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The Dark Knight
Reviews / Dvds
Written by : Orlando Crowcroft
Jul 3, 2008
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| The long-awaited follow up to Batman Begins was bound to make news in the months leading up to its release. And the tragic death of Heath Ledger, who plays the Joker in this installment, has only served to heighten that interest. 3:10 to Yuma star Christian Bale reprises his role as the caped crusader but it's Ledger who has been gaining all the good notices for his portrayal of an edgy and anarchic villain who grows increasingly menacing and insane as the film goes on. Once again the plot takes us to downtown Gotham City where the cops are busy rounding up the usual undesirables. Enter the Joker who manages to unite the city's criminal underworld and unleash a wave of terror the likes of which have never been seen before. Bale is a standout once more and makes you almost forget the actors who have previously donned the fetching cape and spandex (Michael Keaton anyone?) With heart-stopping special effects, car chases, and a fantastic one-on-one battle between Batman and his nemesis, t ... ... |
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It's out there... for 6 kuai
Reviews / Dvds
Written by : Orlando Crowcroft
Jul 3, 2008
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| The story of two hustlers turning tricks on the streets of Portland, Oregon seemed an unlikely starting point for arthouse director Gus Van Sant to finally achieve mainstream success. Certainly no one expected the film to take three times its budget at the box-office. The script was also exceptional among teen-angst projects for drawing on a classical work, Henry IV Part One, for its inspiration (one 'William Shakespeare' is given a co-writing credit). Scott (Reeves) is the scion of a wealthy family who, like Prince Hal, can give up his days of slumming and carousing when the appointed time comes. That choice isn't open to Mike (Phoenix), a narcoleptic drifter who is doomed, like Falstaff, to be rejected by his closest friend and left to his uncertain fate. While both actors were widely praised for their roles, it was Phoenix's haunting - and haunted - performance just two years before his death at age 23, that is perhaps the film's greatest legacy.
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Chimps in Space
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Written by : Orlando Crowcroft
Jul 3, 2008
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| Ever since the dawn of digital animation all those aeons ago, movies featuring cutesy animals/aliens/mythical creatures in a comedy setting have been as regular as clockwork. Some recent offerings, such as the Shrek series, have been nothing short of brilliant, mixing eye-popping animation with truly original scripts. Others, meanwhile – and we need look no further than last year's abysmal Over the Hedge - fall seriously short of such expectations. Warner Bros latest foray into this saturated market sadly falls into the latter camp. The idea of sending three monkeys into space to look for a lost NASA probe should have been ripe with comic possibilities and yet the filmmakers have opted for an off-the-shelf plot where the audience is always at least 15 minutes ahead of the action. Never a good sign. Sure, it looks great and it will keep the kids quiet for a couple of hours but even the youngest cinema-goers deserve more than this kind of quick box office cash-in….roll on ... ... |
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Wanted and Desired
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Written by : Orlando Crowcroft
Jul 3, 2008
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Director Roman Polanski's conviction for unlawful sex with a minor has aroused speculation, controversy and curiosity for nearly three decades. But in this new documentary, we are given unprecendented access to the facts surrounding the 1977 case, which resulted in Polanski fleeing the US just before he was about to be sentenced. The film features in-depth and often candid interviews with the victim herself – who has since publicly forgiven Polanski – and the judges and laywers in the case. It only stops short of speaking to Polanski himself. While being an insightful and interesting analysis of an affair that created so much media frenzy at the time, the documentary also addresses the question of atonement, and how Polanski is seen by the public more than 30 years on. Zenovich should be personally commended for her meticulous research into the case, particularly her pursuance of Polanski's lawyer, who, she has claimed in interviews since, was the hardest of the ... ... |
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Sing when you're winning
Reviews / Books
Written by :
Nov 4, 2008
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| Footy on the weekend – even when you're 5,000 miles from home
It's the afternoon of Sunday, October 12, a fantastically clear and warm day, with comically white, fluffy clouds wending across the baby-blue sky. Two rival university football teams, comprised of a global mix of young students, are warming-up on a brand new pitch, preparing to kick-off. Welcome to 'college football', Chinese-style. It may lack the glamor of the American game on campus, or the mud and grit of the British amateur leagues, but the game of 'footie' - as we Brits lovingly call it - is booming in Chinese campuses. The good news is that with increasing numbers of university-goers across China - and with campuses developing better sports facilities - football is on the up and up and getting better organized into solid teams and leagues.
