Today, Sony Pictures is releasing 22 Jump Street on Blu-ray, a very entertaining comedy that smartly references its own sequel status. Police officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are going back undercover, and this time Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) is sending them to college, where there is a new drug making the rounds. … Read More Blu-ray Release: 22 Jump Street
Last week, levelFILM released About Alex on DVD. When Alex (Jason Ritter) attempts suicide, his university friends come to stay with him at his rural house, to keep an eye on him and also figure out where they broke apart. This includes Sarah (Aubrey Plaza) who is masking her own pain, and the sarcastic Josh… Read More DVD Release: About Alex
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Produced by Terrence Malick, and directed by his collaborator A.J. Edwards, The Better Angels takes a unique approach to the usual biopic formula, focusing on the rural Indiana childhood of Abraham Lincoln (Braydon Denney), years before he became the Sixteenth President. This couldn’t be farther from the expansive… Read More Review: The Better Angels
Today, Paramount is releasing Happy Christmas on DVD. Jenny (Anna Kendrick) has just broken up with her boyfriend, when she goes to stay with her brother Jeff (Joe Swanberg) over the holidays, with his wife Kelly (Melanie Lynsky) and their young son (Jude Swanberg). Jenny is barely responsible when it comes to living with a… Read More DVD Release: Happy Christmas
After a successful run at TIFF Bell Lightbox, D Films is releasing Coherence on DVD. When eight friends gather for a dinner party, on the same night that a comet is passing dangerously close to the earth, they start to experience shocking changes to all of their realities. After the power shuts out, a few… Read More DVD Release: Coherence
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) After delivering one of their biggest and most beloved films with last year’s Oscar-winning Frozen, Disney continues their winning streak with the bighearted and beautifully animated Big Hero 6, opening in theatres this weekend. It’s glorious. Loosely based on a Marvel comic of the same name, Big Hero 6 is another animated knockout from… Read More Review: Big Hero 6
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Elliot “White Lightening” Scott dreams of being Canada’s first action hero, making amateurish and super low budget martial arts films with his long suffering girlfriend Linda Lum, starring his aspiring method actor friend Blake Zwicker. Shot on the fly around New Brunswick, the action films in question are… Read More Review: Kung Fu Elliot
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) The North Dakota oil fields are taking their toll on the environment and natural landscapes, but they are also providing jobs for men struggling to find work. The men are grateful for the opportunity to make money, but they are left needing a roof over their heads, many… Read More Review: The Overnighters
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The title of The Theory of Everything refers to Stephen Hawking’s (Eddie Redmayne) ongoing search for a “simple, elegant equation to explain everything,” and prove without question that time and space have a beginning. This provides a profound backdrop to the moving romance that makes up the film,… Read More Review: The Theory of Everything
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) I went into Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar trying to keep an open mind, not wanting to be influenced by either the positive or negative side of the increasingly unavoidable buzz. As a whole, I liked the film, and my recommendation comes easily. Shot on glorious 70mm, this is a stunning visual… Read More Review: Interstellar
Today, Disney is releasing Maleficent on Blu-ray, one of the biggest hits of the year. A different version of their 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty, this live action fairy tale focuses on the vengeful Maleficent (Angelina Jolie), who is betrayed by King Stefan (Sharlto Copley) and puts a curse upon his daughter Aurora (Elle Fanning). … Read More Blu-ray Release: Maleficent
Today, Disney is releasing this summer’s animated sequel Planes: Fire & Rescue on Blu-ray. A step up from the first one, this is a well intentioned film that provides harmless entertainment and even excitement for young audiences, and should prove a popular choice at home. We reviewed Planes: Fire & Rescue in theatres back on… Read More Blu-ray Release: Planes: Fire & Rescue
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) There are many films to honour Halloween and Christmas, and now the November 2nd celebration of the Day of the Dead gets its own film in The Book of Life, a bright and vibrant piece of animation that authentically honours the Mexican tradition. The film opens with a… Read More Review: The Book of Life
By John Corrado Premiering at Hot Docs, Beyond Clueless is circling back to Toronto and playing twice this weekend at the Bloor Cinema, with tonight’s screening appropriately followed by a special showing of the 2004 film EuroTrip. Tickets and showtimes are right here. After John Hughes all but defined the high school genre in the… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: Beyond Clueless
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) “Think of our newscast as a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut,” ruthless news director Nina (Rene Russo) tells budding freelance crime journalist Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Nightcrawler, one of many provocatively relevant observations that the film offers. There is such exhilarating energy… Read More Review: Nightcrawler
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) The experience of seeing Birdman is often like witnessing a sustained magic trick. We watch the movie in awe of how director Alejandro G. Innaritu is pulling everything together, and are left wanting to see it again just to get a closer look at how perfectly all the… Read More Review: Birdman
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The trio at the centre of writer-director Lynn Shelton’s wonderful 2012 film Your Sister’s Sister provided one of the most strangely believable and oddly endearing three handers in recent memory. Now comes Laggies, the latest dramedy from the quietly perceptive voice of Lynn Shelton, and the unlikely trio… Read More Review: Laggies
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) When you search the word “whiplash” in the dictionary, one of the definitions that comes up is to “move suddenly and forcefully, like a whip being cracked.” And what better way to describe Whiplash, a music film from promising young director Damien Chazelle that unfolds with the force… Read More Review: Whiplash
Today, Sony Pictures is releasing this summer’s Sex Tape on Blu-ray. Disappointed with their love life post kids, mommy blogger Annie (Cameron Diaz) and her husband Jay (Jason Segel) make a sex tape. But when the video gets synced to the iPads they gave out as gifts, which are now in the hands of their… Read More Blu-ray Release: Sex Tape
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) “Ideals are peaceful, history is violent,” the tough Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt) tells shy new recruit Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) in Fury, a very well made film that eschews the more idealistic views of some World War II movies with impressive historical accuracy and unwavering realism. This… Read More Review: Fury
