Reviews by johanlefourbe

If 'The Matrix Reloaded' turned out to be a big critical failure, it was actually nothing compared to how poorly this last installment was received. Indeed, pretty much everything that went wrong the second time around went here even worse. At this point, the whole story, which in my opinion didn't already work very well in the first movie, became even more stupid and ridiculous. Still, since I always thought that 'The Matrix' is one of the most overrated movies ever made, I can't say I was expecting much and, therefore, I took it for what actually was, a rather silly SF feature with some awesome visuals. Many fans believed that they should have left the first movie alone but, personally, I'm actually glad they made those sequels since they displayed that this whole tale, from the very start, didn't work very well. The biggest mistake they made was, after telling us that our world was fake, was to give us a 'real' world which was visually psychologically and spiritually even more underwhelming than the matrix. From that point, the whole thing was pretty much ruined for me. At least, it was pretty amazing to see Monica Bellucci completely stealing the show in her stunning red dress even though she only had one scene and barely any dialogues. To conclude, sure, it was really weak but I still think it is worth a look, especially if you think that 'The Matrix' is the greatest movie in the world.

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie. Furthermore, I have to admit that I always had some rather mixed feelings about Jean-Luc Godard. Indeed, I really loved ‘À bout de souffle’ and, after all these years, it is still one of my all-time favorites movies. Unfortunately, everything he has done afterwards has been increasingly difficult to watch and his work became at some point pretty much unwatchable. This movie is a fine example. Indeed, it was made only a few years after ‘À bout de souffle’, it was Godard’s first and only attempt at making a big budget production, even working with Brigitte Bardot, one of the biggest stars in the world at the time, and there was definitely something mesmerizing about the movie . And, yet, I thought the whole thing was rather bleak, cynical and you could argue that ‘Contempt’ was not only the title of this movie but also what Godard felt about his American backers, about Brigitte Bardot, about the whole world in general for requiring him to make such production beneath his standards. That’s the whole point with this movie and Godard’s work in general: it’s so obscure that you can pretty much reach anything and nothing in the subtext. To conclude, I’m not huge fan of this flick (Godard himself apparently hated it or at least hated making it) but it still definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Before watching this movie, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but I thought the title was pretty neat and it seemed to be a rather intriguing movie. First of all, I must confess that I never really liked Sophie Marceau. I mean, I’ll give you that, she was and still is pretty nice to look at but I always thought that she was actually a really weak actress. Well, with this movie, she had the opportunity to show something else about herself, something more artistic and compelling but, eventually, the whole thing was pretty much a failure, I’m afraid. Apparently, at only 18 years old, she met the much older Andrzej Zulawski and they would have a relationship for more than 15 years and this would be the 2nd movie they would make together. Basically, I think it was just a really obscure almost impossible to follow and really pretentious Art house feature. Sure, there was plenty of nudity and I always had a weak spot for Jacques Dutronc so the whole thing was not a complete waste of time but it wasn’t far from it. To conclude, I have seen worse but I still don’t think it is worth a look, except maybe if you really like the genre.

It had been quite a while since I saw a movie directed by François Ozon, so I was quite eager to check this one. I’m not sure if Ozon is really well known abroad (‘Swimming Pool’ did get some really solid reviews but that was more than 10 years ago) but, in France, he definitely has a solid reputation. Concerning this feature, I thought it was seriously depressing and it reminded me of ‘Le temps qui reste’ another movie from the same director also dealing with death but I thought that this movie was even more depressing but it probably had to do with the fact that, just a few minutes before I started to watch the damned thing, I had to deal with my own personal domestic drama but that’s another story. Anyway, to be honest, like most of Ozon’s movies, the whole thing felt rather half-baked though. Indeed, it seemed to be one of these flicks were nobody needs to be working at all and when someone is in trouble, they easily can find a very cute country house next to a beach. The fact that the gay guy couldn’t help having sex with the main character was also rather predictable and disappointing. And, yet, I enjoyed the mood and the characters involved thanks to some solid performances and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

