All articles by John Hazelton – Page 12
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News
Happyness for Sony at US box office
Will Smith drama The Pursuit of Happynessbeat two other family-oriented new releases to top the North American boxoffice chart this weekend -- and give distributor Sony the biggest single-yearaggregate gross ever recorded. Fox's fantasy adventure Eragon openedsolidly in second place while Paramount's new live-action version of classicchildren's book Charlotte's Web ...
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Reviews
Eragon
Dir: Stefen Fangmeier. US. 2006. 103mins.Lord Of TheRings-lite it may be. But Eragon, based onthe hugely successful young adult novel by Christopher Paolini,still manages to deliver some involving fantasy and brisk adventure in itssword-and-sorcery tale of a feisty dragon and her hunky young rider.Lacking the dramatic heft ofthe Rings films, ...
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Reviews
Apocalypto
Dir: Mel Gibson. US. 2006.136mins.True to the pre-release PR spin and healthy industrybuzz, Mel Gibson's Apocalyptois less of a stodgy history lesson and more of a fleet-footed action adventure- albeit one with a highly unusual setting in the world of the ancient Maya.The action is sometimes thrilling and the evocation ...
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Reviews
Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny
Dir: Liam Lynch. US. 2006.97mins.Jack Black's mock-rock duo Tenacious D may be atongue-in-cheek musical enterprise but it's had enough success to justify above-the-titlebilling on The Pick OfDestiny, a sweetly raunchy slacker comedy purporting to tell the story ofthe band's early struggle for rock 'n' roll legitimacy. While the comedy is ...
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Reviews
Flushed Away
Dirs: David Bowers, Sam Fell. US. 2006. 86mins.It may lack the handmade charm anddeeply English quirkiness of Oscar winner Wallace& Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, but Flushed Away, AardmanFeatures' first computer animated film and its third project with DreamWorksAnimation, is still lively enough to stand out from this year's ...
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Reviews
The Prestige
Dir: Christopher Nolan. US. 2006. 128mins.Sometime superheroes Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play obsessively feudingVictorian magicians in The Prestige,a classy thriller, with a Gothic sci-fi twist, from writer-director ChristopherNolan. Coming off last year's comic book blockbuster Batman Begins, Nolan this time turns intricate literary materialinto an atmospheric and intriguing - ...
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Reviews
The Prestige
Dir: Christopher Nolan. US. 2006. 128mins.Sometime superheroes Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play obsessively feudingVictorian magicians in The Prestige,a classy thriller, with a Gothic sci-fi twist, from writer-director ChristopherNolan. Coming off last year's comic book blockbuster Batman Begins, Nolan this time turns intricate literary materialinto an atmospheric and intriguing - ...
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Reviews
The Grudge 2
Dir: Takashi Shimizu. 2006. 102mins.The hairy ghost andher bug-eyed little boy work overtime in TheGrudge 2, Japanese director Takashi Shimizu's busy but less effectivesequel to his hit American remake of his franchise-starting J-horror chiller Ju-On.Thoughoriginal star Sarah Michelle Gellar makes only a brief appearance this timeout, the sequel has already ...
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Reviews
The Grudge 2
Dir: Takashi Shimizu. 2006. 102mins.The hairy ghost andher bug-eyed little boy work overtime in TheGrudge 2, Japanese director Takashi Shimizu's busy but less effectivesequel to his hit American remake of his franchise-starting J-horror chiller Ju-On.Thoughoriginal star Sarah Michelle Gellar makes only a brief appearance this timeout, the sequel has already ...
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News
The Covenant leads new releases at US box office
Three new releases divided the spoils at the NorthAmerican box office this weekend, and in the end it was Sony's teen horrorouting The Covenant that managed to top the chart with a relativelymodest $9m gross.Focus Features' Hollywoodland opened in secondplace with an estimated $6m and The Weinstein Company's The Protectorcame ...
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News
Pirates 3 set for global day-and-date launch in 2007
On the weekend that Piratesof the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chestpassed the $1bn worldwide gross mark, The Walt Disney Company has revealed thatsequel Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End will be released day-and-date around the world nextsummer."We're going to open onthe weekend of May 25 in every country around the ...
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News
Cars passes billion dollar Pirates on international track
Buena Vista International had a lot to celebrate thisweekend, as Cars took over pole position at the international box officeand previous leader Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest passedthe $1bn worldwide gross milestone. A powerful opening in Germany helped Cars gross anestimated $9m from 3,900 screens in 34 countries ...
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Reviews
World Trade Center
Dir: Oliver Stone. US. 2006.125mins.In Hollywood's first really major movie aboutthe events of September 11, 2001, Oliver Stone mostly steers clear of politics,religion and other potentially controversial issues. Instead, the usuallyprovocative film-maker focuses on the true and more personal story of two copstrapped in the rubble of the Twin Towers ...
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Reviews
Miami Vice
Dir: Michael Mann. US. 2006.132mins.Forget "MTV cops" in pastel suits. Michael Mann's bigscreen version of TV landmark Miami Viceturns the stylish (in its day) mid-1980s series into a darkly intensecontemporary crime drama with a vivid digital video look and broodingperformances from stars Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. Mann'sdaring approach results ...
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Reviews
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Dir: Gore Verbinski. US. 2006. 151mins.Coming three years after the originalride-turned-movie dug up a hoard of summer box office gold, the second voyageof Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer's PiratesOf The Caribbean franchise is bigger, longer and more spectacular than itspredecessor but at the same time less breezily entertaining. The novelty value ...
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Reviews
Click
Dir: Frank Coraci. US. 2006. 95mins.The raunchy man-boy of Adam Sandler'searly hits has grown up to become an overworked young dad in Click, a predictable yet sneakilyeffective comedy from the writers of the similarly high-concept Bruce Almighty. Less of a departure for Sandler than Spanglish or Punch-DrunkLove, but not as ...
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Reviews
Cars
Exquisitelycrafted and warmly emotional, Cars isanother dazzling display Of computer animation from the apparently infalliblepeople at Pixar, this one telling its tale with a cast of cleverly humanisedautomobiles. The commercialprospects are certainly very strong, but the company's latest comedy adventure maynot be quite as sure a thing as Pixar's track ...
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News
Break-Up beats X-Men at US box office
Universal's The Break-Up was the surpriseleader at the North American box office this weekend, opening in top spot aftera dramatic second-week drop by Fox's X-Men: The Last Stand.With Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn starring asa bickering couple, The Break-Up grossed an estimated $38.1m from 3,070theatres (for a strong average of ...