Latest – Page 669
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Reviews
The Night We Called It A Day
Dir: Paul Goldman. Australia. 2003. 95mins.Frank Sinatra's 1974 tour of Australia is the stuff of legends. During his first gig he quipped that local female journalists who had been writing racy copy about his sexlife were "buck-and-a-half hookers". Not keen on criticism from overseas guests - even from showbiz royalty ...
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Reviews
Chokher Bali: A Passion Play
Dir. Rituparno Ghosh. India. 2003. 167mins.This adaptation of the novel written by India's Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore in 1902 tries to expand the story of "four young people trapped in a tangle of sensuality" (in Tagore's words) into a larger parable on the state of women in general and ...
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Reviews
The Miracle Of Bern (Das Wunder Von Bern)
Dir. Sonke Wortmann. Germany, 2003. 117mins.Covering similar grounds to Fassbinder's celebrated The Marriage Of Maria Braun but in a vastly different fashion, Sonke Wortmann's new film goes back to portray a moment in history that has been for many analysts, the milestone marking the beginning of Germany's post-World War Two ...
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Reviews
Sexual Dependency (Dependencia Sexual)
Dir. Rodrigo Bellott. Bolivia/USA, 2003. 105 mins.What festival can resist the temptation of a film-making debut from a 25-year-old Bolivian director - especially when it is shown on a split screen and has a title like this to boot' Even if Rodrigo Bellott's debut does not deliver as much ...
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Reviews
The Medallion
Dir: Gordon Chan. US/HK. 2003. 90mins.The Medallion is for die-hard Jackie Chan fans only. Thankfully, for Columbia TriStar, they number in the millions so this scatter-brained action comedy, known as The Highbinders in earlier incarnations, should do respectable international trade. But prospects are bleak for even a modest North American ...
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Reviews
The Battle Of Shaker Heights
Dirs: Efram Potelle, Kyle Rankin. US. 2003. 78mins.Dogged - and, of course, publicised - throughout its production by documentary TV cameras, the second low-budget feature to result from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's Project Greenlight script competition is a sweet if uneven coming-of-age drama-comedy whose major asset is a winning ...
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Reviews
Solid Air
Dir: May Miles Thomas. UK. 2003. 113minsA doleful examination of social injustice and family heartache, Solid Air is a remarkably polished and painfully personal second feature from BAFTA-winning Scots director May Miles Thomas. Dedicated to her father and others who have suffered from asbestos-related illnesses, the film's unrelenting intensity creates ...
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Reviews
Intermission
Dir: John Crowley. Ireland. 2003. 106minsAn abrasive, sour-tasting ensemble piece, Intermission is a giddy Irish attempt to muscle in on the kind of territory previously mined by the likes of Amores Perros and Happiness. Ambitious in its scope, it has a confident swagger to its execution but lacks the originality ...
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Reviews
American Pie: The Wedding takes large slice of UK box office
The UK and Ireland embraced UIP's American Pie: The Wedding this weekend as the comedy marched up the aisle into pole position.The third instalment in the popular series claimed $6.6m (£4.2m) from 326 sites including $1.3m (£802,322) of previews in the territory. It dethroned last week's leader Pirates Of The ...
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Reviews
Silent Waters (Khamosh Pani)
Dir. Sabiha Sumar. Pakistan, France, Germany, 2003. 99 min.As courageously outspoken as her frontal criticism of Islamic fundamentalism is, Sabiha Sumar's Locarno winner qualifies more as a political pamphlet than a film drama. A Pakistani-born, American-educated documentarist who has explored in the past the growth of Islam in her homeland, ...
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Reviews
Open Range
Dir: Kevin Costner. US. 2003. 138mins.Kevin Costner returns to his directorial roots in this old-fashioned Western, opting for a conventional formality and epic aesthetic over freshness or innovation. More Shane than The Searchers, the film breaks no new ground in terms of story, character or execution. But its unabashedly straight-forward ...
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Reviews
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter' And Spring (Bom, Teoreum, Gaeul, Gyeowool, Geurigo, Bom)
Dir: Kim Ki-duk. South Korea-Germnay. 2003. 102mins.Superior to any of his previous works, this contemplative, lavishly photographed picture made by the prolific Kim Ki-Duk, has been shot in a spectacular location, is calm, leisurely and philosophical and a cinema event in its own right. In sharp contrast to Kim's boldly ...
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Reviews
Gori Vatra (Fuse)
Dir. Pjer Zalica. Bosnia-Herzegovina/Austria/Turkey/France, 2003. 105 min.Competing in Locarno and the opening attraction at this year's Sarajevo Film Festival, Pjer Zalica's debut feature displays all the boisterous energy verging on the vulgar, the black sense of humour but also the tragic pathos which have become the trademarks of the better ...
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Reviews
Freddy Vs Jason
Dir: Ronny Yu. US. 2003. 97mins. Hoping to squeeze fresh revenue out of a pair of ageing horror franchises, New Line pits two of the genre's most recognizable icons - Nightmare On Elm Street's Freddy Krueger and Friday The 13th's Jason - against one another in Freddy Vs Jason, a ...
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Reviews
Work Hard, Play Hard (Violence Des Echanges En Milieu Tempere)
Dir. Jean-Marc Moutout. France/Belgium. 99 min.Another addition to the rapidly growing number of French films dealing with economic globalisation and its various ways of affecting human condition, Jean-Marc Moutout's feature debut may not reach the high standards established by outstanding films like Human Resources or L'Emploi Du Temps. But by ...
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Reviews
Perfect Strangers (NZ, 2003)
Dir: Gaylene Preston. New Zealand. 2003. 96mins.After its sold-out premiere at the Melbourne Film Festival, Gaylene Preston's "chilling romance" has, unsurprisingly, been invited to Montreal in September, a timely reminder that New Zealand cinema has more to offer than Lord Of The Rings blockbuster fantasy. Perfect Strangers is an adult, ...
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Reviews
Wondrous Oblivion
Dir: Paul Morrison. UK. 2003. 106minsA poignant, warm-spirited coming-of-age drama, Wondrous Oblivion represents a significant advance in the career of writer-director Paul Morrison. Oscar-nominated for his melodramatic Welsh language feature debut Solomon And Gaenor (1998), Morrison now reveals a much more assured touch in balancing personal dilemmas with wider social ...
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Reviews
16 Years Of Alcohol
Dir. Richard Jobson. UK. 2003. 102mins.Richard Jobson's first feature is an intensely felt, but often disjointed, tale of a man's desperate attempt to free himself not only from alcoholic addiction, but also to overcome his violent nature, basic mistrust in human nature and ferociously anti-social conduct. Growing up with a ...
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Reviews
Calendar Girls
Dir: Nigel Cole. UK. 2003. 108minsThe timing could not be more auspicious for Calendar Girls. A summer of under-performing one hit wonders suggests an audience that is weary of empty spectacle and hungry for old-fashioned entertainment. Calendar Girls isn't cutting edge. It can't boast state-of-the-art effects. It hasn't been inspired ...
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Reviews
S.W.A.T.
Dir. Clark Johnson. US. 2003. 116minsBacked by another stand-out performance by Colin Farrell and the best tag line of the season - 'Even cops dial 911' - this superior piece of formula film-making should blow the doors off the box office when it opens in the US this weekend (Aug ...