Reviews by johanlefourbe

This movie is pretty much the stuff of legend. Indeed, the production on this movie was so messed up and convoluted (it has become somehow a trademark with Terry Gilliam) that the making-off has maybe become even more notorious than the movie itself. For example, after many delays, the film was already $2 million over budget before they even started to shoot and, eventually, the budget started with $23.5 million and almost doubled. It is reported that, when they finally started to shoot the damned thing, after a  whole week, they only managed to get about 17 minutes of footage. Following all these production problems and cost overruns, Terry Gilliam actually almost got fired during this nightmarish shooting but, somehow, he still managed to finish this movie. Well, if you manage to put aside all this, I still think it is actually a decent watch. I mean, sure, the end result was indeed pretty messed up but I thought it was still fairly entertaining and the whole thing was above quite gorgeous which can be expected from a movie delivered by this director. Anyway,  to conclude, in spite of its reputation, I think it is actually pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Terry Gilliam’s work. 

Even though this movie was a huge commercial and critical failure, I have to admit that it used to be one of my highest priorities for 2016. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for Alex Proyas’s work (‘Dar City’ is especially one of my all-time favorite movies) and, after 7 long years, the guy was finally coming up with something new so I had some rather high expectations. Unfortunately, I have to agree, this movie turned out be indeed a massive disappointment. I mean, the whole thing looked really neat but, unfortunately, pretty much nothing else really worked in this movie. First of all, this movie received some big criticism for whitewashing the characters but I don’t really believe in this argument. Indeed, in my opinion, it is really naive to think that they could release such a blockbuster with some unknown Egyptian or Arab actors. So, even though the ethnicity of the actors was not really the issue here, it doesn’t change the fact that the cast was actually rather weak. Indeed, in my opinion, Chadwick Boseman was the only one who managed to do something interesting with his character. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Geoffrey Rush were not bad but also not really amazing either. Brenton Thwaites and  Courtney Eaton were both really bland and boring and, for  Courtney Eaton, her ever-present cleavage obviously helped by a push up bra was really distracting and not really period accurate. Concerning Elodie Yung, she looked nice but they should have chosen a much more gorgeous woman to play the goddess of love, like Bar Refaeli for example or, even if they wanted someone more exotic looking, Adriana Lima or Irina Shayk. Eventually, the most disappointing actor was probably Gerard Butler though. Indeed, while watching this flick, it was hard to believe that it was the same actor who, 10 years ago, kicked some major-ass as Leonidas. Indeed in ‘300’, he carried the whole thing on his shoulder, showing some major charisma and leadership but, in this movie, I never believed I was watching some actual god with some mighty power. Aside from the cast, the story was also really weak. I mean, the whole thing about the prince who needs to fight against his uncle to get back his throne has been done to death by now and usually way better than in this movie. To conclude, even though the whole thing really had some potential, it turned to be really weak and I don’t think it is worth a look. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick. Still, I remember it pretty well. Basically, this movie is the proof that Jennifer Annison is actually quite talented and, if she would choose the rate material, she could have had a more interesting career. I mean, ever since she stopped with ‘Friends’, she definitely had a successful career but, in my opinion, she just kept playing some version of Rachel Green which became pretty boring at some point. Coming back to our main feature, well, for once, Anniston played someone completely different than Rachel Green and it worked fine. In fact, she played someone who was actually rather unlikable and it was just so refreshing. It also helped that she was working with Jake Gyllenhaal, one of the best actors of his generation. Gyllenhaal just had his breakthrough a year before with ‘Donnie Darko’, he was still up-and-coming at the time but the guy was already quite promising and I thought he had some pretty good chemistry with Jennifer Anniston. To conclude, even though it was probably nothing really amazing, I thought it was a solid indie drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. The most interesting thing about this movie is that it was starring a very young Nicole Kidman. She would give her breakthrough performance in this movie opening her the doors of Hollywood and she would never look back afterwards. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, even though it was maybe nothing really ground-breaking, it was a really solid and entertaining thriller. In fact, many noticed the similarities between this movie and, ‘[Link removed - login to see]’, the really impressive debut delivered by Roman Polanski and I think it is a good thing that I saw this movie first as it allowed me to enjoy it more. Eventually, it must be one of the very few movies starring Billy Zane in which the guy was not completely annoying for once. On the other hand, Sam Neil and Nicole Kidman were perfectly cast and they all delivered some solid performances. To conclude, even though it was maybe not a masterpiece, I always had a weak spot for such minimalist thrillers, I thought it was actually pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. Still, I remember quite well when this movie was released. Indeed, back in those days, Ben Affleck was already starting to have a rather poor reputation after working twice with Michael Bay (in ‘Armageddon’ and ‘Pearl Harbor’) and, a year later, everything would go south for him with a succession of really massive box-office flops (‘Daredevil’, ‘Gigli’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Jersey Girl’, ‘Surviving Christmas’). Personally, I always believed that the hatred towards this actor at the time was really exaggerated and I was really pleased when he managed to make a massive come-back as a director. But even as an actor, I thought that the guy was not bad at all and this movie is a fine example. Indeed, what I enjoyed the most about this movie is that the 2 main characters played by Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson were pretty much some average fellows, with their own qualities and defaults. On top of that, I thought that most of what happened during the whole thing was fairly believable which is something rather rare in your average US thriller and I really liked the approach. To conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was a decent thriller and I think it is definitely worth a look 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it has a really solid reputation (it has an impressive 7.9 rating on IMDb and it was nominated for 2 Academy Awards), I thought I might as well check it out. On top of that, it was a huge box-office success in France and it turned out to be there the top grossing film released in 2004 so I thought it should be worth a look. Well, to be honest, even though it was a decent watch, I was actually amazed by how generic and predictable the whole thing was.  I mean, I already had a hard time to care for ‘Dead Poets Society’ which is basically the reference in this genre and this movie didn’t really improve this formula, I'm afraid. I mean, sure, the music was nice and Gérard Jugnot played a nice guy as well but, that’s basically the problem, it is all so nice and sweet, it became borderline boring at some point. To conclude, even though I thought that the whole thing was rather disappointing, I have to admit that it was not bad and I guess it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

If you are familiar with Gaspar Noé’s work, then you will know that to watch any of his movies is always a challenge and this movie was maybe his most challenging effort so far. I mean, it was pretty obvious that Noé will come up at some point with a very sexually explicit feature and you might wonder if he will top this in the future. First of all, I want to point out that even though I liked the posters (what can I say? I’m just a big pervert…) but they actually gave the wrong idea. Indeed, there was actually no close-up of a vagina during the whole thing and the threesome was just one event taking place during this relationship so I don’t think these posters were really representative. Anyway, personally, I have always been interested by a mainstream feature with some very explicit or even non-simulated sex and Noé gave it a try here and I think he mostly succeeded. Indeed, most of the sex scenes were well done and usually in a tasteful way and, in the contrary to ‘9 Songs’ which a similar attempt done by Michael Winterbottom, they took the time to develop the characters which was really appreciated. Still, I can’t say it completely worked though. First of all, the damned thing was just too long. I mean, you had here a movie focusing on 2 characters and their relationship which was fine but for more than 2 hours, they didn’t do much, except having a lot of sex and some random conversations so I think they could have easily removed 30 mins. The other problem I had is that the characters were not bad but not really fascinating either. I didn’t help that they didn’t seem to have a regular day job and the main character was basically a real douche-bag, cheating on his girlfriend multiple times and yet displaying also a really annoying jealous behavior. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look but you should definitely be aware of its content before watching the damned thing.