Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, since most of the movies involving Robert De Niro and John Travolta nowadays are some direct-to-dvd releases, it didn’t expect much from this flick but since I always had a weak spot for these two actors, I thought I might still check it out. Well, eventually, the damned thing turned out to be seriously underwhelming, I’m afraid. To begin with, it seemed at first like a poor choice to have a highly recognizable American actor like Travolta to play a Serbian soldier but I have to admit that he actually pulled it off. In fact, surprisingly, it was actually De Niro who seemed miscast in this movie. Indeed, he might have been more convincing maybe 20 years ago but, for this movie, I never believed he was some kind of bad-ass veteran soldier. For this part, someone like Clint Eastwood would have worked much better. Eventually, De Niro was not even the biggest problem with this movie. Indeed, the biggest issue was that the whole thing was just some rather tedious cat-and-mouse game between these 2 characters. Seriously, it was never really entertaining and interesting whatsoever. To conclude, even though the concept had some potential, the whole thing was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie and the main reason I wanted to check it out was because it was included last year in the ’1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’. To be honest, it seemed to be one of these really obscure entries that they add every year just so the list might seem edgy but, usually, those movies are removed directly the year after. Furthermore, I had the feeling that this movie was somewhat surfing on the current hype around the transgender topic. Still, it was quite an intriguing feature nonetheless.  Indeed, it was definitely a really raw and realistic look on the life of some transgender prostitutes working in Hollywood and you definitely get another view on the American dream. Furthermore, the two main characters, Alexandra and Sin-Dee Rella (yeah, seriously) were at first rather annoying but, slowly, I actually started to care for them and I came to the conclusion that even though life doesn’t seem to have much to offer for them, they still have some inner strength and even sometimes a wicked sense of humor. While watching this movie, I was also thinking that if a transgender man and woman is not well off and doesn’t have the full support of their family, do they really have another option than the prostitution sector? I mean, to change sex is a really expensive process and most employer would’t hire them for a regular job. Anyway, to conclude, even though I don’t think it was really a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look. 

Since I really loved the first season of ‘True Detective’ and ‘Beasts of No Nation’ as well, I was quite eager to check Cary Joji Fukunaga’s  directing debut. To be honest, I thought it was rather tricky to judge this movie. Indeed, a couple of years ago, I saw ‘La jaula de oro’ which basically had more or less the same plot and, even though ‘La jaula de oro’ is not as well known as ‘Sin nombre’, I thought it was actually slightly better. On the other hand, it is rather unfair since ‘Sin nombre’ was actually released 4 years before ‘La jaula de oro’, and, it is pretty much like saying that a remake is better than the original just because I saw the remake first. Anyway, in spite of all this, it was another very strong movie from Fukunaga. Indeed, pretty much like with ‘Beasts of No Nation’, they went for a hyper-realistic approach and the whole thing was quite heartbreaking but still spellbinding to watch. Eventually, it gives a clear view on how desperate the people south of the border have become and, after watching this movie, there is a good change that you might understand the horrors they have to face during their journey to get to the US. To conclude, I thought it was a very good drama about a very topical subject and it is definitely worth a look.

To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what this movie was about before watching it but since it was suggested by one of my favorite Listal members,  I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I’m glad I gave it a shot because I really liked the damned thing a lot and, in my opinion, it provided one of the best depictions of a psychiatric ward I have ever seen. Indeed, I have both some professional and personal experience regarding such environment and what they provided in this movie was pretty much pitch-perfect (I have to admit that the patients were probably most of the time slightly too cheerful though). Furthermore, the main character was really good thanks to a solid performance by Keir Gilchrist and I was completely able to identify with this guy. Unfortunately, they were a couple of things that bothered me and prevented this movie from being really amazing. First of all, I was amazed that the main character would be allowed to have a romantic relationship with another patient without any reaction from the staff. Indeed, during and actually even after such therapy, it is strongly advised to not start any romance because you are far from being emotionally stable (for example, let’s say you were clinically depressed, if you would fall in love and eventually break up afterwards, it could push you down the hole again and ruined all the hard work done to recover). Well, to have a relationship with another patient while you are both in therapy, that would be a major red flag and I’m stunned that they could make out in front of everyone at the end.  Anyway, the biggest problem was in fact that his stay in the psychiatric ward was just way too short. Again out of personal experience, I know that someone who is clinically depressed, even suicidal, would need at least 3 months to get his sh*t together. I mean, within 5 days, you might get to the point that you have acknowledge that you have some major issue going on but that would be it. As a result, many viewers argued that the main character was not actually depressed because it was all solved way too fast and too easily and it would have been solved if the guy would have remained in therapy a little while longer. Anyway, in spite of these flaws, the rest of the movie was actually pretty awesome and I think it is definitely worth a look. 

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. In fact, even though it seems to be rather forgotten nowadays, I remember quite well when it was released. Indeed, back in those days, it became quite a cult-classic following the new hype around drag-queens at the time. Eventually, even though it was a decent watch, to be honest, it wasn't a really strong story. Above all, the road-trip formula was too generic for my taste and it made the whole thing too predictable. Still, those 3 character were quite entertaining thanks to a top cast. Indeed, at the time, I think I already knew who was Terence Stamp (or maybe I was too young) but it was definitely the first time that I ever saw either Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce and it took them many more years to finally breakthrough towards the mainstream audience. Anyway, all of them gave some really strong performances in this movie and without them, I'm not sure if I would have actually cared for the damned thing. Anyway, to conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested by this subject. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, after an impressive career going over more than 2 decades, Julianne Moore was finally awarded her first Academy Award and, after watching the damned thing, it is pretty obvious that she really deserved it. And yet, even if Moore was really good, I’m not so sure if the movie itself was actually so amazing. I mean, Alzheimer is a terrible disease and the makers gave a solid portrayal but the movie never went really beyond this portrayal, I’m afraid. Indeed, she notices the first symptoms, she gets her diagnosis, she tells her family and the disease starts to take its toll. Sure, all of this was rather well done but if you are familiar with this disease and, like me, you have already seen a couple of movies dealing with this subject, it felt rather limited and predictable. Furthermore, even though there was an interesting cast (Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth), all their characters were rather poorly developed and you wonder why they even bothered hiring such high-profile actors for such thankless parts. There was even a son but the situation was even worse for him as he had maybe 2 lines of text through the whole thing. The only interesting conflict was maybe with Alec Baldwin’s character who was still focusing on his career while his wife was terribly sick but even this aspect of the story was barely developed. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a good flick thanks to a very strong Julianne Moore so it is still worth a look but I was actually hoping for something better considering the very strong material. 

I already saw this movie but since it a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. I remember it very well, as a kid growing up in the 90’s, I noticed that people kept mentioning this movie saying that it was a hilarious cult-classic. With this in mind, I had some rather high expectations concerning this movie. Well, at some point, I finally watched the damned thing but, to be honest, I thought it was quite entertaining but not much more than that, I’m afraid. I mean, I always had a weak spot for John Cleese and I have to admit that he was very funny as usual but even though many might argue that Kevin Kline was also really awesome in this movie, I always thought that he was actually seriously annoying playing one of his typical hysterical characters. During the whole duration, everybody kept telling Otto that he was stupid, which was completely true, but I didn't see what was so funny about a guy who keeps doing and saying some really stupid things all the time. Furthermore, the plot and the characters involved were not bad but I never thought it was really hilarious and, even after re-watching the damned thing, I still ended up with the same feeling. Anyway, to conclude, even though I’m not a huge fan, it is still a decent comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.