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| reviews written by laura irvine &/or jennifer young |
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| Laura's weekly "Now Showing" blurbs | ||||||
| AITRAAZ India, 2004, Hindi with English subtitles Starring: Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra,Director: Abbas-Mustan., Music: Himesh Reshammiya AITRAAZ is kinda trashy, very broad, and lots of fun. This is one of my guilty pleasure movies. Priyanka Chopra, who just keeps getting better and better, plays sinister & slutty damn well. Akshay Kumar, who also keeps getting better and better, gives a solid perfomance as a new husband who's ex-girlfriend wants him pretty darn bad, and Kareena is Kareena, but not so goofy. Love the music, dance numbers, sets, etc. Worth seeing for the pirate ship sequence and the number where Priyanka rolls around on the floor--don't question, just go see it! BTW, it's a remake of the 1994 US film DISCLOSURE starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. This version is much more fun! |
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| BEWAFAA 2005, India, Hindi with English subtitles Cast: Kareena Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Sushmita Sen, Akshay Kumar Not bad, but could have been better. Good, catchy title song, but it's reprised a few too many times. Not enough dance numbers. But it's still Bollywood fun--always good to see Kareena Kapoor, she of the beautiful figure, and Sushmita Sen, she of the beautiful everything. Unlike in his recent comedies, Akshay Kumar is a bit flat in this one, but he sports interesting facial hair. Showing in San Francisco at the Balboa! Also showing at the Naz and IMC. |
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| BLACK India, 2004, Hindi & English with English subtitles Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee, Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali Wow! I loved this film. It's a re-telling of THE MIRACLE WORKER with a twist. Stunning performance by Amitabh--especially his scenes with novice actress Ayesha Kapur who plays the deaf/blind lead character as a child. In fact, all of the performances are good. I cried--frequently--and I love it when a movie gets me that emotional. No singing, no dancing, but a beautiful score. In fact, the film has a very western feel to it (and it's only two hours), but it's still much more emotional than most Hollywood films. It almost transcends melodrama--which led me to describe the film as a "ultra emotional mega drama." Guess I just can't say "emotional" enough. Between BLACK and his last film, DEVDAS, Bhansali iscurrently my favorite director. The world he creates is at the same time magical and realistic, beautiful and frightening. This movie is visually stunning--so much so that flashes of shots appear unannounced in my head at inappropriate times. Go see it on the big screen. Really, I mean it, you have to see BLACK in the theater to fully appreciate the beauty of this film. |
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| THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI Japan, 2003, Japanese with English subtitles Directed by Takeshi Kitano, Starring Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano Wow, Miramax actually released this one rather quickly! Although I'm not sure why they changed the title to THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI rather than ZATOICHI, THE BLIND SWORDSMAN. I'll never understand those mysterious Miramax decisions. Speaking of Miramax, I saw ZATOICHI on Friday, the day it opened, and a Miramax rep was waiting outside the theatre to catch exiting movie-goers. She was handing out surveys that included questions asking things like whether the film met your expectations, how you heard of it, etc. I, of course, got all militant in the comments section about the fact that they should release all of their Asian acquisitions subtitled, uncut, with the original freakin' soundtrack, and but I did thank them for doing so with this release. Anyway, enough of my tirade... ZATOICHI is all I expected and more. Beautiful cinematography, great score, quirky Kitano moments, and a really hip musical ending. Go see it now! BTW, according to the official site, |
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| BRIDE AND PREJUDICE (12:00, 2:30, 5:00) 7:30, 10:00pm 2005, UK, Punjabi/Hindi/English with English subtitles Director: Gurinder Chadha, Cast: Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson Official site Another crowd pleaser from BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM director Gurinder Chadha. Could have stood with a stronger male lead, but enjoyable still. |
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| CHOKHER BALI India, 2003, Dubbed in Hindi with English subtitles Directed by Rituparno Ghosh Cast: Aishwarya Rai, Prasenjit Chatterjee, Raima Sen I was really looking forward to this one, but I gotta tell ya, it's pretty darn slow. It's a beautiful film, but it's far too art-y for my tastes. Also, this print is odd because it's the Hindi dub version (the original language is Bengali), and the dubbing is not so good. Also, the running time is a little under 2 hours, but the original cut of the film is 2 hours and 47 minutes--which makes for a choppy, confusing film. No musical scenes. |
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| DEEWAR India, 2004, Hindi with English subtitles Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Sunjay Dutt, Aakshay Khanna, Amrita Rao, Kay Kay Director: Gaurang Doshi Music: Aadesh Shrivastava The Big B is terrific & Sanjay Dutt is his usual cool self, but the script could have used some work. Worth seeing for the performances, but don't expect much more. |
