Latest – Page 692
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Reviews
My Little Eye
Dir: Marc Evans. UK-US-Fr. 2002. 95mins.Ratings-hungry reality television meets The Blair Witch Project in My Little Eye, an effective, low-budget chiller that leaves its distinctive imprint on the scary movie tradition. Manoeuvring skilfully within genre requirements, director Marc Evans achieves an impressive balance between atmospheric, slow-burning suspense and the kind ...
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Reviews
Revengers Tragedy
Dir: Alex Cox. UK. 2002. 112mins.UK film-maker Alex Cox first came across Thomas Middleton's Jacobean revenge tragedy as a student in 1976, when he was intrigued by its very modern blend of morbid comedy and ultra-violence. His long-planned screen version is steeped in a 1970s anarcho-punk sensibility, with Derek Jarman ...
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Reviews
Blue Moon
Dir. Andrea Maria Dusl. Austria. 2002. 97mins.The auspicious directorial debut from Viennese columnist Andrea Maria Dusl, this road movie which takes Eastern Europe as its subject, should have no problem finding receptive audiences in German-speaking countries. In particular, the presence of Josef Hader, one of Vienna's top cabaret acts, and ...
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Reviews
The Star (Zvezda)
Dir. Nikolai Lebedev. Russia. 2002. 97mins.Russian production company Mosfilm has every right to be proud of the technical standards achieved by its patriotic saga The Star - but that's about all it can be proud of. Adapted from a novel by Sergei Kazakevich, the son of a Jewish teacher who ...
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Reviews
Full Frontal
Dir: Steven Soderbergh. US. 2002. 101mins.With a string of commercial successes and a best director Oscar safely under his belt, Steven Soderbergh should perhaps be forgiven for a brief lapse into self-indulgence. But that doesn't make it any less disappointing to see the director of sex, lies and videotape expend ...
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Reviews
The Sea Watches (Umi Wa Miteita)
Dir: Kei Kumai. Japan. 2002. 119mins.Based on a script by Akira Kurosawa, The Sea Watches (Umi wa Miteita) tries for a Kurosawa look, using the master's continuity drawings and production notes in telling its story of 19th-century era prostitutes. The director, however, is Kei Kumai, a veteran known abroad for ...
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Reviews
Supplement
Dan Fainaru in JerusalemDir. Krzystof Zanussi. Poland 2002. 101mins.Polish moralist Krzystof Zanussi, whose ethical codes permeate every one of his movies, is at it again. Going back to the plot of his 2000 award-winning feature Life As A Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease, but looking at it from a different angle, ...
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Reviews
Austin Powers In Goldmember
Dir: Jay Roach. US. 2002. 94minsDirector Jay Roach and his multi-talented star and co-writer/co-producer Mike Myers have little new to add to the two previous Austin Powers film with the third instalment in the franchise. An intermittently funny confection which wears the joke dangerously thin, Austin Powers In Goldmember will, ...
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Reviews
At The Tips Of Her Fingers (Sur Le Bout Des Doigts)
Dir: Yves Angelo. France. 2002. 83mins.The latest feature from Yves Angelo is a small but compelling story that hinges on an unbalanced mother's jealousy of her talented piano-playing daughter. Although some audiences will feel that At The Tips Of Her Fingers leaves a little too much left unsaid, its careful ...
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Reviews
Ticket To Jerusalem
Dir: Rashid Masharawi. Palestine-Netherlands. 2002. 84 mins.Hyped as the scoop at this year's Taormina Film Festival, Ticket To Jerusalem turns out to be a worthy but rather flat and one-sided fable about a Palestinian projectionist trying to show a film in occupied Jerusalem. With its made-in-Palestine tag and its film-on-film ...
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Reviews
Dirty Deeds
Dir: David Caesar. Australia. 2002. 98 mins.Hot on the heels of the last Australian gangster caper, The Hard Word, comes David Caesar's equally macho, amoral and raucous Dirty Deeds, with the distinct advantages of a decent budget, a smart script and a vibrantly realised late-1960s setting. In addition, a top ...
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Reviews
K-19: The Widowmaker
Dir: Kathryn Bigelow. US. 2002. 138minsThe independently-financed submarine epic K-19: the Widowmaker is one of those rare breed of potential summer blockbusters that demands an investment of thought from its audience before the pay-offs kick in. It's set against the backdrop of Soviet Russia in 1961, features all-Russian characters, tells ...
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Reviews
Stuart Little 2
Dir: Rob Minkoff. US. 2002. 78mins. A summer sequel to a surprise Christmas smash, Stuart Little 2 takes its computer animated mouse hero and his idyllic human family out into the world with a story that touches on such contemporary issues as child empowerment. However, it comes off as a ...
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Reviews
Halloween: Resurrection
Dir: Rick Rosenthal. US. 2002. 89minsNumber eight in the series of Halloween horror movies is so bad it could be Scary Movie 3. It's so bad, in fact, that there might be a big enough teen audience looking for cheap thrills and unintentional laughs as to make it a hit. ...
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Reviews
Euro Pudding (L'Auberge Espagnole)
Dir. Cedric Klapisch. France-Spain. 115mins.The latest ensemble piece by French director Cedric Klapisch possesses as much promise as his 1996 breakthrough number, When The Cat's Away. Warmly received in France, where it is playing on 398 screens and has registered 1.2m admissions ($6.24m) after three weeks, this featherweight comedy explores, ...
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Reviews
Reign Of Fire
Dir: Rob Bowman. US/UK/Ireland. 2002. 101mins.Despite the obvious expense lavished on the CGI-created dragons, the enjoyment of Reign Of Fire comes from its cheesy heroic values and cheerfully hammy performances by super-muscly actors Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey. More reminiscent of old-style Ray Harryhausen movies than the post-apocalyptic epics like ...
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Reviews
The Bourne Identity
Dir: Doug Liman. US. 2002. 118 mins.One of Robert Ludlum's best-selling Cold War spy novels gets a refreshingly edgy cinema update in The Bourne Identity, an international thriller that, under the guidance of indie director Doug Liman, spins out its Hollywood genre conventions with continental flair. The film opened strongly ...
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Reviews
The Seagull's Laughter (Mavahlatur)
Dir. Agust Gudmunsson. Iceland 2001. 104 mins.The new offering from veteran Icelandic director Agust Gudmunsson initially posits itself as a post-war coming-of-age social satire. Yet this acerbic comedy soon offers up several lively portraits of women looking to assert themselves in a world very much controlled by men. Based on ...
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Reviews
Focus
Dir. Neal Slavin. US 2001 104 minutes.Based on Pulitzer Prize-wining playwright Arthur Miller's 1945 novel, Focus offers a timely, yet heavy-handed look at the paranoia, fear, and ignorance that fuels religious and racial intolerance. In light of the tragic events of September 11th and the subsequent attacks ...