By Jon Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Built around the pun in its title, It’s a Wonderful Knife is an ode to Frank Capra’s perennial classic It’s a Wonderful Life, except done in the style of a Christmas slasher comedy. The film is set in the town of Angel Falls, and follows a teen girl… Read More Review: It’s a Wonderful Knife
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Eight years after the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 in 2015, director Francis Lawrence returns to this franchise with The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, an adaptation of author Suzanne Collins’ 2020 prequel novel of the same name. The story is… Read More Review: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
By Jon Corrado ★½ (out of 4) The 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Marvels is both a sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel and a continuation of the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, and it’s honestly kind of a mess. Directed by Nia DaCosta (the Candyman remake), this is the weakest film yet in a… Read More Review: The Marvels
By John Corrado This week, Paramount is releasing Star Trek: The Picard Legacy Collection on Blu-ray, an individually numbered, limited edition set including every movie and TV series featuring Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard in one very nice box. Limited to 11,750 copies worldwide, this is a truly impressive, 54-disc set that combines all seven… Read More Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Picard Legacy Collection
By John Corrado New releases for the week of November 3rd, 2023. Theatrical Releases: The Holdovers (Limited Release): Alexander Payne’s latest, which was the runner-up for the TIFF People’s Choice Award, is also one of the year’s best. The film is set over Christmas in 1970 at an all-boys boarding school, where an ornery teacher… Read More New This Week (11/03/2023): The Holdovers, Priscilla, Rustin, Quiz Lady, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Director Madeleine Gavin’s documentary Beyond Utopia offers a compelling glimpse inside North Korea, through the eyes of those who risk their lives trying to escape the country. The real pull of Gavin’s film is the secret, handheld footage shot by defectors themselves, showing us the perilous journey that… Read More Review: Beyond Utopia
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Awkwafina and Sandra Oh star in the female-led comedy Quiz Lady as mismatched sisters who end up on a road trip together to compete on a popular quiz show, and it’s an example of a film that is elevated by its leads. Anne (Awkwafina) has always been obsessed… Read More Review: Quiz Lady (Disney+)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, the writer-director’s best film since Lost in Translation, is a biopic of Priscilla Presley that focuses on her relationship to Elvis, offering an unglamorous but authentic look at their troubled romance. In its own way, Priscilla also serves as the subdued, melancholic counterpart to the… Read More Review: Priscilla
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. Following its run in theatres over the summer, Paramount is now releasing Mission: Impossible –… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (SteelBook Edition)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Strays is an R-rated talking dog comedy that stars Will Ferrell as the voice of a little dog named Reggie, who teams up with a streetwise Boston Terrier named Bug (voiced by Jamie Foxx) to get revenge on his mean owner. More specifically, Reggie plans to get back… Read More Blu-ray Review: Strays (Unleashed Edition)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 27th, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Five Nights at Freddy’s (Wide Release): This film adaptation of the popular video game series stars Josh Hutcherson as a night security guard that gets hired at a haunted pizzeria famous for its creepy animatronics. Reviews are pretty underwhelming (I haven’t… Read More New This Week (10/27/2023): Five Nights at Freddy’s, The Killer, Fellow Travelers, When Evil Lurks, & More!
By John Corrado The new eight episode limited series Fellow Travelers (based on Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel of the same name) is a McCarthy-era period drama that is set against the fascinating political backdrop of the mid-20th century. But the handsomely mounted Showtime mini-series, which comes to us from screenwriter and executive producer Ron Nyswaner… Read More TV Review: Fellow Travelers
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Following his Old Hollywood passion project Mank, director David Fincher returns to the thriller genre with The Killer, a slickly crafted adaptation of Alexis Nolent’s French graphic novel exploring the daily grind of a professional assassin. Fincher’s film opens with its unnamed titular assassin (played by Michael Fassbender) staying… Read More Review: The Killer
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) After completing his Halloween trilogy last year with the divisive Halloween Ends, director David Gordon Green now sets his sights on rebooting another classic horror property with The Exorcist: Believer, though the results are largely disappointing this time around. Like Green’s 2018 legacy sequel Halloween, The Exorcist: Believer positions… Read More Review: The Exorcist: Believer
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the Blu-ray release of Barbie. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. After becoming the highest grossing movie of the year in theatres over the summer (including getting a boost from the Barbenheimer phenomenon), Warner… Read More Blu-ray Review: Barbie
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 20th, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Killers of the Flower Moon (Wide Release): The release of a new Martin Scorsese picture is always cause for celebration amongst film lovers, and Killers of the Flower Moon arrives in theatres following a splashy premiere at Cannes. Lily Gladstone, Leonardo… Read More New This Week (10/20/2023): Killers of the Flower Moon, Anatomy of a Fall, Dicks: The Musical, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The Persian Version, which premiered at Sundance in January, finds writer-director Maryam Keshavarz (Circumstance) dipping into her own background as an Iranian-American woman to craft an enjoyable, ambitious mother-daughter dramedy. The film centres around Leila (Layla Mohammadi), an Iranian-American aspiring filmmaker living in New York City. She has… Read More Review: The Persian Version
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Based on a chapter from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a vampire horror movie that takes place aboard a merchant ship in 1897, and fleshes out the backstory of the doomed voyage carrying Count Dracula. The Demeter is a Russian schooner that is travelling… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Last Voyage of the Demeter (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour is already one of the biggest selling concert tours of all time, a massive juggernaut that has generated billions of dollars in profits, providing a boost to local economies wherever she goes. The success of this tour one hundred percent speaks to the cultural… Read More Review: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 13th, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Wide Release): Taylor Swift is already dominating the music industry, and now she is set to take over the box office as well with this filmed version of her ongoing Eras Tour. Seeing a record number… Read More New This Week (10/13/2023): Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, The Burial, & More!
The Joy of Movies 