Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. Well, after all these years, I still loved the damned thing and, in my opinion, it must be the ultimate romantic-comedy. Indeed, even though I always had a weak spot for the genre, to be honest, most of the rom-coms are actually so underwhelming. The main reason, in my opinion, is that they are usually poorly written and they are too often focusing on some terrible gimmicks. In fact, in this movie, there is no actual gimmick or idiotic concept and, instead, they focused here on the  characters involved and their relationship which might seem like a no-brainer but it was actually a master move.This flick did it so well, not only it gave us some really 3 dimensional characters but, above all their relationship was just really sweet, sad, recognizable and often quite hilarious. By the way, it’s interesting to note that the fake orgasm scene which has become so iconic after all these years might be the only scene which didn’t feel genuine at all. I mean, sure, I have to admit that it is a funny scene but there is no way that Sally would actually do this in a crowded restaurant. Still, there is no denying that Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal had some great chemistry in this flick. Following this flick, Ryan pretty much became the queen of the genre with some various amount of success and it's just too bad she pretty much butchered her pretty face with some ill-advised plastic surgery later on during her career. Anyway, to conclude, I really love this flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though I keep watching most of his movies, I have really built-up a love-hate relationship with Woody Allen's recent work. I mean, even his successes like 'Midnight in Paris' or 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', even I did like them, are still vastly overrated in my opinion. Still, I really wanted to check this older flick and, boy, at last, I wasn't disappointed. Basically, it was such a great reminder about how talented and witty he used to be as a director. Indeed, within the first 10 minutes, I was completely hooked. Indeed, it was funny, smart, the characters and the dialogs were just so well written, it was just spellbinding to watch. To be honest, it must have even pretty weird to watch this flick when it was released since, right in the middle of its production, Woody Allen and Mia Farrow when through one of the most scandalous and nasty break-ups ever. Even more than 20 years later, the whole thing is still rather weird when you watch this flick as Woody Allen broke up with Mia Farrow so he could be with her daughter who was just about 20 years old at the time. Anyway, if you manage to put Woody Allen's weird private life aside, it is actually a really good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Woody Allen's work.

I know, it might seems weird, but I actually think this movie is pretty good. Sure, it is and remains a commercial flick and it is far from being a masterpiece but, for a romantic-comedy, it is actually pretty solid and, in my opinion, it is above the other movies in this genre. To start with, obviously, the whole concept was completely preposterous and, in a lesser movie, it would have been quite terrible to behold but, for once, they managed to actually properly handle this concept and the end-result was actually rather satisfying. I think it was also a great touch to have Mel Gibson to play the lead and maybe his fan base wwas disappointed to see him in a rom-com but I thought he was a terrific choice. Indeed, in my opinion, Mel Gibson is one of the very few action stars (Bruce Willis might be the other one) who actually has some acting range (I mean, the guy managed to give a convincing performance in ‘Hamlet’ for crying out loud!) and there has always been a lot of sensitivity going on with him, at least, that’s what I felt from his acting, and I think he really delivered the goods here. Concerning Helen Hunt, I never really cared for her but she was decent here and she had some good chemistry with Mel Gibson. To conclude, I actually liked the damned thing and I think it is 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. In fact, I remember this flick very well, I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released back then. The best thing about this flick was that, before watching it and at least until half way throught the damned thing, I thought it was actually a rather straigthforward thriller. Eventually, until that point, I thought it was actually quite entertaining with a nice mood and some pretty good chemistry between Neve Campbell, Denise Richards and Matt Dillon. However, at some point, the whole thing went just way over the top, with some numerous and really far-fetched twists and, from then on, I kind of lost interest in the damned thing. Basically, it is a really sleazy thriller with a really ridiculously convoluted plot and I honestly think it could have worked better if they had taken the story a little bit more seriously. I mean, come on! In the last 10 minutes, there was a massive twist every 30 seconds which was just terribly annoying at some point. After rewatching the damned thing, it became pretty obvious that this movie was actually never meant to be a straightforward thriller but some kind of neo-film noir mixed with a B feature with an erotic edge. Anyway, to conclude, I think this flick is pretty much a classic for every teenage boy who grew up in the 90’s, it is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine, and even though it is terribly flawed, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Honestly, it is not the kind of movies I would have expected to watch with the filmclub. Indeed, it is a commercial feature adapted from a popular young adult novel so we hardly seemed to be the targeted audience. So, it was definitely a daring choice but, eventually, I thought it was not bad at all. Indeed, the relationship between those two teenagers was really touching and convincing thanks to the amazing performances by Shailene Woodley (the new rising star) and Ansel Egort (never heard of the guy before). Unfortunately, pretty much everything else in the movie was at best decent and sometimes even rather worthless. For example, the way they make you think during 3/4 of the duration that the girl will die but, suddenly, the roles are reversed and she is actually the one surviving, that's just a poor gimmick to add an extra layer of drama. The worst was probably the few scenes involving the writer which were just contrived and rather cringe-inducing. So, as a result, you had one of the most beautiful and emotional love-stories involving teenagers I have ever seen but those kids were unfortunately stuck into the gimmicks and tricks of your average Hollywood melodrama. Still, it was a decent drama and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since I had it on DVD for already more than 2 years, I thought it was really time to finally watch the damned thing. Well, basically, it is one of those movies that some stars make at the beginning of their career and, like everyone else, they have to start somewhere and the only reason this movie has not been completely forgotten (it is still pretty obscure though) is because Angelina Jolie has become since then a huge star. Honestly, I think I more or less cared for the whole thing for maybe the first 15 minutes but then it became rather convoluted and actually rather boring. What was the genre here in fact? Really difficult to pinpoint... It seems that it was just a mix of rather daft and rather scenes. Still, from the moment Angelina Jolie was on the screen, she was quite spellbinding to watch, which was quite something since her character was actually rather shallow and uninteresting. Sure, she looked really gorgeous but it went beyond that, she was just really charismatic and I really wanted to spend more time with this character even though she probably had nothing interesting to say. Still, even though it was fun to see a very young Angelina Jolie (In fact, I was rather amazed to discover that she was just 21 years old at the time), it still remains a really weak feature and I don't think it is really worth a look.

