Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since it was such a long time ago, I was really eager to check it out again. In fact, I first saw it in the movie theater when it was released and, back then, there was a huge buzz about this flick. Indeed, it was thanks to this feature that the Western audience got to be acquainted with Hayao Miyazaki. Well, while I was rewatching this flick, I was surprised by how little I remember it which wasn't really a good sign to be honest. I mean, the animation was, as usual, really impressive and Miyazaki delivered here his most complex mythology and a fascinating world. Unfortunately, as far as I was concerned, the story was entertaining but not much more than that. Above all, the main issue was that, even though it was pretty neat that the main character was a boy for once,  Ashitaka turned out to be rather boring even if he was fairly charismatic. Eventually, he was eventually completely upstaged by San who was much more interesting and even Eboshi was more intriguing in my opinion. Anyway, even though it didn't completely blow me away, it was still a very good 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.

Honestly, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and maybe I should check it out again at some point. I have notived that this movie usually gets some extreme reactions and, basically, some people really love it and some others think it is downright awful. Obviously, from a certain point of view, it must be one of the most preposterous depictions of prostitution that you will ever get to see and the whole thing was so sugar-coated, it is sometimes rather difficult to digest. But, on the other hand, the fans love it because it is a romantic-comedy with a fantasized version of prostitution in which the hooker is really hot and rather healthy looking and the client is filthy rich and a gentleman. To be honest, even though I always had a weak spot for romantic-comedies, I never been a huge fan of this flick but I have to admit that, if you turn off your brain before watching this movie, it is actually fairly enjoyable thanks to some really charismatic leads. Indeed, 10 years after ‘American Gigolo’, Richard Gere was back again as a massive sex-symbol and, for Julia Roberts who was just about 23 years old at the time, it was obviously a star making performance. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it is still pretty much a classic in this genre and it is worth a look, especially if you like romantic-comedies.

This is yet another milestone of 80's action movie mayhem and when I was a kid, I really loved this flick. Indeed, when I was about 12 years old, I started to watch movies on my own and my first passion were action flicks. I used to watch tons of them and this one was definitely one of my favorites at the time. Basically, it was another badass action flick starring Arnold Schwarzenegger but the real brilliant touch was to combine a rather straightforward action flick with some science-fiction elements resulting in a very entertaining mix. To be honest, nowadays, I think it is a little too cheesy for my taste and the characters, even though they were totally badass, were seriously stereotypical and barely interesting. Still, there were so many things to enjoy here. Indeed, the music and the mood were just awesome, the Predator is one of the most fascinating Alien creature ever created and the whole thing was still damned entertaining. The best, in my opinion, is that the story was actually kind of lame when you think about it and you know all the way what's going to happen from the beginning until the end but since all the people involved played it completely straight, with no tongue-in-cheek whatsoever, it really worked. To conclude, it is another one of those movies which has been copied many times but the copycats never managed to make us forget this classic.

Before this movie was released, there was actually a pretty good buzz about it, mostly because it was written by the Coen brothers. Eventually, the whole thing was a big box-office and critical flop but I was still eager to check it out. Apparently, this project was in development hell for at least a decade and there has been a considerable number of re-writes so you wonder how much of the Coen brothers's work actually remained. I mean, you could spot from time to time their unique style but this movie was in general much below their directing work. I mean, the whole thing had some potential, especially after the introduction but, pretty quickly, it all fell apart. Sure, you can blame Cameron Diaz for playing one of the least convincing Texan cowgirls I have ever seen but the choice to make the main character played by Colin Firth as some kind of spineless loser was also pretty weak. I mean, the whole concept was that Diaz was supposed to jeopardize the whole heist but, in fact, she didn't do anything really drastic to put the operation in danger. Anyway, to conclude, even though it could have been a decent heist feature, it turned out to be rather underwhelming and I don't think it is really worth a look.

Honestly, it is quite an obscure feature (not even 10 listal users have rated it so far) but since there were a couple of interesting actors involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, it was really weak, I'm afraid. The only interesting thing was the fact it was some kind of weird time bubble when both Dylan McDermott and Jeanne Tripplehorn could be the leads of a romantic comedy and Jennifer Aniston would show up only for a couple of scenes as the best friend. I mean, back in those days, Sarah Jessica Parker, of all people, was apparently the best choice to play a hot chick which sounds unthinkable almost 20 years later. Anyway, a part from that, the whole thing was seriously underwhelming. Indeed, it starts with the characters when they were kids and the performances of those children were rather cringe-inducing. Then, they go to college, then they become adults and all those stages were just as underwhelming and convoluted as the rest. To make things worse, it takes them almost 2 hours to finally meet each other. To conclude, I think my rating was pretty generous here, it was a really weak rom-com and I don't think it is worth a look.

