Reviews by johanlefourbe

As you may have noticed, I’m a very obsessive movie watcher and one of my very first obsessions was/is Robert De Niro. I just love this actor and I have been watching many of this movies during the last 20 years (I have seen 72 of them so far). However, since the beginning of 2000's, he has made a lot of movies but most of them were of a very dubious quality so I’m not as fanatic as I used to be about his work but I still watch some of them from time to time. The funny thing with this movie is, that, if you would compare it to what De Niro made in the past, it was actually rather weak but, if you would compare it to to the recent garbage starring Robert De Niro,  it was actually not bad at all. It was especially pretty neat to see a young James Franco who was personally chosen by De Niro. Apparently, Michael Caton-Jones was actually so unhappy with the final result though that he even said that working on this film was the worst period of his career (I wonder if he made this statement before or after working on ‘Basic Instinct 2’). Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was still a decent watch and I think it is actually worth a look, especially if you are interested in De Niro’s work.

I already saw this movie but, for some reason, I was quite eager to check it out again. In fact, the main reason to watch this movie is because it was with this movie that Alicia Vikander got her international breakthrough. On top of that, since this movie had a really good reputation, my expectations were actually pretty high. Well, eventually, I thought it was pretty good but, somehow, I wasn’t completely sold though. I mean, it was probably one of the most ambitious Danish productions I have seen so far and it looked really neat and convincing but, I don’t know, even though the story was quite compelling, it was missing something or maybe, in the contrary, it was maybe too much. Indeed, the movie was not only about the love affair between the queen of Denmark with the king’s own doctor but also about the fact that both of them, the queen and the doctor, influenced the king to make some big reforms in Denmark. Well, while this mix might sound appealing, I don’t think it completely worked though. Indeed, when they were together, they seemed to be always more infatuated with their ideas then with each other and you might wonder, if they had focused only on what seemed to really matter for them (to bring some major changes Denmark), they might have achieved more without all this drama. As a result, I was also never really convinced by this love story. Still, there is no doubt that Alicia Vikander was terribly charismatic in this star-making performance and she is still one of the most interesting actresses at work nowadays. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely blow me away, it was still a pretty good period drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Danish movies.  

To be honest, it has been a while since I saw this movie and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. In France, it is a massive classic and it was a big critical and commercial success when it was released. Indeed, it was a prestigious production involving the adaptation of a French literary classic with Gérard Depardieu in the title role. The guy gave here eventually one of the most unforgettable performances of his career (he was even nominated for the Academy Awards, something really rare for a performance in a foreign language). And yet, even though I did enjoy it, I can’t say it really blew me away though. Indeed, to be honest,  the whole thing was, in my opinion, in fact a rather silly story when you think about it. I mean, if you would strip the great costumes, the decors, the dialogues, the actors, you would get something closer to ‘Roxanne’ which was rather cringe-inducing to behold, at least, as far as I’m concerned. 5 years later, Jean-Paul Rappeneau would come up with similar project, ‘Le hussard sur le toit’, but even though it was fairly successful, it didn’t become a huge classic like this movie. To conclude, coming back to our main feature, even though I wasn’t really a big fan, it was still a really solid period drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies. 

Following the impressive ‘Lincoln’ and since this movie was really well received, I was really eager to check this new directing effort from Steve Spielberg. Well, to be honest, I thought it was actually slightly disappointing. I mean, sure, Spielberg knows how to direct a movie so it was technically well made and visually appealing but I actually had a hard time to really care about this story. I mean, that’s always a tricky thing when you are dealing with a thriller for which you know the outcome from the very beginning, you still have to find a way to keep the audience captivated by the proceedings and this movie never managed to really entertain me. First of all, the first half, when Donovan was first fighting for Abel’s rights felt rather pointless and hypocritical. Indeed, I thought it was pointless because the movie was never about if Abel should have more rights or not, it was about exchanging him with an American spy. It felt also hypocritical because it is really easy to point fingers about how the American people used to be intolerant 50 years ago. Then, the 2^nd half about the actual exchange was better but still not really amazing. In this case, the issue was, as pointed out before, that the outcome was already obvious from the start and even though they tried to convince the viewers that everything might go south at some point, I never felt any real danger at any point. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t convince me, it was still a decent watch though but I think it is actually a minor effort from Spielberg.  

