Latest – Page 679
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Reviews
Down With Love
Dir: Peyton Reed. US. 2003. 96minsDesigned as an affectionate send-up of the Doris Day-Rock Hudson romantic comedies of the early 1960s, the campy and colorful Down With Love a cinematic souffle that never fully rises. Fox is boldly opening the film in the US on May 16, as counter-programming to ...
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Reviews
The Actors
Dir: Conor McPherson. UK-Ire-US-Ger. 2002. 92minsThe Actors is the kind of film that was more fun to make than to watch. A ragged, lightweight romp with more energy than credibility, it is a curious disappointment considering the track record of the talents involved. Based on a story by Neil Jordan, ...
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Reviews
I Capture The Castle
Dir: Tim Fywell. UK-South Africa. 2002. 112mins.A handsome feature debut from director Tim Fywell, I Capture The Castle offers a sensitive, sympathetic adaptation of a much loved British novel. Boasting an acute sense of period trappings and lush locations, it also showcases a memorably engaging performance from newcomer Romola Garai ...
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Reviews
The Lizzie McGuire Movie
Dir: Jim Fall. US. 2003. 93minsAfter three, wildly successful seasons on the Disney Channel, tween queen Lizzie McGuire has made the leap to the big screen. First introduced to US audiences back in 2000 (the live action/animated series only began airing in the UK and other international markets a year ...
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Reviews
The Matrix Reloaded
Dir: The Wachowski Brothers. US. 2003. 138 mins.If The Matrix (1999) remains memorable for its elegant visuals, ingenious story and cool humour, its sequel Reloaded is a case of system overload. Faced with the challenge of crafting back-to-back sequels (part III Revolutions is due in November), the mysterious and ...
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Reviews
The Heart Elsewhere (Il Cuore Altrove)
Dir: Pupi Avati. Italy. 2003. 107mins.The Heart Elsewhere (Il Cuore Altrove), Pupi Avati's sentimental period drama set in 1920s Bologna, has its good points, notably the emergence of Neri Marcore - so far known mainly for his appearances on Italian TV comedy shows - as a serious actor but it ...
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Reviews
Bright Future (Akarui Mirai)
Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Jap. 2002. 115 mins.Bright Future is more arthouse than midnight screening material, but its style and concerns are vintage Kiyoshi Kurosawa - and it should interest his growing international fan base, especially when they hear that a poisonous jellyfish is a central character. Although the film may ...
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Reviews
It Runs In The Family
Dir: Fred Schepisi. US. 2003. 109mins Three generations and four members of the Kirk and Michael Douglas clan get into the act in this comedy/drama about conflicted family relationships. The film is tough-going for the first hour due to slow pacing, awkward acting, abrupt editing - as if a ...
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Reviews
The Glow (Zimzum)
Dir: Igal Bursztyn. Israel. 2002. 86mins.A disenchanted metaphor for contemporary Israel, located in a satirical limbo, Igal Bursztyn's The Glow addresses politically-involved academic circles rather than mainstream film audiences. A low-budget production made for TV - it has already screened on cable in Israel - but shot on film with ...
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Reviews
Killing Words (Palabras Encadenadas)
Dir: Laura Mana. Spain. 2003. 87mins.This stylish thriller from second-time director Laura Mana is among the most polished that production and sales backer Filmax, specialists in the genre via label Fantastic Factory, has yet to offer. Its recent best photography and music wins at the Spanish Film Festival of Malaga ...
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Reviews
Torremolinos 73
Dir: Pablo Berger. Spain-Denmark. 2003. 90mins.A simpatico local comedy, Torremolinos 73 swept last week's Spanish Film Festival of Malaga, winning best film, director, actor and actress awards. Like last year's top Malaga winner and Spanish box office hit The Other Side Of The Bed (El Otro Lado De La Cama), ...
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Reviews
Samurai Resurrection (Makai Tensho)
Dir: Hideyuki Hirayama. Japan. 2003. 106minsHideyuki Hirayama's Samurai Resurrection has the flamboyant costumery, bravura swordplay and super-powered trickery of many a Hollywood sci-fi or fantasy epic, but served up with a distinctive Japanesque spin. It may not be ideal remake material, unless the re-makers figure out how to Westernise a ...
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Reviews
To Kill A King
Dir: Mike Barker.UK. 2003. 105mins.An ambitious, solidly executed period drama, To Kill A King represents a daunting marketing challenge. Charting the close personal friendship and bitter ideological differences between Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax in 17th-century England, it is a history lesson propelled by ideas rather than action. A sober, ...
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Reviews
Dead Bodies
Dir: Robert Quinn. Ireland. 2003. 85mins.Dead Bodies achieves most of what it hopes to be: a low-budget, jokey thriller peopled by plot-expedient characters who are too young to develop character or motivation. But the debut feature from director Robert Quinn, , the first film shot in Ireland on high-definition, lacks ...
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Reviews
Say It In My Own Words
Say It In My Own Words (Dillo Con Parole Mie)Lee Marshall in RomeDir: Daniele Luchetti. Italy. 2003. 108minsDaniele Luchetti scored a minor hit in 1995 with the classroom comedy drama La Scuola and followed it with the intermittently interesting Piccoli Maestri (1998), about a group of students caught up in ...
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Reviews
Distant (Uzak)
DistantDan Fainaru in IstanbulDir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Turkey. 2002. 106mins.With a high profile after its selection in competition at Cannes later this month, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's new film promises to become a surefire hit on the festival circuit. Faithful to Ceylan's intransigently ascetic reputation, it has already collected all the ...
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Reviews
X2: X-Men United
X2: X-MEN UNITEDMike Goodridge in Los AngelesDir: Bryan Singer. US. 2003. 135mins.Bryan Singer lifts the X-Men franchise out of the formulaic superhero realm in his rip-roaring sequel which, having had the scene set for it so efficiently by the 2000 smash original, is as subversive and sophisticated as any summer ...
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Reviews
Ghosts Of The Abyss
Dir: James Cameron. US. 2003. 59mins.For his first film since 1997's Titanic, Oscar-winning director James Cameron has chosen to return to the vessel that made him king of the world, this time with the large format 3-D cameras of Imax. It probably sounded like a money-spinner when this film was ...
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Reviews
A Mighty Wind
Dir: Christopher Guest. US. 2003. 92mins.Like the two earlier pictures which writer/director/actor Christopher Guest co-wrote with Eugene Levy - 2000's Best In Show and 1996's Waiting for Guffman - A Mighty Wind is a film with a premise but no plot. The concepts themselves - a folk music reunion, the ...