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| DHOOM India, 2004, Hindi with English subtitles Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra, John Abraham, Esha Deol, Rimi Sen, Director: Sanjay Gadhvi Lots of fun. Abishek Bachchan is really hot and plays well with Uday Chopra. Predictable plot with lots of holes, but it's still a fun ride. |
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| DIL NE JISE APNA KAHAA India, 2004, Hindi with English subtitles Salman Khan, Preity Zinta Sorry, but this movie is really bad. The story, script, and acting are not so hot. Nice soundtrack with some good songs, but the dance scenes are uninspired. This one blew my friend's theory that if a Bollywood movie has good songs, then the movie will be good too. |
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| THE EYE 2002, Hong Kong Directed by the Pang Brothers, a stylish horror thriller with a kick-ass ending. Ignore the Chronicle review, this one is worth seeing. |
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| FIDA Starring: Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Fardeen Khan I really liked this one. Love story/suspense film with Kareena and real-life boyfriend, the babyfaced Shahid Kapoor--who is surprisingly good. Lots of violence and angst. |
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| GARV India, 2004, Hindi with English subtitles Starring: Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Amrish Puri Music: Sajid-Wajid and Anu Malik I loved this movie. Is it a good movie? Well, um, not really, but it's still great. Filled with overly dramatic muscially-punctuated dialogue and fluctuating from extreme violence and heavy drama to club scenes at the Kit Kat club to, as my buddy put it, "dancing in the tall grass." Salman Khan does some of his best over-acting. I count this as a must-see for hardcore Bollywood masala fans. |
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| HERO China, 2002, Mandarin with English subtitles Directed by Zhang Yimou. Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi Well, Miramax is finally releasing HERO. Go see it. It's big, beautiful, colorful, and it's got a terrific fight between Jet Li and my fave Donnie Yen. Try to go the opening weekend to show Miramax that they should release all the Asian films they've bought sometime this century--unedited and with the original soundtracks, of course. Official site Read Shelly Kraicer's article for a very interesting take on HERO. |
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| THE GRUDGE USA, 2004 Not nearly as scary as the original, but still a competent film with a few scary moments. Since it's the same director, it's interesting to see the changes made in the story and mood for the American audience. |
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| HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS China/Hong Kong, 2004, Mandarin with English subtitles Director: Zhang Yimou, Cast: Zhang Ziyi, Andy Lau Tak-Wah, Takeshi Kaneshiro official site Terrific action scenes, gorgeous cinematography, twist-y story, meldodrama. Much to love. See it on the big screen. |
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| HUM TUM India, 2004, Hindi with English subtitles Directed by Kunal Kohli. Starring Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukerji. Music:Jatin-Lalit Rani, Rani, Rani! And Saif Ali Khan who I think is fantastic ever since he actually held his own vs. the ever charming Shah Rukh in Kal Ho Naa Ho. Fun romance, good dance numbers & music. Rani at her most luminous. |
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| JU-ON: THE GRUDGE 2003, Japan, Japanese with English subtitles Directed by Takashi Shimizu. Cast: Megumi Okina, Misaki Ito, Misa Uehara, Yui Ichikawa and Tsuda Kanji Ignore the really stupid, uninformed review in the Chronicle. This movie is definitely spooky as long as you know you're in for a wet-girl-with-long-hair Japanese horror flick. |
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| JUST ONE LOOK (YAT LUK CHE) Hong Kong 2002 | 97mins | 35mm Color | Cantonese w/ E.S. JUST ONE LOOK is a wonderful film with perfect casting including a solid, charming performance by Anthony Wong as a pragmatic gangster. When I hear the words "coming-of-age tale," I usually running screaming, but this film had me laughing, crying, admiring the tight script and acting, & humming the infectious soundtrack. Go see this movie on the big screen. It's one of the best films to come out of HK in the last few years. |
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| KAL HO NAA HO India, 2003, Hindi with English subtitles Who can resist a Shahrukh Khan film? Certainly not me. Wonderful tearjerker by the folks who brought you KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM and KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder why in the heck they included that awful "It's Time to Disco" number. Also starring Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan, and the gorgeous Jaya Bachchan & Reema Lagoo as the moms. Word of warning--you'll be uncontrollaby humming the main theme for days. |
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| KHAKEE India, 2004, Hindi with English subtitles Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Aishwarya Rai, Tushar Kapoor KHAKEE is a terrific film with great acting and lots of twists and turns. It reminded me of a HK thriller from back in the day (early 90s). I can't say enough good about this movie--as long as you're not expecting lots of dance numbers. Go see it! |
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| KILL BILL: VOLUME 1 USA, 2003 Quentin Tarantino's homage to Asian action films with appearances by Gordon Liu & Sonny Chiba & and especially fun performance from BATTLE ROYALE alum Chiaki Kuriyama. |
