Reviews by johanlefourbe

Obviously, I wasn't expecting much from this flick and it turned out to be indeed really terrible. In fact, when this movie was made, there was actually quite some media coverage in the Netherlands, apparently, because most of the movie was shot in Amsterdam. On top of that, there were easily a dozen of Dutch celebrities and actors showing up for a small part. Unfortunately, this movie turned out to be a huge critical flop and it is almost never broadcast on the Dutch channels (after all these years, they finally decided to show it but it was after midnight so most Dutch people probably didn't even notice it). Well, what can I say about this flick? Pretty much nothing worked. Indeed, the plot was completely idiotic, it was never funny, most of the time actually rather offensive and sometimes even gross. On top of that, even though it was supposed to be about a gigolo, there was actually no sex whatsoever (there was though a topless weather presenter which was actually something I have never seen in the Netherlands). While watching this movie, I felt mostly bad for Hannah Verboom. Indeed, she was really cute and it was only her 2nd movie but, even though she might have hoped that this movie would have opened some doors in Hollywood, it turned out to be so bad and it pretty much ruined her career, I'm afraid. Anyway, to conclude, this movie was just worthless and you should definitely avoid it. 

I already saw this movie but since it was a few years ago, i thought I might as well give it a 2nd chance. The first time around, even though this movie had a rather lame reputation, I always wanted to see it ever since it was released (it basically took me 25 years to finally see this movie). Well, I was surprised by how little I actually remember it which is never a good sign. The only thing I did remember was that the damned thing was (and still is) an unwatchable mess. Indeed, basically, this movie turned out to be some kind of really messed-up version of Roger Rabbit running on acid. To be honest, I wonder how Ralph Bakshi managed to get the greenlight for such a weird and risky project. Unfortunately, even though I have to admit that the concept did actually have some potential, the end-result was just really insane and barely worked at all. Indeed, not only the plot was really poorly set together and almost impossible to follow, to make things worse, Bakshi decided for some obscure reasons to add some random stuff constantly popping up on the screen. At least, I think it was visually interesting but the whole thing still felt like an endless nightmare and I wonder what would happen if you would watch it after taking some drugs. Eventually, the saddest thing about this movie is that the huge critical and commercial flop of this movie pretty much killed the career of cult filmmaker Ralph Bashki and you might wonder if he will ever make another full length feature ever again (provably not). Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually really generous with my rating here, the whole thing was just so messed-up and misguided and I don't think it is really worth a look. 

Just a couple of days ago, I saw 'Kicking and Screaming', Noah Baumbach's directing debut, so I thought it would be pretty neat to see his last movie as well. First of all, it is always nice to see Adam Sandler trying something else and I wish the guy would drop his usual moronic comedies, especially since they don't seem to be so popular anymore. Concerning Noah Baumbach's work, he usually deals with some really unlikeable characters which makes it rather difficult for me to really connect with what he does. Once again, he gave us another highly dysfunctional family but, this time, I actually did care for these characters, even the father who was sometimes downright awful. It probably had to do with the fact that I think I felt some kind of connection with these characters. Indeed, when my father was 25 years old, he left everything behind and travelled around the world for 3 years and, when he came back, he had some incredible stories. From this point, he was considered by most people either like a wise man, a great adventurer or even some kind of rock-star. Being his kid, I always felt like I would never be able to do something amazing like that in my whole life, therefore I felt I was pretty much a failure and a disappointment. Furthermore, even though my father was supposed to gain some great wisdom from his travels, he turned out to be rather distant and most of time busy with himself and how he stood in the world and what I could do, think or feel never seemed to really much matter to him. So, with this in mind, I think I understood more or less what the Meyerowitz kids were going through. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, even though it was maybe not a a masterpiece, I thought it was pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Noah Baumbach's work.

