Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick. Still, I remember it very well, I had no idea what to expect from the damned thing and I wanted to watch it just mostly because Dustin Hoffman was involved. Basically, it is a rather typical feature dealing with a con and I always had a weak spot for the genre. Of course, the story was really far-fetched but, in this case, it didn’t bother too much since there was a nice néo-noir mood and a fine cast involved (Edward Burns, Rachel Weisz, Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia, Paul Giamatti) and I thought it was usually quite entertaining. Concerning Edward Burns, I always thought he was an interesting actor but, unfortunately, it would be one of the last watchable movies he would make and, since then, he has been involved in some really weak productions, apparently, above all to be able to finance his own (really obscure) directing efforts.  In fact, I could say the same thing about Rachel Weisz. I mean, seriously, when was the last time she made something really amazing? Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really great, I thought it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I just saw a couple of days ‘Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec’ and I was amazed about how underwhelming the whole thing was. Well, this other directing effort from Luc Besson was maybe slightly better but only slightly. The saddest thing about this flick is that if Luc Besson would have made a movie starring such legends like Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer 20 years ago, it would have been a huge event but, nowadays, both actors and even the French director don’t really try anymore and it is not really surprising that they delivered such a weak effort. At least, it was Besson’s very first comedy so that was neat to see him trying something new but the whole thing was barely entertaining. The main issue is that the premise was actually rather weak and, to make things worse, it was so poorly developed. I mean, as a French man, it was obvious that Besson should have been bale to handle better such a American family stranded in a small French village in the middle of nowhere but his approach didn’t really impress me. For example, why all the French people did speak English in this village? I wouldn’t expect so many French people to speak English in a big city but certainly not in a small village like this one. It’s like the Manzoni family, they have been in France for a while by now so they should speak more/better French, especially the kids who went to some French schools. At least, De Niro and Pfeiffer were not bad and they had some fun with the material but their children were both poorly written. At least, Diana Agron did look lovely but her character and her brother were usually rather boring and unconvincing. To conclude, it was another really weak effort from Besson and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme and I saw all the movies he made at the beginning of his career. Eventually, at around 14 years old, I started to get interested in other kind of movies and I discovered that his movies were not so great after all. Anyway, from all these movies, back then, I was mostly fascinated by this movie, at least, until I saw the damned thing. Indeed, to have a cool martial-artists like Van Damme playing in some post-apocalyptic world seemed pretty neat for 12 year old boy like me. Of course, I didn’t know that this movie was made following the cancellations of 2 projects, a sequel to ‘Masters of the Universe’ and a ‘Spider-Man’ film, as the studio already spent 2 millions on this project, they came up with this project to ‘recycle’ their costumes and sets and to compensate their losses. Of course, in such circumstances, there was no way that the whole thing could have really worked but, since I have just a kid, I thought it was almost entertaining. Anyway, to conclude, I think I’m being really generous with my rating here, the whole thing was pretty lame and I don’t think it is worth a look. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie  and maybe I should give it another shot at some point, or maybe not. Basically, back in 2000, they released 2 movies dealing with Mars, this movie and ‘Red Planet’ and even though you might have expected one of them to succeed, both of them were poorly received and failed at the box-office. Well, with this in mind, I didn’t expect much from this flick but, to be honest, I thought it was not so bad after all. I mean, it wasn’t ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, that’s for sure, butI thought it was visually decent and the story was fairly entertaining. The fact that I always had a weak spot for such adventures in space probably made me give this movie a few extra points. Furthermore, any movie starring Tim Robbins and Don Cheaddle, even when they are poorly used like here, can’t be completely worthless. Basically, the only real issue with this movie is that, even though there were a few interesting ideas, they never knew if it should be something smart or some brainless entertainment so they awkwardly landed in the middle with some rather mixed end-result. To conclude, even though it has a rather lame reputation, I thought it was a decent watch but you shouldn’t expect much before watching the damned thing. 

