Latest – Page 672
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Reviews
The Island (L'Isola)
Dir: Costanza Quatriglio. Italy. 2003. 102mins.A coming of age film set on Favignana, an island off western Sicily known for its tuna fishing traditions, The Island (L'Isola) is so relentlessly charming and so ravishingly shot that one can almost forgive a lack of dramatic backbone. Dealing with themes that arise ...
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Reviews
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
Dir: Gore Verbinski. US. 2003. 144 mins.Thank heavens for Johnny Depp. The maverick actor who has generally avoided roles in Hollywood event pictures to date survives his first Jerry Bruckheimer production not only with integrity intact but the knowledge that he enhances the end product to such a degree that ...
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Reviews
Battle Royale II: Requiem
Dir: Kinji Fukasaku, Kenta Fukasaku. Japan. 133mins.Blood squib for blood squib, Battle Royale, Kinji Fukasaku's last completed film did not show much that had not been shown before. Based on a best-selling novel about a "class" of 42 teen troublemakers forced to murder each other by a repressive government it ...
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Reviews
Eila
Dir. Jarmo Lampela. Finland. 2003. 94minsA neatly packaged but pretty slender melodrama combining social consciousness and parental guilt, Jarmo Lampela's new picture would have been more comfortable in a family TV slot than in the competition of a film festival. Though it attempts to echo the dry, deadpan approach of ...
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Reviews
Koktebel
Dir. Boris Khlebnikov, Alexei Popogrebsky. Russia. 2003. 100mins.One of the nicest surprises at Moscow, this unprepossessing but remarkably sensitive road movie will most likely have a very busy festival career - and not just because it took the Grand Jury Special Prize and the Silver St. George. Rather, few selectors ...
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Reviews
Bright Leaves
Dir: Ross McElwee. US. 2003. 107minsBright Leaves may start out exploring the deadly allure of tobacco but it soon mushrooms into an engaging mixture of family album, social history and human eccentricity. Best known as the award-winning director of Sherman's March (1986), Ross McElwee now has an enviable track record ...
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Reviews
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
Dir: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. US 2003. 94 minutes Legally Blonde proved a surprise hit when it was released during the summer of 2001, grossing over $96m in the US and a solid but not spectacular $45m internationally. While this flag-waving sequel - being released in the US over the July 4 ...
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Reviews
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
Dir: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. US 2003. 94 minutes Legally Blonde proved a surprise hit when it was released during the summer of 2001, grossing over $96m in the US and a solid but not spectacular $45m internationally. While this flag-waving sequel - being released in the US over the July 4 ...
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Reviews
Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas
Dir: Tim Johnson & Patrick Gilmore. US. 2003. 86 mins. DreamWorks' latest 2-D animated effort is a light-hearted adventure - with no songs - which is a marked improvement on The Road To El Dorado (2000) and the stolid Stallion: Spirit Of The Cimarron last year. But as Disney found ...
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Reviews
This Girl's Life
Dir: Ash. US. 2003. 101 mins. A star is born in This Girl's Life, the fourth independent feature from maverick Brit director Ash (Bang, Pups). Her name is Juliette Marquis, a stunningly beautiful newcomer whose magnetism and self-assuredness shine off the screen and indeed outshine the movie itself. Looking like ...
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Reviews
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines
Dir: Jonathan Mostow. US. 2003. 109 mins. He's back alright, but how big an audience will come back to see Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator 12 years after the franchise's previous instalment, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became a $500m global smash' The good news for distributors Warner and Sony is ...
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Reviews
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
Dir: McG. US. 2003. 111 mins. As its title suggests, the sequel to autumn 2000 hit Charlie's Angels revs up the goofy humour and preposterously gaudy action elements of the first movie - and leaves coherent narrative even further behind in the dust. Youthful moviegoers who helped the original to ...
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Reviews
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Dir: Mike Hodges. USA/UK. 2003. 103 mins Midway between a psychological thriller and a tough action movie, with a touch of existential soul-searching but never really making up its mind which way to go, Mike Hodges' new film looks better than it actually is and promises much more than it ...
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Reviews
Alex & Emma
Dir: Rob Reiner. US. 2003. 96 mins Rob Reiner, of course, earned his romantic comedy spurs with When Harry Met Sally. And Kate Hudson showed a talent for the genre in last winter's $100m-plus US grosser How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. But neither director nor star manages ...
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Reviews
Alex & Emma
Dir: Rob Reiner. US. 2003. 96 mins Rob Reiner, of course, earned his romantic comedy spurs with When Harry Met Sally. And Kate Hudson showed a talent for the genre in last winter's $100m-plus US grosser How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. But neither director nor star manages ...
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Reviews
Dallas 362
Dir: Scott Caan. US. 2003. 90 mins. Having made a name for himself playing henchmen or simpletons in films like Gone In 60 Seconds, Ready To Rumble and Oceans Eleven, actor Scott Caan - the son of James Caan - shows he is anything but simple with his directorial debut ...
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Reviews
The Stroll
Dir. Alexei Uchitel. Russia, 2003. 90 min.Alexei Uchitel's first film since he represented Russia in the Oscars in 2000 with His Wife's Diary is an easygoing romp which turns out to be a challenge in more ways than one. The opening attraction at this year's Moscow Festival, it is light, ...
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Reviews
Crimson Gold
Dir: Jafar Panahi. Iran. 2003. 96mins.The triumphant march of Iranian cinema continues apace. After Samira Makhmalbaf's At Five In The Afternoon won the jury prize in the main competition at Cannes comes Crimson Gold, Jafar Panahi's fourth feature, which picked up the Un Certain Regard jury prize. Set in present-day ...
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Reviews
Deep Breath
Dir: Parviz Shahbazi. Iran. 2003. 86minsThe most acclaimed Iranian films of recent years have opened the world's eyes to the plight of women in a brutal patriarchal society. Deep Breath widens the debate by reflecting the experience of a defiantly apathetic younger generation who feel no investment in the system ...
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Reviews
Les Cotelettes
Dir. Bertrand Blier. France, 2003. 86 mins.Cannes selectors must have been pretty desperate to drag this dubious comedy, met at the end of its press screening with vociferous booing, into the world's most prestigious film competition. Adapted from Blier's stage debut, which was a hit, this is simply a dialogue-driven ...