Reviews by johanlefourbe

Last year, this movie surprised everyone by becoming a huge box-office hit and one of the most acclaimed animated features released recently. With this in mind, I was quite eager to check it out but, to be honest, even though I did enjoy it, I can’t say I was really blown away by the whole thing. I mean, obviously, it looked really impressive, it was very original and I don't think they could have made something better from this concept, they went all the way with its potential, and yet, somehow, I still had a hard time to connect with the whole thing. I don’t know, it was just so wild, so over-the-top, from the very beginning up until the end-credits, it pretty much borders complete nonsense constantly and while I did appreciate the approach and the guts displayed by the makers, I'm afraid it was a little bit alienating. Still, it was just filled with fun ideas, with impressive details and the voice cast was pretty much spot-on. For the team Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, it was just another hit and those guys, with the weirdest and seemingly hopeless concepts (see also 'Cloudy with a chance of meatballs' and '21 Jump Street'), they keep coming up with some surprisingly succesfull and entertaining features. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really a home run for me, it was still a really fun flick and it is definitely worth a look.

Basically, it is once again a really osbcure French flick (I was the first listal member who rated it and, 4 years later, only one other user has rated it since then). To be honest, I’m not sure if it is even really famous in France. Anyway, the main reason I wanted to watch this feature is because it was Cédric Klapisch’s directing debut. Indeed, ever since I saw ‘Le péril jeune’(his 2nd directing effort) on TV, I have been fascinated by this director who must be one of the most talented French directors of his generation. Well, like I said before, this debut is rather obscure and forgotten nowadays and even though it is far from the level of his best features, I still think it was a pretty neat quirky comedy. Playing the lead, you had Fabrice Luchini who was playing his usual character but I always find him quite entertaining so he didn’t bother me at all, in the contrary. To be honest, the concept was really interesting and they definitely could have done more but it was still satisfying nonetheless. To conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was a nice comedy and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

Honestly, it has been a while since I have seen this flick so maybe I should rewatch at some point. Basically, Robin Hood is like Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes or The Three Musketeers. Indeed, even though they have already made dozens of adaptations of those famous stories, you can be sure that they would come up with a new version sooner than later. Well, this flick was pretty much the Robin Hood of the 90’s and, even though it received some rather mixed reviews, it was a massive box-office hit at the time (a status the latest version directed by Ridley Scott never achieved to reach) and even the theme song by Bryan Adams was a huge hit at the time. Personally, I think it was a decent watch with a nice cast (Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Christian Slater, Alan Rickman, Sean Connery). Sure, Kevin Costner was never convincing at all during the whole thing but it was compensated by the always awesome Alan Rickman who was given apparently carte blanche to do whatever he wanted with the character. To conclude, even though it is a rather bland and pedestrian adaptation, I still think it is worth a look but don’t expect anything really amazing.