Since this movie has a pretty good reputation, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though it was indeed pretty good, to be honest, I was actually slightly disappointed. I mean, sure, it was well made with a solid performance by Gene Hackman and it was certainly quite entertaining but it was also too generic and predictable for my taste though. Indeed, this movie really followed the traditional formula and, I don't know, maybe I have seen too many sport movies before that followed the very same structure. Indeed, if you hope that something surprising might happen in this movie, you will be sorely disappointed.  Furthermore, as an European, it is rather difficult to understand why  some small American towns would display such passion for their high-school basketball team but, apparently, this movie was really faithful regarding this phenomenon. Still, it was pretty neat to see Gene Hackman at the top of his game and it is a real shame that the guy already retired more than 10 years ago. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn't completely blow me away, it was still pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Joaquin Phoenix , I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though there were some interesting things, it turned out to be a fairly entertaining black comedy but not much more than that, I'm afraid. For example, it started out right away with a suicide which was an interesting approach as they skipped the introduction of the characters which would have been more straightforward but, as a result, you never really get to know these characters. Furthermore, even though the story was going more or less towards a specific direction, out of nowhere, a serial killer was suddenly added to the mix so you had basically 2 tales awkwardly attached to each other. At least, back in those days before he kept showing over and over again playing the same character in some rather underwhelming comedies, Vince Vaughn was still eager to take some risks and he was pretty good here. Concerning Janeane Garofalo, I always thought she had a great potential and it's too bad she never had the opportunity to really break through but it was really neat to see her in this movie. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie didn't completely work, it was decent enough and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since this movie was Noah Baumbach's directing debut, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, even though it was a decent watch, I can't say it really blew me away though. First of all, even though I have spent 4 years in college and therefore should have been able to relate easily with what these characters were going through, I didn't share this fascination about this time period in my life. I don't know, maybe it is because the Americans are so frustrated and inhibited and it 's only when they go to college that they finally start to experiment and discover what life could have to offer to them which might explain why, for many of them, college was just so damned amazing. Coming to our main feature, to make things worse, I really struggled to care about the characters involved. I mean, sure, they were fairly smart and well spoken but their conversations were rather boring which was made worse by the fact that they were also so pretentious, like most students around this age. At least, I have to admit it, the whole thing felt really genuine and realistic. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn't really work for me, it was still not bad at all and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Noah Baumbach's work. 

Even though I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie, since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, it turned out to be another generic and boring Jason Statham action flick. What bothered me the most was how poorly written the damned thing was. Seriously, what was Sylvester Stallone thinking? First of all, even though you get to see some great landscape of Louisiana, most of the locals were displayed as some ignorant white-trash which was borderline offensive. Then, if the undercover cop wanted to lay low, why did he stay in Louisiana? Then, it was also rather ridiculous that the guy would keep some classified files in his basement. Concerning the cast, I was rather bewildered by the fact that James Franco would show up in something like that, especially to play such a boring meth-cooking loser. Concerning Jason Statham, well, at this point, I'm not sure if you can still call him an actor since he plays every single character always the same way. The only difference here was that he was wearing a pet the whole duration. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing turned out to be seriously weak and I don't think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of Jason Statham's work.

When I heard that Steven Soderbergh was going to release another movie only 4 years after announcing his retirement, I was both pleased but also rather annoyed. I mean, why didn't he just say that he was taking a break from directing instead ? Anyway, eventually, even though this movie did receive some solid reviews, it didn't make much waves at the box-office after all but I still wanted to check it out anyway. Well, all in all, even though it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was still pretty entertaining. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for the heist genre and this one turned out to be pretty neat. As usual, Soderbergh had a solid cast at his disposal and they obviously all had some fun with the material. Still, even though it was a decent story, it was nothing really amazing though. I mean, the main thing that bothered me, beside the fact that their plan was just so flawless and ran so smoothly, was how did Jimmy Logan come up with all this? Furthermore, they didn't really explain why he took all these risks. Maybe because life hadn't been kind so far with the Logans so they had to take their revenge somehow? Anyway, to conclude, even if it was no masterpiece whatsoever, I had a good time watching this movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Steven Soderbergh's work.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since it has a solid reputation and since I try to watch all the Disney animated classics, I still wanted to check it out. Well, even though it was certainly not bad at all, I still didn't care much for the damned thing, I'm afraid. Basically, the main issue I had was that, even as a kid, I never really understood the appeal of Winnie the Pooh and it certainly didn't change when I became a grown-up. Furthermore, is it me or are they constantly recycling the same stories and ideas with these characters? Anyway, basically, there was a very specific target audience for this movie, the kids between 3 and 7 years old, but I can't imagine anyone older really having a blast with this. Still, at least, the animation was really neat and it shows that Disney should focus more on hand-drawn animation since they are such masters in this art and leave the CGI animation to Pixar. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn't really work for me, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you want to entertain some very young kids. 

Since I really liked the original version and since this movie really had a solid reputation as well, I was quite eager to check it out. In fact, the first version I saw was the 3rd one directed by Abel Ferrara but, to be honest, at the time, I thought it was really weak but since Roger Ebert apparently really liked it maybe I should check it out again. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, from the 4 different movies they made out of his story, it was my favorite one and it is one of the very few remakes which was at least as good as its predecessor was. I mean, to be honest, it wasn't such a massive improvement on the first version from the 50's, it was actually a really faithful remake but the main reason I preferred this movie was because they went for a much bleaker ending this time around. It was also pretty neat to see Donald Sutherland playing the lead for once and it was really refreshing to see a lead character who did look like a normal person and not like a model. Concerning the story itself, it was still quite creepy and effective but, to be honest, it is still a B feature after all but it must be one of the best in this genre. Anyway, even if I wasn't completely blown away, it was still a solid horror feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.