Latest – Page 667
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Reviews
The Statement
Dir: Norman Jewison. Canada/France/UK. 2003. 120 mins. As enticingly cast and classically executed as it is, there's something naggingly unsatisfying about The Statement, a religio-political thriller directed by Norman Jewison and adapted by Ronald Harwood from the acclaimed 1996 novel by Canadian author Brian Moore. Co-produced by a string of ...
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Reviews
House Of Sand And Fog
Dir: Vadim Perelman. US. 2003. 126minsHouse Of Sand And Fog is a film that takes itself very seriously, and it should. Adapted from the novel by Andre Dubus III, which was featured on Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, it's drenched in poetic atmospherics that many will find haunting and others pretentious. ...
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Reviews
Old Boy
Dir: Park Chan-Wook. Korea. 2003. 135 mins (approx)Director Park Chan-Wook helped Korean cinema break into a front of mind position with international distributors with his first film Joint Security Area, a tense stand-off on the North-South Korean border. He showed a darker, edgier side with Sympathy For Mr Vengeance, a ...
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Reviews
Caterina In The City (Caterina Va In Citta)
Dir: Paolo Virzi. Italy. 2003. 106mins.This contemporary commedia all'italiana squeezes some enjoyable mileage out of the old "hick in the big city" trope, in its tale of a 13-year-old girl who moves to Rome from the provinces, and is immediately caught up in the factional politics of her new high ...
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Reviews
Looney Tunes: Back In Action
Dir: Joe Dante. US. 2003. 90mins.The edgy humour of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck et al takes a back seat to frantic and not terribly funny action-comedy in this Warner family offering (set for a Nov 14 US release) that puts the studio's Looney Tunes animated stars together with live-action characters ...
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Reviews
Nicotina
Dir: Hugo Rodriguez. Mex-Arg-Sp. 2003. 90minsNicotina, the latest candidate for admission into the School of Tarantino, is an always perfectly watchable caper-movie-cum-romantic-comedy that is spasmodically entertaining. Filled with the fast wipes and purposely nonsensical discussions about ersatz philosophical issues like smoking and coincidence that mark the Tarantinesque genre, this film ...
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Reviews
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World
Dir: Peter Weir. US. 2003. 129 mins. One of the season's biggest productions is also one of its most intimate. For all the effort and expense that went into recreating an English battleship in the Napoleonic Wars, Peter Weir's thrilling film of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin characters plays out mostly in ...
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Reviews
The Return Of Cagliostro
Dir: Daniele Cipri and Franco Maresco. Italy. 2003. 100 mins.The films of Sicilian directing duo Daniele Cipri and Franco Maresco are an acquired taste. If you find physical deformities, speech defects and farting priests funny, you'll love them. The present reviewer was therefore doubled up in fits of laughter through ...
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Reviews
The Matrix Revolutions
Dir: Andy & Larry Wachowski. US. 2003.After their failed attempt to craft a compelling mythology out of The Matrix with The Matrix Reloaded, the brothers Wachowski resort to a straight action formula in their series finale Revolutions. And as a spectacular action movie, there are few films that could rival ...
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Reviews
France Boutique
Dir: Tonie Marshall, France. 2003, 95 min.After beauty parlours comes tele-marketing programmes. Tonie Marshall pursues the comic vision of French consumer society she deployed with wit and zest in her 1999 breakthrough hit, Venus Beauty Institute. But France Boutique, an inside look at a French tele-marketing and those who produce ...
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Reviews
Skagerrak
Dir: Soren Kragh-Jacobsen. Denmark-UK. 2003. 104minsA modern fairytale about friendship, second chances and the unpredictable nature of happiness, Skagerrak is an unwieldy romantic charmer from writer-director Soren Kragh-Jacobsen. Lacking the focus and obvious commercial appeal of Berlin prize-winner Mifune, his English-language debut is the kind of slow burner that worms ...
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Reviews
Cheeky
Dir: David Thewlis. UK/France. 2003. 94 minsTen years ago, Mike Leigh's Naked confirmed David Thewlis as one of the most electrifying actors of his generation. His tour de force earned him a Best Actor prize at Cannes and a far from satisfactory international career that includes the disastrous remake ...
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Reviews
Elf
Dir: Jon Favreau. US. 2003. 97 mins. Elf is a Christmas comedy that's as sweet-natured and goofily amusing as its title character, a gangly innocent played, in his first solo-starring role, by in demand former Saturday Night Live funny man Will Ferrell. Looking to get a jump on the extended ...
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Reviews
Sin Ton Ni Sonia
Dir. Carlos Sama. Mexico, 2003. 112 min.A real script and a tough editor would have done a world of good for this messy little comedy rushing all over Mexico City in its despondent attempts to cover three plots, a host of characters and several film genres at the same time. ...
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Reviews
Football Days (Dias De Futbol)
Dir: David Serrano. Spain. 2003. 118mins.There should be much interest in Football Days (Dias De Futbol) at the upcoming MIFED market, considering the film's breakneck climb up the Spanish box office chart and the cast and crew repeats from last year's biggest local box office hit and hot international seller, ...
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Reviews
Love Me If You Dare (Jeux D'Enfants)
France-Belgium. 2003. 93 mins.To rework an old Jean Cocteau pronouncement, just as there was painting before and after Picasso, there is French cinema before and after Amelie - as some local scribes are putting it with some alarm, there is the "Amelie Poulain-ization" of French movies. As evidence of this, ...
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Reviews
Ruby & Quentin (Tais-Toi!)
Dir Francis Veber, France-Italy. 2003 85 min.After a sociological satire that was only fitfully successful (The Closet), comedy maestro Francis Veber is back conducting the score that has become his signature: the male-bonding farce. The adventures of a dim-witted, ne'er-do-well robber and a vengeful, cold-blooded professional on the run both ...
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Reviews
Ruby & Quentin (Tais-Toi!)
Dir Francis Veber, France-Italy. 2003 85 min.After a sociological satire that was only fitfully successful (The Closet), comedy maestro Francis Veber is back conducting the score that has become his signature: the male-bonding farce. The adventures of a dim-witted, ne'er-do-well robber and a vengeful, cold-blooded professional on the run both ...
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Reviews
Love Actually
Dir: Richard Curtis. UK. 2003. 129 minsLike a latter-day Frank Capra, Richard Curtis believes in the innate decency of the ordinary individual. His films salute the power of love and the possibility of harmony in a world riven with division. His vision may not be dark or cutting-edge but it ...
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Reviews
Alila
Dir. Amos Gitai. Israel-France. 2003.A collage of several plots (alila in Hebrew means plot) combine to deliver a composite picture of the country, as it is today in Gitai's new film. Originally headed for Cannes but finally emerging in Venice, Alila is one of his least overtly militant and one ...