Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, it turned out to so much worse than I expected. Seriously, pretty much nothing worked with this movie. First of all, I want to point out that the body-swap thing is one of the worst gimmicks out there, it almost never works, and this movie must be the worst I have seen in this genre. I mean, in the very first scene, you get to see a CGI baby ass literally shitting in Jason Bateman’s mouth, so, right from the start, the whole thing seemed to be pretty much hopeless and it never got better. Indeed, the concept was just really moronic and never really entertaining. Furthermore, even though Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman are usually pretty funny, in this movie, neither of them was actually entertaining whatsoever.  To make things worse, I don’t think that either of them played both characters really convincingly. Finally, the last drop was the fact you didnt even get to see Leslie Mann and Olivia Wilde in their full glory, instead, you get to see some body-double with some CGI which was rather disappointing. Anyway, to conclude, I was rather amazed about how bad the whole thing was and I don’t think it is worth a look at all. 

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. If I recall it correctly, I actually saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released. Anyway, in my opinion, even though it is nowadays pretty much forgotten, I think it was actually one of the most promising Disney animated features, even if it turned out to terribly frustrating after all. Indeed, the introduction was just amazing, the animation was really impressive and the movie itself was at first quite mesmerizing … until those freaking dinosaurs started to talk. Seriously, it is not very often that I felt so betrayed by a movie. I mean, sure, since it was a Disney feature, I should have expected them to make these characters talk since it is one of their trademarks but it was just so disappointing. Apparently, the whole thing was supposed to be much darker and violent, without any dialogue, which all did sound pretty awesome but, to make it more commercially attractive, they eventually added those dialogues. To make things worse, the whole plot was seriously generic and rather tedious. Basically, it was some kind of mix of ‘Tarzan’ with a more realistic looking version of ‘The Land Before Time’. Eventually, as result, they came up with something visually really impressive but everything else was actually pretty weak, I’m afraid. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is actually one of the more original features delivered by Disney and I think it is worth a look but there is no doubt that it could have been so much better.

I already saw this movie, I think I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released, but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, by now, I must have seen most of the action flicks starring Sylvester Stallone and, to be honest, I think that most of them are pretty weak and boring but I have to admit that there are a few exceptions and this movie is definitely one of them. Indeed, even after all these years, it was still quite enjoyable and I think it will always be one of my guilty pleasures. There is first the fact that I always thought that rock-climbing is quite fascinating (it probably has to do with my fear of heights) and, in my opinion, they delivered a really solid action flick around this sport and it is still one of the most entertaining blockbusters in this genre. Something I didn’t notice when I watched it when I was maybe 13 years old but did this time was the fact that they actually had some solid actors involved. Indeed, it was quite a marvel what John Lithgow and Michael Rooker both managed to do with such preposterous material. It was made even more obvious when it was the turn of the rest of the cast as they were so much less convincing and even sometimes rather borderline pathetic. The worst of the bunch was maybe Janine Turner who was maybe lovely to look at but I’m afraid she didn’t manage to deliver one single line of dialogue properly. At least, she did manage to make Sylvester Stallone sound much better than he actually was. Concerning Renny Harlin, after ‘Die Hard 2’, it was another solid directing effort but it all went down from here for him, I’m afraid. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was definitely not a masterpiece, I really have a weak spot for the damned thing and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I have seen all the movies directed by Tim Burton, of course, I had to see his last directing effort as well but I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Well, to be honest, it wasn’t really good, I’m afraid. I mean, sure, the whole thing looked really nice, as usual with this director, but I really had a hard time to care about this story. Basically, some of it was not bad, there were a couple of ideas that were interesting but most of it was just rather tedious. Apparently, this time, Burton went for a YA novel adaptation which was not really a good idea since the genre has been milked-dry by now. Furthermore, they used the same terrible gimmick they used in so many other YA novels like ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Percy Jackson’ or ‘Narnia’ which is to make the character start in our world and then bring him later on in some fantasy world. Even though it might be fine in a book, it almost never work with a movie because it takes forever for the story to finally get started. In this case, it was pretty terrible. I mean, I think it took the guy about one hour to get to this school/orphanage but, even when he got there, the story still didn’t really take off, I'm afraid. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that the whole thing looked pretty neat so I guess it is still worth a look but it was definitely one of the weakest movies delivered by Tim Burton so far.  

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.