1st Reviews

  Vampire Zombies... from Space is the Spaceballs version of the Monster Verse we did not know we needed. It has all of the hilarious jabs of a parody film and really amazing prosthetics and special effects that makes for a really great horror movie.  Dracula has a plan to take over a small American town by invading them with his army of Vampire Zombies. The most unlikely heroes have to ban together to try and save the day; a rookie cop, a determined young townswoman and a 50's greaser. This film sounds like a genre mashup that just should not work but it does and succeeds to deliver on every level.  Michael Stasko wrote and directed this satirical love letter to all things monsters, horror and film noir. Screening at the Canadian Film Fest Friday March 28th. Review by: Stefano Bove

  Opus  takes promising ideas and dark directions that it fails to properly explore. The nightmarish approach is inviting for much of the runtime, though the payoff doesn’t make it all feel worth it at the end. Ayo Edebiri is wonderful as always as a reporter detached from the oddities unfolding around her. John Malkovich chews up the scenery with the character’s madness, though his occasionally weird dialogue prevents us from having as much fun as him. The cult-like setting makes you feel like everything is off, including the staff’s odd requests and supervision of their guests. It comes so close to being an effective satire about people’s willingness to submit their agency to celebrity and famous figures. However, it takes too long to make much of a meaningful point, and by the time it does in the final act, it feels rather tacked on. The last 10 minutes are frustrating and unsubtle, undoing much of the thrills from before. It’s a painfully disappointing film that it seems t...

After leaving us dangling on a massive cliffhanger for nearly three years, AppleTV’s hit mystery-box series is back for its sophomore outing. This season is bigger, more ambitious and doubles down on the strangeness factor. While it does answer a ton of burning questions, it also suffers slightly from the carrot and stick formula these types of shows often rely too heavily on.  A huge part of Severance’s appeal are the many mysteries it allows us to unravel as the show progresses. This season continues to unspool existing threads, while dropping plenty of new ones to expand the world. What these new episodes excel at is further exploring the line between the characters’ innies and outies, and the ethical dilemmas that stem from two separate beings sharing one body. Viewers with keen eyes will find plenty of small clues to fuel their theories, but there are some big revelations made as well. This season isn’t as concise with its storytelling, delivering a little more padding leading...

The first Disney Princess to grace the screen in 1937 was Snow White, and it seems they enjoy remaking her story. This iteration of the classic fairytale is possibly the most accurate. Snow White (2025) looks like a carbon copy of the animated feature with more songs added and a fearless modern characterization of the title character.   For the first time in a while, a Disney live-action looked colourful and had some beautifully executed musical numbers. Although Snow White (2025) was not marketed heavily as a musical most of the numbers involving the dwarves and Snow White (Rachel Zegler) are wholesome and nostalgic.   Co-writers Erin Cressida Wilson and Jacob Grimm went back to the roots of Disney princess magic by giving our princess a much-needed backstory with her parents ruling the Kingdom. We see the love between them and feel her loss when she is taken as a prisoner by the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot) after her father doesn’t return.   Rachel Zegler is a bonafide star a...

  Steven Soderbergh’s cleverest film in years,  Black Bag  boasts an entertaining cast, an exciting aesthetic, and a story that’s inviting though occasionally overwhelmingly complicated. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett have great chemistry together as a couple with a complex love. Fassbender’s character in particular has an interesting manner to him, and every decision reveals more about the lengths he’s willing to go to. Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, and Rege-Jean Page all round out a great ensemble cast, each of whom has unique and intriguing characteristics and flaws. Soderbergh has tested the limits of filmmaking with a number of his films recently. Though he takes a more traditional approach here, the writing and aesthetic still feel large and thoughtful, with the pace flying by and the turns the story takes becoming more and more exciting. With perfectly cast characters and a smart story,  Black Bag  definitely ranks high for the director’s...

Have you ever felt frustrated with Netflix and their frequent price increases? Well, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief, because your hard earned money allowed them to spend 320 million dollars to bankroll “The Electric State”. Surely with that kind of price tag, the studio must be confident in the film’s quality, right?… right?  From Joe and Anthony Russo, who brought us some of the MCU’s very best entries, this pricey blockbuster is the most expensive streaming release of all time, and the 13th most expensive movie of all time - period. Unfortunately, this ludicrous budget only draws more attention to a bigger problem with studio spending, and the current state of Hollywood’s broken business model. The film certainly looks flashy and expensive, but as a straight-to-streaming release, you can’t tell me Netflix was hoping to see a worthwhile return on this investment via subscribers - let alone turn a profit.  But enough about irresponsible studio spending. What about th...