Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I find it rather hard to judge this movie. Indeed, after waiting 10 longs years,'Hannibal' turned out to be a terribly disappointing sequel but it was still a box-office success and the producers thought they should really rush to make this prequel before Anthony Hopkins got too old so the whole thing felt like a lame cash grab. On top of that, it seems that they wanted to erase the criminally underrated and forgotten 'Manhunter' directed by Michael Mann. Finally, it was directed by Brett Ratner, possibly one of the most underwhelming directors at work at the time and still nowadays. And yet, I have to admit it, the damned thing was not bad at all, in fact, it was even miles beter than 'Hannibal'. Indeed, first of all, there was a terrific cast (Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, Philip Seymour Hoffman), they all delivered some solid performances and the plot was still quite entertaining. Sure, it never reached the level of 'Manhunter' but it was not far behind. To conclude, pretty much like 'The Silence of the Lambs', I still think that those Hannibal Lecter's stories are just too ludicrous to be taken seriously but this one was not bad and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but I still ended up watching the damned thing. Obviously, like most of the major female popstars, Christina Aguilera had to play the actress at some point. Eventually, for her first movie, she didn't take much risk as she decided to perform in a musical. Still, even though it was a rather safe choice, I didn't care much for the whole thing. Basically, it is like Aguilera herself, on one hand, she is physically quite attractive but, on the other hand, she looks really trashy as well, like a crossing between a pornstar and a cheap escort-girl. Indeed, they tried to sell the audience that burlesque was a really classy affair but I wasn't really convinced and the whole thing was still pretty trashy. On top of that, the fact that the story was just really pedestrian and rather boring didn't help either. At least, I have to admit that Christina Aguilera was impressive when she was singing, technically, she is a really strong singer, it's just too bad she has this terribly slutty image. To conclude, I really didn't really like it much and I don't think it is really worth a look.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Joel Schumacher, I was quite eager to check it out. On top of that, everything involving Michael Fassbender, one of the best actors of his generation, is always worth a look in my book. Unfortunately, like many other movies directed by Schumacher, even though the whole thing started with a promising concept, the end-result was still rather half-baked and quite underwhelming. Apparently, Joel Schumacher massively re-wrote the script resulting in some major arguments with writer David Kajganich, something that apparently already happened with '8MM'. The big question is was this story already messed up from the start or Schumacher managed to ruin it? We'll never know, I guess. Basically, it has 2 interesting timelines (the 30's and nowadays) and while both timelines were interesting, they were rather poorly put together. Furthermore, Michael Fassbender was obviously the main positive aspect in this movie, he managed to give everything he got with this rather poor material but, on the other hand, Henry Cavill and Dominic Purcell were rather weak and underwhelming. Finally, there were just too many plot-holes and non-sense during the whole thing for my taste. To conclude, even though this movie had some potential, it was just pretty weak and I don't think it is worth a look.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but there was no way that I wouldn't watch something starring both Christopher Walken and Michael Caine. Unfortunately, the first disappointment was that they killed off Michael Caine's character pretty much right from start. Talking about a missed opportunity... Of course, the guy had to die otherwise they wouldn't be any story to tell but still. At least, Christopher Walken was for once playing the lead, something that doesn’t happen so often nowadays and the guy was good, really good, just like Michael Caine by the way. Concerning Josh Lucas and the little kid, well, they were upstaged right from the start by those two giants and there was no way that they could catch up any point. Anyway, how was the damned thing after all? Not really good, I'm afraid. Indeed, even though the actors were fine, the story never really managed to really grab me and it just ended up being another supposedly quirky road-trip. To conclude, even though the whole thing had some potential, it was still rather weak and I don't think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you're a die-hard fan of these actors.

Honestly, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and I should definitely watch it again whenever I have the opportunity. Back in those days, after making only one full length feature in Poland (the also brilliant ‘Nóz w wodzie’), Roman Polanski didn’t hang around very long and took off pretty much right away to start an international career. Eventually, his first stop would be in England and, there, he made his first genuine masterpiece. Indeed, if his directing debut was pretty impressive, this sophomore effort was just quite mind-blowing. Basically, there was no much plot whatsoever, but instead, you were immersed into the nightmarish world of the main character played by the ultimate Ice Queen, Catherine Deneuve. The juxtaposition of her incredible natural beauty with her obvious mental meltdown was just one of a kind and one of the most spellbinding depiction of madness you'll ever see on the silver screen. From the very beginning, it was pretty obvious that Polanski was not interested in stereotypical righteous heros and he would rather give us some twisted and rather messed up characters, something I always found much more compelling to behold. To conclude, it definitely belongs to the numerous classics directed by this great master and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Roman Polanski’s work.

