Opening Everywhere: Gone Girl, Annabelle
Opening Somewhere: Left Behind, The Good Lie
FilmDrunk Suggests: Gone Girl looks pretty legit, despite the presence of Tyler Perry, while Annabelle is a groundbreaking movie about a scary doll. Choose wisely.
Gone Girl
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 86% critics, 93% audience
Gratuitous Review Quotes:
The film’s stabs at social commentary — the constant barrage of tabloid TV coverage — are crushingly obvious. – Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
Once you release the movie from the demand that it be significant, there are a number of achievements. – Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
Armchair Analysis: A lot of people keep telling me I should read the book first and then see the movie. Sure. Good luck with that. I’m pretty sure the book doesn’t have pictures of Rosamund Pike.
Annabelle
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 30% critics, 61% audience
Gratuitous Review Quotes:
What we mostly get in Annabelle is what we’ve gotten from so many other horror films: creaking floors, funky white-robed figures, home appliances that go off on their own, mysterious writing that shows up in mysterious places. – Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
Annabelle, an effective prequel to horror pastiche The Conjuring, surpasses its predecessor simply by virtue of occasionally being scary. – Simon Abrams, Village Voice
Armchair Analysis: I can’t believe so many critics like this movie. It’s a f*cking possessed doll.
Left Behind
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 2% critics, 67% audience
Gratuitous Review Quotes:
Not only is this an amateurish travesty combining fundamentalist Christian eschatology with disaster movie b.s., but it’s plodding and tedious. – James Berardinelli, ReelView
It should have more smoldering panic bursting into full-blown freak-outs. It should have more passion, more intensity. It should have more bees. – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com
Armchair Analysis: Here’s the question – if I’m left behind, is the punishment to watch this crap? Because I’ll clean my act up immediately if that’s the case.
The Good Lie
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 83% critics, 74% audience
Gratuitous Review Quotes:
It’s often earnest to a fault and fearful of its deeper, darker implications. Still, you won’t leave The Good Lie unmoved. Its heart really is in the right place. – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Director Philippe Felardeau finds some extraordinary landscapes here. And his camera also lingers over his characters’ faces, striking maps of their pain, their hunger, their loss. – Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
Armchair Analysis: This stars Reese “Drunker Than Sh*t” Witherspoon, AKA “Y’all know who the f*ck I am?” We shouldn’t have let her off so easy for that nonsense.