Suzhounese Soccer
In Suzhou, the news is even better for college-going amateur football teams, as the city's three largest universities - Suzhou Uni ... ... |
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DVD page
Reviews / Dvds
Written by :
Oct 29, 2008
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| Body of Lies **** (4 stars)
Great Scott is back on form
AVAILABLE
October 3
DIRECTOR
Ridley Scott
STARRING
Russell Crowe
Leonardo DiCaprio
Ridley Scott is back in the director's chair with this big-budget spy thriller about a CIA operative infiltrating a Middle Eastern terrorist network.
The film stars former pretty-boy-turned-tough-guy Leonardo Di Caprio and action movie veteran Russell Crowe, who also worked with Scott on last year's American Gangster. The plot is an adaptation of Washington Post columnist David Ignatius' 2007 novel, which tells the story of Roger Ferris, a CIA agent who discovers an infamous terrorist is working out of Jordan . Ferris (DiCaprio) forms a shaky alliance with old-school CIA agent (Crowe) and the head of the Jordanian secret service (Mark Strong) to try to infiltr ... ... |
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BOOKS OF THE MONTH
Reviews / Books
Written by : Ernest White
Oct 29, 2008
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| Bright Shiny Morning
James Frey
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However much some people like it, plenty of others will moan about "Bright Shiny Morning". Some of the book's detractors will slag it off simply because it's written by James Frey, the man who shocked the literary world – and Oprah – when it was revealed that his harrowing memoir, "A Million Little Pieces", wasn't entirely truthful. Others who don't object to the author himself will instead object to the way he writes, with this, his epic of Los Angeles, featuring prose so painfully hip it will have some people reaching for pharmaceutical relief. And yet, almost inexplicably, there's still something rather wonderful about it. Whatever this wonderfulness might be, it's certainly not Frey's style. His writing is unique only if you belong to a library that stopped collecting books at the start of the First World War, and some pass ... ... |
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DVD
Reviews / Dvds
Written by :
Sep 1, 2008
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| Bangkok Dangerous ***(3 stars)
Cage's generic hard man heads east.
AVAILABLE
September 5.
DIRECTOR
Oxide Pang and Danny Pang.
STARRING
Nicholas Cage
Charlie Young
Shahkrit Tamnarm
There are plenty of reasons not to get overexcited about the latest Nicholas Cage blockbuster. Over the last five years Cage has played the same tough, morally dubious, hard-man in almost every film he has made, whether his character is trading in guns, historical artefacts or death. In this respect, Bangkok Dangerous is just more of the same. Cage plays Joe, a hit-man, who moves to the Thai capital to carry out a series of assassinations for a local crime boss. While there he starts a love affair with a local shop girl, as well as getting into the usual gun fights, car chases and sticky situations with ruthles ... ... |
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BOOKS OF THE MONTH
Reviews / Books
Written by : Ernest White
Sep 1, 2008
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| (LEAD)
Head: Unaccustomed Earth
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
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As a child, Jhumpa Lahiri was transplanted from one continent to another, being taken by her Bengali parents from her birthplace in London to grow up in Rhode Island . The main characters in her new collection of short stories, "Unaccustomed Earth", are in similar situations. Generally the sons and daughters of highly-educated Bengalis who left Calcutta to realize their ambitions at New England 's elite universities, they must chart a course between different cultures and expectations as they establish lives and families of their own.
The outward success of many of the characters hides inner discontent. And while some of this is due to cultural clashes, the issues that Lahiri's characters are grappling with are far more universal. She uses impeccable, but never ostentatious, prose to weave extremely ... ... |
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