2014

Posted on February 28, 2014 by bofca

SON OF GOD

“A lavish hunk of sermon-tainment with all the gravitas of a Communion wafer.” – Inkoo Kang, The Wrap

“By now, you know the drill – you have to get the initial origin movie out of the way, so that when this Jesus guy shows up in AVENGERS 2 you’re already familiar with his backstory, personality and power-set.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

“The flaws of SON OF GOD may be ignored by those for whom the film is a religious experience, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t there.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“Comes across on the big screen as something more Made for Comic Books than destined for the cinema.” – Kilian Melloy, EDGE Boston

NON-STOP

“NON-STOP has the ability to give existing fans of Neeson and this genre what they want to see, but I don’t think it has enough depth and quality to create any new ones along the way.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“After takeoff, the airplane hijacking film rapidly ascends into stupidity until it reaches cruising altitude, where it degenerates into a moronic movie riddled with plot holes, before hastily crashing and burning.” – Evan Crean, Starpulse

“NON-STOP isn’t so much a story that needed to be told as a problem to be solved by the filmmakers.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

STALINGRAD

“While it fails as a history lesson, it scores in bringing home the emotional impact of the event, which might explain why this shattered box office records for a Russian movie.” – Daniel M. Kimmel

“Calling the film STALINGRAD and filming in IMAX 3D are distractions from a narrative that would have fit right in with classic Russian WWII films like TWO SOLDIERS or THE CRANES ARE FLYING. Meanwhile, the battle scenes feel ripped from an outright propaganda film along the lines of300.” – Kristofer Jenson, DIG

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP 02/21/2014

Posted on February 21, 2014 by bofca

3 DAYS TO KILL

“It’s impossible not to watch 3 DAYS TO KILL without feeling like it’s a watered-down composite of the French action-dramatist’s better work.” – Andy Crump, In Review Online

“If you like the fast-paced thrillers with twists that we’ve come to associate with Besson (“The Professional,” “Taken,” “Transporter”) then this should score.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“Everything that you think will be wrong with something like this is wrong here, but this is the kind of bad that you can legitimately find some honest entertainment value in.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“There’s no commentary at work here – just overblown nonsense.” – Jake Mulligan, Movie Mezzanine

POMPEII

“Hey, you know what’d be a good idea? If you took TITANIC and GLADIATOR and made them into one movie!” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

THE WIND RISES

“…never has the guts to put Jiro’s endeavors, or the events surrounding his life’s passing parade, into proper context. This is a movie about a dreamer realizing his dreams, not about how his dreams wound up breeding nightmares for enemy combatants.” – Andy Crump, In Review Online

“THE WIND RISES declines to challenge mainstream Japanese society’s distortions and denials of its wartime atrocities. Worse, it echoes Japan’s morally dishonest stance that it was a victim, rather than a perpetrator, of a global war – a whitewashed version of history that the film now imports to every country where it plays.” – Inkoo Kang, The Village Voice

“The most famous hand-drawn holdout in a world of rapid-fire 3D computer animation, Miyazaki imbues each sequence with an indefinable human texture, from wide shots of a destructive earthquake to simple low angles of a couple kneeling at their wedding.” – Norm Schrager, Paste Magazine

IN SECRET

“…nobody really needed this movie to begin with, and our fledgling maestro fails to convince otherwise.” – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine

“All of the characters are trapped in a terrible existence that makes each day feel like a month.” – David Riedel, San Antonio Current

OMAR

“…under the Israeli occupation, however, the personal is quickly assumed to be political and vice versa, rapidly raising the stakes of every disagreement and quarrel to tragic proportions.” Inkoo Kang, The Wrap

TIM’S VERMEER

“Leave it to a pair of magicians to take the magic out of a great work of art, then raise even deeper questions than they answer.” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP 2/14/14

Posted on February 14, 2014 by bofca

ROBOCOP (2014)

“Director José Padilha apparently confuses the potential for commentary with the commentary itself as he raises many ethical and political issues that go bafflingly unaddressed.” – Kristofer Jenson, DIG Boston

“As a fan of the original, this reviewer really didn’t want to like this one… but he did” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“An empty, hollow, tediously self-referencing cover-version of a better movie.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

WINTER’S TALE

“I am sitting here as a nor’easter wails outside, thinking about WINTER’S TALE and how cold it left me.” – Joyce Kulhawik

“Virtually guarantees a few hundred thousand guys will end their Valentine’s Day evenings hearing the phrase “I’m soooooo sorry I made us go see that!” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

