Latest reviews – Page 456
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Reviews
Details (Detaljer)
Dir: Kristian Petri. Sweden. 2003. 112mins.Although this theatrical adaptation is very much a minority sport, it did not quite deserve to drop out of sight at the Swedish box office in the two weeks after its October 10 release. Its potential has been confirmed at MIFED, where the film attracted ...
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Reviews
Warriors Of Heaven And Earth
Dir: He Ping. China. 2003. 119 mins.He Ping, best known internationally for Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker, is better known in China as the pioneer of the so-called Chinese western like Sun Valley and Swordsman Of Double Flag Town which are set in the vast and unpopulated western territories. Warriors Of ...
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Reviews
Peter Pan
Dir: PJ Hogan. 2003. US. 104 minutesThis umpteenth revisiting of the familiar children's story, first mounted on the London stage a century ago, is always thoroughly competent, even generally engaging, but rarely soars. Universal, happy to have hijacked the property's profile from Disney, has obviously expended a great deal of ...
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Reviews
A Touch Of Spice (Politiki Konzina)
Dir. Tassos Boulmetis. Greece. 2003. 108 mins.A natural crowd pleaser and by far the most successful Greek picture of the year (where it has outgunned the likes of Pirates Of The Carribean with 1m admissions since it opened in late October), this ode to traditional Balkan cuisine and its Ottoman ...
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Reviews
Mona Lisa Smile
Dir: Mike Newell. 2003. US. 117mins.Mona Lisa Smile is a not-bad movie that is, alas, fatally at war with itself. On the one hand, it's a well-acted, convincingly-mounted period piece set in smug, elitist Wellesley College in 1953 that takes up, far more seriously than anyone had a right to ...
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Reviews
Something's Gotta Give
Dir: Nancy Meyers.US. 2003. 123mins.In this terrific new romantic comedy, writer-director Nancy Meyers (The Parent Trap, What Women Want) has given Jack Nicholson the Christmas present of a lifetime. Turning to her (and his) advantage the actor's off- and on-screen persona as skirt-chaser who specialises in younger women, Meyers ...
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Reviews
Cheaper By The Dozen
Dir: Shawn Levy. US. 2003. 98 mins. Holiday movies don't come much more undemanding than this. Sugary one moment and slapstick the next, Steve Martin's return to family comedy is ideally suited to its Christmas Day US release slot and could - thanks also the presence of tween star Hilary ...
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ReviewsThe Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Dir: Peter Jackson. US / New Zealand. 2003. 201 mins.
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Reviews
Cold Mountain
Dir: Anthony Minghella. US. 2003. 157 mins. There are a number of coups which writer/director Anthony Minghella has scored with his long-awaited film of the best-selling novel Cold Mountain, not least of which is to soften the focus on the American Civil War - a period in history which has ...
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Reviews
When The Right One Comes Along (Wenn Der Richtige Kommt)
Dirs. Stefan Hillebrand and Oliver Paulus. Switzerland/Germany, 2003. 78mins.If this largely improvised, shoestring budget production finds its place on the festival and art house circuit, as it rightly should, it will not be because of its glamour or production values, of which it has none, but its immediate spontaneity and ...
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Reviews
Sea Of Silence (Verder Dan De Maan)
Dir: Stijn Coninx. Neth/Belg. 2003. 100 minsAn endearing, old-fashioned coming of age drama, Sea Of Silence travels a well worn road with care and craft. An episodic account of a family's joys and sorrows, it views the world through the eyes of a grave-faced, God-fearing little girl. A poised, mature ...
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Reviews
In The City (En La Ciudad)
Dir. Cesc Gay. Spain, 2003. 110mins.Pleasant, handsome, urbane but quite vacuous, Cesc Gay's second feature film resembles, to a certain extent, the choral dramas of French director Claude Sautet, minus the dynamics and the depth. Revising the thirtysomething formula of American television into an European version shot entirely in Barcelona, ...
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Reviews
Loving Glances
Dir. Srdan Karanovic. UK/Serbia, 2003. 97mins.Film-maker Srdan Karanovic, a star of the golden age in Yugoslav cinema, makes a well-deserved comeback with this gentle, surreal romance. Absent from the screen for too long, he has left so much unsaid in the 12 years he has been absent that it almost ...
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Reviews
Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior
Dir. Parchya Pinkaew. Thailand, 2003. 105 min.Hollywood producers would do well to note the names on the credits before they embark on their next multi-million dollar action franchise. Just as Hong Kong's Yuen Wo Ping brought a different kind of kinetic energy to The Matrix series (as well as ...
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Reviews
The Last Samurai
Dir: Edward Zwick. US. 2003. 154minsTom Cruise rides into the East in Warner Bros' stirring, beautifully mounted dramatic release, directed by Ed Zwick (Glory, Legends Of The Fall), refreshingly set in 1870s Japan. Though its plot and structure, as well as it characters, sometimes perilously skirt cliche, the end result ...
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Reviews
The Last Train (Poslednyi Poezd)
Dir. Alexei German Jr. Russia, 2003. 82 mins.Alexei German Jr.'s debut rounds up an impressive year of achievements for young Russian cinema. Winner of both Best Picture and International Film Critics' Awards at Thessaloniki, this fearsome, uncompromising humanistic anti-war statement is a choice item that shows German to be a ...
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Reviews
Maqbool
Dir: Vishal Bharadwaj. India. 2003. 134minsShakespeare meets Bollywood in the energetic Maqbool, a two-hour-plus extravaganza expressly modelled on Macbeth, the most blood-besotted play of the Bard's maturity. Ultimately more Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Body Heat than Shakespearean, this rambunctious film borrows the playwright's characters while tarting ...
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Reviews
The Floating Landscape
Dir. Carol Lai Miu-suet. Hong Kong/France, 2003. 100mins.Not much happens in this quietly introspective tale of a young Hong Kong woman haunted by the untimely death of her lover. Unable to pick up the thread of her own life, she goes back to his home town to try and unravel ...
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Reviews
Big Fish
Dir: Tim Burton. US. 2003. 125minsIn many ways the perfect vehicle for tall-storyteller Tim Burton, Big Fish is a gently whimsical tale of a man's reconciliation with his dying father and his acceptance of his lifelong penchant for fabulism. Filled with the quirky fables and magical fantasy with which Burton ...
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Reviews
Timeline
Dir: Richard Donner. US. 2003. 116 mins.Packaged as a big budget Michael Crichton adaptation with veteran action director Richard Donner at the helm, Timeline is a breathless adventure romp that sometimes feels more like an educational TV special intended to make medieval history seem cool. Too silly for adults and ...