Reviews by johanlefourbe

During his career going over 5 decades, Woody Allen has always managed to get some of the best actors around and I think it is with this movie that he might have managed to get the most impressive cast (Woody Allen himself, Julia Roberts, Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore, Natalie Portman, Goldie Hawn, Billy Crudup, Tim Roth, Natasha Lyonne, Alan Alda, Gaby Hoffmann, Lukas Haas,  Robert Knepper). However, a great cast doesn’t mean that you will get automatically a great movie, I’m afraid. Indeed, even though it was definitely not among his worst work, it was still pretty damned average. Indeed, following ‘Mighty Aphrodite’ which had a Greek chorus, Allen thought it was time to make his very own musical and even though it must has sounded really neat to him, it didn’t work very well after all. Indeed, when you have such an interesting cast, it seemed to be a waste to just have them wandering around and deliver randomly some rather fluffy songs. Surprisingly, Roger Ebert thought it was actually one of the best movies from this director but Ebert has always been more keen on musicals than I ever was. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Woody Allen’s work. 

I remember it very well, when I was a kid, I used to watch the TV-show based on this movie from time to time. Anyway, even though it was a decent watch, it never became a favorite of mine and it took me more than a decade to finally watch this movie. Eventually, it is my wife who pointed out that I should definitely check it out and the fact that it was directed by Alan Parker made the whole thing even more intriguing to me. Anyway, even though it was nothing really groundbreaking, I thought that most of it worked actually pretty well. Furthermore, you have to keep in mind that this movie was made a couple of decades before all those dance movies such as the ‘Step Up’ franchise and it has pretty much become the blue-print in this genre. Eventually, almost 30 years, they would come up with a remake, I haven’t seen it yet, but it seems, like for most of those modern remakes, that it was rather misguided and it turned out to be a major critical and commercial flop. Anyway, to conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I thought it was not bad at all, and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie but since it won 6 Academy awards (including the one for Best Picture) and since it was also included in the list ‘1001 movies you must see before you die’, I thought I should check it out. Well, to be honest, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing after all. Indeed, even though the beginning scenes were supposed to be sweet and gentle, I thought there were just too fluffy and even borderline silly, to be honest. For example, you had this deal with the roses competition which was seriously tedious. Then, the main plot was not bad but still nothing really amazing and, on top of that, it turned out to be some massive propaganda which was rather disappointing. In my opinion, the whole thing feels terribly dated and I’m rather amazed it is still getting so much credit nowadays.  At least, I have to admit it, Greer Garson and Teresa Wright were both really lovely but it was certainly not enough. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit it, it was still a decent watch but, even though it was a big critical and commercial success when it was released, it was rather difficult for me to take this movie really seriously. 

When I was a kid growing up in France, Brigitte Bardot had in fact attained a seriously lame reputation in my home country. Indeed, she had dropped the movie business at least 20 years ago and time wasn't very kind with her legendary good looks. She had been focusing on fighting for animal rights for quite some time and, above all she also became infamous for being in fact seriously racist with some links to the Front national, the French extreme right party. It’s only later on that I discovered that she used to be a major icon of the French cinema and even a massive international sex-symbol back then in the 60’s so I thought I should check her work after all. In this case, I decided to check this movie which would provide her breakthrough. Well, eventually, even though it was a decent watch, I can’t say I was  really blown away by the whole thing though. I mean, sure, I have to admit it, Brigitte Bardot really looked lovely back in those days but, in my opinion, the movie itself didn’t have much else to offer and the story was terribly fluffy and superficial. To conclude, even though I didn’t care much about the whole thing, I still think it is worth a look though if only to see Bardot at the top of her game. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natalie Portman, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, even though not everything really worked in this movie, I thought that this Hesher character was pretty awesome and fascinating to behold. Indeed, it is not often that you get to see someone so chaotic, so random in his behavior and, normally, a character like this one would be rather cringe-inducing and annoying to behold but, somehow, it worked really fine here thanks above all to another really solid performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Unfortunately, even though Hesher himself was really neat, the rest of the movie didn’t really impress me. I mean, Devin Brochu and Rainn Wilson were not bad at all but their story was nothing really original and I had a rather hard time to care about what they were going through. And this was even worse with Natalie Portman whose character barely worked here. Indeed, it’s not that she was bad in this movie, it’s just that Hesher was already seriously random and they shouldn’t have brought up yet another girl in this story so randomly. Furthermore, I thought it was another pathetic attempt to make a really cute girl look supposedly plain and almost ugly. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still liked the damned thing though, just because Hesher was so interesting to behold and I think this guy by himself made the whole damned thing worth a look. 

