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: Mar. 6-8, 2015
Wide (United States)
Chappie
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Unfinished Business
[New Today] Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: One can see it on the actors’ faces: This was a mistake.
[New Today] MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Apparently made by snickering 12-year-olds who like naked boobies and have heard rumors about the phenomenon known as “the business trip.”
[New Today] Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: At times, when “Unfinished Business” gets into this madness and just goes for it, you get a sense that the inherent weirdness is on the verge of coalescing into something big and brilliant and spectacular, but that never happens.
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Limited (United States)
Merchants of Doubt
David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: Kenner scores by securing candid interviews with a handful of the already small number of people who did this kind of work. They’re so confidently unrepentant, it’s almost easy to start liking them until Kenner reminds you of the impact of their lies.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The blatancy with which industries and lobbyists lie to the public…is enraging, of course, but Kenner’s pretty much negated the point of his own work here.
2015 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
’71
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Buzzard
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
- Excerpt: Compelling in its uncomfortableness, this indie dark comedy just works.
Digging Up the Marrow
Mark Harris @ About.com
Jeremy Kibler @ Diabolique Magazine
- Excerpt: Digging Up the Marrow is a surprisingly gore-free but not tension-free funhouse trip for genre loyalists and those who go aaahh! at the sight of a real monster.
The DUFF
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ejecta
Ex Machina
José Arce @ LaButaca.net [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Alex Garland debuta como director con una propuesta que recauchuta con elegancia campos y temáticas largamente exprimidos por la ciencia-ficción universal. Delicada, limpia, atrevida y turbadora a ratos, se atasca un poco en sus giros, pero es una propuesta notable y hermosa.
Faults
[New Today] Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
- Excerpt: simply executed, at first providing us with broadly moderated laughs before degenerating into a sobering, nihilistic portrait of the ease with which insanity transpires.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
Fifty Shades of Grey
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Focus
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Girlhood
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Hot Tub Time Machine 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
It Follows
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Wait. Really? Horror movies are still doing the punishing-girls-for-having-sex thing? Ah, but this is 80s retro, so it’s “okay,” then.
Jupiter Ascending
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Kidnapping Mr. Heineken
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The film starts off well enough, even as we struggle to determine just who is who and how they are related, but once the crime has been committed, the only real pleasure to be found is in Hopkins engaging in psychological warfare.
Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: This foreseeable crime drama falls flat – yet it does pose this thought: “There are two ways a man can be rich in this world: you can have money you you can have friends. But you cannot have both.”
- Excerpt: Without committing to any particular narrative focus, Kidnapping Mr. Heineken devolves into something like an interminable newscast of the actual events, intercutting perfunctorily between the clumsily scheming captors, their confused loved ones back home, and the increasingly delirious prisoners.
Kingsman: The Secret Service
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Last Five Years
[New Today] Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: What The Last Five Years has going for it is a nice showcase for Anna Kendrick to sing. She could sing the dictionary and it would sound delightful.
The Lazarus Effect
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Maps to the Stars
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
McFarland, USA
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
October Gale
[New Today] Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
- Excerpt: a framework that recalls classic ‘women’s pictures’ of the studio era, something we’d most likely have seen from a Cukor or Negulesco and starring the embittered likes of a Joan Crawford or Barbara Stanwyck
Out of the Dark
Playing It Cool
Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: ‘Playing it Cool’ is an ambitious rom com starring Chris Evans and Michelle Monaghan about a commitment-phobic bachelor who finally finds his ideal match only to learn she’s the one that’s hard to get.
Predestination
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Project Almanac
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Salvation
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Spring
Timbuktu
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast
James Plath @ Family Home Theater
Two Men in Town
David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: Bouchareb’s tapestry of everyday life in this Southwest community is egalitarian and liberal in the manner of John Sayles. Both filmmakers are interested in the under-explored lives of those on the common fringe.
[New Today] Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
- Excerpt: a standard dramatic exercise that ends in more or less the same place as it begins—a wide open expanse of dry, empty space.
The Wedding Ringer
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
What We Do in the Shadows
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Wild Canaries
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: For suckers of whodunits where a would-be detective dresses in a Columbo trench coat, sunglasses and a floppy hat, and ducks behind trees when trailing the suspect, “Wild Canaries” is entirely inconsequential but utterly likable.
Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead
Jeremy Kibler @ Diabolique Magazine
- Excerpt: This ozploitation flick is balls-out, cuckoo-bananas, unwholesome fun, a confident feature debut that’s also inventive and creatively resourceful in its carnage and overall filmmaking.
2014 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
American Sniper
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Before I Go to Sleep
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Beyond the Lights
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Big Hero 6
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Blended
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Book of Life
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Citizenfour
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Fault in Our Stars
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Force Majeure
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Frank
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Fury
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Inherent Vice
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Interview
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Judge
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Kill the Messenger
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Life of Riley
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Lucky Them
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ Trespass Magazine
Lucy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Million Ways to Die in the West
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Most Violent Year
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Nightcrawler
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Overnighters
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Sex Tape
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Song of the Sea
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Still Alice
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Theory of Everything
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
This Is Where I Leave You
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Whiplash
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
White Bird in a Blizzard
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Wild
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Wolves
2015 Films (Coming Soon)
3 Hearts
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A well-acted French film about the seventh sense of heart intelligence
40-Love
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An exploration of the ethical disarray in the lives of an unemployed father and his 11-year old son who dreams of making it to the big time as a tennis pro
Alone
[New Today] Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
BFFs
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Big News from Grand Rock
Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: ‘Big News from Grand Rock’ is a low-key comedy about a newspaper reporter who tries to save his paper with fake stories only to discover one of them may have been closer to the truth than he thought.
Breathe
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An exploration of the astonishing emotional dynamite of adolescent friendship
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Clown
Dragon Blade
- Excerpt: The Roman Empire takes on China’s mighty Han Dynasty in Daniel Lee’s latest period action adventure, as Jackie Chan’s Silk Road guard and John Cusack’s renegade centurion form an unlikely partnership against Adrien Brody’s despicable Roman general.
Eastern Boys
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ Concrete Playground
Eat Your Bones
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A rough and grim portrait of a band of gypsies in northern France
Exit
Fidelio, Alice’s Odyssey
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: The sexual and vocational adventures of a globe-trotting seawoman
Fighters
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: French film about two adventuresome youth who go into training for the end of the world
Gaby Baby Doll
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A French film about two lonely and sad people who are brought together by the antics of a frisky dog
Ghoul
- Excerpt: Ghoul is so close in conception to Blair Witch – and so woefully outdated – that I cannot imagine who it will appeal to. In a market over-saturated with this kind of product, it brings nothing new to the table.
Hippocrates
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A thought-provoking film with heart about the developing friendship between two interns at a Paris hospital
In the Name of My Daughter
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A French thriller revolving around the theme of betrayal by those you trust
The Last Impresario
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ Concrete Playground
May Allah Bless France!
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A gritty memoir of a talented young black man who struggles to free himself from a world of crime
Party Girl
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: French film about a middle-aged woman struggling with all the changes in her life
Samba
Alan Mattli @ Facing the Bitter Truth [German]
- Excerpt: An engaging, if at times overly contrived, look at the immigrant experience in 2010s Paris from the directors of ‘Intouchables’.
Shaun the Sheep Movie
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
Take it Back and Start all Over
That Guy Dick Miller
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
That Sugar Film
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
The Treatment
The Valley Below
- Excerpt: Maybe if Alice Munro and Raymond Carver got all liquored up and listened to the CBC, they might conceive something like this.
X/Y
[New Today] Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
