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 22-24, 2015
Wide (United States)
Poltergeist
[New Today] Jason Bailey @ Flavorwire
- Excerpt: The essential paradox of the remake has seldom been as explicitly — and often frustratingly — actualized as it is in Gil Kenan’s new ‘Poltergeist,’ which assembles a very gifted group of people to go through another movie’s paces, a cover band you wish would just play their own songs.
[New Today] Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: Poltergeist, a condensed remake of Tobe Hooper’s 1982 horror film, is doubly redundant.
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
[New Today] MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: If you have any inclination to see this, just rewatch the original. You will lose nothing, and you’ll have a far better time.
[New Today] Ben Kendrick @ Screen Rant
- Excerpt: Poltergeist (2015) is a forgettable diversion – one that may satisfy casual viewers looking for a mildly eerie (and sometimes humorous) ghost story.
[New Today] Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Poltergeist isn’t one of those remakes that totally pisses on the corpse of the original, but it doesn’t do much with the framework either.
[New Today] Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: The remake feels like a rush through paces we’ve been over before brought to you by filmmakers who never bothered to understand why they worked in the first place. Spielberg and director Tobe Hooper worked to create a sense of magic and life and energy. That movie was also fun. This one, directed by Gil Keanan (Monster House), feels like a checklist. There’s no time for anything, no time for characters, no time to establish tension or mood.
[New Today] Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: Doesn’t improve on Hooper’s film, or equal it, but at least it doesn’t bastardize it. But…why settle for a respectable retread when you can still savor its superior model?
Tomorrowland
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Aloft
[New Today] David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: Whatever Llosa is doing here is the opposite of what the kids call “worldbuiding.” She’s insisting on the reality of her film rather than convincing us of it.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Writer/director Claudia Llosa’s rumination on art and nature as healing tools is a pretty abstraction where supporting players come into sharper focus than its leads…”Aloft” never takes wing.
The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)
[New Today] Mark Harris @ About.com
Sunshine Superman
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: simply spectacular
[New Today] Kenji Fujishima @ The L Magazine
When Marnie Was There
[New Today] Donald Jay Levit @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
2015 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Animals
- Excerpt: Drama this easy stands to benefit greatly from dominating performances, and Dastmalchian (who wrote the script) and Shaw make an honest effort; one suspects they’ve gone outright Method in inhabiting their characters’ lanky, jittery physicalities. But the barrage of banalities that floods Dastmalchian’s screenplay too frequently finds its way out of the actors’ mouths without having made the leap from something written to something lived.
Barely Lethal
Vadym Grygoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
Bombay Velvet
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
The D Train
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dark Star: HR Giger’s World
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
Jennie Kermode @ Eye For Film
The Divergent Series: Insurgent
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Echoes of War
Every Secret Thing
Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Flimsy, foreboding, female-centric crime thriller…
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A slow burn mystery in which the secrets aren’t so much about the crimes it explores but truths of women’s emotional lives that are too often ignored.
Faults
Daniel Lackey @ The Nightmare Gallery
Far from the Madding Crowd
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Felix and Meira
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Good Kill
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
I Am Big Bird
[New Today] Tom Santilli @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story does a fly-over of many areas that may have been ripe for dissection, but it seems content to just celebrate the near-anonymous contributions and mechinations of Caroll Spinney the man, juxtaposed with the fame that his iconic character has achieved.
I’ll See You in My Dreams
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Iris
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Kung Fu Killer
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
Mad Max: Fury Road
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Maggie
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Noble
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: As its title indicates, this is a straight-up inspirational tale, but its sincerity and above-average execution set it apart from many other similar movies.
Phoenix
Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: ‘Phoenix’ takes a dual meaning when a woman is reincarnated after a disfiguring incident and finds her estranged husband employed at a nightclub of the same name.
Pitch Perfect 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Rumperbutts
[New Today] Kristin Dreyer Kramer @ NightsAndWeekends.com
Run All Night
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Saint Laurent
Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Shallow and ill-fitting – at 2 1/2 hours in length, it gets truly tedious – unless you’re a fashion junkie.
The Salt of the Earth
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Seventh Son
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Shaun the Sheep Movie
Carlos del Río @ El rincón de Carlos del Río [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Divertida e ingeniosa, pero no es lo mejor de la Aarmand.
Slow West
Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: http://www.markreviewsmovies.com/reviews/S/slowwest.htm
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: Whether the hallucinatory beauty of the visuals is enough to compensate for its narrative pretensions us…doubtful.
Spring
[New Today] Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: ‘Spring’ is a romantic creature feature in which a man desperately tries to win the heart of his vacation fling who is a bit more concerned about her fluctuating flesh.
Spy
Tanu Weds Manu Returns
[New Today] Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
The True Cost
We Are Still Here
[New Today] Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Add Ted Geoghegan’s name to the list of filmmakers rejuvenating the horror genre of late…features a cracking cast, cinematography that invites one to peer into corners and a unique score featuring wooden wind chimes that calms and unsettles in one go.
Welcome to Me
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Well
2014 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Big Eyes
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Birdman
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dracula Untold
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Foxcatcher
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Imitation Game
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Most Wanted Man
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Selma
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Theory of Everything
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Unbroken
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Whiplash
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2015 Films (Coming Soon)
Chameleon
- Excerpt: Doc follows the ‘James Bond of Ghanaian journalism’
Grace of Monaco
[New Today] Kristen Lopez @ Journeys in Classic Film
Moomins on the Riviera
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Pepe Mujica: Lessons from the Flowerbed
Alan Mattli @ Facing the Bitter Truth [German]
- Excerpt: Cinematically, Heidi Specogna’s documentary doesn’t deliver anything new. But it nevertheless works as an intimate portrait of former Uruguayan president José Mujica, who sweetly, and passionately, argues for a pragmatic form of socialism.
Return to Sender
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Roar
Kristen Lopez @ Awards Circuit
Sicarivs: La Noche y el Silencio
Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
Walking on Sunshine
Dragan Antulov @ FAK [Croatian]