I already saw this movie but since I just bought a brand new awesome TV, I thought I might as well check it out again. In fact, I remember fairly well the first time I saw the damned thing. Indeed, back then, like everyone else, I really wanted to check this massive blockbuster. Eventually, to be honest, even though it was fine, I can’t say that it was really amazing though. I mean, with the previous installment, I didn't expect much but I was really surprised that it turned out to be so enjoyable. Well, this time, it was exactly the opposite, my expectations were actually pretty high but this movie didn’t really come near those expectations. The main issue, in my opinion, is that this mixing of 6 super-heros, without counting the huge supporting cast, was already showing its limitations. Sure, the first time around, it was something new and it was really impressive how they managed to give them all some space but, every time again, they have to give each one of them some sub-plot and the end-result was not entirely satisfaying. The most obvious example was the impossible romance between Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff. The worst thing was that this half-baked romance would then never show up ever again in the MCU. Then, they made amends with Jeremy Renner as the guy complained that he spent more than half of the previous installment as a zombie so they gave him a whole family with wife, kids, house and pets. But, at least, Hawkeye finally did get some deserved screen time. On the positive side, Ultron was a solid villain, even if his plan to kill all humanity was seriously derivative. Anyway, to conclude, it wasn't really impressive this time around but I have to admit that it was still fun and entertaining and really visually gorgeous to look at so it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Back in the 80’s, Rob Reiner was one of the most successful directors at work. I mean, just check his track-record, it is quite impressive (‘This Spinal Tap’, ‘The Sure Thing’, ‘Stand by Me’, ‘When Harry Met Sally...’, ‘Misery’, ‘A Few Good Men’). But then, he made ‘North’. Indeed, it was a massive flop, both financially and critically, and it seems that already 20 years later Rob Reiner has still not recovered from the damage. Anyway, this flick was one of the many classics he made back in the good old days and since it had a very good reputation, I was really eager to check it out. To be honest, I don't think I was really blown away like many of its fans, I think I should have watched it when I was a kid and I would have really loved it back in those days. Still, it is definitely a very good fantasy feature and even though they used many stereotypes in this genre, those were used very well and Reiner managed to give them a very nice twist. To conclude, I think it really deserves its cult-status, I really liked it a lot and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, to be honest, I can't believe how underwhelming the whole thing was. I mean, the story actually really had some potential (it was based on the really weird life of Robert Durst, a real estate tycoon, who was allegedly involved in several murder cases) but I thought it was just really poorly developed. Basically, they tried to hammer the fact that the guy was mentally deranged maybe because his mother killed herself or because his father was a major douchebag but it was never really convincing and, on top of that, it took like forever to get there. Indeed, at least, for one hour, they go to Vermont, they get married, then they go back to New Yor but, all this time, nothing major really happen, except for some of the supporting actors saying that the guy is a real nutjob but, in fact, you get very few evidence of this. I thought it was all rather frustrating and, at the end of the day, both chararacters really annoyed me. How come she did not notice all these years that her husband was mentally disturbed? Why did he go back to New York if he really hated it? How come she spent almost a decade with him without having one single conversation about his feelings and/or mental state? But it didn't stop here. At some point, they moved forward to the 2000's and then the whole thing became just really weird. Basically, some DA opened up the case again (something supposedly major but completely dropped later on) and the main character went really apesh*t, hiding himself, dressing himself as a woman. The fact that they made Ryan Golsing looked like as if he was 90 years old instead of the 60 years required was the least of my concern with this part. Anyway, to conclude, I think they wanted to create some kind of hitchcockian mystery here and it was indeed a really interesting true story but the end-result was just a mess in my opinion and I don't think it is really worth a look after all.

Louis Malle was one of the best French directors that ever lived. At some point, he had the opportunity to expand his career in the US and this movie was therefore his first American production. He definitely took some risks with this project as it was dealing with a very controversial subject, the story of a 12 year old girl living in a brothel at the beginning of the 20th century in the USA and yet it was very well received critically at the time. Personally, I thought it was indeed pretty good but I wasn't really completely blown away by the whole thing. I mean, visually, it was really strong and the directing by Malle was pretty much flawless. The point is that I thought that the story was interesting but I had a hard time to care about the characters and what they were going through. I don't know, I had the feeling that the makers had a rather ambiguous approach on this rather sad and sordid world. To conclude, even though it didn't really convince me, it is still a solid drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Louis Malle's work.

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick but since I didn’t like it much the first time around, I highly doubt that I will give it a second chance. Basically, Robert Altman had troubles with the Hollywood studio system in the 1970s after some of his films lost money despite the critical praise they received. He still continued to work outside the studios in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, often doing small-budget projects to keep his career alive and thanks to the ‘The Player’ , one of my favorite movies, he managed a comeback to making films in Hollywood. His follow-up, ‘Short Cuts’, was another massive critical hit so the expectations for his following director effort were pretty high. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a huge disappointment, in fact, the most disappointing movie I have seen so far directed by Robert Altman. Basically, once again, he came up with a massive cast filled with stars but, this time, it seems that he didn’t manage to juggle all these characters into something really entertaining. At the end of the day, the best thing was the nice French poster including all these naked models, the film itself was really underwhelming and I don’t think it is really worth a look.