Reviews by johanlefourbe

From the 3 big horror movies that launched some major franchises in the 80’s (‘Halloween’, ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, ‘Friday the 13^th’), my favorite one was ‘Friday the 13^th’. Maybe it was because I saw it first but I thought that this first installment was just quite spellbinding and really entertaining to watch. With this in mind, I was having a bunch of my friends at my house so I thought we could have a small ‘Friday the 13^th’ marathon so I rented again the first and also the second installment and so we could watch them back-to-back. Eventually, I couldn’t believe how underwhelming the 1^st sequel was and it was, in my opinion, a huge step back from the previous movie. Indeed, nothing much really impressed me here  and what remained was just an average and boring slasher flick. Even the fact that Jason Voorhees was finally introduced as the main antagonist felt seriously anti-climatic to me. Eventually, I was so disappointed by this movie that my original interest in this franchise completely vanished and I would never ever watch another installment, except for ‘Freddy vs Jason’ the crossover with Freddy Krueger which I saw many years later. To conclude, I guess my expectation were just too high but I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of the genre. 

Not so long ago, I saw [Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see]’s last directing effort, ‘Yi dai zong shi’, but even though it was rather promising, I thought it was ultimately rather disappointing. Still, the guy remains a very interesting director so I decided to check one of his older movies as well. Apparently, even though it is a rather short feature, Wong Kar-wai struggled so much while making this movie that, during the post-production, he actually stopped working on it and made in the mean time ‘Chung hing sam lam’. Eventually, he still couldn’t let it go and, 14 years later, he came up with another version called ‘Ashes of Time Redux’ which was the version I saw. Anyway, even though I admired this movie just like most of the other work delivered by this director, I had a really hard time to connect with the damned thing. I mean, as usual, it looked quite gorgeous, I loved the soundtrack and the general mood created but the plot was seriously murky. Indeed, as a result, it was probably his most difficult movie to follow and I thought it was rather frustrating to watch. I mean, even though it was presented as an ancient martial arts feature (the official name for this genre is ‘wuxia’), in fact, there was barely any action scene at all, which wasn’t really a problem, but the characters came in and went away without any explanation and the whole thing remained as a result terribly obscure. Anyway, to conclude, even though I had a hard time with the damned thing, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Wong Kar-wai’s work.

I remember very well when this movie was released. Indeed, I’m pretty sure I actually saw it in the movie theater but, otherwise, I saw it very soon after. Anyway, while watching the damned thing, I was pretty sure I was witnessing the birth of a new Star. Indeed, Reese Witherspoon, who was just about 20 years old at the time, was just so charismatic and so talented here, I was pretty sure that she would have an impressive career. Eventually, she would keep making some smart choices and, within a few years, she managed to reach the A list and she hasn’t lost her spot ever since. Coming back to our main feature, even though Witherspoon was quite amazing, I’m not sure I really cared about the story though. I mean,  it was basically some kind of dark thriller with some twist around the Red Riding Hood tale and while it was fairly entertaining, I’ll give you that, it was not much more than that. To conclude, even though I don’t think it is really a masterpiece, it still is a fine thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you want to see when Reese Witherspoon’s career finally took off.         

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick. Personally, I always had a weak spot for romantic-comedies, but eventually, I ended up with some mixed feelings about this movie. The main issue I had with this movie is that,  in my opinion, the whole thing in fact almost unwatchable for someone born in France. Indeed, the whole thing is basically based on the most basic clichés about France and the French people and, even though it might be hilarious for an outsider, for me, it was really cringe-inducing to behold. To make things worse, I could barely stand Kevin Kline in this movie. Apparently, some critics did praise his performance but I thought he was barely convincing as a Frenchman and not really funny at all. In my opinion, it is pretty obvious that it would have worked much better with an actual French guy to play this character. Eventually, what really saved this movie for me was Meg Ryan. Indeed, back then, she was still the Queen of the romantic-comedy and she was really charming back in those days. To conclude, I think my rating is actually rather generous but I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I was looking for something to watch with my wife but she didn’t care for anything I suggested but since she enjoyed ‘Magic in the Moonlight’, I thought we might as well try another Woody Allen feature. Well, if I thought that ‘Magic in the Moonlight’ was interesting but flawed, this movie turned out to be even more underwhelming. Basically, at some point, for some financial reasons, Woody Allen decided to shoot his movies in Europe so, after Paris, London, Barcelona, this time, we get Rome which sounded at first promising. Unfortunately, instead of a fully fledged story, he gave us instead a messy mix of 4 different tales which were all half-baked. The worst ones were probably the ones involving some Italian characters. Indeed, it was rather cringe-inducing to see Allen trying to joke about Italian people and their customs when he clearly have only a very basic knowledge of their culture. Concerning the other 2 plots, the one involving Woody Allen was really stupid but, I have to admit it, it made me really laugh. Eventually, the best tale was by far the one involving Jesse Eisenberg. Indeed, it could have been pretty neat if Allen chose to make the movie only about this character, even if Eisenberg was in fact rather poorly cast. Indeed, not only I had a  hard time to believe that he would eventually look like Alec Baldwin but he didn’t have much chemistry with Ellen Page either. To conclude, it was another really weak directing effort from Woody Allen but I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you are interested in this director.

