Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and I wonder how I actually ended up watching the damned thing. I think one of my friends at the time suggested to me to watch it. Anyway, it was the first time I saw a movie directed by Gregg Araki and I was definitely impressed. Indeed, I really liked his directing style and this movie definitely had a very interesting dark mood.  I also really enjoyed these ambiguous and rather messed-up characters and it was pretty neat to discover a very young Rose McGowan (by the way, it is such a shame that her career turned out to be rather disappointing after all). So, the whole thing was definitely something original and it really had some potential but it didn’t completely work out, I’m afraid. Indeed, at the end of the day, the weirdness which was rather fascinating at first slowly started to annoy me and it felt rather gimmick and even slightly pretentious. Still, to conclude, even though it didn’t completely convince me, it was a decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Gregg Araki’s work. 

If I recall it correctly, for some reasons, I actually saw this movie with my wife in the movie theater when it was released. To be honest, it was a rather odd choice since it seemed to rather cheesy but, I have to admit it, I always had a weak spot for romantic-comedies and I probably thought that it would be some decent material for a romantic date. Anyway, the whole thing was basically some kind of homage to the fluffy comedies made in the 1950s and early 1960s, especially the ones starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Anyway, even though Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor seemed to have a lot of fun with this material and even though they were both quite charming, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing. Concerning the actors involved, more than 10 years later, Ewan McGregor is still one of the most interesting actors at work but even though Renée Zellweger was at the time a much bigger star than McGregor was, we don’t hear much from her anymore. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I already saw this movie but since it was such a long time ago, I was really eager to check it out again. Basically, it was some kind of homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s work, and even though Hitchcock himself was apparently not impressed, I think the damned thing was actually pretty neat. Indeed, I especially loved the first act focusing on Angie Dickison and, in my opinion, it was in fact some of the best work ever delivered by Brian De Palma, no less than that. Of course, you might argue that it was rather sleazy and exploitative but I thought that it was just spellbinding to behold and Angie Dickinson was quite fascinating. Obviously as a homage to 'Psycho', De Palma got rid off her at the beginning which was a really bold move and, to be honest, the rest of the movie turned out to be decent enough but not much more than that, I'm afraid. At least, Nancy Allen did play a convincing escort-girl but her character never became really interesting, at least, not as much as Dickinson's character was. To make things worse, the first victim's son was even less compelling to behold and the way he joined forces with this escort-girl was rather preposterous.  Anyway, to conclude, even though it was not flawless, it was still a really entertaining erotic thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Brian De Palma’s work.

I actually saw this movie when it was released, I was just about 13-14 years old, and I think the fact that I was younger made me able to enjoy more this movie. Indeed, when I was even younger, I used to watch all the old movies starring Bruce Lee with my father, I thought they were just awesome and it was just really neat to see a biopic about this legendary actor. On top of that, back then, even though I greatly admired the guy, I actually knew little about his life so the movie was already really informative, even if they  probably made up a lot of stuff (like all the mystical elements) which is rather inherent to the genre. Furthermore, Jason Scott Lee was a great choice to play the main character and I thought he delivered a decent and convincing performance. Eventually, after all these years, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be so generous if I would re-watch it nowadays but this movie would always remain a guilty pleasure of mine. To conclude, even though it was probably not a masterpiece, I thought it was a decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Bruce Lee’s life and work. 

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.