Reviews by johanlefourbe

Wow, this movie turned out to be a massive disappointment... I mean, I don't believe that the first installment was a real masterpiece but, in my opinion, it was very effective and I thought it was quite enjoyable. On the other hand, this sequel (or in fact,  prequel because most of the action was taking place actually before) was a big step down. Basically, they used again the same gimmick and even though it worked fine the first time around, here, it felt really redundant and I pretty much knew beforehand what to expect. The only interesting thing that they added was those security camera's and it somewhat did expand the experience but it wasn’t enough to make the whole thing really entertaining. I don't know, I think I read somewhere that many viewers thought it was scarier than the previous movie but I certainly don't agree. In fact, it was even slower  and, during the first hour, nothing happened at all which resulted in a terribly sluggish and boring built-up. Then, at last, during the last 20 minutes, something finally  happened but, once again, I thought it was rather underwhelming. On top of that, the fans argued that it was a great addition to this 'mythology', explaining a great deal what happened previously, well, I didn't get that at all and, to make things worse, after the 'attack', everything even seemed to go back to normal for a while, which didn't make any sense at all. Anyway, to conclude, I really didn’t care for the whole thing at all and I don't think it is really worth a look.

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. Basically, it is one of those movies dealing with a man going alone in the wilderness (the last one must probably be ‘The Revenant’ which was widely acclaimed and which I need to see as soon as possible). At the end of the day, I have to admit that it was probably too generic to become really remarkable but I always had a weak spot for this genre and this one was really well made. On top of that, Robert Redford definitely went all the way providing a really convincing performance and the guy was basically caring the whole thing on his shoulders. This movie would be the 2^nd one directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford and, even though it might not have been their most famous production, it is still in fact easily my favorite one. To conclude, even though it was probably not really a masterpiece, I really have a weak spot for this flick, I really enjoyed it and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I remember it quite well when this movie was released. Indeed, there was quite some buzz about it above all because of its rather steamy concept. Eventually, even though it did rather well at the box-office, it didn’t get much love but I thought it was not bad at all. Indeed, even though the subject was rather controversial and quite exploitative, I thought it was a fascinating concept and, on top of that, the cast was just spot on (Robert Redford, Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson). Indeed, I thought it was quite believable that a rich man would think of spending 1 million dollars to spend a night with Demi Moore and I remember that my sister argued that many women would be actually quite eager to have some casual sex with someone like Robert Redford even for free.  So, all these ingredients were quite intriguing and Adrian Lyne managed to play rather well with this ‘forbidden’ fantasy. Unfortunately, in the second half, I thought that the whole thing started to loose its focus. Indeed, to have Demi Moore and Robert Redford going for a steady relationship was a bad idea and it didn’t mix well with the whole fantasy set-up. Anyway,  to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was a decent steamy thriller and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Not so long ago, I saw 'Olympus has fallen' and even though it was a box-office success, I really didn’t care much for it. Well, the very same year, Roland Emmerich released this other action  flick with exactly the same story  so I didn't expect much from it, especially since it was turned to be a flop at the box-office. Well,  surprisingly, I thought it was actually slightly better. Indeed, in my opinion, the mix between  the action scenes and the humor worked much better and I thought it was quite entertaining, at least, more  than 'Olympus has fallen'. Basically, this whole premise was of course really far-fetched but, this time,  they didn't make the same mistake of taking themselves too seriously and what you get is just a fun blockbuster flick, no more and no less. On top of that, I thought that Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx were an unlikely but effective and charismatic duo while Gerald Butler was probably more believable but also rather boring to behold. The only issue I really had was that the running time was slightly too long and they should have wrapped it up sooner. Anyway, to conclude, even though I might be in the minority, I thought it was a 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 flick and I should probably re-watch it at some point. In fact, I remember it quite well, back then, one of my best friends at the time told me he saw this amazing mindf*ck and advised me to watch it at soon as possible. Eventually, I think it still missed something to become really remarkable, maybe it was due to the fact that I’m not a huge fan of such twist endings.  Still, it was quite a wild and entertaining thriller, no doubt about it. Back in those days, Tim Robbins was probably one of the most interesting actors at work at the time, he delivered one of his best performances here and he will keep showing up in some critically acclaimed features in the following years (‘The Player’, ‘Short Cuts’, ‘The Shawshank Redemption’).  Concerning Adrian Lyne, it was easily the best movie he has directed and it clearly stood out from the rest of his work. To conclude, even though it didn’t turn out to be one of my favorites, it was still a really decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Nowadays,  Wes  Anderson must be easily one of the most interesting American directors at work so, obviously, I was really eager to check his directing debut. Apparently, it didn’t get much love when it was released and it was a big box-office flop (apparently, Owen Wilson even considered joining the Marines afterwards, as he thought that he had no future as an actor). Well, I really liked it and, in fact, I believe it is one of the most enjoyable movies delivered by Anderson so far. Indeed, even though I always respected his work, I often had a hard time to connect with his movies as they were drown in his usual visual extravaganza instead of focusing  on the characters and what they were going through. Here, even though it was obviously much less ambitious, especially visually speaking, the focus was more on the characters and those were most of the time rather hilarious. Eventually, I have to admit that the whole thing was still too random to become really remarkable but most of it worked very well. To conclude, I thought it was a really solid directing debut and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you're interested in Wes Anderson's work.

