Category Archives: Review Roundups

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 12/20

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ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUESANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES

“There’s an expectation to live up to the original, tossing aside new content in favor of recalling those catchphrases and iconic moments.”  – Monica Castillo, Movie Mezzanine

“There’s no doubt that McKay and Ferrell are playing big and broad here, discarding nuance entirely for on-the-nose commentary.” – Andrew Crump, Go-See-Talk

“ANCHORMAN 2 checks off a lot of the boxes you’d expect it to check off, sure, but it also checks off a bunch of boxes you didn’t know existed.” – Jake Mulligan, EDGE

“There’s a surprising amount of plot, which is the same thing that killed BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

“About all anyone could reasonably expect from the unnecessary sequel to one of the best comedies of all time.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

 

AMERICAN HUSTLEAMERICANHUSTLE

“It’s exhausting. There are no stakes. There are wigs and braless dresses and fat suits and perms. There is nothing resembling a compelling character or story.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

“It joins the pantheon of great con job movies with THE STING, HOUSE OF GAMES and WILD THINGS. – Dan Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“Hang onto your hair and pay attention to the details lest you get caught with your brain exposed.” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices

 

Inside-Llewyn-Davis-Ulysses-Oscar-Isaac-618x400INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

“The film positions itself as a lost artifact from an imagined world, one that few even bother to imagine much anymore — a perfect treatment for a narrative about an artist that no one was ever going to bother to remember.” – Jake Mulligan, EDGE

“That’s Llewyn in a nutshell: He’s the friend you’ll always let sleep on your couch, even though he brings almost nothing but ill tidings.” – Andrew Crump, In Review Online

“INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS is my favorite movie in years. It’s the Coens’ most melancholic reverie, ditching their usual clockwork plotting for a loosey-goosey collection of anecdotes that only reveal themselves to be impeccably structured in retrospect.”- Sean Burns, Improper Bostonian

“He is angry. He is frustrated by the way his life is going, and the way that he’s struggling so hard to make this work.” – Monica Castillo, Cinephiliacs Podcast

“An unexpected gem, a movie that seems completely familiar while turning narrative convention on its ear again and again.” – Norm Schrager, Meet In The Lobby
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS 3DWALKINGDINO

“It gets this critic’s traditional back of the hand for this kind of kid’s movie: parents should flip a coin… and the loser has to take them.” – Dan Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“This new 3D spectacle is a visual miracle. The animation comes alive through a celebration of corporeality: the jiggle of fat, the stretch and release of sagging skin, the tide-like motions of tendons and arteries beneath pebbled skin.” – Inkoo Kang, Village Voice

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 12/13

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THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUGHOBBIT2

“Hollywood films like THE HOBBIT and THE AVENGERS and so many more are re-appropriating the standards and structure of old-school serials, always building toward the next chapter, but they stretch on for three times as long. It’s exhausting.” – Jake Mulligan, EDGE

“A significant improvement in every way, save that its triumphs make its predecessor’s shortcomings all the more apparent.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

“We’ll just have to wait for next year’s conclusion,THERE AND BACK AGAIN, to see whether it was worth the detours.” – Kristofer Jenson, DIG Boston

“There’s a dispiriting lack of energy in this second adventure; there’s no spring in Jackson’s step.” – Monica Castillo, Movie Mezzanine

“I didn’t hate it. It’s not converting me to a fan of elves and dwarves and orcs and hobbits, but considering its running time and that there’s one more film to go, consider it high praise from a vocal non-fan that I wasn’t bored. I can only imagine what true believers will make of it.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“This a case of just-too-muchery, more for the sake of more, which is neither strictly a negative thing nor the best way to approach bringing every nook and cranny of Tolkien’s world to life.” – Andrew Crump, Go-See-Talk

“A bajillion times better than the previous installment, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED PIECE OF SHIT.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

 

SAVING MR. BANKSSAVINGBANKS

“Your enjoyment of the film will depend on how you take your grandfatherly figures and traumatic childhood flashbacks, and how long you want to spend in the Disney vault.” – Monica Castillo, DIG Boston

“The great irony, though, is that there is some serious revisionism and whitewashing going on to make one of the characters more agreeable… it’s just not Walt Disney.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

“The moments are there. The story has a chance. But in the world of Disney entertainment, this is far from an E-ticket ride.” – Norm Schrager, Meet In The Lobby

“If you can enjoy this as a fictional gloss on the real story, it is quite entertaining. If you walk away thinking that Disney finally won over Travers who loved what he did with her work, you’ll have jumped into one of Bert’s chalk pictures and left the real world behind.” – Dan Kimmel, North Shore Movies

 

TYLER PERRY’S A MADEA CHRISTMAS131328_bc

“Lee Daniels tried to sell out but he just somehow couldn’t. Meanwhile Tyler Perry is on the nearest street corner with a “FOR SALE” sign around his neck in a skirt shorter than anything Madea ever wore.  This movie is gross.” – Sean Burns, Technology Tell

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 12/6

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OUT OF THE FURNACE

“The movie has atmosphere to spare, although the characters remain archetypes: the stoic hero, the troubled brother, the morally ambiguous friend, the psychopathic villain, the well-meaning sheriff who can’t go far enough.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore MoviesFURNACE

“Cooper seems to like letting scenes play out for a lot longer than they probably should, and presents moldy clichés as if he was just discovering them for the first time.” – Sean Burns, Technology Tell