I already saw this movie but since it was ages ago, I was really eager to check it out again. Well, I always had a weak spot for this feature. Indeed, there is one thing that always bothered me with Disney’s animated features and it is their terrible lack of originality. Basically, all their movies tend to follow the very same formulas and set of rules and even though it was fine when ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ was released, almost 80 years later, it has become seriously tedious. For this reason, I always had a weak spot for this flick because, even though it is flawed, it remains one of their most original productions and only for this, it should get much more credit, at least, that’s my opinion. Take for example the ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ sequence, it is probably one of the creepiest things ever produced by Disney and, even though parents have been complaining about this sequence for decades, I wish Disney would go more often in this direction. Still, while I was rewatching the damned thing, I was actually surprised by how little I actually remember it. Of course, you could argue that it had been more than 20 years since I saw it but I'm afraid that most of these sequences, while they were all interesting and valuable just based on their pure experimental value, were not really remarkable after all. Anyway, to conclude, even though it might not be Disney’s most heralded feature, it remains a fascinating blend of classic tunes with some top-notch animation so it is definitely worth a look and it's too bad these guys don't try to be more experimental from time to time.

Like all the older movies starring Lindsay Lohan, it is rather sad to look back at this feature. In fact, I’m rather surprised that  it was released only about 10 years ago. Indeed, if you would look at Lohan, she has changed so much during that time (and not in a positive way) and you might think that she actually made this movie something like 20 years ago. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, in fact, I actually read the book when I was the kid so it was pretty neat to see this adaptation which was fairly faithful in my opinion. Furthermore, even though Lindsay Lohan’s career will probably never recover from her various mistakes, back in those days, she was just really charismatic and this material was perfect for her. Eventually, even though it was a decent tale, the whole concept was still too limited and, as many other live-action features from Disney, it was too childish and predictable for my taste but, for the target audience, it is certainly pretty neat. To conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.   

Even though this movie didn’t get much love when it was released, since I have always been interested in Terrence Malick's work, I was still eager to check it out. Well, unfortunately, it turned out to be a major disappointment. Indeed, after ‘To the Wonder’ which already barely worked, it seems that Malick finally really lost me here. Basically, once again, he gave us his typical impressionist directing style which is equally mesmerizing and frustrating, at least in my case and, even though you might think that there was no plot, there were in fact 3 plot-lines or threads. First, it seemed that the movie was about a movie writer struggling with his work in Hollywood and I have the feeling that it was supposed to be the main focus in this movie but Malick, I assumed, got bored, pretty much dropped this idea so it was barely developed at all. Then, you had some family issue between the main character, his brother, his father and a deceased brother. It was pretty obvious that this time Malick was recycling some material from ‘The Tree of Life’ and even though it worked better than the movie business stuff, the improvement was only minor. Then,  the biggest chunk of the movie was about the main character struggling with his love life and, this time, it felt really reminiscent to ‘To the Wonder’. However, if ‘To the Wonder’ was mostly focusing on the relationship between Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko, in this movie, the main character had some various romances with 6 different women which was just way too much. Basically, you would get Christian Bale wandering around for about 20 mins with one girl and then he would switch to another girl for 20 mins and so on and so on… As a result, you never had the opportunity to invest yourself in one of these relationships with such a short time and the fact that there was barely any dialogue and mostly some voice-overs didn’t help either. At least, as  usual with this director, the cinematography was just gorgeous (with 3 times Oscar winner Emmanuel Lubezki, it was to be expected).  Then, there was a really impressive cast and it was pretty obvious that the actors greatly enjoyed the freedom provided by Malick’s directing style. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, I can’t completely dismiss the whole thing, I still think it is worth a look, even if it was seriously disappointing. 

Seriously, Nicolas Cage’s career has become so underwhelming lately that this movie doesn’t seem so bad after all. However, it still doesn’t mean that it  was any good either, far from it. Indeed, even though, I have to admit it, the whole thing was rather harmless, I thought it was also terribly predictable and above all really boring. I mean, the whole point with Nicolas Cage, especially back in those days, was to have him playing some weird over-the-top characters so to have him play such a mild-mannered guy seemed to be a waste. It’s like Téa Leoni, I always had a weak for this actress, I think she is so charming, but she has always been stuck playing such underwhelming love interest throughout her whole career. Finally, I have surprisingly managed to watch all the movies directed by Brett Ratner and even though he might not be the worst director in the world, he is certainly one of the least inspiring ones, that’s for sure, and this movie was a perfect example. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, I had a hard time to care about the damned thing and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

A month ago, I hadn’t seen anything from Xavier Dolan and, now, I have seen all the movies he has directed (thanks to a DVD box that my sister bought for me) and it has been a really rewarding journey. Indeed, with this directing effort, Xavier Dolan has delivered some of his best work so far. Seriously, the damned thing was a fascinating drama. Basically, the Canadian made a full circle and came back to a similar tale developed in his directing debut, ‘J'ai tué ma mère'. Indeed, it was again about the struggle between a (very) difficult teenager and his mother, except that the end-result was this time much stronger and I think I have never seen before a better representation of ADHD disorder. The other masterstroke was for Dolan to step aside this time and give the lead to Antoine-Olivier Pilon who was just fascinating in this movie. Then, to make this cast pretty much perfect, Dolan brought back his 2 muses, Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clément, who were fine as well, especially Dorval. To be honest, I wish they developed a little bit more what was going on between Suzanne Clément’s character and her family but it was the only minor flaw in this movie. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was pretty awesome and I can’t wait to see his Xavier Dolan’s future work.