Reviews by johanlefourbe

Following the massive critic failure generated by the ‘Psycho’ remake (which I didn’t think was so bad but I was definitely in the minority), Gus Van Sant came back  to something similar to ‘Good Will Hunting’ which was something much safer but also much more boring in my opinion. In fact, I have always been amazed by the fact that no one has ever really pointed out how almost identical it was to ‘Good Will Hunting’ and, as a result, I never really cared for this movie. The fact that I always thought that  ‘Good Will Hunting’ was seriously overrated didn’t help either, I guess. Still, I have to admit it, in this genre, it was a decent watch and Sean Connery and Rob Brown had together a nice chemistry. Furthermore, to be honest, I have to admit that it has been a while since I have seen this movie and I should definitely give it a 2^nd chance at some point. After this movie, Van Sant went for something more experimental with ‘Gerry’ and, even though it didn’t really work out, it was much more interesting than this rather pedestrian and predictable feature. Anyway, to conclude, even though I think this movie is rather overrated, it is still a decent drama and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Gus Van Sant’s work.

I already saw this movie but, since it was ages ago and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. When it was released, this movie was a huge hit. Nowadays, it would seem impossible that a thriller like this one would ever again become the biggest movie of the year with all these huge blockbusters but, back in 1987, this movie managed to be the highest-grossing film worldwide. Anyway, in the erotic thriller genre, it is definitely a classic and, in my opinion, what made this movie worked was the perfect cast. Indeed, Michael Douglas was basically born to play such guys (see also ’Basic Instinct’) and he was fine. Even more impressive was Glenn Close who was a rather odd choice and no one at the time or even nowadays would  think of her to play a sexual psychopath but she really nailed it. Unfortunately, as pointed out by Glenn Close herself, the movie completely ignored the fact that  her character was probably mentally ill and this aspect was never developed in this movie which was too bad. Indeed, instead, the character played by Douglas was set as a victim, a guy who basically committed a rather minor ‘indiscretion’ and who should be allowed to go back to his life as if nothing really happened. I mean, if they had flirted but he had rejected her advances and she would have kept stalking him, that would have been a really different story. Even more problematic was the fact that, in spite of Close’s impressive efforts, her character was basically reduced to some kind of unhinged psychopath and there was no room to develop her thoughts and feelings about what she was going through. The ending was also so over-the-top and so removed from reality. In my opinion, it was an attempt to remind the viewers that they are actually watching a movie with some completely fictional characters so they shouldn’t bother reflecting about themselves and their own behavior. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it is still a decent thriller though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. In fact, I actually saw this flick in the movie theater with my wife and kids when it was released. Back then, it was a critical flop and it has indeed a rather lame reputation but, personally, I think it is not so bad after all. I mean, I have to admit it, with this production, the limitations of DreamWorks Animation became rather obvious, especially compared to the stellar work delivered by Pixar at the time. Indeed, even though the plot was really different, this movie was probably still too similar to ‘Finding Nemo’ which was released just the year before. Another annoying trademark from DreamWorks, still used nowadays, was to have a star-studded cast to cover up the fact that the story was actually rather weak. Fortunately, the voice cast was actually really spot on this time and it made the whole thing probably more entertaining than it actually deserved. Indeed, in this case, they came up with a rather convoluted story involving some gangsters sharks but, to be honest, it never really worked. It didn’t help that 99% of the jokes were based on some or more less obscure pop-culture references  and these jokes became fairly soon rather tiring, even borderline exhausting. And, yet, I have to admit that the damned thing was still fairly entertaining, above all, thanks to the neat voice-cast involved. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

It has been a while since I have seen this movie and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. In fact, if I recall it correctly, I saw this feature in the movie theater when it was released and, to be honest, I have actually no idea why I went to see the damned thing at the time. On top of that, I don’t think I was aware of the Studio 54 at the time which makes my choices even more strange. Anyway, even though it has a rather lame reputation, I thought it was in fact not so bad at all. I didn’t know it that at the time, but the movie was apparently messed up in post-production by the Weinstein brothers and the whole concept was completely changed. Apparently, it was supposed to be even darker and the main character was supposed to be sexually even more ambiguous which all sound quite intriguing. Anyway, I thought there was something quite fascinating about this messed up disco world. Back in those days, Ryan Philippe still had a great potential at the time and he was pretty good here, Salma Hayek was just gorgeous as usual (even if she didn’t have much to do) and even Mike Myers didn’t get too much on my nerves. To conclude, I actually have a weak spot for this movie, it is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine and I think it is worth a look.  

I already saw this movie but, since it was ages ago, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, I was actually surprised by how little I actually remembered the damned thing which is usually not really a good sign. Anyway, I have to admit that I always had some mixed feelings regarding this movie. Indeed, even though it started out as a rather ambitious project (Isn’t it always the case when Tom Cruise is involved?), it didn’t turn out to be really amazing after all. Still, somehow, I can’t really discard the whole thing. Indeed, it was actually a really good story and it could have been a great epic. Furthermore, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman (who just got married a couple of years before) had tons of chemistry together. Still, even if Cruise was, as usual, quite charismatic, he was however not convincing at all playing some poor Irish farmer. However, I would mostly blame Ron Howard though. Indeed, eventually, the biggest problem was that the tone was just too light. While re-watching this movie, it reminded me of some (really successful) epics such as ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Titanic’ and during both movies, you didn’t have some rather goofy supposedly funny scenes every 5 minutes which in this case really bogged down the impact of this movie.That’s in fact a recurring issue with Tom Cruise, the fact that he is able to get involved in some really interesting projects but too often he or the director he is working with make the misguided choice of toning down too much the material resulting in something without any edge whatsoever. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and I think it is still worth a look, especially for Tom Cruise’s fans.

Since my wife has a weak spot for such Dutch romantic-comedies, I thought we could check it out together. Eventually, even though it seemed to have some potential, unfortunately, it turned out to be terribly underwhelming. The first thing that bothered me was how it shamelessly copied ‘You’ve got mail’. On top of that, this plot-line was very thin, everything was randomly and poorly connected to it and, as a result, the whole thing felt like a boring mess. Then, the other thing that bothered me was how annoying all the supporting characters were. They managed to get a lot of famous Dutch actors and celebrities to play all kinds of small and even smaller characters but all these supposedly quirky characters were just so over-the-top and not entertaining whatsoever. Eventually, the only thing that worked in this movie were 2 leads : Marwan Kenzari and Bracha van Doesburgh. Indeed, they were the only actors who played it straight, they were both really cute and charming and they had some decent chemistry together. I wish they got a better story to work with because they really deserved it. To conclude, even though it was a massive disappointment, I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. Anyway, I remember very well when it was released. Indeed, it sounded pretty neat so I even saw it in the movie theater at the time. Unfortunately, even though I thought it was a decent watch, it turned out to be a critical failure and, above all, a massive box-office bomb. I mean, sure, the story didn’t work very well as it was way too obscure and the fact that it didn’t have much to do with the legendary video game it was supposed to be coming from didn't help either. However, the whole thing was seriously visually impressive and a huge milestone in this area. Indeed, it was the first time that they released a fully computer-animated feature film with some photorealistic characters and it felt really revolutionary to me. I’m rather amazed that after all these years this movie doesn’t get more credit. At least, if you compare it to your average video-game adaptation, you have to agree that it was miles better than the other garbage in this genre. To conclude, even though this movie has a really poor reputation, I think it is actually quite underrated and I believe it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.