Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, it is a rather obscure flick (I was only the 4th listal member who rated the damned thing) and it has been a while since I saw it. If I recall it correctly, I’m pretty sure I saw it in the movie theater when it was released when I was living in England at the time. Anyway, the main reason why I wanted to watch this movie was the fact that it was directed by Stephen Frears. Indeed, Frears is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting British directors and the guy has had a very prolific career for more than 40 years. Anyway, after ‘[Link removed - login to see]’ which would be one of his biggest critical hits, he was back in England making this gloomy drama which would turn out to be one of his most obscure directing efforts. Eventually, even though the whole thing was rather well made, to be honest, I actually had a hard time to care about the characters and what they were going through. Indeed, by now, I have seen enough depressing realistic British drama with a barren economical and sociological background and I don’t think this one added much to the genre. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Stephen Frears’s work.   

I had already seen this movie but since it was ages ago, I was really eager to check it out again. This movie usually doesn’t get much love but I always thought it was actually pretty decent, at least, when I first saw it as a kid. Well, after rewatching the damned thing after all these years, unfortunately, I have to agreed that it didn't really work after all. I mean, the first part taking place in Batertown and ending in the Thunderdown worked fine but, unfortunately, as soon as Mad Max got involved with this tribe of lost children, the whole thing became much less compelling to behold. Somehow, it was as if George Miller felt that the whole thing was becoming too similar to the previous installment so, at some point, he went suddenly for something completely different but, even though this approach had some merit, I'm afraid it just didn't work. As a result, the tone was really messed up as it started like a good old R rated Mad Max installment but then, along the way, it became somehow a family feature which was just so misguided. Still, back then, George Miller was backed by a big American studio so he had a much larger budget at this disposal, especially compared to the previous movies, and, as a result, the whole thing looked pretty neat. Almost 30 years later, George Miller finally came back with a new installment after a rather hazardous production, it did turn out to be a huge critical success but, to be honest, I can't say I was completely blown away though. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, even though it is probably the weakest movie in this franchise, it is still a decent watch though and it is definitely worth a look. 

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.