Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

Even though this movie seems to be rather forgotten nowadays, especially outside the Netherlands, I really liked it a lot and I should definitely re-watch it at some point.  Basically, this movie was the last one directed by Paul Verhoeven before he left the Netherlands and it is my favorite one from this period just behind 'Turks Fruit'. Above all, I thought that the story was just fascinating and, in my opinion, I believe it was in fact a better version of 'Basic Instinct'.  Indeed, to be honest, I always had some mixed  feelings about 'Basic Instinct' because, even though the set-up was great, the plot was after all really far-fetched and rather half-baked. Here, Verhoeven gave us another erotic thriller about a man falling in love with a seemingly dangerous woman but the end-result was this time much more rewarding, at least, that’s my opinion. Instead of Rutger Hauer, the lead was played this time by Jeroen Krabbbé and he gave a really solid performance. Above all, Paul Verhoeven was just at the top of his game at the time and delivered a steamy dark and spellbinding thriller. To conclude, I think it is a great feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Paul Verhoeven’s work.

Nowadays, Marvel is pretty much ruling the box-office but there was a time when they were nowhere to be found and it was DC who came out with some very successful super-hero features. First, at the end of the 70's, with 'Superman', and then 10 years later with this movie focusing this time on the Dark Knight. I remember it very well when it came out, there was a huge buzz about this movie. Indeed, you could see the famous logo all over the place, there was some Batman merchandising everywhere and me and my little brother even got some Batman sweaters at the time. Basically, it was huge and pretty much the biggest film event  at the time. With all this excitement, I just had to see it pretty bad and , back in those days (I was 9-10 years old), I was just really blown away by the whole thing. Indeed, I had never seen anything like this before and I thought it was just awesome. Eventually,  I think it is above really enjoyable when you are just a kid and, of course, 20 years later, it does look pretty cheesy, especially when you compare it to Christopher Nolan's trilogy but back in those days, it was really groundbreaking and it still deserve a lot of respect. To conclude, this movie is really a childhood favorite and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.