By John Corrado Named for the most well known song from the second half of the Broadway musical, Wicked: For Good is the grand finale of director Jon M. Chu’s two-part film adaptation, and it delivers on the dramatic promise of the story. If it’s maybe not quite as good as the first movie, which… Read More Movie Review: Wicked: For Good
By John Corrado The Jonas Brothers are back in A Very Jonas Christmas Movie, the Disney Plus Original that finds the boyband brothers trying to get back home for Christmas. The film opens with brothers Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas finishing up their tour in London just days before Christmas, and looking forward to getting… Read More Movie Review: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie (Disney+)
By John Corrado Kiss of the Spider Woman, the new musical film from Dreamgirls director Bill Condon, is a big screen reimagining of the 1992 stage musical from John Kander and Fred Ebb, that was in turn based on a 1976 novel that had a 1985 film adaptation. Set during Argentina’s military dictatorship in 1983, the… Read More Movie Review: Kiss of the Spider Woman
By John Corrado We now have the final trailer for Wicked: For Good. This is director Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of Act Two of the musical, with his Wicked: Part One lighting up the box office last year and becoming a major Oscar contender. Universal is clearly hoping to recapture that magic with For Good.… Read More Final Trailer for Wicked: For Good!
By John Corrado Universal Pictures has just unveiled the first trailer for Wicked: For Good, the highly anticipated followup to last year’s Wicked: Part One. The first film was obviously a box office sensation and an awards juggernaut, and this trailer indicates that director Jon M. Chu has nailed Part Two as well. This is… Read More First Trailer Released for Wicked: For Good
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Wicked. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my full review right here. After becoming a box office hit over the holidays, director Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked is now… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Wicked
By John Corrado Wicked is the long-in-development film adaptation of the Broadway musical from over two decades ago, with director Jon M. Chu (In the Heights, Crazy Rich Asians) finally bringing this Wizard of Oz prequel story to the screen. Well, Act One of it anyways; the film is a two-parter, with Act Two (officially… Read More Movie Review: Wicked
By John Corrado Distributor NEON has just released the first trailer for The End, aka the narrative feature debut of documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence). The film is an ambitious apocalyptic character drama set in an underground bunker at the end of the world, that also happens to… Read More Trailer for Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End
By John Corrado Paramount Pictures has just released the first teaser trailer for Better Man, which played at TIFF and Telluride. Directed by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman), this is a musical biopic of British pop star Robbie Williams, that portrays him as a realistic, CGI monkey. Yes, you read that right. I was curious… Read More Teaser Trailer Released for Better Man
By John Corrado The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5th to 15th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Emilia Pérez, the latest film from French director Jacques Audiard, is a mix of many things; it’s a pop musical, Mexican melodrama, love story, and cartel crime thriller. It’s a… Read More #TIFF24 Review: Emilia Pérez (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5th to 15th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The latest film directed by The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey, Better Man is a biopic of British pop star Robbie Williams, from his boy band days to his solo career.… Read More #TIFF24 Review: Better Man (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5th to 15th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Joshua Oppenheimer is a filmmaker who has explored the dark side of human capabilities in his staggering documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, a pair of… Read More #TIFF24 Review: The End (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Mean Girls (2024). For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. This musical reimagining of Mean Girls, the modern classic teen comedy from 2004, is receiving a 4K Ultra HD… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Mean Girls (2024)
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the Blu-ray release of The Color Purple. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. Director Blitz Bazawule’s glitzy The Color Purple serves as both a big screen version of the Broadway musical, and a reimagining… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Color Purple
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Wonka. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. Fashioned as a prequel to the 1971 Gene Wilder film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Paddington director Paul King’s Wonka… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Wonka
By John Corrado The third film in DreamWorks Animation’s popular Trolls franchise, Trolls Band Together explores more of this vibrant animated world, while adding a slew of boyband jokes into the mix. The story revolves around Poppy (Anna Kendrick) discovering that her boyfriend Branch (Justin Timberlake) used to be a member of the boyband BroZone,… Read More Blu-ray Review: Trolls Band Together (Sing-Along Edition)
By John Corrado It’s been twenty years since Tina Fey released her high school satire Mean Girls in 2004, and now we have a new version of the modern teen classic being released in theatres. Directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. (taking over for Mark Waters who directed the 2004 film), the 2024… Read More Review: Mean Girls
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When Paul King stepped away from directing the third Paddington movie to direct a Willy Wonka origin story, after helming the critically acclaimed first two movies about the bear from Peru, it seemed like a curious move. But the moral of Wonka is that we never should have… Read More Review: Wonka
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Director Blitz Bazawule’s The Color Purple is a big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical that serves as a glitzy reimagining of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel and Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film of the same. Produced by Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey (who was Oscar-nominated for her breakout role as… Read More Review: The Color Purple
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) It’s the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney Animation Studios this year, and what better way to celebrate this milestone than with Wish, a charming new musical fairy tale that harkens back to Classic Disney. The film (which opens with a storybook and those four magical words “once upon… Read More Review: Wish
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