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Latest reviews – Page 392
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Reviews
Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny
Dir: Liam Lynch. US. 2006.97mins.Jack Black's mock-rock duo Tenacious D may be atongue-in-cheek musical enterprise but it's had enough success to justify above-the-titlebilling on The Pick OfDestiny, a sweetly raunchy slacker comedy purporting to tell the story ofthe band's early struggle for rock 'n' roll legitimacy. While the comedy is ...
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Reviews
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
Dir: Stephen Kijak. UK. 2006. 90mins.A great enigma of modern music sheds a few layers ofopacity in Stephen Kijak's revealing documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man. With a challenging new record recently issued, thereclusive, sporadically active American-born singer is seen at close quarters,while collaborators and assorted music notables, including executive ...
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Reviews
A Dirty Carnival (Biyeolhan Geori)
Dir/scr: Ha Yu. S Kor. 2006. 141mins.Updating the theory that war is politics pursued byother means, A Dirty Carnival arguesthat the criminal underworld is simply corporate business employing differenttools. Tracing the rise and fall of an ambitious but insufficiently ruthless Seoulthug, Ha Yu's new feature is reminiscent of Friend,Korea's best ...
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Reviews
Tazza: The High Rollers (Tajja)
Dir/scr: Choi Dong-hoon. S Kor. 2006. 139mins.The undisputed homegrown box-office champion of late inSouth Korea - where it took some three million admissions in its first fortnight- Tazza: The High Rollers is a gambling caper thatraces off from the word go and doesn't slow down for the next 139 minutes.Choi ...
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Reviews
Turtle Family (Familia Tortuga)
Dir/scr: Ruben Imaz Castro. Mex. 2006. 130mins.Turtle Family heralds Ruben Imaz Castro as the next voice from theMexican counter-current, as unconventional and challenging in his own way aspredecessors like Carlos Reygadas or Amat Escalante, if not as brazenly outrageous. His operaprima lasts 130 minutes, during which very little actually happens ...
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Reviews
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
Dir: Michael Lembeck. US. 2006. 91mins.Straight-up, wholeheartedly earnest family films thatare not animated nor revolve around some form of animal are few and far between' and of this subset, many are driven only by primary colors and robust sounddesign. But The SantaClause 3: The Escape Clause, the third film in ...
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Reviews
Saw III
Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman. US. 2006. 107mins.Staying mostly faithful to the successful blueprintof its two earlier installments, while deepening the audience's connection withthe franchise's main character, Saw IIIis an adequate sequel that works well enough on its own terms. Saw aficionados should be satisfied bythe results, although the less fanatic ...
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Reviews
Children Of Glory (Szabadsag, Szerelem)
Dir: Krisztina Goda. Hung-UK. 2006. 123mins.Produced to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the1956 Hungarian Revolution, the first time that the people of an Eastern Bloccountry took up arms against the Soviet Regime, Children Of Glory is a rousing and highly effective tribute to themen and women who fought in ...
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Reviews
Playing The Victim (Izobprzhaya Zhertvu)
Dir: Kiril Serebrennikov. Russ. 2006. 96mins.The surprise winner of the main Cinema2006 section of the Rome Film Fest, PlayingThe Victim is an intellectual, post- modern blackcomedy that has its engaging moments but ends up feeling gratingly pretentious.With a script adapted fromtheir own stage play by the prolific Brothers Presnyakov,this second ...
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Reviews
Half Moon (Niwemang)
Dir/scr: Bahman Ghobadi. Ir-Aust-Fr.2006. 107mins.Bahman Ghobadi's Half Moon, one of seven features producedas part of the Mozart's Visionary Cinema: New Crowned Hope season, is moreambitious but not as tightly knit as some of the Iranian film-maker's bestwork. A road movie, whose real theme is the unifying spirit of the defiant ...
