All Reviews articles – Page 656
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Reviews
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Dir: Carlos Saldanha. US.2006. 91 mins.20th Century Foxlooks set to enjoy an early year worldwide smash with Ice Age 2: TheMeltdown (called just Ice Age:The Meltdown in North America), alikeable sequel to the spring 2002 original which was one of the firstnon-Pixar CGI films to make a mint - $373m ...
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Reviews
Basic Instinct 2
Dir: Michael Caton-Jones.US/UK. 2006. 113 mins.The crime of BasicInstinct 2 is not that it fails to achieve instant camp classic status, butthat it is never more than tragically mundane. 14 years ago Paul Verhoevenreinvented the sex thriller with the gloriously trashy original, teamingMichael Douglas with explosive new star Sharon Stone ...
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Reviews
Volver
Dir: Pedro Almodovar.Spain. 2006. 111 mins.The literal Englishtranslation of Volver is "To Return" and Pedro Almodovar's newfilm represents several 'returns' for the iconic director. He returns to hispersonal roots in La Mancha, where he was born. He also returns to his roots asa filmmaker, working mainly with women and, after ...
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Reviews
The Caiman (Il Caimano)
Dir: Nanni Moretti. It-Fr. 2006. 112mins.Part impassioned political expose, part maritaldrama, part meta-cinematic comedy, Nanni Moretti's new film TheCaiman is a curious hybrid that, in most other hands, would feel forced. It'sthe director's intuitive command of tonal shifts - from slapstick to serious,from Allen-esque one-liners to barbed Moore-ish satire - ...
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Reviews
Paper Dolls
Dir/scr: Tomer Heymann. Is-Swiss.2005. 80mins.A surefire winner on specialistcircuits, Paper Dolls, Tomer Heymann's documentary abouta group of Filipino transsexuals in Israel has everything a successful pictureneeds: endearing characters, tears, laughter, heartbreak and an explosiveclimax at the most unexpected moment.Originally commissioned as asix-part TV series, it has now been cut to ...
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Reviews
Eden
Dir: Michael Hoffman. Ger-Switz. 2005. 98mins.Voted the audience award winner at Rotterdam, MichaelHoffman's Eden is a natural crowdpleaser that successfully combines food and sex for aromantic romp in the best tradition of hits like Mostly Martha.More demure and lessenergetic than Sandra Nettlebeck's feature, thiscomedy about the encounter between an overweight, ...
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Reviews
Dreamland
Dir. Jason Matzner. US. 2006. 88mins.The debut feature from video director and fine artistJason Matzner, Dreamlandlimns the emotional frustrations and personal consequence of emerging femalesexuality, tracking love, heartbreak and self-discovery among a trinity ofdamaged souls in the New Mexico desert.The movie is tender andvisually confident, although the script by Tom ...
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Reviews
Slither
Dir: James Gunn. US. 2006. 94mins.A loving homage to B-movie horror films, James Gunn'sSlither supplies gross-out scares aswell as some self-mocking humour. But while the filmwill please genre fans, others may find the presentation over-familiar.Slither opens on March 31 in the US - following its appearance at the SXSW FilmFestival ...
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Reviews
Wilderness
Dir: Michael J Bassett. UK 2006. 91mins"Get them out of here. Get them to the island andteach them a bloody lesson!" the governor at a young offenders institutionroars at the inmates early on in Wilderness,Michael Bassett's lurid but enjoyably cheesy horror picture.This is not subtlefilm-making. Dario Poloni's screenplay is influencedby ...
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Reviews
Ten Canoes
Dir: Rolf de Heer. Aus.2006. 91mins.The Adelaide Film Festival has aninvestment fund which, with its first feature flutter last year, shrewdlybacked the critically acclaimed Look BothWays. Sarah Watt's drama about fractured lives in a big city suburb went onto play well at international festivals - it won Toronto's Discovery award ...
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Reviews
Inside Man
Dir: Spike Lee. US. 2006.129mins.In Inside Man,Spike Lee applies his jazzy and provocative directing style to the bank heistgenre and turns out an ambitious, often intriguing, but extremely uneven crimethriller. The genre and a strong cast headed by DenzelWashington suggest that this Imagine Entertainment production has the potentialto end Lee's ...
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Reviews
Wal-Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price
Dir: Robert Greenwald. US.2005. 95mins.The reviled and lauded US corporate behemoth Wal-Martis - depending on your viewpoint- either the end of civilisation or anillustration of the triumph of free market brilliance.The largest employer inNorth America now falls in the sights of rakish and entertaining left-wingprovocateur Robert Greenwald in Wal-Mart:The High ...
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Reviews
Orchestra Seats (Fauteuils D'Orchestre)
Dir: Daniele Thompson. Fr. 2006. 106mins.A sparkling champagne-light ensemble piece of a moviewhich showcases one of Paris's most deluxe thoroughfares, Orchestra Seats is the third successful solo outing from writer-directorDaniele Thompson.The daughter oflate comedy director Gerard Oury, with who she wroteseveral of French cinema's biggest box-office smashes back in the ...
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Reviews
You And Me (Toi Et Moi)
Dir: Julie Lopes Curval.Fr. 2006. 94mins.Writer-director Julie Lopes Curvalleapt into the front rank of promising Gallic auteur talent with her debutfeature, Seaside (Bord De Mer), a dramatic ensemble piece setin a once-fashionable seaside resort town, which won the prestigious Camera d'Or at Cannes in 2002. Three years on, she now ...
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Reviews
Piano 17
Dir: Manetti Bros. Italy2006. 105mins.Italy long ago lost the talent for genre film-makingthat made it such a commercial force in the 1960s and 1970s. But a few bravesouls, like the Manetti brothers, are trying to kicksome life into the old corpse. The Rome-based brothers' first feature, thetrash horror parody Zora ...
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Reviews
In Between Days
Dir: So Yong Kim. US-Can 2005.83mins.Some of the most interesting films in this year's Berlinale screened in the supposedly off-off Forum sidebar,with In Between Days - a small butmemorable teen romance - a case in point.So Yong Kim's feature is, asthe title hints, a work that takes its time getting ...
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Reviews
My Country, My Country
Dir: Laura Poitras. US. 2006. 90mins.The trouble with current affairs documentaries istheir topicality: contemporary as they may seem at the time, they lose lustreby the time they premiere.It could be an obstacle forLaura Poitras' MyCountry, My Country, about the Iraqi elections of January 2005. There islittle more she can add ...
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Reviews
Flannel Pajamas
Dir/scr: Jeff Lipsky. US. 2006. 124mins.With his reportedly autobiographical FlannelPajamas, former arthousedistribution specialist Jeff Lipsky successfully tracksthe emotional ups and downs of a relationship, moving from sublime rapture andsurrender to grim heartbreak.Guided by two excellent leadperformances and shaped by some raw writing, he reveals a finely shaded and tactilesense of ...
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Reviews
Conversations On A Sunday Afternoon
Dir/scr: Khalo Matabane. S Afr. 2005. 80minsFalling somewhere between a tentative documentary anda piece of home movie improvisation, Khalo Matabane's first fictional feature allows him to againexplore the many faces resident in South Africa today.The set-up is the accidentalencounter between a tormented poet Keniloe (Kgoroge) and a Somali refugee, Fatima ...
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Reviews
You And Me (Toi Et Moi)
Dir. Ma Liwen. China. 2005.85mins.You And Me is one of thoseheartwarming, inter-generational dramas that the Chinesedo so well that is, alas, not one of the more accomplished examples of the genre.Opening the Kinderfilmfest Plus 14 section at theBerlinale, it seemed to play well enough to its targetaudience, young teens and ...