Reviews by johanlefourbe

Even though I have sometime a hard time with the last movies directed by Quentin Tarantino (with the notable exception of ‘The Hateful Eight’ which was just amazing), this anthology might still be his weakest effort so far. Basically, it is one of those quirky indie productions but it was just rather tedious to watch and the segment directed by Tarantino was probably one of the weakest of the bunch. Indeed, back in those days, Quentin Tarantino still believed he could be an actor and he kept being cast with some rather embarrassing results. Fortunately, nowadays, he gives only small cameos. To his defense, none of the other short movies included here were much better either (it is generally considered that the segment directed by Robert Rodriguez was the best but I was still not completely sold) and the whole thing rightfully remains some obscure addition in the filmography for all the people involved. The best thing here was Tim Roth who was really good as usual and it's such a shame that we don't hear much from him anymore. To conclude, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing but I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Quentin Tarantino’s work. 

Basically, it is another really obscure French movies that almost no one has seen on Listal. I don’t know if anyone made this comparison before but this movie actually reminded me of ‘Teorema’, one of the most fascinating movies I have ever seen. Indeed, both movies deal with an average middle-class family slightly bored with their lifes and, suddenly, an attractive stranger comes along, have some casual sex with everyone, pretty much shattering this family. In this case, this movie was definitely more down to earth and straightforward than Pasolini’s feature but this concept somehow remains really spellbinding to me. Indeed, I do believe that we are all sexual beings but, in fact, hardly any of us really explore this very deeply and, as a result, we are all pretty much frustrated. The success of this movie also had to do with the cast (Miou-Miou, Charles Berling, Stanislas Merhar) which was just pitch-perfect. Concerning the director, Anne Fontaine became in the following 20 years  apparently one of the most interesting French directors at work and it just too bad that I haven’t managed to watch more of her movies. To conclude, I thought it was a fascinating feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies. 

From the 3 big horror movies that launched some major franchises in the 80’s (‘Halloween’, ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, ‘Friday the 13^th’), my favorite one was ‘Friday the 13^th’. Maybe it was because I saw it first but I thought that this first installment was just quite spellbinding and really entertaining to watch. With this in mind, I was having a bunch of my friends at my house so I thought we could have a small ‘Friday the 13^th’ marathon so I rented again the first and also the second installment and so we could watch them back-to-back. Eventually, I couldn’t believe how underwhelming the 1^st sequel was and it was, in my opinion, a huge step back from the previous movie. Indeed, nothing much really impressed me here  and what remained was just an average and boring slasher flick. Even the fact that Jason Voorhees was finally introduced as the main antagonist felt seriously anti-climatic to me. Eventually, I was so disappointed by this movie that my original interest in this franchise completely vanished and I would never ever watch another installment, except for ‘Freddy vs Jason’ the crossover with Freddy Krueger which I saw many years later. To conclude, I guess my expectation were just too high but I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of the genre. 

Not so long ago, I saw [Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see]’s last directing effort, ‘Yi dai zong shi’, but even though it was rather promising, I thought it was ultimately rather disappointing. Still, the guy remains a very interesting director so I decided to check one of his older movies as well. Apparently, even though it is a rather short feature, Wong Kar-wai struggled so much while making this movie that, during the post-production, he actually stopped working on it and made in the mean time ‘Chung hing sam lam’. Eventually, he still couldn’t let it go and, 14 years later, he came up with another version called ‘Ashes of Time Redux’ which was the version I saw. Anyway, even though I admired this movie just like most of the other work delivered by this director, I had a really hard time to connect with the damned thing. I mean, as usual, it looked quite gorgeous, I loved the soundtrack and the general mood created but the plot was seriously murky. Indeed, as a result, it was probably his most difficult movie to follow and I thought it was rather frustrating to watch. I mean, even though it was presented as an ancient martial arts feature (the official name for this genre is ‘wuxia’), in fact, there was barely any action scene at all, which wasn’t really a problem, but the characters came in and went away without any explanation and the whole thing remained as a result terribly obscure. Anyway, to conclude, even though I had a hard time with the damned thing, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Wong Kar-wai’s work.

