Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. First of all, even though I did love some movies directed by Jim Jarmusch such as ‘Dead Man’, ‘Ghost Dog’ or ‘Only Lovers Left Alive[Link removed - login to see]’, I must admit that I actually had a hard time to care about his other movies, especially his early work from the 80’s. I mean, they were all interesting but it wasn’t just really my cup of tea. In this case, the fact that I always thought that Roberto Benigni was actually more obnoxious than really funny didn’t help either. Fortunately, John Lurie and Tom Waits were fine here and this trio was not bad after all. On top of that, Jarmusch definitely knows how to create a nice unique mood and the black and white cinematography (like his 2 previous directing efforts) was really neat. This time, Jarmusch did use a plot but he obviously didn’t care much about the rules of the jailbreak genre which was pretty nice. To conclude, even though I wasn’t exactly blown away by the whole thing, it was still a decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Jim Jarmusch’s work. 

Even though Ridley Scott also had some massive up and downs in his career, I have always been interested in his work and, therefore, I was really eager to see his directing debut. Anyway, Scott will always be remembered for 'Alien', 'Blade Runner' and 'Gladiator' but many people will probably forget that he actually started his career with this little gem. Indeed, it is basically a completely forgotten feature and I think it’s too bad because it is actually pretty good. To be honest, it seemed to be a rather big and ambitious project for a debuting director but, with someone like Ridley Scott, you shouldn’t expect anything less. Indeed, when you watch the damned thing, it is rather hard to believe that it was, in fact, his directing debut because it was so well done. Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine were maybe not the most famous leading actors ever but they both delivered some solid performances. Eventually, the whole thing was not completely flawless as the story tends to drag along (Ridley Scott is rather infamous for focusing too much on the visuals and not enough on the plot and the characters) but the directing was really impressive and I think it is definitely worth a look.

I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick but the concept had some potential so I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, let’s talk about this concept. To be honest, I wasn’t really convinced. Why would the violence stop if you would allow people to do whatever they want for 12 hours? Furthermore, the amount of damages would be huge and, of course, the emotional and psychological impact on the victims and even the perpetrators would be massive as well. So, the whole thing didn’t make much sense but logic is not something you should expect from your average horror flick. The other disappointing thing was that, even though it was a nationwide event, the whole thing took place only in one house. They made this choice obviously to keep a low budget but, with this concept, they kind of guaranteed some massive mayhem on a huge scale but they eventually never delivered on this promise. And yet, in spite of all these flaws, I thought it was still a decent watch. Indeed, even though the concept didn’t make much sense, it was something original and there was also a decent cast involved (Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey). To conclude, my rating might be generous here but I thought it was not bad but it is pretty obvious that they could have done something much bolder with this idea. 

If I remember it correctly, I actually saw this flick in the movie theater when it was released. I know, it might sound like a daft idea but, when I started to really obsess about movies, I was just about 12 years old, and my first passion were such action flicks. Well, I saw this movie when I was about 14 years, just when I was  discovering the other genres and when I was starting to say farewell to the action flicks I used to love so much. Maybe it explains why I didn’t care much for this movie at all. I mean, sure, if you compare it to all the direct-to-DVD garbage that Wesley Snipes has made during the last decade, it was not really so bad but I thought it was still pretty weak and underwhelming. Indeed, after ‘Point Break’ became a surprising cult-classic, the studios thought they should make some more action flicks about skydiving (see also ‘Terminal Velocity’ which was also released in 1994). However, even though skydiving might seem to be a cool sport,  it is almost impossible to connect it with a sensible plot and, indeed, in this case, the story was just too preposterous. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, I thought it was pretty weak and I don’t think it is worth a look.

2 years after the massive cult-classic ‘Drive’, Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling came back with this new project and, of course, the expectations were pretty high. Eventually, this new movie was really poorly received but I still wanted to check it out. To be honest, I was at first really impressed by the damned thing. Indeed, I thought it was visually really amazing, even more than ‘Drive’. Unfortunately, pretty soon, it turned out that the story was actually really tedious. Apparently, it seemed that they went for some rather mystical vibe but it seriously backfired. Indeed, it was sometimes even rather pathetic (for example, it was rather ridiculous to see each time the policeman popping up his little sword out of nowhere). Concerning Ryan Golsing, he is a fine actor but I’m slowly getting enough of his gimmick of always playing the same kind of silent emotionless pretty boy. Same thing for Kristin Scott Thomas, she gave as usual a very strong performance but her character was so caricatural, so poorly developed, it was rather cringe-inducing to behold.  It’s too bad because even though this kind of old tale of revenge has been done to death, it still had some potential but they want for something so sluggish and pretentiously artistic, it barely worked for me. Anyway, to conclude, fortunately, it looked really amazing so I still think it is worth a look but this movie was definitely a misfire for all the people involved.

My first contact with this movie was actually rather weird. Indeed, when I was a teenager, I used to smoke weed from time to time with my buddies and one of them would put this movie on when we were at his place. Back then, I had no idea who the hell was Akira Kurosawa and I thought it was just rather surrealist flick with some psychedelic qualities. Fast-forward a few years later, back then I was just discovering how great movies could be, Kurosawa was quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite directors so it was really time to re-watch the damned thing. Back then, it seems that this time Kurosawa wanted to make something more contemplative than his usual work and it partially worked. That’s always the same problem with this kind of movies with different segments, some of them were pretty good but some of them were not so impressive. Still, it was something quite original and it was visually pretty neat. To conclude, even though it was probably not one of the best movies delivered by Akira Kurosawa, I thought it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this great Japanese director. 

I have noticed that this movie has a rather lame reputation. Indeed, according to Imdb, it is in fact the worst movie ever directed by Robert Altman, even worse than ‘Prêt-à-Porter’ or ‘Popeye’. Well, I have to admit it, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should check it out again at some point but I thought it was not bad at all. Indeed, I even enjoyed the damned thing. I mean, sure, as pointed out by Roger Ebert, Richard Gere was probably the least convincing gynecologist ever put on the screen but I think he was not bad here. Above all, there was a very interesting female cast involved (Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Tara Reid, Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler).  Eventually, it was all rather fluffy and, according to some, even rather misogynist, but, in my opinion, it was supposed to make fun of the so-called difficult life of all these rich white women and I though it worked fairly well. To conclude, even though it was definitely not one of the best movies delivered by Robert Altman, I thought it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this great American director.