BOFCA Repertory Podcast August 2014
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BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 07/25/2014
LUCY
“LUCY is great junk –a headrush of a film so bizarre you’ll spend the entire fleeting, eighty-something-minute running time wondering how it ever got made in the first place.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality
“And now for something completely different: Luc Besson presents COSMOS.” – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine
“More quality overall is what was needed to save LUCY from fading into science fiction’s version of oblivion.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show
” …behind the shootings and special effects is a smart movie that may surprise you.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies
“Feels like something you’d think up after passing out from heatstroke at Epcot Center.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist
HERCULES
“…most of the film is devoted to repetitive battle scenes of scythes slashing necks and spears squishing into chests.” – Inkoo Kang, The Wrap
“In exploring the power of myth to inspire men to fight, it aspires to be something more than just a lot of guys clanging swords, shields, and clubs.”- Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies
AND SO IT GOES
“…a lazy, easy, thunderously dull movie from a veteran talent who’s capable of more.” – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine
“…a broad and sentimental comedy with dick jokes that manage to be funny without ever feeling like they belong to this particular movie.” – Inkoo Kang, The Wrap
“The movie is mush, featuring a two-dimensional turn by Diane Keaton and a truly atrocious performance by the usually dependable Michael Douglas.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies
MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT
“If Allen once rejuvenated, even reinvented, the romantic comedy, he now only contributes to its demise with the kind of “sugar-coated claptrap” his protagonist so intensely despises.” – Inkoo Kang, The Wrap
“MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT stacks the magician’s deck here, indulging in a fair amount of magical thinking of its own, or at least transparent narrative charting.” – Kilian Melloy, Edge Boston
HELLION
“…for everything Candler has going on within the movie’s framework, there’s a looseness in the connective tissue that stymies its cohesion.” – Andy Crump, In Review Online
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
“…nobody seems to have any interests outside of mumbling painfully unscripted small-talk at one another until the scenes mercifully end.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality
I ORIGINS
“Hey kids, cool news! Turns out there IS an Intelligent Designer predestining and ordering everything — but don’t worry! It’s not the boring judgmental churchy version your parents were into! Naw, it’s one of those cool trendy Eastern ones white hipsters can appropriate to mean whatever they want it too!” – Bob Chipman, Escapist
BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 07/18/2014
THE PURGE: ANARCHY
“But what makes The Purge: Anarchy interesting is that the real enemies are not the head-clubbing street gangs nor any stray rapists who are bound to become Grillo’s bullet fodder. No, the problem here is the 1%…” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality
“The Purge: Anarchy isn’t great, but it serves its purpose by providing fans of the first film an expanded look at the universe that’s been created.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show
“Like a 13-year-old know-it-all, The Purge: Anarchy reveals its bone-deep inanity by trying to appear smart.” – Inkoo Kang, The Wrap
“This is a movie with plenty of violent action–including a chase through a subway tunnel involving a flame thrower–but that also has a brain in its head.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies
BOYHOOD
“Much like in Linklater’s Before trilogy, there’s a cumulative power in watching these people age before our eyes.” – Sean Burns, TechnologyTell
“Boyhood turns out to be far more than a movie using a gimmick to get the attention of potential moviegoers.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show
“The passage of time is a tricky concept to capture on film, but Boyhood nails it: Nothing in the world is permanent, but everything that happens—no matter how small—has repercussions, even if you’re not aware of it at the time.” – Kristofer Jenson, Dig Boston
SEX TAPE
“This last section utterly deflates the rest of the movie’s energy and its viewers of the hope that Sex Tape might offer anything more than its initial observation about the unreliability of technology and its one-laugh-per-five-jokes rate.” – Inkoo Kang, The Wrap
“It’s not unlike the porn videos that inspired it: with bad acting and a flimsy script it may temporarily satisfy but will soon be quickly forgotten.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies
WISH I WAS HERE
“Those Big Moments can represent catharsis, however, only to a viewer already on Braff’s wavelength. Otherwise, they merely strike audience members (including myself) as self-indulgent, even silly.” – Inkoo Kang, The Wrap