I remember very well when this movie was released. Indeed, I’m pretty sure I actually saw it in the movie theater but, otherwise, I saw it very soon after. Anyway, while watching the damned thing, I was pretty sure I was witnessing the birth of a new Star. Indeed, Reese Witherspoon, who was just about 20 years old at the time, was just so charismatic and so talented here, I was pretty sure that she would have an impressive career. Eventually, she would keep making some smart choices and, within a few years, she managed to reach the A list and she hasn’t lost her spot ever since. Coming back to our main feature, even though Witherspoon was quite amazing, I’m not sure I really cared about the story though. I mean,  it was basically some kind of dark thriller with some twist around the Red Riding Hood tale and while it was fairly entertaining, I’ll give you that, it was not much more than that. To conclude, even though I don’t think it is really a masterpiece, it still is a fine thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you want to see when Reese Witherspoon’s career finally took off.         

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick. Personally, I always had a weak spot for romantic-comedies, but eventually, I ended up with some mixed feelings about this movie. The main issue I had with this movie is that,  in my opinion, the whole thing in fact almost unwatchable for someone born in France. Indeed, the whole thing is basically based on the most basic clichés about France and the French people and, even though it might be hilarious for an outsider, for me, it was really cringe-inducing to behold. To make things worse, I could barely stand Kevin Kline in this movie. Apparently, some critics did praise his performance but I thought he was barely convincing as a Frenchman and not really funny at all. In my opinion, it is pretty obvious that it would have worked much better with an actual French guy to play this character. Eventually, what really saved this movie for me was Meg Ryan. Indeed, back then, she was still the Queen of the romantic-comedy and she was really charming back in those days. To conclude, I think my rating is actually rather generous but I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I was looking for something to watch with my wife but she didn’t care for anything I suggested but since she enjoyed ‘Magic in the Moonlight’, I thought we might as well try another Woody Allen feature. Well, if I thought that ‘Magic in the Moonlight’ was interesting but flawed, this movie turned out to be even more underwhelming. Basically, at some point, for some financial reasons, Woody Allen decided to shoot his movies in Europe so, after Paris, London, Barcelona, this time, we get Rome which sounded at first promising. Unfortunately, instead of a fully fledged story, he gave us instead a messy mix of 4 different tales which were all half-baked. The worst ones were probably the ones involving some Italian characters. Indeed, it was rather cringe-inducing to see Allen trying to joke about Italian people and their customs when he clearly have only a very basic knowledge of their culture. Concerning the other 2 plots, the one involving Woody Allen was really stupid but, I have to admit it, it made me really laugh. Eventually, the best tale was by far the one involving Jesse Eisenberg. Indeed, it could have been pretty neat if Allen chose to make the movie only about this character, even if Eisenberg was in fact rather poorly cast. Indeed, not only I had a  hard time to believe that he would eventually look like Alec Baldwin but he didn’t have much chemistry with Ellen Page either. To conclude, it was another really weak directing effort from Woody Allen but I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you are interested in this director.

All my life, I have been fascinated with movies. Obviously, it took me some time to finally get some understanding about the subject and, when I was a kid, like anyone else, I made some rather dubious choices. For example, when this movie was released, I must have been around 12 years old and I thought it looked really awesome. Indeed, I loved this kind of futuristic SF movies back in those days but this one turned out to be pretty lame afterwards. Apparently, the production didn’t go very well and the producer ended up re-shooting 40% of the whole thing to add some humor and to develop the characters. Well, even those re-shoots didn’t really help as it was still a rather underwhelming feature. Personally, I would rather blame Emilio Estevez who has always been a rather weak actor, or at least, he always bored me. Still, on the other hand, to have both Mick Jagger and Anthony Hopkins was just really cool, it’s just too bad they got involved in such a weak feature. Especially for Mick Jagger, the rock star only made a couple of movies so I wish he got involved in something more entertaining. To conclude, the whole thing felt like a missed opportunity and I don’t think it is really worth a look.