Reviews by johanlefourbe

Ever since I saw ‘Dead Man’, I have been a huge fan of Jim Jarmusch and I have been trying to watch all his movies for many years. To be honest, none of his other movies impressed me as much as ‘Dead Man’ but they were all interesting to watch and this flick was definitely not an exception. Basically, 2 years after ‘Mystery Train’, Jarmusch was again coming up with a new anthology of stories but, this time, instead of 3 short-stories, he gave us 5, all taking place during the same night and involving some taxi drivers and passengers in five cities: Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. Personally, I’m not really a huge fan of this approach because you often get some half-baked sub-plots instead of a fully fledged tale but here it did work though. Eventually, the weakest segment was probably the one involving Winona Ryder has she gave a rather weak and unconvinving performance and my favorite one was the segment involving Béatrice Dalle and Isaach De Bankolé as the characters and their relationship were the most interesting from the whole bunch. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Jim Jarmusch’s work.

To be honest, I have always been rather skeptical about this franchise but, I have to admit it, the first two installments were actually fairly entertaining. Yet, since I knew that this 3rd movie would focus on some rebellion instead of the actual games, I was a little bit worried and I had once again some rather low expectations. Eventually, I was once again positively surprised. Basically, the thing I enjoyed the most was the ambiguity they gave to the main character's situation. Indeed, it seems that, after all, she pretty much traded a bizarre circus for another one and, even though, those rebels will tell you that they are the good guys, eventually, how would you know if they won't be starting another dictatorship to replace the older one? The main issue was that even though Katniss seemed a little bit hesitating, no one else was, so there was no much room to develop this. And, once again, even though they tried to convince us that this girl was totally badass, she was still pretty much a powerless puppet in my opinion. To conclude, my rating might be rather generous this time, I really wonder if the ending chapter will be really satisfaying, but this blockbuster was fairly enjoyable and I think it is worth a look.

Ever since I saw ‘Dead Man’, I have been a huge fan of Jim Jarmusch and I have been trying to watch all his movies for many years. To be honest, none of his other movies impressed me as much as ‘Dead Man’ but they were all interesting to watch and this flick was definitely not an exception. This time, instead of giving us one story, Jarmusch gave us 3 different stories all taking place in a hotel in Memphis. Personally, I’m not really a huge fan of this approach because you often get some half-baked sub-plots instead of a fully fledged tale but here it did work here. Basically, like most of Jim Jarmusch’s work, there was a deliberate slow tempo and it can be either quite mesmerizing or slightly irritating. In this case, it was fine but I can’t say I was really blown away though. I don’t know, it seems that all these quirky characters were fairly interesting but I can’t say that they were really fascinating either. Still, Jarmusch always managed to attract some really nice guys and, for this movie, you had such notorious figures like Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer to play those characters. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Jim Jarmusch’s work.

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and I should definitely check it out again at some point. Anyway, even though Mike Leigh has a really stellar reputation and he is arguably one of the best British directors alive, I have to admit that I’m not always blown away by his movies. There are some exceptions though and this movie is definitely one of those. Indeed, it was with this movie that Leigh finally burst into the international scene and, even though his work would always be rather bleak, here, it was something really pitch black. The most memorable thing about this feature will always be the impressive performance by David Thewlis and it is rather unfortunate that he would be instead always remembered as one of those many British actors that showed up in the Harry Potter franchise as he gave here by far his best performance. Eventually, to really appreciate this movie, it all depends if you can handle Johnny, the main character. Indeed, he must be one of the most despicable and sinister main characters I have ever seen but I thought he was quite fascinating to behold. To conclude, it is pretty much a British classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Mike Leigh’s work.

It has been a while since I have seen this flick but I always had a weak spot for the damned thing and, if I recall correctly, I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released. Sure, the whole concept was nothing really original but I thought it was actually well done and, above all, quite entertaining. Basically, it was some kind of mix between ‘Yojimbo’ or ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ and ‘Escape from New York’. For good measure, they also threwn in Ray Liotta as the lead instead of the usual suspects like Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Eventually even though Liotta was a rather unexpected choice, I thought he did actually a fine job. Concerning Martin Campbell , it would be his first really commercial feature and it would pretty much launch his career in Hollywood. Indeed, his following directing effort would be ‘GoldenEye’ which would pretty much resurrect the James Bond franchise (a trick that he would manage to do a second time around 10 years later with ‘Casino Royale’). To conclude, even though it was not a masterpiece whatsoever, I thought it was a decent SF feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