“Braff understands the secret that parents keep from their children: We’re making it up as we go along. Wish I Was Here is a sweet film that reminds us that we’re not alone on the journey.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, The Jewish Advocate
“And because Wish I Was Here is my kind of trash, I admit it may, in reality, be a total piece of shit. I wouldn’t know that, of course, as I was caught up in its smarmy splendor.” – David Riedel, San Antonio Current
BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 07/11/2014
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
“It’s a glum, morose grind towards the inevitable, devoted to a gloomy apocalyptic worldview unleavened by anything resembling wit or humanity.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality
“I don’t hate DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, but I did leave the theater being disappointed by what I had just finished watching.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show
“It’s a pleasure, therefore, to report that DAWN has a much more focused script, that its special effects are as impressive as any seen in this summer’s blockbusters, and for those looking for a bit of substance, the film actually has a dark message about humanity and war.” - Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies
VENUS IN FUR
“Polanski takes an impish delight in needling and ultimately eviscerating his stand-in’s hypocrisies.” - Sean Burns, Spliced Personality
BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 07/04/2014
TAMMY
“Fed up with everyone, she heads out on a road trip with her grandma, but only because grandma has some money. They get into a series of increasingly silly (and vulgar) misadventures, a life lesson is learned, end of film. Yawn.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide
“Like IDENTITY THIEF, I was waiting to laugh at TAMMY, but the laughs never came.” - Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show
“Where some may see a bait and switch, I see a pleasant surprise.” - Kristofer Jensen, C-Ville Weekly
“How many times can you play the same vulgar and aggressively stupid character before the audience moves on?” - Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies
EARTH TO ECHO
“You have seen this movie before. More to the point, you have seen it done better, and with greater cohesion.” – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine
“EARTH TO ECHO is not a great movie by any means, but it’s an upbeat sci-fi flick for younger audiences that they may enjoy.” - Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show
“For those viewers who measure their ages in single digits, this will prove to be one of the best films of the summer.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies
SNOWPIERCER
“SNOWPIERCER isn’t just a movie worth seeing, it’s a movie worth arguing about.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality
“If the film is about the evils of monetary greed and the threat of climate change, then Bong’s shrewdly assembled cast firmly proclaims just how much these issues impact us on a global rather than merely local scale.” – Andy Crump, In Review Online
“A film like SNOWPIERCER isn’t for everyone, but it’s something many will find entertaining.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show
It’s rare treat for filmgoers to experience a film that dodges labels as effectively as SNOWPIERCER.” - Kristofer Jenson, DIG
“The journey through the train and the twists and turns it takes—which aren’t groundbreaking, but still work—is a big part of the fun.” - David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter
LIFE ITSELF
“You can argue about his taste in films, or his penchant for hobnobbing with the celebrities and filmmakers whose work he wrote about, but you can’t deny the fact that the guy not only had talent, but had a passion for using that talent to write about what he loved. ” – John Black, Boston Event Guide
“The positivity is contagious, the stubborn lust for life formidable, and he never once ever stopped carrying on about how much he loved movies. Even when he couldn’t talk.” – Sean Burns, Technology Tell
“That’s the kind of person Ebert was: someone who handed down his passion from one person to the next, opening up our minds to the possibilities of the medium he loved so dearly.” - Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine
AI WEIWEI: THE FAKE CASE
“… the more Ai changes, the more he stays the same.” - Andy Crump, In Review Online
THIRD PERSON
“This is a movie that deliberately challenges and provokes us, bending and blurring reality in ways that start out as subtle and then progress to outlandish.” – Kilian Melloy, Edge Boston
BEGIN AGAIN
“It’s featherweight. It’s unbelievable. It’s cute and charming, and it’s an antidote to crappy summer films.” - David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter
DELIVER US FROM EVIL
“I still liked DELIVER US FROM EVIL in spite of its obvious blemishes, but I can’t say I’d recommend it to anyone looking to see a horror movie in the theaters at this time.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show