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 2-4, 2014
Wide (United States)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Belle
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: An eighteenth-century costume drama that lights up the screen with a beautiful mixed race heroine, an idealistic law student, and a circle of older English aristocrats whose most cherished traditions are challenged.
Friended to Death
[New Today] Marina Antunes @ Row Three
The Protector 2
[New Today] Kevin Carr @ 7M Pictures
- Excerpt: This isn’t a perfect movie, and it’s not as strong as the original. However, as a follow-up, it’s still a fun ride.
2014 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Bad Johnson
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Reading the plot synopsis, I knew the movie would either be hilariously brilliant or downright awful. It’s the latter.
Blood Glacier
[New Today] Mark Harris @ About.com
Blue Ruin
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Brick Mansions
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Decoding Annie Parker
[New Today] Josh Spiegel @ Sound on Sight
Divergent
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dom Hemingway
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Double
Blake Howard @ Graffiti with Punctuation
- Excerpt: “I have no idea what just happened?”
Endless Love
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Enemy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Fading Gigolo
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Finding Vivian Maier
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
For a Woman
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A historical drama pieced together when two sisters discover things they didn’t know about their parents’ life in post-World War II France.
For No Good Reason
David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: In those occasions wherein Paul shows us Steadman at work, it would be both insulting and apt to compare his process to a magic act. As with an illusionist’s performance, you can watch everything he does with a careful eye and still have no idea how he got to the breathtaking result.
God’s Not Dead
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: I did not hate God’s Not Dead, and while I see its flaws I can also extend a little grace.
Hateship Loveship
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Haunted House 2
Frank Ochieng @ Focus of New York Magazine
- Excerpt: [A] flaccid frightfest of so-called cheap chuckles. One can immediately detect a desperate sense of regurgitation in the strained chuckles as A Haunted House 2 has all the inspired hilarity of a decaying fang inside a drugged Dracula’s mouth.
Ilo Ilo
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Jodorowsky’s Dune
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Locke
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Machine
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Need for Speed
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Next Goal Wins
Norm Schrager @ Meet In the Lobby
Nymphomaniac: Volumes 1 & 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Odd Thomas
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Only Lovers Left Alive
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Other Woman
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Proxy
Stacia Kissick Jones @ She Blogged By Night
The Quiet Ones
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Sabotage
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Sacrament
David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: There is nothing for us to chew on when it’s over. The Sacrament is content to give us a cavalcade of horrors but no catharsis.
Walking with the Enemy
Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Stirring but heavy-handed depiction of W.W. II heroism in Hungary
Watermark
[New Today] Josh Spiegel @ Sound on Sight
Wolf Creek 2
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2013 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Captain Phillips
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Hammer of the Gods
A.J. Hakari @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
The House That Jack Built
Night Train to Lisbon
Carlos del Río @ El rincón de Carlos del Río [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Tren de noche a Lisboa tiene una primera parte muy mala, porque está llena de cosas inverosímiles (y la historia del autor está demasiado fragmentada como para que llegue a interesarte), y una segunda mitad muchísimo más interesante, por lo que me parece que casi, casi es una buena película.
The Past
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2014 Films (Coming Soon)
Canopy
Blake Howard @ Graffiti with Punctuation
- Excerpt: Canopy is writer/director Aaron Wilson’s first-person take on the sensory experience of being lost at war.
Dead Shadows
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
Human Capital
Life Itself
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
- Excerpt: A superb tribute that will leave Roger Ebert fans delighted and inspired. Thumbs Up.
The Sea
[New Today] Matthew McKernan @ FilmWhinge
- Excerpt: The Sea is an interesting film about memory and it does display a certain willingness to experiment and take risks on the part of director Stephen Brown, so much so that one wonders if he won’t do much better with a script not based on a book.
A Thousand Times Good Night
[New Today] MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A drama of conscience and passion, a finely observed portrait of a woman driven to make a difference in the world, even as it hurts those she loves.
The Truth About Beauty
James Marsh @ Screen International
- Excerpt: Mainland beauty Bai Baihe makes a likeable, if rather implausible, lead in Aubrey Lam’s cosmetic surgery rom-com, but her endearing central performance can only obscure some of the thematic inconsistencies in a muddled, though occasionally funny screenplay.