To be honest, it has been a while since I saw this movie but, for some reasons, I’m pretty sure I actually ended up watching it in the movie theater when it was released. Back then, I was just about 12-13 years old and it might seem a rather odd choice but the whole thing definitely had an impact on me. Indeed, it must have been the first movie I saw dealing with the slums in India (and after all these years still one of the few Western productions dealing with this subject) and I think it gave a realistic and interesting look on this topic. The only thing that bothered me with this movie was probably this old gimmick of having a white guy helping the locals who seem to be rather helpless without their white helper. Some people might argue that it is actually fairly racist but I think it is actually more a commercial choice. Indeed, movies are so expensive, even more nowadays, it is pretty much impossible to sell a movie without a famous Western actor playing the main character, even if in this case, it would be much more compelling to focus on the Indian people fighting their own struggle without the help of your typical White hero.  At least, Patrick Swayze was not bad here and I think he actually gave one of his best performances.  To conclude, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested by this subject. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I saw this flick but, if I recall it correctly, I actually saw it in the movie theater when it was released. Indeed, ever since I saw ‘The Player’, I became really interested in Robert Altman's work and I think this movie was the only one he directed that I actually saw in the movie theater. Well, eventually, as usual with this director, it turned out to be a decent watch but it was definitely not one of the best movies delivered by this director. I mean, pretty much like in ‘The Player’, it was in fact another murder mystery but even though the cast was pretty neat (Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Chris O'Donnell), the story was fairly entertaining but really too fluffy to be taken seriously. On top of that, in my case, I find it rather difficult to find hilarious the tale of an innocent  black man who gets the blame for his boss’s death but maybe it had to with the fact that I just finished to watch ‘Making a Murderer’ on Netflix. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was a minor effort from this director, it was still not bad at all and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robert Altman’s work. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since it belongs to the Disney classics, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I find it rather odd that this movie has been included in this fairly prestigious list since there was only one short animated segment (which was by far the best part in this movie though). Anyway, basically, it was some kind of weak copy of ‘Mary Poppins’ (Julie Andrews even initially turned down the role of Miss Price) but the whole thing was just seriously tedious, I’m afraid. Indeed, first of all, for some reasons, I thought it would be a rather short feature but it turned out to be much longer than I expected and they could and should have removed at least 30 mins. Eventually, the only thing that really worked for me was the scene combining the live action with the animation, even if the characters felt recycled from ‘Robin Hood’. Aside from this sequence, unfortunately, pretty much everything else was seriously boring and the ending suddenly involving some Nazi Germans was especially misguided and finished to really ruin this flick. Anyway, to conclude, I really didn’t like this flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I always wondered if Claude Chabrol was really famous abroad but he was definitely a major director in France. Indeed, the guy really had an impressive career with a dozen of French classics with a career stretching from the New Wave until his death in 2010. To be honest, I haven't seen so many of his flicks and I wish I saw much more of his work but this movie is so far the best one I have seen from this director. Indeed, when it was released in France, it was a huge critical hit and it definitely deserved all the praises it received at the time. I mean, sure, Chabrol has made more thrillers before and after and quite often, they were also dealing with the class struggle but it is with this movie that he finally perfected his formula. On top of that, he was working again with Isabelle Huppert, probably his favorite actress, but also with Sandrine Bonnaire who gave here one of he best performances and, together, they made a fascinating duo. To conclude, I think it must be one of the best French thrillers I have ever seen and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Claude Chabrol’s work.