Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie and maybe I should give it another chance at some point. In fact, I wonder how I actually ended up watching the damned thing but, if I recall it correctly, it was during the ‘Fête du Cinéma’. The ‘Fête du Cinéma’ is some kind of promotional event in France during which you can see as many movies as you want for a very low price. Obviously, since I was a massive movie fan, I loved this event and I would watch up to 8 or 10 movies in 3 days. Anyway, I also watched a lot for random stuff either because I already managed to see the movies I really wanted to see or because there was only some specific movies that would fit my schedule. So, that’s how I ended up watching this flick, pretty much at random, and after spending 3 days long binge-watching in the movie theater, to be honest, even though it is apparently a massive classic in this genre, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing. I don’t know, I grew up watching Bruce Lee’s movies, I really loved his stuff but, compared to him, I thought that Jet Lee was rather boring. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look,expect if you are a die-hard fan of the genre. 

I wonder if this movie was the fist one I saw directed by [Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see]. At least, it was definitely the first I saw in the movie theater and I even saw it when it was released. To be honest, I was rather disappointed by the whole thing. I mean, back then, I wasn’t really familiar with this director but since I kept hearing he was one of the best directors in the world, I had some rather high expectations. Basically, after making a serie of over-the-top wild comedies, this movie was Almodovar’s first attempt to make something slightly more serious but, since it was his first attempt, it only partially worked, I’m afraid. I mean, as usual with this director, the characters were quite eccentric but even though they were fairly interesting, I can’t say I really cared about what they were going through. As a follow-up, Almodovar would come up then with ‘Carne trémula’, in my opinion his most underrated film, and definitely one of my favorites movies from this director. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, even though I thought it was eventually disappointing, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Pedro Almodovar’s work.

When was the last time that Spike Lee actually had real critical hit? It must have been 10 years ago with ‘Inside Man’ and since then, he has been working mostly on some really obscure features that really didn’t get much love. It’s really too bad because I always had a weak spot for this director and he was the main reason why I wanted to watch this flick which also belongs to his more obscure work.  First of all, back then,  some directors were already experimenting with digital filming and while it looks fine nowadays, at the time, it was pretty ugly in  my opinion. Anyway, even though this movie was visually rather underwhelming, it was dealing with a very sensitive subject (which was often the case with this director) and the whole thing gave me a lot of food for thought. Indeed, it was looking back at the time when it was ‘ok’ to have some racist stereotypes in US television. As usual with this director, the whole thing was a big slap in the face and it was sometimes rather cringe-inducing to watch but it was meant to be this way. To conclude, even though it was definitely not a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Spike Lee’s work. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, even though I did like it, I still had a hard time to connect with the damned thing. I mean, I really enjoyed the black-and-white cinematography, it was really neat and appropriate and, once again, Greta Gerwig, who has become Noah Baumbach's muse apparently, really impressed me. Basically, the main issue I had is that I didn't care much about the main character. I mean, I didn't have anything really against her but I can't say that she was really interesting either. With 'Greenberg', the main character was maybe a major douchebag but, at least, there was a lot going on with this guy. Concerning the other characters involved, it was pretty much the same, not even one of them had anything really interesting to say, the worst one was probably Sophie, the best friend of Frances Ha, who was a bitch most of the time. I still liked the damned thing though. Indeed, Gerwig remains a glowing actress, one of the very few who manages to have some great charisma and still look like someone that might exist in the real world and she is always quite spellbinding to watch. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn't really win me over, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I already saw this movie, in fact, if I’m not mistaken, I think I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released, but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, even though I always had some mixed feelings towards the damned thing, I have to admit that it was actually better than I remembered though and I understand now why it has become one of the most famous romantic-comedies. Indeed, as a concept, it was actually really smart to have a typical Hugh Grant character fall in love with a huge star who happened to be played Julia Roberts who was, back then, the biggest female movie star in the world. And, well, after all these years, I have to admit it that it was actually quite entertaining after all. Indeed, the way Will was completely in love with this gorgeous woman made sense and the way Anna was after all basically just a regular girl was well done as well. I also liked the fact that they made an effort to show that Will was living in the real world, with some believable friends and that Anna would find it attractive somehow. However, the way they got these two characters together didn’t really work and I think it was rather unbelievable that Anna would kiss Will when she left his house the first time around. Furthermore, I thought there was still not much chemistry between Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts though and, the more I think about it, the more I believe that Roberts never gave the feeling that she was really swept away by Grant. Anyway, to conclude, even if it is not flawless, I have to admit that it is still a classic romantic-comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie. Still, I remember fairly well when I saw the damned thing. Indeed, back then, it was one of the very last movies directed by Steven Spielberg that I still hadn’t watch yet at the time so I was really eager to check the damned thing. Well, eventually, even though it was certainly not that bad at all, it was still easily one of the least interesting directing efforts coming from this guy. I mean, it was rather well done and the cast was pretty good but even though it was a sweet story, eventually, I thought it was rather boring. I mean, during the previous 15 years, Spielberg single-handedly created the concept of the blockbuster (a concept still ruling the box-office nowadays) and, with each movies, he would push the limit of this concept each time around. Well, at some point, he decided to become a ‘serious’ director and we ended up with movies like this one which was cute but, not much more than that, I’m afraid. To conclude, it is pretty much a minor effort and you can feel that, at this point, Spielberg was still struggling with the drama genre and it all remained way to fluffly and over-sentimental to become really memorable.