By John Corrado Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and Universal Pictures Home Entertaining is releasing a new Blu-ray edition of the film in honour of this milestone. I first saw E.T. as a nine-year-old kid in 2002, when the film was released on DVD for the first time… Read More Blu-ray Review: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: 40th Anniversary Edition
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Halloween Ends is the third film in director David Gordon Green’s reboot trilogy that began with Halloween in 2018, a legacy sequel that saw Jamie Lee Curtis return to the role of Laurie Strode, the babysitter who first evaded masked killer Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s 1978 original.… Read More Review: Halloween Ends
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 28th, 2022. Theatrical Releases: The Banshees of Inisherin (Limited Release): The fourth film from writer-director Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin was one of the very best films I saw at TIFF this year. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson star as Pádraic and Colm, two… Read More New This Week (10/28/2022): The Banshees of Inisherin, Decision to Leave, Aftersun, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Drinkwater is a 1980s-inspired Canadian coming of age film set in Penticton, B.C. that centres around Mike Drinkwater (Daniel Doheny), an awkward teen boy who wants to get the girl and hopefully get into college to get out of his small town. The Bruce Lee-obsessed Mike is stuck… Read More Review: Drinkwater
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Wendell & Wild, which is being released directly to Netflix for Halloween following its premiere at TIFF, is the latest stop motion film from director Henry Selick, the creative mastermind behind classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. This is Selick’s first film since the Neil Gaiman… Read More Review: Wendell & Wild (Netflix)
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the Blu-ray release of Nope. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original theatrical review right here. After being released in theatres over the summer, Universal Pictures is releasing Jordan Peele’s (Get Out, Us) third film Nope on Blu-ray… Read More Blu-ray Review: Nope (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 21st, 2022. Theatrical Releases: And Still I Sing (Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema): This documentary follows three female singers in Afghanistan, including controversial pop star and activist Aryana Sayeed, in the lead up to the Taliban regaining power for the first time in two decades.… Read More New This Week (10/21/2022): And Still I Sing, Black Adam, Raymond & Ray, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The documentary And Still I Sing follows three female singers in Afghanistan; the controversial pop star Aryana Sayeed who has courted a backlash in her country for speaking out in support of women’s rights, and Zahra Elham and Sadiqa Madagar, who are both contestants on the American Idol-esque… Read More Review: And Still I Sing
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Conceived as a loose remake of the classic Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (which originally had the somewhat better title Blazing Samurai) is a gonzo animated film that often boggles the mind over how it even came to be. The result… Read More Blu-ray Review: Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Paramount’s animated film Rumble imagines a world of “monster wrestling,” where giant creatures fight each other for entertainment with the help of human trainers, and each city has their own massive kaiju to represent them. The most famous of these trainers was the late Jimbo Coyle (Carlos Gómez),… Read More Blu-ray Review: Rumble
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 14th, 2022. Theatrical Releases: TÁR (Limited Release): Todd Field’s triumphant return to filmmaking sixteen years after Little Children is undoubtedly one of the best movies of the year. It’s a brilliantly made slow-burn character study taking on cancel culture, and the increasing inability that many… Read More New This Week (10/14/2022): TÁR, Halloween Ends, We’re All in This Together, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Todd Field’s triumphant return to directing after a sixteen year hiatus following his 2006 film Little Children, TÁR is one of those films that quietly holds us in its grip for the entire 158 minute running time. This is a brilliantly made slow-burn film from writer-director Field, that has… Read More Review: TÁR
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Billed as being “directed, produced, adapted by & starring Katie Boland,” We’re All in This Together is a somewhat ambitious Canadian dramedy that follows a young woman who has her life thrown into turmoil after her mother Kate (Martha Burns) goes viral on social media by attempting to… Read More Review: We’re All in This Together
By John Corrado Following the release of The Godfather Trilogy in 4K Ultra HD earlier this year, Paramount is now releasing standalone editions of Francis Ford Coppola’s three films in 4K, with both regular and SteelBook packaging. The version of The Godfather Part III being released on its own isn’t the theatrical cut of Coppola’s… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (SteelBook Edition)
By John Corrado Following the release of The Godfather Trilogy in 4K Ultra HD earlier this year, Paramount is now releasing standalone editions of Francis Ford Coppola’s three films in 4K, with both regular and SteelBook packaging. Coppola’s operatic 1974 sequel is widely heralded as one of the greatest ever made, serving as both a… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: The Godfather Part II (SteelBook Edition)
By John Corrado Following the release of The Godfather Trilogy in 4K Ultra HD earlier this year, Paramount is now releasing standalone editions of Francis Ford Coppola’s three films in 4K, with both regular and SteelBook packaging. Coppola’s Oscar-winning 1972 adaption of Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather, charting the rise to power of son Michael… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: The Godfather (SteelBook Edition)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 7th, 2022. Theatrical Releases: Amsterdam (Wide Release): David O. Russell’s latest star-studded film is a 1930s-set caper featuring Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie, among many others. It’s been pretty much eviscerated by most critics, and it is admittedly too long and messy… Read More New This Week (10/07/2022): Amsterdam, Triangle of Sadness, Werewolf by Night, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The documentary Blind Ambition follows Joseph Dhafana, Marlvin Gwese, Tinashe Nyamudoka and Pardon Taguzu, four men from Zimbabwe living in South Africa, who form the first Zimbabwean team to compete in the annual World Blind Wine Tasting Championships in France. The men had gone most of their lives… Read More Review: Blind Ambition
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Composer Michael Giacchino makes the switch to directing with the 52 minute Marvel Halloween special Werewolf by Night, a black-and-white tribute to the classic Universal monster movies that serves as a breath of fresh air in a slightly stagnant MCU. The special (which may as well begin with… Read More Disney+ Review: Werewolf by Night
By John Corrado Blonde is director Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of the 2000 novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, which presented a somewhat fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe’s life, and it’s a film that has invoked strong reactions in viewers (and that’s putting it mildly). I watched Blonde a week ago on Netflix… Read More Some Thoughts on Andrew Dominik’s Blonde…
The Joy of Movies 