"Bullet Proof" (2022):

Former British football star and Guy Ritchie favourite (“Snatch”) plays Temple, a mob boss with a thirst for greed who is himself robbed by a thief who gets millions of dollars and an unexpected passenger – Temple’s pregnant wife Mia played by Vancouver’s Lina Lacompte. She is hidden in the getaway car seeing an opportunity to put some distance between herself and the wicked Temple. She sees a chance to start a new life for her and for her baby, and the Thief (James Clayton) had no idea that she was a stowaway, and no idea that Temple would react so strongly, putting a bounty on the Thief and a reward for anyone who brings back Mia. Mia however, has other ideas. She has no intention of being caught, dragged back to Temple, and having her child raised in that environment. For mob boss Temple, it all seems pretty simple – for the Thief, it’s a nightmare – and for Mia, well, she has a plan. The Thief and Mia are fast, he has a good aim with a gun, and she is fearless … but how long can that last with a squad of hitmen canvassing all known areas, looking to wrap up the case in no time at all, to collect their spoils. Rated 18A for violence.

Sound of Metal (2019):

It has taken this inspired-by-actual-events film a long time to get to DVD, but its message remains as strong as the day it was released. Riz Ahmed stars as Ruben Stone, a deeply committed heavy metal drummer who works with his singer and girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) as they tour incessantly to bring their brand of high-volume frenzy to fans everywhere. When Ruben begins to lose his hearing, he goes first to a pharmacy, and later to a doctor where he learns that he only has a small percentage of his ability to hear, and that his ability to understand the sounds around him will continue to decline until it disappears. Ruben is a recovering addict as well as a musician suffering hearing loss, and many of the supporting actors in this film are members of the deaf community. Actor Ahmed learned American Sign Language for this movie, and he also learned, over a period of six months, to play the drums. As is the case with many actual rock musicians, the fading ability to hear expands to include not only the music around them, but the sound of their own voice. As Ruben goes through this process, some interesting truths about those who cannot hear are revealed. Interesting story, excellent performances. Rated 14A.

Wrong Place (2022):

This was one of the final films made by Bruce Willis before he announced that his health issues were forcing him to retire from acting. Many unkind reviewers, looking at this film, wish that he had made that announcement before this revenge thriller was made rather than after. Willis’s character is Frank, a former chief of police, now working as a security guard after a late-night car accident, where he hit a deer on the highway, changed his life forever. His daughter Chloe is dealing with a cancer diagnosis, his wife was killed in the accident, and in a disjointed series of events, Frank steps outside to have a smoke and witnesses a murder. As a witness to the crime, he will have to testify, but Chloe and her friend have chosen to spend some time at a remote cabin in the woods and it is here that the meth distributor who is the drug kingpin in Frank’s witness case feels he must extract his revenge. We have seen all this before, many, many times, always done far better, and with all due respect to Bruce Willis, it is clear watching his performance that his health was not up to the task. Rated 14A.

Blonde (2022):

This is the first Netflix movie rated NC17 in the States, which is one step beyond the "R" rating that the most explicit films receive. It's the dramatized story of the life of Marilyn Monroe, and is one of the most anticipated Netflix titles this year. Based on the best-selling novel by Joyce Carol Oates and directed by Andrew Dominick, it is a fictionalized version of the turbulent years of Norma Jean Baker, the abuse she dealt with, and the family challenges she faced, on her way to becoming Marilyn Monroe, with her marriages to the rich and the famous, her dalliances with Presidents and crowned heads of Europe, and here ultimate downfall. Ana de Armas ("Knives Out") is Norma Jeane, Oscar winner Adrian Brody is "The Playwright," clearly a facsimile for her third husband, Arthur Miller, and Bobby Cannavale is her ex-athlete first husband who was actually baseball great Joe DiMaggio. That marriage lasted just 274 days. Many characters, real and created show up, and much of what occurs is based on supposition and of the possible. Rated 18A for Canada.

Day Shift (2022):

This film, based on actual events in WWII, was released by Warner Bros in the UK theatrically, and is being released by Netflix in North America. Colin Firth stars in this ingenious story of an espionage operation in 1943 that turned the tide of the war when a pair of British operatives used a combination of a corpse and false identity documents to deceive the Germans at a critical point when a huge build-up of troops was set to quash the allies. It tells the story of those who fight in the shadows, and whose true exploits are sometimes unknown and lost in the fog of war and the mirage of history. Rated 14A.