Latest reviews – Page 479
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Reviews
My Kingdom
Dir: Don Boyd. UK. 2001. 117mins.The British gangland genre gets a handsome if flawed addition with Don Boyd's freewheeling, ambitious spin on King Lear set among a corrupt modern dynasty in which Richard Harris's world-weary patriarch dominates - though is not allowed to overshadow - a fresco of elaborately drawn ...
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Reviews
People I Know
Dir: Daniel Algrant. USA. 2001. 100mins.Anyone who wants to see Al Pacino in his one of his most impressive roles since Scent Of A Woman is going to have to get on a plane to Rome, at least for the time being. A combination of commercial bad timing and self-regulatory ...
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Reviews
Garage Days
Dir: Alex Proyas. Australia. 2002. 105mins.With the major backing of Fox Searchlight and a US$7m budget - hefty by Australian standards - Alex Proyas' eagerly anticipated first feature since his acclaimed, effects-laden dramas The Crow (1994) and Dark City (1998) is a surprisingly lightweight comedy about an underachieving Sydney band's ...
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Reviews
To Be And To Have (Etre Et Avoir)
Dir: Nicolas Philibert. France. 2002. 104mins.A film to play truant for, To Be And To Have is a warm, serene look at primary education in the French heartlands. This is the latest feature from leading French documentary filmmaker Nicolas Philibert, and it is a measure of his growing reputation that ...
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Reviews
Red Dragon
Dir: Brett Ratner. US. 2002. 124 mins. The creepy appeal of 'Hannibal the Cannibal' Lecter is efficiently exploited once again in Red Dragon, an unadventurous yet slickly chilling successor to The Silence Of The Lambs and Hannibal whose commercial success was probably assured the day Anthony Hopkins signed on to ...
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Reviews
Pinocchio
Dir: Roberto Benigni. Italy. 2002. 108mins.Pinocchio is Roberto Benigni's reward - from himself, Medusa and Miramax - for the success of La Vita E Bella. No small reward: its Euros40m budget makes this the most expensive Italian film ever, and its 860-screen release on 11 October is the biggest ever ...
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Reviews
Aro Tolbukhin: In The Mind Of A Killer
Dirs: Agusti Villaronga, Lydia Zimmermann, Isaac P Racine. Sp-Mex. 2002. 96mins.Aro Tolbukhin: In The Mind Of A Killer is a profoundly spooky, startlingly original contribution to the cinema's enduring fascination with serial murderers. This intricate, multi-layered false documentary based on a notorious real-life case is by no stretch of the ...
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Reviews
The Legend Of Suriyothai
Dir. Chatri Chalerm Yukol. Thai 2001/US 2002. 154minsThis mammoth historical pageant, originally directed by a prince who is also one of his country's leading filmmakers, broke all home box office records in Thailand last summer, grossing over $14 million, about three times as much as Titanic did in that territory. ...
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Reviews
Sweet Home Alabama
Dir: Andy Tennant. US. 2002. 108mins. The $37.5m opening of Sweet Home Alabama over the weekend in North America confirms the superstar status of its lead actress, the 26-year-old Reese Witherspoon, whose soaring popularity now ranks her as one of Hollywood's most bankable opening acts. Indeed, there's no question that ...
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Reviews
Pure
Dir: Gillies MacKinnon. UK. 2002. 96 minsAn exceptional performance from child actor Harry Eden provides the heart and soul of Pure, an unflinching portrait of the unbreakable bond between a drug-addicted mother and her loving son. Returning to territory familiar from his work on award-winning television projects like Needle and ...
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Reviews
Minimal Stories (Historias Minimas)
Dir: Carlos Sorin. Arg. 2002. 93 mins.The title says it all: set in the remote Patagonian steppes of Southern Argentina, Minimal Stories is a comedy of great warmth and sweetness whose charm lies above all in its unpretentious ambitions. Careful marketing and critical support will be essential to nurture this ...
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Reviews
Whale Rider
Dir: Niki Caro New Zealand-Germany 2002 105min.Whale Rider deftly melds in a spirited package a portrait of contemporary rural Maori life with a tale from its rich mythology. Avoiding the overt sentimentality that often mars coming-of-age tales, this New Zealand-Germany co-production offers something for every age group without pandering to ...
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Reviews
Cabin Fever
Dir: Eli Roth. US. 2002 94 min.This is not the next Blair Witch Project, nor does it aim to be. Cabin Fever is a throwback to the minimalism and stasis of a George Romero zombie movie. Indeed, the film says more about first-time filmmaker Eli Roth's attentive viewing of ...
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Reviews
Jet Lag (Decalage Horaire)
Dir: Daniele Thompson. France-UK. 2002. 91mins.There could be no more marketable French film than Jet Lag (Decalage Horaire), Daniele Thompson's romantic comedy starring Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno. First of all, it is a classic formulaic romantic comedy with none of the introspection or intense drama traditionally associated with French ...
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Reviews
Open Hearts (Elsker Dig For Evigt)
Dir: Susanne Bier. Denmark. 2002. 113 mins. Just when you thought the Dogme 95 movement was out of fashion, Susanne Bier (The One And Only, Once In A Lifetime) delivers Open Hearts, a knockout adult drama made according to the controversial Danish manifesto. Eliciting painfully true insights into human ...
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Reviews
Common Places (Lugares Communes)
Dir: Adolfo Aristarain. Arg-Sp. 2002. 113mins.A graceful, intelligent and humorous portrait of a sixty-something couple forced to rebuild their lives, Common Places (Lugares Communes) confirms the director-actor team of Adolfo Aristarain and Federico Luppi as San Sebastian favourites. Very warmly received at the festival, the film, which opened in Argentina ...
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Reviews
Mondays In The Sun (Los Lunes Al Sol)
Dir: Fernando Leon de Aranoa. Sp-Fr-It. 2002. 113mins.A bittersweet comedy about men facing unemployment led by a barnstorming central performance from Javier Bardem, Mondays In The Sun (Los Lunes Al Sol) looks like another decisive critical and popular hit for one of Spain's most hotly tipped new young talents. Fernando ...
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Reviews
AUTO FOCUS
Screened at Toronto (Special Presentation)Dir: Paul Schrader. US. 2002. 104minsDirector Paul Schrader mixes a potentially lethal cocktail of sex, celebrity and scandal in Auto Focus, a solid, absorbing but far from completely compelling biography of troubled 1960s TV star Bob Crane. Greg Kinnear does a fine job of capturing the ...
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Reviews
Together (Han Ni Zai Yiki)
TOGETHER (HA NI ZAI YI QI)Screened at Toronto (Masters)Dir: Chen Kaige. China. 2002. 116mins.US buyers scrambled to buy Chen Kaige’s latest Chinese film when it world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival - and it’s easy to see why. Wearing its heart on its sleeve, Together is a crowd-pleasing ...
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Reviews
Callas Forever
Dir: Franco Zeffirelli. It-UK-Fr-Sp-Rom. 2002. 103 mins.Whether Franco Zeffirelli's biopic of opera star Maria Callas satisfies its audience will largely depend on demographics. Like its director, this is a film of the old school that will appeal to an older generation of music lovers and occasional cinemagoers, who do not ...