Reviews by johanlefourbe

When I heard that Bernardo  Bertolucci was finally coming up with a new directing effort, of course, I got pretty excited and even though it didn’t get much love when it was released, I was still eager to check it out. Basically, it was another small feature, quite similar to his previous movie, 'The Dreamers', probably too similar in fact.  Indeed, the whole thing was even more minimalist since it was just about 2 characters spending the whole movie in some basement. Still, I actually loved this young boy and his seemingly crazy idea. Basically, he is a teenage boy  who doesn't get along with anyone and, instead of going on a ski trip with his school, he decides to spent the whole week all by myself in his basement. Obviously, the guy really had some issues and, yet, I thought his plan was actually really neat since I have myself always had a rather difficult time to connect with other people. So far, it was working very well  for me but, then, they had to introduce a girl in the mix and that's when it started to fall apart. First of all, she wasn't some random girl but his half-sister who he barely  had any contact with but what really ruined the whole thing was the fact she was a junkie going cold turkey. It wasn't really interesting, I had already seen too many junkies doing this, above all, it had nothing to do with what happened before and, for some reasons, this young anti-social boy started to bond with her fairly easily, too easily in my opinion. You could argue that they were both outcasts but, still, it didn't really work for me. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I still think it is worth a look, especially if you're interested in Bertolucci's work.

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should give it a second chance at some point. It is a rather obscure feature (I was only the 3^rd listal members who has rated the damned thing) and, in fact, I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released. Back then, I thought it seemed really intriguing, it was directed by a good director (Stephen Frears) and there was a fine cast involved (Billy Crudup, Woody Harrelson, Patricia Arquette, Penélope Cruz) so I had some rather high expectations. Well, unfortunately, I turned out to be rather disappointing. I mean, it was rather well made, I’ll give you that, but, at the end of the day, I never really cared about the story or the characters involved. Basically, it was some kind of post-modern Western taking place just after WWII which is something rather tricky to handle and while watching this, I couldn’t help thinking that Stephen Frears, even though a really talented and versatile director, was maybe not the best choice to direct this. Apparently, Sam Peckinpah did try to get this movie produced for years and I think It might have worked better with him. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look. 

As you may have noticed, I’m a very obsessive movie watcher and one of my very first obsession was/is Robert De Niro. I just love this actor and I have been watching many of this movies during the last 20 years (I have seen 72 of them so far). However, since the beginning of this decade, he has been making about 3 or 4 movies a year and most of them were of a very dubious quality so I’m not as fanatic as I used to be about his work but I still watch some of them from time to time. Anyway, even though De Niro did get his breakthrough thanks to ‘Mean Streets’ directed by Martin Scorsese, in fact, before that he had actually worked 3 times with Brian De Palma. This was the 3^rd one they made together at the time. To be honest, if it would have been directed by someone else and starring some unknown actor, I’m pretty much I wouldn’t have bothered watching this flick. Still, I thought it was a decent watch. Indeed, it is basically an experimental and rather messy comedy, something typical of the time-period, and only therefore, I though it was quite intriguing. To conclude, even though it was nothing amazing, I thought it was not bad and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robert De Niro or in Brian De Palma’s work. 

To be honest, I have never really understood why ‘The Hangover’ franchise turned out to be so popular. I mean, I have to admit it, the concept was decent but I never understood why, if you have a bunch of colorful characters having a very wild night in Las Vegas or in Bangkok, why would you bother show the day after, when all the fun is gone and the guys spend all their time to recover the damages and their senses? Anyway, at least, with this movie, they didn’t completely recycle the plot of the 1^st movie but even so I’m afraid it turned out to be even more underwhelming than the previous installment. Indeed, the main issue with this whole franchise is that, even though Alan was supposed to be hilarious, he is in fact most of the time completely obnoxious and, with this 3^rd movie, it became so bad that his buddies of the Wolf Pack simply can’t stand him anymore and would rather have never met him. As a result, the whole thing is basically about Alan completely antagonizing his so-called ‘friends’ and it was really cringe-inducing to watch. To conclude, it was pretty weak and I don’t think it is worth a look. 

Not to be confused with Michael Bay's directing debut , it is in fact a really obscure crime drama starring Sean Penn. I had seriously no idea what to expect from the damned thing but since I always had a weak spot for this actor, I thought I might as well check it out. For the actor, it was quite an important step in his career since it was the first time that he received top first billing following 2 supporting parts in respectively ‘Taps’ and ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’. Concerning the movie itself, to be honest, I was expecting something rather lame as most of the actors have to start somewhere and they very often start up in some cheap and rather weak productions. Well, I was actually quite surprised by this movie. Indeed, it is basically a really raw and realistic flick featuring a really strong performance by Sean Penn. Still, I have to admit that, without his involvement, I’m not sure I would have really cared about the damned thing. Anyway, to conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, I thought it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Sean Penn’s work. 

It has been a while since I have seen this flick and I should definitely re-watch it at some point. To be honest, before watching the damned thing, I was actually completely unaware of its reputation and I think I decided to give it a try just because the review on the TV magazine was really positive. Eventually, I was completely blown away by the whole thing and it turned out to be one of the best cinematic surprises I ever watched. First of all, for some reasons, I have always been fascinated by the pool game and by pool hustlers and this movie is just by far the best ever made dealing with this subject. Indeed, it looked gorgeous, Paul Newman gave one of his best performances and the whole thing was just really damned entertaining. Eventually, 25 years later, they would release a sequel directed by Martin Scorsese and starring both Paul Newman and Tom Cruise but while it turned out to be a decent watch, it never came near the greatness displayed in this flick, I’m afraid. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it is actually one of my all-time favorites, I really loved this movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.