Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, it has been a while since I have this flick and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. Still, I remember it pretty well, before it was released, there was a pretty good buzz about this flick. Indeed, after spending most of the 80’s and 90’s in some (usually really average) action flicks, Sylvester Stallone was finally showing up in a drama and the supporting cast was also quite impressive (Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick,  Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra). Well, even though it sounded really promising, I thought it was a decent watch but, to be honest, not much more than that. I mean, the whole point was basically to see Stallone playing against type and he did a fine job, that’s for sure, but it wasn't a really strong story. I mean, the mood and tone were nice but the plot was nothing really original and it felt rather generic. To conclude, even though it didn’t completely fulfilled my expectations, it was still a decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see Sylvester Stallone doing something completely different than his usual macho stuff.

I wonder if I saw this movie before or after the original version directed by Wim Wenders. I’m pretty sure that I saw this remake first though. Anyway, when it was released, it turned out to be a box-office success and the song ‘Iris’ by Goo Goo Dolls (by the way, it is probably one of the worst band names ever) was for ever present for at least 6 months after this movie came out. Basically, it’s pretty much how it works with this movie, if you have seen ‘[Link removed - login to see]’, then you will probably despise this US version but, if you haven’t seen it, there is a fair chance that you will like it because it is not a really bad romantic feature and it has a decent concept. What’s difficult to swallow is that they took a very deep feature and turned into some rather sappy American romance. Still, Meg Ryan was really cute back in those days and compared to the garbage involving Nicolas Cage lately, you could say that this movie was almost a masterpiece. Eventually, they had a pretty good chemistry together. To conclude, I have to admit that it is not actually the worst remake ever and I think it might be actually worth a look but, eventually, if you have to choose, you should definitely go for the original version directed by Wenders.  

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie, like all the major masterpieces directed by Charles Chaplin, I should definitely re-watch it at some point. Anyway, I have noticed that, according to IMDb, this movie is supposed to be the best one delivered by this great master but I personally prefer 'Modern Times' and 'The Great Dictator' because I believe they are socially and historically more relevant than this movie which I considered as merely a romantic comedy. Back then, Chaplin was apparently facing some extreme pressure to make the film as a talkie, but his popularity and power in Hollywood were such that he was able to release the film as a silent feature (with recorded music though) at a time when the rest of the American motion picture industry had converted to sound. Just a moment ago, I mentioned that it was merely a romantic comedy but I should add that it is also probably one of the very best one in this genre though. Indeed, it is funny, beautiful and really poetic. To conclude, it is and remains a great classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Chaplin’s work.  

From all the James Bond movies starring Sean Connery, this was probably the weakest one. Basically, even though ‘On Her Majesty's Secret Service’ was a decent installment, George Lazenby declined to return to play this iconic part and, even though they considered some other actors, they went back to Sean Connery and I think that it was a mistake. Indeed, even though Connery was and will always be the best James Bond ever, at that point, the guy was already done with this character and the only reason he came back is that they offered a huge amount of money. In fact, it is pretty much what they are trying to do today with Daniel Craig. Indeed, though Craig made pretty clear that he was done with this franchise, you keep hearing rumors that they offered him a record-breaking salary to come back one more time but you might wonder if they will deliver something any good under such circumstances. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, the whole thing was not actually so bad, Connery was always quite charismatic, but it was just seriously quite forgettable. Furthermore, the camp tone chosen was rather lame and it would become unfortunately a trademark in all the following installments involving Roger Moore. To conclude, even if it was a rather weak Bond feature, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since this movie won the Academy Award for the Best Picture, I was really eager to check it out but, for some reasons, it took me about 10 years to finally see the damned thing. Well, I can tell you, it was definitely worth the wait and this movie completely deserved its stellar reputation. Indeed, it was such a powerful movie and it is not very often that I saw a movie who felt so historically important. Indeed, there are tons of movies like ‘Philadelphia’ who explores some important issues but at least a decade too late while this movie was made when the segregation was still going strong in the South of the USA. Indeed, the whole thing was just so intense, especially the first half which  was just so spellbinding to behold. It’s interesting that, the very same year, Sidney Poitier made also ‘Guess Who's Coming to Dinner’ which is also considered a classic but this movie felt really outdated but not this one. Indeed, from the moment they find Tibbs waiting for his train, you could feel the tension, the actual clash of 2 different worlds and you could feel that the whole situation might go south at any moment. Eventually, since they put a great focus on the characters,  I don't think that the investigation was anything really amazing though and I believe that the outcome came out pretty much from nowhere. To conclude, in spite of these minor flaws, I think it is a fascinating thriller and it is definitely worth a look.

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out.  Eventually, I have to agree, it was a solid and entertaining action flick, no doubt about it, but I still think it was rather overrated. The funny thing is that, somehow, I ended up watching it with my wife who argued that something like this was actually likely to happen to any young girl carelessly travelling through Europe. I was really amazed that she would believe something like this and, in fact, Liam Neeson himself told that it was actually a dumb action flick and that someone would be rather stupid to take it really seriously. Anyway,  even though it was in fact a rather generic action flick, the masterstroke was obviously to have Liam Neeson playing the lead character. Indeed, before this movie was released, he was maybe an odd choice but it was in fact really smart to have someone with some actual acting chops to play such a typical bad-ass action character. Eventually, it worked so well that Liam Neeson would spend most of his time afterwards (even today) playing the same kind of character in some similar movies. Well, in my opinion, if you would remove Neeson, the whole thing would just be some other decent action flick but not much more than that. Still, I have to admit it, it is actually a pretty cool movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Ever since I saw ‘What's Eating Gilbert Grape’, I have been a big fan of Lasse Hallstrom and, for the last 20 years, I have been closely following his work. However, I have to admit that most of his movies never really reached the same level of ‘What's Eating…’. Still, if there was ever one movie that came close, that was probably this one. Indeed, I thought it was a fascinating story (I even read the book many years after watching this movie) filled with some flawed and interesting characters. Among those characters, the most fascinating one was easily the one played by the great Michael Caine who was rewarded by a deserved Acamedy Award. In fact, I was really amazed to see some comments in IMDb arguing that this character was selfish because, among other things, he may have committed suicide, even if his death might have been actually an accident. If there was ever an unselfish character, that was definitely this one. I mean, the guy pretty much spent all his life taking care of those orphans and those pregnant women and, yet, some people still think he was actually selfish. To be honest, I think I could have watched a movie just focusing on this great human being and he was probably one of the most inspiring characters I have ever seen. Concerning the other characters, they were also quite interesting but I’m afraid there was maybe too much material to handle for this movie. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was a really strong drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.