All my life, I have been fascinated with movies. Obviously, it took me some time to finally get some understanding about the subject and, when I was a kid, like anyone else, I made some rather dubious choices. For example, when this movie was released, I must have been around 12 years old and I thought it looked really awesome. Indeed, I loved this kind of futuristic SF movies back in those days but this one turned out to be pretty lame afterwards. Apparently, the production didn’t go very well and the producer ended up re-shooting 40% of the whole thing to add some humor and to develop the characters. Well, even those re-shoots didn’t really help as it was still a rather underwhelming feature. Personally, I would rather blame Emilio Estevez who has always been a rather weak actor, or at least, he always bored me. Still, on the other hand, to have both Mick Jagger and Anthony Hopkins was just really cool, it’s just too bad they got involved in such a weak feature. Especially for Mick Jagger, the rock star only made a couple of movies so I wish he got involved in something more entertaining. To conclude, the whole thing felt like a missed opportunity and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

Even though this movie didn’t get much love when it was released, since I have been following Woody Allen for more than 20 years by now, I still wanted to check it out. Eventually, at first, I really loved the concept. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for illusionists and I thought it was pretty neat to see one trying to unmask a spiritualist. On top of that, the lead character was just hilarious and perfectly played by Colin Firth so it started to look like one of the best movies delivered by Allen in years. Unfortunately, half way through, he made a really poor decision which ruined this movie and the whole thing never recovered afterwards. Indeed, at some point, Stanley starts to believe that Sophie is actually the real deal when she was obviously a fraud. It was so stupid, I was really rolling my eyes and, to make things worse, the guy became somehow terribly joyful after making this ‘discovery’.  This decision completely messed up the tone. Then, for a while, the movie got stuck in this mode and, suddenly,  Stanley woke up and decided she was still a fraud after all, unmasking her really easily within the next 5 minutes which made his previous change of mood even more meaningless. Basically, it was yet another directing effort from Allen which had a great concept but it was just so poorly developed, it made the whole thing rather underwhelming to behold. To conclude, fortunately, the whole thing looked gorgeous and Colin Firth was just really awesome here so I still think it is a worth a look but don’t expect anything really amazing before watching it.

I remember very well when this movie was released. Indeed, following ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ which was critically very well received and Steven Soderbergh’s biggest box-office success, he came up with this more experimental and it was a huge critical failure at the time. In fact, I even saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released. Basically, we were just about 4 people watching the damned thing and, halfway through the others left the theater, so I watched the rest of it on my own. To make things worse, I had some major personal issues at the time and it is not the kind of movies you should watch, all alone in a movie theater, when you are dealing with some personal shit. Anyway, it was a rather difficult movie to follow, as if there was in fact anything to follow here, and it was shot at the time when digital filming was still seriously ugly. On top of that, most of the characters involved were either really unlikable or really uninteresting. Eventually, I think I gave the whole thing some few extra points because it tried to be original and because you will probably never see so many Hollywood stars showing up in something so experimental again. Anyway, to conclude, I guess my rating might be way too generous for this flick and you should watch it at your own risk.        

I already saw this movie but since it was ages ago, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, I always had a weak spot for Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer, Pacino was especially at the top of his game at the time, and it was really neat to see them working again together almost 10 years after ‘Scarface’. Furthermore, the material was quite realistic which you wouldn't expect from such a romantic comedy and it made the whole thing much more interesting than the other movies in this genre. However, even though the material was raw, much more than the usual work from Garry Marshall, unfortunately, he constantly toned down this material resulting in something cute and harmless but it did loose most of its edge in the process. Furthermore, even though Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer both delivered some solid performances, they were actually miscast. Basically, they were both of them just too charismatic and the whole point of this story was to show 2 normal average looking people falling for each other. So, to cast such charismatic actors, you could say that Michelle Pfeiffer was downright gorgeous back in those days, removed most of the strength of this story. Indeed, the story was supposed to be about some lonely people but it was really hard to believe that such a beautiful woman like Pfeiffer would end up being so miserable. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it is still a decent romantic feature and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.