By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) I first discovered the Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears last summer when I came across an episode entitled Shush Ninjas in which the show’s three protagonists, a trio of adoptive bear brothers named Grizz (Eric Edelstein), Panda (Bobby Moynihan) and Ice Bear (Demetri Martin), go to a movie… Read More Review: We Bare Bears: The Movie
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Written and directed by Jon Stewart, who left late night television to become a filmmaker, Irresistible is a political satire that is set in the current moment but feels curiously out of step. The film opens with audio of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton going at each other… Read More VOD Review: Irresistible
By John Corrado The 1995 Best Picture winner Braveheart, a somewhat fictionalized historical epic which was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won five, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and with it comes a brand new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook edition of the film. Directed by Mel Gibson, who won the Oscar for… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Braveheart: 25th Anniversary Edition Steelbook
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Every year, over a thousand kids in Texas are selected to participate in Boys State, a conference run by the American Legion that teaches participants how to build a representative government over the course of a week. The boys are randomly split into two groups of six hundred each… Read More Review: Boys State
By John Corrado Director Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, the filmmaker’s 2000 epic set in the Roman Empire which won the Oscar for Best Picture, is an example of the types of films that used to triumph at the Academy Awards before they started regularly awarding smaller fare. It’s a big, outsized piece of filmmaking that delivers… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Gladiator: 20th Anniversary Edition Steelbook
By John Corrado The 1980 slasher movie Friday the 13th, which spawned a long-running franchise and has become a staple of the horror genre, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. In honour of the occasion, Paramount is reissuing the uncut version of the film on Blu-ray in a nice new Steelbook edition. Directed by… Read More Blu-ray Review: Friday the 13th: 40th Anniversary Edition Steelbook
By John Corrado ★½ (out of 4) There are some movies that just can’t seem to catch a break, and The Hunt, director Craig Zobel’s mix of political satire and ultra-violent action thriller which imagines a scenario where “elites” are hunting “deplorables” for sport, seems to be one of them. The film was meant to open… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Hunt
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Pete Davidson, the heavily tattooed Saturday Night Live star who has attracted his share of both controversy and dedicated fans over the years for his unique brand of stand-up comedy, takes centre stage in The King of Staten Island, which he co-wrote and based on his own life. The… Read More VOD Review: The King of Staten Island
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) A selection of films from this year’s online edition of Hot Docs continue to be available to stream on their website. Tickets are $9 apiece, $8 for members, with screenings geo-blocked to Ontario. The full lineup can be found here. “If we have a husband, we won’t have a clitoris.… Read More Hot Docs Online Review: Breaking the Silence
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A selection of films from this year’s online edition of Hot Docs continue to be available to stream on their website. Tickets are $9 apiece, $8 for members, with screenings geo-blocked to Ontario. The full lineup can be found here. Tam and Bay have been living in Germany for… Read More Hot Docs Online Review: Mein Vietnam
By John Corrado Last month, director Cathy Yan’s action comedy Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) was released on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray. The latest entry into the DC Extended Universe, the film mainly serves as a fun showcase for Margot Robbie’s gleefully unhinged portrayal of Harley Quinn. Robbie… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Birds of Prey
By John Corrado This year’s special online edition of Hot Docs officially came to a close last night, and tonight the winners of the festival’s coveted Audience Award were announced during a live stream, which you can revisit on YouTube. The first place finisher was The Walrus and the Whistleblower, director Nathalie Bibeau’s film about… Read More Hot Docs Festival Online Audience Award Winners
By John Corrado While the in-person edition of Hot Docs was cancelled this year due to COVID-19, roughly 140 films that were set to screen at the festival were selected to stream online during a digital festival from May 28th to June 6th, with many titles being available for even longer until June 24th. Tickets… Read More Hot Docs Festival Online Reviews (Part 3)
By John Corrado While the in-person edition of Hot Docs was cancelled this year due to COVID-19, roughly 140 films that were set to screen at the festival were selected to stream online during a digital festival from May 28th to June 6th, with many titles being available for even longer until June 24th. Tickets… Read More Hot Docs Festival Online Reviews (Part 2)
By John Corrado Three years after delivering his iconic, Oscar-nominated performance as a young, working class Italian-American guy drifting through New York’s nightlife in Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta traded the white suit for a Stetson hat in Urban Cowboy, and went from disco dancing to doing the Texas two-step. Based on Aaron Latham’s 1978… Read More Blu-ray Review: Urban Cowboy: 40th Anniversary Edition
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest and supposedly final instalment in this heavily dramatized saga of the man who taught Bruce Lee martial arts, Ip Man 4: The Finale finds Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man (Donnie Yen) coming to America and battling racism in San Francisco circa 1964. At the start of… Read More Blu-ray Review: Ip Man 4: The Finale
The Joy of Movies 