Latest reviews – Page 442
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Reviews
Undertow
Dir. David Gordon Green. US. 2004. 107mins.An intoxicating auteur spin on Southern Gothic, Undertow is a conventional adventurestory - good boys, bad uncle, hidden gold - that is told in a mostunconventional way. To say its his most commercial film yet isn't saying much,as the qualities that make it a ...
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Reviews
Hotel Rwanda
Dir: Terry George. 2004.S Afr-UK-It. 122mins.Terry George's gripping,fact-based Hotel Rwanda brings to mind both The Killing Fieldsand Schindler's List, but its low-key approach means it is unlikely tobecome as commercially successful as those two titles. That said, it did winthe Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival at the ...
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Reviews
Sideways
Dir: Alexander Payne. US.2004. 124 mins.Alexander Payne entersthe very top rank of American auteurs with his fourth film Sideways, ablissfully enjoyable meditation on masculinity and loneliness which willdelight adult audiences and should be a significant contender in theend-of-year awards race. Fox Searchlight Pictures, which fully financed thefilm, is releasing it ...
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Reviews
Wimbledon
Richard Loncraine, UK/US 2004, 97 minsRichard Curtis maynot have written Wimbledon but hisinfluence is evident in almost every scene of the film. As in Notting Hill and Four Weddings, a charming but stuttering Brit (in this case, ajourneyman tennis player) falls in love with a tougher, more worldly wiseAmerican. We're ...
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Reviews
Melinda And Melinda
Dir: Woody Allen, US2004. 99 mins After a run of lightweight comedies that caused evenhardcore supporters to lose patience, Woody Allen achieves a heartening returnto form with his most idiosyncratic and substantial film in some time. Agenuine tragi-comedy - in that it counterpoints two parallel stories, tragicand comic - Melinda ...
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Reviews
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Dir:Kerry Conran. US. 2004. 106mins.Thespirit and look of vintage science fiction meets the digital technology ofscience fact in Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow, an eccentricallyretro-futuristic adventure whose live actors appear in a world almost entirelycreated on computers. The mix of old and new produces some mightily impressivevisuals and ...
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Reviews
P.S.
Dir: Dylan Kidd USA. 2004.103mins.It was never going to beeasy for New York independent director Dylan Kidd to sustain the motor-mouthedenergy of his sharp, sardonic, stylish debut, Roger Dodger, which netteda shoal of awards (including the Lion of the Future award in Venice two yearsago), before going on to become ...
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Reviews
Downfall (Der Untergang)
Dir: Oliver Hirschbiegel.Ger. 2004. 150minsDoes the world really needanother film on Adolf Hitler' Downfall answers the question in theaffirmative. Recent years have seen the release of Max, Moloch,the documentary Blind Spot and the Robert Carlyle mini-series, but Downfallis distinctive and potentially much more commercial.It covers seeminglyfamiliar material from the fresh ...
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Reviews
Beyond The Sea
Dir: Kevin Spacey. UK-Ger.2004. 121minsAn old-fashioned,razzle-dazzle biopic, Beyond The Sea breezes through the life of 1960sshowbusiness all-rounder Bobby Darin with a song and a dance and a ton ofchutzpah. Kevin Spacey's second directorial effort (after Albino Alligator)is a true labour of love; beautifully designed, richly photographed andglistening with ambition.Spacey the ...
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Reviews
Being Julia
Dir: Istvan Szabo. Canada/UK/Hungary. 2004. 105mins.Older adults will find many pleasures in IstvanSzabo's cheerful period comedy Being Julia which plays like DangerousLiasions-light in the world of 1930s London theatre. Dominated by astupendously entertaining performance from Annette Bening, which covers overmany of the cracks in the film's lumpy structure, it is ...
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Reviews
The House Keys (Le Chiavi di Casa)
Dir:Gianni Amelio. It-Ger-Fr. 2004. 115mins.Thoughit was well received by the home crowd and the local media, who were desperatefor at least one good Italian film in competition at Venice this year, GianniAmelio's eagerly awaited The House Keys was a major disappointment tothe rest of us.Atough and sombre director, whose Sicilian ...
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Reviews
Ray
Dir: Taylor Hackford. US.2004. 152minsA scene-stealing co-starin Collateral, Jamie Foxx becomes a star attraction in Ray. Hisaccomplished performance as music icon Ray Charles has Oscar contender writtenall over it and offers conclusive proof of his leading man potential.The film itself is a solid,diligent biopic in which director Taylor Hackford displays ...
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Reviews
Millions
Dir: Danny Boyle UK-US.2004. 97minsTen years after Shallow Grave, director DannyBoyle once again discovers that sudden wealth is not without its complications.In Millions it is innocent schoolboys rather than larcenous flatmateswho are faced with a cash windfall.Boyle's approach to the material is equally dynamicbut the screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce ...
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Reviews
Land Of Plenty
Dir:Wim Wenders. Ger-UK. 2004. 113mins.WimWenders' Land Of Plenty is a post 9/11 parable that is half politicalpamphlet, half yet another exploration of the director's favourite theme - thestranger in a strange land. But although it is a more controlled exercise thanthe mess that was The Million Dollar Hotel, it does ...
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Reviews
Cellular
Dir: David R.Ellis. US 2004. 90minsTotallyimplausible from start to finish, suspense thriller Cellular has a silly premise and zero chills, but offers plenty ofaction (without a single explosion) and an easy-to-follow storyline. Given thedearth of good popcorn movies during the past five or six weeks, it may evenmanage to hold ...
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Reviews
Kinsey
Dir/scr: Bill Condon US.2004. 124minsA deftly handled mixture ofpersonal drama and social history, Kinseysculpts a compelling film from the life of the pioneering scientist who devotedhimself to the study of human sexuality. Beautifully judged and paced, it isboth intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying.Illuminating the presentthrough dramatising the past, it offers ...
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Reviews
Shark Tale
Dirs:Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, Rob Letterman. USA. 2004. 90mins.Afterbugs and monsters, the DreamWorks versus Disney/Pixar tit-for-tat animationgrudge match has moved on to fish. The latest blow to be struck by theDreamWorks camp, Shark Tale is a colourful, fast-paced, jive-talkingseabed caper that continues the scattershot, kids-and-adults targeting of muchmajor studio animation ...
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Reviews
Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru No Ugoku Shiro)
Dir: Hayao Miyazaki.Japan. 2004. 117mins.Japanese animation geniusHayao Miyazaki's follow-up to the international critical and box-office hit SpiritedAway is as visually inventive and unremittingly charming as itspredecessor. By turns funny, exhilarating and touching, it lacks only onething: the spiritual and metaphysical depth that made Spirited Away sucha haunting experience.While this will ...
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Reviews
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Dir: Alexander Witt. US/Canada/UK. 2004. 94 mins.More zombies, more screen time for Milla Jovovich and the addition ofsome crucial characters from the games themselves are the draw in this sequelto 2002 video game adaptation ResidentEvil. The new elements may not add many non-gamers to the audience for whatis otherwise a ...
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Reviews
Layer Cake
Dir:Matthew Vaughn. UK 2004. 100minsTrue,the directing debut of Matthew Vaughn - who made his name as producer of GuyRitchie's crime capers - is indeed a British gangland thriller. But it carriesfew traces of the saloon-bar jokiness that was Ritchie's trademark in Lock,Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Although slick ...