Reviews by johanlefourbe

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, coming back our main feature, it is interesting to see that way before 'Meet the Parents' or 'Analyse This', Robert De Niro was already showing up in some mainstream commercial comedies like this one. The big difference, however, is, first, it was actually a good comedy and, secondly, those movies were really the exception, the rest of his work was focused on some really challenging and interesting productions. To be honest, since I kept hearing some great things about this movie, I was expecting a little bit more from it but, eventually, it was a decent road-trip combined with the usual buddy cop gimmick. So, it was nothing really original but it was still fairly entertaining and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robert De Niro's work.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since I had this movie on DVD like forever, I thought it was really time to watch the damned thing. First of all, have you ever noticed that if a heist takes place at the end, there is about 95% chances that it will end well for whoever was involved? But if the heist takes place earlier in the film, you can be pretty sure that it would end badly somehow. I had actually never paid attention to this until I watched this flick. Not that it was really good, it was actually pretty weak , especially Famke Janssen was rather unconvincing as a supposedly white-trash housewife (to cast a previous Dutch model for this part was also pretty risky). To be honest, not everything was worthless. Indeed, I have to admit that I really didn’t see the twist coming after the heist but I'm not sure if it was because the whole thing was clever or in fact poorly put together. At least, Harvey Keitel was clearly rising above the poor material and the guy managed to deliver a solid performance. Another surprise was to see a very young topless Lucy Liu in a very short scene. To conclude, even though it wasn’t a complete failure, it was still pretty weak though and I don't think it is really worth a look.

It is rather funny to think that, back in those days, Milla Jovovich was not linked to all these dreadful Resident Evil flicks but she was then Luc Besson's muse, she was even married to the guy for a few years. I'm not sure if this movie was big abroad when it was released but, in France, it was pretty huge and it was a big box-office success if I recall it correctly. For Luc Besson, it would be a turning point in his career. Indeed, up to that point, it was one of the most successful French directors, at least definitely the most ambitious one but, after this flick, he would stop directing for a while and would focus instead on producing a massive number of disposable action flicks for the international market ('The Transporter' , 'Taken', 'Taxi',...). At some point, he would finally go back to directing but none of his recent directing efforts have been really inspired or inspiring so far and it seems that the guy has pretty much lost his touch. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it is pretty much a typical Besson feature. Indeed, it was very well made, visually quite appealing and there were some decent performances but the whole thing was way too shallow to become really remarkable. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you are interested in Luc Besson's work.

I already saw this movie, I have even seen it in the movie theater when it was released, but, since I have it on DVD, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, if 'The Matrix Reloaded' turned out to be a big critical failure, it was actually nothing compared to how poorly this installment was received. In fact, it was interesting to revisit this movie after all these years. At this point, the whole story which, in my opinion wasn’t already really interesting in the first movie, became even more underwhelming. Above all, it was all so pretentious. The funny thing with this 3rd installment was that, in spite of its title, it barely took place in the matrix at all and they focused instead on some massive battle between the machines and the human resistance. On one hand, I have to admit that it did look spectacular, especially for a movie which was made 20 years ago but, on the other hand, they drifted away so much from the main topic but, above all, it was just so generic and not interesting at all. As far as I was concerned, I always thought that 'The Matrix' was one of the most overrated movies ever made so I can't say I was expecting much and, therefore, I took it for what it 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, wasn’t so great after all. The biggest mistake they made was, after telling us that our world was fake, was to give us a 'real' world which was 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 text at all. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you are fan of 'The Matrix'.

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.