BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 08/05/2016


suicidesquadSUICIDE SQUAD

“Sure, the film throws in some contractual cameos and obligated pandering, but the majority of its running time is injected with the fuel of screw-it-all abandon.” – Greg Vellante, Edge Boston

“SUICIDE SQUAD had the ingredients to be something truly unique; but once again it seems the suits at Warner Brothers and DC have no idea how to make their own characters work on screen.” – Tim Estiloz, El Mundo Boston

“What does writer/director David Ayer do with all this? He gives us extended fight scenes… What he does not do is give us any reason to care about the results.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“What prevents SUICIDE SQUAD from being as epic as it should be is the story and the film’s overall structure.” – Jaskee Hickman, Cinematic Essential

 

steve-gleason-skydive-gleason-movieGLEASON

“…a two-hour chronicle of how terminal illness consumes its victims and overwhelms their loved ones, a portrait of what it is like to be helpless, in visceral terms, to your own mortality, and what it is like to watch the person you care about most in the entire world die slowly while you can only stand and watch.” – Andy Crump, Paste Magazine

 

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 07/29/2016

960 (7)
JASON BOURNE

“One would think that after more than a century of cinematic car chases we would have seen it all, but Greengrass and company have a few tricks up their sleeves.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“The last great serious spy series has become tedious.” – Norm Schrager, Meet in the Lobby

“For reasons I can only assume involve giant piles of money, Damon and Greengrass have returned at this late date to at long last make their own BOURNE REDUNDANCY, and I’m still a bit taken aback by how lousy it is.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality

“The times certainly are a-changin’. Now, the identity crisis seems focused less on the main character and more-so the film he resides within.” – Greg Vellante, Edge Boston

 

Nerve_dareyou_Trailer (1)NERVE

“You don’t ask if a roller coaster has a coherent plot or well-developed characters. You just get on and enjoy the thrills. If you can do that, you can take the dare.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“NERVE may be too safe for its own good, and too ignorant of its subject matter to be taken fully seriously, but at least it knows how to show us a good time.” – Andy Crump, Paste Magazine

“NERVE is a good movie that provides thrills as long as you’re like me and had no idea what was about to happen. It would also help if you’re the kind of person who is fine with it being as safe as it is.” – Jaskee Hickman, Cinematic Essential

 

phantom_boy_stillPHANTOM BOY

“…the movie’s magic fantasy is gentle and childlike instead of brawny and authoritarian. Here, might does not make right. Compassion does.” – Andy Crump, The Playlist

 

 

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 7/22/2016

Star Trek BeyondSTAR TREK BEYOND

“Defines itself as the first of the new TREK that firmly grasps what makes the old so special and how to play that against the more modernized take.” – Allyson Johnson, TYF

“If at first the muscle car dude might seem a strange choice for TREK, remember that he’s coming off of four films in which a diverse ensemble accomplishes impossible feats thanks to friendship and teamwork, so when you stop and think about it he’s pretty much the only guy for this job.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality

“With both its humor and action, STAR TREK BEYOND provides what’s needed for it to be absorbing and delightful.” – Jaskee Hickman, Cinematic Essential

“As worthy an entry in the STAR TREK canon as we’ve had in well over a decade (probably the best overall movie in the franchise since THE VOYAGE HOME in 1986.” – Bob Chipman, Geek.com

“There’s no complex ethical conundrum at the movie’s core, but there is a reliable message: Fear can be used to manipulate entire civilizations, and there are bad guys out there willing to exploit it for just that reason.” – Kilian Melloy, EDGE

“Longtime fans will remember that there used to be a rule of thumb about the movies: the “even ones” were the good ones.  Now with the reboots it looks like the rule will be look out for the “odd ones.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“Easily completes its mission as a fun and energetic sequel that will keep the audience entertained and thrilled during its 120-minute running time.” – John Hanlon, Townhall

 

ice age 5ICE AGE COLLISION COURSE

“Probably the laziest to date, but it still manages to provide a tolerable enough time at the movies that to hate it feels excessive, and to love it or even like it feels superfluous as well.” – Greg Vellante, EDGE

“For the first time there’s enough humor for the adults to make it bearable enough to sit through with the kids.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies 

