All articles by John Hazelton – Page 16
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Reviews
The Cave
Dir:Bruce Hunt. US. 2005. 96mins.US-backedbut utilising international above- and below-the-line talent and locations, TheCave is an efficient yet routine horror thriller with what would normallyseem like a novel underground exploration setting. Unfortunately, the settingis shared with recent British caving chiller The Descent - so in theinternational marketplace at least, The ...
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Reviews
The 40 Year-Old Virgin
Dir: Judd Apatow. US.2005. 116mins.Marking the featuredirecting debut of acclaimed TV comedy writer Judd Apatow and the featurestarring debut of in-demand comic actor Steve Carell, The 40 Year-Old Virginis a sex comedy that's sweet-natured one minute, enthusiastically raunchy thenext and sporadically very funny. Relatively subtle and character-driven by sexcomedy standards, ...
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Reviews
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Dir: Mike Bigelow. US.2005. 83mins.The comic novelty ofshort, dark and not so handsome Rob Schneider playing a likeably inept'man-whore' helped turn 1999 gross-out comedy Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolointo a surprise hit - but it's wearing pretty thin in this belated sequel.Schneider and co attempt to make up the difference by ...
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Reviews
The Dukes Of Hazzard
Dir: Jay Chandrasekhar.US. 2005. 102 mins. Itwould have been easy just to make fun of The Dukes of Hazzard, the supremely corny early eighties US TV seriesabout Bo and Luke Duke, two young buck good ole boys from deep in the heart ofGeorgia. Surprisingly though, this Warner Bros/Village Roadshow big ...
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Reviews
Stealth
Dir:Rob Cohen. US. 2005. 119mins.RobCohen's latest big-budget B-movie has the cheesiness of the director's XXXand The Fast And The Furious but none of the saving graces that helpedturn those two outings into entertaining as well as widely appealing summerhits. An airborne action adventure with a US military setting and the ...
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Reviews
Must Love Dogs
Dir:Gary David Goldberg. US. 2005. 9s7mins.With itscyber-dating-driven plot and plays on modern romantic mores, Must Love Dogssets itself up as a contemporary take on the time-honoured search for love.Deep down, though, this resolutely lightweight romantic comedy is just tootradition-bound and familiar seeming to be very effective. It is only perked ...
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Reviews
The Island
Dir: Michael Bay. US.2005. 135mins.Human cloning is thesci-fi theme of The Island, yet it is director Michael Bay's trademarkthundering action that leaves the lasting impression from this sleek,big-budget thriller co-produced by Warner Bros and DreamWorks. Thehalf-explored philosophical elements and a gratuitous dose of romance don't addmuch to the movie's overall ...
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News
War of the Worlds still rules international market
War of the Worlds continued to dominate theinternational marketplace this weekend with an estimated gross of $60.5m. Butthe Tom Cruise-Steven Spielberg blockbuster was knocked out of the top chartspot in a few major markets by new international opener Fantastic Four. The tally for War of the Worlds, distributedinternationally for Paramount ...
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News
Fantastic Four looks Marvelous in $56m US debut
It took a quartet of superheroes to do it, but the US boxoffice losing streak finally ended this weekend as Twentieth Century Fox's FantasticFour powered to the top of the North American chart with a bigger thanexpected estimated gross of $56m.The weekend tally for the Marvel Comics adaptation -co-financed by ...
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News
Fantastic Four looks Marvelous in $56m US debut
It took a quartet of superheroes to do it, but the US boxoffice losing streak finally ended this weekend as Twentieth Century Fox's FantasticFour powered to the top of the North American chart with a bigger thanexpected estimated gross of $56m.The weekend tally for the Marvel Comics adaptation -co-financed by ...
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News
Fantastic Four looks Marvelous in $56m US debut
It took a quartet of superheroes to do it, but the US boxoffice losing streak finally ended this weekend as Twentieth Century Fox's FantasticFour powered to the top of the North American chart with a bigger thanexpected estimated gross of $56m.The weekend tally for the Marvel Comics adaptation -co-financed by ...
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Reviews
Fantastic Four
Dir: Tim Story. US. 2005.105 mins.The title characters inMarvel's longest running comic book series form a dysfunctional family ofsuperheroes who struggle to cope with the emergence of their superpowers andthe celebrity that results. So maybe it's appropriate that the lightweight butenjoyable movie version of Fantastic Four, with its playful, slightly ...
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News
Fantastic starts rollout, War widens
Comic book adaptation FantasticFour starts its international rollout this weekend day-and-date with its USopening, launching in four major markets as well as a slew of smallercountries. And War of Worlds islooking to build on its powerful international debut with openings in two moremajor territories. Fox International opens FantasticFour, the movie ...
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News
War of the Worlds reaches $113.3m in US
War of the Worlds blasted into the internationalmarketplace this weekend with an estimated five-day gross of $102.5m from 8,000prints running in 78 countries. It was by far the biggest international opening weekend everfor international rights owner Paramount Pictures and international distributorUIP. And in several major markets the film became the ...
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News
War of the Worlds reaches $113.2m in US
War of the Worlds captured the top spot on the NorthAmerican box office chart for the July 4 Independence Day holiday weekend withan estimated gross for the four days from Friday to Monday of $77.6m from 3,908theatres, for a powerful per-theatre average of $19,857.Having opened on Wednesday, the Tom Cruise-Steven ...
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News
War of the Worlds reaches $113.2m in US
War of the Worlds captured the top spot on the NorthAmerican box office chart for the July 4 Independence Day holiday weekend withan estimated gross for the four days from Friday to Monday of $77.6m from 3,908theatres, for a powerful per-theatre average of $19,857.Having opened on Wednesday, the Tom Cruise-Steven ...
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News
War of the Worlds makes $102.5m international debut
War of the Worlds blasted into the internationalmarketplace this weekend with an estimated five-day gross of $102.5m from 8,000prints running in 78 countries. It was by far the biggest international opening weekend everfor international rights owner Paramount Pictures and international distributorUIP. And in several major markets the film became the ...
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News
War of the Worlds invades international marketplace
War of the Worlds takes its turn invading the globalmarketplace this weekend, with UIP giving the Steven Spielberg-Tom Cruisesci-fi adventure a 78-territory, 8,200-print international launch. Expectations are high that the Paramount/DreamWorksco-production, which opened in North America on Wednesday (June 29) to get ajump on the July 4 holiday weekend, will ...
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News
War takes over the world with $34.6m day one gross
The highly anticipated Warof the Worlds has opened with anestimated first-day worldwide gross $34.606m, comprising $21.256m from 3,908theatres in North America and $13.35m from 46 international territories.Rob Friedman, vice chairmanof domestic distributor Paramount Pictures Motion Pictures Group, said thestudio was 'ecstatic' about the figures for Wednesday screenings ofthe Tom Cruise-Spielberg ...
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Reviews
War Of The Worlds
Dir:Steven Spielberg. US. 2005. 116 mins. It'salmost as if there are two Steven Spielbergs behind the camera on thiscontemporary version of H G Wells' classic sci-fi story about an alien invasionof Earth: one delivers a thrilling action adventure with just the right mix ofhumanity and effects; the other produces a ...