“I can at least say that the creators of this film should be given credit for trying something different, but it doesn’t elevate WINTER’S TALE into something better.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“A film that one could possibly, perversely enjoy as filmmaking farce by virtue of its towering level of technical and artistic ineptitude.” – Andy Crump, InReview

“A delicate romantic fantasy that requires that you willingly suspend your disbelief and give yourself over to it. Cynics need not apply.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“If you’re familiar with the concept of hate-watching or ironically loving a movie, then by all means, enjoy ripping the movie to shreds with your friends at the bar next door.” – Monica Castillo, Movie Mezzanine

ENDLESS LOVE

“An unfaithful remake of a already-unfaithful novel adaptation, meaning Hollywood has spent 30 years — and God knows how many writers — massaging all instances of individuality or danger out of the narrative.” – Jake Mulligan, EDGE

“A hackneyed story about the boy from the wrong side of the tracks and the girl just waiting to be freed from her prison of privilege.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“Despite its purity of feeling, ENDLESS LOVE is both a salvo against personal evolution and a paean to the foolish conviction that love comes first, and growth second.” – Inkoo Kang, The Wrap

ABOUT LAST NIGHT

“There’s some fun to be had with the comedy, but it would have worked better if the lead actor was actually in the lead role.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 2/7/14

Posted on February 7, 2014 by bofca

THE LEGO MOVIE

“Deliriously bugnuts; one of the most off-kilter movies to emerge from the big-budget system in quite some time; whether animated, for kids, or otherwise.” – Jake Mulligan, EDGE

“How did anyone convince a major studio and a global corporate brand with everything to lose and zero reason not to just play it safe to throw their weight behind something so specific and bizarre?” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

“A novelty film that will score with some people and will play like a YouTube short bloated to 101 minutes for others.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“The essence of the film lies in capturing playtime on the big screen, something at which Lord and Miller succeed with infectious humor and verve.” – Andy Crump, Inreview Online

“THE LEGO MOVIE’s rapid-fire jokes and anything-goes visual style outweigh its weaknesses. The voice talent is superior, and the whole thing feels as if it were made by adults who remember the joys of being a kid” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

THE MONUMENTS MEN

“This is certainly a fascinating footnote to history, but, as presented by Clooney and Heslov, the story has no locomotive.” – Sean Burns, The Improper Bostonian

“A good movie that feels like it ought’ve been great.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

“Thank goodness they don’t make them like they used to.” – Monica Castillo, Letterboxd

“The first really good film of the new year.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“It’s not surprising that Clooney, a powerful industry player who’s prone to juvenile pranks and likes to star in movies with all of his best buds, would create such a testesterone-choked film.” – Inkoo Kang, Indiewire

“What could go wrong? Just about everything.” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices

THE ATTORNEY

“THE ATTORNEY” is on the side of justice, but it’s a ham-fisted dramatization of real-life events that mistakes anger for persuasion.” – Inkoo Kang, Los Angeles Times

“”Yang’s preaching to the choir, and all of that sanctimony makes a poor replacement for reality.” – Andy Crump,Go-See-Talk

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 1/31/14

Posted on January 31, 2014 by bofca

LABOR DAY

“Something is lost in the translation, because what’s on screen is not believable for a second. It’s made harder to believe by the acting.” – David Reidel, C-Ville Weekly

“Reitman loves to give us characters we think we know and then show us we don’t know them at all.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“This risible bit of Harlequin romance is one of the silliest films I have ever watched. It’s pompous, self-serious and inadvertently hilarious.” – Sean Burns, Philadelphia City Paper

THAT AWKWARD MOMENT

“The whole thing has the feel of CHASING AMY-era Kevin Smith, but without the nerdy references and continuity nods that suckered a generation into thinking something interesting was there in the margins.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

“A movie that has no spark and doesn’t have the kind of crass wit necessary to make its viewers blush.” – Andrew Crump, Movie Mezzanine

“A lesson for the twenty-somethings who are presumably the target audience. Older viewers may wonder what the fuss is about and much older viewers may start thinking of Maurice Chevalier singing, “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

GLORIA

“Bars. Dancing. Hot sex. Cigarettes. Sounds like a movie that takes place in Miami in the 1980s, but in reality it’s Gloria, a present-day movie about a divorced Chilean woman in her early 50s.” – David Reidel, Santa Fe Reporter

“It’s not so much a day-in-the-life movie – it’s a rhythm-of-life movie.” – Jake Mulligan, EDGE

Boston Online Film Critics Association

The Boston Online Film Critics Association was established in May of 2012 to foster a community of web-based film critics.

Category Archives: Review Roundups

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP 02/28/2014

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP 02/21/2014

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP 2/14/14

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 2/7/14

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 1/31/14