All Reviews articles – Page 749
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Reviews
The Score
Dir: Frank Oz. US. 2001.122 mins.Despite a high-calibre cast, headed by three of the most accomplished actors working in American film - Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton - not many sparks fly in The Score, an extremely old-fashioned heist thriller that looks and sounds as if it were ...
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Reviews
Legally Blonde
Dir: Robert Luketic. US. 2001. 97 mins.Slick, sexy andwinsome, Legally Blonde isa lot of fun and a rare sight this summer: A feel-good movie that's notentirely frivolous. A logical follow-up to Election, in which Reese Witherspoon played an obnoxiouslyambitious high-schooler, the new comedy casts her as a ditzy but smart ...
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Reviews
Scary Movie 2
Dir: Keenan Ivory Wayans. US. 2001. 88 mins. It's taken the Wayans brothers just twelve months to follow up on the astounding success of their slasher spoof Scary Movie (which last summer grossed $157m in the US and $103m internationally) with a sequel that rips into the supernatural thriller genre ...
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Reviews
Cats & Dogs
Dir: Lawrence Guterman. US. 2001. 87 mins. A comedy featuring realistic-looking, talking versions of humankind's favourite domestic pets sounds like a good way to reach the sometimes elusive family audience. But Cats & Dogs proves - if it still needs proving - that in this genre at least all the ...
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Reviews
An American Rhapsody
Dir: Eva Gardos. US. 2001. 106 mins.An ode to America as the land of freedom and opportunity, Eva Gardos' An American Rhapsody relates a heartfelt coming-of-age story, centring on a bright Hungarian-American adolescent (magnificently embodied by Manny & Lo discovery Scarlett Johansson), who insists on determining her own fate against ...
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Reviews
La Spagnola
World premiered at the 2001 Sydney Film Festival, this finely textured local feature proudly proclaims its multiculturalism. Subtitles translate the mainly Spanish and Italian dialogue: the film's title - The Spanish Woman in Italian - is itself testimony to the film's mix of cultures and language. This is admirably, even ...
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Reviews
The Animal
Dir: Luke Greenfield. US. 2001. 83 mins. After the surprise winter 1999 success of his first starring vehicle, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, former Saturday Night Live funny man Rob Schneider gets the chance to carry a high-profile summer movie with The Animal, a resolutely dumb but occasionally endearing comedy. Backed ...
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Reviews
Tortilla Soup
Dir: Maria Ripoll. US. 2001. 103mins.Here's a conundrum: this remake - or rather "Mexican American retelling" - of Ang Lee's 1994 Oscar-nominated Taiwanese film Eat Drink Man Woman is well crafted and for the most part pleasantly diverting. But why remake a hit specialised movie into another specialised movie' Surely ...
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Reviews
crazy/beautiful
Dir: John Stockwell. US. 2001. 88mins. Despite its perky-sounding title, prominent soundtrack and sexy costumes, crazy/beautiful appears to have ambitions that are considerably bigger than those of the average teen romance. With an interracial love story at its core, the film also delves into relatively dark family drama and tries ...
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Reviews
Queenie In Love
Dir: Amos Kollek. US-France. 2001. 98mins.The closing event at Cannes' Directors' Fortnight, Amos Kollek's new romantic comedy, is a sequel of sorts to his 2000 competition entry, Fast Food, Fast Women. The novelty of his approach may have worn off a bit and the structure may seem at times even ...
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Reviews
Stuff And Dough (Marfa Si Banii)
Dir. Cristi Puiu. Romania. 2001. 90mins.Cristi Puiu's feature debut, made on what appears to be a non-existent budget, takes a close look at the underbelly of Romanian everyday life and comes up with a strangely compelling statement that goes way beyond its apparently insouciant approach. A road movie following, for ...
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Reviews
La Chambre Des Officiers
Dir: Francois Dupeyron. France. 2001. 135minsComfortingly old-fashioned in its virtues of sensitive direction and finely nuanced performances, La Chambre Des Officiers is a moving account of an injured officer's struggle for physical and spiritual regeneration at the height of the First World War. Conventional handling of the material may not ...
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Reviews
Final
Dir: Campbell Scott. US. 2001. 111mins.Campbell Scott, who co-directed the hit Big Night in 1996 with Stanley Tucci, finally gets back behind the camera with Final, the fourth digital video production from IFC-backed IndiGent after Bruce Wagner's Women In Film, Richard Linklater's Tape and Ethan Hawke's Chelsea Walls. Unlike Chelsea ...
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Reviews
Big Bad Love
Directed by Arliss Howard. US. 2001. 121 min.Severely flawed in both dramatic and cinematic ways, Big Bad Love, the feature directorial debut from actor Arliss Howard, is an ambitious film about a Vietnam vet (played by Howard), who's trying to create fiction from his troubled past and regain control over ...
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Reviews
The State I Am In (Die Innere Sicherheit)
Dir: Christian Petzold. Germany. 2001. 102min.The word terrorism is never mentioned in The State I Am In, but it hangs over the film like a omnipresent, menacing fog. For, with his first theatrical outing, director Christian Petzold has chosen to comment on the 1970s, Germany's dark decade of politically motivated ...
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Reviews
Russian Doll
Dir: Stavros Kazantzidis. Australia. 2001. 90 mins.This ambling, soft-edged romantic comedy is due to receive a New York premiere on June 15, only days after its local debut, which saw it take $8,929 off 10 screens in five days - which says much for Beyond Films' enthusiastic sales muscle and ...
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Reviews
Lovely Rita
Dir: Jessica Hausner. Austria. 2001. 79 mins.After her noted short Flora (1996) and medium-length film Inter-View (1999), Hausner makes a highly impressive feature debut with this tragi-comic portrait of a withdrawn teenager. Shot on DV with amateur actors, the project's small-scale and offbeat nature will limit its ...
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Reviews
Late Marriage
Directed by Dover Kosashvili. Israel-France 2001. 103 minsTelling an extremely powerful story of family tyranny and intergenerational conflict within Israel's Georgian-Jewish community, Late Marriage represents the impressive feature debut of Dover Kosashvili, who, at this phase, acquits himself more honorably as an astute writer than competent director. A highlight of ...
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Reviews
Hush
Dir: Ryosuke Hashiguchi. Japan. 2001. 135 mins. Hashiguchi's directorial debut, Like Grains of Sand, won prizes at Rotterdam, Dunkirk and the Turin Gay And Lesbian Festival. But it is less easy to see Hush!, his second feature, achieving the same welcome and having the same impact even on the arthouse ...
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Reviews
Desert Moon
Dir:Shinji Aoyama. Japan.2001.131mins After winning the International Critics Award at Cannes last year for his remarkable Eureka, a lot was expected of Shinji Aoyama, a young director who clearly has it in him to make waves outside his home country. Perhaps too much, since Desert Moon strives too hard to ...