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Latest – Page 666
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Reviews
Skagerrak
Dir: Soren Kragh-Jacobsen. Denmark-UK. 2003. 104minsA modern fairytale about friendship, second chances and the unpredictable nature of happiness, Skagerrak is an unwieldy romantic charmer from writer-director Soren Kragh-Jacobsen. Lacking the focus and obvious commercial appeal of Berlin prize-winner Mifune, his English-language debut is the kind of slow burner that worms ...
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Reviews
Cheeky
Dir: David Thewlis. UK/France. 2003. 94 minsTen years ago, Mike Leigh's Naked confirmed David Thewlis as one of the most electrifying actors of his generation. His tour de force earned him a Best Actor prize at Cannes and a far from satisfactory international career that includes the disastrous remake ...
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Reviews
Elf
Dir: Jon Favreau. US. 2003. 97 mins. Elf is a Christmas comedy that's as sweet-natured and goofily amusing as its title character, a gangly innocent played, in his first solo-starring role, by in demand former Saturday Night Live funny man Will Ferrell. Looking to get a jump on the extended ...
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Reviews
Sin Ton Ni Sonia
Dir. Carlos Sama. Mexico, 2003. 112 min.A real script and a tough editor would have done a world of good for this messy little comedy rushing all over Mexico City in its despondent attempts to cover three plots, a host of characters and several film genres at the same time. ...
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Reviews
Football Days (Dias De Futbol)
Dir: David Serrano. Spain. 2003. 118mins.There should be much interest in Football Days (Dias De Futbol) at the upcoming MIFED market, considering the film's breakneck climb up the Spanish box office chart and the cast and crew repeats from last year's biggest local box office hit and hot international seller, ...
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Reviews
Love Me If You Dare (Jeux D'Enfants)
France-Belgium. 2003. 93 mins.To rework an old Jean Cocteau pronouncement, just as there was painting before and after Picasso, there is French cinema before and after Amelie - as some local scribes are putting it with some alarm, there is the "Amelie Poulain-ization" of French movies. As evidence of this, ...
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Reviews
Ruby & Quentin (Tais-Toi!)
Dir Francis Veber, France-Italy. 2003 85 min.After a sociological satire that was only fitfully successful (The Closet), comedy maestro Francis Veber is back conducting the score that has become his signature: the male-bonding farce. The adventures of a dim-witted, ne'er-do-well robber and a vengeful, cold-blooded professional on the run both ...
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Reviews
Ruby & Quentin (Tais-Toi!)
Dir Francis Veber, France-Italy. 2003 85 min.After a sociological satire that was only fitfully successful (The Closet), comedy maestro Francis Veber is back conducting the score that has become his signature: the male-bonding farce. The adventures of a dim-witted, ne'er-do-well robber and a vengeful, cold-blooded professional on the run both ...
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Reviews
Love Actually
Dir: Richard Curtis. UK. 2003. 129 minsLike a latter-day Frank Capra, Richard Curtis believes in the innate decency of the ordinary individual. His films salute the power of love and the possibility of harmony in a world riven with division. His vision may not be dark or cutting-edge but it ...
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Reviews
Alila
Dir. Amos Gitai. Israel-France. 2003.A collage of several plots (alila in Hebrew means plot) combine to deliver a composite picture of the country, as it is today in Gitai's new film. Originally headed for Cannes but finally emerging in Venice, Alila is one of his least overtly militant and one ...
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Reviews
Beyond Borders
Dir: Martin Campbell. US. 2003. 127 mins. If the sweeping war-torn romance Beyond Borders had been made in the 1940s or 1950s with Ingrid Bergman or Ava Gardner in the lead role, it might have been a beloved classic. But times and tastes have changed. The Angelina Jolie version of ...
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Reviews
The Story Of Marie And Julien
Dir. Jacques Rivette. France 2003. 150 min.For dyed-in-the-wool cinephiles it is not up for debate every new Rivette film has to be seen, at least once, preferably more - and The Story Of Marie And Julien is no exception. But less committed audiences will find the French master's latest offering, ...
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Reviews
Osama
Dir: Siddiq Barmak. Afghanistan, Japan, Ireland. 2003. 82 mins.The striking title is not the only virtue of this harrowing slice of cinema, which is the first feature film shot in Afghanistan by an Afghan director since the fall of the Taliban. In a hundred years of cinema-producing history, Afghanistan has ...
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Reviews
Infernal Affairs II
Dirs: Andrew Lau, Alan Mak. Hong Kong. 2003. 114 mins.With this kind of film, comparisons are inevitable. Infernal Affairs II (IA2) is both a companion piece to surprise hit thriller Infernal Affairs and, in style and substance, close to The Godfather series. Fortunately, it has the right looks and a ...
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Reviews
Sylvia
Dir: Christine Jeffs. UK. 2003. 110 mins. We've had Jacqueline du Pre and Iris Murdoch, so perhaps it was inevitable that a biopic of Sylvia Plath, also shot in dingy British interiors and drenched in despair, would follow. After all, Hilary And Jackie (1998) and Iris (2001) both scored multiple ...
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Reviews
Infernal Affairs II review
Dirs: Andrew Lau, Alan Mak. Hong Kong. 2003. 114 mins.With this kind of film, comparisons are inevitable. Infernal Affairs II (IA2) is both a companion piece to surprise hit thriller Infernal Affairs and, in style and substance, close to The Godfather series. Fortunately, it has the right looks and a ...
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Reviews
Singing Behind The Screens (Cantando Dietro I Paraventi)
Dir: Ermanno Olmi. Italy. 2003. 100 mins.Years ago, David Thomson wrote "A question mark hangs over Ermanno Olmi, as if he needed some gust of passion or surrealism to free him from the aspirations of realism". This gust began to blow in Olmi's last film, The Profession Of Arms, and ...
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Reviews
The Missing
Dir. Lee Kang-Sheng. Taiwan. 2003. 84 min.Sharing the top award in Pusan's New Currents competition, the debut of actor Lee Kang-Sheng as writer and director indicates beyond doubt that he shares the visual and spiritual world of his mentor and friend, Tsai Ming-Liang, in whose films he has regularly appeared ...
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Reviews
Runaway Jury
Dir: Gary Fleder. US. 2003. 127 mins.John Grisham adaptations were big box office performers in the mid-nineties but it's been almost six years since Hollywood last put one of the author's brisk legal thrillers onto the big screen. This Regency Enterprises version of Grisham's 1996 bestseller about a hijacked corporate ...
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Reviews
Rosenstrasse
Dir. Margarethe von Trotta. Germany, 2003. 136mins.A classical, straightforward, honest and deeply felt reconstruction of a little known Second World War incident, which provided a little ray of light in a sea of darkness, Margarethe von Trotta's first feature in nine years is a worthy addition to a mass of ...
