Reviews by johanlefourbe

When was the last time that Brian De Palma  did release a great movie? Recently, I saw his last directing effort, ‘Passion’, and it was seriously terribly weak. With this in mind, if you look back at his legacy, some of his really average movies seem almost decent nowadays. This movie is a perfect example. Basically, it is not a good movie, that’s for sure, but there was definitely some potential. First of all, there is one hell of an opening. Indeed, it is a composite of several Steadicam shots cleverly edited to make it look like a 20 minutes long continuous shot and it has been rightfully hailed as one of the best openings ever made. Furthermore, even though it seems that Nicolas Cage has decided to completely ruined his career by showing only in some random garbage, back in those days, the guy was one of the most interesting actors at work and he gave here a solid performance. Then, you had this plot…. In fact, at first, it wasn’t really so bad and it could have turned out to be a decent thriller. Unfortunately, slowly, it became pretty obvious that De Palma didn’t care much about the plot at all, it became less and less interesting and, towards the end, the climax was downright completely underwhelming (apparently, the original ending  was in fact supposed to be an action-packed sequence with some massive special effects but it was cancelled in post-production). To conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look but don’t expect anything really amazing before watching the damned thing.

To be honest, it has been ages since I have seen this flick and I should definitely re-watch it at some point. This movie seriously came out of nowhere. Indeed, before that, Peter Jackson was the King of the Nasties, making some crude but hilarious horror comedies. However, with this feature, he suddenly shifted gears and made a very compelling and original fantastic thriller/drama. Who could have imagine that a director expert in vomit feasts could make such a sensitive portrait of female adolescence?!? At this point, it was pretty obvious that Jackson was a really skilled director that we should reckon with in the future. Not only the directing was impressive but we shouldn't forget about the tremendous acting as well. Indeed, even though Melanie Lynskey never managed to really have a breakthrough, she was actually really good in this, and, of course, for the great Kate Winslet, it was a really amazing acting debut and the beginning of a great career full of many other amazing performances. Eventually, 15 years later, Peter Jackson would go back to this genre with ‘The Lovely Bones’ but, unfortunately, it turned out to be a commercial and critical flop. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, even though it seems to be rather forgotten nowadays, it is actually a really solid drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Peter Jackson’s work. 

This franchise must have the most messed up legacy ever. Obviously, the notorious 2^nd installment has always been hailed as the worst sequel ever made but, at the end of the day, none of the other sequel was really much better, to be honest (yes, I have seen all of them and that’s what you can call indeed a massive waste of time…). It is rather sad because this first movie was actually pretty cool and it is definitely a childhood classic for me. Obviously, the concept was really far-fetched, it already barely made sense the first time around and there was some really weird casting choices going on here with Sean Connery (a Scotsman) playing a Spaniard and Christopher Lambert (a Frenchman) playing a Scotsman. Still, there was something quite mesmerizing about this convoluted and messed up mythology and, I can’t deny it, when I was a kid, I thought it was just awesome to see those immortals fighting each other for the ‘big prize’. At the end of the day, there was definitely something interesting about this concept and it just needed some fine-tuning to become really awesome. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, they really ruining the whole thing with those awful sequels. Anyway, to conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, it is still a fun and entertaining flick and it is definitely worth a look. 

I already saw this movie but since it was such a long time ago, I was really eager to check it out again. In fact, I remember very well when this movie came out. Indeed, back then, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino were still a big deal and when the word came out that they would finally star together in a movie, like any other average movie fanatic, I was just thrilled. Eventually, I even saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released and I was certainly not disappointed. Well, I'm really glad I rewatched it after all these years, I enjoyed even more as it is such a very well made and entertaining heist feature. The masterstroke with this movie was that, instead of rushing everything and focusing on the action scenes, they took their time. As a result, De Niro and Pacino, who were still at the top of their game, had enough space to develop their characters and you had the opportunity to root for both guys, the thief and the cop, which is something very rare and it was very well handled here. Concerning Michael Mann, he made recently a come-back after 6 long years with ‘Blackhat’ but it turned out to be a massive commercial and critical failure. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, it is definitely a classic, one of the best movies ever made in this genre and it is definitely worth a look.

Since it is a rather obscure flick, I had really no idea what to expect from this flick but since I was starring both Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman, it was really eager to check it out. I didn’t know at the time but it was in fact a remake of  a really good French thriller, ‘Garde à vue’, and even though you could argue that the whole thing was another rather pointless remake, I thought it was actually pretty neat. Indeed, even though the story itself was nothing really amazing,  Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman were both really impressive, giving some of their best performances. Just to see them facing each other is really worth watching the damned thing. Something disappointing about this movie though was the fact that, once again, Monica Bellucci was rather poorly used. I mean, she  was another reason why I wanted to check this flick and, as usual, she looked really stunning but, to be honest, she did’t have much to do except for looking completely gorgeous. To conclude, even though it was maybe not a masterpiece, it was still a really solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, it has been ages since I have seen this movie and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. In fact, I still remember very well the first time I saw the damned thing. In fact, at the time, I had never heard of this flick before and it is my brother-in-law who brought it to our attention saying that it had a very notorious reputation, that it was one of the scariest movies ever made. So, we sat there with the 3 of us (my sister, her boyfriend and myself), expecting something really horrible to happen but, to be honest, we didn’t care much for the whole thing. I mean, sure, it was well made and Michael Rooker gave a really solid performance but, in my opinion, the movie didn’t have much else to offer. Basically, it is a decent serial-killer flick and the only original thing was that the guy didn’t get caught at the end. Apparently, that was something that deeply shocked the viewers at the time, that someone so evil would get away with doing something so terrible but, to be honest, I thought this approach was clever but not much more than that, I’m afraid. To conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, I wonder how I actually ended up watching this flick. The main reason was probably that I kept hearing some really good things about this movie and it seemed to be a really cool cult-classic. Eventually, even though I thought it was a decent watch and I was definitely able to appreciate it, I can’t say it really blew me away though. It’s not that the whole thing really shocked me, not at all, in fact, it was pretty much the whole point of this flick. Honestly, I think I just didn’t care much about these characters and what they were going through. At the end of the day, it all depends where you stand regarding such over-the-top extravagant characters. If you love this kind of characters, you will probably love this movie, otherwise, I’m not sure this movie will be really for you. Anyway, eventually, after this promising directing debut, it would take John Cameron Mitchell 5 years to finally come up with a follow-up which would be the even more controversial ‘Shortbus’ which was equally flawed but still interesting to watch.  To conclude, even though I didn’t really connect with the whole thing, it was still something quite original, only therefore it already deserves some extra credit, and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.