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 9-11, 2014
Wide (United States)
Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return
[New Today] Tom Santilli @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: It’s the Citizen Kane of crap.
[New Today] Josh Spiegel @ Sound on Sight
Neighbors
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Chef
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: An appealing comedy about food, career transitions, and the bonding between a busy father and his 10-year-old son.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: While “Chef” is bound to formula with its father-and-son-bonding, rising-from-the-ashes road trip tale, Favreau is in complete command, creating comfort food seasoned by a master chef.
[New Today] Billy Donnelly @ This Is Infamous
[New Today] Simon MIraudo @ Quickflix
The Double
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Set in a dystopian London of underground cube farms, block house apartments depressing cafes and dingy alleys, Ayoade’s sophomore film plays a lot like a murky, schizophrenic version of Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil.”
Ron Wilkinson @ Its Just Movies
- Excerpt: The reigning king of dark comedies for 2014, “The Double’ picks up where “The Office” leaves off.
Fed Up
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …although Dr. Atkins may not have gotten everything right, clearly he was a forerunner in understanding a lot of what’s chewed on in “Fed Up,” without receiving even a passing mention
[New Today] Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: Using colorfully memorable infographics, director Stephanie Soechtig offers viewers a primer on the way our bodies process sugar, the pleasurable addictive effect it has on our brains, and how difficult it is to counteract its effect once these addictive qualities take hold.
[New Today] Tom Santilli @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: It may be over-stating it to say that you should go see Fed Up, because it just might save your life. But I’m saying it.
God’s Pocket
[New Today] Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Having assembled a stellar cast (including the late Seymour Hoffman in his second to last role), Slattery does a great job giving them an authentic blue collar neighborhood, but the characters who inhabit it don’t always make sense.
Palo Alto
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The film is beautifully acted, shot (cinematography by Autumn Durald, whose evening exteriors are stunning) and edited (Leo Scott, “Trash Humpers”), Coppola achieving a film that flows in story, visuals, sound and music
Stage Fright
Patrick Bromley @ F This Movie!
2014 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
3 Days to Kill
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Apocalypse: A Bill Callahan Tour Film
Carson Lund @ In Review Online
- Excerpt: If the bottom-line goal of a live-music documentary is to capture a sense of what it would have been like to be at these shows, Apocalypse is a definite, albeit unremarkable, success. But what’s distinctive about Banks’s film is the way it captures something beyond the stage: the feeling of touring and extended transit, both major themes in Callahan’s work.
Belle
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Using only minor dramatic license, Sagay and director Amma Asante have crafted a historical period romance that tackles racism with all the social intricacies of a Jane Austen novel.
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: An engrossing, beautifully appointed, if somewhat prosaic and historically loose, docu-drama.
Blue Ruin
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Bright Days Ahead
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A French dramedy about the love affair that brings pleasure to a married 64 year old woman and a 41 year-old computer teacher.
[New Today] Josh Spiegel @ Sound on Sight
Centro Histórico
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Divergent
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Fading Gigolo
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Farmland
[New Today] Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: FARMLAND is not dissimilar to the kind of “documentary” one used to see before riding some Disney attraction that would extol all of the benefits of our agriculture industry before you realized that it was sponsored by a troubling multinational agri-business conglomerate like Monsanto.
Finding Vivian Maier
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Frank
[New Today] MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: An askew, bitter dramedy of artistic pretension and creative desperation that has something sneakily marvelous to say about what it takes — and what it doesn’t — to be an artist.
Healing
Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
In Your Eyes
Koyelaanchal
[New Today] Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Longwave
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
The Physician
- Excerpt: Despite the narrative flaws, The Physician is a handsomely mounted period epic that represents a nice change-of-pace from the more action-oriented Hollywood films of the same type.
The Railway Man
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
Sabotage
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Sheep
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Transcendence
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Under the Skin
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Walk of Shame
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: If you don’t think it’s hilarious that a woman dressed for a night out would “naturally” be mistaken for a prostitute, there is nothing here for you.
[New Today] Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Without ever being actively bad, this is an infrequently amusing 95 minutes stretched thin. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, as its intentions are so harmless, but you can forget about it.
2013 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Blackfish
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Europa Report
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Fifth Estate
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Frozen
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Her
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Insidious: Chapter 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Last Days on Mars
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Lovelace
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
One Direction: This is Us
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
V/H/S/2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Synevir
Vadym Grygoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
The Wind Rises
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
You’re Next
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2014 Films (Coming Soon)
All Cheerleaders Die
Marina Antunes @ Quiet Earth
Patrick Bromley @ F This Movie!
The American Nurse
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
Ciudad Delirio
[New Today] Samuel Castro @ Ochoymedio.info [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Un terrible intento de comedia romántica en el que todo pasa porque sí.
Devil’s Knot
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …a good performance from Reese Witherspoon but little else (unless reality show level reenactments are your bag)
[New Today] MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Atom Egoyan is all over the real-life case of American injustice surrounding the West Memphis Three. But sadly, I’m not sure why.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
Don Peyote
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Stoners who are already salivating over the trippy trailer will likely find ‘Don Peyote’ hits the psychedelic sweet spot… The sober-minded are not as likely to be amused.
The Girl and Death
Stacia Kissick Jones @ Spectrum Culture Online
Next Goal Wins
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: I could not possibly care less about football, and I fell hopelessly in love with this movie, and with the can-do amateur team it introduces us to.
Next Goal Wins
[New Today] Ross Miller @ Thoughts On Film
- Excerpt: It paints the beautiful game, well, beautifully and tells an inspiring story about human perseverance, determination and unbreakable spirit in the face of adversity.
No God No Master
Ron Wilkinson @ Its Just Movies
- Excerpt: Great history and plenty of bombs and explosions but lacking the glitz to be a great crime thriller.
The Sacrament
Patrick Bromley @ F This Movie!
