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Review: BLIND DETECTIVE Lacks Vision Or Clear Direction

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Review: BLIND DETECTIVE Lacks Vision Or Clear Direction

Review: BLIND DETECTIVE Lacks Vision Or Clear Direction

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 12:35 AM PDT

Johnnie To reunites his dream team pairing of Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng for the first time in nearly a decade, but the results are far from perfect as this oddball comedy thriller proves an unwieldy and unsatisfying beast.When not crafting stylish crime dramas (The Mission, Exiled, Drug War), exploring fantastical thriller territory with collaborator Wai Ka Fai (Running on Karma, Mad Detective), or peering deep into Hong Kong's wounded socio-economic soul (Election 2, Life Without Principle), writer-producer-director Johnnie To has been known to dabble in romantic comedy.Over the years, through films including Needing You and Love on a Diet, To has cast superstar Andy Lau together with pop icon Sammi Cheng to hugely popular effect. However, after a crisis of confidence following the disastrous...

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Oak Cliff 2013 Review: ZERO CHARISMA Declares War On False Nerds

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 08:00 PM PDT

I had four friends when I was in high school. Brendon, Jagjeet, Ryan, Nick, and I met in junior high. We had nothing in common culturally, our families were all from different ends of the Earth, but we were all smart kids who hated "normals" and preferred each other's company to that of the popular crowd, or at least that's the way I looked at it. I suppose the reality of the situation was that the popular crowd looked right through us and we just banded together as a defense mechanism. In any case, we bonded pretty hard in those early years. We were the kind of nerds who'd hang around at each other's houses after school cramming for tests or sitting around watching the endless...

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Review: THE STROLLER STRATEGY Is a Bad Idea Badly Executed

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 07:15 PM PDT

France has a thriving film industry, the biggest in Europe, with more than 250 productions a year. Of those, only a few dozen make their way into U.S. cinemas, usually because they're good, or have notable names attached, or will appeal to American art-house sensibilities, or some combination of the three. And then there are outliers like The Stroller Strategy (La stratégie de la poussette), a lousy, middle-brow situational comedy with no stars, no prestige, and almost no laughs. How did you get here, The Stroller Strategy? What mixture of luck and poor decision-making brought you to our shores? How many worthier French products were overlooked so that you and your unbelievable sitcom plot and psychotic protagonist could come here and pollute our cinemas? Begone...

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Check The First Poster Art For Monty Python Reunion Picture ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 02:30 PM PDT

The surviving members of Monty Python (minus Eric Idle) are getting back together and they're reportedly bringing Gemma Arterton and Benedict Cumberbatch for the ride along with the voice of Robin Williams. The picture is titled Absolutely Anything and features the Pythons who grant a schoolteacher (Cumberbatch) the power to do absolutely anything so that they can be amused as he cocks it up. Robin Williams voices a talking dog.Things have been relatively quiet on the Absolutely Anything front for a little while but we've just come across the first piece of poster art for the film, which is at least a sign that this thing may actually exist in the real world rather than just in writer-director Terry Jones' head someday soon.Click the image...

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Poster Debut For Belgian Oscar Submission OUR CHILDREN

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 02:00 PM PDT

Joachim Lafosse's Our Children picked up a Best Actress award in Cannes prior to being Belgium's official submission for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and iwth the film now slated to open theatrically at the Elinor Bunin Monroe Theater in NY on Aug 2nd and the Laemmle Royal Theater in LA on Aug 9th Twitch is happy to premiere the US poster for the film.Murielle (Emilie Dequenne) and Mounir (Tahar Rahim) love each other passionately. Ever since he was a boy, the young man has been living with Doctor Pinget (Niels Arestrup) who provides him with a comfortable life. When Mounir and Murielle decide to marry and have children, the couple's dependence on the doctor becomes excessive. Murielle finds herself caught up in...

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Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia 2013

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 01:00 PM PDT

Last weekend saw the close of Japan's Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia 2013 which has been taking place over the past month in locations around Tokyo and Yokohama. The festival was started in 1999 in Harajuku, Tokyo by actor Bessho Tetsuya as a way of bringing the short film format to a Japanese audience. While in the beginning it concentrated mainly on foreign works a separate festival, the Short Shorts Film Festival Asia, developed in 2004 focused solely on shorts from Asia and Japan and the two festivals have been running parallel with each other ever since. Short Shorts is the biggest short film festival in Asia and is the only Japanese film festival accredited as an official qualifier of short films for the...

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Review: DOWNLOADED, The Rise And Fall Of A Concept That Changed The World

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 12:00 PM PDT

Downloaded is a great documentary for many reasons. The greatest of these might be its effortless and uncanny ability to throw into stark relief just how massively the world of computers and the Internet has radically changed in just a few short years. This offering from director Alex Winter takes a look at the little file-sharing community that started it all, Napster, and follows the rise and fall of a concept that indelibly changed the entire world forever. Though slightly long and running with the standard "talking heads" mode of documentation, Downloaded is an informative and comprehensive look at the conception and implementation of Napster, the world's first mp3 file sharing network. Beginning as a mere gleam in the eye of engineer Shawn Fanning, and...