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Reviews
The Unknown (La Sconosciuta)
Dir/scr: Giuseppe Tornatore. It-Fr. 2006. 121mins.Giuseppe Tornatore hashardly set world cinema alight in the 18 years since the Oscar-winning Cinema Paradiso.But although it's far from perfect, TheUnknown, the Sicilian director's first film in six years at least has thedramatic substance that lacked in style exercises like Malena (2000) and The ...
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Reviews
Crossing The Line
Dir. Daniel Gordon. UK. 2006. 91mins.Perfectly timed to reach Pusanjust as current tensions with North Korean increase once more, Crossing The Linepromises more than it can deliver. The story of former US soldier James Joseph Dresnok, 44 years after he left the American dream andsettled in Pyongyang, DanielGordon's documentary fails ...
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Reviews
Boys Of Tomorrow (Woori-Ege Nae-Ileun Eobda)
Dir/scr. Noh Dong-seok. S Kor. 2006. 93mins.Pursuing similar themes to those covered in his debutfeature Generation, which screened acouple of years ago in Pusan, Noh Dong-seok's Boys OfTomorrow again takes up the cause of lost youth whose hopes and dreams aretrampled by the slum misery into which they are born.Shot ...
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Reviews
After This Our Exile (After This Our Exile)
Dir: Patrick Tam. Hong Kong, 2006.158mins.Excruciatingly long and exceedingly over-sentimental,Patrick Tam's After This, Our Exilelooks like a daytime soap, save for a couple of torrid love scenes which may beits best achievement.Tam's tear-jerking dramaabout a cook whose family is torn apart by his inveterate gambling and unpaiddebts displays great technical ...
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Reviews
Woman On The Beach (Haebyuneui Yeoin)
Dir/scr: Hong Sangsoo. S Kor. 2006. 128mins.Owing more to French cinema of the 1960s thancontemporary Korean film-making, Hong Sansoo'sromantic comedy Woman OnThe Beach is as intimate, laid back and low-key as his previousefforts. As such it will have a good following among critics and do well with thirtysomething arthouse audienceswho ...
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Reviews
The Stone Council (Le Concile De Pierre)
Dir: Guillaume Nicloux. Fr-Ger-It. 2006. 100mins.A French Da Vinci Code inwhich Catholic mystical hokum is replaced by Mongololianshamanistic hokum, Jean-Christophe Grange's Le Concille DePierre was a literary bestseller when it came out in France in 2000. Withits high-profile Bellucci-Deneuve pairing and lushproduction values, this $28m adaptation of the book is ...
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Reviews
Gangster High (Pokryok Sekkeul)
Dir/scr: Park Kihyung. Korea, 2006. 102mins.An exceedingly violent high-school rumpus that deterioratesinto warfare, with dead and wounded left on the battlefield, Park Kihyung's GangsterHigh is the kind of picture no young teen will be allowed to see, should censorshave any say in the matter.Park Ki-hyung,whose disappointing family horror film Acaciaclosed ...
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Reviews
Before We Fall In Love Again
Dir/scr: James Lee. Malay-HK-Chi. 2006. 99mins.Husbands and their wives' lovers have never hit itoff as well as they do in Before We Fall In Love Again, a strange and tightly controlledMalaysian romantic drama. Granted, it would have gained much by being shot onfilm, but even in its digital form it ...
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Reviews
The Sakai's Happiness (Sakai-ke No Shiawase)
Dir/scr: O Mipo. Jap. 2006. 102mins.Debut film-maker O Mipo mayfind that The Sakai's Happiness, herlaudably understated approach to family life in a provincial town, will findfavour with critics but alienate many potential audiences. Keeping at all timeswithin the boundaries of low-key drama, it's the sort of feature that mightstrike impatient ...
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Reviews
The Go Master (Wu Qingyuan)
Dir: Tian Zhuangzhuang. Chi. 2006. 107mins.The latest feature from Fifth Generation Chinesefilm-maker Tian Zhuangzhuang,The Go Master is an austere, poeticstudy of one of the most famous 20th-century players of the Japanese board gameGo, considered the most complicated strategy game in the world. As reticent asits central character (played by Wong ...