BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 05/16/2014

GODZILLAGODZILLA

“Edwards waits too long before directly involving the monster. Instead he spends more of the film’s two hour run time on humans, who don’t feel consequential.” – Evan Crean, Starpulse

“While the scaly sexagenarian glimpsed here is vastly superior to the wrong-headed monster seen in Roland Emmerich’s disastrous 1998 reimagining starring Matthew Broderick, at least that version of the giant lizard wasn’t reduced to playing a cameo role in his own film.” – Brett Michel, The Improper Bostonian

“Edwards wants Godzilla to matter. He wants us to be in awe of Godzilla because Godzilla is a creation worthy of awe, and not because the film bludgeons us into dazzled submission.” – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine

“The battles are beautifully staged and executed, evoking something not even the original GODZILLA film was able to achieve; which is a feeling of true danger, fright and devastation.” – Tim Estlioz, Boston Examiner

“GODZILLA is certainly a summer movie that deserves to be considered to be a true blockbuster.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“What [director Gareth] Edwards and screenwriter Max Borenstein get is that while Godzilla is a monster, he is a monster we want to cheer.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“Edwards enjoys teasing an audience, keeping his creature under wraps, like Spielberg with his shark or his dinosaurs. But Godzilla doesn’t appear until almost an hour into this movie, a test for viewers rather than a tease.” – Brett Michel, The Improper Bostonian

“”Even RETURN OF THE JEDI — the least of the first three STAR WARS films—knew that when cutting away from action, one should cut to more action. And how did no one notice—twice—a 10-story-tall monster lumbering around in a major metropolitan area?” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

 

MILLION DOLLAR ARM

Million Dollar Arm Film

“Although the part is woefully underwritten, Lake Bell does an exceptional job making the tenant the only likable American in the movie (unless you count liking Alan Arkin for being a curmudgeon). Good as she is, though, she can’t make the transformation of JB from arrogant agent to likable human being believable. Sadly, neither can Hamm.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

“The upbeat nature of MILLION DOLLAR ARM prevents me from hating it, but there’s nothing else included that would come close to making it a truly enjoyable experience.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“Yet there’s also the ugly veneer of imperialism driving the film, not because it is deliberately disrespectful to its Indian characters, but because it treats them as little more than props.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

 

CHEF21

CHEFis a film that succeeds simply by being about a man trying to get his in life order and moving the right direction.” – Jaskee Hickman, The Movie Picture Show

“Is it possible to yearn for life in a food truck?” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices

 

double-movieTHE DOUBLE

“…for all of its notable cinematic flourishes, THE DOUBLE is actually the product of one Richard Ayoade, who, in his second directorial effort (after 2010’s SUBMARINE), has managed to take all of those influences, plus a serious dose of Kafka-esque angst, and shape it into something that’s truly one of a kind.” – Andy Crump, In Review Online

 

GODSPOCKETGOD’S POCKET

“The film as a whole, however, never congeals around its seriocomic, slice-of-life plot.” – Kristofer Jenson, DIG

“There isn’t much in GOD’S POCKET we haven’t seen before. In tone, it bears a resemblance to PALOOKAVILLE, a superior chronicle of dim hoods in a dead-end existence. In plot, there’s a touch of Hitchcock’s THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter