Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie and I should definitely re-watch it at some point. It is considered by many as Terry Gilliam's Magnum Opus and even though it might not be my favorite movie he made (I think I actually prefer ‘12 Monkeys’), it is still pretty obvious that this movie completely deserves its prestigious reputation. Surprisingly, Roger Ebert really didn’t like it at all but he was an expection as the movie was really well received when it was released. Somehow, I still can understand Ebert though. Indeed, I really believe that Gillim is one of the most imaginative directors out there and for already more than 30 years but his movies are always confused and confusing and they can be sometimes rather frustrating to watch. Still, as usual with this director,  the whole thing was visually impressive but there was also something quite spellbinding about this tale. Personally, I always had a weak spot for futuristic dystopian stories and this must be one of the most famous movies in this genre. To conclude, it is probably one of the most heralded cult-classics out there and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Terry Gilliam’s work.

I already saw this movie but since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out again. To be honest, I never really understood why this movie was so popular. I mean, at some point, according to IMDb, this was even the best movie released in 2016 (not anymore though). I have to admit it, it was far from being a bad movie, it’s just that I didn’t see anything really amazing about it. Sure, the animation was really neat but, by now, I wouldn’t expect less from Disney. However, I thought that the story was rather generic and, at times, even slightly tedious. For many years, one of the most enduring and annoying trademarks in the Disney animated features have been these talking animals and, in this case, they just took this gimmick and gave it a modern twist, that’s about it. I mean, they went for something so modern that they even added a Breaking Bad methlab with Wolter and Jesse, a reference which will be completely lost on the young viewers but also on everyone else within the next 5 years. Eventually, even it might seem pretty deep for a Disney animated feature, in my opinion, the ideas displayed were remained rather skin-deep, even if it was obviously good-hearted. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was still fairly entertaining, I’m still surprised that it turned out to be such a massive box-office success but I guess it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I already saw this movie but since it was ages ago, I was quite eager to check it out again at some point. I have to admit it, the first time I saw it, even though this movie had a really solid reputation, I didn't care  much for the damned thing and, back then, I ended up with some really mixed feelings. Well, I'm glad I gave it a second chance and I wonder why I was so critical about it back then. I mean, to be honest, I still don't think it is anything really groundbreaking. Indeed, the plot remains just too simplistic for my taste and the characters were barely developed but I have to agree that it is actually a pretty good horror flick with some solid directing by Brian De Palma and a very good performance by Sissy Spacek. Eventually, almost 40 years later, they came up with a remake with Chloë Grace Moretz playing the title character but, even though it seemed to be promising, it turned out to be a commercial and critical flop. Coming back to our main feature,  to conclude,  I still don’t see what is so great about this story but I have to admit that it is a decent horror movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

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.