MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

“Shovels mass quantities of iambic pentameter into the mouths of untrained third-string television actors, most of whom appear to have learned their lines phonetically. Half these folks might as well be speaking Klingon.” – Sean Burns, The Improper Bostonian

“The unfussiness of the production and the speed under which it was made contribute to its freshness. The cast shows respect for the text, and they clearly love tearing into the words. Get thee to a multiplex.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

“It’s refreshing to see this familiar group of faces operate on a relatively stripped-down stage when we’re so used to watching them in worlds where they’re accompanied by vampires, spaceships and superheroes.” – Andrew Crump, Go See Talk

“Just about everyone clowns. Perhaps worried that the Shakespearean dialogue would lose much of his audience, Whedon’s packed this performance with more pratfalls than a Benny Hill short. The mugging is shameless.” – Jake Mulligan, Charleston City Paper

“A new classic. Everyone involved in the adaptation is a joy to watch, but certain members of Whedon’s actors feel like they were born to read Shakespeare. Both Whedonites and fans of The Bard should be pleased.” – Evan Crean, Starpulse

“The actors choke on the Shakespearean script and we probably could have used a take or two more, just to make sure we get a clean shot. Kenneth Branagh never would have let this happen.” – Monica Castillo, DigBoston

WORLD WAR Z

“Turns out to be the summer’s first truly enjoyable tentpole movie. Its structure is that of an especially grisly hero’s journey; the goal less a tidy resolution than a white-knuckle thrill ride.” – Kilian Melloy, EDGE Boston

“The rambling nature of the film leaves it feeling under-stuffed and small despite its obsession with capturing events on a macro level. It might not be ‘epic’ like the modern summer movie, but it’s just as tepid and dopey.” – Andrew Crump, Go See Talk

“To call WORLD WAR Z an adaptation would be an injustice. The movie masquerades as a big-screen version of the popular Max Brooks book, but underneath that cheap disguise, it is a total stranger.” – Evan Crean, Reel Recon

“It’s a plot better suited to a miniseries than a movie, and interestingly, the best parts come when they disregard any obligation to the source material and start inventing shit.” – Kristofer Jenson, DigBoston

“More like an amusement park ride or video game. One half-expects Samuel L. Jackson to come out and start shouting about all the motherf****** zombies on his motherf****** plane.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

THE BLING RING

“An action photo of America in decline. The knockout punch landed, and Sofia snapped a shot of the body hitting the canvas. We didn’t escape the Era of Narcissism, we settled in comfortably and bought a bigger TV set.” – Jake Mulligan, Rushmore Kite Flying Society

“The result is an introspective movie about people to whom introspection is a foreign concept. There’s no there there, which I think is probably the point. But it gets awfully old. A chilling depiction of emptiness, also tedious.” – Sean Burns, Philadelphia Weekly

“It is an engaging film. It shows a director who has found her subject matter and is still figuring out what she wants to do with it. It’s a process, and Coppola makes it one that it is worthwhile for us to follow.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

“When you’re the very best –and Pixar is the very best in contemporary American animated films– you still can’t expect to hit a home run every time. More like reheated leftovers than a new dish.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“A movie missing a lot of heart, and there’s no way around that. MONSTERS UNIVERSITY can’t touch its predecessor, but it’s a fun distraction all the same. I’ll take this one over another CARS installment.” – Bob Chipman, The Escapist

FILL THE VOID

“Rich in color, and although its characters are not in ball gowns and tuxes, there is an elegance to the way Burshtein captures their clothes in the light, moving along sidewalks, or even seated at the dinner table.” – Monica Castillo, Paste Magazine

“Burshtein has made a movie that draws in outsiders—say, the non-Orthodox—and exposes the predicaments of the characters on screen as real as the predicaments we face.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

“There’s a question implicitly asked in almost every scene: In such a close-knit faith community, where issues of gender and sexuality are of communal, rather than individual, concern, what’s an individual’s true worth?” – Kilian Melloy, EDGE Boston