Reviews by johanlefourbe

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

Since I heard some pretty good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. I didn't know this before watching the damned thing but Davis Guggenheim also did direct 'An Inconvenient Truth' which I found quite impressive. Concerning this feature, even though I did like it and even though it was dealing with a very interesting and important subject as well, it wasn't a complete home-run though. Indeed, it makes some very strong points about the fact that the public school system in the USA is pretty weak pointing out some specific issues that could or should be adressed. However, some bits didn't really work though. I'm not talking about the bits that were apparently staged (basically, every documentary maker does it at some point) but the fact that they presented a few people like Bill Gates or Michelle Rhee as if they were some kind of heroes was rather dubious. Above all, I didn't buy it that they would deny the fact that the financial and social background of a kid didn't have any real impact on how a kid would succeed at school. Basically, it is more a combination of both, school and social background, but I think there is no denying that they should definitely improve their school system and, only therefore, it is already a valuable documentary.

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since I always had a weak spot for Sigourney Weaver, I thought I might as well give it a try. Well, it wasn't really good, I'm afraid. I mean, the subject was interesting but the whole thing was just poorly developped (with a running time of barely 70 minutes, they didn't even really have enough time anyway) and I had really a hard time to care about the characters. On the top of that, it was shot on video so, visually, it was also pretty ugly. On the positive side, I thought that Sigourney Weaver and above all Bebe Neuwirth were perfectly cast but I can't say the same about Aaron Stanford. I mean, not only the guy was 8 years older than his character (why are they always casting some actors who are way too old to play some teenagers?!? I will never understand that...) but the guy was just not charismatic enough. Finally, the tone was just off. Indeed, they tried to sell it as a melancholic comedy but it was a bad choice and I think it would have worked better as a drama. Anyway, to conclude, even though the whole thing did have some potential, it was eventually pretty weak and I don't think it is really worth a look.

To be honest, even though Maurice Pialat had a very good reputation in France, I haven’t seen many of his movies but I will definitely check the rest of his work whenever I have the opportunity. Anyway, I still managed to see 3 of them and this flick was one of these. To be honest, I don’t think it was anything really amazing, I have seen way to many similar French movies before to be really impressed but I still think this one was not bad at all. First of all, I was actually quite impressed by Sophie Marceau. Back in those days, even though she wasn’t even 20 years old, she was already a star in France but, to be honest, she never ever really impressed me as an actress (for example, in ‘The World Is Not Enough’, even though she got some major international attention, I always thought she gave a really weak performance). However, I have to admit that she was pretty good here. Of course, to have the great Gérard Depardieu at your side might have helped and together, they had some interesting chemistry. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really mind-blowing, it was still a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

Since I have a weak spot for Greg Kinnear, I was quite eager to check this flick. On top of that, it was a rather intriguing story. Eventually, even though I did enjoy this movie, I thought the whole thing was terribly sad and frustrating. I mean, about less than 18 months ago, after going through a terrible time with my employer, they decided to fire me because I was supposedly incompetent. Maybe I wasn't the best employee ever but I was certainly not incompetent so I was pretty pissed off but they also offered me 6 months of salary and guess what I did? I swallowed my pride and took the money. I mean, I have noticed that some viewers considered Robert Kearns as a hero, some kind of David fighting Goliath. Sure, at the end, he did win (which really surprised me, I really thought he would eventually loose) and he did end up with more than 30 millions dollars but at what cost? Basically, he spent more than a decade fighting this battle, losing his family in the process. I'm sorry but I don't think it was really worth it. And, to make it worse, he could have settled so many times and move on with his life... Anyway, even if I didn't really agree with the actions taken by the main character, I still think it was a pretty good flick, with an intriguing story and a solid performance by Greg Kinnear so you should definitely check it out.

When I was a kid, I used to love those Conan flicks. A couple of years ago, I watched again this first installment with Nick, my step-son, and even thought this time, the limited acting skills of Arnold Schwarzenegger was pretty obvious, I still thought it was really entertaining, even after all these years. Indeed, the mood was just really awesome, they managed to create a fascinating world and Schwarzenegger was basically born to play this character. Almost 30 years later, of course, they had to come up with a reboot and, to be honest, it could have been worse. Indeed, Jason Momoa did a decent job but the 2nd half was unfortunately really weak. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, for Schwarzenegger, it was a star-making performance and with ‘Predator’ and ‘The Terminator’, it has become rightfully one of his most iconic characters. Eventually, he would come back for the sequel ‘Conan the Destroyer’ which was rather poorly received but I thought it was not that bad. To conclude, this flick is a childhood favorite and, in spite of its flaws, I would go as far as saying that it is a fantasy classic. Anyway, it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn’t really sure about what to expect from this flick but since I always had a weak for romantic-comedies, I was still eager to check it out. Basically, like most of the movies in this genre, it relies on a gimmick and, as usual, since it focuses too much on the gimmick instead of the actual characters and what they are going through, it has some limitations. Indeed, it is clear right from the start they are pretty much meant for each other but they still manage to put some unecessary obstacles. So, I wasn’t really convinced by the concept but, I have to admit it, it wasn’t the worse I have seen. On top of that, John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale had some pretty good chemistry, especially Beckinsale was already terribly charming back in those days. At the time, she was still pretty much unknown in the USA, she was still known as ‘the British chick from Pearl Harbor’ but her status would drastically change a few years later thanks to ‘Underworld’. To conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was a decent romantic-comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I already saw this movie a couple of times, in fact, I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released, but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. Anyway, in my opinion, while the more recent work from Tarantino tends to be rather overrated in my opinion, it is definitely the most underrated movie directed by Tarantino (‘The Hateful Eight’ might be even more underrated though). Obviously, after the massive success of 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Pulp Fiction', the expectations were sky high and it was honestly asking a little bit too much to expect from Tarantino to deliver something that was that good or even better. So, I have to admit that it was a slight step down from his previous movies but just a little one, at least, that's my opinion. Indeed, I personally really enjoyed the damned thing. First of all, there was a great cast involved and this movie was also including one of the last great performances by Robert de Niro, the story was really entertaining and I just had a really good time watching this. Furthermore, it was the first movie made by Tarantino with a female main character and I thought he really nailed it as Jackie Brown was just really badass. In my opinion, Jackie Brown felt really genuine, you had the feeling that she was actually coming from our world, with some sh*t to deal with just like the rest of us and I really cared about her, which is something I can't really say about The Bride. Anyway, I think it is actually a very entertaining flick and it definitely doesn't get enough credit.