All articles by John Hazelton – Page 23
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Reviews
Alex & Emma
Dir: Rob Reiner. US. 2003. 96 mins Rob Reiner, of course, earned his romantic comedy spurs with When Harry Met Sally. And Kate Hudson showed a talent for the genre in last winter's $100m-plus US grosser How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. But neither director nor star manages ...
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Reviews
Dumb And Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
Dir: Troy Miller. US. 2003. 82mins.A dead-on impression of Jim Carrey in one of his most popular early performances may not be a bad asset for a belated follow-up to a gross-out comedy classic. But without the real Carrey - or original writer-directors the Farrelly brothers - in attendance, New ...
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Reviews
2 Fast 2 Furious
Dir: John Singleton. US. 2003. 108 mins.With R&B star Tyrese ably substituting for Vin Diesel and John Singleton taking over the directorial steering wheel, the big-budget sequel to surprise summer 2001 hit The Fast And The Furious is more conventional than its neo-B movie predecessor - but also more broadly ...
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Reviews
Wrong Turn
Dir: Rob Schmidt. US-Ger. 2003. 83 mins.Even in the hands of a studio distributor, retro horror flick Wrong Turn, produced by creature effects maestro Stan Winston, had a lukewarm reception at the US box office, taking $5m from 1,615 sites for an average of $3,102. Now co-producers Summit Entertainment and ...
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Reviews
Daddy Day Care
Dir: Steve Carr. US. 2003. 93 mins Working with animals in his two Dr Dolittle movies, Eddie Murphy produced some decent laughs and some good box office numbers (approaching $500m in total). Working with children in Daddy Day Care, Murphy and Dolittle 2 director Steve Carr come up with a ...
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Reviews
Down With Love
Dir: Peyton Reed. US. 2003. 96minsDesigned as an affectionate send-up of the Doris Day-Rock Hudson romantic comedies of the early 1960s, the campy and colorful Down With Love a cinematic souffle that never fully rises. Fox is boldly opening the film in the US on May 16, as counter-programming to ...
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Reviews
Bulletproof Monk
Dir: Paul Hunter. US. 2003. 104mins. Hollywood's latest attempt to infuse a familiar genre with added youth appeal casts Hong Kong legend Chow Yun-Fat in a slight but pleasantly breezy East-meets-West martial arts adventure leavened with odd couple comedy. To hardcore Chow fans - who have been waiting more than ...
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Reviews
A Man Apart
Dir: F Gary Gray. US. 2003. 109mins.Filmed two years ago, before the release of its star's 2001 breakthrough The Fast And The Furious, Vin Diesel vehicle A Man Apart delivers some stylishly violent drug cop action but never quite makes it as the more weighty crime drama it clearly wants ...
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Reviews
Dreamcatcher
Dir: Lawrence Kasdan. US. 2003. 134mins. Castle Rock's latest big-screen take on the work of author Stephen King starts out with a spooky psychological intensity that recalls some of the company's most successful King adaptations, like Misery and The Green Mile. Before long, however, Dreamcatcher degenerates into a confusing horror/sci-fi ...
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News
Foreign-language Oscar contenders could be the biggest winners
Recognition for this year's best foreign-language Oscar contenders will help increase market share for indigenous films and boost government support for local industries. That, at least, was the hope expressed by makers of three of the nominated foreign-language films at a packed public symposium in Los Angeles on the eve ...
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Reviews
Agent Cody Banks
Dir: Harald Zwart. US. 2003. 102mins.Teen heartthrob Frankie Muniz becomes a teen 007 in Agent Cody Banks, an energetic but overly cute and calculated junior spy adventure from Bond studio MGM and German-owned independent Splendid Pictures. Interest from teen and pre-teen audiences - in Muniz and in his co-star Hilary ...
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Reviews
Bringing Down The House
Dir: Adam Shankman. US. 2003. 105mins.Built around the odd-couple pairing of Steve Martin and Queen Latifah, Bringing Down the House is a black/white culture-clash comedy with some broad - and a couple of quite sharp - laughs but an old-fashioned, at times even complacent feel. However, the formula has worked ...
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Reviews
Cradle 2 The Grave
Dir: Andrzej Bartkowiak. US. 2003. 99mins.Having successfully applied the formula first in Romeo Must Die and then in Exit Wounds, producer Joel Silver and director Andrzej Bartkowiak reassemble many of the talents from those two $50m-plus domestic hits for another slick yet moderately budgeted package of hip-hop/martial arts action for ...
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Reviews
National Security
Dir: Dennis Dugan. US. 2002. 90mins. The interracial cop comedy has not looked too healthy of late, but National Security suggests there may still be life in the genre. Well designed for its star and executive producer Martin Lawrence, the reliably funny, action-spiked buddy caper has taken $35m after four ...
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Reviews
Final Destination 2
Dir: David R Ellis. US. 2003. 97mins. Teen horror franchises usually take a while to get around to jokey self-parody. New Line's sequel to its mid-level 2000 hit Final Destination speeds up the process by adding a string of comically over-the-top death scenes to a plot shamelessly recycled from the ...
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Reviews
Just Married
Dir: Shawn Levy. US. 2002. 94 mins.Broad comedy, flimsy romance and some decorative European settings are the key ingredients in Just Married, a young-skewing romantic comedy from producer Robert Simonds. Grossing a surprising $34m after 10 days on US release, the $18m project has also become the film to knock ...
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Reviews
A Guy Thing
Dir: Chris Koch. US. 2002. 101mins. Having got his big break as the writer of $300m worldwide hit Meet The Parents, Greg Glienna now mines a similar vein of material for A Guy Thing, a sweet-natured, though sometimes familiar-feeling romantic comedy made on a modest budget for MGM. Replicating the ...
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Reviews
Kangaroo Jack
Dir: David McNally. US. 2002. 86 mins. Jerry Bruckheimer's first stab at younger-skewing family fare is a mishmash of an action comedy with buddy bonding, chase sequences and eye candy for the adults and fart gags and a computer enhanced 'roo for the kids. Arriving in US cinemas this week ...
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Reviews
Maid In Manhattan
Dir: Wayne Wang. US. 2002. 105 mins. A bland but smartly packaged and deftly executed take on the familiar Cinderella fairy tale, Maid In Manhattan has already, with a gross of $76.7m after four weeks, given Jennifer Lopez her biggest US hit to date. Now it looks set to give ...
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Reviews
Equilibrium
Dir: Kurt Wimmer. US. 2002. 107 mins.You could call Equilibrium a poor man's Minority Report. Or, for that matter, a poor man's Fahrenheit 451, 1984 or The Matrix. Unimaginatively derivative and silly without being fun, this sci-fi thriller from Miramax's Dimension label comes equipped with a mid-level Anglo-American cast but ...