Latest – Page 706
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Reviews
The Parole Officer
Dir: John Duigan. UK. 2001. 90 mins. Few television comedians manage to become film stars, and fewer still succeed outside their home turf. But The Parole Officer should serve lengthy time at the British box-office on the strength of Steve Coogan's huge popularity as a stand-up comic and small-screen character ...
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Reviews
The Princess Diaries
Dir: Garry Marshall. US.2001. 115 mins.Shot on the same soundstage that was used for Mary Poppins, the Disney comedy that catapulted Julie Andrews to international stardom, The Princess Diaries is an enjoyable fairy tale that in its mores andmessage is not that different from that Andrews' 1964 Oscar-winning picture. This ...
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Reviews
Rush Hour 2
Dir: Brett Ratner. US. 2001. 87 min.Neither terribly exciting asan actioner, nor sufficiently funny as a comedy, Rush Hour 2 re-teams the odd couple of the first film, theendlessly bickering Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, placing them in the most routineand movie-ish situations imaginable. Coldly calculated, but still rather flat,the ...
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Reviews
Planet Of The Apes
Dir: Tim Burton. US.2001. 120 min.Tim Burton's singularcinematic vision is very much missing from Planet Of The Apes, his eagerly-awaited remake of the 1968 cultclassic. Part sci-fi, part action-adventure, part ape/human romantic melodrama,but not particularly satisfying on any of these levels, it's a truly mediocrepicture that suffers in several departments: ...
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Reviews
Spirited Away
Dir: HayaoMiyazaki. Japan. 2001. 125 mins. Though aimed,says director Hayao Miyazaki, "at ten-year-old girls," his new film Spirited Away (Sen toChihiro no Kamikakushi)is a masterwork, the latest and best in a long line from Japan's premieranimator. Expected to earn Y20bn ($162m) and break the Japanese box officerecord for a domestic ...
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Reviews
Dark Blue World
Dir: Jan Sverak Czech Republic-UK 115mins.With the WWII aerial drama Dark Blue World, Czech director Jan Sverak has proven his ability to manage both comedy and tragedy on a much larger scale, without losing any of the warmth and emotional depth of his Oscar-winning Kolya. Much of the credit ...
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Reviews
Ghost World
Dir: Terry Zwigoff. US.2001. 111 min.Documentarian Terry Zwigoff,who directed the superlative Crumb,a highlight of American documentary cinema of the past decade, makes a roughtransition into feature filmmaking with Ghost World, yet another tale of how the mediocrity of Americansuburbanism can almost suffocate the individuality of its few, truly creativedenizens. Based ...
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Reviews
The Fast Runner
Dir: Zacharias Kunuk. Canada. 2000. 167 mins. Of all the esoterica on show in Cannes this year, The Fast Runner, a nearly three-hour epic in Inuit (it claims to be the first feature ever written in this language) based on a 1000 year old Eskimo legend, must take ...
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Reviews
Firefly Dreams
Dir. John Williams, Japan 2001, 104 min.Although this fully Japanese-financed production looks and feels thoroughly authentic in every respect, it is written, directed and edited by a Cambridge-educated Englishman, John Williams, who has been living in Japan since 1988. For his debut feature Williams adopts the slow, deliberate pace ...
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Reviews
Luna's Game
Dir. Monica Laguna. Spain 2001. 102 mins. A disappointing attempt to deal with two different types of addiction, Monica Laguna's second feature takes far too many short cuts and avoids too many pertinent questions to deal with the many tasks it sets for itself. Ana Torrent, in the lead role ...
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Reviews
Hi Teresa
Dir: Robert Glinski Poland 2001. 86mins.After making an impressive acting debut as a young criminal in the leading role of Robert Glinski's Hi, Teresa, 15-year- old Aleksandra Gieter had to return to the reform school that she had been plucked from to play the part. Ironically she ...
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Reviews
Cabin Fever
Dir: Mona J Hoel. Norwegian. 2001. 95mins.A family whose skeletons come out of the closet when they get together for the holidays is not exactly a new idea, but Mona J Hoel's Cabin Fever explores this well-worn theme within the framework of the Dogma manifesto to create a Chekhovian drama ...
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Reviews
A Place On Earth
Dir: Artur Aristakisjan. 2001. Russia 126minsPart documentary, part feature film, compelling and deeply disturbing, Artur Aristakisjan's A Place On Earth, is a portrait of a Moscow commune in which squatters, beggars, cripples and the insane become actors in a metaphysical examination of the human need for love and spiritual ...
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Reviews
Sagittarius
Dir: Vicente Molina Foix. Spain. 1hr 52mins.Character-driven and dialogue-heavy, Sagittarius (Sagitario) is not a film for all audiences. Its greatest appeal will likely lie with urban arthouse audiences interested in adult-oriented European fare. In Spain, where distributor Lauren Films put this assumption to test, average per-copy ticket sales have been ...
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Reviews
Karlovy Vary Reviews
ANGEL EXITDir: Vladimir Michalek. Czech Republic. 2000. 100mins.Reviewed by Anna FranklinA drug induced fantasy that mixes horror and comedy without being either, Vladimir Michalek's Angel Exit is a film that makes its impact with a mosaic of images, sights and sounds that appeal to all five senses. Based on ...
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Reviews
The Iron Ladies
Dir: Yongyooth Thongkonthun. Thailand. 2000Cool Runnings meets The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert in this raucous, cheer-the-underdog charmer inspired by true events at the 1996 Thailand national volleyball championships. A shameless crowd-pleaser, played for broad comic effect, it embraces every cliche of the sporting no-hopers genre but still ...
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Reviews
Jurassic Park III
Dir: Joe Johnston. US.2001. 90 min.Continuing to expand theboundaries of tech- nology, rather than exciting entertainment, Jurassic ParkIII, the franchise's thirdinstallment, builds on Spielberg's dual hits, Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), which jointly have grossed over $1.5billion worldwide. Much darker than the previous films, Jurassic ...
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Reviews
Hi Tereska
Dir: Robert Glinski Poland 2001. 86mins.After making an impressive acting debut as a young criminal in the leading role of Robert Glinski's Hi, Teresa, 15-year- old Aleksandra Gieter had to return to the reform school that she had been plucked from to play the part. Ironically she escaped a ...
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Reviews
Made
Dir: Jon Favreau. US.2001. 93 min.The same offbeatsensibility that informed Swingers, Miramax's 1996 hit, is also in evidence in Made, the new crime comedy directed, written, andstarring Jon Favreau - except that, unlike the former picture, which dealt withreal issues, the new one is a basically plotless, character-driven film.Reuniting for ...
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Reviews
High Heels And Low Lifes
Dir: Mel Smith. UK. 2001. 86 mins. The film's title implies a commercially canny mix of grrrl power and gangsters, but Mel Smith's first directorial outing since Bean (1997) is unlikely to replicate its success, or that of writer Kim Fuller's last film, SpiceWorld (1996). Here, males will be turned ...