Reviews by johanlefourbe

I had already seen this movie before but I thought it was really time for a re-watch. Sidney Lumet had a rather productive career managing to direct more than 40 movies, some major classics, some major bombs and a whole bunch of really obscure features. However, there is no doubts that this movie definitely belongs to his masterpieces. To be honest, I still think that 'Dog Day Afternoon', which Lumet made 2 years later also with Al Pacino, is superior but it is still a fine picture. To start up, it is rather fascinating story, albeit depressing, but still very interesting. It is basically what happens when you give an average guy a gun and some power, there is a fair chance that they will abuse it. In my opinion, the greatest asset in this movie is Frank Serpico himself. Indeed, he is such an interesting character, even if you would remove the whole corruption story, the guy would still be interesting and it is obviously thanks to a great performance by Al Pacino. Like Robert de Niro, I have been following Pacino for almost 20 years and, honestly, most of his recent work is just not worth your time and it is in fact much more rewarding to watch such old classics like this one. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved it, it is a classic and it is definitely worth a look.

It is quite an obscure film (I'm actually the very first user to rate it on this website) but since I have a weak spot for Carice van Houten, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, I thought it was rather difficult to judge this movie. I mean, it wasn't bad at all, especially for a Dutch movie but, honestly, I was rather bored during the whole thing. The directing was rather decent and, for once, they tried to do something different and, as a result, you get a really weird and surrealistic thriller or psychological drama (it is a difficult movie to define). Still, to show some weird scenes is one thing but to make those really entertaining is another and it wasn't always the case here, I'm afraid. Still, there is no denying that Fedja van Huet delivered a strong performance, even though he wasn't as impressive as Jeremy Irons was in 'Dead Ringers'. Concerning Carice van Houten, it was one of her very first parts and while she did a decent job, I thought she was wasted here since her character was rather dull. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it remains an intriguing picture and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movies.

I’m not really sure how famous Claire Denis is abroad but she has definitely built up a decent career in France. Anyway, this time, she came up with something completely different. Indeed, she usually makes some really realistic features but, here, she made a really bleak and weird vampire feature. Inderdaad, even though it was dealing with vampires, it was still something else than your usual Dracula or even ‘Twilight’ and there was definitely something quite spellbinding about the whole thing. The cast was also really intriguing, including Béatrice Dalle and Vincent Gallo, two of the most notorious actors from both sides of the Atlantic. To be honest, the second time I watched it, I was not completely blown away though. Basically, there is a deliberate slow pace and there is not really a plot which made the whole thing quite mesmerizing but also rather frustrating sometimes. Indeed, rather often, you get some rather weird scenes with no explanation whatsoever and you wonder sometimes what the hell was actually going on. The first time, it didn’t bother me at all but the second time around, it made me rather restless. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it remains a really intriguing flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see a really different vampire feature.

I had actually already seen this flick but it was a very long time ago so I thought it really deserved a second shot. It was Christophe Gans's second directing effort, one very talented French director who is unfortunately rather unproductive since he has made only 4 movies during the last 20 years. Anyway, this flick was really successful in France and it has become since then a cult-classic. Indeed, there is a lot to enjoy here. The biggest asset was the way they managed to mix a costume drama with many other genres like Western, martial-arts, horror and thriller. On paper, there is no way it should have worked but they really managed to mix all these eclectic elements. On top of that, the whole thing looked really nice and there was a very impressive cast. Still, somehow, I wasn't completely sold though. Indeed, the whole thing is so stylish that they didn’t pay too much attention to the plot and while it worked for most of the duration, in the last 30 minutes, it became terribly murky and filled with plot holes. Eventually, when you finally find out what it was all about, it barely made sense and I thought it was rather underwhelming. Still, even though I don’t think it is really a masterpiece, it is a daring and intriguing feature and it is definitely worth a look.

Recently, it has been announced that David Lynch will write and direct a new season of ‘Twin Peaks’, 25 years after the serie began. Even though it might stink, it is still a huge event, not only because it would be the end of David Lynch semi-retirement but also because ‘Twin Peaks’ was one of the greatest TV shows ever conceived. Anyway, we still have to wait 2 years to watch the damned thing (I will have to wait even longer since I want to buy it on dvd…) but, in the mean time, we still can watch this prequel. To be honest, even though I have always been a huge fan of ‘Twin Peaks’, I wasn't really blown away by this prequel. I mean, I definitely enjoyed it and it was absolutely pretty neat to get back to this weird city and its demented inhabitants. However, in my opinion, I don't think there was really a need to see what exactly happened to Laura Palmer before she died. Sometimes, it is better to leave it to your imagination. Also, I was missing Lara Flynn Boyle who didn't reprise her role as Donna Hayward but that was just a small thing. Furthermore, if the TV show was incredibly disciplined, at least for a Lynch production, the film was once again a little too random for my taste. Still, I just love this fascinating world and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you loved the TV show like I did.

