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Latest reviews – Page 427
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Reviews
Bittersweet Life (Dal Kom Han In-Saeng)
Dir/scr:Kim Jee-woon South Korea. 2005. 115mins.An ultra-violent actionnoir by Korean director Kim Jee-woon, A Bittersweet Life is a stylishstory of a faithful underworld lieutentant who crosses his boss and ends upfighting for his life against his own gang. As in his previous genre outing,the dark psycho-horror yarn A Tale Of ...
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Reviews
Batman Begins
Dir:Christopher Nolan. US. 2005. 140 mins.LikeSam Raimi did with Spider-man,Christopher Nolan has gone back to the drawing board with the Batman characterin Batman Begins andemerged with an intensely dramatic, muscular action adventure picture whichshould be successful enough to kickstart the franchise for Warner Bros. Eradicatingany of the camp and tongue-in-cheek ...
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Reviews
Mr And Mrs Smith
Dir:Doug Liman. US. 2005. 120mins.Mr & Mrs Smith is a sleek, audacious mix ofromantic comedy, satire and action thriller boosted by the surging star powerof Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. And making the most of that 'Brangelina'appeal - the couple's alleged off-screen affair is currently the talk of thetabloids - ...
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Reviews
The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants
Dir: Ken Kwapis. US.2005. 119mins.Based on a wildly popular young-adult novel about fourteen girlfriends and the pair of magical blue jeans they share over the summer,The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants is a coming-of-age dramatailor-made for fans of the books, which with its sequels has sold 3.5m-pluscopies in the US. ...
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Reviews
Cold Showers (Douches Froides)
Dir: Antony Cordier. Fr.2005. 100mins.The debut fiction feature from young French directorAntony Cordier, Cold Showers may not score heavily in terms of novelty:it is, after all, a small-town coming-of-age story trimmed with edgy teenagesex. Nevertheless, his rites-of-passage feature, which screened in Directors'Fortnight at Cannes, brings an unshowy, observation intelligence to ...
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Reviews
Cinema, Aspirins And Vultures (Cinema, Aspirinas E Urubus)
Dir:Marcelo Gomes. Braz. 2005. 99mins.Odd, really, that up to now, nobody has ever thought ofmaking a film about a travelling aspirin salesman in north-eastern Brazil inthe early 1940s. First-time director Marcelo Gomes has not only come up withthe definitive movie on the subject - he also provided us with one ...
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Reviews
Down In The Valley
Dir/scr: David Jacobson.US. 2005. 125mins.Hailed as the De Niro ofhis generation, Edward Norton finally has a chance to remind us why in DownIn The Valley. After a string of supporting roles and odd career choices (TheItalian Job, The Score, Kingdom Of Heaven etc), he once againtakes centre stage with a ...
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Reviews
The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse
Dir: Steve Bendelack. UK2005. 90mins.The League Of Gentlemen, rubber-faced Britishexponents of grotesque TV comedy, make a bravely eccentric cinema debut with TheLeague of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, a macabre farce that mixes theirdistinctive character playing with Hammer ghoulishness, movie-buff in-jokes andlashings of existential paradox in a Charlie Kaufman vein.The team - protean ...
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Reviews
The Death Of Mr Lazarescu (Moartea Domnului Lazarescu)
Dir: Cristi Puiu. Rom.2005. 154mins.It's got to be one of the hardest sells there is: atwo-and-a-half-hour film about an incontinent old man in Bucharest who is takenill one evening, calls an ambulance, and is shuttled from hospital to hospitalin search of a diagnosis, a scan, and a free bed.But The ...
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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 Moustache (La Moustache)
Dir:Emmanuel Carrere. Fr. 2005. 86mins.What seems like a merewhisker of a premise yields surprising results in The Moustache, aneconomical but impressive fiction debut by French director-writer EmmanuelCarrere.Originally known as ajournalist and novelist - his works were adapted by Claude Miller and NicoleGarcia as Class Trip and L'Adversaire respectively - Carrere ...
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Reviews
Quo Vadis, Baby'
Dir: Gabriele Salvatores.It. 2005. 98mins.Gabriele Salvatores has taken a step back from thedramatic intensity of I'm Not Scared with Quo Vadis, Baby', arambling contemporary noir set in Bologna.Based on the same-name novelby Grazia Verasani, the film is worth a look chiefly for its atmospheric HDcinematography and for its original private ...
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Reviews
Cinderella Man
Dir:Ron Howard. US. 2005. 144mins.Beautifullycrafted and emotionally uplifting, Cinderella Man reunites ABeautiful Mind star Russell Crowe and director Ron Howard to tell the trueDepression-era story of underdog American boxing champ Jim Braddock. It's aprime example of the kind of rousing melodrama that Hollywood, when it's nottrying to lure teens with ...
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Reviews
Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noel)
Dir/scr: Christian Carion.France. 2005. 115minsThe miracle of aChristmas truce in the trenches of World War One is transformed into apolished, pan-European heartwarmer in Merry Christmas. Refreshinglytraditional in comparison with many competition titles, it places its faith inthe virtues of straightforward storytelling, handsome production values and atouching real life incident. It ...
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Reviews
Chromophobia
Dir/scr:Martha Fiennes. UK-Fr. 2005. 138mins.The second film by Martha Fiennes, sister of Ralph andJoseph, is a multi-linear choral drama that aims to tell contemporary Britainlike it is. But although there is some sophisticated writing here, and some enjoyableperformances from the mostly British ensemble cast, Fiennes' attempt to do akind of ...
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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
Tale Of Cinema (Keuk jang jeon)
Dir/scr: Hong Sangsoo. SKor-Fr. 2005. 90minsHong Sangsoo, Korea's master of elliptical urbannarrative, returns with a characteristically slippery slice of Seoul realism inTale Of Cinema, which morphs halfway through into a meditation oncinema, love and reality. The narrative spectacularly wrong-foots the viewerabout an hour in, but even given this perspectival twist, ...
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Reviews
The Great Ecstasy Of Robert Carmichael
Dir: Thomas Clay. UK.2005. 96minsThomas Clay announceshimself as a provocative new British talent with the disturbing state of thenation wake up call The Great Ecstasy Of Robert Carmichael. The 24year-old's ambitious debut feature carries echoes of such uncompromisingEuropean auteurs as Michael Haneke and Gaspar Noe before taking a turn intovideo ...
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Reviews
Tale Of Cinema (Keuk jang jeon)
Dir/scr: Hong Sangsoo. SKor-Fr. 2005. 90minsHong Sangsoo, Korea's master of elliptical urbannarrative, returns with a characteristically slippery slice of Seoul realism inTale Of Cinema, which morphs halfway through into a meditation oncinema, love and reality. The narrative spectacularly wrong-foots the viewerabout an hour in, but even given this perspectival twist, ...
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Reviews
Tale Of Cinema (Keuk jang jeon)
Dir/scr: Hong Sangsoo. SKor-Fr. 2005. 90minsHong Sangsoo, Korea's master of elliptical urbannarrative, returns with a characteristically slippery slice of Seoul realism inTale Of Cinema, which morphs halfway through into a meditation oncinema, love and reality. The narrative spectacularly wrong-foots the viewerabout an hour in, but even given this perspectival twist, ...