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Latest reviews – Page 366
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Reviews
The Photograph
Dir: Nan Triveni Achnas. Indonesia/France. 2007. 98min.Sentiment can be a good thing but laying it on as thick as Nan Triveni Achnas does in The Photograph risks exhausting the patience of even the staunchest soap opera fan. A weepie about the country girl in the big city who has to ...
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Reviews
Milky Way Liberation Front
Dir. Yoon Seongho. South Korea. 2007. 100min.An avalanche of wild ideas, absurd gags, ironic comments and film parodies assaults the viewer in Yoon Seongho's anarchic debut film, Milky Way Liberation Front. Coming across as a Day For Night gone awry and shot at breakneck speed, the film follows a young ...
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Reviews
Fred Claus
Dir: David Dobkin. US. 2007. 114mins.A full-on Vince Vaughn charm offensive gives loose-limbed holiday tale Fred Claus its own successful, charismatic personality and appeal. Re-teaming Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin and Vaughn for the third time, the movie wraps Vaughn's trademark quasi-improvisational runs of passive-aggressive patter around two wan storylines ...
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Reviews
Seven Days
Dir: Won Shin-Yeon. South Korea. 2007. 124mins.Female-centric Korean thriller Seven Days presents an intriguing if slightly overlong mixture of the crime and procedural genres with a very personally motivated ticking-clock element thrown in for good measure. While trading in a bit of grisly imagery, the film for the most part ...
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Reviews
And The Spring Comes (Li Chun)
Dir: Gu Changwei. China. 2007. 105mins.Former cinematographer Gu Changwei's follow-up to the well-received Peacock, which won a Berlin Silver Bear in 2005, sees the director teaming up once again with screenwriter Li Qiang for another 1980s period piece set in a provincial Chinese town. A funny-sad character study of a ...
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Reviews
Spare
Dir: Lee Seong Han. S Korea. 2007. 105min.Intermittently funny but always energetic, this spoof action film displays the kind of flair and attitude that will win fans at home and attract the interest of many film festivals especially for midnight screenings. Lee Seong Han, a fan of the Hong Kong ...
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Reviews
The Red Awn (Hongse Kangbaiyin)
Dir.Cai Shangjun. China. 2007. 108minsAlready established as a highly successful screenwriter whose work with Zhang Yang on Shower and Sunflower won international kudos, Cai Shangjun steps behind the camera for the first time with a film whose theme - a father-son relationship - has informed his previous work. A simple, ...
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Reviews
Bee Movie
Dir: Simon J. Smith & Steve Hickner. US. 2007. 90mins.Misguided narrative choices prevent Bee Movie, small screen king Jerry Seinfeld's sociable freshman entry into the animated fray, from fully taking flight. Spinning the story of a young bee who discovers life outside of his hive and sues humankind over their ...
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Reviews
Southland Tales
Dir: Richard Kelly, USA, 2007, 144minsSouthland Tales, re-cut since its world premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, is apocalyptic vaudeville, as politicians, cops, Iraq veterans porn stars and an amnesiac actor scramble to fulfil or forestall conspiracies in Los Angeles, culminating in a world-ending Fourth of July. It's an ...
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Reviews
Days and Clouds (Giorni e Nuvole)
Dir: Silvio Soldini Italy/Switzerland 2007. 115 mins.The strongest of the five Italian films that received their national premieres at the Rome Film Fest, Days and Clouds (which also played in Toronto and London) is a fine piece of emotional eye-on-the-object filmmaking from homegrown auteur Silvio Soldini and regular screenplay sidekick ...
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Reviews
Martian Child
Dir: Menno Meyjes. US. 2007. 108minsWell acted if sweetly moralising, Martian Child tells the story of a science fiction writer who adopts an orphaned boy who claims to be from Mars. Based on the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning short story by genre luminary David Gerrold, the film is an extremely ...
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Reviews
Noise
Dir/scr: Henry Bean. US. 2007. 91 mins .Noise has an intriguing idea at its core: it centres on a New York resident who begins a one-man guerilla campaign against urban noise pollution. But having hooked us with the tagline, director Henry Bean never seems to be sure quite where to ...
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Reviews
Saw IV
Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman. US. 2007. 93mins.Cinematic trends come and go, but the resilience of the Saw franchise continues unabated. Grimly efficient in a manner consistent with previous installments, Saw IV demonstrates that this well-oiled horror machine is showing noticeable wear and tear, but nevertheless enough of the moving parts ...
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Reviews
In Prison My Whole Life
Dir: Marc Evans. UK-Italy. 2007. 91mins.On December 9 1981, Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner. He has been languishing on Death Row ever since. Mumia's story forms the focal point of Marc Evans' impassioned and engaging feature-doc. Using computer graphics, animation and music as ...
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Reviews
Unrelated
Dir: Joanna Hogg. UK, 2007, 100minsBritish film-makers have never been comfortable making thoughtful, provocative arthouse movies about the tribulations of bourgeois families. It is a style of film-making in which the French have long excelled but that UK directors generally steer clear of in case of being thought affected or ...
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Reviews
City Of Men (Cidade Dos Homens O Filme)
Dir: Paulo Morelli, Brazil, 106minsA touching coming-of-age story set against the violence and poverty of Rio's favelas, City of Men is the final instalment in a cycle of work inspired by Fernando Meirelles' City of God. Featuring characters from the three-year-running TV series City of Men that was commissioned following ...
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Reviews
Let's Say (On Dirait Que)
Dir: Francoise Marie, France 2007. 82 mins.A touching, telling documentary about older children's perspectives on the world of grown-ups, Let's Pretend That... has the potential to rival the success of Etre et Avoir (To Be and To Have) - Nicolas Phillibert's widely distributed study of a primary school class in ...
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Reviews
Lions For Lambs
Dir: Robert Redford. US. 2007. 88 mins.A talky, stagebound curio of a movie, Lions For Lambs is far from the high-octane Hollywood mega-movie its star pedigree would suggest. On the contrary, its star power - Robert Redford, who also directed, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise - may help to draw ...
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Reviews
Dan In Real Life
Dir. Peter Hedges, USA, 2007, 99 minutes, colour, 35 mm.Dan in Real Life takes on a familiar character, the seemingly omniscient newspaper advice-giver (Steve Carell), whose family life as a widower with three daughters doesn't measure up to the wisdom of his daily columns. Dan's love life is even more ...
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Reviews
American Gangster
Dir: Ridley Scott. US. 2007. 158 minsA classy gangster epic which echoes the best crime sagas of the last 35 years from The Godfather saga to New Jack City, American Gangster marks a welcome return to form for hard-working director Ridley Scott after three disappointing films. Long but never boring, ...