Latest reviews – Page 444
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Reviews
The Hamburg Cell
Dir: Antonia Bird. UK.2004.100minsIs the world ready for a dispassionate account of theterrorist cell behind the 9/11 atrocities' Is it possible to understand thehuman impulses behind such unconscionable actions'Those are just two of thequestions prompted by The Hamburg Cell, a fastidious, open-mindeddrama-documentary recreating the events that led to the attack ...
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Reviews
The Taste Of Tea (Cha No Aji)
Dir/scr/ed: IshiiKatsuhito. Japan. 2004. 143minsA little eccentricitygoes a long way in The Taste Of Tea, the third feature from IshiiKatsuhito that bills itself as a fusion of the classical humanist dramas of Ozuand the manga-shaped sensibility of a director who worked on the animationsequence in Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol 1.In ...
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Reviews
Private
Dir. Saverio Costanzo.Italy. 2004. 92mins.Raw, gritty and uncompromising, Saverio Costanzo'saward-winning Locarno debut is a thought provoking and painfully realisticimage of living under occupation. As such, it is likely to become a favouriteon the festival circuit (it already has a berth in Toronto's Discovery sectionnext month) and a leading exponent of ...
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Reviews
Inside I'm Dancing
DirDamien O'Donnell. Ireland-UK. 2004.104minsThebrief, liberating alliance between two disabled men is the basis ofheart-warming drama in Inside I'm Dancing. Cynics might argue thatdisability is a convenient short cut to emotional engagement and awardsattention but Damien O'Donnell's third feature largely skirts easysentimentality to create a film that could melt the hardest ...
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Reviews
Exorcist: The Beginning
Dir: RennyHarlin. 2004. USA. 114mins.A thunderousassault of visual and aural effects, including digitally rendered hyenas androiling sandstorms straight out of The Mummy, the long-gestating Exorcist:The Beginning is a colossal studio misfire that is less unprecedented forits erratic production history than for its capacity to rival notorious fiasco ExorcistII: The Heretic ...
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Reviews
The Purifiers
Dir/scr: Richard Jobson.UK. 2004. 85minsThere are some areas of the international market in whichBritish cinema cannot reasonably expect to compete. A meaty, martial artsthriller might be one of them. That hasn't stopped ambitious writer-directordirector Richard Jobson making a plucky attempt to create his own pulpyScottish version of a Hong Kong ...
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Reviews
Napola
Dir. Dennis Gansel.Germany, 2004. 110mins.Earnest, sincere and vociferously outspoken, DennisGansel's portrait of a 1942 Nazi boarding school breeding the future leaders ofthe Thousand Year Reich must be one of the more diligently produced andenergetically directed films to come out of Germany in recent years.At the same time it is alsoone ...
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Reviews
McDull, Prince De La Bun (Makdau Boloyau Wongchi)
Dir: Toe Yuen. Hong Kong.2004. 73minsMove over Babe, there's anew pig in town. If the Oscar-winning Chris Noonan film was still current, thatmight have been one way to market McDull, Prince De La Bun, a sequel tothe 2001 Hong Kong animation hit My Life As McDull, which sold all overAsia.The ...
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Reviews
Forgiveness
Dir. Ian Gabriel. SouthAfrica, 2004. 112mins.There are two thingsgoing for Ian Gabriel's feature film debut Forgiveness. The first isthat it comes from South Africa, which promises to be the film festival flavourof the year (after a competition premiere at Locarno it plays in Toronto's South Africa: Ten YearsLater sidebar next ...
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Reviews
Alien vs Predator
Dir:Paul W S Anderson. US. 2004. 101mins.Withnew backgrounds but the same old bad attitudes, two of 20th Century Fox'ssci-fi icons go head to head in AVP (as the marketing folks havehelpfully abbreviated it), a franchise face-off that looks set to consolidateHollywood's latest genre trend. The match-up, enthusiastically brought to thescreen ...
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Reviews
Tom White
Dir: Alkinos Tsilimidos.Aust. 2004. 106minsWith a standout,hardly-off-the-screen central performance from Colin Friels, Tom Whitecharts the swift descent of its eponymous character from middle-class securityto a desperate life on the streets, utterly broke and hopeless. For his secondfeature, director Alkinos Tsilimidos keeps sentimentality at bay while crediblycharting his protagonist's identity crisis, ...
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Reviews
My Stepbrother Frankenstein
Dir. ValeryTodorovsky. Russia. 2004. 120mins.Mary Shelley'sgothic tale is back, this time comfortably adjusted to fit into modern life inMoscow. But no scientific mumbo-jumbo, expressionistic lighting nor extensivemake-up were needed to create this man-made monster; instead he comes not froma lab but from a dark past. If he has been created ...
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Reviews
Niceland
Dir. Fridrik ThorFridriksson. Ice-Ger-Den-UK. 2004. 87mins.A modern fairytale for disenchanted adults, thelatest Fridrik Thor Fridriksson opus looks pretty and cute but lacks the edgeand authenticity that distinguish most of his previous contributions.Wrapped up inToyland colours for the first half, their tonality soiled later when the storyshifts to a junkyard, Fridriksson's ...
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Reviews
Wall (Mur)
Dir/scr: SimoneBitton. France. 2004. 99minsA poetic reflectionof the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Simone Bitton's documentary focuses itsattention on the massive wall put up by the Sharon government to separate theJewish community from the Arab and, arguably, defuse the terrorist threat.Born a Jew into the Arabian culture ofMorocco but brought up in Israel, ...
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Reviews
Nelly (A Ce Soir)
Dir: Laure Duthilleul.Fr. 2004. 94mins.The complaint isfrequently made that the French production system too often allows film-makersto please themselves rather than justify their intentions to an audience. Thisis a charge unfortunately born out by Nelly, a small, eccentric dramathat was clearly a labour of love for director Laure Duthilleul, but ...
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Reviews
Yasmin
Dir: Kenny Glenaan. UK-Ger.2004. 87minsThree years ago, GasAttack won the Michael Powell Award at Edinburgh and marked out KennyGlennan as a promising new directorial talent. Yasmin confirms hisstatus as a social realist with an ability to focus on the human element in anyheadline-grabbing dramatic situation.Sensitively observed andeconomically staged, Yasmin tells ...
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Reviews
The Ninth Day (Der Neunte Tag)
Dir. VolkerSchloendorff. Ger-Lux. 2004. 97mins.Despiteinitial appearances and a long prologue set inside Dachau concentration camp,Volker Schloendorff's The Ninth Day is no Holocaust film, but a neartheological dissertation on Catholicism and how it held up under the Nazi rule.The victims thistime are not Jews but the Catholic priests sent to concentration ...
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Reviews
Collateral
Dir: Michael Mann. US. 2004. 119 mins. An intriguing noir thriller with an arresting digitalvideo look, Collateral returns masterstylist Michael Mann to the crime genre in which he first made his reputationand earned his loyal cineaste following. If the finished product never achievesthe intensity of Mann's 1995 crime classic Heat- ...