I remember very well when I saw this flick. Indeed, it was a while back, I met this dude who was just as a crazy as I was about movies and when we met, we would be constantly talking about our various favorite pictures. At some point, we agreed that he should come over to watch some movies together and we ended up having my longest binge- watching night I ever had. Indeed, we watched, if I recall correctly, about 6 movies starting from 21.00 until 6 o’clock in the morning. It was pretty glorious and, at some point during the night, we ended up watching this cult-classic. According to my buddy, it was one of the best movies ever made and I just had to watch it. Eventually, I was indeed indeed quite impressed. Obviously, I have never seen anything like this before and, only for that, it should definitely get some credit. Still, I have to admit that I wasn’t really blown away by the whole thing. I mean, basically, it is original, weird and quite fun but it is still quite an acquired taste and I didn’t find it really hilarious or massively entertaining to be honest. Still, there is no denying that it is a huge cult-classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I already saw this movie, in fact, I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released but, since it was such a long time ago, I was quite eager to check it out again. I remember it very well when it was released though. Indeed, after Sam Mendes’s amazing directing debut, ‘American Beauty’, there were some huge expectations with his following directing debut and it was a very ambitious period piece starring Tom Hanks who was the biggest movie star in the world back in those days. Eventually, I did like it, the whole thing looked awesome and there was indeed an impressive cast (Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ciarán Hinds, Stanley Tucci) but, still, I wasn’t really blown away by the whole thing. I think the main issue was with the tone. Indeed, basically, it was supposed to be a dark and complex tale about two men who love and respect each other and who would do anything to protect their respective sons. However, it seems that, to make it more accessible to the mainstream audience (it was even released in the summer in the middle of the blockbuster season), they really toned down the dark edges of this story which was a misguided approach. It was especially obvious during the scenes focusing on Mike Sullivan and his son when they were together on the road. For some reason, it became some kind of whimsical bonding road-trip which was, in my opinion, rather inappropriate considering the circumstances. This tonal issue was also obvious in the performances. Indeed, Paul Newman, in his final performance, was just pitch-perfect and I really believed that his character was competent, fair but also really ruthless. Tom Hanks should have played on the same level but, unfortunately, he kept playing his character as basically a good guy who wanted to protect his son and I never had the feeling that I was actually watching a cold-hearted killer. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was slightly disappointing, it was still a solid feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of Barbra Streisand but I have a weak spot for Seth Rogen so I thought I might check this one out. First of all, I'm not surprised that this movie was a flop when it was released. Indeed, even though it might have seemed smart to combine those two stars in order to reach a really wide audience, it just didn’t work out since any die hard of Barbra Streisand wouldn't care for a comedy starring Seth Rogen and vice versa. On top of that, I thought that both characters were really unlikeable, they were both pretty much some losers, so it was rather difficult to care for them or what they were going through. And yet, both actors delivered some decent performances and there were some scenes here and there that actually did work very well. Eventually, the whole thing would have worked much better if, instead of being a commercial comedy, it would have have been a smaller darker indie feature like 'About Schmidt' for example. To conclude, I think I'm being rather generous with my rating here but I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Obviously, it is quite an obscure flick (in fact, I was the very first listal member who rated this movie and 4 years later, not even 10 members have seen it). Anyway, I was actually quite impressed and I would go as far as saying that it is one of the best thrillers dealing with a serial killer that I have ever seen. Indeed, I have never heard about the guy before but, apparently, Roberto Succo was quite a famous serial killer and, back in the 80’s, he was even considered Public Enemy number one not only in France and Italy but even in Switzerland. The guy was so messed up, he commited his first murders when he was not even 20 years old, stabbing his own mother and father. This movie deals with a later period in his life where he was in France, committing numerous crimes ranging from burglary to rape to murder. Even though many criticised the cold and slow approach, I thought it worked actually very well. Furthermore, Stefano Cassetti was very well cast, he gave a really solid performance and he was pretty much caring the whole thing on his shoulders. To conclude, I thought it was a very good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I remember very well when it was released. Back then, I was just about 14 years old, I thought it sounded quite fascinating (in France, they actually use the tag line ‘2 boys, 1 girl, 3 possibilities’ as the title which was actually a better choice). Ok, maybe I was just a little pervert but, anyway, I didn’t see the damned thing at the time and it took me eventually almost 20 years to finally see it. Eventually, I thought it was not bad at all after all. Indeed, I think it is a subject we don’t see very often in the movies and I thought it was fairly well developped. On top of that, it was the blessed time when Lara Flynn Boyle was a still a cute up-and-coming actress with still a bright future ahead of her. Same thing for Stephen Baldwin, at the time, he was rising from behind the shadows of his bigger brothers Alec and William but this movie would be one of his very few high profile projects. Obviously, it was still too clean and glossy to become really remarkable but I still had a weak spot for this flick and I think it is worth a look but don’t expect anything really amazing.

Even before watching this movie, I had already some mixed feelings. Indeed, following the massive success of the 'Twiligh' franchise, of course, they decided to adapt another book written by Stephenie Meyer and even though I believe that the hatred towards those movies was vastly exaggerated, I can’t say I enjoyed them either. On the other hand, I have always had a weak spot for Andrew Niccol's work (even 'In Time' was actually decent in my book) so I was really eager to see his latest directing effort. Well, the whole thing actually had some potential, that’s for sure, but it kept rubbing me in the wrong place. I mean, as usual with Niccol, the concept was really intriguing and the double performance by Saoirse Ronan was really good. Indeed, it was including a lot of inner dialogues between 2 distincts personalities reminding me of someone somewhat schizophrenic. Unfortunately, Meyer is notoriously well known for keeping the psychological level of her characters at the lowest level possible so this whole aspect was rather poorly developed. Furthermore, it pretty much lost me towards the end when, suddenly, everything was solved way too easily and the twist at the end was even worse. To conclude, it wasn't really bad but I still don't think it is really worth a look.