Obviously, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Bruce Willis, I thought I might as well check it out. Honestly, it didn't really bother me that Willis was there for only 30 minutes (obviously another pay-check role for him), what actually bothered me was the fact he was brought back just to explain the plot to his son and the audience. In my opinion, those kind of stories work better when the main character has to figure it out on his own. Of course, they had to give him a side-kick who happened to be a nice Spanish girl and, once again, it would have been more entertaining if the guy would have been all alone. The fact that she was in fact his half-sister was even more lame and completely unnecessary. Concerning Henry Cavill, I thought that the guy was not bad but this movie was just another flop and without 'Man of Steel', his career would remain pretty much wasted ( indeed, at some point, he was dubbed "the most unlucky man in Hollywood" after missing a part in Harry Potter, the main character in 'Twilight', James Bond and Superman a first time around). To conclude, it could have been decent but it turned out to be a rather underwhelming action flick and I don't think it is really worth a look.

Honestly, it has been a while since I have seen this flick but when I was a kid, I thought it was pretty cool. Sure, it was nothing really amazing and the concept was actually quite moronic (like most comedies) but I thought it was still quite entertaining and it was at the time a massive box-office success. Furthermore, you have to admit that Arnold Schwarzenegger had some balls to play for the first time in a comedy and even though many other action stars followed his footsteps (Sylvester Stallone, Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel,...), he is actually the only one who managed to deliver a comedy which was at least watchable (I don’t count Bruce Willis because the guy was first a comic actor before turning to action stuff). Anyway, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito made an unexpected couple and most of the jokes were quite funny. 6 years, Schwarzenegger, DeVito and Reitman would work together again making ‘Junior’ but it would be a massive critical and commercial flop. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was no masterpiece whatsoever, I still think it is decent comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Before Sandra Bullock became an acclaimed dramatic actress with ‘The Blind Side’ (which I found rather overrated), she used to make this kind of harmless romantic-comedies. Obviously, it was nothing really amazing but I always had a weak spot for this genre and I thought it was a decent entry. I mean, sure, the whole thing was barely original and terribly predictable but I thought that Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant worked very well together (much better than Hugh Grant with Julia Roberts in ‘Notting Hill’ if you ask me) and they had some great chemistry. For the director Marc Lawrence, it was a decent directing debut and he would have a rather prolific work relationship with Hugh Grant since he was involved in all his 4 directing efforts (including the even better and underrated ‘Music and Lyrics’ and the really dreadful ‘Did You Hear About the Morgans?’). Concerning Hugh Grant, even though the guy has spent pretty much all his career playing basically the same character other and other again (except obviously with ‘Cloud Atlas’ where he plays a creepy warrior with some war paintings), I always find him hilarious and, in this movie, he nailed it once again. To conclude, even though it was nothing really mind-blowing whatsoever, I thought it was a decent romantic-comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I had heard some rather interesting things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, as I expected, it was a pretty tough watch. Indeed, after watching virtually everything directed by David Lynch, I think I had my share of weird experimental mind-f*cks so I definitely had a hard time to connect with this picture. Still, there is no denying that there was still something quite spellbinding about the whole thing. I think my interest finally started to rise with the really strange sequence with the mo-cap artists which was really far-out and easily my favorite part. Sometimes, you did get some scenes which seemed a little bit more traditional but everything was massively chaotic and you wonder how Carax came up with all this stuff. Anyway, in the center of all this, you had Denis Lavant and you have to give some credit to this guy who portrayed all these wildly different characters (according to the end-credits, they were 11) but, somehow, he still managed to give them some depth which is even more remarkable when you think that he had no plot to hang on to. To conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a really intriguing flick and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in experimental movies.

Following the success of ‘The Fugitive’, they came up with this sequel and since Tommy Lee Jones’s character was so popular, they decided to focus on him this time which was an interesting choice. Obviously, this sequel never reached the level of the first installment. I mean, if you manage to make something exciting and entertaining the first time around, if the second time you pretty much do exactly the same thing, it is not really that interesting anymore. Still, I thought it was still a solid action flick. At least, at the time, Wesley Snipes was still a pretty badass action star and he was a decent choice, even though he was of course not as charismatic as Harrison Ford. Furthermore, one of the main asset of ‘The Fugitive’ is that the main character was just a regular guy and one of the most entertaining thing about this flick was to have a simple doctor being chased and managing many times to not get caught by the police. Here, you get instead a tough guy who was in fact a trained operative which was entertaining but sill a lesser choice than a common fellow like Richard Kimble. Anyway, to conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, I still think it was a decent action flick and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.