Reviews by johanlefourbe

Even though it is probably not considered as one of the greatest classics produced by Disney, I have to admit that I always had a weak spot for this movie. Basically, the whole concept was to take a very ancient tale (in this case, the legend of King Arthur) and turn it into some rather daft comedy and, somehow, it worked surprisingly well, at least, as far as I'm concerned. Indeed, there were many hilarious moments involving Merlin, Archimedes and even some poor wolf who strongly reminded me of Wile E. Coyote. Obviously, I have to admit it, it felt sometimes pretty random as there was no real plot here but a succession of loosely linked episodes and it prevented the whole thing from becoming really remarkable but I still think it was quite entertaining anyway. Eventually, 10 years later, they would follow pretty much the same approach with 'Robin Hood', except that they would go even further by turning all the characters into some animals which wasn't a really a good idea, I'm afraid, but it was still fairly enjoyable. Anyway, to conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I really liked this movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Wow, this is a rather weird and obscure movie and I wonder how I actually ended up watching the damned thing.  I mean, the movie itself is rather mediocre, some kind of misguided romantic comedy version of  ‘Witness’ but what was mostly interesting about this flick was in fact the people involved. First of all, even though I didn’t notice it while watching the damned thing, it was actually directed by Leonard Nimoy, Spock himself. Indeed, at some point, the guy tried to direct as well but he never became really successful in this area, I’m afraid, and this would be his last directing effort. Concerning Patricia Arquette, this movie was the next one she made after her breakthrough performance in ‘True Romance’ and it was quite a step-down for her. To complete the cast, you had an even younger Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his first starring role in a theatrically released film. It’s quite impressive to think that the guy has already been around for more than 20 years and he has definitely become one of the most interesting actors of his generation. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, even though I have seen worse, I didn’t care much for the whole thing and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

Basically, it is one of those rather obscure French features that actually no else but me on Listal has seen apparently (in fact, not even 70 people has rated it on IMDb which is one of the lowest figures I have ever encountered). Anyway, if I recall it correctly, I even saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released. Basically, back in those days, I was still living in France and every evening I would watch this great talk-show called ‘Nulle part ailleurs’. Of course, you might wonder what it has all to do with this flick. Well, Jackie Berroyer was an humorist involved in this show and, thanks to this very successful TV show, he got noticed by the mainstream audience resulting in this movie. Well, since I thought that the guy was quite hilarious, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought that it was still quite entertaining and even though Berroyer didn’t really need to stretch his acting talent (he basically played himself), it was some perfect material for him and he was really funny.  To conclude, even though it is a really obscure flick, I thought it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies. 

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.