I remember it quite well when this movie was released. Indeed, there was quite some controversy as it was a sexually very explicit feature and, I have to admit it, it was most of all because of its notorious reputation that I wanted to check it out. Basically, the whole thing was about some gloomy and rather depressing sex relationship so there was indeed a lot of explicit sex scenes. In fact, I thought that there was in fact even more unsimulated sex here but it shows how convincing the whole thing was. Anyway, even though you could argue that the artistic merit of this movie was rather questionable, I thought it was quite fascinating to behold. Indeed, there was something terribly messed up here but I think it resembles how totally weird a sexual relationship can become. On a side note, to be honest, it was rather weird to see again Kerry Fox, an actress I discovered with ‘Shallow Graves’, in something so controversial. To conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, at least if you don’t mind if a movie is very bleak and rather depressing to watch. 

I remember it very well, more than 20 years ago, I saw ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ and I thought it was really awesome. Back then, there was quite some controversy about this movie because, even though it was in fact directed by Henry Selick, Tim Burton eventually seemed to get most of the credit for this amazing movie. Eventually, 3 years later, Selick would release another stop-motion feature, this time, without any involvement of Tim Burton so I was really eager to check the damned thing and I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released. Unfortunately, I thought it was actually rather disappointing. Indeed, basically, even though it was indeed visually really neat, to be honest, I didn’t care much for the story. I have to admit it, I have never been a really huge fan of Roald Dahl’s work and, on top of that, I don’t think it was really one of his strong stories. Eventually, more than a decade later, Wes Anderson would come up with ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ proving that you can make a great stop-motion feature out of a book written by Roald Dahl. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I really enjoyed a lot 'Prisoners', I was really eager to see this other movie,  also directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Jake  Gyllenhaal and also released the very same year. Eventually, what I enjoyed the most about this movie is how completely  different it was from Villeneuve's previous work (to be fair, I have only seen 3 movies directed by this guy, including this one, 'Prisoners' and 'Incendies'). Sure, you might argue that it was in fact just another thriller but this one was completely different, some surrealist experiment which could also be some kind of nightmare. Anyway,  once again, I was quite impressed by Jake Gyllenhaal  who remains by far one of the most talented actors of his generation. Eventually, what prevented this movie to be really great was that it was very slow. In fact, it shouldn't be necessarily  a problem but, with a rather short running time (barely  90 minutes), it remains a big puzzle which was nice but maybe a little bit too easy  and certainly not completely satisfying because  you barely get the opportunity to get to know those 2 guys. Still, it was really something different and only therefore it gets a few extra points. To conclude, I thought it was a really decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Honestly, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Sam Worthington, I thought I might as well check it out. On top of that, I had this movie on DVD for ages so I thought it was really time to watch the damned thing. Basically, it is one of those Shakesperian adaptations with a modern setting, a trend started with 'Romeo + Juliet' which has lasted a few years afterwards (see also 'O' (2001) and 'Hamlet' (2000)). Well, I never cared for this trend and, except for 'Romeo + Juliet', none of those movies were actually successful, critically or commercially. In fact, this movie might even be the worst of the bunch. Indeed, even though it was a good idea to have the characters involved in some street gangs,  the same trick was in fact already used in 'Romeo + Juliet' and I'm afraid it was pretty much the only thing that really worked in this movie. In my opinion, it would have been much better to modernized the dialogues as well, instead of keeping the original text written by Shakespeare. Also, those witches felt also rather anachronistic and they should have found something else (for example, Macbeth could have taken some drugs and get some kind of hallucinations). Anyway, at least, Worthington was not bad but it was really not enough to save this movie and I don't think it is really worth a look.