By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Named for Link Wray’s highly influential guitar piece “Rumble,” the only instrumental song to be banned for radio play in the United States for fear that the driving chord progressions and percussion might start a riot, Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World offers an extensive history of Native… Read More Review: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The first fully animated Smurfs movie, Smurfs: The Lost Village finds Smurfette (Demi Lovato) struggling with the fact that she was created by the dark wizard Gargamel (Rainn Willson), and searching for her true identity and purpose as the only female in a world of male Smurfs. When… Read More Blu-ray Review: Smurfs: The Lost Village
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) After having her human brain successfully implanted in a robotic body, making her the first of her kind in a future world where humans have melded with machines, Major (Scarlett Johansson) is sent to work as part of Section 9, fighting terrorism alongside the cybernetically enhanced Batou (Pilou… Read More Blu-ray 3D Review: Ghost in the Shell
By John Corrado Following their initial airing as part of the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse in 1959, the first two episodes of the popular TV series The Untouchables were edited together into a single feature length film that was released theatrically in 1962, under the subtitle of The Scarface Mob. The film dramatizes the Prohibition-era exploits of federal agent Eliot Ness… Read More DVD Review: The Untouchables: The Scarface Mob
War for the Planet of the Apes Review By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) One of the greatest moviegoing experiences I’ve ever had was going to a press screening of Rise of the Planet of the Apes back in 2011 not really knowing what to expect from the franchise reboot, and realizing early on… Read More Three Views: War for the Planet of the Apes
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The year is 1971, and monster researcher Bill Randa (John Goodman) has convinced the Nixon administration, still reeling from the Vietnam War, to fund his research trip to a hidden island in the South Pacific to investigate claims of an otherworldly beast. To help him explore and map… Read More Blu-ray Review: Kong: Skull Island
By John Corrado Set in 1978, Free Fire follows Justine (Brie Larson), who is overseeing a weapons sale between the IRA’s Chris (Cillian Murphy) and Frank (Michael Smiley), and gun dealers Ord (Armie Hammer) and Vernon (Sharlto Copley). They are selling a shipment of automatic rifles in an abandoned Boston warehouse, but things quickly escalate into an… Read More Blu-ray Review: Free Fire
Baby Driver Review By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver is like the cinematic equivalent of a guitar solo, an example of a singular filmmaker showing complete control over his craft, while riffing on a wide variety of genres and proving the full extent of what he is capable of. It’s thrilling… Read More Three Views: Baby Driver
By John Corrado Taking place during WWII, Their Finest follows Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton), a Welsh writer who is hired to work on a propaganda film about the Battle of Dunkirk, to boost the morale of British audiences. Although initially brought in to write the female dialogue, Catrin becomes an invaluable part of the project, and even starts… Read More DVD Review: Their Finest
By John Corrado Based on the fascinating true story of Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), James Grey’s The Lost City of Z dramatizes the three expeditions that the British soldier turned explorer took into the Amazon between 1906 and 1925. Although initially going for colonialist purposes, Fawcett brought back valuable evidence of a lost civilization that was way more advanced than anyone… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Lost City of Z
By John Corrado Based on a true story, The Zookeeper’s Wife dramatizes the lives of Antonina (Jessica Chastain) and her husband Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh), the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo who used their facilities to save hundreds of Jewish people when the Nazis invaded Poland during WWII. Although I do think there are some problems with… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Zookeeper’s Wife
Spider-Man: Homecoming Review By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is back to being an awkward high schooler in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the result is the best outing for the webslinger since Sam Raimi’s first two films. This reboot forgoes any sort of origin story, which is just fine this time… Read More Three Views: Spider-Man: Homecoming
The Joy of Movies 