Reviews by johanlefourbe

Ever since I saw 'Once Were Warriors' in the mid-90's, I had the greatest expectations for Lee Tamahori and I thought he would become a really great director. Unfortunately, even though this impressive debut managed to open the doors of Hollywood for him, his career has been rather disappointing ever since. Anyway, after almost 20 years, he was finally coming up with a very interesting project so I was really eager to check it out, even if it didn’t make many waves when it was released. Eventually, it was indeed a great story but, unfortunately, the movie was at best decent but nothing really great, I'm afraid. I mean, we shouldn't blame Dominic Cooper as the guy gave a really impressive double performance, managing to create two separate human beings. At the end of the day, the biggest mistake they made was to focus too much on Latif who was righteous but not really interesting when they should have focused more on Uday Hussein was clearly a depraved crazy and dangerous man. Or maybe they should have made sure that both characters were a little bit more balanced to create a more interesting dynamic. I also wonder how Ludivine Sagnier actually ended up in this movie as she was terribly miscast but the fact that her character was really poorly developed didn’t help either. Anyway, to conclude, even if the whole thing was flawed, I still it was a terrific story and it is definitely worth a look.

I already saw this movie but, at the time, I didn't like it much but since it was such a long time ago, I was quite eager to check it again. Well, I'm glad I watched it again because I didn't remember much about the damned thing but, unfortunately, I still didn't care much for this movie which remains, as far as I'm concerned, one of the weakest movies delivered by Miyazaki. I mean, as usual with this director , the animation was just top-notch, filled with some very neat details and the action scenes were pretty much breathtaking but even though the story was gentle and sweet like many other Ghibli productions, to be honest, it was also rather boring. It's too bad because, for once, the main character was not one of their usual pure and innocent girls which was quite refreshing and really promising but to go for a man with a pig face was a rather odd choice and I can't say I really cared for this character. Anyway, to conclude, even though I didn’t really like it, it is still an intriguing animated feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Hayao Miyazaki's work.

Robert Altman is considered by many as one of the best American directors that ever lived. On top of that, the guy had also an amazingly prolific career, making more than 30 movies in less than 35 years and, to be honest, even though I have managed to watch most of his recent work, I still have to check most of his older movies. In fact, the only movie he has made in the 80’s that I have seen so far is this flick and it is considered by many as his very worst director effort. Even though you might find it surprising but, to be honest, I didn’t think it was horrible, in fact, I thought it was actually a decent adaptation. Maybe it had to with the fact that I don’t believe that the cartoon was anything great to start with so it made sense that the movie was nothing great either. Still, I think that Robin Williams, in his acting debut, was a great choice to play the mad sailor. To conclude, even though it has a very lousy reputation, I think it is actually a decent flick and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robert Altman’s work.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but I still ended up watching the damned thing. Basically, it is one of those – supposedly- quirky screwball comedies starring Goldie Hawn and if you have seen one of them, you have seen them all. As you may have guessed already, I don’t really care about Hawn’s work and, to make things worse, it was not even her best movie. At least, this time, she was working with her longtime boyfriend, Kurt Russell, and they definitely had some pretty good chemistry together. Unfortunately, I’m afraid it wasn’t enough to make this a really entertaining story. Indeed, in my opinion, the plot was rather inane and pretty much right from the start, it was all pretty hopeless. I mean, it is basically the old gimmick of the mean character who suddenly becomes so nice after getting amnesia and it has been done before but I can’t recall one single movie which actually did work with such a lame trick. To make things worse, it also uses another old trick, the mistaken identity, so the whole thing was definitely nothing groundbreaking. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, it was still a pretty weak comedy and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

