Latest – Page 703
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Reviews
Taxi Para Tres (A Cab For Three)
Dir: Orlando Lubbert. Chile. 2001. 90 mins. The unexpected winner of the Golden Shell for best film in San Sebastian, A Cab For Three (Taxi Para Tres), a black comedy about a taxi driver drawn into a life of crime, continues the festival's current preference for South and Central American ...
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Reviews
Dog Days (Hundstage)
Dir Ulrich Seidl. Austria 2001. 120 min. Dog Days, Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's astonishing feature directorial debut, is a dark, probing, truly disturbing exploration of angst, anomie, and alienation, as they manifest themselves in Vienna's upscale suburbs. Easily the most provocative movie in this year's Venice ...
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Reviews
Luna Rossa (Red Moon)
Dir: Antonio Capuano. Italy. 2001. 117mins. "The only way you can control people", says the Mafia boss, "is if they know you can kill them anytime you want". This upbeat moral epigram could provide the poster tag for Antonio Capuano's new film, which screened in the main competition at Venice. ...
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Reviews
Zoolander
Dir Ben Stiller. US 2001. 90 min.Profoundly silly but sporadically entertaining, Ben Stiller's Zoolander is an extremely slight and goofy farce of the fashion industry, this time around targeting male rather than female models. Based on the character that Stiller and MTV Movie Awards writer/producer Drake Sather created for the ...
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Reviews
Don't Say A Word
Dir: Gary Fleder. US. 2001. 111mins.As generic as its title suggests, Don't Say A Word is a routine psychological thriller, elevated by Michael Douglas' strong presence and expert acting as an eminent yuppie shrink whose eight-year-old daughter is kidnapped by a British villain. Lacking in-depth characterisation or any feeling for ...
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Reviews
Prozac Nation
Dir: Erik Skjoldbjaerg. US. 2001. 98 mins.As if proof were needed, Christina Ricci proves she is one of her generation's most fearless actors with a bold and nuanced performance in Prozac Nation, the film of Elizabeth Wurtzel's autobiographical book about youthful depression. Virtually on screen for the film's entire 98 ...
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Reviews
Vidocq
Dir: Pitof. France. 100 mins.Last season it was Brotherhood Of The Wolf, a prototype for a new kind of European popular cinema, that attempted to makeover a French costume drama with the idiomatic layering of genre set-pieces (martial arts action movie, monster movie, etc.). This season we get Vidocq, a ...
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Reviews
Absolument Fabuleux
Dir: Gabriel Aghion. France. 2001. 105 mins.A French feature film remake of the iconic BBC TV series, Absolument Fabuleux replaces its source material's uniquely vivacious humour with hamfisted slapstick and overcooked farce. Despite many inventive touches and amusing French renderings of the series' hallmarks, it suffers acutely in the translation. ...
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Reviews
Serendipity
Dir Peter Chelsom. US 2001. 89 mins.Despite a schematic structure and overdose of contrivances, romantic comedy Serendipity represents a step in the right direction for director Peter Chelsom after his disastrous experience with New Line's Town & Country. Recalling Sleepless In Seattle, and other comedies and dramas ...
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Reviews
The Safety Of Objects
Dir: Rose Troche. US. 2001. 120 mins.The multi-story ensemble piece has become fashionable of late, to dazzling effect in the case of Amores Perros or Happiness and with more muddled results in Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her and What's Cooking' Rose Troche's third film The Safety ...
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Reviews
Birthday Girl
Dir: Jez Butterworth. UK-US. 2001. 85mins. After an unusually long time in the works, Birthday Girl emerges as a likeable and competent small-scale divertissement which represents a considerable advance on Mojo, writer-director Jez Butterworth's poorly received debut film adapted from his own stage play. Birthday Girl is notable above all ...
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Reviews
Joy Ride
Dir: John Dahl. US. 2001. 98minsFasten your seat belts and hang on to your popcorn as director John Dahl unleashes a heart-stopping, scare-the-pants-off them, precision-engineered thrill machine. Unpretentious and unrelenting, Joy Ride provokes all the wild-eyed terror and hysterical laughter of a giddy childhood visit to a fairground attraction. A ...
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Reviews
The Martins
Dir: Tony Grounds. UK. 2001. 84 mins. Tiger Aspect, a company which aims to foster television talent and has a short but successful track record in translating TV-generated projects to the big screen (Bean, Kevin And Perry Go Large), will be hard-pressed to tempt film-goers to this limp comedy. The ...
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Reviews
Asoka
Dir: Santosh Sivan. India. 2001. 150 mins.Could this be the Indian Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' Probably not; but Santosh Sivan's loose historical biopic of Mauryan emperor Asoka is a hugely enjoyable swords-and-saris romp which should have no trouble crossing over from speciality Asian circuits to general release. Juhi Chawla ...
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Reviews
How Harry Became A Tree
Dir: Goran Paskaljevic. Ireland/ Italy/ UK/ France. 2001. 100 mins. The main trouble with Harry is its peculiar cocktail of ingredients. Based on a Chinese short story, scripted in first Serbian, then French and eventually English, directed by a Serb, Goran Paskaljevic, produced by an Irish-Italian-French-British team and set in ...
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Reviews
Christmas Carol: The Movie
Dir: Jimmy T Murakami. UK. 2001. 81 mins.Having survived The Muppets, Bill Murray and the music of Leslie Bricusse, the timeless Dickens tale is sturdy enough to emerge intact from a fresh animated overhaul that takes a few liberties with the tried and tested storyline. Serviceable rather than inspired, the ...
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Reviews
Life As A House
Dir Irwin Winkler. US 2001. 123 mins.Although New Line is releasing Life As A House in late October, in its theme and message it's the perfect Christmas film, a sort of a contemporary It's A Wonderful Life, and not solely due to the fact that, like the Jimmy Stewart's hero ...
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Reviews
From Hell
Dir Allan and Albert Hughes. US 2001. 120 mins.Neither chillingly hair-raising as a horror film, nor convincing as an intense psychological spin, Albert and Allan Hughes's From Hell is a rather conventional gothic yarn about Jack The Ripper, history's first, still most notorious serial killer, who terrorised the streets of ...
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Reviews
Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too)
Dir: Alfonso Cuaron. Mexico. 2001. 105 mins. After working successfully for a decade in the US, Alfonso Cuaron returns briefly to his homeland, abandoning the highly crafted look of his two Hollywood studio features, A Little Princess and Great Expectations, to make a vibrant, gritty road movie which is also ...