Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I’m a huge fan of Roman Polanski’s work, I was really eager to check it out. Basically, it was another rather obscure movie delivered by this great master and it was apparently barely seen when it was released. Eventually, the most striking thing about  this film was probably the rather distressful circumstances during which it was made. Indeed, Roman Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by Charles Manson just three years before making this film and this was the first movie directed by Polanski following this tragic event. It is believed that due to this traumatic event, Polanski developed the story to be a much more violent representation of Shakespeare's play and, indeed, you probably never see again such a violent adaptation of Shakespeare's work. Eventually, it was a huge flop but I still found it quite interesting, like anything else coming from this director. Indeed, those Shakespeare adaptations can be rather dull but this one, thanks to Polanski's gory vision, became something quite unique, I think it is a really interesting flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Many people tend to forget it but ‘Pulp Fiction’ was actually co-written by Roger Avary who used to be a very good friend of Quentin Tarantino. Eventually, while Tarantino became one of the most famous directors in the world, Roger Avary managed to direct in total only 2 movies during the last 2 decades  (he did write a few more movies though). Anyway, ever since I heard about this flick, I always wanted to check it out and, eventually, it was one of the first DVDs I ever bought when I got my first DVD player years ago. Eventually, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was a decent watch. Indeed, the story was rather generic but I enjoyed the bleak mood and there was a very nice cast involved (Eric Stoltz, Julie Delpy, Jean-Hugues Anglade). Eventually, it would take almost 10 years for Roger Avary to come up with another directing effort, the even better and terribly underrated ‘The Rules of Attraction’.  Unfortunately, since then, this promising director didn’t make any other movie which is too bad. To conclude, even though it might not have been a masterpiece, I thought it was not bad at all and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

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When was the last time that Spike Lee has made something really worthwhile? I guess, it was already 10 years ago with ‘Inside Man’ and all his movies since then have been some critical and commercial failures. It’s too bad because I always had a weak spot for this director. On the other hand, I have to admit that all his early movies were not always some real home-runs and this movie is a perfect example. In fact, it’s not it was really bad, it’s just that it never really fulfilled all its potential and there were many things to enjoyed here. First of all,  it is rather weird to see Wesley Snipes in a serious drama after all these terrible cheap-ass direct-to-dvd action flicks but in fact, the guy actually started his career in such movies. Anyway, the main issue with this flick is that even though it is dealing with an interesting subject (a love affair with a black man and white woman) and it was supposed to shake the status quo, at the end of the day, it was still rather stereotypical and generic after all. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was still a decent watch and it is definitely  worth a look, especially if you are interested in Spike Lee’s work. 

At the end of the 90’s, just at the beginning of his career, Edward Norton showed up back to back in ‘American History X’ and ‘Fight Club’ , two massive classics, and the guy was overnight already hailed as the best actor of his generation. Almost 20 years later, I have seen actually all his movies and, to be honest, in my opinion, Norton never really fulfilled those expectations. Anyway, at some point, like many other actors, he decided to direct as well and came up with this feature. Eventually, it didn’t get much a love but, since I was a huge fan of the guy back in those days, I probably gave this movie more credit than it actually deserved.  I mean,  the whole thing was really harmless and fairly entertaining but it never flies really high. Basically, even though it is a romantic comedy with a religious subject, it never becomes really deep enough to become truly remarkable. At the end of the day, you might wonder if Edward Norton actually enjoyed the experience since he never directed another movie afterwards. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

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When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme and I saw all the movies he made at the beginning of his career. Eventually, at around 14 years old, I started to get interested in other kind of movies and I discovered that his movies were not so great after all. Among his 'classics', this movie is neither his best ('Bloodsport' remains by far his most interesting feature, at least, that’s my opinion) or his worst, it is basically a typical Van Damme vehicle with a generic and predictable plot. Anyway, at the end of the day, it was really similar to 'Bloodsport', maybe too similar explaining why I didn’t care much for it. At least, I have to admit that the Muscles from Brussels was pretty badass here. Eventually, they would make a whole bunch of sequels, none of them starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and starring instead Sasha Mitchell, a very lame Van Damme lookalike, and they were really awful (I can’t believe I have actually seen 2 of those sequels… What a waste of time!). To conclude, I think it is fine if you are 12 years old and you want to watch some brainless action flick but, otherwise, you should probably watch something else instead.