It is a rather obscure feature but since there was a nice cast involved, I was still eager to check it out. Well, eventually, it turned to be a rather underwhelming whimsical tale during the prohibition with some supposedly quirky characters but I thought it was just seriously boring to watch. In fact, it wasn't a tale, it was more a mix of really half-baked sub-plots mixed with each other but I didn’t care for anyone of them. The worst sign is that even though it was rather short, not even 80 minutes, I thought it was taking forever to end. Basically, it was another really weak movie involving Madonna and, even though I don't think she was/is such a terrible actress, she did always manage to pick up some really weak projects, that’s for sure. And what was with these massive eyebrows?!? I guess it was one of her trademarks in the 80’s and she would finally trim them a year later when she would show up in 'Dick Tracy'. Yeah, when you start to pay attention to such trivial details, it is never a good sign either. However, I have discovered that this movie was directed by Howard Brookner and it was apparently his full feature length debut. Apparently, while making this flick, Brookner was gravely ill with AIDS and he eventually died before this movie was released so maybe the poor guy just did the best he could under the circumstances. Anyway, to conclude, I have seen worse but it was still a really weak movie and I don't think it is really worth a look.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while ago, I was quite eager to check it out again. Unfortunately, it is one of the few slightly disappointing flicks directed by Martin Scorsese. Indeed, following his massive success with ‘Taxi Driver’, Scorsese decided to do something completely different. Indeed, this time, he had a much larger budget and he decided to make a musical. I mean, to be fair, I still think it was a decent musical and I think it was pretty cool to see such a great director tackling something so different than his usual work. Indeed, the music was really neat and De Niro was at the top of his game and he and Minelli both delivered some solid performances. Furthermore, I did like the fact that Scorsese tried to deliver something darker than your usual whimsical musical but, as a result, you end up watching Robert De Niro playing for more than 2 hours a major douchebag apparently jealous of the fact that his wife might end up being more successful than he will ever be. Seriously, you might wonder why Liza Minelli's character would stay so long with him. Anyway, to conclude, this movie was a flop, a huge blow for this director and it took him a while to recover but I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Martin Scorsese’s work.

Even though it is a rather obscure flick, an anthology about New York with short features directed by by such great directors like Martin Scorsesem, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen sounded really appealing. Eventually, the whole thing turned to be rather disappointing. I mean, the quality of the segments was just really inconsistent as it went from the average (Woody Allen’s bit) to the really tedious (Francis Ford Coppola’s part). Fortunately, the part directed by Scorsese was actually really good and probably the main reason why you should watch the damned thing. Indeed, the directing was really solid, the story was quite spellbinding and there was an awesome performance by Nick Nolte. Concerning the segment directed by Woody Allen, it was a decent watch but he just developped the same ideas and concepts that you get in 99% of his movies so it wasn’t really something really satisfying to watch. Then, you had Francis Ford Coppola who apparently had no clue about what he was doing here and delivered some of his worst work ever. To conclude, even though the whole thing was barely worth a look, you should still check this movie if only for the very nice segment directed by Martin Scorsese.

Since this movie had quite a controversial reputation, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though the whole thing was indeed a bold experiment, the end-result was still rather disappointing, I’m afraid. Basically, it turned out to be some really average TV feature with some very explicit and quite often unsimulated sex. Concerning the acting, there were many good-looking girls involved, I’ll give you that, but the performances were at best bearable but sometimes really pathetic to behold. On top of that, I thought that the whole thing was seriously poorly written. Indeed, I don’t mind that they didn’t provide a main plot but this combination of half-baked sub-plots was seriously underwhelming. And, then, of course, you had all these sex scenes… Some of them actually did work pretty well and, with those scenes, you did get a glimpse of the actual potential for such a project but many sex scenes felt pretty random and without much purpose, pretty much like the rest of the movie. Anyway, to conclude, even though this project really had some potential, the whole thing was still really underwhelming and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except if you are dying to see some unsimulated sex in a mainstream production.

At last, Georges Lucas got it right. Indeed, the first two prequels were rather disappointing, especially 'Attack of the Clones' which was by far the lowest point in this franchise in my opinion. Finally, we finally got what we were asking from the very beginning: the dark story of Anakin Skywalker and how he became one of the most feared men in the galaxy, one of the greatest villains in film story, the mighty Darth Vader. So, it was indeed pretty gloomy and so many people got killed but it was much more satisfying that anything that happened in the 2 previous movies. Even the political intrigue, which was still pretty shabby, at last started to make sense. Indeed, the way Anakin got confused between both sides was actually pretty convincing and you could feel his struggle. Still, the whole journey to get to this result was seriously awkward and Lucas made so many mistakes along the road, it was almost beyond repair. Eventually, his biggest mistake was probably to choose to write and direct all the prequels, something he didn’t even do for the original trilogy. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was far from being a masterpiece, it was still pretty solid and entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.