Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

To be honest, I wonder how I actually ended up watching this movie but I think it was because the critic in the TV mag was pretty good. Anyway, even though I didn’t really expect it, it turned out to be a major milestone in my movie watching. Indeed, back then, I was much younger, I had never seen anything like this before and I was seriously blown away by the whole thing. I think that the first thing that impressed me with this movie was its visual aspect. Basically, it deals with art and painting and it is probably the movie which  made the best connection with the painting art I have ever seen. Furthermore, there was also a mesmerizing surrealist vibe with this movie and even though the plot and the characters were rather murky, it was one of the most spellbinding movies I have ever seen. Concerning Peter Greenaway, it was his breakthrough feature film, it would be also his first movie I managed to watch and I became right away a big fan of his work. To conclude, even though it might be a acquired taste, I thought this movie was just fascinating to behold and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interesting in experimental movies. 

I already saw this movie but since it was such a long time ago and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. Like most of the kids growing up in France, I saw many animated features starring Astérix and Obélix. I especially loved ‘Astérix et Cléopâtre’ which I must have seen maybe 100 times back in those days. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, this one was particularly interesting as it was a completely original story, unlike all other Astérix movies which were based upon one of the many Astérix comic-books, at least, until then. It would be also the last movie directed by the actual creators, René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. Anyway, this movie was basically some kind of parody of the twelve labors of Hercules which seemed to be a great idea for these characters. However, even though most of it was indeed rather fun, it was also rather episodic, I’m afraid. Furthermore, since Obélix is always under the influence of the magic potion and since Astérix is often using some magic potion as well (which is basically some kind of doping), there was no real competition and there was therefore never anything really at stake at any moment. However, pretty much like Tarantino did with ‘Inglourious Basterds’, they actually did rewrite history with the ending by letting the characters actually beat Julius Caesar which was even more surprising since it never happened in the comic-books. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was probably not a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch, it is one of the best Astérix animated features in my opinion and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.