Here are some reviews of films coming out at the theater this week as well as others that may be in theaters or newly on home video.
Opening: Aug. 17-19, 2018
Wide (United States)
Alpha
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Crazy Rich Asians
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2018 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
BlacKkKlansman
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dog Days
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Eighth Grade
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Meg
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Spy Who Dumped Me
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ahockalypse
- Excerpt: Wayne Harry Johnson Jr.’s Ahockalypse wants to be Goon meets George A. Romero, but this knucklepuck of a dreadful horror comedy misses the net, Plexiglas boards, safety netting, and doesn’t even land in the same arena.
The Atomic Cafe
Daniel Schindel @ Hyperallergic
Avengers: Infinity War
- Excerpt: AVENGERS INFINITY WAR is a Blu-ray You’ll Want to Snap Up.
Avengers: Infinity War
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: The Russo Brothers’ smartly tackles Marvel Studios’ most ambitious movie.
Beirut
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: Brad Anderson’s ‘Beirut’ is a well-crafted political thriller with Jon Hamm’s best big-screen performance yet.
Bitter Money
Daniel Schindel @ Hyperallergic
Black Panther
Vadim Grigoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
Blindspotting
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: And while the dialogue can be very heavy-handed and cyclical through callbacks bolstering its insights, it needs to hit us like a ton of bricks. Blindspotting is teaching us real world lessons that subtlety will only confuse. Some gray still remains, but not enough to muddy its message’s necessary intent.
Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: One of Blumhouse’s worst movies. Ever.
BuyBust
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Fans of ‘The Raid’ take note.
Christopher Robin
Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction,tv
- Excerpt: Cloying when it should be creative, schmaltzy when it should be sweet, the jar of “hunny” is almost empty in this film.
Christopher Robin
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Another story set in the Hundred Acre Wood targets tear ducts through melancholy and regret. Disney advertises slapstick mayhem, but delivers a pack of neuroses, poor parenting, and innocence lost.?
Deadpool 2
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: Not necessarily better but ‘Deadpool 2’ still offers enough bloody and filthy fun for its fans.
Elizabeth Harvest
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Elizabeth Harvest works better the less you know. The key to [its] enjoyment is investment. [And] those that grab hold of the mystery will be rewarded.
Ghost Stories
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: A well-crafted old-fashioned horror movie.
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee
Gringo
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: A star-studded mess.
Leave No Trace
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: An awesome off the grid survivalist drama.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
Vadim Grigoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
McQueen
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Bonhôte and Ettedgui reveal a world that took more than it gave this man because he loved it at the cost of his own mental and physical health.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Modernizing Shakespeare is a worthy effort and in the right hands can reinvent how you see the play (Romeo + Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing), but the attempt can also fall on its face. There is promise in the idea of contemporary Hollywood as Athens, but the haphazard translation produces far too many “WTF”s to succeed as a coherent whole.
Mug (Twarz)
Amber Wilkinson @ Eye For Film
- Excerpt: Following in a fine tradition of ‘the grotesque’ stretching back into fairy tale, Jacek may face physical deformity as a result of the transplant but he remains a warm and upbeat character, while the moral ugliness of those around him is accentuated in relief.
Night Comes On
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The whole therefore hinges upon Fishback’s performance and she assuredly carries it upon her shoulders. Spiro and Nwandu allow her to shine by letting the internal struggle she wages be the main thrust of everything we see onscreen.
Pandas
Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: Enchanting, enlightening and educational in equal measure, this is one to go wild over.
Please Stand By
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: Dakota Fanning’s fantastic performance is the heart of Ben Lewin’s heart-wrenching ‘Please Stand By.’
Puzzle
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Kelly Macdonald makes an already stellar script soar to charming, melancholic, and hopeful heights. Agnes is a character whose earnest solitude will earn your trust and sympathy in this coming of age story for a 40-something year-old woman.
Puzzle
Frank Ochieng @ Screen Anarchy
- Excerpt: Thoroughly simplistic and profound, Puzzle is a poignant and insightful character study of domestic alienation looking to take some time off for poetic evaluation. Needless to say the jigsaw pieces of emotional heft fits admirably in this soul-searching showcase.
Puzzle
Frank Ochieng @ Screen Anarchy
- Excerpt: Thoroughly simplistic and profound, Puzzle is a poignant and insightful character study of domestic alienation looking to take some time off for poetic evaluation. Needless to say the jigsaw pieces of emotional heft fits admirably in this soul-searching showcase.
The Ranger
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Like Chelsea, there’s a lot going on beneath the film’s surface. Wexler uses horror tropes as a mask for a poignant look at identity and finding the strength to wield it as a weapon rather than hiding it away to fit in.
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Not so much a who’s who of salacious Golden Age details, but a study of the pimp who outlived them all. Welcome the curtain opening and reminder there are not a sect of famous people better than you out there, they just have full-time publicists telling you they are.
Searching
Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: Worth seeking out…
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee
Skate Kitchen
Daniel Schindel @ Splice Today
Slender Man
- Excerpt: Slender Man is exceedingly thin in plot, character, craft, expansion of its viral internet roots, and is most lightweight where it matters most.
