Latest reviews – Page 464
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Reviews
Le Divorce
Dir: James Ivory. US/France. 2003. 115mins. Fans of film-makers Merchant Ivory should not fear that they have abandoned the literary classics altogether with their latest film. While Le Divorce is set in today's Paris, with hip young actors like Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts in the lead roles, it feels ...
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Reviews
Danny Deckchair
Dir: Jeff Balsmeyer. Australia. 2003. 100mins.Welsh actor Rhys Ifans created the abiding comic movie image of 1999 as Spike in Roger Michell's Notting Hill: the shaggy, skinny flatmate-from-Hell merrily posed in his underpants for photographers outside Hugh Grant's London pad. Unpredictably Ifans emerges here as a glamorously handsome Australian ...
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Reviews
American Wedding
Dir: Jesse Dylan. US. 2003. 96mins.The enthusiastic raunchiness of its gags aside, the third instalment of the American Pie franchise feels like the return of a favourite TV sitcom: the characters are enjoyably familiar and while the set up has changed a little the comedy still has energy to spare. ...
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Reviews
The Stewardess (Fai Sheung Hung Tse)
Dir: Sam Leong Tak. Hong Kong. 2002. 120mins.The Stewardess had a dismal theatrical outing in Hong Kong last year when its gross failed to break four figures. But an appearance in competition at the PiFan fantasy festival in Seoul last month could set this charmer of a black comedy back ...
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Reviews
Charlie: The Life And Art Of Charles Chaplin
Dir: Richard Schickel. US. 2003. 125minsAn admiring portrait of an artist who helped create the language of film comedy, Charlie: The Life And Art Of Charles Chaplin does an honourable job of covering the many facets of a complex and controversial figure. A straightforward mixture of talking heads and extensive ...
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Reviews
Spy Kids 3D: Game Over
Dir: Robert Rodriguez. US. 2003. 89mins.The final episode in Robert Rodriguez's family adventure series is an effective strictly-for-kids action feature which has already proved its mettle with a whopping $32.5m opening at the US box office last weekend. Set mostly within a computer game, the film was conceived and shot ...
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Reviews
Mutt Boy (Ddong-gae)
Dir: Kwak Kyung-Taek. Korea. 2003. 101 mins.Not quite slice-of-life drama, nor exactly a coming-of-age tale, Mutt Boy is a finely-crafted, but ultimately unfulfilling, chunk-of-growing-up-in-contemporary-Korea story by one of the country's most skilled directors, KT Kwak. Though it shares elements with them, Mutt Boy is drawn on a smaller scale than ...
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Reviews
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life
Dir: Jan De Bont. US. 2003. 118mins.Smarter, sexier and more stylish than its predecessor, the second film of the Tomb Raider franchise drops the video-game pretence and goes the Bond route. Dean Georgaris' screenplay gives Lara Croft more to do and more to be, and Angelina Jolie responds with a ...
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Reviews
Milwaukee, Minnesota
Dir: Allan Mindel. US. 2003. 95mins.Milwaukee, Minnesota is a typical Sundance competition movie - one of the ones you never hear about again after January - that has somehow washed up on the shores of the Riviera in the Critics' Week section. As such, this effort by first-time director Allan ...
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Reviews
Coming And Going (Vai E Vem)
Dir: Joao Cesar Monteiro. Portugal. 2003. 179minsShown posthumously at Cannes out of competition following his death from cancer in February this year, Coming And Going is the epic final testament of Portuguese actor-director Joao Cesar Monteiro, who had some claim to being European cinema's single most eccentric talent. His films, ...
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Reviews
The Rage In Placid Lake
Dir: Tony McNamara. Australia. 2002. 90mins.Let's get some misassumptions about this comedy feature debut from writer/director McNamara and Australian rockstar/actor Ben Lee out of the way. Firstly, it is not related to Fox's 1999 crocodile feature Lake Placid. And secondly, lead character Placid Lake (played by Lee himself) displays none ...
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Reviews
Father And Son (Otets Y Syn)
Dir: Alexander Sokurov. Germany. 2003. 81mins.Alexander Sokurov's new film is the second part of a trilogy that began in 1996 with the esteemed Mother And Son, which brought the director to international attention. Subsequent appearances in Cannes competition have included Moloch (1999), Taurus (2000), and Russian Ark (2002), the last ...
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Reviews
All Tomorrow's Parties
Dir: Yu Lik Wai. China-France. 96minsShot digitally for the sake of flexibility and screened the same way in Un Certain Regard at Cannes - though a film version is in the making, to judge by the credits - Yu Lik Wai's second feature attempts to explore the near future ...
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Reviews
Japanese Story
Dir: Sue Brooks. Australia. 2003. 107minsA seemingly conventional mixture of life-changing road movie and cross-cultural romance becomes something much more interesting and intense thanks to an unexpected plot twist in the final third of Japanese Story. It may come too late for some viewers who will have already lost patience ...
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Reviews
Nina's Tragedies: A Very Sad Comedy (Ha'assonoth shel Nina)
Dir: Savi Gabizon. Israel, 2003. 106mins.Film-maker Savi Gabizon's gently nonsensical humour has been much appreciated in the past by both Israeli critics and audiences. His new coming-of-age comedy, which looks at a gallery of eccentric, obsessive characters engineering themselves into impossible corners, should do reasonably well at home, especially after ...
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Reviews
Kiss Of Life
Dir: Emily Young. UK-Fr. 2003. 86minsA slender but soulful feature debut from award-winning shorts director Emily Young, Kiss Of Life attempts to grapple with the big issues of life, death, love and family. An overly cerebral approach to what could have been quite emotionally-charged material means that the film feels ...
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Reviews
For She's A Jolly Good Fellow (Elle Est Des Notres)
Dir: Siegrid Alnoy. France. 2003. 100minsA portrait of a woman ' indeed, a society ' on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Siegrid Alnoy's debut feature is ostensibly a variation on a familiar topic, but quickly establishes its vision with steely confidence. Coolly inventive and rigorous, Alnoy's debut is likely ...
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Reviews
A Love Movie (Filme De Amor)
Dir: Julio Bressane. Brazil. 2003. 90minsThere is precious little love, even less sensuality and no passion at all in this experimental picture which marks Julio Bressane's return to the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes after more than 30 years. A little film on a vast subject, to quote the director himself, ...
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Reviews
Seabiscuit
Dir: Gary Ross. US 2003. 140 minutesA good film that could have been a great one, Seabiscuit offers a welcome alternative to this summer's bloated action sequels. Based on the best-selling non-fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand, the film recounts the true, Depression-era story of an unprepossessing, knobby-kneed horse who not ...