Reviews by johanlefourbe

Nowadays, there is not much left of the once promising career of Val Kilmer and, not only the guy looks terrible nowadays, above all, all his movies are just some really terrible direct-to-DVD features.  Well, I always had a weak spot for this actor, at least , for his older work and he was the main reason I wanted to check this movie in the first place. Back then, Kilmer just lost his A status and his movies were already becoming quite obscure but they were still mostly interesting and this movie was a typical example. Basically, it is a rather basic and straightforward thriller dealing with some junkies but I really enjoyed the mood created and most of the performances, including Val Kilmer’s, were really good. Above all, it was once again Vincent D'Onofrio (a really underrated actor) who completely stole the show with a really weird and rather unforgettable performance. Unfortunately, the story was not really focused, it became increasingly convoluted towards the end and therefore it failed to really win me over. Unsurprisingly, this movie was a directing debut but it was a really promising one. As a follow-up, D.J.  Caruso would direct ‘Taking Lives’, another thriller with a much higher profile but also with an even more convoluted plot, I'm afraid. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, instead of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Basically, it was another movie that I had for a very long time on DVD so I thought it was really high time to watch the damned thing.  Anyway, even though it was dealing with a subject dear to me (my step-son is autistic) and the movie dealt rather well with this matter, I have to admit that I had a rather hard time to really connect with the whole thing. Basically, all autists are unique and my step-son has, fortunately, an increasing learning curve which means that, through the years, he became more and more social whereas  the character in this movie had actually a decreasing learning curve meaning that he became worst through the years and he will forever never really connect with the people around him. As a result, my experience was really different than the one displayed by this movie but it doesn’t mean that this movie wasn’t interesting, in the contrary. Still, there were a few elements that it didn’t really work for me. For example, why did all the school scenes took place at a swimming pool? Maybe it is the most humiliating place for an insecure teenager but it felt as if they didn’t manage to get the rights to shoot in an actual school. Also, I had some mixed feelings about Gemma Ward who is basically a cuter version of Amanda Seyfried. I mean, in fact, she really impressed me and it is too bad she didn’t do more acting afterwards as she seemed actually quite talented (after this movie, she got only some really small non-speaking parts in 3 movies ‘The Strangers’, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’). The problem is that her character was so gorgeous, so kind, nice and patient, as a result, it was rather difficult to feel sorry for the main character who was basically living every teenager’s wet dream. In my opinion, it would have in fact worked better if she would have been a boy and his best friend but, in this case, even though he did indeed have a tough life, he also had a great girl who seemed to really care for him  so he came over slightly as a whiner. Anyway, in spite of these flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested by this subject. 

I had already seen this movie but since it was ages ago, I was quite eager to check it out. In fact, when I was a kid, I used to love these action movies starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and, eventually, 20 years later, it is pretty obvious that most of them were actually pretty much some garbage but he still made a couple of decent features and this one was definitely one of them. Indeed, you can say whatever you want about him but he is in fact the one that managed to convince John Woo to finally come to Hollywood. Eventually, the whole thing was not really a picnic for Woo since he barely spoke English at the time and, apparently,  Van Damme ended butchering his movie because it was not focusing enough on him but, even so, it was still pretty entertaining in my opinion. Indeed, as expected from this director, the action scenes were pretty badass  and, even though this manhunt concept  was obviously rather preposterous, I was actually surprised by how Woo managed to make the most of it and the guy really succeeded to turn it into something actually quite fun and entertaining. Eventually, John Woo’s Hollywood career would have some rather mixed results after all and he would eventually go back to China at some point. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, even though it might not a be a masterpiece, I think it is still a really solid action flick 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 but it was definitely a major guilty pleasure for me. Indeed, it is in fact a terribly generic and predictable romantic-comedy and, yet, I thought it was not bad at all, above all thanks to the 2 actors playing the lead. Indeed, like any average teenager growing up in the 90’s, I followed ‘Friends’ at some point. Back then, Chandler Bing was by far my favorite character and it was just really neat to see a full-length feature with this actor playing basically some version of Chandler. To play his love interest, you had the always gorgeous Salma Hayek who never looked better and, together, they were really cute and they had some great chemistry, at least, in my opinion. Obviously, the whole thing was filled with some stereotypes, something that usually drives me mad, but, in this case, it didn’t really bother me and I focused instead on those 2 charming actors. To conclude, my rating is probably way too generous for this movie but, I can’t help it, I have a major weak spot for the damned thing and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

