Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since it was such a long time ago, I was quite eager to check it out again. Well, I always had a weak spot for Steven Soderbergh and, back then, he was pretty much at the top of his game but, to be honest, I wasn’t really blown away by this flick though. I mean, sure, it was well made, the story was fairly entertaining but it was not much more than that, I’m afraid. Concerning Julia Roberts, she did deliver a solid performance, probably one of the best in her career but, to be honest, it doesn’t mean much. In my opinion, the whole thing is pretty much a commercial flick pretending to be an indie production. And, eventually, what are we supposed to be think about Erin Brockovich? On one hand, her ex-husbands were some douchebags but the only guy she was involved with in this movie was pretty amazing. Furthermore, you get to see her reading some papers very intensely during numerous scenes which must be a proof of her investigative skills and her other skills were apparently that she could remember 100s of phone numbers or that she could seduce any man with her boobs (she actually literally says so). Well, I wasn’t really impressed and to see Julia Roberts with some major cleavage and swearing a lot still didn’t qualify as a great performance, at least, not in my book. The very same year , Soderbergh would also release ‘Traffic’ and it was miles better in my opinion. Anyway, to conclude, even though I think it is rather overrated, I have to admit it, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you have a weak spot for Julia Roberts. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and I should definitely check it out again at some point. If I recall it correctly, I even saw the damned thing when it was released in the movie theater at the time. Anyway, ever since the ‘Batman & Robin’ debacle, Joel Schumacher always had a rather lousy reputation and even though he might deserve this, he still made a couple of decent movies and this movie might be the best of the whole bunch. Indeed, it is pretty much a spellbinding thriller and what made it really interesting was the fact that it was so realistic. On top of that, Michael Douglas was just pitch-perfect here and, according to himself, he gave here the best performance of his career. Eventually, even though I was really impressed by the damned thing, I’m afraid it was still missing something to become truly remarkable. Basically, most of the movies delivered by Schumacher have been seriously shallow and even though this one was more advanced concerning the development of its character and its concept, it  was still not digging enough, I’m afraid. To conclude, even though it was maybe not perfect, I thought it was still a really good thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

In 2016, Paul Verhoeven will finally make a come-back with the only 2^nd movie he managed to make during the last 16 years and it will be a French steamy thriller which sounds quite promising. Anyway, I have been following the Dutch master for many years and since I always had a weak spot for his work, I was quite eager to check his directorial debut. Well, to honest, even though it was not bad, I thought this movie was actually fairly disappointing. In fact, Verhoeven himself was not really excited about this project and he wanted to make instead an adaptation of a major Dutch literary work but it was his longtime partner Gerard Soeteman, the writer on his movie, who convinced him to first direct this one which was slightly less ambitious. Eventually, since this movie was a success, they were able to make together ‘Turks Fruit’, a massive box-office hit in the Netherlands and arguably the best Dutch movie ever produced. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I mean, it was still a decent watch but I didn't care much about the story or the characters involved. Still, in spite of its flaws, if you are interested in Verhoeven's work, it is definitely worth a look.

I remember very well when this movie was released, it was a huge critical success and, therefore, I was really eager to check it out. I even saw  the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released if I recall it correctly. Well, eventually, even though it was a decent watch, to be honest, I actually had a hard time to really care about the whole thing. I don’t know, maybe I was too young at the time to really appreciate it but it just didn’t really impress me. In fact, I do have a weak spot for romantic features but I thought that this one was so cute, so sentimental, it was actually definitely hard to swallow, at least, in my case. It’s like the characters, the postman, the woman he loves, and Pablo Neruda, they were all very sweet and kind but they all seem so flawless and, therefore, a little bit shallow and boring. Concerning Michael Radford, 4 years later, he would come back with the really obscure ‘B. Monkey’ which would be a massive step-down from this flick. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was slightly disappointing, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, even though I have heard about this very famous book, I have actually never read it and the main reason I wanted to check this movie was above all because it was directed by François Truffaut, one of the greatest French directors ever. This movie was a huge step for Truffaut as it would be his first (and only) English speaking production. On top of that, he was working with the lovely and very talented Julie Christie which made the whole thing even more intriguing. Eventually, the whole thing was not bad at all but it didn't turn out be one of Truffaut’s best movies, I’m afraid. First of all, he admitted himself that he never really cared about science-fiction as a genre so you might wonder if he was really the best director for this material. Furthermore, he barely mastered the English language when it started to shoot the damned thing and you could feel this while watching the movie. Still, it remains quite a fascinating story, that’s for sure. Surprisingly, this story has never been remade but it should certainly happen at some point. To conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in François Truffaut’s work.