2015

Posted on June 5, 2015 by bofca

ENTOURAGE

“If you think missing ENTOURAGE means you’ll miss out on chance of seeing an insightful inside look at the workings of a Hollywood studio, then watch the 1992 Robert Altman classic THE PLAYER. It’s a much better movie in every respect.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

“As a satire of the movie industry, ENTOURAGE is Hollywood Lite.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, North Shore Movies

“…this pack of bratty wolves crying to moon about their rich white male problems is just annoying enough to call to animal control.” – Monica Castillo, International Business Times

“…so celebratory of its wickedness that it feels like the cinematic equivalent of partying within the nine consecutive circles of Hell.” – Charlie Nash, Cinematic Essential

SPY

“Thank goodness for SPY, which is funny, empowering, and avoids the slippery slope of mean comedy.” – Deirdre Crimmins, Cinematic Essential

“With the release of SPY, it seems that McCarthy has finally found a role that fits her like a glove.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

“Melissa McCarthy is at the top of her game here, doling out one-liners at the same rate James Bond beds women.” – Sam Cohen, Under the Gun Review

“As perfect a star-vehicle as has been conceived for a comedian since Adam Sandler pulled on his blue suit for THE WEDDING SINGER.” – Bob Chipman, MovieBob

“Excruciatingly funny.” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices

INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3

“INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 does deliver some quality scares for people who aren’t completely turned off by horror films that welcome people under the age of eighteen.” – Jaskee Hickman, Cinematic Essential

“Fits together well enough, but there’s a sameness setting in that’s more pronounced now that you can’t blame it on other returning actors of plot details.” – Bob Chipman, MovieBob

LOVE & MERCY

“LOVE & MERCY doesn’t give us perfection, but it is a powerful, sensorially rich experience all the same.” – Kilian Melloy, Edge Boston

“In the current context, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to read LOVE & MERCY as some gentle rebuke to blockbuster-season excess.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

RESULTS

“…what makes RESULTS so special is that it delivers all the conventional rom-com satisfactions while also stubbornly being it’s own unique thing. [Bujalski] has respect for the genre, yet brings an experimental filmmaker’s curiosity to the table.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality

“[Bujalski’s] replaced the hallmarks of the genre with the verbal awkwardness and spiritual messiness of real life.” – Jake Mulligan, Dig Boston

“Naivety is fun to poke fun at, sure. To grow up with these main players, at least make them interesting to watch being dynamic.” – Sam Cohen, Under the Gun Review

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 04/24/2015

Posted on April 24, 2015 by bofca

(Note: Time film critic Richard Corliss passed away this Thursday. The Boston Online Film Critics Association extends its condolences toward Richard’s friends and family.)

THE AGE OF ADALINE

“What does it feel like to live a hundred years? Just ask anyone who has sat through THE AGE OF ADALINE.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

“… the film is shadowed by a kind of wistfulness and restraint that draws us into what might have seemed melodramatic or sentimental.” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices

THE WATER DIVINER

“…what the movie lacks in discipline and polish, it more than makes up for in sheer sincerity.” – Sean Burns, Movie Mezzanine

“…when a mixed-bag movie is also this mixed up, you either throw up your hands, turn off your brain, and hope for the best, or seek solace in your soda and popcorn.” – Kilian Melloy, Edge Boston

“In the end [Russell Crowe’s] performance is one of the least problematic aspects of the film, but perhaps it shows that he should stick to acting.” – Deirdre Crimmins, Cinematic Essential

5 TO 7

“…5 TO 7 is too damn winsome for its own good. Worse than that, it’s disingenuous.” – Andy Crump, Paste Magazine

“5 TO 7 starts so wonderfully that its left turn into bologna is all the more disheartening.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

“While she certainly has the ability to wrap the audience around her little finger, Marlohoe is far less convincing when the role causes her to be more than charming.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

“The set up is fascinating, the humor is rich and the camera work is as stylish as the French new wave; there are so many places this movie could go. But where it takes us is unbelievably facile and sentimental.” – Michael Cox, Edge Boston

ADULT BEGINNERS

“From a comedic standpoint, you’ll find something to laugh about at certain points during ADULT BEGINNERS, but there isn’t anything to love when looking at the film as a whole.” – Jaskee Hickman, Cinematic Essential

“This isn’t an actor’s movie, nor much of a screen comedy; it’s a sitcom showcase.” – Jake Mulligan, Edge Boston

“The comedy fares better, but that’s probably because the drama itself is pat, predictable and underdeveloped.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

LITTLE BOY

“You’re certain to find better movies to see other than LITTLE BOY, but if you want to see this for some reason, it wouldn’t kill you.” – Jaskee Hickman, Cinematic Essential

THE FORGER

“Travolta mopes his way through the title role as Ray Cutter, a brilliant jailbird art forger from those mythical movie-land mean streets of Boston – where everyone talks in outlandish accents and they never seem to have trouble finding a parking space.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 04/17/2015

Posted on April 17, 2015 by bofca

UNFRIENDED

“Do u like scary movies? Lol. Coz OMFG! This 1 is about ppl dying on Skype. Srsly! Like, WTF?!?! #Yolo” – Charlie Nash, Cinematic Essential

“Like the cast, we’re trapped in a browser with no means of escape. Even Ctrl+Alt+Del can’t save us.” – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine

