Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this flick but since my wife has a weak spot for such Dutch romantic comedies, I thought we might as well check it out together. Well, even though my wife thought it was a decent watch, I thought it was in fact seriously underwhelming. I mean, is it me or are the  Dutch romantic comedies actually getting worse and worse? Or maybe I have seen too many of them by now. Anyway, this time around, the whole thing was really so lazy and the concept was just really lame. I mean, they gave us a young and hunky Santa Man to compete with Sinterklaas (some kind of local version of Santa Claus)? Seriously? At least, it was pretty neat to see this black American guy getting offended after watching Sinterklaar and his Zwarte Pieten. However, even this scene was actually messed up by the fact that the guy was verbally too offensive which was really inappropriate. At least, Chantal Janzen was cute as usual but her romance with the character played by Benja Bruijning felt forced and I don’t think they had much chemistry. Anyway, to conclude, I thought the damned thing was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except if you are really a die-hard fan of the genre.  

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie. Still, I remember it very well. Indeed, after watching ‘Bad Lieutenant’ back in the 90’s, I became a huge fan of Abel Ferrara’s work and this movie was therefore definitely a high priority for me. Well, even though it turned out to be watchable, I have to admit that I had a rather hard time to really connect with the damned thing. I mean, it was not bad, it was even pretty neat that Ferrara would go for a vampire tale and there was a really nice cast involved (Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco). Unfortunately, the whole thing was terribly murky and I have to admit that I didn't care much for the characters and what they were going through. Actually, from this point on, except for the amazing ‘The Funeral’ which would be Ferrara’s following directing effort, all his following movies would be increasingly obscure and difficult to follow and, as a result, nowadays, nobody seems to really care for this director anymore which is too bad. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t really fulfill my expectations, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Abel Ferrara’s work. 

For some reasons, I have actually watched most of the movies directed by François Ozon (14 out of 16) which is rather surprising because I never became a huge fan of his work. For example, even though his directing debut ‘Sitcom’ turned out to be a somewhat cult-classic in France, I thought it was in fact a seriously dreadful feature. This 2nd directing, which I also watched in the movie theater when it was released, turned out to be only slightly better, I’m afraid. I mean, this time around, the concept actually had some potential and the beginning of the movie was actually really good. Indeed, the story was intriguing and the characters were dark and interesting thanks to some decent performances by Natacha Régnier and Jérémie Renier. However, as soon as they got into these woods, the whole thing completely fell apart. I mean, I don’t blame Miki Manojlović, the guy was and still is a fine actor but, from that point, this tale became terribly murky and underwhelming. Furthrmore, something that often bothered me with Ozon’s work is how pretentious it can be and this movie was probably the worst example. Indeed, the whole thing tried to be entertaining, transgressive and artistic but it failed on all levels. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, I thought it was still pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

For many years, I kept hearing from 2 of my favorites Listal members (the giraffe and Xanadon’t) that this movie was some kind of cult-classic so I was really eager to watch the damned thing. Furthermore, I really loved ‘American Splendor’ which was Shari Springer Berman’s  and Robert Pulcini’s directing debut so I had some high hopes. Well, to be honest, even though this movie was not bad at all, I can’t say I was really blown away though. I mean, the relationship between Paul Dano’s and Kevin Kline’s characters really had some potential and the damned thing was sometimes actually quite hilarious but I’m afraid they pushed the quirkiness way too far and it made it for me rather difficult to really care for these characters. For example, was it really a good idea to make Louis Ives a cross-dresser? I mean, I have nothing against a character struggling with the fact that he wants to dress as a woman but, in this movie, they kept adding layers upon layers of quirky stuff and, as a result, I had a hard time to take the whole thing really seriously. At least, it was much better than the terribly underwhelming ‘The Nanny Diaries’ from the same directors. Anyway, to conclude, even though it turned out to be slightly disappointing, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

[Link removed - login to see]To be honest, it has been a while since I saw this movie and maybe I should rewatch it at some point. Still, I remember it very well when this one was released. Indeed, back then, everyone, including myself, praised Robert De Niro for trying something so drastically different than his usual work. Indeed, it was basically a commercial comedy but it was pretty neat that De Niro would choose to make fun of his legacy and, above all, the damned thing was actually genuinely entertaining. However, what we didn’t know at the time is that De Niro wouldn’t stop after this 1st attempt and he would in fact eventually keep showing up in such commercial comedies but these movies would be more and more underwhelming to watch and, as a result, the once greatest actor ever has by now pretty much ruined his amazing legacy. As a result, I look back at his movie with some rather bittersweet memories. Still, if you can put this aside, I have to admit that the damned thing was actually quite fun. To conclude, even though it was far from being a masterpiece, I still think it was one of the better comedies starring Robert De Niro and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, even though this movie definitely has a solid reputation, I can’t say it completely worked for me. I have to admit that it was a fascinating story but, unfortunately, the tone was just too cheesy for me. On top of that,  it displayed another typical dramatic performance by Robin Williams. Indeed, ever since his performance in ‘Dead Poets Society’, Williams would keep showing up in such dramas from time to time. The problem is that ‘Dead Poets Society’ must be one of the most overrated movies ever made and I thought that Robin Williams was only decent at best in this movie. For this movie, he gave his usual cheesy performance and, while it was again rather watchable, except for a few scenes, I thought he was hardly convincing. On the other hand, Robert De Niro was still at the top of his game at the time and he gave here another impressive and really intense performance. It's too bad because there was definitely something quite spellbinding about the material, it’s just that I didn’t care much about the approach they chose. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t completely work for me, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.