writers will be contributing.

“We have some exciting new talent that will really help the site, especially in the video area,” Faour said. He added that SportsMap would cover the Astros comprehensively during the playoffs as well as the Texans, focusing more on commentary and analysis than game coverage.

“That’s the strength of our talent — in-depth analysis and opinion,” he said.

Before starting a radio career, Faour won multiple national and state awards as sports editor at the Houston Chronicle and oversaw the paper’s online sports coverage. He more recently launched and managed the snarky sports and pop culture site houstonsportsandstuff.com.

In addition to his duties at Gow, Faour has written a book on horse race handicapping, authored two gambling audio books, and is one of the most prominent horse handicappers in the country. He also is a sports handicapper for pregame.com and has a novel, Jesus Just Left Chicago, set to be released in 2018 along with a movie adaptation.

“I believe SportsMap will be our most creative venture yet," Faour said. "The Houston sports scene is in a great place, and we are thrilled to put it all on SportsMap.”

SportsMap's debut is planned to be officially announced at a launch party at Hotel ZaZa in Houston on October 4.

sports

Movie Review

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 gives video game fans exactly what they want

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Sonic the Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) in Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 was one of the few video game adaptations that managed to appeal to both fans of the Sega game and those who just want to watch a fun movie. As the series moved into a second and now third film, though, it’s become increasingly reliant on giving the video game fans what they want, with not as much attention paid toward simply telling a good story.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) continues to live with human friends Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), as well as Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), who stuck around after the events of the second film. Dispensing with any kind of narrative coherence, the trio is called away by an undefined military force to help with the escape of Shadow (Keanu Reeves), another alien hedgehog who has been locked away off the coast of Japan for many years.

Suffice it to say that the trio does not initially fare well against the powerful Shadow, forcing Sonic to do the unthinkable: Ask his nemesis, Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey), for help. What Sonic doesn’t anticipate is that Shadow has a history that left him with a grudge against most of human society, and he’s intent on using his powers - with a little help from his former mentor, Gerald Robotnik (also Carrey) - to exact his plans for revenge.

Made by the same team of director Jeff Fowler and writers Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the film is a combination of manic action, jokey sequences, and a dash of heart. The addition of Shadow ups the mayhem considerably, and the filmmakers rarely slow things down (although, oddly, the super-speed of Sonic and company feels lessened this time around).

The initial casting of Carrey gave the comic actor permission to indulge in whatever wackiness he could imagine, and giving him two roles in this film means double the nonsense. Ivo and Gerald (who’s Ivo’s grandfather, for the record) face off in a number of silly scenes, none more absurd than a dance sequence aboard a space station threatening to explode Earth (yeah, this movie is a lot).

Does the plot make a lick of sense? Absolutely not, but the filmmakers seem to acknowledge that fact, throwing anything and everything at the screen to try to entertain kids and/or fans of the video game series. It should come as no surprise that the end credits tease yet more characters from the video games joining the franchise, making it abundantly clear who is expected to get the most enjoyment out of the series going forward.

In addition to Carrey, the voice actors continue to make the characters fun. Schwartz and O’Shaughnessey provide the cartoon-style acting, while Elba and now Reeves give a nice counterbalance with their deep and serious voices. Marsden and Sumpter aren’t given much to do this time around, and Krysten Ritter shows up as Director Rockwell, a character who’s mostly there to move what little plot there is further along.

A four-quadrant movie is one that appeals to all ages and genders; Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a one or maybe two-quadrant movie at most. But it’s more fun than the other family-friendly offering this Christmas season, and fans of the video game will likely love the depiction of their favorite characters on screen, so it’s doing something right.

---

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now playing in theaters.

movies film