Reviews by Anton Bitel

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)

  Review preview for Mrs Henderson Presents

  The jokes, while often funny, are all basically the same.

  Celebrating patriotic nipples and a theatre that never closed.
• 
  Flightplan (2005)

  Review preview for Flightplan

  This is Foster's film from start to finish.

  Has Jodie lost her mind, or her daughter, on the long haul flight?
• 
  The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (2005)

  Review preview for The Exorcism Of Emily Rose

  The very soul of Scott Derrickson's film has been overtaken by bland characters, cheap shocks, kindergarten theology and a pace so plodding that viewers will be left wondering whether it is just Erin's watch that has mysteriously stopped.

  Courtroom drama debates fundamental religious beliefs against a backdrop of imagined horror.
• 
  Everything Is Illuminated (2005)

  Review preview for Everything Is Illuminated

  Everything Is Illuminated is about storytelling: not only Alex's narration (in hilariously mangled English) of Jonathan's search for his past, but also Alex's retelling of his own life and family history.

  A man heads on an odyssey to the Ukraine, to trace his father's roots.
• 
  Factotum (2005)

  Portrait of the drinker as an artist.
• 
  Czech Dream (2004)

  Review preview for Czech Dream

  Klusak and Remunda's project injected a healthy dose of scepticism into Czech political discourse, reawakening thought, argument and doubt from a long, dreamy slumber.

  Two young filmmakers play an elaborate practical joke on modern Czech shopaholics.
• 
  Niagara Motel (2005)

  Review preview for Niagara Motel

  A tragicomic ensemble piece about people on the edge and love on the rocks.

  An ensemble piece examines the fractured lives of stranded souls.
• 
  The Constant Gardener (2005)

  A diplomat uncovers a web of deceit as he investigates the death of his wife.
• 
  3-Iron (2004)

  Review preview for 3-Iron

  Mysteries lend the romance an irrational trajectory.

  The silent love affair between a battered wife and a respectful intruder.
• 
  The Consequences Of Love (2004)

  Review preview for The Consequences Of Love

  Simply unmissable.

  Existential thriller explores the mystery of a quiet man in a provincial hotel.
• 
  The Brothers Grimm (2005)

  Review preview for The Brothers Grimm

  The true fault lies with the script, which brings no life to the real, or indeed fantasy, characters.

  Bogus ghostbusters finally meet their match in a genuine enchanted forest.
• 
  Vengeance Is Mine (1979)

  Review preview for Vengeance Is Mine

  Bold and intense.

  A Japanese serial killer goes on the run.
• 
  Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence (2004)

  Review preview for Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence

  Though scrupulously backwards-compatible with the original, makes it, and everything else besides, seem entirely redundant.

  A literate anime that sets a dog loving, once-human detective to discover why female sex droids are killing their users.
• 
  Battle In Heaven (2005)

  An ugly taxi driver and the prostitute daughter of a general go at it and at it and (yawn).
• 
  Thumbsucker (2005)

  Review preview for Thumbsucker

  The setting may be small-town, but this is a vision in microcosm of a whole nation that has been driven inevitably towards anxiety and unease by self-imposed pressures and impossible aspirations.

  Teenager from the 'burbs attempts to quit suckin'.
• 
  The Legend Of Zorro (2005)

  Review preview for The Legend Of Zorro

  The occasional jokes are only occasionally funny and the seen-it-all-before kiddy subplot succeeds only in underlining the film's confusion over its target demographic.

  Sword-fighting sequel, sees Zorro take on a racist preacher.
• 
  Beautiful Boxer (2003)

  Review preview for Beautiful Boxer

  Beautiful Boxer documents Nong Toom's odyssey towards womanhood with considerable colour.

  True story about transgender kick boxer Nong Toom.
• 
  Into The Blue (2005)

  Review preview for Into The Blue

  The characters seem as shallow as the waters through which they paddle.

  Underwater treasure evokes a moral dilmma for fit diver.
• 
  Broken Flowers (2005)

  Journey of self-discovery for dead-pan, retired Lothario.
• 
  Sky High (2005)

  Review preview for Sky High

  Never forgets to keep its emphasis on fun

  Super-powered high school comedy.
• 
  Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (2005)

  Review preview for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit

  Pure joy from start to finish.

  A vegetable horror comedy for claymation villagers and a dog.
• 
  Domino (2005)

  Review preview for Domino

  As a crime caper, it is complicated enough to make even Guy Ritchie go dizzy.

  Action movie, loosely based on the life of glamour model turned bounty hunter.
• 
  Lord Of War (2005)

  Review preview for Lord Of War

  Cage finds the perfect balance between Yuri's winning salesmanship and latent self-loathing in a crucial but demanding role.

  The cynical dark world of an unscrupulous arms dealer.
• 
  Malevolence (2005)

  Review preview for Malevolence

  Blatantly retraces killing grounds so old and familiar that at times it seems little more than a fan boy's compendium of favourite moments from the last half century's worth of slash-and-dash mayhem.

  Bank robbers, with hostages in tow, hide out beside a spooky slaughterhouse.
• 
  Oliver Twist (2005)

  Review preview for Oliver Twist

  Polanski has crafted something that already feels like a classic film, beautiful to look at, combining accurate period detail with a certain gothic expressionism and brimming with earthy characters and high drama.

  Lavish adaptation of Charles Dickens' tale of an orphan who crosses paths with a pickpocket.
• 
  Everything (2004)

  An unusual relationship between a Soho prostitute and her john.
• 
  Night Watch (2004)

  Review preview for Night Watch

  There is no denying the impressive visual extravagance with which Bekmambetov executes his ideas.

  The forces of Light and Darkness storm and battle through the conflicted consciousness of 21st century Moscow.
• 
  Punishment Park (1971)

  Review preview for Punishment Park

  Punishment Park is an extraordinary film - provocative, incendiary and deeply depressing.

  Psuedo documentary in which a film crew follow a group of US draft dodgers and rebels as they are given the choice between jail and a three-day endurance test in the park of the title.
• 
  Innocence (2004)

  Review preview for Innocence

  A dark, dreamlike fantasy.

  Kafkaesque fantasy about a girls' boarding school.
• 
  Vital (2004)

  Review preview for Vital

  This portrait of loss and fractured memory achieves an aching beauty that is without precedent in the director's previous work.

  A medical student reconstructs his identity after surviving a car crash.
• 
  George A Romero's Land Of The Dead (2005)

  Review preview for George A Romero's Land Of The Dead

  The political content has been ramped up, at the expense of any kind of subtlety.

  The creator of the zombie genre returns with an allegory of Bush's abuses in Iraq.
• 
  One Nite In Mongkok (2004)

  Triad tensions in Hong Kong bring a hired assassin from the mainland.
• 
  Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

  Review preview for Howl's Moving Castle

  Anime at its very finest - lightning paced, visually stunning, feverishly creative and overrun by a logic all its own.

  A magical tale in a troubled kingdom on the brink of war.
• 
  Ab-normal Beauty (2004)

  Review preview for Ab-normal Beauty

  Ab-normal Beauty is eye candy for the deranged.

  Portrait of the artist as a troubled soul.
• 
  Tiresia (2003)

  Review preview for Tiresia

  Intense, intriguing, beautifully framed and intellectually challenging.

  Modern take on ancient myth of a blind seer who is man and woman.
• 
  R-Point (2004)

  Review preview for R-Point

  Make no mistake about it: R-Point is one confusing trip - but never without purpose.

  Soldiers at war see ghosts in the charnel house.
• 
  Wolf Creek (2005)

  Review preview for Wolf Creek

  Australia's finest horror film in years.

  Backpackers go looking for hedonism in the Aussie outback... and find horror.
• 
  Onibaba (1964)

  Review preview for Onibaba

  A stark portrayal of lust, jealousy and raw hunger.

  An impoverished mother turns to murder as a method of survival at a time of civil war.
• 
  Born To Fight (2004)

  A group of athletes try to save a village from a ruthless militia.
• 
  Asylum (2005)

  Review preview for Asylum

  So studiously edgy are the performances that one is never quite sure who harbours the darkest pathology.

  Infidelity at an institution for the criminally insane.
• 
  Red Eye (2005)

  Review preview for Red Eye

  Slick, taut and diverting enough, but also characterless, forgettable and inescapably bland.

  Killer on a plane.
• 
  Me And You And Everyone We Know (2005)

  A snapshot of a family and its struggle to adjust to a new life.
• 
  Appleseed (2004)

  Futuristic anime in which a teenage girl battles to save her species.
• Unleashed (2004)

  Review preview for Unleashed

  There is no subtlety, let alone enigma, to be found in its cartoonish preposterousness.

  A Jet Li martial arts extravaganza, with sensitive side issues and Bob Hoskins in bully mode.
• 
  Crash (2004)

  Review preview for Crash

  Some superb acting, wince-makingly smart dialogue and ingenious cause-and-effect plotting.

  Slice of Los Angeles paranoia, incorporating fear, anger, racial tension and a miracle.