What can be said about this movie that hasn’t been said so many times before? Basically, it is pure and simply another impressive piece of cinema coming from Charles Chaplin and it is probably even better than 'The Circus' which I also loved. In fact, I have actually a nice story about this flick. About 7 years ago, I showed this movie to my step-children because I thought it was important for their education. Back then, Nick, my step-son, was only 8 years old but, suddenly, out of nowhere, now 15 years old, during one of our endless conversations about movies, Nick started to precisely described in details the famous scene when the Tramp eats his shoe. Seriously, it was quite something and it shows the huge impact of this movie (but it could be said about anything done by this guy). Myself, I started to watch this movie when I was just a kid and, already then, I thought it was just fascinating and completely hilarious. To conclude, even though it is almost 90 years old, it hasn't aged a bit, it is a great classic and I seriously urge you to show it to your children, they will probably never forget it.

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out.  On top of that, my wife has always been a fan of this franchise so we watched it together which was pretty neat. Eventually, to be honest, I actually ended up with some mixed feelings about the damned thing.  I mean, sure, it was a decent Rocky installment, absolutely, but that’s exactly what it was, a decent movie and not much more than that, I’m afraid. Seriously, while watching this flick, I was really not able to see what was supposedly so deep about the damned thing and, in my opinion, it pretty much followed the very same formula already provided almost 40 years ago by the very first installment without adding anything really new.  Still, I have to admit it, I had a good time watching this flick. Indeed, even though it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was still quite entertaining, thanks to some pretty good performances by Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan and some solid directing by Ryan Coogler. Anyway, to conclude, even though I thought it was slightly disappointing, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

For some reasons, even though I have been following Woody Allen’s work for several decades now, I have never been a huge fan of this movie. I mean, the first time I saw it, I was much younger and maybe I wasn’t able to really appreciate it but, eventually, after all these years, I have to admit that there is no doubt that it was actually better than anything Allen has done during the last 20 years. Anyway, when it was released, it was definitely a big success and, with a box office gross of over $40 million, it was Woody Allen's most financially successful film until ‘Match Point’ was released almost 20 years later. I don’t know, in my case, even though there was a stellar cast involved (Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey, Carrie Fisher, Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest, Max von Sydow, Woody Allen) and the story itself was fairly entertaining, it never really reached the level of such Allen’s classics like ‘Manhattan’ or ‘Annie Hall’. To conclude, even though I wasn’t completely blown away by the whole thing, it is still a really solid drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Woody Allen’s work. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and I should definitely rewatch it at some point. Anyway, when it was released in France, it was actually poorly  received by the critics but, eventually, it turned out to be a massive box-office success and it is now considered a French classic. Well, personally, I have actually always had some mixed feelings about the damned thing. I mean, like all the movies directed by Luc Besson, it was quite ambitious, visually really impressive and the soundtrack provided by Eric Serra was quite mesmerizing as well. And yet, it did kind of rub me in the wrong way. Indeed, like most of the work coming from this director, the whole thing felt rather pretentious to me. I mean, after all these years, I still don’t know what to think of the freediving sport. On one hand, it seems like one of the dullest sports ever conceived but, on the other hand, I have to admit that Besson still managed to deliver something sometimes quite mesmerizing. To conclude, even though I’m not a huge fan, it is still a really interesting movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.