I already watched this movie but since it was ages ago and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. I have noticed that Sean Penn never got much credit for his directing career but, even though he might not be a great master, I always found his work really intriguing. However, to be honest, I have to admit that this movie didn’t really impress the first time I watched it. Indeed, at the time, I guess I thought it was actually too similar to ’The Crossing Guard’, Sean Penn's previous directing effort. Indeed, it was also starring Jack Nicholson in the lead part and it was again about a man who was looking for a child killer. Apparently, not everyone agreed and the late Roger Ebert preferred this one. Well, I'm glad I gave it a second chance because, even if it was still nothing really mind-blowing, it is after all actually a solid dark and grimmy thriller with some really solid performances by a very nice cast (Jack Nicholson, Patricia Clarkson, Benicio Del Toro, Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren, Tom Noonan, Robin Wright, Vanessa Redgrave, Sam Shepard, Harry Dean Stanton). The tricky thing with this movie is that Jerry Black is that not really a likeable character and, to make things worse, from the very beginning, he keeps making the wrong decisions. At the end, the question, in my opinion, is not if he did almost catch the bad guy or not but why on Earth would he use this little girl who saw him as a father as bait? Eventually, 6 long years later, Sean Penn would come up with ‘Into the Wild’ which would be critically acclaimed and easily his best directing effort sor far. Anyway, to conclude, even though if it might not be the strongest movie directed by Sean Penn, I still think it was a decent thriller and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Basically, it is once again one of these really obscure French movies that almost no one has seen here on listal. Well, believe it or not, I actually saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released. Sure, you can think that I’m some kind of closeted pervert (that might be true…) but I was really intrigued by the idea of a mainstream feature dealing with this usually taboo suject. On top of that, the main character was played by the always fascinating Jean-Pierre Léaud so I was definitely intrigued by the damned thing. Eventually, you might watch this movie for the explicit scenes but you would be disappointed (there were just a couple of them and those scenes were very short). I mean, I think he did make sense to shot those scenes considering the subject. Anyway, the main purpose of the whole thing was above all to show the paradox of a director who wants to remain artistically relevant within an industry (the porn business) which doesn’t care about Art at all and just wants to make the cheapest movies possible. So, that was an interesting idea but, to be honest, it never really became more than just interesting, I’m afraid, and the whole thing was still a little bit pretentious. Still, to conclude, even though it wasn’t a masterpiece, I thought it was pretty good and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should re-watch it at some point. As a matter of fact, for some reasons beyond me, I actually ended up watching the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released. Back then, I must have been 12 years old and, obviously, I had no idea who was Mel Brooks but I guess when I saw the trailer, I thought it looked quite hilarious. Apparently, it has a rather lousy reputation, it was a box-office and critical flop when it was released and it is even considered by many as the worst movie made by Mel Brooks but I tend to disagree. Sure, back then, I was just a kid and maybe the whole thing is indeed pretty bad but, in my opinion, it is actually better than such movies like ‘History of the World: Part I’ or even ‘Spaceballs’(I know, it is pretty much classic but I just believe it is actually pretty overrated). Sure, this time, Brooks went for a really straightforward comedy and it was nothing really groundbreaking but I thought it was fun and it was refreshing that he was for once going for something else than his usual parody.

When was the last time I saw something really impressive starring Reese Witherspoon? Well, a while back, I guess, so only therefore it was already worth it to watch this movie. To be honest, after watching a couple of times 'Into the wild', a movie with not only a very similar title but also an almost identical plot, I find it rather difficult to really love this movie. I mean, it was good, I really liked it, Reese Witherspoon gave one of her best performances and, yet, it was missing something to be become really remarkable. For example, the back and forth in time made sense since she was thinking about all those moments in her life while hiking but it didn't make for a really satisfaying viewing. I mean, as a result, you get some half-baked moments which totally made sense for the character because she experienced it but not for the viewers since they were not there. On top of that, I had a hard time to swallow that most of the men she met were described as some potentially evil threat (one of the exceptions was some hunk played by some Dutch actor and, of course, she ends up in bed with the guy). To conclude, not everything did work but it was still a decent drama and it is definitely worth a look.

Honestly, this is a weird movie. Basically, before its release, it was actually one of the most highly anticipated features to be released in 2013. Indeed, it was the first screenplay written by Cormac McCarthy and, after many directors fought to get this story, Ridley Scott was the chosen one and many, including myself, were expecting something pretty awesome. Unfortunately, when it was released, it turned out to be a massive commercial and critical flop and many thought it might even be one of the worst movies of the year. Anyway, after all this, I finally watched the damned thing and, I have to agree, it is not good. Sure, I don't think it was really awful but it was certainly really weak. Above all, surprisingly, I thought it was actually poorly written in my opinion or maybe poorly edited. I mean, the whole story was actually pretty straightforward, it was a basically a drug deal gone wrong but, for some rather dubious reasons, they turned this tale into something completely murky composed of some very loosely connected scenes with many familiar faces coming for one scene or two. On top of that, none of the characters had some genuine dialogues, they all kept speaking in riddles throughout the whole thing, again for no good reason. At least, there was a solid cast and they did what they could with the material (even Cameron Diaz was not that bad in my opinion) but this flick was just hopeless from the start and I don't think it is really worth a look.

To be honest, even though I did like 'Shrek', I still think it was slightly overrated but I have to admit that, like anyone else, I didn't expect this sequel to be so enjoyable and entertaining. Indeed, after 3 short years, they were already coming up with a new installment which should have meant 2 things. 1) they wanted to quickly cash-in on the huge popularity of this new character. 2) with such a short time, it was going to suck balls. Well, sure, number 1 was true but not number 2 and they even managed to deliver one of the most satisfying sequels ever made which was some kind of a miracle. Indeed, they brought this time a new concept (a mix of 'Shrek' and 'Meet the Parents') and it worked like a charm, some would argue that it was even better than the first installment. Personally, even though it was indeed really fun, once again, I don't think it was that amazing. I mean, basically, just like its predecessor, it tried too hard to convince the viewer that it was really clever when, in fact, it never reached the depth of the great classics produced by Pixar. On top of that, some bits just didn’t work. For example, Puss in Boots is easily one of the best characters in this franchise but his introduction was just really lame and disappointing. I mean, it was a great idea to make him a hitman but this promising idea was completely ruined when you discover during his first contract that that the guy is pretty much, well, a lame and harmless pussy. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it is still a very well made and solid animated feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre