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johanlefourbe added 1 item to 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2023) list
Notes: The point with this movie is that it is actually very simple and very complex at the same time. Indeed, it is simple in the sense that Ozu didn’t use any gimmicks or visual tricks to shot his movie as it was composed of static shots with minimal cuts. In a similar fashion, it was dealing with some average people with no secret agenda or deep secrets and nothing really extraordinary happened to any one of them through the whole duration. And, yet, it was such a complex movie in the sense that Ozu never tells you what the characters are actually thinking or feeling, he doesn’t tell you what he himself is actually thinking or feeling about what is showing you and is certainly not telling the viewers what they should be thinking or feeling. It is definitely a nice approach but it is also quite disorienting following years of watching rather dumb US movies in which every piece of information is pretty much spoonfed to the viewers. Still, what the hell did Ozu mean with his movie?!? The more I think about it, the more I believe that this movie was actually dealing with the meaning of life, no less than that. It might explain why it is still completely relevant even 70 years later for someone like me who was born in Europe and had no direct connection with Japanese culture. Indeed, basically, for the most of our lives, we will struggle some way or another to connect with other people, even with the people the closest to us. As a result, we are all pretty much very lonely and it is fitting that Noriko, the nicest person in this movie, is actually the loneliest.6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe posted a review of Mother's Day
“To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it is rather sad that Garry Marshall would end up a rather solid career with such a tedious trilogy around some holida” read more
6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to Top 10 worst movies 2016 list
Notes: Well, it is rather sad that Garry Marshall would end up a rather solid career with such a tedious trilogy around some holiday themed romantic-comedies and this movie was basically the weakest of the bunch. Indeed, right from the very first scene, you had a voice-over telling you how hard and exhausting it is to be a mother which must be one of the most annoying gimmicks in Hollywood comedies. On top of that, it is not even accurate. Seriously, if you would go back 60 or 70 years ago, mothers used to have 5 or 6 kids or even more but if you would believe these movies, to have 1 or 2 is apparently already a terrible and impossible ordeal. Anyway, as usual, the whole thing was just a bunch of terribly generic and predictable little stories and it was just rather boring from the beginning until the end. I mean, if they would take one of these stories and only focused on it, it might have worked better but even so, I'm not so sure.6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe posted a review of Stay Hungry
“I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, it didn't really work, I'm afraid, and the main reason why was because the whole thing was just so random. I mean, the plot was basically about ” read more
6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe posted a review of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
“Since I have always been a huge fan of the Coen brothers, of course, I was really eager to check this flick. Well, even if it won't go down as one of their best movies, I thought it was fairly enjoyable and, at least, it was a slight improvement on 'Hail, Caesar!' which was, in my opinion, one of th” read more
6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to A Complete Review of the Coen Brothers' work list
6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2023) list
Notes: Eventually, I thought it was pretty good, even if it was in fact the weakest movie directed by Fred Zinnemann that I have seen so far. The point is that the cast was indeed quite impressive (Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Warden) and the story was not bad but that was in fact the issue, it was not bad but nothing really amazing in my opinion. Apparently, the book from which it was adapted was a best seller at the time and it was much darker and displayed a rather negative view on the army. Indeed, the night club was in fact a brothel and the hostesses were prostitutes. It was also much more violent especially when displaying the treatment in the stockade and there was lot of profanity. Honestly, it did sound much more compelling to me but, at the time, there was a strict censorship and the movie was still a big success. It was also rather funny to discover that ‘Pearl Harbor’ pretty much took its whole plot from this flick.6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to Ronny's Dutch Film Club list
chosen by Peter
Notes: First of all, it was pretty impressive to see Iranian director Asghar Farhadi directing a movie in Spain with such a convincing result as if the guy had spent all his life there. He already achieved the same thing with ‘Le passé’ which felt like such a genuine French movie. Furthermore, the cast was composed of famous Spanish actors (Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem) and some other actors unknown to me but they all delivered some solid performances. Unfortunately, I had a hard time with the story though. First of all, I thought it was rather unlikely that someone would manage to snatch a teenager in a house full of people during a wedding without anyone noticing. Maybe it would have been more convincing if they had displayed the actual kidnapping. Then, another thing that bothered me was how this family handled this situation. I mean, if you have the money, paying would seem to be indeed a safer option but, if you don’t, for me, it would be a no-brainer to go directly to the police. Finally, there was this big discussion about why on Earth should Paco pay the ransom? Well, again, it seemed to be a no-brainer to me because it was actually the only decent thing to do since the only other alternative was to let this poor girl getting killed. Finally, most of the duration was basically about some gossiping they had about each other while it was so obvious that most of them had nothing to do with the kidnapping. On the other hand, it could be true that, during such crisis, people might turn against each other like they did in this movie.
(Nov. 2018)6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2023) list
Notes: I haven't seen this one yet...6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe posted a review of Red Sparrow
“I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jennifer Lawrence, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, even if it was a decent watch, I still ended up with some mixed feelings though. The first thing that bothered me was the fact that even thou” read more
6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2023) list
Notes: Well, basically, even though the damned thing has a really solid reputation, I thought it was a rather standard Western story. Indeed, it was a generic tale about some simple farmers who are bullied by some evil cattle baron and, of course, a mysterious stranger passes by and saves the day. Seriously, it wasn’t original at all and it was completely predictable but I guess I shouldn't forget that this Western was made 60 years ago and it was made before many other Westerns would use afterwards the same template. Still, the directing and acting were solid and I did like the attention they gave to the details. It was also interesting to notice that there was barely any shooting during the whole thing, there was one big fight though. In fact, the main character was without a gun during the whole thing and it was a nice approach. Indeed, instead of making the shootings look cool like most other Westerns, they displayed here that, even though such shootings were sometimes inevitable, the consequences were usually dreadfull.6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2023) list
Notes: To be honest, I wasn’t impressed. Indeed, slowly but surely, I’m coming to the conclusion that Monroe was a more a star, a tabloid item, than an actual talented actress. I mean, for example, I have seen two of the three movies starring James Dean and it is pretty obvious that the guy was the real thing with an electrifying presence and some real acting skills. With Marilyn Monroe, I keep watching movies after movies and I’m always rather underwhelmed. It is not that she was really bad but I always have the feeling I’m watching Monroe, the mega-star, some kind of alter ego she and the media created, and never the actual character provided by the script. This movie is a perfect example. I mean, it was not bad and fairly entertaining but I really had a hard time to care about the whole thing. I mean, Monroe was definitely charismatic, Jane Russel as well, but the whole thing was just way too frivolous for my taste. 6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe posted a review of Abandon
“To be honest, since this movie has a rather lame reputation, I had some rather low expectations but since there was a really nice cast involved, I still wanted to check it out. Well, to my surprise, the beginning scenes were actually not bad at all. Indeed, Stephen Gaghan had started with a compelli” read more
6 years, 3 months ago
johanlefourbe added 1 item to 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2023) list
Notes: Since this movie is a classic, I was really eager to check it out. Eventually, even though I thought it was fairly enjoyable, I can’t say it was really my thing though. I think it has to do somewhat with my political beliefs. Indeed, I find it always difficult to care for the supposedly difficult romantic life of the rich and aristocrats. Sure, you could argue that since it is a romantic feature, I shouldn't take it so seriously but it is just too frivolous for me or maybe I'm just too cynical for this material. Eventually, the greatest thing about this flick was probably the fact that it introduced Audrey Hepburn to the world. Right away, she managed to win an Academy award for her performance and, above all, she became instantly one of the biggest movie stars in the world, a position she would keep during the following 10 years. Indeed, Hepburn was always nice to see in a movie, especially right there at the beginning of her career and she had some great chemistry with Gregory Peck.6 years, 3 months ago