Latest – Page 599
-
Reviews
The Stone Council (Le Concile De Pierre)
Dir: Guillaume Nicloux. Fr-Ger-It. 2006. 100mins.A French Da Vinci Code inwhich Catholic mystical hokum is replaced by Mongololianshamanistic hokum, Jean-Christophe Grange's Le Concille DePierre was a literary bestseller when it came out in France in 2000. Withits high-profile Bellucci-Deneuve pairing and lushproduction values, this $28m adaptation of the book is ...
-
Reviews
Gangster High (Pokryok Sekkeul)
Dir/scr: Park Kihyung. Korea, 2006. 102mins.An exceedingly violent high-school rumpus that deterioratesinto warfare, with dead and wounded left on the battlefield, Park Kihyung's GangsterHigh is the kind of picture no young teen will be allowed to see, should censorshave any say in the matter.Park Ki-hyung,whose disappointing family horror film Acaciaclosed ...
-
Reviews
Before We Fall In Love Again
Dir/scr: James Lee. Malay-HK-Chi. 2006. 99mins.Husbands and their wives' lovers have never hit itoff as well as they do in Before We Fall In Love Again, a strange and tightly controlledMalaysian romantic drama. Granted, it would have gained much by being shot onfilm, but even in its digital form it ...
-
Reviews
The Sakai's Happiness (Sakai-ke No Shiawase)
Dir/scr: O Mipo. Jap. 2006. 102mins.Debut film-maker O Mipo mayfind that The Sakai's Happiness, herlaudably understated approach to family life in a provincial town, will findfavour with critics but alienate many potential audiences. Keeping at all timeswithin the boundaries of low-key drama, it's the sort of feature that mightstrike impatient ...
-
Reviews
The Go Master (Wu Qingyuan)
Dir: Tian Zhuangzhuang. Chi. 2006. 107mins.The latest feature from Fifth Generation Chinesefilm-maker Tian Zhuangzhuang,The Go Master is an austere, poeticstudy of one of the most famous 20th-century players of the Japanese board gameGo, considered the most complicated strategy game in the world. As reticent asits central character (played by Wong ...
-
Reviews
L'Aria Salata
Dir: Alessandro Angelini. It. 2006. 88mins.Tight and tense, this debut feature by documentarydirector Alessandro Angelini is the first local buzztitle to have emerged from the inaugural Rome Film Fest. Telling the story of ayoung prison counsellor who discovers that his latest charge - a convictedmurderer - is the man who ...
-
Reviews
The Legacy (L'Heritage)
Dirs: Gela Babluani, Temur Babluani. Fr-Geor.2006. 80mins.Hotly tipped since his sensational debut feature, 13 (Tzameti), won prizes at Veniceand Sundance and excited remake interest in the US, 28-year-old Paris-based Gela Babluani returns to hisnative Georgia for The Legacy. Butthe result is a poorly acted and only spottily effective drama, as ...
-
Reviews
Flushed Away
Dirs: David Bowers, Sam Fell. US. 2006. 86mins.It may lack the handmade charm anddeeply English quirkiness of Oscar winner Wallace& Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, but Flushed Away, AardmanFeatures' first computer animated film and its third project with DreamWorksAnimation, is still lively enough to stand out from this year's ...
-
Reviews
Running With Scissors
Dir: Ryan Murphy. US.2006. 122 mins.Ryan Murphy, the Hollywood wunderkind whose Nip/Tuck is one of the most cutting edge series on US TV atthe moment, turns his caustic sensibilities to Running With Scissors, the film version of Augusten Burroughs' popularmemoirs. As one might expect from the creator of Nip/Tuck, Murphy ...
-
Reviews
Eternal Summer (Sheng Hsia Guang Nian)
Dir: Leste Chen. Taiwan. 2006. 95mins.A far cry from his horror film debut Heirloom, which broke box-office recordsin Taiwanlast year, Leste Chen's new film Eternal Summer is an intimate coming-of-age love triangle,whose gay theme gradually emerges until it takes over by the end. Sensitivelydirected and performed with sincere emotion by ...
