By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) In Cocaine Bear, director Elizabeth Banks takes the inspired by a true story premise of a bear in the 1980s who consumed copious amounts of cocaine that had been dumped from a drug runner’s plane, and fashions it into an absurdly gory and intentionally cheesy B-movie creature feature… Read More Blu-ray Review: Cocaine Bear
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Disney’s 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid is credited with kicking off the studio’s fabled Renaissance period, paving the way for a number of animated classics released throughout the 1990s. This makes it an obvious choice for a live action remake in the current IP-driven climate, considering that… Read More Review: The Little Mermaid
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Writer-director Laurel Parmet explores the push and pull between religion and sexuality in her confident debut film The Starling Girl, which centres around an inappropriate relationship between a teen girl and her youth pastor, and the circumstances that allow it to develop. Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen) is a… Read More Review: The Starling Girl
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The opening scene of Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener will be very familiar to those who watched the writer-director’s previous two movies The Card Counter and First Reformed. A man sits hunched over at a desk in a dimly lit room writing in a journal, as voiceover narration reveals… Read More Review: Master Gardener
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) A remake of Ron Shelton’s 1992 comedy of the same name that starred Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes, White Men Can’t Jump is an updated version of the story that strips away a lot of the original’s grit and personality. Like the original, the film is set in… Read More Review: White Men Can’t Jump (Disney+)
By John Corrado The iconic 1983 dance movie Flashdance is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and Paramount is releasing the film for the first time in 4K Ultra HD this month. Directed by Adrian Lyne (a commercial director making his feature debut), and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the film centres around Alex (Jennifer Beals),… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Flashdance: 40th Anniversary
By John Corrado In honour of its 25th anniversary this year, Paramount has released the 1998 summer blockbuster Deep Impact for the first time on 4K Ultra HD. Directed by Mimi Leder, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the film unfolds in the twelve months leading up to when a massive comet is expected to… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Deep Impact: 25th Anniversary
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) With a manned mission to Mars now basically a matter of when and not if, one of the biggest questions that remains is how human astronauts will deal with the isolation on the three year mission that it takes to get to the Red Planet. This question is… Read More Review: The Longest Goodbye
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Aaju Peter, the subject of filmmaker Lin Allluna’s documentary Twice Colonized (which recently had its world premiere as the opening night film of Hot Docs), is an Inuit lawyer who was born in Greenland, but moved to the Canadian Arctic. Living in Iqaluit, Aaju is perhaps most notable… Read More Review: Twice Colonized
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The year is 2257, and a group of kids are living in a mining colony on the moon. For most of them, life on the third rock from the sun is all they have ever known. This is the premise behind Crater, a new sci-fi movie being released… Read More Review: Crater (Disney+)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The rise and fall of Waterloo, Ontario tech company Research in Motion, and their once-mighty BlackBerry, is charted in Canadian director Matt Johnson’s energetic and fast-paced film BlackBerry. This latest feature from Johnson, who previously showed what he is capable of with his DIY indies Operation Avalanche and… Read More Review: BlackBerry
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the Blu-ray release of Knock at the Cabin. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, Knock at the Cabin, is being released on Blu-ray this week. Based on the novel… Read More Blu-ray Review: Knock at the Cabin (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the Blu-ray release of 80 for Brady. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. After a run in theatres this February, where it drew in crowds of seniors, the feel-good football comedy 80 for Brady… Read More Blu-ray Review: 80 for Brady
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival ran from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The documentary Who’s Afraid of Nathan Law? offers a solid introduction to pro-democracy activist Nathan Law, as it provides an engaging overview of… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Who’s Afraid of Nathan Law?
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival ran from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In their documentary When Spring Came to Bucha, directors Mila Teshaieva and Marcus Lenz take us into the Ukrainian town of Bucha in the… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: When Spring Came to Bucha
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival ran from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Directed by Mystlav Chernov, one of three Associated Press journalists who went to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol as soon as Russian… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: 20 Days in Mariupol
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The Lebanese Burger Mafia is an enjoyable look at the history of Burger Baron, an Alberta fast food franchise that is not really… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: The Lebanese Burger Mafia
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In director Juha Suonpää’s documentary Lynx Man, we are introduced to a unique subject; Hannu, an older Finnish man who has appointed himself… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Lynx Man
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Against the Tide, which won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Vérité Filmmaking at Sundance, is a compelling slice-of-life documentary from… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Against the Tide
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In his documentary I Lost My Mom, Quebec filmmaker Denys Desjardins captures the end of his mother Madeleine’s life, offering a devastating portrait… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: I Lost My Mom
The Joy of Movies 