Latest – Page 622
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Reviews
The Headsman
Dir: Simon Aeby. Aust-Swit-Ger-Lux-Hung-U.K. 2005. 108mins.While its production values are magnificent, The Headsman is an uneven period drama,too concerned with trying to convince the audience that history is repeatingitself and investing little enough effort into its mysteriously lifelessstoryline.As such it is ofprimary interest to history buffs, although even they may ...
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Reviews
Viva Zapatero!
Dir/scr: Sabina Guzzanti. It. 2005. 80mins.Sabina Guzzanti'santi-censorship documentary Viva Zapatero! does for Italianprime minister Silvio Berlusconi what Fahrenheit 9/11 did for George Bush: itexposes the ugly subtext that, in the film-maker's view, lies behind theairbrushed public image.Like Michael Moore, Sabina Guzzanti is no shrinking violet, and there is at first ...
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Reviews
Be With Me
Dir: Eric Khoo. Sing. 2005.90mins.Since it opened Directors Fortnight at Cannes, Be With Me, Eric Khoo'sthird feature has galloped from one event to another (most recently Chicago andTokyo), a festival warhorse that has gathered several favourable reviews aswell as becoming Singapore's submission for best foreign language Oscar.But while it is ...
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Reviews
Sorry, Haters
Dir/scr: Jeff Stanzler. US. 2005. 84mins.Jeff Stanzler's ambitious,unsettling second feature, Sorry, Hatersdeals in some disturbing imagery and visceral contemporary relevance,attempting to say something provocative about US culture and its frayed socialfabric in the wake of September 11.Unfortunately, its Hitchcockian treatment of sin, guilt and transferenceproduces a dramatic imbalance that undermines ...
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Reviews
What the Snow Brings (Yuki Ni Negau Koto)
Dir: Kichitaro Negishi. Jap. 2005. 112mins.What The Snow Brings pulled offa Superfecta at the Tokyo International Film Festival,winning the top prize - the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix - on top of the best directorprize for Kichitaro Negishi,the best actor prize for star Koichi Sato and the audience award.As its haul ...
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Reviews
Derailed
Dir: Mikael Hafstrom. US. 2005. 108mins.Representing a fairly low profile debut for a highprofile operation, The Weinstein Company's Derailedis a sharp, nicely cast neo-noir thriller that loses some of its edge over thecourse of its twisting and turning plot.Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom - whose Evil (Ondskan)was a best foreign language ...
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Reviews
The Whispering Of The Gods (Germania No Yoru)
Dir: Tatsushi Omori. Jap. 2005. 107mins.An unblinking plunge into depravity, blasphemy andviolence, set in the idyllic confines of a Catholic monastery, Tatsushi Omori's debut feature The Whispering Of The Gods falls squarelyinto the love-it-or-loathe-it category.Screened in competition atthe Tokyo International Film Festival, it evoked fervent praise from some -Japanese film ...
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Reviews
The Myth (Sen Hua)
Dir. Stanley Tong. HK-China.2005. 118mins.The Myth is a misfire from three stalwarts of the martial arts genre: JackieChan, his long-time collaborator, director/screenwriterStanley Tong, and co-scenarist Wang Hui-ling,screenwriter of Crouching Tiger, HiddenDragon. An enthusiastic attempt at the Indiana Jones model, it has neither the pace, the tone nor the dialogue to ...
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Reviews
Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles (Qian Li Zou Dan Ji)
Dir: Zhang Yimou. HK-Chi-Jap. 2005. 108mins.The opening film at the Tokyo International Film Festival,Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles isa departure for director Zhang Yimou from the big-budgetperiod spectacles he has been making of late and a return to the themes and ruralsettings some of his most-acclaimed earlier work.But instead ...
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Reviews
Kissed By Winter (Vinterkyss)
Dir: Sara Johnsen. Nor. 2005. 84mins.A bereaved mother tries to come to terms with heranguish by seeking refuge in a snowbound northern village. There, she discoversunsuspected affinities with the local population, as well as finding romanceand becoming embroiled in a troubling mystery.As the above synopsissuggests, this year's official Norwegian submission ...
