All articles by Allan Hunter – Page 69
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Reviews
Mike Bassett: England Manager
Dir: Steve Barron. UK. 2001. 89 mins The British passion for football has never quite translated into an appetite for football films. When Saturday Comes (1995) failed to make much of an impression and A Shot At Glory (2000) is only just limping into a limited release two years after ...
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Reviews
Joy Ride
Dir: John Dahl. US. 2001. 98minsFasten your seat belts and hang on to your popcorn as director John Dahl unleashes a heart-stopping, scare-the-pants-off them, precision-engineered thrill machine. Unpretentious and unrelenting, Joy Ride provokes all the wild-eyed terror and hysterical laughter of a giddy childhood visit to a fairground attraction. A ...
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Reviews
Christmas Carol: The Movie
Dir: Jimmy T Murakami. UK. 2001. 81 mins.Having survived The Muppets, Bill Murray and the music of Leslie Bricusse, the timeless Dickens tale is sturdy enough to emerge intact from a fresh animated overhaul that takes a few liberties with the tried and tested storyline. Serviceable rather than inspired, the ...
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Reviews
Novocaine
Dir: David Atkins. US. 2001. 100minsA deeply conventional thriller that generates some unconventional laughs, Novocaine is an unpersuasive homage to film noir archetypes of gullible men and the wicked women who drive them to the edge of destruction. A classy cast and some bright comic notions are the virtues in ...
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Reviews
Buffalo Soldiers
Dir: Gregor Jordan. UK/USA. 2001. 94mins"When there is peace, the warlike man attacks himself." The Friedrich Nietzsche quote provides the philosophy behind a biting black comedy exploring the military state of mind when the awful pressures of waging war are replaced by the dangerous tedium of keeping peace. The second ...
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Reviews
Last Wedding
Dir: Bruce Sweeney. Canada. 2001. 100minsWriter-director Bruce Sweeney covers well-trodden territory in Last Wedding, a sour reflection on modern love that gathers attitude and edge as it gradually darkens from light comedy to bitter farce. Focusing on three Vancouver couples, it observes the decline and fall of their relationships with ...
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Reviews
Gas Attack
Dir: Kenny Glenaan. Scotland. 2001. 70 minsA troubling blend of stark facts and alarming fiction, Gas Attack belongs to a long tradition of controversial British documentary-dramas that includes the nuclear attack landmarks The War Game (1965) and Threads (1984). Told with all the urgency of a breaking news story, ...
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News
Edinburgh 2001: a tale of too much TV
The lacklustre state of British cinema was widely bemoaned at this year's Edinburgh international Film Festival where undemanding mainstream crowd-pleasers like Lucky Break and Crush unfurled alongside a range of productions judged eminently worthy of television transmission but unlikely to justify theatrical exposure. Early disappointment with the muddled coming of ...
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News
Gas Attack takes Edinburgh by storm
Topical, highly controversial Scottish production Gas Attack was named Best New British Feature at the Edinburgh International Film Festival closing ceremony on Sunday night. A first feature from former actor and theatre director Kenny Glenaan, it uses a documentary style to tell of a right-wing terrorist attack on the community ...
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Reviews
Gabriel And Me
Dir: Usan Prayad. UK. 2001. 86 minsAdapted from Lee Hall's award-winning 1996 radio play I Luv You Jimmy Spud, Gabriel And Me is a maudlin coming of age drama tackling familiar Hall themes of bereavement, family unity and the transforming power of the imagination. Despite sensitive handling from director Usan ...
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Reviews
Happy Now
Dir: Philippa Collie Cousins. Wales. 98mins. 2001The guilty legacy of past indiscretions provides the backdrop to Happy Now, an atmospheric tale of smalltown secrets and deceptive appearances where the eccentricity is self-conscious and the elaborate mechanics of the plot fail to convince. Polished and well performed, it will make superior ...
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Reviews
Filthy Earth
Dir: Andrew Kotting. UK. 2001. 111minsAndrew Kotting's follow up to his quirky, much admired road movie documentary Gallivant offers an extreme vision of rural hardship. Inspired by Emile Zola's La Terre (Earth), it saturates the screen with mud and muck, blood and viscera to create an unrelenting portrait of squalor, ...
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Reviews
Lucky Break
Dir: Peter Cattaneo. UK. 2001. 108minsThe Full Monty has been an impossible act to follow. Producer Umberto Pasolini's whimsical follow up Closer To You and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy's depressing The Darkest Light were minor footnotes to the ongoing global phenomenon of the steelworker strippers. Director Peter Cattaneo has waited longer ...
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Reviews
The Iron Ladies
Dir: Yongyooth Thongkonthun. Thailand. 2000Cool Runnings meets The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert in this raucous, cheer-the-underdog charmer inspired by true events at the 1996 Thailand national volleyball championships. A shameless crowd-pleaser, played for broad comic effect, it embraces every cliche of the sporting no-hopers genre but still ...
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Reviews
La Chambre Des Officiers
Dir: Francois Dupeyron. France. 2001. 135minsComfortingly old-fashioned in its virtues of sensitive direction and finely nuanced performances, La Chambre Des Officiers is a moving account of an injured officer's struggle for physical and spiritual regeneration at the height of the First World War. Conventional handling of the material may not ...
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Reviews
Crush
Dir: John McKay. UK. 2001. 111minsA calculating mixture of hilarity and heartache, Crush is one of the more polished British candidates poised to ride the hem lines of Bridget Jones's success and exploit the expanding market for upscale chick flicks. A first feature from writer-director John McKay, it tries too ...
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Reviews
The Chimp
Director: Aktan Abdykalykov. France/Kazakhstan. 2001. 98minsThe desolate Kazakhstan locale may be relatively unknown but everything else about this slight coming of age drama is wearily familiar. The concluding film in director Aktan Abdykalykov's autobiographical trilogy follows a teenage boy in the weeks leading up to his departure for military service. ...
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Reviews
Pauline & Paulette
Dir: Lieven Debrauwer. Belgium/France/Netherlands. 2001. 78minsA bittersweet little heart-warmer on the ties that bind four sisters, Pauline & Paulette marks a promising feature debut from writer-director Lieven Debrauwer who won the Prize Du Jury at Cannes in 1997 for his short film Leonie. Lightly humorous and quietly perceptive as it ...
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Reviews
ABC Africa
Dir: Abbas Kiarostami. Iran. 2001. 83 mins. Commissioned to raise international awareness of the work being done by the Uganda Women's Effort To Save Orphans (UWESO), ABC Africa is a surprisingly straightforward return to the documentary form from Palme D'Or winner Abbas Kiarostami. Largely eschewing the heartache and misery ...
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Reviews
Hijack Stories
Dir: Oliver Schmitz. South Africa. 2001. 94 mins A compelling focus on black identity in the new South Africa, Hijack Stories marks a welcome return to feature films from director Oliver Schmitz 14 years after his award-winning debut Mapantsula. The generally polished handling of topical, thought-provoking material means that it ...