Latest reviews – Page 482
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Reviews
Possession
Dir: Neil LaBute. US. 2002. 103 mins. An extraordinary choice of director lies at the heart of Possession, a story of rapturous Victorian romance told by a film-maker, Neil LaBute, best known for his razor-tongued and cynical comedies about contemporary American sexual mores. Critical response will depend on whether his ...
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Reviews
The Guru
Dir: Daisy von Scherler Mayer. UK-US. 2002. 94minsFeatherweight, feel good escapism, The Guru grafts a modish Bollywood sensibility on to a tried and tested fish-out-of-water comedy scenario. The end result is technically polished candy floss that tries desperately hard to please, with a cartoonish approach and casual disregard for basic ...
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Reviews
Okay
OKAYReviewed by Sheila Johnston in LocarnoScreened in competitionDir: Jesper W Nielsen. Denmark. 2002. 95mins. Danish actors must be the envy of their colleagues the world over: this tiny national industry produces an endless stream of films which treat very recognisable, everyday problems with that distinctive Nordic blend of comedy and ...
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Reviews
The Longing
THE LONGING (DAS VERLANGEN)Reviewed by Sheila Johnston in LocarnoScreened in competitionDir: Iain Dilthey. Germany. 2002. 90mins.The winner of this year's Golden Leopard in Locarno, The Longing (Das Verlangen), a low-budget film school graduate work by the Scottish-born, German-bred director Iain Dilthey, presents a redoubtable marketing challenge. With its sombre subject ...
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Reviews
Cinemania
Dirs: Angela Christlieb, Stephen Kijak. Germany. 2002. 80mins. Cinema is "better than sex - better than love," enthuses Bill at the beginning of Cinemania, a funny and affectionate chronicle of five film-crazy New Yorkers and the astonishing lengths to which they will go to feed their obsession. A perfect crowd-pleaser ...
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Reviews
XXX
Dir: Rob Cohen. US. 2002. 124mins.While the film-making on show here is about as sophisticated as an episode of Baywatch, XXX possesses a powerful quality which has been lacking from most studio-level action adventures in some time: an attitude. A perfect vehicle for its viciously charismatic star Vin Diesel, XXX ...
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Reviews
My Little Eye
Dir: Marc Evans. UK-US-Fr. 2002. 95mins.Ratings-hungry reality television meets The Blair Witch Project in My Little Eye, an effective, low-budget chiller that leaves its distinctive imprint on the scary movie tradition. Manoeuvring skilfully within genre requirements, director Marc Evans achieves an impressive balance between atmospheric, slow-burning suspense and the kind ...
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Reviews
Revengers Tragedy
Dir: Alex Cox. UK. 2002. 112mins.UK film-maker Alex Cox first came across Thomas Middleton's Jacobean revenge tragedy as a student in 1976, when he was intrigued by its very modern blend of morbid comedy and ultra-violence. His long-planned screen version is steeped in a 1970s anarcho-punk sensibility, with Derek Jarman ...
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Reviews
Blue Moon
Dir. Andrea Maria Dusl. Austria. 2002. 97mins.The auspicious directorial debut from Viennese columnist Andrea Maria Dusl, this road movie which takes Eastern Europe as its subject, should have no problem finding receptive audiences in German-speaking countries. In particular, the presence of Josef Hader, one of Vienna's top cabaret acts, and ...
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Reviews
The Star (Zvezda)
Dir. Nikolai Lebedev. Russia. 2002. 97mins.Russian production company Mosfilm has every right to be proud of the technical standards achieved by its patriotic saga The Star - but that's about all it can be proud of. Adapted from a novel by Sergei Kazakevich, the son of a Jewish teacher who ...
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Reviews
Full Frontal
Dir: Steven Soderbergh. US. 2002. 101mins.With a string of commercial successes and a best director Oscar safely under his belt, Steven Soderbergh should perhaps be forgiven for a brief lapse into self-indulgence. But that doesn't make it any less disappointing to see the director of sex, lies and videotape expend ...
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Reviews
The Sea Watches (Umi Wa Miteita)
Dir: Kei Kumai. Japan. 2002. 119mins.Based on a script by Akira Kurosawa, The Sea Watches (Umi wa Miteita) tries for a Kurosawa look, using the master's continuity drawings and production notes in telling its story of 19th-century era prostitutes. The director, however, is Kei Kumai, a veteran known abroad for ...
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Reviews
Supplement
Dan Fainaru in JerusalemDir. Krzystof Zanussi. Poland 2002. 101mins.Polish moralist Krzystof Zanussi, whose ethical codes permeate every one of his movies, is at it again. Going back to the plot of his 2000 award-winning feature Life As A Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease, but looking at it from a different angle, ...
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Reviews
Austin Powers In Goldmember
Dir: Jay Roach. US. 2002. 94minsDirector Jay Roach and his multi-talented star and co-writer/co-producer Mike Myers have little new to add to the two previous Austin Powers film with the third instalment in the franchise. An intermittently funny confection which wears the joke dangerously thin, Austin Powers In Goldmember will, ...
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Reviews
At The Tips Of Her Fingers (Sur Le Bout Des Doigts)
Dir: Yves Angelo. France. 2002. 83mins.The latest feature from Yves Angelo is a small but compelling story that hinges on an unbalanced mother's jealousy of her talented piano-playing daughter. Although some audiences will feel that At The Tips Of Her Fingers leaves a little too much left unsaid, its careful ...
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Reviews
Ticket To Jerusalem
Dir: Rashid Masharawi. Palestine-Netherlands. 2002. 84 mins.Hyped as the scoop at this year's Taormina Film Festival, Ticket To Jerusalem turns out to be a worthy but rather flat and one-sided fable about a Palestinian projectionist trying to show a film in occupied Jerusalem. With its made-in-Palestine tag and its film-on-film ...
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Reviews
Dirty Deeds
Dir: David Caesar. Australia. 2002. 98 mins.Hot on the heels of the last Australian gangster caper, The Hard Word, comes David Caesar's equally macho, amoral and raucous Dirty Deeds, with the distinct advantages of a decent budget, a smart script and a vibrantly realised late-1960s setting. In addition, a top ...
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Reviews
K-19: The Widowmaker
Dir: Kathryn Bigelow. US. 2002. 138minsThe independently-financed submarine epic K-19: the Widowmaker is one of those rare breed of potential summer blockbusters that demands an investment of thought from its audience before the pay-offs kick in. It's set against the backdrop of Soviet Russia in 1961, features all-Russian characters, tells ...
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Reviews
Stuart Little 2
Dir: Rob Minkoff. US. 2002. 78mins. A summer sequel to a surprise Christmas smash, Stuart Little 2 takes its computer animated mouse hero and his idyllic human family out into the world with a story that touches on such contemporary issues as child empowerment. However, it comes off as a ...