Latest reviews – Page 490
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Reviews
Dragonfly
Dir Tom Shadyac. US. 2002. 104min.The Mothman Prophecies meets Patch Adams in Dragonfly, a preposterously plotted, highly sentimental supernatural thriller that lacks suspense or credibility even on its own terms. A star vehicle for Kevin Costner, who has not had a decent role in a long time, this manipulative hokum ...
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Reviews
We Were Soldiers
Dir: Randall Wallace. US. 2002. 140min.The war genre, vigorously energised with such seminal films as Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Ridley Scott's visually impressive Black Hawk Down, takes several steps backwards with We Were Soldiers, an old-fashioned, moralistic Vietnam war movie that pays tribute not just to the soldiers in ...
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Reviews
Walking On Water
Dir: Tony Ayres. Australia. 2002. 90 mins.An exploration of premature death and how to grieve for a loved one who had lived outside of a conventional family, Walking On Water resembles Longtime Companion (1990) and similar independent American films to emerge from the Aids epidemic in the early Nineties; it ...
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Reviews
The Cockettes
Dir: David Weissman & Bill Weber. US. 2002. 99mins.This marvellously evocative documentary was a clear audience favourite at the Sundance Film Festival, and was equally well-received at its Panorama screening in Berlin this week. A bidding war for US rights is underway and international arthouse buyers are also likely ...
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Reviews
On_Line
Dir: Jed Weintrob. USA. 2001. 85mins.A romantic comedy about a group of young New Yorkers looking for sex and possibly even love on the Internet, On_Line offers a refreshing alternative to such feeble Hollywood attempts to milk the theme as the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks movie You've Got Mail. Shot in ...
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Reviews
Monday Morning (Lundi Matin)
Dir: Otar Iosselliani. Fr/It, 2002. 122 mins.The first ten minutes of Georgian director Otar Iosselliani's delicate new film break all those script workshop rules about snappy, cut-to-the-chase montage. We see a man getting up, having breakfast, going downstairs, crossing a muddy yard, getting into his car, driving, parking, catching the ...
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Reviews
Baader
Dir: Christopher Roth. Germany. 2002. 129mins.As all Sixties survivors know, that decade had nothing to do with political protest. This portrait of Andreas Baader, the founder, with Ulrike Meinhof, of the notorious Baader-Meinhof group, reveals what it was really about: spouting vague revolutionary slogans, listening to some rather good music ...
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Reviews
Secretary
Dir: Steven Shainberg. US. 2002. 112min.Audacious, offbeat and darkly humorous, Steven Shainberg's Secretary, based on Mary Gaitskill's critically acclaimed novella Bad Behaviour, tells an utterly bizarre love story between an enigmatic attorney and his highly insecure secretary. Maggie Gyllenhaal renders an exquisite performance as the troubled young woman ...
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Reviews
Queen Of The Damned
Dir Michael Rymer. US 2002. 100 min.A new star is born in Queen Of The Damned, the horror picture based on Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles and a follow-up to Neil Jordan's Interview With The Vampire, which was also produced by Warner Bros. Assuming the role of Lestat ...
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Reviews
Crossroads
Dir Tamra Davis. US 2002. 95 min.Naive and amateurish in both the positive and negative sense of these terms, Crossroads, Britney Spears' feature screen debut, provides a decent showcase for the pop icon and youth symbol, who seems to be everywhere this month. As a coming of age yarn, ...
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Reviews
The Trespasser (O Invasor)
Dir: Beto Brant. Brazil, 2001. 98mins.Ten years ago, Brazilian cinema was almost dead and buried. But Beto Brant's third full-length feature is further proof that the revival that hit paydirt with Walter Salles' Central Station is far from over. The Trespasser, which screened in Berlin after an outing at Sundance, ...
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Reviews
Big Fat Liar
Dir: Shawn Levy. US. 2002. 87 mins.The appeal of rising teen stars Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes, coupled with some broad comedy and a parent-friendly moral message, have already been enough to give Big Fat Liar a good start at the US box office, taking $13.5m from 2,531 sites in ...
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Reviews
Rollerball
Dir: John McTiernan. US. 2002. 100mins.Delayed from last summer and re-edited to better appeal to the youth market, John McTiernan's remake of 1970s cult favourite Rollerball finally arrives on screen as a confused and none too thrilling blur of tenuously linked action sequences. The videogame-style violence, flashy cars, semi-naked chicks ...
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Reviews
The Three Marias
Dir Aluizio Abranches. It-Brazil. 2002. 103mins.Part Brazilian Western, part Jacobean tragedy in Tarantino sauce, Aluizio Abranches’ The Three Marias is a stylish follow up to the London-trained director’s 1999 debut, the festival-pleasing A Glass Of Rage (Un Copo De Colera). This was a surprise indie hit in Italy - which ...
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Reviews
Amen
Dir: Costa-Gavras. France. 2001. 132mins.Costa-Gavras is no stranger to controversy; in fact, the hard-hitting political expose has become something of his stock-in-trade. But in the 20 years since Missing, the Greek-born director has struggled to find a distinctive voice. Betrayed and Music Box, his two collaborations with screenplay king Joe ...
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Reviews
Hart's War
Dir: Gregory Hoblit. US. 2002. 127mins.Nationality, politics and race clash in an intriguing and unexpected manner in Hart's War, Gregory Hoblit's old-fashioned but extremely deftly directed and acted prison drama set toward the end of the Second World War. Although Bruce Willis gets star billing, and his name and face ...
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Reviews
Grill Point (Halbe Treppe)
Dir: Andreas Dresen. Germany. 2001. 105mins.Andreas Dresen's last film, Night Shapes (Nachtgestalten), acclaimed in Berlin three years ago, had a large cast of characters and a sprawling, Short Cuts-style story. Grill Point is a very different animal: an intimate, tightly focussed piece about two couples confronting mid-life crisis. Improvised by ...
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Reviews
Monster's Ball
Dir: Marc Forster. Us 2001. 110 mins.Monster's Ball, Marc Forster's follow-up to his digitally shot and experimental Everything Put Together, which made a splash at Sundance Festival two years ago, is a decent, well-intentioned interracial drama, substantially elevated by the performances of Billy Bob Thornton and particularly Halle Berry. ...
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Reviews
A Map Of The Heart (Der Felsen)
Dir: Dominik Graf. Germany, 2002. 117mins.The second of three German films in competition at Berlin, A Map Of The Heart is a story of mixed-up emotions and crossed destinies set on the island of Corsica. Shot in mini-DV, the film is also unusual in its narrative structure - based on ...