Reviews by johanlefourbe

I have re-watched it recently and, even though I was pretty sure I saw the damned thing when I was young, I think I actually never saw it at the time. I think it has to do with the fact that ‘Mad Max 2’ was called ‘The Road Warrior’, therefore ignoring the first installment so I probably thought the sequel was the first movie. Anyway, this movie is definitely a milestone and for many reasons. Indeed, not only was it the directing debut for George Miller, one of the most successful directors coming from Australia, but it was also of course Mel Gibson’s debut as well. To be honest, in my opinion, the whole thing didn’t grow old very well but, with such a small budget, they still managed to make something quite striking and pretty bad-ass, that’s for sure.  Since then, it has become a cult classic and it definitely deserves its reputation. More than 35 years later, George Miller would finally come up with a new sequel and, even though the production was pretty chaotic and suffered many delays, it turned out to be a massive popular success (many would argue that it was even the best movie released in 2015). Anyway, to conclude, even though I’m not a huge fan, it is still a really solid 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. Indeed, if I recall it correctly, I even saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released. Back then, I must have been 13-14 years old, I was watching ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ on TV practically everyday at the time, so I thought it would be pretty neat to see Will Smith on the silver screen. Eventually, Smith only had a very small part (he would get his real breakthrough a few years later with ‘Bad Boys’) and the whole thing turned out to be really lame. Indeed, basically, it was one of these tedious comedies surfing on some topical subject, in this case, insemination with an anonymous sperm donor, and even though the makers tried to convince the viewers that the whole thing was therefore really clever, it was just rather moronic. Above all, even though it was supposed to be some comedy, I thought it was barely funny and I was just bored during the whole thing. Finally, this couple made of Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson must be the least charismatic couple I have ever seen. To conclude, I really didn’t like this movie at all and I don’t think it is worth a look whatsoever.

Even though Peter Mullan was finally getting noticed following his stellar performance in 'My Name Is Joe’, I always thought the guy was and still is seriously underrated. In fact ,he has actually also directed a few movies but even though his directing debut ‘Orphans’ was decent, it was barely noticed when it was released. Eventually, his directing follow-up would get much more attention and would even win the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Film festival. Basically, it was a solid but also really gloomy and heartbreaking drama. I mean, while watching this, you can’t help thinking that it must be way over-the-top and it is difficult to believe that those institutions existed in Ireland up to the mid-60’s. The worst is that an actual former Magdalene inmate reported that the reality of these Asylums was actually even much worse than depicted in the film. So, it was a heavy tale, that’s for sure, but, to be honest, I thought that the whole structure was fairly traditional and predictable preventing this movie from becoming really amazing. To conclude, even though I don’t think it was really a masterpiece, it was still a really solid historical drama and it is definitely worth a look. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick but, even though it is pretty obscure and rather forgotten nowadays, I thought it was pretty good nonetheless. Obviously, the whole thing was about having both Robert De Niro and Bill Murray playing against type. Indeed, De Niro was playing a shy lonely policeman and Murray was playing this time the mobster when you would expect them to play each other's characters. So, it felt a little bit gimmicky and the story was not really strong but I still liked it, above all, because all the actors involved gave some solid performances. Indeed, back then, Robert De Niro was not yet showing up in all these underwhelming features, he was still one of the most inspiring actors in the world and he was fine here. Concerning Bill Murray, even though the guy was always a decent actor, it would take another decade before he would really taken seriously as a drama actor thanks to ‘Lost in Translation’ but, here, he already shows that he can play against type without any problem. Finally, back in those days, Uma Thurman (who would show up a year later in ‘Pulp Fiction’) was just really charming and it was quite understandable that Mad Dog would fall for her. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really flawless, I thought it was a decent feature and it is definitely worth a look.