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Review: MANIAC Makes No Apologies For Its Sadistic Gore

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 11:00 AM PDT

Those worried that Franck Khalfoun and Alexandre Aja's Maniac remake was going to whitewash and water down their favorite 80s sleaze classic can rest easy. This updated, Los Angeles-set story of a disturbed man cutting off the scalps of women and taking them back to his mannequin collection at home is sadistic, unapologetic, gory and extremely well-directed. It's inventive on its own terms without betraying the original, and while some may still question the need for its existence, the film is honestly much more effective than I imagined possible when I first heard about the project. In fact, maybe it's too effective -- but more on that later. The maniac this time around is played by Elijah Wood, and while he does fine work, he...

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Review: MONSTERS UNIVERSITY Reunites Us with Old Friends

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 10:00 AM PDT

College is often a time of growth and development for people, and it's evidently no different for monsters. In Monsters University, Mike Wazowski, the spherical lime-green cyclops voiced by Billy Crystal, faces the important question of whether he is scary enough to fulfill his dream of being a professional scarer. Meanwhile, James "Sully" Sullivan (John Goodman), the furry blue Sasquatch-y fellow, has a natural talent for scariness but must learn to apply himself or risk squandering it. As with most Pixar films, this prequel to Monsters Inc. has some deep ideas underneath its candy-colored, kid-friendly merriment. And like almost (but not quite) every Pixar film, Monsters University is jolly, well-crafted fun that's liable to be one of the year's best animated movies -- and that...

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Win A Signed MANIAC Poster And See The Film For Free!

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT

The Elijah Wood starring remake of Maniac hits US theaters in limited release tomorrow while also arriving on cable VOD and online via SundanceNow and Twitch has got a little treat to offer up the film.Frank is the withdrawn owner of a mannequin store, but his life changes when young artist Anna appears asking for his help with her new exhibition. As their friendship develops and Frank's obsession escalates, it becomes clear that she has unleashed a long-repressed compulsion to stalk and kill.A 21st century Jack the Ripper set in present-day L.A., MANIAC is a re-boot of the cult film considered by many to be the most suspenseful slasher movie ever made - an intimate, visually daring, psychologically complex and profoundly horrific trip into the...

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Review: A HIJACKING, A Gritty Anti-Thriller

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT

The crew of the freighter MV Rozen are in trouble. En route to Mumbai to take on cargo and fresh crew, the cargo vessel has been boarded by Somali pirates, seized by a dangerous and unpredictable armed gang who demand millions from the Rozen's owners to secure the safe release of ship and crew. The process will stretch over months, the lives of the crew hanging in a tenuous balance throughout while the CEO of their company negotiates for their safe release back home. Though A Hijacking marks the solo directing debut of Tobias Lindholm, the young writer-director is already regarded as one of the brightest young talents in Denmark and all of Europe. As a writer, Lindholm is a key player in hugely acclaimed...

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Bigger. Longer. Spacier. The IRON SKY Director's Cut Adds 20 Minutes.

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 07:30 AM PDT

Were you hoping for a little more Moon Nazi in scifi comedy Iron Sky? Turns out so was director Timo Vuorensola but the initial budget and timeline for production did not allow for him to include all he had hoped. So what has he done since? He's added 20 minutes more. "This version of the film is the original vision I had of the film when we made it. We were forced to drop a lot of great material due to extremely tight budget and schedules but now we've had a full year to work on the additional material, and it's really bringing the film to a whole new level."Yep, the Iron Sky director's cut is now available for pre-order direct from the creators with...

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Review: THE ATTACK, A Sobering, Piercing Drama

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 07:01 AM PDT

The complicated situation in Israel, with its uneasy peace and frequent bursts of non-peace between Jews and Arabs, has given rise to numerous compelling stories, and will no doubt continue to do so for as long as there is conflict in that region (i.e., forever). The Attack, a sobering drama by Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri (Lila Says), explores the unique personal pain of an Arab doctor living in Tel Aviv, and emerges as one of the more piercing pieces of fiction on this subject. The film begins with our doctor, Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman), a well-respected surgeon at a Tel Aviv hospital, receiving a prestigious medical award -- the first Arab to do so, he notes in his gracious acceptance speech. His admiring audience of...

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Murnau, Martinez, Miike And Many More Hit The Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 06:30 AM PDT

What evil lurks in the hearts of picturesque, Swiss lakeside towns?Returning for its 13th edition, the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF from here on out) has announced its full program today, and does it ever look fun.The festival, which runs from July 5  - 13, will play host to several euro-horror premieres and festival circuit holdovers, including Vincenzo Natali's Haunter and Javier Ruiz Caldera's Ghost Graduation, which has been well loved here at Twitch. Johnnie To's Blind Detective and Takashi Miike's Shield of Straw, both fresh from Cannes, are two of the flagship films in the festival's New Cinema From Asia focus, which also includes Ringu and Dark Water director Hideo Nakata's supposed return to form, The Complex.But what's most exciting are the two main...

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Hey, UK Hitchcock Fans! Go See DIAL M In 3D!

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 05:00 AM PDT

Next month, it seems that UK theatre goers will have a chance to check out Hitchcock's foray into dimensionalized terror, Dial M For Murder.If you haven't had a chance to see the film on a big screen, let alone in 3D, I highly recommend it.I've written at length about the newest restoration, back when it played at TIFF's Lightbox last year. As I gushed then:The restoration truly looks quite amazing. It's absolutely a must-see in 3D, ideally with an eager audience. The film is so much fun, the 3D imagery such an integral part of the way that Hitch composed the film, that it'd be a shame to miss out. It's never to late to discover a classic you haven't seen. Check out the release...

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