Latest – Page 604
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Reviews
Bugmaster
Dir: Katsuhiro Otomo. Jap-US. 2006. 130mins.Japanese anime director Katsuhiro Otomomakes a curiously subdued, poetic foray into live-action cinema with his latestfeature, Bugmaster.Though the story's setting in the late Meiji era and its "invisible bug"infestation theme initially suggest a period horror along the lines of ShinyaTsukamoto's Gemini, the meditativepace, lonely but ...
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Reviews
10 Items Or Less
Dir/scr: Brad Silberling. US. 2006. 82mins.The unpredictable career of Brad Silberlingtakes another left turn after the big budget spectacle of Lemony Snicket's A SeriesOf Unfortunate Events (2004) with his new feature 10 Items Or Less. More of a character-basedchamber piece than anything else, this virtual two-hander finds thewriter-director straying into ...
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Reviews
Antonia
Dir: Tata Amaral. Br. 2006. 90mins.The third feature from film-maker TataAmaral, Antoniatakes a well-sung genre - the rap group from the wrong side of the tracks whotry to make it big in the face of ruptured friendships - and gives it theunique flavour of a Sao Paolo favela.It is further ...
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Reviews
The Missing Star (La Stella Che Non C'e)
Dir: Gianni Amelio. It-Fr-Switz. 2006. 107mins.Gianni Amelio treads waterwith The Missing Star, an anti-hero quest moviethat has moments of emotional engagement but is marred by its genrefence-sitting and the muddiness of its final message. It's one of those filmswhose fascination lies not so much in the drama, whichis structured like ...
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Reviews
Rob-B-Hood
Dir: Benny Chan. HK-Chi. 2006. 135mins.Jackie Chan returns to the broad Hong Kong comedyaction of earlier films like Meals On Wheels with the enjoyably ramshackle, fast-pacedbabysitting-crook yarn Rob-B-Hood.Laced with some classic stunts - a couple of them as inventive as anything Chanhas ever done - and action set-pieces, and canny ...
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Reviews
For Your Consideration
Dir: Christopher Guest. US.2006. 86mins.The finest comedy stems from painfully truthful,accurate reflections of real life. That may explain why Christopher Guest'ssharply observed ensemble comedies have become such surefire guarantees ofhilarity. For Your Consideration isno exception as it captures all the inanity and indignity of the Hollywood Oscar season.Filled with quotable ...
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Reviews
Catch A Fire
Dir: Phillip Noyce. UK-S Afr-US. 2006. 98minsThe desperate struggles against the apartheid regimein South Africa have inspired a distinguished body of cinema that stretches from Cry Freedom (1987) to Red Dust (2004). Phillip Noyce's Catch A Fire tells of Patrick Chamussoand his journey from acquiescent model citizen to radicalisedfreedom fighter ...
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Reviews
A Good Year
Dir: Ridley Scott. U.S. 2006. 118mins.Ridley Scott's A Good Year, whichre-teams the director with Russell Crowe, should have been an easily likeableand amiable romantic comedy, adapted from the same-name novel by Peter Mayle, who has had a huge following since his 1989 memoir A Year In Provence.But this tale of ...
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Reviews
All The King's Men
Dir: Steven Zaillian. US. 2006. 125mins.The queasy compromises of love, loyalty and bareknuckle politics are at the heart of a handsome, star-studded new version ofthe Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All The King's Men. The celebrated 1949 adaptation of theRobert Warren Penn epic is probably best remembered for Broderick Crawford's Oscar-winningperformance as ...
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Reviews
Golden Door (Nuovomondo)
Dir/scr: Emanuele Crialese. Fr-It. 2006. 118mins.A moving but unsentimental film of mythic resonance aboutthe early years of mass Italian immigration to the United States, The Golden Door consecrates Sicilian directorEmanuele Crialese as a film-makerof global significance after his promising earlier features, Once We Were Strangers (1997) and Respiro (2002). Turningthe ...
