Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since this movie had a really solid reputation, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, to be honest, I have to admit that I always had a hard time with the screwball comedies and, even though this movie is probably one of the most famous in this genre, I still had a hard time to really care for it. I mean, it's not that the damned thing didn’t have some potential, in the contrary. Indeed, it was dealing with a rather lugubrious concept and it could have been an awesome dark comedy. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the tone was just too whimsical for my taste. As a result, the whole insanity angle which was quite fascinating was in fact rather poorly developed. Furthermore, even though Cary Grant was a great choice to play the main character, he didn’t deliver one of his best performances (in fact, Grant himself often called it his least favorite of all his movies). On the other hand, Peter Lorre was basically born to play such characters and even though Priscilla Lane didn’t have much to do, she looked really lovely. To conclude, even though it never really fulfilled its potential, it remains  a classic, it was indeed a pretty good comedy and it is definitely worth a look. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I saw this flick and I should probably re-watch it at some point. In fact, I’m pretty sure I actually saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released. Well, I have to admit it, it is definitely one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen. Indeed, the concept was just completely surreal, it had never ever seen anything so original before and the first half of the movie was really quite awesome. Unfortunately, I do believe that the whole thing lost some steam in the 2^nd half and, therefore, I never considered this movie to be really a masterpiece. Basically, it all depends on how much you connect with the weird stuff displayed in this movie. In my case, I thought it was at first quite awesome but, at some point, I had the feeling that the writer, Charlie Kaufman, got stuck with this surrealist tale but, instead of developing the interesting ideas it gave, the whole thing went just nowhere in my opinion. Sure, you might argue that it was never supposed to go anywhere but, as a result, it didn’t have such a huge impact on me. To conclude, even though it didn’t completely work for me, it was still a really original feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in more experimental features. 

Well, this movie was unfortunately Paul Verhoeven’s last success in the US and everything he made afterwards in America didn’t really work. And, of course, this feature also turned Sharon Stone into a major star but it’s such a pity that almost everything she did afterwards was eventually really underwhelming, ‘Casino’ being one of the very few exceptions. Coming back to our main feature, well, even though this movie has a rather solid reputation, to be honest, I always had some rather mixed feelings about the damned thing. Sure, I have to admit it, the first half was actually quite awesome. Indeed, it was basically some kind of really steamy Hitchcockian thriller and it was quite spellbinding to watch. On top of that, the story was really entertaining and Micheal Douglas and Sharon Stone had some great chemistry together. Unfortunately, the second half didn’t work really well in my opinion, and, as far as I was concerned, it was just a succession of non-sensical and more or less shocking scenes. Anyway, to conclude, even though I think it is slightly overrated, I have to admit that it is a very well made and entertaining erotic thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Paul Verhoeven’s work. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. Basically, I always had some mixed feelings about this movie. In fact, it is one of the most popular movies directed by Joel Schumacher (according to IMDb, it is his 2nd best movie only behind ‘Falling Down’) and my wife really liked a lot but I wasn’t really convinced. I mean, I have to admit it, it was a well made court drama with a very strong cast involved (Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Ashley Judd) but this movie displayed some ideas which I found seriously despicable. Indeed, according to this movie, if anyone decides to kill someone else just because they think they deserved it, they shouldn’t be bothered whatsoever. In this case, they argue that since the victims were some hideous child molesters, they got their deserved punishment which was just so wrong on every possible level. In my opinion, it was actually the perfect opposite of Justice. Indeed, Justice should be based on laws and facts and it is absolutely paramount that your feelings should never get involved in the mix. I mean, if you check the internet, it is quite impressive to see how many people actually believe the message displayed in this movie. In fact, if you would ask them what we should do with child molesters in general, apparently, they should be all hanged and shot on the spot but it has nothing to with Justice. Anyway, even though I thought that this movie was really difficult to digest sometimes, it actually shows what a lot of people feel about such matter and, only therefore, it is actually really worth a look. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I thought I might as well check it out. By now, you might think that the found-footage gimmick has been done to death but, apparently, the film makers still manage to find some way to be creative with this concept. Indeed, in this case, we get the opportunity to go all the way to Norway to follow some kind of troll hunter during the shooting of a mockumentary. Eventually, the end result was not bad and, above all, I liked the way they managed to mix comedy and horror which can be a tricky thing to do. Still, even though it was a decent effort, I can’t say I was really blown away by the damned thing though. First of all, to be honest, I thought that the first troll really looked ridiculous but, fortunately, all the other trolls were pretty neat, especially the last one. Eventually, the biggest problem I had is that even though I always had a weak spot for this found footage features, by now, I’m afraid I have seen too many of them to really care anymore. Anyway, to conclude, even it wasn’t really amazing, I thought it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. Back then, Johnny Depp showed up in this movie just before becoming a huge star with ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’ and I wonder if it would attract any audience if it was released nowadays. Personally, I always had some mixed feelings about this flick. Indeed, on one hand, it was a decent true story, there was a really nice cast involved (Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Franka Potente, Rachel Griffiths) and they all delivered some decent performances but, on the other hand, it still was missing something to be truly remarkable. I mean, if you would put it aside some really amazing crime features like ‘Goodfellas’, for example, it is actually rather forgettable. Concerning Ted Demme, this movie finally got him the attention of the mainstream audience but, unfortunately, he would die about a year later, ironically with some cocaine in his body. Still, after rewatching it so many years later, I have to admit that I still have a weak spot for the damned thing though. The one thing that still bothered me was that, even though Jung was apparently retired for years, the FBI and DEA were still chasing him for some reason and I wish they would have explained what was their beef against him exactly. At least, back then, Depp was still one of the most interesting actors at work, instead of the pathetic circus show he has become (who knows though? He might make a come-back at some point... that would great because I really miss the guy). Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Johnny Depp’s work. 

After 6 long years, Michael Moore was finally coming up with a new directing effort so, of course, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I think it was actually his weakest movie so far. I mean, it was not really bad, in fact, it was still a decent watch but I thought that this movie was mostly made for the American audience, even more than his previous movies. Indeed, I guess it must be really interesting for the people from the USA to see how things goes in other countries but, for the European viewers, it is rather weird to hear that your country is actually totally awesome. In my case, I’m French and I thought it was hilarious to see Moore taking the French school cafeterias as an example. Indeed, when I was a kid, I had to eat there every day and I thought it was awful. Of course, it was more than 20 years ago so those places might have improved in the mean time but it is pretty obvious that Moore really exaggerated how great everything goes in the rest of the world. Still, it was an interesting watch and while watching the damned thing, you wonder why the USA are still considered the most powerful country in the world where they are in fact behind everyone else in almost any area you could think of. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t really work for me, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Michael Moore’s work.