All articles by Brent Simon – Page 15
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Reviews
Domino
Dir: Tony Scott. US. 2005.127mins.There's something to be said for cinema that avoidsthe comfort margins of the mainstream, and Tony Scott's effusive, edge-skating Domino - a loosely plotted biopic of thedaughter of actor Laurence Harvey, who spurned privilege and became a bountyhunter - is certainly one such offering.Far more pluckythan ...
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Reviews
Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story
Dir/scr: John Gatins. US.2005. 104mins.Horseracing often has thereputation of being a sport ruled by, and mainly for, the wealthy - thoseunencumbered by the pesky constraints of regular, office-bred employment. Asthe recent critical and crossover screen success of Seabiscuit proved,though, the same general rules of other underdog movies apply to tales ...
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Reviews
Lord Of War
Dir/scr: Andrew Niccol.US. 2005. 121mins.Andrew Niccol has always been a fascinating writer,exploring decidedly catchy, low-fi concepts about the collision of humanity andmodernity, while also showing a consistent distrust of authority.His list of credits aswriter-director includes the under-heralded sci-fi drama of Gattaca, thebloated Hollywood-goes-digital satire Simone, and of course thescreenplay for ...
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Reviews
The Brothers Grimm
Dir: Terry Gilliam. UK-CzRep. 2005. 118mins.Terry Gilliam is afilm-maker for whom the joy of cinema is more in the journey than the finaldestination. This is usually okay because of the sheer phantasmagoria of hiscreations, and the kernel of universality at the core of his colourfulidiosyncrasies. But The Brothers Grimm, the ...
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Reviews
Red Eye (S Korea)
Dir: Wes Craven. US.2005. 81mins.Screen elitists arealways decrying the feckless over-complications of modern action movies, butWes Craven's air-bound Red Eye strikes a blow for old-fashionedentertainment, even as it unfolds against a decidedly contemporary setting. Athriller cast as a breathless nouveau labyrinth dash, the movie delivers solidgenre jolts in a tight, ...
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Reviews
The Constant Gardener
Dir: Fernando Meirelles.2005. UK-Ger. 125mins.Proving that City OfGod was no one-hit-wonder, Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles delivers avivid tapestry of international intrigue set against the backdrop of Africa anda pharmaceutical industry in The Constant Gardener, based on spyspecialist John le Carre's novel of the same name.Part retrospective lovestory, part political mystery, ...
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Reviews
The Great Raid
Dir: John Dahl. US. 2005.130mins.The inherent messiness ofarmed combat gets a full and solemn workout in director John Dahl's detailed,solidly staged World War II liberation flick The Great Raid, anold-fashioned movie of stark moral clarity that will appeal to hardcore genrefans and flag-waving American patriots, but not likely make a ...
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Reviews
Four Brothers
Dir: John Singleton. US.2005. 109mins.Set against a vastconspiratorial backdrop in which daylight shootouts take place with noimpunity, director John Singleton's Four Brothers is a formulaic andover-the-top crime drama that offers forth a guileless daisy chain of violentincidents with no convincing explication of place or consequence. Despite itsintriguing multi-cultural casting, it's ...
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Reviews
The Devil's Rejects
Dir/scr: Rob Zombie. US.2005. 108mins.A lot of horror movies self-profess to be brutal andout-there, but most modern genre pictures actually reveal themselves to belittle more than communal vehicles of squeamish discomfort. In the finalanalysis, their pursuit of as many pan-demographic dollars as possible ensuresthat they don't really want to cross ...
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Reviews
Wedding Crashers
Dir: David Dobkin. USA.2005. 119mins.Much is made of the recent ascension of a number of actors- including Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Jack Black and Owen Wilson- who, informally dubbed the "Frat Pack," have paired in various combinations ona number of studio comedy features. With the popularity of teen ...
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Reviews
Land Of The Dead
Dir/scr: George A Romero.US. 2005. 94mins.Film-maker George ARomero did not invent the idea of the dead returning to life, but he did helppopularise it with his seminal genre films, starting with 1968's Night OfThe Living Dead and continuing with its two sequels, Dawn Of The Deadand Day Of The Dead. ...
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Reviews
Lords Of Dogtown
Dir: Catherine Hardwicke.US. 2005. 105mins.Based on the same true story that spawned the effortlesslycharismatic 2002 documentary Dogtown And Z-Boys, director CatherineHardwicke's Lords Of Dogtown offers forth an entertaining but relativelyimpressionistic look at the sweaty, counter-cultural explosion of streetskateboarding that took place in the late 1970s on the crookedly tapered, blackasphalt ...
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Reviews
The Longest Yard
Dir: Peter Segal. USA.2005. 113mins.Underdog sports tales areoverly common, but Adam Sandler's new film The Longest Yard - asurprisingly faithful and raucous remake of Burt Reynolds beloved movie of thesame name - spikes that familiar punch with the motivation of revenge,resulting in an estimable and surprisingly entertaining kick-off to the ...
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Reviews
Kingdom Of Heaven
Dir: Ridley Scott. US.2005. 143mins.After indulging in whatmust have almost seemed like guerilla film-making with 2003's character drama MatchstickMen, director Ridley Scott wades back into the epic breach with KingdomOf Heaven, a massive-scale historical drama sporting a reported $110mbudget. Though damaged irreparably by a sluggish first hour-plus, it remains alavish ...
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Reviews
xXx: State Of The Union
Dir: Lee Tamahori. US.2005. 99mins.Atrocious but notable in its own warped way, xXx: StateOf The Union (known as xXx: The Next Level internationally) says alot about what's wrong with some American studio film-making today, in that itsays absolutely nothing at all, doing so both loudly and with the phoney,purchased conviction ...
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Reviews
Sin City
Dirs: Robert Rodriguez,Frank Miller. US. 2005. 124mins.In translating FrankMiller's Sin City series of graphic novels from one artistic medium toanother, co-director Robert Rodriguez - who felt so strongly about sharingcredit with the author that he resigned from the Directors' Guild of Americawhen they balked at dual acknowledgment - delivers what ...
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Reviews
Robots
Dir: Chris Wedge, CarlosSaldanha. US. 2005. 85mins.In the modern cinematic age, animation has become abehemoth sub-genre of its own and - if done right - a virtual licence to printmoney, as Disney's lucrative, if waning, partnership with Pixar and DreamWorks'successful joint ventures with PDI have helped prove.Of course, given the ...
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Reviews
Man Of The House
Dir: Stephen Herek. US.2005. 100mins.A dispiriting tale abouta group of cheerleaders who observe a murder and then must be protected, ManOf The House is a colourless concept comedy without much else going for itoutside of concept; an artificial crowd-pleaser that throws a few feeblecharacter types at the screen and then ...
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Reviews
Cursed
Dir: Wes Craven. US.2005. 95minsThe release date of 2005tells one side - perhaps the official one - to Cursed, the new werewolfpicture from Dimension, the in-house genre arm of Miramax that revitalised themodern horror landscape with the self-aware yet scary Scream picturesfrom what now seems like eons ago. Almost every ...