Reviews by johanlefourbe

[Link removed - login to see]Last week, I watched ‘After Earth’, one of the latest directing efforts by M. Night Shyamalan, and, obviously, it was pretty lame. After watching the damned thing, I was wondering if I would ever be able to watch his directing debut. Well, after making some research, I actually found it on Youtube (I have added it to Listal if you are interested). Eventually, even  Shyamalan himself dismissed the whole thing so I had some rather low expectations and, indeed, it was not really a pleasant watch. In fact, it could have been his deepest movie so far dealing with his Indian background but, unfortunately, as usual with this director, it was so  pretentious, it was just cringe-inducing to behold. Indeed, not only did he direct this movie, he produced it, wrote it and even played the leading character with a terrible end-result. On top of that, even though it was interesting to see him trying to connect with his ancestors’s culture, it was just rather condescending. At least, we have to keep in mind that the guy was only 22 years old when he made this. To conclude, the whole thing was pretty lame and I don’t think it is worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of M. Night Shyamalan’s work.

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and I should probably re-watch the damned thing at some point. Basically, in France, in 1995, there was a big celebration about the fact that cinema was existing already for 100 years and, through the whole year, they displayed some old classics in my city which was pretty neat. Well, that’s when I saw this movie and since it had a rather stellar reputation, I was really eager to check it out and I had some rather high expectations. Well, eventually, even though it was indeed a decent watch, to be honest, it didn’t really blow me away and I thought it was actually fairly disappointing. I don’t know, at a very young age, I started to watch Charles Chaplin’s work, I basically grew up with his movies, ever since I have been a huge fan and even though Tati was not bad and fairly amusing, he never came near the genius displayed by Chaplin, at least, that’s my opinion. To conclude, even though I thought it was disappointing, it is still pretty much a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

After making some rather obscure features for almost 20 years, Kenneth Branagh has recently made somewhat a comeback with ‘Thor’and he has been making some big blockbusters ever since (‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’, ‘Cinderella’). Anyway, back in the 90’s, I was a big fan of his work so I was really eager to check this flick, even if it is one of his most unknown features. Indeed,  a year earlier, he made ‘Frankenstein’, his biggest and most ambitious project so far but it was rather poorly received (personally, I thought it was not bad though). Apparently, he was eager to make something much smaller and this movie definitely achieved this goal. Indeed, for the first time in his directing career, Branagh didn’t cast himself and I must admit that it was quite refreshing, especially after ‘Frankenstein’ which was pretty much a massive ego-trip. Anyway, basically, it was a rather simple movie, with a simple tale with some decent characters but I thought it was quite entertaining. To conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I thought it was pretty good and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Kenneth Branagh’s work.

Basically, it is another really obscure French feature (in fact, I’m the only one who saw the damned thing on Listal, even on IMDB, just a little more than 200 people have seen it which is really really low). To be honest, I’m not really sure why I actually watched the damned thing in the first place but my guess was because there was a pretty neat cast involved (Melvil Poupaud, Élodie Bouchez, Romain Duris). Anyway, at the end of the day, it was basically a rather generic heist feature which tried to be really hype but I thought it was fairly entertaining, even if it was really forgettable. Eventually, you could almost call it a French ‘Ocean’s eleven’, even though this movie was actually released 3 years before. I have noticed that Elie Kakou, a rather prominent French comedian at the time, was also involved in this movie and I was wonderering what happened to the guy since I haven’t heard from him for so many years. Well, I have just discovered that this actor actually died a year after making this movie. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. Anyway, even though it is probably not one of the most famous movies starring Brad Pitt, it has still managed to become more or less a cult-classic after all these years. Personally, I always had some mixed feelings about the damned thing. I mean, back in those days, Pitt just got his breakthrough with ‘Thelma & Louise’ a couple of years before but he wasn’t yet such a massive movie star but he was definitely showing some great potential in this flick. Indeed, he was definitely the best thing about this movie as he delivered a very solid performance. Unfortunately, the whole mixing of those 2 couples didn’t really work for me and it all felt rather forced and far-fetched to me. Concerning Dominic Sena, it was definitely a promising directing debut but, unfortunately, his career has been rather underwhelming ever since. Anyway, to conclude, even though I wasn’t a huge fan of this flick, I thought it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Brad Pitt’s work.