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Latest reviews – Page 403
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Reviews
Click
Dir: Frank Coraci. US. 2006. 95mins.The raunchy man-boy of Adam Sandler'searly hits has grown up to become an overworked young dad in Click, a predictable yet sneakilyeffective comedy from the writers of the similarly high-concept Bruce Almighty. Less of a departure for Sandler than Spanglish or Punch-DrunkLove, but not as ...
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Reviews
Luxury Car
Dir/scr: Wang Chao. Chi-Fr. 2006. 88minsIf Luxury Car,Wang Chao's old-fashioned Franco-Chinese melodramaabout a man looking for his son in the big city, turns out so much better thanits contents seem to promise, then it is mostly due to the gently restrainedtreatment it receives from its writer/director and a remarkable cast ...
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Reviews
12:08, East Of Bucharest (A Fost Sau N'a Fost)
Dir/scr: CorneliuPorumboiu. Rom. 2006. 89minsLittle more than a vignette, but nevertheless asuccinctly astute one at that, Corneliu Porumboiu's 12:08, East Of Bucharest is a spare, low-budget production whichhits the nail right on the head in its depiction of Romania just before thefall of the Ceausescu dictatorship. At the same time, ...
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Reviews
Superman Returns
Dir: Bryan Singer. US.2006. 150 mins. Like Sam Raimi did with Spider-man and Christopher Nolan with Batman Begins, Bryan Singer invests his new Superman movie withemotional intensity and high passions, creating a love triangle scenario whichis even more gripping than Lex Luthor's latest plot to destablise the world.Made with the ...
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Reviews
Change Of Address (Changement D'Adresse)
Dir/scr: Emmanuel Mouret. Fr. 2006. 85mins.As light and frothy as a Feydeau farce, ChangeOf Address (Changement d'Adresse) is aParisian romantic comedy whose charm is all in its peppy performances and deft,old -school take on one of the oldest genres in the book. Halfway in tonebetween a Gallic take on the ...
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Reviews
Komma
Dir: Martine Doyen. Bel-Fr. 2006. 90mins.A mystery within a riddle wrapped in an enigma, orperhaps just your averagely cryptic existential romance, Komma is an initially tantalisingdream-like oddity that doesn't sustain its interest. A story of two traumatisedoddballs getting together in a subtly unreal Brussels, this debut from multipleshorts prize-winner Martine ...
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Reviews
To Get To Heaven First You Have To Die (Bihisht Faqat Barqi Murdagon)
Dir/scr: Djamshed Usmonov. Fr-Ger-Switz-Russ. 2006. 93mins.Narratives rarely come crisper and more to the pointthan To Get To HeavenFirst You Have To Die - and audiences rarely get taken on suchsubtly unpredictable rides. The new film from DjamshedUsmanov, the Tajik director of Angel On The Right, begins as adeceptively gentle, tragic-comic ...
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Reviews
Nacho Libre
Dir: Jared Hess. US. 2006.90mins tbc.Mostly an interminable journey through corny accentsand gross sight gags, Jared Hess' lowbrow Mexican-wrestling comedy Nacho Librecomes alive only when Jack Black frees himself from its puerile screenplay andromps in all his wild-haired, flabby-tummy glory.In such moments,which are too infrequent and mostly come at the ...
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Reviews
The Bothersome Man (Den Brysomme Mannen)
Dir: JensLien. Nor-Ice. 2006. 95mins.A darkly comicNorwegian fable, The Bothersome Manimagines the after-life as a vacuous Scandinavian social democracy: it's theglossy dystopia of The Truman Showtransported to the land of designer sofas, 30-hour weeks and sweet blonde girlscalled Ingeborg. Lien's debut, the similarly quirky Johnny Vang,did only modest box office ...
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Reviews
Exterminating Angels (Les Anges Exterminateurs)
Dir/scr: Jean-Claude Brisseau.Fr. 2006. 100mins.One audience's erotic fantasy is another's cold shower in Exterminating Angels (Les Anges Exterminateurs), the latest overcooked psychodrama fromveteran writer/director Jean-Claude Brisseau. Theconcept of a fifty-something male filmmaker exploring transgressivefemale behaviour may sound like a venture into Catherine Breillatterritory but here it seems like a fig ...
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Reviews
Honor De Cavalleria
Dir/scr: Albert Serra. Sp. 2006. 112mins.Don Quixoteand his faithful servant Sancho Panzaare intriguingly lost in La Mancha in Honor De Cavalleria,Albert Serra's ultra-minimalist take on Cervantes'enduring classic, which allies itself militantly with an older generation of arthouse masters: Bresson, Pasolini, Olmi. Sadisticallyslow, the film demands a patience, which few at ...
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Reviews
The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift
Dir: Justin Lin. US. 2006. 104mins.An efficient butpummeling ride, the latest entry in TheFast And TheFurious franchise is an entertaining vehicle that doesn't have quite enoughin the tank in terms of plotting or characters. Nevertheless, it proves a solidshowcase for its up-and-coming director Justin Lin and star Lucas Black.Lessa continuation ...
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Reviews
Suburban Mayhem
Dir: Paul Goldman. Aus. 2006.89mins.A sassy but uneven slice of youth-oriented Australiana, SuburbanMayhem is worth seeing chiefly for its memorable main character, sexy,wilful and amoral suburban vamp Katrina, who is brought to vivid life by Kiwiactress Emma Barclay.But although it is carriedforward by a driving energy as loud as its ...
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Reviews
Avida
Dirs/scr: Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern. Fr. 2006. 83mins.Even by thestandards of their eccentric road comedy debut Aaltra, Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern's Avida - described in the press notes as a 'metaphysicalcomedy' - is bizarre indeed. Starting out as a Tati-esquesilent farce crammed with off-the-wall sight gags, this wayward tale ...
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Reviews
Back Home (Bled Number One)
Dir: Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche.Fr-Alg. 2005. 98mins.Algerian-born French director Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche confronts the problems of returnee Maghrebis with BackHome (as it is known in English), his follow-up tominor 2002 festival hit Wesh Wesh. The resultis a strange, loose exercise, part tradition-versus-modernity drama, partrambling filmed diary.Like its orange-hatted hero, the drama keeps switching ...
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Reviews
The Lake House
Dir: Alejandro Agresti. US.2006. 108mins.Cateringfaithfully to its core audience, The Lake House is a grownup romantic drama withhigh-gloss production values and a reliably tear-jerking storyline. Itssophisticated air and fairy-tale manner will play perfectly with adult womenwho won't quibble about the mediocre performances and glaring logic problems.This remake ofthe 2000 South ...
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Reviews
The Violin
Mexico. 2006. 98 mins. Director Francisco VargasQuevedoDirector Francisco Vargas Quevedo's film was upgradedfrom last year's Cinefondation at Cannes to a slot in the 2006 Un CertainRegard, but his theme, now fleshed out to full feature length, was kickedupstairs as well. The short version of The Violin contained most of the ...
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Reviews
Meurtrieres
France 2006 97 mins. Director Patrick GrandperretWhile it's an engaging enough diversion, especiallygiven its fetching female leads, Meurtrieres offers little that hasn't already been seen incountless other French films, from at least as far back as Agnes Varda's 1985drama Vagabond. This true-lifetale of two innocent and well-meaning 19-year old women ...