So, that's where it all started for Pixar. Of course, Pixar was working on CGI animation for more than a decade already but it was their first full length feature and the first time they reached such a broad audience. At the time, there was a pretty good buzz about this flick, I was even lucky to see it in the movie theater when it was first released but nobody expected that it would become such a phenomenon, creating a whole new trend of animated features in the process. Indeed, it was obviously a huge success and, eventually, it became a major milestone in motion picture history. Suddenly, hand-drawn animation which was mercilessly ruled by Disney was dropped and everyone, virtually every single studio, started to make CGI animated features with some various amount of success. Coming back to our game changer, like I said before, I had the pleasure to see it in the theater when it was released (like most of Pixar's features) and it was quite mind-blowing. Back in those days, it was something completely new and even though it does look a little bit old today, it was really impressive when it was released. Above all, their masterstroke was to not only blow us away technically but also to provide an entertaining, touching and rather deep story with some great characters which would be an enduring trademark in Pixar's work. To conclude, it is pretty much a classic and it is absolutely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, it has been a while since I have seen this flick but when I was a kid, it was pretty much a classic. Indeed, I watched it many times and I thought it was just really hilarious. It is rather funny that this movie was so popular among young French teenagers since we missed many jokes based on American pop-culture and we had actually never heard of Saturday Night Live and we had no idea that this movie was based on a popular skit on this show. In fact, it is probably the only movie based on a Saturday Night Live skit which turned out to be so successful (in fact, ‘The Blues Brothers’ became also a cult-classic but it is still the only Saturday Night Live spin-off movie to date that has grossed over $100 million). I should re-watch it at some point, maybe I will find it completely stupid and boring but, at the time, I thought it was pretty funny. At the time, it was Mike Myers’ acting debut and he has been quite successful also with Austin Powers but ‘The Love Guru’ was a major failure and the guy hasn’t done anything much since then. Anyway, to conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I think it is a decent comedy and it is definitely worth a look.

What ever happened to Josh Harnett? At some point, following 'Pearl Harbor', he seemed to be on the verge of becoming the next best thing but it never really happened. Apparently, he refused a couple of high profile roles like Superman for example to focus on some smaller movies with a supposedly higher artistic value. Well, this movie was one of those but, I have to admit it, the story was pretty good. Unfortunately, I had some trouble to connect with the main character. I mean, I'm not sure if we should blame Josh Harnett since this character was not really well written and you never really know if the guy was actually an opportunistic douche-bag who manipulates everyone to get what he wants and even lies to his kid to impress him or a talented writer who really loves his son. The other thing that bothered me is that they tried to convince you that this reporter was careless and that he didn't do his job properly but I didn't buy it. I mean, he didn't make it up, he made some research, his assistant made some research as well and he even got a video were the guy was actually fighting the other guy he was impersonating (such a convenient but preposterous gimmick to move the story forward). And, suddenly, all this material that they couldn't find was revealed when 5 minutes before that there was nothing to be found about this boxer. Still, in spite of these flaws, it remains a pretty good story with some great potential and I still think it is worth.

Personally, I always had a weak spot for Pierce Brosnan when he was playing James Bond. Sure, Daniel Craig is completely awesome as the famous spy and the guy completely owns the part now but Brosnan was also pretty good as well, just behind Connery and Craig in my opinion and I think he should get more credit for his turn as Mr Bond. However, if Pierce Brosnan was always awesome, the movies themselves were not always great though. Indeed, for example, this one was rather disappointing in my opinion. The first issue I had was with Sophie Marceau. I mean, sure, she looked great and, on paper, she sounded like a great choice to play a bad Bond-girl but, eventually, I thought that her performance was just pathetic. Usually, you don’t need the best acting chops to play a Bond-girl but her performance was so weak, it was just really distracting. Concerning Denise Richards, it was not much better, I’m afraid. Of course, she looked quite charming, but it was rather preposterous how she showed up completely random so that our beloved spy gets an attractive female sidekick. To conclude, to be honest, my rating might be a little bit harsh, but I thought it was rather weak, especially compared to the previous installments starring Pierce Brosnan and I don’t think it is really worth a look.