EX MACHINA

“What starts out as a smart psychological thriller with an edge of speculative fiction proves to be a clockwork amusement built from standard parts and not wound sufficiently to get it through its full running time.” – Kilian Melloy, Edge Boston

“…there’s an underlying ickiness to the entire film, and not just the inherent “OMG, THE ROBOTS ARE LIKE PEOPLE” ickiness. There’s an undercurrent of sexism that’s unpalatable.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

“With all of the complaining that I do in this review, you might think that I hate EX MACHINA, but that’s not true.” – Jaskee Hickman, Cinematic Essential

“As a film that utilizes misdirection and provokes users to seek through layers of subtext, EX MACHINA proves to be intellectually appealing without materializing into a thesis on one’s own ideas.” – Sam Cohen, Under the Gun Review

TRUE STORY

“That [Hill and Franco] are pals gives TRUE STORY an existential stink, but they, and the movie, acquit themselves well.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

“The film wants to feel important, and it flirts with being a procedural — but it would have done better to stick with celebrating the slippery interface between facts and the human truths we construct from them.” – Kilian Melloy, Edge Boston

“The laughably telegraphed revelations wouldn’t cut it as CBS prime-time fodder.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality

CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

“It’s a movie you’ll find yourself turning over in your mind for quite some time after the closing credits roll, marinating in the heady swirl of ideas and defiantly unresolved resolutions.” – Sean Burns, The Artery

THE MAFIA ONLY KILLS IN SUMMER

“Diliberto doesn’t hand-hold in the slightest. He does, however, deploy background carefully. Attentive viewers should have no trouble keeping pace with his brio.” – Andy Crump, Movie Mezzanine

MONKEY KINGDOM

“The subtle, empowering themes at the core of this latest Disneynature film are heartening and certainly something to share with our children (much more politically correct than stories of princesses).” – Michael Cox, Edge Boston

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 04/10/2015

Posted on April 10, 2015 by bofca

THE LONGEST RIDE

“THE LONGEST RIDE tells a romance narrative, but the relationship isn’t the primary focus. This is a movie about a body.” – Jake Mulligan, Edge Boston

“If you are sucker for romances, anything written by Nicholas Sparks, and cowboys, the contemporary segments of THE LONGEST RIDE has been manufactured specifically for you.” – Deirdre Crimmins, Cinematic Essential

WHITE GOD

“The best thing to do is save the money you’d spend to see White God and donate it to a local shelter instead.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

“There’s no manipulation here, no chicanery, no falsehood, just a frank, stylized attempt at critiquing man’s dominion over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” – Andy Crump, Cinematic Essential

KILL ME THREE TIMES

“…a dark comedy that would make a bucket of scorpions look like a tea party.” – Kilian Melloy, Edge Boston

“Murder, blackmail, revenge…and Simon Pegg in a Fu-Manchu moustache. What else do you need?” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

“You know what, let’s just say that there isn’t many redeemable qualities here.” – Sam Cohen, Under the Gun Review

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 04/03/2015

Posted on April 3, 2015 by bofca

furious-7-rock FURIOUS 7

“The stakes are raised in terms of possible mortality of the main players, the cars are more expensive and harder to wreck, and the overlying theme about family as the source of adrenaline-induced fury is enough to destroy a whole urban city (literally).” – Sam Cohen, Substream Magazine

“The franchise has evolved into pure action spectacle. It has transformed from a car show into a gun show.” – Jake Mulligan, Edge Boston

“…the filmmakers forgot Chekhov’s rule that if The Rock says “I’m gonna put a hurt on him so bad he’ll wish his mother kept her legs crossed” in the first act, you need to pay that off in the third.” – Sean Burns, Spliced Personality

“Everything included in FURIOUS 7 allows fans of this lengthy series to jump right in the driver’s seat of this action packed cinematic vehicle and embrace all of the entertainment that these movies are looking to offer.” – Jaskee Hickman, Cinematic Essential

“The first movie franchise to ever successfully transition to self-parody; mostly by doing so in such a ‘subtle’ (after a fashion) kind of way that anyone who might’ve been annoyed by that transition probably didn’t notice.” – Bob Chipman, Movie Bob Reviews

WOMAN IN GOLD

“…a hokey piece of cinema that uses the horrors of the Holocaust for little else but yanking the viewers’ heartstrings.” – Charlie Nash, Cinematic Essential

“…WOMAN IN GOLD is harmless and mildly arresting thanks to the efforts of its leads. It just doesn’t rise much above being more than just half-cocked schmaltz, which is a bummer at best and an insult to Altmann’s struggle at worst. ” – Andy Crump, Paste Magazine

“The film lets us see the tensions and sadness that are inevitable in a story like this, but also offers some wry humor.” – Daniel M. Kimmel, The Jewish Advocate

EFFIE GRAY

“EFFIE GRAY isn’t an easy viewing experience, but it has the goods for a patient audience. It will stay the dragons awhile.” – David Riedel, Santa Fe Reporter

MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE AND WORK OF ORSON WELLES

“Although it stumbles on the details, though, the one thing that Workman’s movie does quite effectively is give us a sense of the independence spirit that Welles brought to all his art, whether they were successful or not.” – John Black, Boston Event Guide

Boston Online Film Critics Association

The Boston Online Film Critics Association was established in May of 2012 to foster a community of web-based film critics.

Tag Archives: Review Round-Up

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 06/05/2015

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 04/24/2015

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 04/17/2015

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 04/10/2015

BOFCA REVIEW ROUND-UP: 04/03/2015