Because of embargoes (those happy little restrictions on when critics can post reviews, good or bad), a lot of our critics aren’t able to share links with you until release day. Here are some last-minute reviews for this weekend’s upcoming films. We’ve kept in all the reviews posted yesterday as well so you can have more help in deciding what to see (if you haven’t already).
Our critics have been hard at work reviewing the latest films. Here is a look at what’s coming out this weekend (in select cities, check your local listings) and what else may be in theaters right now.
Opening: May 1-3, 2015
Wide (United States)
Avengers: Age of Ultron
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Far from the Madding Crowd
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An amazing meditation on yearning and the brimming hearts of three men and the woman they all want to marry.
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Ridiculously romantic in all the best ways, and more modern, more progressive, and even just plain more grownup that half the movies thrown at us today.
[New Today] Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Thomas Hardy thought it was to move on from Jane Austen, so he wrote a female Mr. Darcy
[New Today] Pat Mullen @ Cinemablographer
- Excerpt: It’s hard to imagine anyone surpassing the incomparable Julie Christie and her iconic performance in John Schlesinger’s 1967 adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd, but Mulligan does it. In fact, she blows Christie right out of the water and that’s no small feat.
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Hyena
Kenji Fujishima @ Slant Magazine
Iris
[New Today] Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Much like Elaine Stritch, who also wore the same signature owl eyeglasses, Iris Apfel is a New York City character, a grande dame of society, fashion and flea markets.
Welcome to Me
[New Today] Candice Frederick @ Reel Talk Online
David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: By the end, though, when Alice must begin making amends to the people she wronged during her unchecked and well-funded manic episode, it becomes clear that Welcome to Me isn’t concerned at all with the topic of mental illness it seems to want credit for addressing. Piven flirts early on with the dangerous allure of Alice’s psychotic abandon but we come to understand that the screenplay by Eliot Laurence has employed borderline personality disorder to contrive conflict just so it could contrive its resolution.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A frolicsome comedy that gives Kristen Wiig a chance to strut her stuff.
2015 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
1915
24 Days
5 to 7
[New Today] Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: Breezy New York affair lets everyone be likeable
Adult Beginners
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Age of Adaline
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Blackbird
Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
[New Today] Candice Frederick @ Reel Talk Online
The Boy Next Door
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Clouds of Sils Maria
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Cymbeline
George Zervopoulos @ www.moviesltd.gr [Greek]
The Divergent Series: Insurgent
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ex Machina
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Felix and Meira
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Freetown
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: Freetown, the newest feature film in the annals of serious Mormon cinema, does a respectable job of showing the horrors of the Liberian civil war through civilian eyes.However, given that this is a Mormon feature film, we were not going to get the graphic violence…
Focus
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Furious 7
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Jupiter Ascending
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Just Before I Go
Kingsman: The Secret Service
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Lazarus Effect
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Little Boy
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Lost River
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McFarland USA
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: It might be a familiar story, but it told with sincerity, which makes it much better than one might give it credit for.
Of Horses and Men
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
- Excerpt: Dark humor with tragic outcomes form a unique glimpse into an Icelandic horse-riding community.
Paddington
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
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The Rewrite
Nuno Reis @ Antestreia [Portuguese]
She’s Funny That Way
- Excerpt: Director Peter Bogdanovich’s first (theatrical) film since The Cat’s Meow bowed 14 years ago, She’s Funny That Way is fast and loose and a whole lotta fun. Part Woody Allen, part Cluny Brown, it’s the kind of good-natured comedy they just don’t make any more.
Skin Trade
James Marsh @ The Society For Film
- Excerpt: Fans of Thai martial arts star Tony Jaa who were left unsated after his all-too-brief appearance in Furious 7 should be more than happy with his turn in Ekachai Uekrongtham’s Skin Trade. Written and produced by Dolph Lundrgen, the veteran Swedish action star wisely gifts most of the heavy lifting (and kicking) to his diminutive co-star, as they team up to take down Ron Perlman’s crew of Serbian human traffickers.
Stray Dogs
Pete Gkaris @ www.moviesltd.gr [Greek]
[New Today] Matthew McKernan @ FilmWhinge
- Excerpt: Stray Dogs is then a somewhat confounding film that powerfully conveys humans in terrible situations only to drop that focus in favour of surrealist and experimental aesthetics.
Tangerines
[New Today] Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: The film works not because of any kind of historical specificity but because of its ability to simplify.
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
Testament of Youth
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ Concrete Playground
Tracers
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Another terrible film with Taylor Lautner…
George Zervopoulos @ www.moviesltd.gr [Greek]
The Tribe
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Unfriended
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Voices
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Water Diviner
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2014 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
American Sniper
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Annie
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Banksy Does New York
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Before I Go to Sleep
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Boyhood
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Divergent
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Elsa & Fred
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Guardians of the Galaxy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
If I Stay
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Inherent Vice
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Locke
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Private Number
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
[New Today] Stacia Kissick Jones @ She Blogged By Night
The Pyramid
José Arce @ LaButaca.net [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Alexandre Aja eleva desde la producción el interés industrial de la típica castaña pseudo slasher de siempre. Un punto de partida simpático y una criatura majeta pero cutrísima no justifican este plomo. Fatal en general.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Still Alice
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Young Ones
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
2015 Films (Coming Soon)
7500
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
The Asylum
Blue Lips
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Difret
Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
Gabbar is Back
[New Today] Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Gente de Bien
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Insecure
George Zervopoulos @ www.moviesltd.gr [Greek]
Murieron por encima de sus posibilidades
Diego Salgado @ Cine para Leer [Spanish]
Parasyte – Completion
- Excerpt: Much like how Parasyte Part 1 suffered from being all set-up, so its sequel, Parasite – Completion, is similarly hobbled by being mostly a series of climactic stand-offs and philosophical summations, with precious little build-up or satisfactory pay-off.
Reality
Donald Jay Levit @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Samba
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Sexo fácil, películas tristes
Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
Spanish Affair
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Spooks: The Greater Good
Matt Looker @ TheShiznit.co.uk
- Excerpt: This tense, taut and intelligently plotted British thriller makes more generic instalments in the genre – like Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit – seem like a dumb jock movie by comparison.