Back in the 90's, 'The Full Monty' turned out to be a surprising worldwide box-office success, probably one of the most successful British comedies ever made so, apparently, the director Peter Cattaneo tried to be clever and, 4 years later, he came up with this flick which pretty much recycled the same concept. The big difference was that, this time, it was dealing with a bunch of convicts involved in a musical. Well, it seems that he didn’t manage to fool the audience since it was pretty much a flop. I mean, it is in fact so obscure that barely 10 listal users have rated it so far. Anyway, to be honest, I have never been a huge fan of 'The Full Monty' and this movie was not really much worse in my opinion. Indeed, even though it was even more removed from reality than its predecessors (the worst bit was probably the fact that the main character managed to find a girlfriend even in jail), the characters involved were still quite likeable and entertaining and the cast was really neat (James Nesbitt, Olivia Williams, Timothy Spall, Bill Nighy). Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I still think it was a decent comedy and I think 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. Basically, like most of the major action stars like Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, or later on Vin Diesel or Dwayne Johnson, at some point, Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to develop also a comedic career but, contrary to his colleagues, Schwarzenegger is probably the only action movie star who actually managed to make some decent comedies and this movie is a perfect example. Indeed, even though it is nothing really amazing (in fact, it wasn’t even the most successful comedy starring Arnold Schwarzenegger released in 1988 as ‘Twins’ was pretty huge back then), I thought it was fairly entertaining and, above all, it perfectly used Schwarzenegger. Of course, you don’t need to be very knowledgeable about Russian/Soviet culture to notice that the whole thing is actually full of clichés and inaccuracies but it is also part of its charms. To be honest, I have never been a fan of James Belushi but he didn’t really bother me here and the movie is basically about Schwarzenegger playing a badass Soviet policeman, not his American sidekick. To conclude, I think it is a decent action-comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, while watching this flick, I couldn’t thinking ‘what the hell happened to Chris Columbus?’ I mean, I never been a huge fan of this director but he always seemed rather ambitious and managed to launch 3 different franchises (‘Home Alone’, ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Percy Jackson’). However, this time, he came up with a movie which was really small in scale but also quite irrelevant at this stage of his career. Anyway, I still wanted to check this flick and I was really amazed by how the whole thing was underwhelming. Indeed, it is basically one of those movies which starts up with a really lame and cringe-inducing introduction and, right from the start, you wonder if they will ever be able to recover from the damage done. On top of that, I thought that Paul Rust was a really poor choice for the lead and they honestly could have come up with someone a little bit more interesting and/or charismatic. At least, Hayden Panettiere was really charming and she did what she could with the material but the whole concept was pretty weak and too predictable. To conclude, I think I’m being rather generous with my rating here and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

First of all, I have noticed that even though Robert Redford managed to win the Best Director and Best Picture Academy award for his directing debut ‘Ordinary People’, I have the feeling that the guy has never been really taken seriously as a director. Maybe it’s because we couldn’t accept the fact that ‘Ordinary People’ won over ‘Raging Bull’ which was arguably superior. Anyway, I always had a weak spot for this director, by now, I have seen all his directing efforts, and I think this flick was one of his best. Indeed, I thought it was a very subtle and intriguing study about the impact of television, already 60 years ago. Eventually, it shows that television can be entertaining but also terribly manipulative, something that has never changed. Back in those days, Ralph Fiennes just had his breakthrough in ‘Schindler's List’ and, here, he once again delivered a solid performance. Eventually, he would eventually become one of the best actors of his generation. To conclude, even though it is nowadays pretty much forgotten, I thought it was a rather fascinating feature and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robert Redford’s work as a director.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Kate Hudson, I thought I might as well give it a try. To be honest, it wasn’t really good, I’m afraid. I mean, Kate Hudson is a really charming actress but, unfortunately, she always play same supposedly whimsical chick in some rather average romantic-comedies like this one and it is very rare that she actually takes any risk (the only examples I can come up with are ‘The Killer Inside Me’ which I still haven’t watch and ‘The Skeleton Key) . On top of that, I thought that the whole concept was just terribly pedestrian so I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing. At least, the supporting cast was interesting (John Corbett, Joan Cusack, Hayden Panettiere, Abigail Breslin, Helen Mirren, Felicity Huffman, Amber Valletta) and it was especially neat to see a very young Hayden Panettiere before she became a household name with ‘Heroes’. To conclude, I have seen worse but I think it is a really average romantic-comedy and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of the genre.