When was the last time that Luc Besson has delivered a really good movie? I’m not even talking about the lame movies he has been producing lately but even his directing efforts have been rather disappointing. Well, with this is mind, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but I certainly didn’t expect it to be so underwhelming. I mean, it was nice that he was trying something really different than his previous movies, I’ll give him that, but barely nothing did work with this feature. At first, it seemed to be some kind of female version of Indiana Jones which sounded actually rather promising but, as soon as the main character got back to Paris, it all became some kind of terrible mess involving a pterodactyl and some mummy who had to be resurrected. Concerning Louise Bourgoin, sure, she was very nice looking and she displayed some potential but her acting was sometimes decent but usually rather weak. Still, I don’t think she was the one really to blame here. Indeed, the tone was more annoying than really entertaining and the story, as mentioned before, was just a boring mess. To conclude, surprisingly, it turned out to be the weakest movie delivered by the French director, at least, in my opinion, and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

I remember very well when this movie came out in France. Indeed, before its release, there was quite some buzz. Since 'Delicatessen', the previous movie directed by Caro & Jeunet turned out to be a huge cult-classic in my home country, the expectations were really high concerning their follow-up, especially since it was the most expensive French movie ever made at the time if I recall it correctly. Anyway, I even went to see in the movie theater when it was released but, to be honest, I actually ended up with some mixed feelings about the damned thing. Sure, it was visually impressive, no doubt at about it, but there was something that slightly bothered me with this tale.  I mean, it was  fairly entertaining but, somehow, I had a rather hard time to care for these characters and what they were going through. Eventually, it would be the last movie made by Caro & Jeunet together and even though Jean-Pierre Jeunet had a pretty good career on his own afterwards, I think it’s too bad those guys never worked again together. Anyway, even though  I wasn’t completely sold by the damned thing, it was still pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

The day before, I just watched ‘Nous finirons ensemble’ with my wife and since we both enjoyed it, I thought I might rewatch this movie, especially since my wife didn’t see it. Well, I actually think that she enjoyed more the sequel but I think that both movies worked fine. I think that this first instalment took much more time to finally take off (it’s also much longer) and it’s actually more dramatic. Anyway, the damned thing did start with a really neat one-take shot and Guillaumet Canet was a little bit a show off with this scene, obviously inspired by some similar ones especially  the famous club scene in ‘Goodfellas’. Still, it was really well done and a great way to introduce Ludo. Eventually, this story wouldn’t be actually about Ludo but about his friends who surprisingly decide to go on their traditional holiday while Ludo is lying in the ICU. The funny thing is that I witnessed a really similar situation the very same year I watched this movie the first time around. Indeed, every year, my stepchildren go to some luxury ski holidays with their father and the rest of his family and, back then, just a week before they were supposed to go, their grand-father got a severe cerebral haemorrhage but guess what? They still went anyway to their ski holidays as usual. Seriously, that’s something I really don’t understand (are holidays really that important?) but that’s apparently something that people really do. Anyway, coming back to the movie itself, I thought it was pretty good, thanks above all to a really strong cast but not everything did work though. The main issue, in my opinion, was that there were so many characters involved (If you count all the various couples, you would come up with more than 10 men and women) and, as a result, even if the movie was rather long (150 mins), there was still not enough room to really develop all of them. Still, in spite of its flaws, I really liked the mood, it was a well-made movie with some solid performances and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick but since I always had a weak spot for [Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see]work, I thought I might as well check it out.  Back then, Barbet Schroeder had a decent run in the USA (I especially loved 'Reversal of Fortune') and this movie would be one of the last he would make there before heading back to Europe. Well, it wasn’t really good I’m afraid, in fact, I’m pretty sure it was the weakest movie delivered by Schroeder so far. Indeed, basically, it was one of these far-fetched thrillers and the story was so over-the-top, I thought it was actually more ridiculous than actually entertaining. I don’t actually blame Barbet Schroeder as I don’t think that even the best director in the world could have done something with this tale. Concerning the actors involved, back then, Andy Garcia was still trying to be a leading man but I thought he was rather boring. On the other hand, the always underrated Michael Keaton was actually not bad a all but he clearly deserved some better material than here.To conclude, even though Michael Keaton seemed to have some fun, it was a rather weak thriller and I don’t think it is really worth a look.