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Reviews
Penelope
Dir: Mark Palansky. UK.2006. 101minsMore of anexaggerated pantomime than a lyrical fable, Penelopestruggles to find the magical qualities that seemed to arise so effortlessly inEdward Scissorhandsor Amelie.The tale of a pig-faced girl's search for love and happiness is sweetly toldbut too often plays for easy laughs rather that true wonderment ...
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Reviews
Hana
Dir: Hirokazu Kore-Eda. Jap. 2006. 127mins.Rambling, overlong and at times even messy, Hana isnevertheless a delightful surprise from well known Japanese director Hirokazu Kor-Eda. Alwaysidentified in the past with slow, reflective, sad pieces such as Maborosi and philosophicalreflections on human existence like Afterlife- not to mention the heartbreaking NobodyKnows, one ...
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Reviews
Brand Upon The Brain
Dir: Guy Maddin. US-Can. 2006. 97mins.Arguably the first true silent movie produced ineight decades, Guy Maddin's Brand Upon The Brain premiered in Toronto with a liveorchestra, in-house sound effects artists, a singer and narrator providing apure cinematic full monty. And though there areobvious challenges in recreating such a singular event, ...
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Reviews
Borat
Dir: Larry Charles. US.2006. 82mins.A hand grenade lobbed towards the American heartland,mockumentary Borat explodes with intermittently uproarious results. Fansof Sacha Baron Cohen's enthusiastic Kazakhstanreporter and his television escapades will not be disappointed by a featuredebut filled with caustic encounters and razor-sharp observations. Others mightwonder what all the fuss is about; ...
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Reviews
Stranger Than Fiction
Dir: Marc Forster. US. 2006.118mins.A highly original script by newcomerZach Helm, some superlative performances and the deft guiding hand of directorMarc Forster, trying his hand at comedy for the first time, make Stranger Than Fiction the season's must-seefilm for discerning audiences. Financed and co-produced by Mandate Pictures,the film is having ...
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Reviews
The Journals Of Knud Rasmussen
Dirs/scr:Zacharis Kunuk, NormanCohn. Can-Den. 2006. 112mins.The combination of an opening night slotin Toronto and the pressure of following up on their justly heralded debut Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner - which won Cannes'Camera d'Or in 2001 - provide film-makers Zacharis Kunuk and Norman Cohenwith a searing spotlight for their new feature ...
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Reviews
Fido
Dir: Andrew Currie. Can. 2006. 91mins.A boy's best friend is his zombie in Fido, areasonably inventive comic film that plays out like a fusion of Shaun Of The Deadand Pleasantville. Andrew Currie'sfeature has enough charm and smart moves to sustain what is essentially aone-joke premise, but its hybrid nature could ...
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Reviews
The Magic Flute (La Flute Enchantee)
Dir: Kenneth Branagh. UK.2006. 137mins.Can filmed opera attract a multiplex audience'Probably not, but Kenneth Branagh's sumptuous newversion of The Magic Flute comes asclose to crossover as a meeting of these two great light-and-sound artforms ever will. Any exercise in this hybrid genre hasto deal with the question of how to ...
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Reviews
Euphoria (Ejforija)
Dir: Ivan Vyrypaev. Russia.2006. 73mins.A brief, spare but intense love story, Euphoria is a ferocious and downbeatwork from debut Russian film-maker Ivan Vyrypaev, whomay have over-reached himself with its poetical effusions, but who displaysenough promise to watch for the future.Gloriously shot, withjudicious and often surprisingly effective choice of camera angles, ...
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Reviews
Alatriste
Dir. Agustin Diaz Yanes. Sp-US-Fr 2006. 145mins.At first glance, big budget Hispanic feature Alatriste wouldseem destined for something of a critical fall, directed as it is by alittle-tested film-maker (at least in the way of epics) from several novels andfeaturing an English-language star speaking Spanish. But Agustin Diaz Yanes's $30.8m ...