Slender Man
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The film certainly has more atmosphere and mood compared to other teen horror movies. However, under all those stylistic flourishes is just another junky teen horror movie complete with all the same drawbacks and none of the potential creativity.
Slender Man
Frank Ochieng @ Screen Anarchy
- Excerpt: Overall, Slender Man is just another nail-biting knockoff flexing its morbid muscles without contributing anything mildly innovative or invigorating to the already over-saturated horror genre. Whatever toxic flabbiness was needed to the Slender proceedings considerably fell at the waist side in dull, drawn-out debauchery.
Songwriter
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: This unique music doc shows creativity in motion. While watching the home videos included, I felt like a fly on the wall at each of Ed Sheeran’s songwriting sessions.
Sorry to Bother You
Frank Ochieng @ The Critical Movie Critics
- Excerpt: Brilliant in its commentary that taps into race relations, workplace woes, financial urgency, corporate corruption and the temptation of the confused psyche Sorry to Bother You is a challenging concoction of fueled anarchy and alienation set to the background of 9-to-5 office hour hell.
Sorry to Bother You
Frank Ochieng @ The Critical Movie Critics
- Excerpt: Brilliant in its commentary that taps into race relations, workplace woes, financial urgency, corporate corruption and the temptation of the confused psyche Sorry to Bother You is a challenging concoction of fueled anarchy and alienation set to the background of 9-to-5 office hour hell.
The Spy Who Dumped Me
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Director and co-writer Susanna Fogel aims to resurrect the familiar plot frame of laughs through near-death experiences and fish out of water naiveté and succeeds in doing exactly that for the film’s first half before the tidal wave regrettably loses momentum and direction resulting in a disappointing muddle.
The Spy Who Dumped Me
- Excerpt: Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon save the day—barely—in the hyperviolent buddy comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me.
The Spy Who Dumped Me
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: ‘The Spy who Dumped Me’ blends elements of both R-rated female-led comedies and R-rated action comedies. Smart idea but, unfortunately, the jokes run early and the movie quickly turns into a generic spy comedy. Both Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon are a comedic duo worth hanging on to though.
Summer of 84
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Taken on their own, the last 15-20 minutes of ‘Summer of 84’ work reasonably well. They would have worked even better if the film had done a single thing in the previous 80 minutes to earn the climax
Superfly
Frank Ochieng @ Screen Anarchy
- Excerpt: …[An] exaggerated and baseless reboot…2018’s Superfly feels like some padded, bombastic length rap music video that is overly showy in naughtiness but offers nothing constructive, calculating or crafty to its macabre mischievousness of storytelling.
Superfly
Frank Ochieng @ Screen Anarchy
- Excerpt: Still, 2018’s Superfly feels like some padded, bombastic length rap music video that is overly showy in naughtiness but offers nothing constructive, calculating or crafty to its macabre mischievousness of storytelling.
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: This shows the audience within the first few minutes why it belongs in the upper echelon of “fake relationship” romcoms.
Tomb Raider
Vadim Grigoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
Upgrade
Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: Upgraded on a curve.
What Still Remains
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Those hoping for zombies stumbling through the forest will be disappointed, but those searching for the complexities of how such things alter our psychology will not.
2017 Films
Beauty and the Beast
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: The wonderful look of the film, the charming musical score, the whimsical special effects, the excellent performances, the magical atmosphere. And… well, you get the idea!
The Bye Bye Man
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: How did Faye Dunaway get roped into doing the film?
Death Note
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Although the first half promises so much, the last half loses the right touch. This horror flick is scary in parts, but it seems too jumbled.
Double Lover (L’Amant Double)
Amber Wilkinson @ Eye For Film
- Excerpt: If there is rather more surface than substance and the ending is signposted, it is a surface full of intricacy and a signpost of admirable elegance.
Gerald’s Game
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Disturbing, scary and well done!
The Greatest Showman
Vadim Grigoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
The Greatest Showman
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: With great dance numbers and wonderful songs plus characters that stop the show, this movie musical deserves much more acclaim than it has received.
Hello Again
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: There’s only one musical number in the entire movie that I felt like applauding. Unfortunately, the wonderful Audra McDonald and her gorgeous rendition of “Beyond the Moon” could not save this disjointed offering.
Icarus
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: This revealing documentary about doping of athletes to improve their performances, plays almost like a spy thriller. And what a fascinating real-life character shows up to hold our interest!
The Man Who Invented Christmas
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Whether angry, frustrated, happy or sad, Dan Stevens’ Charles Dickens oozes energy and purpose in this holiday treat for the whole family.
The Man with the Iron Heart
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: An old-fashioned World War II thriller with chillingly impressive performances from both Jason Clarke and Rosamund Pike.
Message from the King
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Chadwick Boseman deserves kudos for his riveting performance here as a man deeply concerned about his sister and dedicated to personally punishing anyone who has done her harm.
Viceroy’s House
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Directed with great care by Gurinda Chadha, this splendid motion picture should be shown in all World History classes.
Wonder Wheel
Vadim Grigoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
