Reviews by johanlefourbe

By now, Jacques Audiard has turned out to be one of the most interesting French directors at work nowadays and his recent movies ('De Battre mon coeur s'est arrêté', ‘De Rouille et d’os’ et ‘Un Prophète’) were massively critically heralded. At the beginning of his career, Jacques Audiard made some other movies which didn't really reach an international audience but which were pretty good nonetheless. If I recall it correctly, I actually saw this flick in the movie theater when it was released and it managed to get some pretty good reviews at the time (in fact all the movies directed by Audiard have been well received which is something quite exceptional). Eventually, I did like it but it was missing something to become really remarkable. I mean, once again, Audiard managed to create some rather fascinating characters and Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Devos both gave also some really strong performances. However, even though the story was intriguing, it was a little bit too gimmicky and Jacques Audiard will manage to give some more compelling tales later on his career. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still a pretty good drama/thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. This time around, I did re-watch ‘Saw 2’ a week ago and, at least, I was more able to appreciate the connections they made with the previous installments. Indeed, the first time I watched the damned thing, it was at least 4 years since I watched ‘Saw II’ which I already didn’t like much. Indeed, for some movies like this one, I seriously don't care about the hype so I don’t feel the rush to see all the installments of this supposedly ‘great’ horror franchise. Unfortunately, the connections with the previous movies was probably the only thing I cared for as this movie was still pretty weak. What amazes me is how the fans seem to believe that those films are very well written… Seriously, most of it didn’t make much sense. Indeed, it started with some seemingly random scenes and, at the end, of course, everything was explained and, obviously, you are supposed to be impressed by how smart Jigsaw was to build this up but I didn’t really buy it. In my opinion, the whole thing was just preposterous and it was a typical example of the omnipotent serial killer who sees everything, can more or less predict the future and has apparently a limitless access to some massive amounts of cash. I mean, right from the first installment which was in fact rather decent, the whole concept barely made sense but it was at least original and interesting to behold but, with these sequels, they just keep repeating the same pattern without adding much anything really worthwhile. Anyway, to conclude, I didn’t like this movie and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except if you are a fan of the genre.

The interesting thing about Jonathan Demme is how diverse his career has been. Indeed, his biggest critical and financial success must have been ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ but he has never done anything similar before or after. His previous directing effort was ‘Philadelphia’ which was also quite successful and also something wildly different. Still, diversity is not always a guarantee of success and, for example, ‘The Truth About Charlie’ was a massive failure (it is rightfully considered by Mark Wahlberg as his worst movie) and I also had a hard time with this one as well. The point is that it wasn’t actually really bad, there was a nice cast (Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter) and they all delivered some decent performances but, to be honest, I didn’t care much about these characters and what they were going through. I guess they wanted to display what was the life in the US in the 40’s during the war but, to be honest, I thought it was actually seriously tedious to behold. Eventually, the most remarkable thing about this flick is that Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell fell in love while making this movie and, after 30 years, they are still together, which is quite amazing in Hollywood. To conclude, even though it is nothing really awful, I didn’t like much this movie and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

The 70’s are usually considered the Golden Age of American cinema and, at the time, the studios were willing to give a lot of money and some amazing amount of freedom to directors such like Francis Ford Coppola to do whatever they wanted. Well, Michael Cimino managed to single-handedly halt this blessed period with ‘Heaven’s Gate’ which turned out to be a disaster, financially and critically. His career would never recover and since then the American movie production has been ruled by blockbusters and it won’t change anytime soon. Cimino would manage to direct only 4 other movies following the 30 years after the ‘Heaven’s Gate’ disaster and this flick was the last one he made, almost 20 years ago already. Again, it was another flop and it was barely seen it was released but I thought it was actually not bad at all. In fact, if I recall it correctly, I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released. Basically, it is a rather small scale drama and, indeed, the story was rather pedestrian and predictable but, even so, I really enjoyed the performance by Woody Harrelson, one of the most underrated actors at work nowadays, and for once, he wasn’t playing a tough guy, actually quite the opposite, but he did a very good job. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Kevin Costner, I thought I might as well give it a try. Eventually, I didn't like it much, I'm afraid. Indeed, basically, it is a rather pedestrian horror-thriller and, to be honest, nothing much happened during the first hour. As a result, you get one of these very slow built-ups with a lot of ominous music and creepy noises but I have seen this gimmick so many times before, I was actually seriously bored during the whole duration. To be honest, the directing was decent and Kevin Costner did what he could with this material but the story was just really weak. On top of that, the title and the poster gave away already half of the plot even before watching the movie and if you combine this with how really slow the whole thing was moving on, it made this movie even more tedious. On a side note, it was actually nice to see again Ivana Baquero 3 years after she played the main character in 'El laberinto del fauno' and, for a young Spanish girl, she did a pretty good job playing an American teenager. Anyway, to conclude, even though it wasn’t really awful, it was still pretty weak and I don't think it is really worth a look.

