By John Corrado Arguably the most famous of all the Star Trek films, longtime fan favourite Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has gotten an impressive new Blu-ray transfer, including both the theatrical version and director’s cut of the 1982 classic. The second entry into the motion picture anthology, the film follows Admiral James T. Kirk… Read More Blu-ray Release: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Director’s Cut
By John Corrado It’s hard to believe that it has been fifteen years since Shrek was released. I was a kid when the film came out in 2001, and my first experience with it was on a VHS tape. Now things have come full circle with a brand new Blu-ray to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of this… Read More Blu-ray Release: Shrek: Anniversary Edition
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) A haunting and visually stunning cinematic tone poem, and winner of the Hot Docs Best Canadian Feature award, Konelīne: Our Land Beautiful is a gorgeously captured documentary that offers a powerful and moving hymn to living in harmony with the land. Director Nettie Wild doesn’t confine the film to a single narrative arc,… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: Konelīne: Our Land Beautiful
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Maggie (Greta Gerwig) is perpetually single, but wants to have a baby and considers herself ready to be a mother. Determined to raise the raise the child on her own, she is all set to go through with artificial insemination with her friend (Travis Fimmel), when she meets the… Read More Review: Maggie’s Plan
By John Corrado Arriving just five months after the initial Blu-ray release, The Martian: Extended Edition is now available. This new version of Ridley Scott’s excellent space adventure includes both the theatrical and extended cuts of the seven time Oscar-nominated film starring Matt Damon, boasting an extra ten minutes of added footage and scenes, as well over two… Read More Blu-ray Release: The Martian: Extended Edition
By John Corrado My favourite movie of the year so far, Zootopia takes place in a seemingly utopic mammal metropolis where animals start mysteriously going missing, forcing newly recruited bunny police officer Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) to work with the smooth con artist fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to solve the case, uncovering deep rooted fear… Read More Blu-ray Release: Zootopia
By John Corrado A unique and critically acclaimed animated film from co-directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, Anomalisa follows Michael (David Thewlis), a depressed and lonely customer service expert who has a chance encounter with Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a shy woman who is seemingly not like everyone else, at a hotel in Cincinnatti. Watching Anomalisa again,… Read More Blu-ray Release: Anomalisa
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Directed by Michael Bay, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi recounts the events that unfolded on September 11th, 2012 when a United States compound in Libya came under fire by heavily armed militants, leaving a security team of six fearless men (John Krasinski, James Badge Dale, Pablo Schreiber, David Denman, Dominic Fumusa and… Read More Blu-ray Review: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Adapting Jean Hegland’s novel for the screen, director Patricia Rozema brings Into the Forest to screen with intimate and quietly intense style. The Canadian filmmaker displays a sensitive and compassionate touch in her handling of even the film’s most graphic elements, crafting a stark apocalyptic drama that functions as a resonant… Read More Review: Into the Forest
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Playing almost like an American blues version of Buena Vista Social Club, I Am The Blues allows us to hang out in the classic juke joints, church halls and front porches in Mississippi that are home to aging musicians including Bobby Rush, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Barbara Lynn. They are part of the last… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: I Am The Blues
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) An immigrant from pre-war Yugoslavia, Jasmin (Jasmin Geljo) is a struggling actor in Toronto, who finds himself typecast to read for criminals in his auditions, and works as a construction worker to support his wife (Ma-Anne Dionisio) and son (Filip Geljo). There are a lot of static shots and long… Read More Review: The Waiting Room
By John Corrado ★ (out of 4) Although Lolo, the worst movie I saw at TIFF last year, sets itself up as a romantic comedy, this disappointing latest from writer-director-star Julie Delpy is too broad in its comedy, and further letdown by a misjudged undercurrent of creepiness. When divorced single mother and socialite Violette (Julie Delpy) has a… Read More Review: Lolo
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) After a violent bank robbery, a group of corrupt cops turned criminals led by ex-special forces operative Michael Atwood (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are blackmailed by Russian mob leader Irina Vlaslov (Kate Winslet) to pull off a 999, police code for officer down, to distract from an even bigger job. Disgruntled cop Marcus Belmont… Read More DVD Review: Triple 9
Alice Through the Looking Glass Review By John Corrado ★½ (out of 4) Here’s a conundrum for you. Alice Through the Looking Glass is a film that expects us to care about things, without giving us any real reasons to actually care about them. This is a film that is often so bafflingly undercooked in terms of… Read More Three Views: Alice Through the Looking Glass
By John Corrado ★½ (out of 4) After losing his wife (Christine Taylor) in a freak building collapse, and having his son (Cyrus Arnold) taken away by child services, the infamously dumb Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) decides to quit modelling and live as a “hermit crab.” But when pop stars like Justin Bieber start getting killed, and… Read More Blu-ray Release: Zoolander No. 2
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) When Jesus (Cliff Curtis) is crucified, and his body goes missing from the sealed tomb, Pilate (Peter Firth) hires a doubting Roman military tribune named Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) to investigate and find a body. Pilate is worried by the implication of claims that the Messiah has risen from the dead, but Clavius has his faith… Read More DVD Review: Risen
By John Corrado When a terrifying blizzard struck off the snowy coast of Cape Cod in 1952, an oil tanker was ripped in half by the high winds and raging waters, leaving young engineer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) and his crew struggling to keep the boat afloat. When the Coast Guard picked up their signal, Bernie… Read More Blu-ray Release: The Finest Hours
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) It’s only fitting that Shane Black, who breathed new life into the buddy cop genre with his screenplay for Lethal Weapon in 1987, a film that mixed action and dark humour to launch a successful franchise, is now reviving this same genre with The Nice Guys. Following his underrated directorial… Read More Review: The Nice Guys
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) After graduating from film school in 1985, Will Allen joined the Bhuddafield cult, an experience that took up over two decades of his life, as he made short films for the cult and became their documentarian. Starting in California, Bhuddafield was a secret community of young spiritualists who were all looking for answers… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: Holy Hell
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Following a group of aging burlesque performers, who still retain their sex-positive attitudes even as seniors, League of Exotique Dancers, the recent opening night film at Hot Docs, provides a fun alternative history of the women’s rights movement. Although using their bodies and mostly performing for men, these dancers all… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: League of Exotique Dancers
The Joy of Movies 