Latest – Page 690
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Reviews
The Abduction Club
Dir: Stefan Schwartz. Ire-UK. 2001. 96mins. Based on an amusing plot premise - "the 18th century's answer to Dateline" - The Abduction Club avoids the music-vid gimmickry of previous attempts to bring the costume romp to the youth market such as Jake Scott's Plunkett And Macleane. The gentle tone of ...
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Reviews
Lilo & Stitch
Dirs: Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois. US. 2002. 85mins.Lilo & Stitch may not push the animation envelope much, but with its modestly scaled story and retro cartooning techniques, this endearing ugly duckling tale could still give Disney its biggest traditionally animated summer hit in years. The film's $35.3m opening weekend US ...
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Reviews
Fate (Yazgi)
Dir. Zeki Demirkubuz. Turkey. 2001. 115mins.The first of three Tales Of Darkness features by Zeki Demirkubuz, Turkey's most promising new film-maker, this free adaptation of Albert Camus' novel The Stranger is bound to attract plenty of festival activity. The best indication of the film's nature and eventual future comes with ...
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Reviews
El Bonaerense
Dir: Pablo Trapero. Argentina 2002. 92mins. The Buenos Aires police department comes under wry satirical scrutiny in the second feature by the director of the highly-acclaimed Mondo Grua (Crane World). The business of crime-fighting has rarely looked so farcically disreputable outside the Police Academy series, but the humour here is ...
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Reviews
Happy Times (Xingfu Shiguang)
Dir: Zhang Yimou. China-US. 2000. 96minsThe first film from Edward R Pressman and Terrence Malick's Sunflower Productions, Zhang Yimou 's Happy Times is a Chaplinesque sentimental comedy which has its moments of greatness. Even during the more pedestrian scenes, it is difficult not to be warmed by this winning tale ...
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Reviews
Just A Kiss
Dir: Fisher Stevens. US. 2001. 90mins.This New York ensemble comedy is like a drunk at a party. It thinks it's being witty, kooky and perceptive, but to those of us on the other side of the cranium, it's just slurring its speech. Director Fisher Stevens is a stage, film ...
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Reviews
L'Adversaire (The Adversary)
Dir: Nicole Garcia. France 2002. 120 mins.A slow, sombre drama about a mythomaniac in crisis, the latest film by actress-turned-director Nicole Garcia is a stolid effort that additionally suffers by covering too-familiar material. Its story is fundamentally the same as the one told by Laurent Cantet in his recent L'Emploi ...
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Reviews
Le Pays Du Chien Qui Chante
Dir: Yann Dedet. France. 2002. 95 mins. A quirky, unassuming first feature from highly respected editor Yann Dedet, Le Pays Du Chien Qui Chante displays a number of agreeable qualities without every blossoming into compelling viewing. Possessed of a gentle nature and a quiet humour, it may charm a few ...
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Reviews
Dark Water
Dir: Hideo Nakata. 2002. Jap. 91mins.The latest film by Japanese horror master Hideo Nakata, who directed two of the celebrated Ring series, relies on classic genre staples to run its narrative motor, including a creepy old building where bad things happened, a little girl in jeopardy and parents badly in ...
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Reviews
Madame Sata
Dir: Karim Ainouz. Brazil/France. 2002. 103mins. There's a wonderful film to be made about Joao Francisco Dos Santos, otherwise known as Madame Sata, a rugged homosexual, six-foot-tall and weighing 170 pounds, who lived as a street fighter, singer, transvestite and devoted father to seven adopted children in the bohemian quarter ...
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Reviews
Road To Perdition
Dir: Sam Mendes. US. 2002. 119 mins.Brit wunderkind Sam Mendes takes another close look at warts-and-all America in his second film Road To Perdition, a Depression-era gangster movie set in and around Chicago which confirms both his command of the medium and his signature visual bravado. With a smashing cast ...
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Reviews
Tomorrow La Scala
Director: Francesca Joseph. UK. 2002. 108 mins. Funny, stylish and deeply moving, Tomorrow La Scala! is a little gem of a first feature from award-winning documentary filmmaker Francesca Joseph. Inspired by the director's own experiences and partially improvised over three weeks of workshops, it finds real depth and feeling in ...
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Reviews
The Uncertainty Principle (O Principio Da Incerteza)
Dir: Manoel de Oliveira. Portugal 2002. 133mins. Nowadays more prolific than ever, 93-year-old Portuguese veteran Manoel de Oliveira continues to follow his own wildly idiosyncratic path. Although in many ways decorous, even a little staid in its composure, The Uncertainty Principle is overall a characteristically eccentric venture that is as ...
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Reviews
Une Pure Coincidence
Dir: Romain Goupil. France. 2002. 92mins.Friends for more than 30 years, a group of radicals rediscover their passion for direct action in Une Pure Coincidence. The result is a timely, entertaining documentary notable for its warm spirit and light humour. Lacking a professional polish or great visual appeal, it is ...
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Reviews
A Piece Of Sky (Une Part Du Ciel)
Dir: Benedicte Lienard. Belgium-France-Luxembourg. 2002. 85mins.Defiantly out of step with the prevailing mood of the times, Une Part du Ciel makes no bones about its militant political stance nor about its intransigent art-cinema leanings. A story of two estranged female friends - one a factory worker, the other serving time ...
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Reviews
Mr Deeds
Dir: Steven Brill. US. 2002. 96 mins. The Adam Sandler hit factory appears to be back in business. After falling way short of their usual box office standards with 2000's surreally wacky Little Nicky, the boyish star and his regular writing and producing partners revert to much safer material with ...
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Reviews
Men In Black II
Dir: Barry Sonnenfeld. US. 2002. 82 mins. The invigorating burst of zany energy that made sci-fi comedy Men In Black the surprise smash of the 1997 summer season was never going to be easy to reproduce. So it's hardly surprising that Men In Black II feels more slight and less ...
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Reviews
Women In The Mirror (Kagami No Onnatachi)
Dir: Kijyu Yoshida. Japan. 2002. 129mins.Kijyu Yoshida's first feature in 14 years, Women In The Mirror, is a throwback to the humanistic films with a political slant that once flowed from Japan's 1960s Nouvelle Vague, of which he was a key member. It is also a reminder of why such ...
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Reviews
Angela
Dir: Roberta Torre. Italy. 2002. 95mins. Dispensing with the musical numbers that peppered her first two films, but remaining true to her fascination with the character and people of Palermo, Roberta Torre still adds little new to the well-worn themes of Angela. Based on true events from the mid-1980s, the ...
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Reviews
Black And White
Dir: Craig Lahiff. Australia/UK. 2002. 99mins.The Sydney Film Festival traditionally opens with the world premiere of a quality Australian feature: last year it was the free-flowing, cinematically intense Lantana. This year's opener was an altogether more stolid affair - the worthy dramatisation of a 1958 South Australian murder trial and ...