Bernard Boo's Movie Reviews
All movie reviews written by Bernard Boo
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Escape Plan
The recent revival of bombastic ’80s action flicks spearheaded by Sylvester Stallone hasn’t been as unwelcome as I thought it would be pre-Expendables. That movie, though unremarkable, is a lot of fun because it’s so honest about what it...
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The Summit
If you were to walk into a theater while The Summit was playing and look at the audience, you’d think they were watching the latest scary movie release. You’ll see looks of shock, hear frightful gasps, and feel the audience...
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Machete Kills
When approaching my critique of Machete Kills—Robert Rodriguez‘s second entry into the eponymous character’s bloody B-movie saga that started with a fake trailer and continued in 2010’s Machete–I made the firm decision to not deny my inner 9-year-old that was...
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We Are What We Are
Jim Mickle loosely remakes Jorge Michel Grau’s 2010 horror flick, Somos lo Que Hay, with We Are What We Are, an American Gothic mutation of Grau’s well-received tale about a family of cannibals. More family drama than gore fest,...
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Concussion
A moody, sexy drama with bursts of black comedy sprinkled throughout, Concussion takes familiar themes–infidelity, complacency, mid-life anxiety–and explores them from the fresh perspective of a fascinating (if a little unsympathetic) protagonist, a lesbian suburban housewife named Abby (Robin...
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On the Job
It’s genius in a wicked kind of way, really. Hire a hitman who’s already in prison. Get him outside the prison walls for a day (corrupt prison guards come in handy here). He’ll make the hit, return to the...
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Herb & Dorothy 50X50
Imagine this: You’re watching an episode of Hoarders about a couple who live in a tiny one-bedroom Manhattan apartment and have stuff piled so high and tightly that there’s no possible way they could cram in more. The kicker...
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C.O.G.
Kyle Patrick Alvarez (Easier With Practice) has been gifted the very first crack at translating the work of acclaimed writer David Sedaris to the big screen with C.O.G., a soul-seeker dramedy adapted from one of Sedaris’ short stories. Faithful...
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Mademoiselle C
A documentary portrait of a fashion “goddess” whose most vivacious and interesting golden days are behind her, Mademoiselle C is so formless and banal that it’ll only appeal to those already obsessed with and privy to the glammy, kissy-kissy...
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Museum Hours
In director Jem Cohen’s Museum Hours, a late-middle-aged Viennese museum patrolman and a Canadian tourist share a ruminative brief encounter, like an older, wiser, more meditative version of Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation or Richard Linklater’s Before series. The...