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: October 10-12, 2014
Wide (United States)
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dracula Untold
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Judge
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Expanding (United States)
Men, Women & Children
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Awake: The Life of Yogananda
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A rounded portrait of the Father of Yoga in the West that celebrates his practical and uplifting art of spiritual living.
Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead
- Excerpt: a feeling akin to the difference between joking about an easy target like Christian Scientologists, and then, say, being forced to attend an eight hour seminar that seriously teaches its religious tenets.
Kill the Messenger
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
One Chance
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Overnighters
Chris Barsanti @ Film Journal International
- Excerpt: In Jesse Moss’ taut and morally complex documentary, a pastor opens his church to homeless men looking for work in the booming North Dakota oil fields and faces the wrath of a small town nervous about their community’s rapid transformation.
St. Vincent
- Excerpt: Melfi puts in a bit more elbow grease in this tried and true concoction, to make an effective, though utterly formulaic film.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A heart-affecting cinematic parable about the saints among us who enable us to come alive in new ways.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …we’ve seen all this before (“Bad Santa” being but one example). Still, Murray is Murray and watching his sweetness peek through his outer curmudgeonly crust is worth the price of admission. More surprising is Naomi Watts…
[New Today] Billy Donnelly @ This Is Infamous
Whiplash
David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: To Chazelle’s credit, he asks questions seriously and seriously ponders the myriad outcomes. In the end, though, his film never uses its fangs enough for the questions to leave a mark.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A mesmerizing drama about the toxic fallout from perfectionism and unbridled ambition.
2014 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
20,000 Days On Earth
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
[New Today] Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
- Excerpt: One of the most aggressively self-indulgent things you’ll ever come across, and without anything resembling a story it eventually becomes a chore to sit through; memories of Bob Dylan’s infamous Renaldo and Clara occasionally sprang to mind.
22 Jump Street
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
ABCs of Death 2
Patrick Bromley @ F This Movie!
[New Today] Don Lewis @ Film Threat
All Cheerleaders Die
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Altina
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Annabelle
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Automata
- Excerpt: Ibanez stands out as an exciting new voice in the genre with this emotionally resonant and thematically rich film.
[New Today] Stacia Kissick Jones @ She Blogged By Night
[New Today] Brent McKnight @ Giant Freakin’ Robot
- Excerpt: ‘Automata’ is nothing more than wildly okay.
Blended
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Blue Room
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Canal
[New Today] Mark Harris @ About.com
The Dance of Reality
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Deliver Us from Evil
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Drive Hard
Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Disappointing potboiler that runs out of gas far too quickly.
The Equalizer
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Fishing Without Nets
Ron Wilkinson @ MonstersandCritics.com
- Excerpt: Piracy on the high seas up close and personal.
Gone Girl
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Good Lie
- Excerpt: Sure, it’s Reese Witherspoon whose face is plastered on all of the ads, but this film doesn’t belong to her, and The Good Lie is all the better for it.
Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
The Green Prince
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Guardians of the Galaxy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Hercules
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Horns
Patrick Bromley @ F This Movie!
The Houses October Built
[New Today] Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: Awful enough to give Halloween a bad name.
The Hundred-Foot Journey
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
I Am Ali
[New Today] Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Clare Lewins unexpectedly unearths new information and new commentary from one of the most famous men on the planet and it is a pleasure to sit back and listen to the living legend.
The Imitation Game
Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: Imitation of life…
The Immigrant
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Inherent Vice
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A jaunty screen adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s comic 2009 novel about the demise of the hippie era of free love and pot-happy endings.
Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: “Inherent Vice” is a tweet-tweet-arf-arf movie for stoners.
Kite
- Excerpt: While a faithful adaptation would have seemed gratuitous, this end product is unable to elicit any kind of response at all, feeling utterly uninspired in look, tone, or content.
Last Days In Vietnam
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Left Behind
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Liberator
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Travis Hopson @ Examiner
- Excerpt: While it’s disappointing the film never gets as in depth as it could, perhaps it’s not such a bad thing that The Liberator leaves us wanting to learn more.
