Reviews by johanlefourbe

This is another movie I was eager to watch for ages. Seriously, I think it took me about 20 years to finally watch the damned thing. I have to admit that, even though I really wanted to see it after all this time, it was still worried about watching a 4 hour Shakespeare adaptation. Indeed, I managed to watch the huge director’s cut, also shot in 65mm (unfortunately, not on wide theater screen but on my own TV) , it was quite a marathon and, at the end, I have to admit that I was rather exhausted.  Still, we should praise Kenneth Branagh for providing the ultimate adaptation of one of the most famous plays written by William Shakespeare. Yes, it was the very first time that someone tried to adapt all the text and all the dialogues and even though the idea of getting 4 hours of non-stop Shakespearean dialogues might sound pretty scary, it actually worked very well. Indeed, the whole thing was quite fascinating. On top of that Branagh always had a passion for the genre, he managed to have a top cast here and they all delivered some really strong performances. To conclude, I believe that this movie is mostly for the huge fans of Shakespeare’s work but, if even you are not,  I still think it is definitely worth a look. 

Even though it might be surprising, from the 3 classic Disney fairy tales ('Snow White', 'Cinderella' and this feature), this movie is actually easily my favorite one. Indeed, the animation is just gorgeous, even after all these years, it has one of the best soundtracks ever delivered by Disney and even the songs worked for me. Obviously, Maleficent was such a great villain, one of their very best, that they would even focus their recent live-action version on her instead of Aurora. Concerning Aurora, she was just quite stunning to look at, easily one of their most beautiful princesses. Eventually, the only thing preventing this movie to become truly amazing was the fact that they didn't take any risks at all. Indeed, they just followed their traditional fairy tale formula and, as a result, all the characters were terribly one-dimensional. Basically, the whole tale is really sweet but it also feels rather childish and, eventually, you never feel that anything is really at stake so it is rather difficult to really care about what's going on. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it is still a timeless and charming animated fairy tale and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

It has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. Basically, this movie would be Robin Williams's first real commercial and critical hit (he would even get his first nomination for the Academy Award for the Best Actor in a Leading Role) and it would in fact provide the blue-print for most of his future work. To be honest, like most of the other popular movies starring this actor, I always had some mixed feelings about this flick. I mean, sure, the whole thing was fairly entertaining and Robin Williams really owned this part but, in my opinion, the whole thing was in fact rather shallow. For example, even though it was supposedly based on a true story, the actual guy never used comedy in his broadcasts and he said himself that if he would have done half the things Williams did in the film, he would have been court-martialed. So, even though it was taking place in a real war and even though it was based on a real DJ, the whole thing was in fact just a big fantasy, just some popcorn feature, and therefore, I always had a hard time to take the damned thing seriously. To conclude, even though I’m not a huge fan, it is still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robin Williams’s work.

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. Still, I remember it very well, it was a critical success when it was released and Sigourney Weaver was especially heralded as she definitely gave here one of her best performances. Another achievement in this movie was how they managed to seemingly mix real gorillas with actors in gorilla suits and it was practically impossible to see the difference. Finally, there was something quite fascinating about this unique relationship between this woman and these primates. And, yet, in spite of all this, the whole thing was still missing something to become really amazing. Basically, at the end of the day, even though the gorillas were impressive, even though Sigourney Weaver was really good, the whole thing was a really straightforward biopic and I guess they didn’t take enough risks with the material. As a result, Dian Fossey didn’t have much depth and, as a result, it was rather difficult to really care about her or what she was going through. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was maybe not a masterpiece, it was still a decent biopic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.