 

the fitsTHE FITS

“She’s got a watchful gaze and a naturally commanding screen presence; imagine if Steve McQueen was an eleven-year-old black girl and you’re starting to get the idea.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality

 

abfab movieABSOLUTELY FABULOUS

“Echoes the TV version on a larger and more lavish scale — look! Edina’s kitchen leads out into a garden! — but it all comes back to the characters.” – Kilian Melloy, EDGE

“Spends far too much time trying to get the audience to care about these characters we have been gleefully emotionally distant from, and it sacrifices precious screen time in doing so.” – Deirdre Crimmins, Cinematic Essential

 

cafe societyCAFE SOCIETY

“Allen’s best since “Midnight in Paris,” and they’d make a great double bill, both films interrogating a warm and fuzzy nostalgia that’s incredibly soothing and ultimately useless.” – Sean Burns, WBUR

 

microbe and gasolineMICROBE AND GASOLINE

“Gondry’s intentions (and young actors) are good, even as this likable film suffers from a pesky lack of cohesiveness.” – Norm Schrager, Film Racket

“There are singular moments — like waiting in line at the beginning of the school year, making awkward eye contact with peers, studying how people have changed — that transported me back to my youth like a cinematic catapult.” – Greg Vellante, EDGE

BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP 7/15/2016

GHOSTBUSTERS2016GHOSTBUSTERS (2016)

“Those naysayers have been undermined by the quality of this reboot, which hopefully will relaunch the series and it’s obvious that the writers here had fun playing up the hatred of those commentators” – John Hanlon, John Hanlon Reviews

“It may be called GHOSTBUSTERS, but the Bill Murray and Harold Ramis comedy that this remake most resembles is the military send-up STRIPES; in as much as both feature two solid acts’ worth of really funny people mining hilarious jokes from training sequences and character interactions that then kind of falls apart when the plot takes over in Act 3.” – Bob Chipman, Geek.com

“There’s no getting around how inadequate Wiig and McCarthy are. The breakout here is “SNL” star McKinnon, who needs co-stars who could keep up with her.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“What makes GHOSTBUSTERS a pleasure to watch is how much these women obviously enjoy working with one another, generously feeding each other straight lines and setups as opposed to other comics who too often compete for attention.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality

“As a quick guilty pleasure, it’ll do. But unlike the original, it’s easily forgettable.” – Tim Estiloz, El Mundo Boston

“Doesn’t have a ghost of chance of saving this lackluster summer movie season, but it’s a chance to see some of the best comedic actors working today have a little fun while we’re all waiting for SOMETHING of biblical proportions to hit the big screen– before the fall.” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices

 

INFILTRATORTHE INFILTRATOR

“If only the quality of the film could match the quality of Cranston, who unearths enough underlying emotion from the character to make up for what the script fails to say.” – Allyson Johnson, Cambridge Day

“Bryan Cranston has become a character actor who can command attention in leading roles, and he shows why here.” – Daniel Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“Overall, a forgettable experience becomes memorable only in its pitfalls.” – Greg Vellante, Edge Boston

 

LIFE, ANIMATED720x405-Life,-Animated

“The intention isn’t to celebrate Disney as a brand, or as a market entity, but to acknowledge the objectively massive role the studio’s output has played in [Owen Suskind’s] life.” – Andy Crump, The Playlist

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 07/08/2016

mike-and-dave-need-wedding-dates

MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES

“Mike and Dave may need wedding dates, but their narrative pursuit exists in a movie that’s in need of so much more to even consider it worthy of your time.” – Greg Vellante, Edge Boston

“The plot doesn’t really make sense, and the characters are forgettable.” – Deirdre Crimmins, Cinematic Essential

“In a year where a Presidential candidate brags about his genital size in the midst of a debate it’s quite possible we have not yet hit bottom.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

 

The-Secret-Life-of-Pets-trailerTHE SECRET LIFE OF PETS

“Although, as in the TOY STORY films, the main premise is that the characters have complicated lives when the humans aren’t around, what we really learn from THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS is that they need us as much as we need them.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“There’s no inspiration here, just prosaism. Not every animation outfit can be Pixar, of course, but they should have more imagination than this.” – Andy Crump, Paste Magazine