Latest – Page 666
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Reviews
Cheaper By The Dozen
Dir: Shawn Levy. US. 2003. 98 mins. Holiday movies don't come much more undemanding than this. Sugary one moment and slapstick the next, Steve Martin's return to family comedy is ideally suited to its Christmas Day US release slot and could - thanks also the presence of tween star Hilary ...
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ReviewsThe Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Dir: Peter Jackson. US / New Zealand. 2003. 201 mins.
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Reviews
Cold Mountain
Dir: Anthony Minghella. US. 2003. 157 mins. There are a number of coups which writer/director Anthony Minghella has scored with his long-awaited film of the best-selling novel Cold Mountain, not least of which is to soften the focus on the American Civil War - a period in history which has ...
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Reviews
When The Right One Comes Along (Wenn Der Richtige Kommt)
Dirs. Stefan Hillebrand and Oliver Paulus. Switzerland/Germany, 2003. 78mins.If this largely improvised, shoestring budget production finds its place on the festival and art house circuit, as it rightly should, it will not be because of its glamour or production values, of which it has none, but its immediate spontaneity and ...
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Reviews
Sea Of Silence (Verder Dan De Maan)
Dir: Stijn Coninx. Neth/Belg. 2003. 100 minsAn endearing, old-fashioned coming of age drama, Sea Of Silence travels a well worn road with care and craft. An episodic account of a family's joys and sorrows, it views the world through the eyes of a grave-faced, God-fearing little girl. A poised, mature ...
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Reviews
In The City (En La Ciudad)
Dir. Cesc Gay. Spain, 2003. 110mins.Pleasant, handsome, urbane but quite vacuous, Cesc Gay's second feature film resembles, to a certain extent, the choral dramas of French director Claude Sautet, minus the dynamics and the depth. Revising the thirtysomething formula of American television into an European version shot entirely in Barcelona, ...
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Reviews
Loving Glances
Dir. Srdan Karanovic. UK/Serbia, 2003. 97mins.Film-maker Srdan Karanovic, a star of the golden age in Yugoslav cinema, makes a well-deserved comeback with this gentle, surreal romance. Absent from the screen for too long, he has left so much unsaid in the 12 years he has been absent that it almost ...
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Reviews
Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior
Dir. Parchya Pinkaew. Thailand, 2003. 105 min.Hollywood producers would do well to note the names on the credits before they embark on their next multi-million dollar action franchise. Just as Hong Kong's Yuen Wo Ping brought a different kind of kinetic energy to The Matrix series (as well as ...
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Reviews
The Last Samurai
Dir: Edward Zwick. US. 2003. 154minsTom Cruise rides into the East in Warner Bros' stirring, beautifully mounted dramatic release, directed by Ed Zwick (Glory, Legends Of The Fall), refreshingly set in 1870s Japan. Though its plot and structure, as well as it characters, sometimes perilously skirt cliche, the end result ...
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Reviews
The Last Train (Poslednyi Poezd)
Dir. Alexei German Jr. Russia, 2003. 82 mins.Alexei German Jr.'s debut rounds up an impressive year of achievements for young Russian cinema. Winner of both Best Picture and International Film Critics' Awards at Thessaloniki, this fearsome, uncompromising humanistic anti-war statement is a choice item that shows German to be a ...
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Reviews
Maqbool
Dir: Vishal Bharadwaj. India. 2003. 134minsShakespeare meets Bollywood in the energetic Maqbool, a two-hour-plus extravaganza expressly modelled on Macbeth, the most blood-besotted play of the Bard's maturity. Ultimately more Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Body Heat than Shakespearean, this rambunctious film borrows the playwright's characters while tarting ...
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Reviews
The Floating Landscape
Dir. Carol Lai Miu-suet. Hong Kong/France, 2003. 100mins.Not much happens in this quietly introspective tale of a young Hong Kong woman haunted by the untimely death of her lover. Unable to pick up the thread of her own life, she goes back to his home town to try and unravel ...
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Reviews
Big Fish
Dir: Tim Burton. US. 2003. 125minsIn many ways the perfect vehicle for tall-storyteller Tim Burton, Big Fish is a gently whimsical tale of a man's reconciliation with his dying father and his acceptance of his lifelong penchant for fabulism. Filled with the quirky fables and magical fantasy with which Burton ...
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Reviews
Timeline
Dir: Richard Donner. US. 2003. 116 mins.Packaged as a big budget Michael Crichton adaptation with veteran action director Richard Donner at the helm, Timeline is a breathless adventure romp that sometimes feels more like an educational TV special intended to make medieval history seem cool. Too silly for adults and ...
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Reviews
The Haunted Mansion
Dir: Rob Minkoff. US. 2003. 98 mins.Disney's latest attempt to turn a theme park attraction into a movie relies on impressive design and effects work and a warmly funny performance from Eddie Murphy to pep up an otherwise rather anaemic ghosts'n'ghouls family comedy adventure. The selling points may well prove ...
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Reviews
The Missing
Dir: Ron Howard. US. 2003. 135mins.The versatile Ron Howard stirs up a melange of story elements in The Missing and the result, perhaps surprisingly, is a consistently engaging tale that is part stoic western, part spooky thriller and part dysfunctional family drama. Selling such a hard-to-categorise item to mainstream audiences ...
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Reviews
Michel Vaillant
Dir: Louis-Pascal CouvelaireLuc Besson is backseat driving again. The latest model to roll off his EuropaCorp action movie assembly line is called Michel Vaillant, the name of a champion race car driver who is indeed valiant on wheels or off but who won't keep the ghost of Steve McQueen up ...
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Reviews
Dr Seuss' The Cat In The Hat
Dir: Bo Welch. US. 2003. 82 mins. Taken on its own terms, the $100m-plus live-action screen version of Dr Seuss' signature children's book is a no more than typically gaudy and aggressive Hollywood comedy that appears to have been production designed for kids but written largely for adults. US reviewers, ...
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Reviews
4th Floor (Planta Cuarta)
Dir: Antonio Mercero. 100 mins. Spain (2003).4th Floor (Planta Cuarta) didn't create much of a buzz in Spain while it was in production, nor even after winning a special mention for its young cast at the Spanish Film Festival of Malaga last May. So it was all the more ...
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Reviews
Gothika
Dir: Mathieu Kassovitz. US. 2003. 99 mins.Featuring Halle Berry in her first solo-starring role, this latest offering from Joel Silver's mid-budget Dark Castle label is a creepy if rather one-note chiller blending the old-fashioned scare tactics suggested by its title with elements from the new wave of Asian horror. Warner ...