Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was really eager to check it out again. Well, first of all, if there has been one thing that always bothered me with Disney’s animated features, it is their terrible lack of originality. Indeed, basically, most of their movies follow the very same set of rules and even though it was fine when ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ was released, 80 years later, it has become seriously tedious. For this reason, I always had a weak spot for ‘Fantasia’ because, even though it was maybe flawed, it has always been one of their most original productions and, only for this, it should get much more credit. So, when I heard that they were coming back with a sequel, 60 years later, of course, I really had to see the damned thing. Well, eventually, I thought it had basically the same qualities and shortcoming of its predecessor. Indeed, the music was really neat and the animation was fine but not all the segments turned out to be really great though. Furthermore, I wonder if these movies wouldn’t work better without the hosts as they didn’t provide much added value in my opinion. Eventually, after rewatching both ‘Fantasia’, it is difficult to pinpoint what these movies were missing to become truly remarkable. I mean, beside ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’, none of the other segments has become really iconic. However, with this 2nd version, I have to admit that the last segment, which reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki’s work, was quite gorgeous and even rather impressive to behold. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was maybe not a real masterpiece, I still love the concept and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

It has been a while since I have seen this movie and I should definitely re-watch it at some point. Obviously, it is considered as a weak effort in Alfred Hitchcock’s other prestigious career but, I have to admit it, this movie has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Basically, after the really bleak and intense ‘Frenzy’ (definitely worth watching as well), Hitchcock wanted apparently to do something lighter and came up with this feature. Eventually, the plot was nothing really mind-blowing but it was fairly entertaining and I thought it was solid mix between thriller and comedy. I also had a weak spot for Karen Black in this movie and she would be the last femme fatale used by this great master. Concerning Bruce Dern, apparently, Al Pacino was supposed to play this part at some point but he wanted too much money. Anyway, once again, the whole thing was fairly predictable but it didn’t bother me as the mood was really enjoyable. To conclude, even though it is definitely not a masterpiece, I thought it was a decent watch and I believe it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Alfred Hitchcock’s work. 

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back and, since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out again. The first time around, since I am a huge fan of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s work and since this movie was a huge critical success, I had some big expectations concerning this movie and it was definitely a high priority for me back then. Well, I'm glad I watched it again because I was much more able to appreciate the second time around. Indeed, through the years, I kept hearing other people saying that they didn't care much for this movie and I was always wondering if the damned thing was not overrated after all. To be honest, I still don't think that the story is really that great though. I mean, it’s a typical survival story and I don't think they did anything really interesting or original with the genre. Still, what I really loved about this movie when I first watched it and what I loved even more when I saw it again was above all the fact that the whole thing just looked really amazing. Unsurprisingly, visually, it was highly influenced by Terrence Malick’s movies (Emmanuel Lubezki, who won his 3rd Oscar in a row for his work on this film, also worked for Malick on some of his movies). Concerning DiCaprio, sure, he was impressive but, to be honest, I’m still not sure if it was really his best performance. I mean, it is obvious that he went through the grinder for this movie, no doubt, but even if Hugh Glass was definitely a tough guy, I'm not sure if he was really fascinating after all. Anyway, the bottom line is that the work done on this movie to create something so realistic and so vivid was quite amazing. To conclude, even if it might not be ground-breaking after all, it is still one of the most visually fascinating Western ever delivered and is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Do you remember the time when Robert de Niro used to be the greatest actor ever and you would basically sh*t your pants every time this guy was showing up on your screen? I know, that's a long time ago... Anyway, in this flick, he gave probably his last awesome performance. Apparently, this movie never received much love but I thought that De Niro was just amazing here. On top of that, there was a really interesting concept but, instead of properly developing this idea, they went for the usual annoying gimmicks and you basically ended up with another average US thriller. So indeed, it is in fact a rather standard thriller and the whole thing was really predictable  but De Niro gave such an intense performance, he just pushed the whole thing to the next level all by himself, at least, that’s my opinion, and as long as the movie was focusing on his character, I thought it was quite spellbinding to watch. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is obviously not a masterpiece, I think it is actually quite underrated,  it is in fact a really solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

As you may have noticed, I’m a very obsessive movie watcher and one of my very first obsessions was/is Robert De Niro. I just love this actor and I have been watching many of this movies during the last 20 years (I have seen 72 of them so far). However, since the beginning of this decade, he has been making about 3 or 4 movies a year and most of them were of a very dubious quality so I’m not as fanatic as I used to be about his work but I still watch some of them from time to time. Well, this movie is definitely not one of this greatest movies, that’s for sure, but I still think it was a decent watch though. Indeed, the plot was decent and I thought that De Niro and Edward Burns had a solid chemistry together. Basically, it is one of these thrillers with a really interesting concept but, instead of properly developing this idea, they went for the usual annoying gimmicks and you basically end up with another average US thriller. Still, in spite of its flaws, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was still fairly entertaining and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.