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: Apr. 17-19, 2015
Wide (United States)
Monkey Kingdom
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
True Story
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Unfriended
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Alex of Venice
[New Today] Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
Beyond the Reach
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A nifty little morality play set in the Mojave Desert.
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
[New Today] Kristin Dreyer Kramer @ NightsAndWeekends.com
Child 44
[New Today] Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
[New Today] Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: Child 44 doesn’t just lose the plot. It loses the point.
The Dead Lands
[New Today] Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
[New Today] Stacia Kissick Jones @ Next Projection
Carson Lund @ Slant Magazine
- Excerpt: The reality is that The Dead Lands is nothing more than a phony collection of storytelling clichés held under the banner of archetype and lent a modicum of weight by the splendor of the landscape and the detail of the face-paint jobs. Essentially, the Maoris remain unrepresented.
[New Today] Mike McGranaghan @ Film Racket
Felix and Meira
Kenji Fujishima @ Slant Magazine
2015 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
5 to 7
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …like a marriage between American screwball romantic comedies and the French New Wave
Alien Outpost
Amour Fou
Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: What makes this little film such a gem? In good part it’s the dry-as-bones wit with which Hausner spins her tale of self-indulgent romanticism.
Black Sea
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Black Souls
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Blackhat
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Boy Meets Girl
Broken Horses
[New Today] Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
Cheatin’
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Cinderella
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
Danny Collins
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Desert Dancer
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: If you read a daily newspaper, you already know more than Desert Dancer
The DUFF
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Duke of Burgundy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Effie Gray
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ex Machina
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Furious 7
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Girlhood
George Zervopoulos @ www.moviesltd.gr [Greek]
The Gunman
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Hand That Feeds
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A rousing documentary and the most hopeful political film of 2015 about the triumph of a small union.
The Harvest
- Excerpt: Secret Garden’ meets ‘Misery,’ anyone? McNaughton’s first film is far too long has much to recommend it, incluing a shriek-worthy performance by Morton. ‘No wire hangers, EVER!’
Hot Tub Time Machine 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Human Experiment
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A harrowing look at the irresponsibility of the pharmaceutical industry and its continuing use of unsafe chemicals.
It Follows
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Jauja
- Excerpt: Though admiring the filmmaker’s innovation and inclination for minimalism, the lack of linearity and narrative structure is to the film’s detriment.
Kill Me Three Times
Kristy Puchko @ Spinoff Online
- Excerpt: It gives me no pleasure to tell you that Simon Pegg’s latest, “Kill Me Three Times,” is terrible. But perhaps it’ll bring you some solace that it’s not really Pegg’s fault.
Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Lambert & Stamp
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: You don’t need to be fan of The Who to enjoy this documentary. It’s universal themes include an analysis of opposites attracting, genius marketing, creative nurturing and the inevitable clashing dynamics of a rock ‘n roll band.
Last Knights
The Last Five Years
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Lazarus Effect
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Little Chaos
[New Today] MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Romantic and funny and smart and wise and just plain different. This is a historical costume dramedy romp about gardening. How cool is that?
- Excerpt: A sumptuously filmed period piece from Alan Rickman (his second film as director after 1997’s The Winter Guest), A Little Chaos might be lightweight in conception, but it’s brought to vivid life through some evocative atmosphere and a pair of sympathetic performances in the lead.
The Longest Ride
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Lost River
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Maps to the Stars
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Marfa Girl
Glenn Lovell @ CinemaDope.com
- Excerpt: When not taking timeouts for gratuitous sex, Clark’s characters drone on and on about sex. This being the case, whatever the director has to say about life on the Texas border or the treatment of undocumented immigrants feels both inconsequential and disingenuous.
Merchants of Doubt
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mortdecai
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Run All Night
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Salt of the Earth
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Sisterhood of Night
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: While very nicely fashioned, winds up as an oddly prosaic cautionary tale [with] the air of an upscale afterschool special.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Squeeze
[New Today] Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: Won’t efface memories of the best caper pictures. Golfgers, however, may well find it a pleasant diversion. At least it shouldn’t tee them off.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: One of my favorite golf movies!
Tangerines
[New Today] Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
Trainwreck
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: It’s that bitterness mixed with sensitivity that comes through and makes her personality someone we want to embrace.
Welcome to New York
- Excerpt: Who better to play a world-class letch than Depardieu whose Rebalaisian excesses on and off screen are legendary?
What We Do in the Shadows
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
While We’re Young
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
White God
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Wild Tales
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Woman in Gold
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2014 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
The Babadook
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Guest
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Homesman
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Into the Woods
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mommy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Most Violent Year
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mr. X
[New Today] Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Out to Kill
- Excerpt: “Out to Kill” is one of many films of modern Queer Cinema that can’t quite seem to put all the pieces together to break out from its narrow demographic attachment.
Still Alice
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2015 Films (Coming Soon)
Amar Akbar and Tony
A Brilliant Young Mind
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ Concrete Playground
Bypass
- Excerpt: Hopkins inclination to be artistic and creative, while admirable, does little but ensure this production revels far more in the style, and not quite so much in the substance.
The Dinner
George Zervopoulos @ www.moviesltd.gr [Greek]
Dying to Know
Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: Gay Dillingham’s profound, uplifting documentary takes us on a journey to that border no fence can keep us from crossing.
Glassland
The Little House
Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
The New Girlfriend
Panagiotis (Pete) Gkaris @ www.moviesltd.gr [Greek]
The Noble Family
[New Today] Sarah Ward @ artsHub
Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends
Sweet Georgia Brown
Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: What is compelling is the subject matter — the corps of dedicated, patriotic women who served a country that still treated them officially as second-class citizens, discriminated against both by race and by gender.
