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 16-18, 2014
Wide (United States)
Godzilla
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Million Dollar Arm
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: An enlightening Danish documentary about one of the world’s most famous and creative human rights activists.
Chinese Puzzle
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A delightful French film about a writer, his many female friends and lovers, his adventures in Manhattan, and his yen for being a good father.
2014 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
3 Days to Kill
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
All Cheerleaders Die
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
App
Belle
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Blue Ruin
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Chef
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Cyber-Senoirs
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A touching and humorous Canadian documentary about teenage mentors who teach a group of elders how to use computers and the Internet.
Devil’s Knot
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Divergent
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Double
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Draft Day
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Enemy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Fading Gigolo
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Fed Up
[New Today] Pat Mullen @ Cinemablographer
- Excerpt: Doc fails to heed Mary Poppins’ advice that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
Gambit
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: It’s a treat to watch Colin Firth demonstrate perfect comic timing and a knack for slapstick comedy in this amusing remake of the 1966 film.
The German Doctor
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
God’s Pocket
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Grand Budapest Hotel
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Grand Piano
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Hateship Loveship
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ida
Bev Questad @ It’s Just Movies
- Excerpt: Pawlikowski examines life, the role of religious commitment and choices. What corrupts life? What corrupts people? Are there ways to escape our own corrupt nature?
If You Build It
[New Today] Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: Unorthodox shop class says if you build it, it will mean something to you
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie
- Excerpt: It may have been quite clever and hilarious a dozen or more years ago when it was conceived, written by a guy in his late 20s bucking the Hollywood system. Unfortunately, this just isn’t a movie that works in 2014.
Joe
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Justin Bieber’s Believe
Dragan Antulov @ Draxblog VI [Croatian]
The Legend of Hercules
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Like Father, Like Son
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Locke
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Lucky Bastard
[New Today] Kevin Carr @ 7M Pictures
- Excerpt: It didn’t seem like the filmmakers were just making things up but rather approached this as a realistic scenario that honestly could happen (and scarily enough probably has).
Moms’ Night Out
- Excerpt: “Moms’ Night Out” is the kind of movie you can take your mother to without worrying that she’ll get offended, and you can still have a good time with it.
Frank Ochieng @ Focus of New York Magazine
- Excerpt: …tedious and unimaginative. Moms’ Night Out is meant to be innocuous and filled with breezy moralistic zip but the flat shenanigans feel outrageously strained in this toothless suburban working-mommy romp.
Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: here are no laughs in Moms’ Night Out. None. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Bupkis. Maybe there’s a smile, but that’s not exactly high praise. When you can say that about a comedy, it pretty much empties out the entire picture. Here’s a movie in which the only comic highpoint is a shout-out to Pinterest – it does them no favors.
The Monuments Men
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Muppets Most Wanted
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Neighbors
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Noah
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Nymphomaniac: Volumes 1 & 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Only Lovers Left Alive
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Palo Alto
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: For a first feature and for a film, period, “Palo Alto” is strong stuff. It doesn’t have a big, thinly veiled statement to make, but it’s poignant, beautifully crafted, and keenly aware of what makes a teenager tick.
Pompeii
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Proxy
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Sacrament
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: A living nightmare mounted with simmering, suffocating tension and stomach-dropping intensity, “The Sacrament” would make a chilling double feature with Kevin Smith’s “Red State.” It is minimalist, all-too-real terror that pulls no punches in its visceral response.
Son of Batman
A.J. Hakari @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Sophia Grace & Rosie’s Royal Adventure
[New Today] James Plath @ Family Home Theater
- Excerpt: They’re great in small doses, but the girls make this 75-minute feature feel a lot longer.
Stage Fright
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
That Awkward Moment
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Transcendence
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Under the Skin
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Young & Beautiful
[New Today] Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: Ozon’s male gaze peers at a middle-class high-school girl selling sex to older men
2013 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
20 Feet from Stardom
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Armstrong Lie
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ender’s Game
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
How I Live Now
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Paradise: Hope
[New Today] Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: Funny, tense conclusion to Seidl’s provocative Paradise trilogy
Saving Mr. Banks
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Tricked
[New Today] Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: Can the wisdom of the crowds work for screenwriting too?
The Wind Rises
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2014 Films (Coming Soon)
Absence
- Excerpt: Distance—real or perceived—as the key to it all
The Babadook
Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
Bright Days Ahead
[New Today] Stacia Kissick Jones @ She Blogged By Night
Coming Home
[New Today] James Marsh @ Twitch
- Excerpt: Zhang Yimou returns to his more humble, socially conscious roots, reuniting with former muse Gong Li for an earnest, if rather underwhelming, adaptation of Yan Geiling’s The Criminal Lu Yanshi. While the historical significance of the story will resonate strongly with domestic audiences, too little context is given for its impact to travel into international markets, despite strong performances and big name appeal.
The Girl from the Wardrobe
[New Today] Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: Quirky, moody Polish film recalls Jeunet/Caro
Grigris
[New Today] Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: Démé deserves to be showcased like Keaton or Kelly
In Your Eyes
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
- Excerpt: Despite the concept being moderately interesting, poor and straightforward execution renders the film mostly ineffective.
Jimi: All Is by My Side
- Excerpt: Writer/Director Ridley, scriptwriter for “12 Years as a Slave,” captures Benjamin’s uncanny channeling in the months preceding Hendrix’s June 18, 1967, break-through performance at the Monterey Pop Festival.
Sex, Drugs, & Taxation
[New Today] Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: Real-life cads live large and give offense in swinging ’60s Denmark
The Trip to Italy
[New Today] Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
- Excerpt: The Trip to Italy is just an assault of laughs, whether it’s duelling impressions, sketches or bickering. However, it’s in that vulnerable state, when your face is sore from laughter and your ears are reverberating with Michael Caine’s voice that Winterbottom torpedos you with emotional truths. The people you love should keep you grounded, tease you incessantly and dwarf your accomplishments; because they know it makes you better.
Walesa: Man of Hope
[New Today] Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: In America, a film for students of cold-war history and politics; in Poland, more than that
The Zero Theorem
[New Today] Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
- Excerpt: The Zero Theorem is a Gilliam carnival riding the vortex into oblivion and it’s weirdly enjoyable.