Ron Wilkinson @ MonstersandCritics.com
- Excerpt: The lavish war epic comes back to life is this swashbuckling tale of treachery and charisma.
Magic in the Moonlight
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Maze Runner
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mr. Turner
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: An extraordinary portrait of the last stages in the life and career of Joseph Mallord William Turner, the painter of light.
[New Today] Donald Levit @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Nas: Time is Illmatic
- Excerpt: A celebration of the seminal album’s 20th anniversary, but also a dissection of the influences that allowed a street poet like Nas to create such an influential album.
[New Today] Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: “Life’s a Bitch” are apt words to describe Queensbridge, but for some folks out there, it is home.
No No: A Dockumentary
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Oculus
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Open Windows
Patrick Bromley @ F This Movie!
The Pact II
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
- Excerpt: ‘The Pact II’ Is Just Another Mediocre Horror Sequel
Planes: Fire & Rescue
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Pride
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Reasonable Doubt
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Red Army
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A crowd-pleasing documentary about the adventures of the Soviet national ice-hockey team.
Rob the Mob
- Excerpt: The cast is very good and the writing is generally pretty good and it takes the time to make you care about these outsiders. Thoroughly entertaining though hardly flawless, Rob the Mob is a pleasant surprise.
Sex Tape
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Snowpiercer
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Stephen King’s A Good Marriage
- Excerpt: King has (or had) a unique flair for creating intriguing and sometimes empowered female protagonists, but the suburban housewife anchoring the lukewarm scenario here isn’t nearly as well-honed as the film necessitates.
Third Person
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Tusk
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Two Days, One Night
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A triumphant drama by the Dardenne brothers about a heroine who demonstrates grace under pressure.
Two Night Stand
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
You’re Not You
- Excerpt: A much more interesting focal point would have been the character played by the lovely Loretta Devine, but we’ll have settle with at least getting to see her on the sidelines. –
The Zero Theorem
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2013 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Fruitvale Station
- Excerpt: Basic but indispensible.
Gringo Trails
Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
How I Live Now
José Arce @ LaButaca.net [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Interesante propuesta que escapa de los presupuestos habituales del cine teen prosofocón amoroso y apuesta por la elegancia y la languidez a la hora de presentar su inquietante realidad.
2014 Films (Coming Soon)
10,000 Km
Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
- Excerpt: An emotionally powerful look into long distance relationships that few are able to capture.
’71
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Attila Marcel
- Excerpt: Chomet has an eye for an interesting or odd image and the film does feel pleasantly homemade. It is just a pity that its best moments – the moment with the rain playing the ukulele in particular – feel like non-sequiturs.
Chanthaly
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee Coffee and more Coffee
Chiméres
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Effie Gray
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Evolution of a Criminal
Chris Barsanti @ Film Journal International
- Excerpt: A straight-A student turned teenage bank robber returns home years later to talk to friends, family and accomplices about what pushed him into such a shocking act in this mature, meditative documentary.
For Those Who Can Tell No Tales
Gold
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Gone Too Far
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
I Am a Girl
In Order of Disappearance
- Excerpt: Though the film is amusing throughout and quite a good parody of its genre, which is too often used as a simple framework for gruesome violence and bad writing, it is difficult to work out why it exists. It is a good deal of fun, but the film really could have used a point.
Pasolini
Donald Levit @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Portraits in a Sea of Lies
Purgatorio: A Journey Into the Heart of the Border
Ron Wilkinson @ MonstersandCritics.com
- Excerpt: A scary and stirring reporting of the reality of life on the Mexican / US border.
Timbuktu
Donald Levit @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Torrente 5: Operación Eurovegas
Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
The Tribe
[New Today] Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
- Excerpt: It goes without saying that The Tribe is a difficult film to watch. That’s almost the point of what writer-director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky is trying to accomplish here: to force you to pay close attention just to be able to understand what is going on, then recoil in horror once you do.
Wild Tales
Enrique Buchichio @ Cartelera.com.uy [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Si el placer de ir al cine implica, muchas veces, ver escenas increíbles ejecutadas brillantemente, entonces Relatos salvajes es un placer casi constante.
