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| EFC STATS |
| Movies Listed: |
26275 |
| Total Ratings: |
247319 |
| Total Reviews: |
26431 |
![[124877285 Hits]](/cgi-bin/gd.cgi?124877285)
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| BLUE RUIN |
"Nothing ruins this."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT BOSTON UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL 16: Say this for "Blue Ruin": It starts from a different place that many movies of its type, and that starting point means that even when it doesn't necessarily go in a unique direction, it still winds up in a new place. Going unexpected places in and of itself is certainly a good thing for a thriller like this, but it still needs some navigation, and writer/director Jeremy Saulnier is an impressively sure hand on the wheel." (more)
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| THAT DEMON WITHIN |
"A packed psychological cops & robbers thriller."
Jay Seaver says... "You can tell from the opening moments of "That Demon Within" that it's not going to be your standard cops 'n robbers movie, and it's sure not going to stand out for how grounded and realistic it is. This is Hong Kong, and while they may not have invented the operatic crime drama, they do it like no-one else, and nobody is doing it bigger than Dante Lam right now. Like they say, bigger doesn't always mean better, but this is one case where going for it yields something pretty great" (more)
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| TRANSCENDENCE |
"A frustrating but intriguing debut for Wally Pfister."
Brett Gallman says... "“Transcendence” looks to be hung up on big ideas, but it’s less a ponderous thesis and more of a good keynote address: it’s flashy, attention-grabbing, full of clichés, and is sold on musings and promises, some of which it actually manages to deliver on. Most of them, however, merely serve as a platform for another technophobic vision of the apocalypse, so Wally Pfister’s directorial debut is but one of many prophets shouting in a crowded landscape." (more)
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| AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, THE |
"Swing and a..."
Daniel Kelly says... "2012’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” was a competent work, but its need for being never felt genuine. Repeating an origin story that a superior film-maker had spent the best part of ten years excavating, the reboot was a digestible summer commodity, but hardly a necessary re-evaluation of everyone’s favourite web-slinger. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” doesn’t really make a great deal of progress in justifying Sony’s franchise continuation (at least artistically). The feature manages to ascertain a greater sense of personal identity than its predecessor, but the script’s a mess and much like Sam Raimi’s franchise halting “Spider-Man 3” suffers a severe faulty villain complex." (more)
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| CONGRESS, THE |
"Highly animated, though not as much as it could be."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT BOSTON UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL 16: "The Congress" divides fairly naturally into three or four parts, and the Futurological Congress which gives the film is name (and was presumably much more central to Stanislas Lem's original novel) is probably the least interesting despite having the most going on. One almost wonders why filmmaker Ari Folman didn't just make a movie with everything else and cite Lem as an inspiration, because that still leaves a heck of a smart, unusual science fiction film." (more)
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| LOVE ETERNAL |
"One of the more uplifting movies about suicide you'll see."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT BOSTON UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL 16: I didn't quite avoid "Love Eternal" when it played at another festival last year, but I certainly didn't have much trouble choosing what was on the other screen whenever the Irish death-fetish film was playing. I'm not saying that was a mistake - I liked the other movies I saw at Fantasia - but I was quite pleasantly surprised at how much I wound up enjoying this one." (more)
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| TRANSCENDENCE |
"At Last--This Generation's "Lawnmower Man""
Peter Sobczynski says... ""Transcendence" is a would-be technological thriller that not only utterly fails to achieve its titular state but cannot even work up the necessary oomph to make it to the level of basic competence. It has a potentially promising premise and a strong cast but both are squandered on an end product that wastes both thanks to clumsy screenwriting, listless acting and a fundamental lack of interest and insight into the issues that it raises and then abandons. Put it this way--if you ever wanted to see what a David Cronenberg movie might be like if all of the quirky, icky and genuinely thought-provoking concepts that make his films so distinctive were kicked to the curb in exchange for a jumbo-sized production budget and a star-studded cast, this is your kind of movie. For everyone else, this is one the kind of dopey potboiler that is all the more frustrating because it clearly thinks that it is smarter and more profound than it really is." (more)
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| OTHER WOMAN, THE (2014) |
"The road to hell is paved with Nicki Minaj cameos"
Daniel Kelly says... "It’s likely that director Nick Cassavetes believes “The Other Woman” to be an empowering mainstream comedy, a flick in which sisters really are doing it for themselves. The reality of the situation is different; the film an imbecilic and withered concoction of flat humour and creepy plotting. “The Other Woman” feels like a calculated attempt to offend audiences, particularly those of the fairer sex, at whom this celluloid dump has been unapologetically marketed. Its character choices and fixation with middle-class strife intensify the nausea, but ultimately it’s the witless writing that sinks the enterprise. Granted, no movie that features multiple poop gags, an impossibly gross Don Johnson subplot and a Nicki Minaj cameo has much of a chance, but a few solid rib-ticklers might just have made it bearable. Instead “The Other Woman” bungles even the easiest bursts of jesting, focusing on its overstretched narrative and deplorable consequences." (more)
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'ARE YOU ASKING ME FOR A DATE OR AN APPOINTMENT?'
- Lynn Bracken, LA Confidential
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