Category: Movie Reviews

Finding Serenity at Tea Creek Farm. A Documentary in Review

British Columbia is filled with lots of super and naturally charged places. One such place is Tea Creek, and to learn about its history and what it means to a nearby community is important.

Tea Creek Documentary PosterNow Playing on CBC Gem

Many Red Seal chefs are well aware of wanting to bring out the flavour of the land from the ingredients in the culinary meals they prepare. While not everyone at home thinks the same way, apparently the indigenous people who work at Tea Creek Farm (located near Kitwanga, BC) do, and they want to educate the world in more ways than one. There’s also how to grow as an individual.

One such person is Ryan Dickle, who no doubt worked here, and his desire to make a documentary, simply titled Tea Creek, is excellent at examining the life and times of Jacob Beaton. He transformed his family farm into a place of learning, to become a centre of community, and to reconnect with nature. This individual got serious with this endeavour about three years ago, and since then, lots of things have changed. Some are for the better, and others, just as worse. 

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When Adam and Stuart are Told Don’t F**k With Ghosts, What Are The Lessons Learned?

It’s best not to believe anything presented in Don’t F**k With Ghosts as serious. It’s as fun as a Laverne and Shirley sitcom, and that’s a complement!

Don't F**k With Ghosts Movie PosterPlaying at select theatres nationwide

Quite often, fans of the paranormal reality television genre rarely get to look at what goes on behind the making of. Although Don’t F**k With Ghosts does not want to bore viewers with all the meetings and paperwork required to get permission to investigate locations, what it does is to show how some places get chosen, and why some media personalities behave a certain way. Here, the focus is on Adam Rodness and Stuart Stone (Donnie Darko), wanting to make a documentary about ghosts.

In the investigations, this pair of wannabe paranormal investigators rely on the occultists, mediums, and celebrity guests (including a cameo by Colt Cabana) to prove whether ghosts are a product of the mind or just made-up to sell tickets. This cameo blurs the fine line between reality and fiction, and when Ghost Magnet with Bridget Marquardt is also included, I couldn’t help but wonder!

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Everything Computes in The Wild Robot

The beauty that’s found in The Wild Robot concerns how to let go, and reuinite with those who you love. It doesn’t matter if the species is man, machine or mammal.

The Wild Robot Movie PosterThe Wild Robot is a perfect return to form. When Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois are working together to craft (or adapt) a story, there’s magic to behold. Although I can recognize the tropes they’ve been using ever since Lilo and Stitch (concerning runts of the litter and the Ugly Duckling motif), what’s presented in DreamWorks latest is a variation of that formula. Here, it’s about the relationship between machines and nature.

Here, the focus is on how creatures all great and small can get along and is more concerned about survival in a wild frontier. When a delivery of robots gets lost during a storm, I can imagine the company who made them can always build more rather than retrieve the items for scrap. As for the one who activated, Fink (Pedro Pascal) bypasses his natural fox instinct to teach the machine about the rules of the jungle.

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Celebrating Despicable Me 4 Home Video Release and Benny’s Birthday Surprise!

Long time fans of this franchise can now binge watch all four of the Despicable Me films, or just enjoy more Minion Mayhem stitched together, assuming they’re willing to get off the couch to change discs.

Despicable Me 4 Blu-ray
Available to purchase on Amazon USA

Illumination Studios

The Despicable Me franchise has some amazing staying power, and I’m always interested in what new wacky adventures Gru’s family can have. I reviewed this movie when it was at theatres, and as always, am interested in what’ll get offered in the home video release. They never fail to deliver some hilarious short. That’s why I keep on buying them over streaming (I’m in the camp that should a film get pulled, I can’t revisit the movie when I want to) or asking for review copies. I must thank Universal Studios as the Despicable Me 4 package arrived before my birthday. I celebrated my day with Benny’s Birthday short.

Here, this Minion is afraid of what the others planned. That’s because he’s stuck in a temporal loop, and he can’t figure out how to escape. By the time the cake arrives, he gets hurt, and the day starts all over again! How he breaks free is not too unexpected. It’s tough to find fault with these shorts because the works of Mack Sennett inspired most of them. He’s the Silent Film King of Comedy, and in his vast catalogue of works, there’s plenty to borrow from.

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Do We Really Need Two Orders of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? The Heartbreaking Implications of a Delayed Continuation

The ideas presented in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice are familiar, and to see half the Deetz family suffering from PTSD seems right for all the wrong reasons.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Movie PosterThe ghost with the most is back, and I feel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice isn’t as raunchy as the original. The music is also very different. In the original, Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) loved Harry Belafonte‘s calypso music and therein lies the problem: roughly thirty years have elapsed and we’re in the disco age! While I don’t mind the tunes from this era to indicate a passage of time, the new tone feels out of place.

Although he and his wife died, and were supposed to be stuck in their forever home, they’ve moved on instead of continue living in harmony with Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder). The thought they reincarnated would’ve been an okay plot for a reunion movie, but the story is about dealing with PTSD. This continuation is very fitting, and now it’s up to her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) to not die herself. It makes me wonder if writers Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Seth Grahame-Smith intentionally stole from the new Ghostbusters movies or not. The tropes are all the same.

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The Film Masters Isn’t Finished With Roger Corman’s Catalogue of Films Yet

Just when we thought The Film Masters was finished with releasing under-rated films from Roger Corman’s vast catalogue of works, this remastered treat will be sure to entertain!

Night of the Blood Beast BOX ART (Blu-ray) The Film Masters Restoration
Available to preorder on Amazon USA

The Film Masters isn’t finished with remastering films from Roger Corman’s vast catalogue of works. Coming November 12 is a double creature feature where this producer has partnered with Bernard Kowalski (Mission Impossible TV Series, Hot Car Girl) to make Night of the Blood Beast and Attack of the Night Leeches! Technically, Gene Corman has the principal credit with the latter, and although this post-Halloween treat is just that, any day is good to mark when aliens have come to town!

From the Press Release:

Night of the Blood Beast (1958)—with an extensive restoration, a new 4K scan from original 35mm archival elements—and Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)—newly restored in HD—will be available on Blu-ray and DVD in a special collector’s two-disc edition from Film Masters.

Plot Synopsis:

Astronaut John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) dies upon returning to Earth following a space mission, but mysteriously comes back to life! As the scientists at a remote space research station investigate Corcoran’s revival, they discover that a parasitic, alien lifeform is utilising his body as a host to incubate its offspring. Starring Angela Greene, John Baer and Ed Nelson, the disc includes the highly entertaining Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode as well.

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