All articles by John Hazelton – Page 21
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Reviews
The Bourne Supremacy
Dir: Paul Greengrass. US. 2004. 109 mins.Two years ago, it was indie director Doug Liman who turned Robert Ludlumadaptation The Bourne Identity into a surprise summer hit forUniversal. Now British director Paul Greengrass, who previously made festivalprize-winning docudrama Bloody Sunday, gets his chance for a mainstreamUS breakthrough with sequel The ...
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Reviews
King Arthur
Dir:Antoine Fuqua. US-Ireland/UK. 2004. 115mins.Billedas 'The untold true story that inspired the legend,' producer JerryBruckheimer's big-budget King Arthur ditches the mysticism and most ofthe romance usually associated with Arthurian tales and attempts to replacethem with gritty historical realism - or at least with something that's asclose to gritty realism as ...
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Reviews
Spider-Man 2
Dir:Sam Raimi. US. 2004. 127mins.There'sas much soul searching as web spinning in the sequel to summer 2002 box officechampion Spider-Man. Revealing more (literally as well asmetaphorically) of its superhero's human face, Spider-Man 2 - againdirected by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire as the comic book New Yorkcrime fighter - ...
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Reviews
The Chronicles Of Riddick
Dir:David Twohy. US. 2004. 119mins.It'snot just the budget that is bigger on this sequel to Pitch Black, themodestly scaled sci-fi hit from writer/director David Twohy that four years agoset Vin Diesel on the road to stardom. In the $120m Chronicles Of Riddick,cult favourite Twohy fulfils the requirements of a summer ...
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Reviews
Van Helsing
Dir/scr:Stephen Sommers. US. 2004. 132 mins.Thrillseekers looking for the maximum number of effects shots for their box officedollar (or pound, euro or yen) will get their money's worth fromwriter-director Stephen Sommers' $150m summer action-adventure Van Helsing. Which is just as well,because there's not much else to be got from this ...
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Reviews
Godsend
Dir:Nick Hamm. US. 2004. 100 mins.Humancloning ought to make a juicy subject for a psychological horror film (not tomention a topical marketing hook for distributors). But the cloning premiseturns out to be more intriguing than the execution in Godsend, adisappointingly generic PG-13 thriller from Lions Gate that marks the US ...
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Reviews
The Whole Ten Yards
Dir: Howard Deutch. US. 2004. 99mins.When Bruce Willis makes his entrance in headscarf, frilly apron and bunny slippers you can somehow tell that The Whole Ten Yards is going to be a less black and much broader comedy than its fairly amusing predecessor, The Whole Nine Yards. The sequel doesn't ...
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Reviews
Home On The Range
Dirs: Will Finn, John Sanford. US. 2003. 75mins.The comedy is fun and the music has its moments, but by Disney standards Home On The Range is a lightweight animated offering, with little of the emotional pull exerted by the studio's best work. Kids should be able to pass a contented ...
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Reviews
The Alamo
Dir: John Lee Hancock. US. 2003. 136mins.Reconceived and re-budgeted after the departure of original director Ron Howard and then rescheduled by Disney from its planned release date last Christmas, The Alamo finally arrives on screen with a lot of baggage. But it's not the baggage that weighs down this latest ...
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Reviews
Hellboy
Dir: Guillermo del Toro. US. 2003. 122 mins.Their web sites have been spreading pre-release buzz for weeks and comic book geeks won't be disappointed when Guillermo del Toro's handsome and long-awaited big screen take on artist Mike Mignola's Hellboy opens in the US this weekend. Whether broad mainstream audiences will ...
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Reviews
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Dir: Raja Gosnell. US. 2003. 93 mins.The sequel to Warner's surprisingly powerful summer 2002 hit Scooby-Doo adds more characters and more effects to the formula first used to turn the long-running Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon into a live action feature - and it also delivers more genuine fun than its painfully ...
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Reviews
Dawn Of The Dead
Dir: Zack Snyder. US. 2003. 100mins.It may not have the intensity and satirical touch that made George Romero's original Dawn Of The Dead a modern horror classic. But this 're-envisioning' of Romero's 1979 cult favourite by commercials director Zack Snyder at least partially makes up for the lack with a ...
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Reviews
Starsky & Hutch
Dir: Todd Phillips. US. 2003. 100 mins.Hollywood's infatuation with the cheesy classics of 1970s American TV continues with an action comedy take on Starsky & Hutch that plays for laughs more than thrills and gets just about enough of them to, in all probability, keep the affair going for at ...
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Reviews
Twisted
Dir: Philip Kaufman. US. 2003. 96 mins.Ashley Judd has made a profitable habit of playing strong, successful women at the centre of moody, otherwise male-dominated thrillers. Twisted (originally known on the international sales circuit as Blackout) is a serviceable addition to Judd's resume but one that lacks the charge necessary ...
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Reviews
The Young Black Stallion (LSF)
Dir: Simon Wincer. US. 2003. 50mins.A prequel to 1979 family classic The Black Stallion, The Young Black Stallion, Disney's first live-action dramatic movie made specifically for giant screen exhibition, is, predictably, strong on visuals and weak on story. A Christmas Day opening in the US on 51 IMAX screens yielded ...
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Reviews
Paycheck
Dir: John Woo. US. 2003. 119 mins.Representing a comeback opportunity for both director John Woo and star Ben Affleck, Paycheck is a sci-fi action thriller that offers glimpses of Woo at his elegant best before it disintegrates into hackneyed genre silliness. Paramount's Christmas Day US release will be watched closely ...
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Reviews
Stuck on You
Dirs: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly. US. 2003. 118 mins. Are the Farrelly brothers, the original kings of gross-out comedy, going soft' It often seems that way in this potentially outrageous comedy that in fact shows off the brothers' sweet side to some effect but delivers little of the bracingly over-the-top ...
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Reviews
Cheaper By The Dozen
Dir: Shawn Levy. US. 2003. 98 mins. Holiday movies don't come much more undemanding than this. Sugary one moment and slapstick the next, Steve Martin's return to family comedy is ideally suited to its Christmas Day US release slot and could - thanks also the presence of tween star Hilary ...