300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE

“[Eva Green] doesn’t simply dominate the film, she cuffs it to the bedpost and works it over until it can’t remember where it left the car and probably doesn’t care.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

“I actually enjoyed most of the action in 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE, but there are some clear and obvious complaints that no one on this planet can excuse.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“…it seems more like a video game than a real battle. One almost expects numbers in the corner keeping track of Greek and Persian casualties so we can keep score.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“This movie is so over the top, so stylistically acute, so surging with testosterone, and so visually brisk that there’s never a dull moment. There are plenty of laughs — not all of them intentional — but it’s all in bloody good fun.” – Kilian Melloy, EDGE Boston

“The film plays like leftovers, a sketchbook of deleted ideas. It doesn’t even have a narrative arc; it just fills out a narrative that already exists, consisting of scattered scenes that occur prior to, during and after the events of Snyder’s original.” – Jake Mulligan, In Review Online

“300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE has no ideology, purpose or ambition beyond being blood-and-guts spectacle on a massive scale. If that’s your idea of a great flick, please enjoy. If not, avoid it.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN

“While MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN may not be as popular and beloved as some of the cartoons from the past, it does make a nice debut as a feature film with this installment.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“Solidly assembled if fundamentally soulless, MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN is a gift to parents: a shiny, never-dull chunk of edutainment for Baby Einstein grads that’ll keep the kids amused with pratfalls and butt jokes while reassuring their moms and dads that not even a Nobel Prize-winning, Olympic medal-collecting time-machine inventor can get something as hard as parenting right.” – Inkoo Kang, The Wrap

“…a family film in the true sense. It is something that will appeal to all ages, even if your kids are laughing at different jokes than you are.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

“[Anderson’s] films feel like they might be set in the same universe as the Muppet Movies… if the Muppets themselves had all been raptured away decades prior; leaving only their human co-stars to meander, glum and without purpose, through the ruins of whimsy.” – Bob Chipman, Escapist

“…in making THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, he’s waved a red flag in front of a bull, except the flag is one of 2014’s most technically accomplished films and the bull is the vocal critical minority which has decried his cinema as nostalgic hackery over the years.” – Andy Crump, In Review Online

“”Being what it is, I was surprised how much I liked “THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“Wes Anderson accentuates the comedy, like “concupiscent curds” atop a heady brew of murder, mutilation, and even deeper mayhem.” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices

“When a film contains such ornate riches (it’s masterfully photographed in three separate screen aspect ratios—on film!—by Anderson regular Robert D. Yeoman, scored like your childhood music box by composer Alexandre Desplat and, yes, even allowed a little animation), you simply want more.” – Brett Michel, The Improper Bostonian

“Because the lead character arrives so well defined, so put together, Budapest is allowed to be Anderson’s plottiest picture. Gustave wins and loses riches, solves mysteries, and vanquishes bad guys, yet he remains the same man from frame one through the end credits.” – Jake Mulligan, Esquire

“I fucking hate Wes Anderson’s movies. It feels really good to get that off my chest. But The Grand Budapest Hotel ain’t half bad.” – David Riedel, San Antonio Current

THE BAG MAN

“Movies this bad don’t happen every day, and it goes without saying that when they do, they’re best avoided.” – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine