Latest – Page 639
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Reviews
Adam and Paul
Dir:Lenny Abrahamson. Ire. 2005. 86mins.Imaginea full-length Laurel and Hardy film set in Dublin's junkie netherworld andscripted by the bastard son of Samuel Beckett. If you like the sound of that,then you'll love Adam and Paul, Irish commercials director LennyAbrahamson's first feature.Abrahamsondoes a grand job, but it's scriptwriter and co-star Mark ...
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Reviews
Junebug
Dir: Phil Morrison. 2005.US. 102mins.Actress Amy Adams pullsoff a small miracle in Junebug, an ensemble comedy-drama about whathappens when a golden boy-turned-prodigal son brings his cosmopolitan bridehome to meet his working class North Carolina family.Adams (The Wedding Date)takes centre stage as Ashley, a sweet, naive Deep South chatterbox whoinstantly idolises ...
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Reviews
Adam & Paul
Dir:Lenny Abrahamson. Ire. 2005. 8s6mins.Imaginea full-length Laurel and Hardy film set in Dublin's junkie netherworld andscripted by the bastard son of Samuel Beckett. If you like the sound of that,then you'll love Adam & Paul, Irish commercials director LennyAbrahamson's first feature.Abrahamsondoes a grand job, but it's scriptwriter and co-star Mark ...
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Reviews
Drum
Dir: Zola Maseko. S Afr.2005. 112mins.A little-known butimportant period in South African history is brought to vibrant life in Drum,the fact-based story of Henry Nxumalo, a black journalist who was targeted bythe Nationalist government after he wrote a series of articles exposinghorrifying prison and work farm conditions.Still awaiting a USdistribution ...
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Reviews
Adam & Paul
Dir:Lenny Abrahamson. Ire. 2005. 8s6mins.Imaginea full-length Laurel and Hardy film set in Dublin's junkie netherworld andscripted by the bastard son of Samuel Beckett. If you like the sound of that,then you'll love Adam & Paul, Irish commercials director LennyAbrahamson's first feature.Abrahamsondoes a grand job, but it's scriptwriter and co-star Mark ...
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Reviews
Adam and Paul
Dir:Lenny Abrahamson. Ire. 2005. 8s6mins.Imaginea full-length Laurel and Hardy film set in Dublin's junkie netherworld andscripted by the bastard son of Samuel Beckett. If you like the sound of that,then you'll love Adam & Paul, Irish commercials director LennyAbrahamson's first feature.Abrahamsondoes a grand job, but it's scriptwriter and co-star Mark ...
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Reviews
Robots
Dir: Chris Wedge, CarlosSaldanha. US. 2005. 85mins.In the modern cinematic age, animation has become abehemoth sub-genre of its own and - if done right - a virtual licence to printmoney, as Disney's lucrative, if waning, partnership with Pixar and DreamWorks'successful joint ventures with PDI have helped prove.Of course, given the ...
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Reviews
Mongolian Ping Pong (Lu Caodi)
Dir: Ning Hao. China.2005. 102mins.A worthwhile addition tothe yurt-flick genre that has included the likes of Urga, MongolianPing Pong is one of those ethnic features that allows audiences to getinside an alien landscape and culture from the comfort of their own cinemaseat. Beautifully-shot, the film is a paean to the ...
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Reviews
Hostage
Dir: Florent Siri. US. 2005. 115mins.Hostage, the new vehicle for Bruce Willis,survives an occasionally overcomplicated plot to provide consistently solid, ifnot particularly novel, entertainment. While there is very little that is newhere, the familiar characters, story, situation and iconography of theSWAT-team genre are crisply and engagingly delivered by French director ...
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Reviews
Hostage
Dir: Florent Siri. US. 2005. 115mins.Hostage, the new vehicle for Bruce Willis,survives an occasionally overcomplicated plot to provide consistently solid, ifnot particularly novel, entertainment. While there is very little that is newhere, the familiar characters, story, situation and iconography of theSWAT-team genre are crisply and engagingly delivered by French director ...
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Reviews
The Pacifier
Dir:Adam Shankman. US. 2005. 97mins.Itworked for Arnold Schwarzenegger, so it's not surprising that Vin Diesel tooshould now take a career diversion from action into family comedy. ThePacifier, from Spyglass, Disney and Bringing Down The House directorAdam Shankman, puts the XXX muscle man together with some unruly kidsand a supporting cast ...
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Reviews
Man Of The House
Dir: Stephen Herek. US.2005. 100mins.A dispiriting tale abouta group of cheerleaders who observe a murder and then must be protected, ManOf The House is a colourless concept comedy without much else going for itoutside of concept; an artificial crowd-pleaser that throws a few feeblecharacter types at the screen and then ...
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Reviews
The Ballad Of Jack And Rose
Dir/scr: Rebecca Miller. US. 2005. 111mins.An extremely emaciated Daniel Day-Lewis sets the tonefor Rebecca Miller's eerie family drama The Ballad Of Jack And Rose as aman who rails against the inhumane consumerist world while encroaching cancerforces him to push his teenage daughter into modern society.He's seething with anger and has ...
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Reviews
Look Both Ways
Dir/scr: Sarah Watt.Aust. 2004. 100minsShrewdly commissioned bythe Adelaide Film Festival's own Investment Fund, writer-director Sarah Watt'sthoughtful and sobering debut made a big impression at the 2005 festival'sopening night, as might be expected.But this strong hometownreception should not detract from Look Both Ways many qualities. Whilearthouse prospects at home are excellent ...
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Reviews
Game 6
Dir. Michael Hoffman. US.2005. 87mins.Despite an engagingperformance by Michael Keaton, this dramatic comedy lacks an emotional heft tomatch its sophisticated premise and milieu. Exploring the existential crisis ofa Broadway playwright and baseball fanatic, Game 6 goes to interestingplaces but never gels as a whole. Screening at Sundance in the Premieressection ...
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Reviews
Be Cool
Dir: F Gary Gray. US.2005. 115 mins.Imperturbablemobster-turned-movie-producer Chili Palmer tries his hand at the music biz in BeCool, the long-awaited sequel to Barry Sonnefeld's deftly funny 1995 ElmoreLeonard adaptation Get Shorty. In musical terms, the sequel doesn'tswing like the original did and neither does it ever quite find a more ...
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Reviews
Cursed
Dir: Wes Craven. US.2005. 95minsThe release date of 2005tells one side - perhaps the official one - to Cursed, the new werewolfpicture from Dimension, the in-house genre arm of Miramax that revitalised themodern horror landscape with the self-aware yet scary Scream picturesfrom what now seems like eons ago. Almost every ...
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Reviews
Sacred Heart (Cuore Sacro)
Dir: Ferzan Ozpetek. Italy. 2005. 117 minsFerzan Ozpetek serves upa cringingly sentimental tale of managerial altruism for the multiplexgeneration: and yet another great white hope of Italian cinema falls by thewayside. The Turkish-born, Italian-trained Ozpetek is, alongside fellow Medusaregular Gabriele Muccino, the director who most ably occupies the middle-groundbetween commercial ...
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Reviews
Night Watch (Nochnoy Dozor)
Dir: Timur Bekmambetov.Russia. 2004. 114mins.One of the mostimpressive things about Night Watch is the fact that such a stylish andtechnically polished fantasy movie - which can teach Hollywood a trick or twoabout squeezing a great look out of a tight budget - is it is 100% made inRussia. But, as ...
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Reviews
Mad Hot Ballroom
Dir: Marilyn Agrelo. US.2005. 114mins.An upbeat, feelgooddocumentary about kids from three New York public elementary schools whocompete in a citywide ballroom dancing competition, Mad Hot Ballroom isthis year's Spellbound, if with a less an ironic take on its subjectsthan the spelling-bee documentary and gutsier motivational verve.One of the hot tickets ...