-
Reviews
My Friend And His Wife (Naeui Chingu, Geueui Anae)
Dir/scr: Shin Dong-il. S Korea. 2006. 116mins.After the hospitable reception for Host And Guest, his two-hander debut, lastyear, writer-director Shin Dong-il extends hishorizons to a full trio of characters with MyFriend And His Wife, an often fascinating if ultimately overlongexploration of an unusual relationship between two men and a woman.The ...
-
Reviews
Dasepo's Naughty Girls (Dasepo Sonyo)
Dir. Lee Jyong. S Kor 2006. 103mins.Going to see Lee Jyong's latestventure on the strength of his previous work Untold Scandal, a highly stylised periodrelocation of Dangerous Liaisons, is a serious mistake. Dasepo's Naughty Girls, a high-school romp, is a world away from thebeautifully-shot historical pageant which toured the world ...
-
Reviews
Nightmare Detective (Akumu Tantei)
Dir/scr: Shinya Tsukamoto. Jap. 2006. 107mins.By now a brand name whose body of work has its ownband of dedicated and faithful followers, Shinya Tsukamoto sticks to form with Nightmare Detective, a brutal, violent,and nerve-racking slasher feature that blurs allborders between fantasy and reality. Assailing the audience from the start withblazes ...
-
Reviews
Traces Of Love (Gaeulro)
Dir. Kim Dai-seung. S Kor. 2006. 112mins.A perfect choice to promote South Korea's natural beauty, Pusan's official opener is an easily watchablebut unabashed sentimental melodrama, swimming in a sea of decorous tears andclassical music warhorses. Traces Of Love revolves around a real-life 1995 disaster in Seoul, when a departmentstore collapsed ...
-
Reviews
The Prestige
Dir: Christopher Nolan. US. 2006. 128mins.Sometime superheroes Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play obsessively feudingVictorian magicians in The Prestige,a classy thriller, with a Gothic sci-fi twist, from writer-director ChristopherNolan. Coming off last year's comic book blockbuster Batman Begins, Nolan this time turns intricate literary materialinto an atmospheric and intriguing - ...
-
Reviews
The Prestige
Dir: Christopher Nolan. US. 2006. 128mins.Sometime superheroes Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play obsessively feudingVictorian magicians in The Prestige,a classy thriller, with a Gothic sci-fi twist, from writer-director ChristopherNolan. Coming off last year's comic book blockbuster Batman Begins, Nolan this time turns intricate literary materialinto an atmospheric and intriguing - ...
-
Reviews
Hoax
Dir: Lasse Hallstrom. US. 2006. 115mins.As struttingly confident asits main character, true-life literary fraudster Clifford Irving, The Hoax is far and away Lasse Hallstrom's best Americanfilm yet. Featuring a Richard Gere who has finallycast off his mid-term career doldrums to reveal himself as an actor ofMachiavellian charisma and authority, it ...
-
Reviews
The Grudge 2
Dir: Takashi Shimizu. 2006. 102mins.The hairy ghost andher bug-eyed little boy work overtime in TheGrudge 2, Japanese director Takashi Shimizu's busy but less effectivesequel to his hit American remake of his franchise-starting J-horror chiller Ju-On.Thoughoriginal star Sarah Michelle Gellar makes only a brief appearance this timeout, the sequel has already ...
-
Reviews
Napoleon And Me (Io E Napoleone)
Dir: Paolo Virzi. It-Fr-Sp. 2006. 110mins.The latest Eurozone attemptto find a new angle on the Napoleon story finally, Napoleon And Me allows Daniel Auteuil to pitch into a role which seems to have been cutout for an actor of his professional and physical stature. But this - and onesteamy love ...
-
Reviews
The Grudge 2
Dir: Takashi Shimizu. 2006. 102mins.The hairy ghost andher bug-eyed little boy work overtime in TheGrudge 2, Japanese director Takashi Shimizu's busy but less effectivesequel to his hit American remake of his franchise-starting J-horror chiller Ju-On.Thoughoriginal star Sarah Michelle Gellar makes only a brief appearance this timeout, the sequel has already ...