After being overshadowed for nearly 2 decades by their own Pixar and even by Dreamworks, Disney is finally going through another renaissance and the last time they went through such productive period was at the beginning of the 90's. Back then, this movie was one of their most acclaimed works and it was even nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, something really unique. However, after watching the damned thing a couple of times, I tend to think it is actually rather overrated. I mean, it is what Disney does best, a traditional timeless fairy-tale, but, in my opinion, it was just decent and nothing really remarkable. First of all, let's take the animation. Sure, there were a few very nice bits, especially the enchanted servants but they have done some much better work after and before making this movie. For example, it always bothered me that Belle kept looking slightly different from one scene to another. Anyway, the biggest issue I had with this movie is that I didn't really like the way they handled the Beast. Indeed, he should have been a terrifying monster but, instead, they created this rude and grumpy child. Seriously, the character was almost a joke. Sure, they made this choice to make sure that the little kids still could watch the damned thing but I think it would have better worked if the whole thing would have been slightly darker. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie is very often considered as one of the very best animated features delivered by Disney, I actually struggled to really care about the damned thing but, of course, it is still a decent movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since this movie was a huge box-office success and since I always had a weak spot for Clint Eastwood's work, I was really eager to check this flick. Eventually, to be honest, I wasn' t really blown away by the whole thing. I mean, sure, it was a decent and well made biopic but not much more than that, I'm afraid. I don't know, maybe, it was just too straighforward for me. Basically, you get to see a soldier who becomes a really good sniper and, like most soldiers, he develops PTS when he is back home, that's it. To be honest, it might sound fascinating on paper but, with this movie, it wasn't really spellbinding. Take the sniper stuff, you see him killing 1 or 2 people but, if you repeat this process 10 times, it gets really repetitive and it was probably the reason why you get to see Chris Kyle doing some ground missions as well. Concerning the PTS stuff, I have seen many other movies dealing with this subject and, here, they didn't got very deep and the only message you get is that Chris Kyle was a great soldier but he was still a little bit messed up by the war. Eventually, the whole thing felt like a love letter to this American hero and I think it was just a tremendous success because the guy was hugely popular in the US and because of the fact that he just died about a year before the movie was released. At the end of the day, since the guy was so popular, they didn't dare being controversial in anyway and, as a result, you get one of the most straigtforward biopics I have ever seen. On a positive note, I have to admit that Bradley Cooper was pretty impressive here, probably giving his best performance so far. To conclude, I didn't think it was offensive, I didn't think it was fascinating either but it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Clint Eastwood's work.

I didn't even know this before but, before this movie was released, DreamWorks Animation was apparently on the verge of bankruptcy. Indeed, after the failure of 'Rise of the Guardians' (which was actually fairly enjoyable in my opinion), they sustained a huge financial loss and had already fired 350 employees. Fortunately, this movie turned out to be a box-office success, even one of the most profitable movies released in 2013. So, it should mean that it was pretty awesome, right? Well, not really, I'm afraid. Basically, I thought it was just a typical DreamWorks effort. Indeed, the animation was just really impressive with some great colors and, above all, some amazing made-up creatures. Unfortunately, as usual, with those guys, the story was just really disappointing. Indeed, it was just really predictable and seriously shallow. It's too bad because the concept, dealing with a family of cavemen, was actually pretty neat and definitely had some potential but, in contrary to Pixar, DreamWorks never had the ambition to deliver something actually deeper and more meaningful. To conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I remember it very well when this movie was released. Indeed, since 'The Matrix' had quickly became a modern classic and simply one of the most influential movies released in the 90's, the expectations for this first sequel were huge but even though it was still a box-office hit, it turned out to be a critical flop, the first one of a very long streak of failures for the Wachowski siblings. Was I really surprised by the end-result? To be honest, not really. I mean, sure, visually speaking, 'The Matrix' was really impressive and an absolute milestone in this area but, story-wise, half of it didn't make much sense or simply really bored me which was a shame because the original set-up was just fascinating. Well, this sequel pretty much gave me the same feeling : it was really pretty to look at, there were some impressive action scenes (The highway scene must be one of the best chases I have ever seen) but the story was rather silly. In my opinion, the fact that the whole story and mythology started to fall down here shows that the first movie was never really great in the first place but that's a personal theory. At least, Monica Bellucci looked stunning but, of course, her character was really poorly developed, and it's a such a shame she never had a bigger career in the US pretty much because of these underwhelming sequels. Anyway, all in all, even though it was nothing great, I don't think it was so bad either and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

It is definitely another really obscure feature, I was the first one who rated the damned thing on Listal and only one other user has rated it so far. Even on IMDB, there is not even a poster for it and barely anyone saw it there either. Since I have always been a fan of Neil Jordan’s work, I was still quite eager to check the damned thing anyway. The first interesting thing about this movie is that Jordan was already making movies for almost a decade (his previous movie ‘We're No Angels’ was even starring such big stars like Robert De Niro and Sean Penn) and you might wonder how he ended up directing such a small feature at this point in his career. Eventually, I have to admit it, the whole thing was not really amazing but there was something quite mesmerizing about it and I really enjoyed the mood. Eventually, they had to give us some kind of a plot and it didn’t really work but there was definitely something intriguing by the original set-up. To conclude, I thought it was a nice sweet little movie and it is really worth a look, especially if you are interested in Neil Jordan’s work.

As you may have noticed, I’m a very obsessive movie watcher and one of my very first obsession was/is Robert De Niro. Indeed, I just love this actor and I have been watching many of this movies during the last 20 years (72 so far and still 20 to go). However, since the beginning of this decade, he has been making about 3 or 4 movies a year and most of them were of a very dubious quality so I’m not as fanatic as I used to be about his work but I still watch some of them from time to time. Anyway, even though it can be interesting to dig up into his old work, it can be pretty thankless as well and this flick was a good example. Not to be confused with ‘The Swap’ which was released 10 years later which was basically using the same footage but re-edited resulting into a completely different movie, this flick wasn't really good, I’m afraid. At least, Robert De Niro had a lead part which was an improvement on than ‘Born to Win’, another obscure feature with De Niro displayed prominently on the promotional material when in fact he was in there just for a few scenes. To conclude, it is a really obscure feature and you should probably avoid it, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of Robert De Niro.