Étienne Chatiliez is not really famous abroad but he always had a very solid reputation in France. Indeed, his 3 first movies all became massive cult-classics in my motherland (‘La vie est un long fleuve tranquille’, ‘Tatie Danielle’ and ‘Le bonheur est dans le pré’) and I remember it very well, after 6 long years, he was finally coming up with a new directing effort and the expectations were therefore pretty high. On top of that, the whole concept sounded pretty cool and it was definitely topical so it seems that all the ingredients were all there for another instant classic. Eventually, even though it was fairly enjoyable, to be honest, it was nothing really amazing and it was not such a huge success at the box-office after all. At the end of the day, the whole thing was just too easy and it was just another average comedy with a decent concept which wasn’t very well developed. We were indeed far from the dark cynicism displayed in ‘Tatie Danielle’ (probably my favorite movie directed by Chatiliez). At least, André Dussolier and Sabine Azéma, some of the best French actors, did their job and there were some funny jokes here and there. To conclude, even though it was rather disappointing, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw 'Sa majesté Minor', probably Jean-Jacques Annaud's weakest movie so far but I was still eager to check his next directing effort. Fortunately, it was much better. It was again quite an obscure feature which was barely noticed when it was released but, this time, he chose a story which was at least quite fascinating to behold. Indeed, it deals with the history of some middle-east countries just when oil was discovered, an event that would change this part of the world forever. In the middle of this historical event, you have an Emir, played by Antonio Banderas, who thinks that they should take advantage of this new wealth to get rich but also to improve the way of life of his subjects and, on the other side, you have a sultan, played by Mark Strong, who believes that they shouldn't seek this unholy black gold and remain faithful to their traditional way of life. The fact is that none of these 2 men was really evil or good and both their point of view made sense which was eventually very interesting. So, the ingredients were all there to make a great movie but, unfortunately, the mix didn't completely work. Indeed, they had a bunch of sons and a daughter, some of them linked to both families and it turned the whole thing into a soap which was too bad. Also, the quest of the main character was also rather murky and they tried to turn the movie into a new 'Lawrence of Arabia' but it was rather a failure. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really great, I still believe that there was something quite spellbinding about this story and it is definitely worth a look.

Way before Leonardo DiCaprio became one of the most interesting actors of his generation thanks to a bunch of great movies directed by Martin Scorsese and even before he became a massive teen idol with ‘Titanic’, he actually got his breakthrough with this feature. On top of that, you didn't get only to see a very young DiCaprio shining here but also the great Robert De Niro (at the time, De Niro was still doing some pretty good job and he wasn’t only focusing on getting some fat paychecks). So, it was quite an awesome clash of two acting monsters from 2 different generations and those guys did a terrific job. To be honest, the plot was a little too pederstrian and predictable to be truly remarkable but it was entertaining enough and those guys were just great and rather spellbinding to behold. Eventually, DiCaprio will definitely break down the house with ‘What's Eating Gilbert Grape’ (still easily his best performance so far) and the rest is pretty much history. To conclude, even though I don’t think it is really a masterpiece, it still a very solid drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. To be honest, I always had some rather mixed feelings about this flick. Indeed, it is supposed to be a massive 80’s classic but I always thought it was fairly entertaining but not much more than that, I’m afraid. Basically, even though it is definitely better than ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’, the concept is actually really similar and it is so preposterous, it is actually really difficult to take the whole thing seriously. I mean, is it really believable to think that a guy won’t get any acting jobs as himself but would manage to be hired instantly as soon as he dressed up in drag? Sure, Dustin Hoffman was at the top of his game, he gave a really solid performance here and the whole thing was enjoyable but I was never able to shake the idea that the whole thing was actually rather stupid. Furthermore, in my opinion, the damned thing was actually rather sexist. Indeed, in this movie, the women are basically portrayed as either hysterical or spineless. In fact, they are so incompetent that a man can apparently be a better a woman than they are. Anyway, to conclude, even though I’m not a huge fan of this flick, I have to admit that it is still a fairly entertaining comedy and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.