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Reviews
Bam Bam And Celeste
Dir. Lorene Machado. US. 2005. 85mins.Film-maker Lorene Machado and screenwriter Margaret Cho misfire with Bam Bam And Celeste, a featurefound wanting in too many departments, and potentially too offensive to many,to succeed.US theatrical prospects mightsee it pick up play at midnight theatres, especially on gay circuits, but fewaudiences are likely ...
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Reviews
Chicken Little
Dir: Mark Dindal. US. 2005. 80mins.For its first fully computer-animated feature, WaltDisney has turned the fable of ChickenLittle into a warm and funny comedy-adventure with an appealing energy, atouching thread of family drama and a surprising dose of War Of The Worlds-style sci-fi. After thedisappointment of some of Disney's recent ...
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Reviews
The Ice Harvest
Dir. Harold Ramis. US. 2005. 88mins.After the fairly impersonal work he delivered on hisrecent studio assignments (Analyze That, the Bedazzledremake), Harold Ramis returns to the offbeat,anti-social observational humour his talent thrives on with The Ice Harvest.Told in a clipped, rakishstyle and suffused in a low-key sleaze, it makes for an ...
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Reviews
The War Within
Dir. Joseph Castelo. US.2005. 100mins.The War Within is amilestone in many ways. It's the first dramatic film production from a businessmodel hatched by 2929 Entertainment that may shape the way movies are exploitedin the future. Shot entirely in high-definition, it was released in the USsimultaneously in theatres and on high-definition ...
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Reviews
Winter Passing
Dir: Adam Rapp. US. 2005. 98mins.A well-written and literate, if not very original,drama, Winter Passing would have themakings of an auspicious debut feature from director-writer Adam Rapp, were itnot for the over-conventional cinema language that it employs.Rapp shows himself to be astrong writer with his piece about a young New ...
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Reviews
Jarhead
Dir. Sam Mendes. US. 2005. 120mins.Technically strong and well performed,the visually accomplished Jarhead isa complex, mournful meditation on war and its consequences that director SamMendes also manages to inject with a bracing emotional immediacy.For Mendes himself it alsoanswers some of the criticisms he drew with RoadTo Perdition, regarded by some ...
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Reviews
Saw II
Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman. US. 2005. 97mins.A rushed-through-production sequel to the scream hitof last Halloween, Saw II has thejoint benefit and millstone of lowered expectation. It would be easy for thishorror sequel to be nothing more than a series of goosing, contrived deathsequences - which it is for the bulk ...
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Reviews
The Legend Of Zorro
Dir: Martin Campbell. US.2005. 126mins.Family matters take up as much time as swashbucklingin the belated sequel - reuniting Antonio Banderasand Catherine Zeta-Jones with director Martin Campbell, but missing co-starAnthony Hopkins - to 1998 adventure romp TheMask Of Zorro. The sequel recreates some of the enjoyable Saturday matineeaction that helped turn ...
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Reviews
A Woman In Winter
Dir/scr: Richard Jobson.UK. 2005. 100mins.Once pitched as "Solarismeets Last Year At Marienbad",A Woman in Winter is a soulful,metaphysical love story that exhibits the same virtues and shortcomings aswriter/director Richard Jobson's critically admireddebut feature 16 Years Of Alcohol.Jobson's third feature also makes the most of its modestbudget, adopting a radical, digital ...
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Reviews
The Weather Man
Dir. Gore Verbinski. US. 2005.102mins.TheWeather Man is clearly a transitional work for director Gore Verbinski, a modestly budgeted, comically inflected dramamore alert to writing, character detail and social portrait than the stylisedvisual flamboyance and mannered comic performances of the likes of Pirates Of TheCaribbean.Starring Nicolas Cage as aman attempting to ...