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| KYUN HO GAYA NA PYAR India, 2004, Hindi with English subtitles Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Vivek Oberoi Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy Director: Sameer Karnik The new Ash movie with her new boyfriend Vivek. Added bonus is Amitabh. The movie's actually not very good unless you just need an Ash fix--and even then it's not very satisfying. Vivek makes me nervous when he does these happy roles, I always feel like someone needs to give him some tranquilizers. Lots of filler in this movie, and the dance sequences aren't the best. |
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| LAKSHYA India, 2004, Hindi with English subtitles Directed by Kunal Kohli. Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, Om Puri, Sharad Kapoor Music: Shankar-Eshan-Loy Lyrics:Javed Akhtar Worth seeing for the Hrithik dance scenes alone--especially his Prabu Deva-choreographed solo number. Some nice photography and exciting battle scenes, but gets bogged down with too many battle scenes and some stiff acting by Hrithik in the latter half of the film. Not a bad film, though. |
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MAIN HOON NA
Yeah, what he said. I know I'll be there. |
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MUJHE SHADI KAROGE |
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| MUNNABHAI MBBS India, 2003, Hindi with English subtitles Sunil Dutt, Sanjay Dutt & Gracy Singh Director: Raju Hiranhi Heart-warming comedy starring Sanjay Dutt. Lots of good music and dance numbers. Especially fun for Sanjay Dutt fans since he definitely carries the film. I really liked this movie. Recommended. |
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| NOBODY KNOWS Japan, 2004, Japanese with English subtitles Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda, Cast: Yuya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko Shimizu official site Haunting, devastating film about four small children abandoned by their mother. Three are confined in a small apartment for months, while the oldest son, who leaves the apartment to buy food and scrounge for money, struggles to keep them all alive. All of the kids (who are not professional actors) give amazing performances-- especially Yuya Yagira (the oldest son) who became the youngest actor to win the Best Actor award at Cannes. Kore-eda always picks difficult subjects, and this is one of the most difficult yet. But it's well-worth seeing. |
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| SHAOLIN SOCCER Hong Kong, 2001, Cantonese with English subtitles Directed by Stephen Chow Sing-Chi. Starring Stephen Chow, Vicki Zhao Wei, Ng Man Tat It's almost unbelievable that Miramax finally released this movie. The good news is that it is in the original Cantonese with English subs. The bad news is that there are some cuts--although they are minor. Of course, one cut is too many...and, yes, they do for some inexplicable reason manage to replace one of the music cues with---wait for it---a hip hopped out version of Kung Fu Fighting. I honestly don't understand Miramax's obsession with that song. The rest of the score, however, is intact. It is worth seeing on the big screen even though most of us have owned the DVD for almost 4 years now. Maybe now Miramax will get around to releasing HERO--although the last I heard they're releasing it as JET LI'S HERO. Bet that's news to Zhang Yi Mou:-/ |
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SWADES |
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| TAEGUKGI: THE BROTHERHOOD OF WAR 2004, South Korea, Korean with English subtitles Director: Kang Je-gyu Cast:Jang Dong-gun and Won Bin Powerful story about two brothers who are forced into the South Korean army. Huge hit in Korea, it's a well-made film with lots of emotion & good acting. |
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| THROW DOWN Action/Drama, Hong Kong, Cantonese with English subtitles, Not rated HK director Johnny To's latest film. Starring Aaron Kwok and Louis Koo (with fun cameos by Jordan Chan and Tony Leung Ka Fai), THROW DOWN is a moody story about a washed-up judo champion and the characters he meets. In true Johnny To style, this film is shot at night on the neon-lit back streets of Hong Kong and in dimly lit nightclubs and gaming parlors. Beautiful to look at, quirky in style and mood. >> Read the SF Chronicle interview with Johnny To >> Nixflix review >> Official site |
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| VEER-ZAARA India, 2004, Hindi with English subtitles Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherji, Director: Yash Chopra, Music: Madan Mohan A big old fashioned Indian movie with the ever-charismatic Shah Rukh Khan. A nice cry-fest romance with beautiful cinematography, beautiful music, beautiful dance numbers, and beautiful Rani Mukherji who gives a good, serious performance as a fledgling lawyer. I'm not that impressed with the chemistry between SRK and Preity Zinta, but they're both good actors who are a joy to watch. Well worth a trip to the theater to see this one on the big screen, but get there early or you'll end up sitting in the second row like we did! |
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| WARRIORS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH China, 2003, Mandarin with English subtitles Directed by He Ping. Starring Jiang Wen, Kiichi Nakai, Wang Xueqi, Zhao Wei, Hasi Bagen, He Tao, Harrison Liu, Wang Deshun, Yang Haiquan, Yeerjiang Mahepushen and Zhou Yun Y'know, the reviews of this one haven't been so great, but I saw it Friday and loved it. (Just the reason I don't read reviews before I see a movie). It's very Western in style with some cheesy special effects, but still quite fun with some exciting swordfights and battle sequences. If nothing else, worth seeing for Jiang Wen--as my partner says, any movie with Jiang Wen can't be all bad. And this movie is more all good than all bad. See it & make up your own mind. |