“You can take the Oscar bait out of the gritty revenge thriller, but you can’t take the gritty revenge thriller out of the Oscar bait.” – Andrew Crump, Go-See-Talk

 

THE PUNK SINGERPUNK SINGER

“Exists as a work that’s simultaneously joyful and tragic, though that contradiction only makes Anderson’s film feel even more transparent and honest.” – Andrew Crump, Go-See-Talk

“Fascinatingly traces the evolution of a woman who once sang, ‘I’m your worst nightmare come to life’ in her youth, was hated at a formative age for all the wrong reasons and now has forged a quiet but committed existence as an ailing revolutionary.” – Inkoo Kang, LA Times

“Just don’t try to tell her that her story or her ideas carry less weight than those of men. She won’t have it.” – Kilian Melloy, EDGE

 

beautyTHE GREAT BEAUTY

“If [actor Toni Servillo]’s presence feels similar to Marcello Mastroianni’s in LA DOLCE VITA that’s no mistake. It’s just that LA DOLCE VITA didn’t seem to be grasping at straws.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

“A monumental act of hubris made more impressive by being pulled off so splendidly.” – Sean Burns, Philadelphia City Paper

“More than anything, this is a work of self-refinement.” – Andrew Crump, Go-See-Talk

“The film’s slightly heavy length and loose narrative won’t be to everyone’s tastes; but the endless charm, the boundless creativity and Luca Bigazzi’s cinematography are inarguably wondrous.” – Norm Schrager, Meet In The Lobby

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 11/29

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FROZENFROZEN

“…this may be the best animated offering out of Hollywood this year.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“Succeeds in updating, modernizing and even critiquing the [Disney Princess] franchise-formula – without turning into a SHREK-style jaded gagfest.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist (Spoiler-free. In-depth piece w/spoilers HERE)

 

HOMEFRONTHOMEFRONT

“It’s not exactly idiosyncratic, but at least it doesn’t feel as if it came off the focus-tested-$150-million-movie conveyor belt.” – Jake Mulligan, EDGE

“A straightforward thriller with beatings, shootings, a young girl in peril, and a stoic hero who never loses his cool. It’s worked before. There’s no reason it shouldn’t work again.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“You can think James Franco’s turn in SPRING BREAKERS was the defining supporting performance of this year and still want to watch him get his block knocked off by Statham. At least I do.” – Sean Burns, The Improper Bostonian

 

OLDBOYOLDBOY

“I liked this movie fine but I’ll get back to you when I figure out a reason why it exists.” – Sean Burns, Technology Tell

 

 

PHILOMENAPHILOMENA

“Provokes fury and outrage, but also supplies a balm in the form of truly gracious forgiveness.” – Kilian Melloy, EDGE

“Needless to say, the grande dame’s performance, alternately goofy and grave, is an absolute tour de force.” – Inkoo Kang, Village Voice

 

BLACK NATIVITYBLACKNATIVITY

“It’s goofy and probably very easy to mock, but so full of positivity and good spirits that I can’t imagine why anybody would want to bother.” – Sean Burns, Technology Tell

“Lemmons hits all of the expected notes that come prepackaged with this sort of picture; call it corny and hammy, because it is, but she’s more than up to the task of making all of the expected “stuff” of its archetype work.” – Andrew Crump, Go-See-Talk

 

NEBRASKANEBRASKA

“This is more of a melancholic reverie than a young man’s outburst – this once-furious auteur has grown up, and mellowed out.” – Jake Mulligan, Movie Mezzanine

“Payne cobbles together a shockingly accurate portrait of the US’s flyover states, at least as envisioned by those of us living on the East and West coasts; they’re desolate, barren, cultural wastelands, places that time has forgotten, populated by people modernity has passed by.” – Andrew Crump, Go-See-Talk

“It’s a gimmicky sitcom script gussied up with “artful” affectations borrowed from the New Hollywood heyday of the early ’70s. Except it doesn’t even get those right.” – Sean Burns, The Improper Bostonian

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 11/22

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THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRECATCHINGFIRE

“In many ways it’s a better film than the first one. It keeps the strengths of the first film––the brilliant casting, the striking art direction––and does a much better job telling the story.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“It’s quite engrossing until the movie abruptly stops mid-scene, teasing another sequel coming soon to a theater near you. Sigh, the perils of franchise maintenance.” – Sean Burns, Philadelphia City Paper”

“This flick is a nail biter, even in the quiet moments.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

“Sure, it faithfully aligns with the book and safely plays to the franchise’s core audience. But this sequel is better cast, well-wound and powerfully paced.” – Norm Schrager, Meet-In-The-Lobby

 

DELIVERY MANDELIVERYMAN

“Slight but feel-good entertainment. It probably should have gone right to Lifetime in the first place, because it’s not going to be finding much of a home in movie theaters this weekend.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

 

 

BOOKTHIEFTHE BOOK THIEF

“The finished product is so lacking in visual dynamism and cinematic texture that it plays like an audio book with images attached. You could watch the picture with your eyes closed and lose very little.” – Jake Mulligan, EDGE Boston

 

 

GO FOR SISTERSGOFORSISTERS

“It’s an absorbing, well-researched snapshot from the American class struggle with excellent performances and an evocative sense of time and place.” – Sean Burns, Technology Tell

 

 

THE ARMSTRONG LIE

“The underlying thread in this ruinous yarn is that the movie we’re seeing today only exists because Armstrong screwed the happy ending to Gibney’s 2009 documentary.” – Monica Castillo, DIG Boston