Latest – Page 678
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Reviews
The Hunted
Dir: William Friedkin. US. 2003. 94minsWhen a government orders a man to kill, it is considered acceptable. When that same man, tormented by the violence he has perpetrated loses his grip and starts killing on his own, who is to blame' That is the question that should be central to ...
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Reviews
Breaking Up (Separacoes)
Dir: Domingos De Oliveira. Brazil. 2002. 110mins.A sophisticated, wordy, extremely fast-moving comedy about the loves and lusts of a group of Rio artists and intellectuals (think Woody Allen, with Manhattan angst replaced by an irrepressible Latino hedonism), Breaking Up was a great popular favourite with audiences in Mar Del Plata ...
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Reviews
Gololed
Dir. Mikhail Barshinsky. Russia. 2003. 70mins.A former film critic, who also moonlighted as a Siberian train conductor, a Turkish restaurant waiter and a DJ on Bourbon Street New Orleans, Mikhail Barshinsky's directorial debut promises that he intends to be as eccentric in his new career as he has been in ...
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Reviews
Vagabond
Dir. Gyorgy Szomjas. Hungary. 2002. 97mins.Exploring the growing worldwide phenomenon of dance houses - places where people can gather and celebrate their traditional music - the latest effort by Hungarian director Gyorgy Szomjas lavishes most of its attention on what would normally be considered background material, using a schematic plot ...
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Reviews
Seville South Side (Poligono Sur)
Dir: Dominique Abel. Spain/France. 2003. 106mins.Flamenco is fertile territory for a DV documentary crew with a mission to go beyond the tourist cliches. And this is what French actress-turned-documentarist Dominique Abel and a fast-moving group of technicians headed up by cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier (Good Will Hunting, Nurse Betty) have done ...
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Reviews
Forest (Rengeteg)
Dir. Benedek Flieghauf. Hungary. 2003. 95mins.With a First Film award and the Gene Moskovitz prize at the Hungarian Film Week and a slot in the Berlin Forum, Benedek Flieghauf's debut feature looks set to be a regular on this year's festival circuit. Rough, gritty, quite plotless and using non-professional actors ...
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Reviews
The United States Of Leland
Dir: Matthew Ryan Hoge. US. 2003. 108mins.First-time director Matthew Ryan Hoge delivers a highly questionable first feature in Sundance dramatic competition entry The United States Of Leland, a star-studded independent ensemble about upset affluent people which comes close to being offhand in its treatment of the murder of an autistic ...
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Reviews
Mortadelo & Filemon: The Big Adventure (La Gran Aventura De Mortadelo Y Filemon)
Dir: Javier Fesser. Spain. 2003. 105mins.Mortadelo & Filemon: The Big Adventure (La Gran Aventura De Mortadelo Y Filemon) broke local records on its opening weekend in Spain and, fuelled by a hefty promotion effort, shot into the number three ranking of all-time top grossers after just three weekends, behind Alejandro ...
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Reviews
The Grudge
Dir: Takashi Shimizu. Japan. 2003. 92mins.The Grudge (Juon), the scare-a-minute hit by newcomer Takashi Shimizu, is the latest Japanese horror film to join the Tokyo-to-Hollywood parade, with Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures picking up the remake rights and hiring Shimizu to direct the US version. It is hardly surprising, given ...
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Reviews
Tears Of The Sun
Dir: Antoine Fuqua. US. 2003. 118mins Will they or won't they' Sony Pictures is denying a report in the Los Angeles Times that, due to the unusually high level of anti-American sentiment around the world, the studio plans to delay the international release of its new military-themed action/drama, Tears Of ...
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Reviews
Spare Parts (Rezervni Deli)
Dir: Damjan Kozole. Slovenia. 2003. 87 mins.Three films in competition at this year's Berlin dealt with the trade in illegal immigrants towards the European Union: Michael Winterbottom's Golden Bear winner In This World; FIPRESCI prize winner Distant Lights (Lichter), by German director Hans-Christian Schmid; and this small but well-crafted Slovenian ...
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Reviews
Babij Jar
Dir. Jeff Kanew. Germany-Belarus, 2003. 108mins.Babij Jar is the kind of entry that festivals will find hard to reject, but once accepted, will tear their hair out trying to find a slot for. Devoting a fictional film to one of the most barbarous massacres of WW2 is a praiseworthy initiative ...
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Reviews
You Can't Stop The Murders
Dir: Anthony Mir. Australia. 2003. 97mins.Miramax Australia's first local distribution purchase since upgrading its Sydney office is, bravely, a gentle humanistic comedy from a director making his "first film ever of any kind". Anthony Mir is a local stand-up comedian, and his feature debut, You Can't Stop The Murders is, ...
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Reviews
Minor Injuries (Petites Coupures)
Dir. Pascal Bonitzer. France/UK. 2002. 95mins.The old cliche of the French intellectual in crisis, talking himself silly as he rambles from one encounter or affair to the next, receives another lease of life in the third directorial effort from Pascal Bonitzer, the first of his films to be accepted in ...
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Reviews
Bringing Down The House
Dir: Adam Shankman. US. 2003. 105mins.Built around the odd-couple pairing of Steve Martin and Queen Latifah, Bringing Down the House is a black/white culture-clash comedy with some broad - and a couple of quite sharp - laughs but an old-fashioned, at times even complacent feel. However, the formula has worked ...
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Reviews
Monsieur N
Dir: Antoine de Caunes. Fr-UK-South Africa. 2003. 129mins.French TV presenter and sometime journalist Antoine de Caunes takes on Napoleon, with decidedly mixed results for the historical thriller Monsieur N. The made-for-co-production story straddles two cultures, but despite this, Monsieur N will not easily sell to the English-speaking territories it hopes ...
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Reviews
Zhou Yu's Train
Dir: Sun Zhou. China. 2003. 96 mins.Comparisons will inevitably be made between Chinese mainland romance Zhou Yu's Train and Wong-Kar Wai's In The Mood For Love. The photography is stunningly painterly, the narrative has the same suspended, timeless feel and Gong Li changes her skirt almost as often as Maggie ...
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Reviews
Cradle 2 The Grave
Dir: Andrzej Bartkowiak. US. 2003. 99mins.Having successfully applied the formula first in Romeo Must Die and then in Exit Wounds, producer Joel Silver and director Andrzej Bartkowiak reassemble many of the talents from those two $50m-plus domestic hits for another slick yet moderately budgeted package of hip-hop/martial arts action for ...
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Reviews
Jagoda In The Supermarket
Dir: Dusan Milic. Serb-Ger-It. 2003. 82mins.Produced by Emir Kusturica (who has the briefest cameo in the film as a police chief), this oddball siege comedy has many of the Greater Serb's traits: a goofball surreal-symbolic take on Balkan tragedies, characters that slip in and out of caricature, and a delirious ...