Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a pretty cool cast, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, it turned out to be one of the most half-baked thrillers I have seen for a very long time. I mean, right from the start, the whole premise was terribly misguided. Basically, you get a brother and a sister who gets involved in a car crash after a robbery and, after killing a cop, they have to run away in the middle of the woods, in the winter, during a snow storm. Seriously, does it sound remotely believable to you? On top of that, they have added too many characters with too many sub-plots for such a short running time. I mean, it wasn’t completely awful, I did like the cast (Eric Bana, Olivia Wilde, Charlie Hunnam, Kris Kristofferson, Sissy Spacek, Kate Mara, Treat Williams) and they did what they could with the materical. I also liked the way the relationship was developed between Olivia Wilde and Charlie Hunnam and the whole thing would have been more compelling if they started the story when they meet each other and solely focused on them slowly giving up some details about their troubled past. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was a rather weak thriller and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

It has been a while since I have watched this flick and, to be honest, I think I might have been too young when I first watched it. Indeed, at around 14 years old, I started to watch the major classics and I watched them ferociously at a very quick pace. The problem is that, even if a movie is great, sometimes, the timing is not right and it goes way over your head and I think that’s what happened to me with this flick. That’s the tricky thing about Krzysztof Kieslowski’s work, it is really interesting and intriguing, but not always really easy to digest, I’m afraid. I mean, it is full of symbolic and sub-text and, like I said before, I didn’t get much of it and it might need a re-watch at some point. Still, there is no doubt that Juliette Binoche (at the time, probably the greatest French actress at work) was very good, she gave one of her best performances and Kieslowski had a sober but effective directing style. To conclude, even though I wasn’t really blown away by the whole thing, it is still a very good movie 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 quick eager to check it out again. Well, I’m really glad I gave this movie a 2nd chance after all these years because I was much more able to appreciate it the 2nd time around. First of all, Pedro Almodovar is one of those directors that I have always admired but he never became a personal favorite of mine. Indeed, he is what you can call a real author who has created his own style and, therefore, he always got my respect but, honestly, I always had a hard time with his work and this movie was not an exception. Indeed, The 1st time I saw it, I was around 20 years old only and I didn’t feel much a connection with the damned thing (back then, I hadn’t seen yet ‘All about Eve’ so that’s already a reference I completely missed). I still think it is a rather complex story, even seriously convoluted, but it is something to be expected from this director. What really touched me this time was the fact that it was focusing only on female characters (there are a few male characters but with very little screen time and very little impact) and they were all quite fascinating to behold. The cast involved was also really strong. At the end of the day, this movie did develop the usual themes you can find in almost all Almodovar’s work as it focused on some rather messed-up and sometimes annoying women but, this time around, he managed to go even deeper than usual and the end-result was quite amazing. Eventually, it is thanks to this movie that Almodovar started to gain some real worldwide success (it even won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign movie). To be honest, I think that his following feature, ‘Hable con ella’, was actually more compelling but it is all a matter of taste and I can understand why this movie is considered as Pedro Almodovar’s magnum opus. Anyway, to conclude, it is indeed one of the best movies delivered by the Spanish master it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Almodovar’s work.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick and the main reason I watched it was because I have a major weak spot for Sam Rockwell. Anyway, ever since 'Napoleon Dynamite' became a massive cult-classic, Jared Hess has pretty much remained in the same genre ever since, making some quirky comedies involving some rather eccentric characters. However, even though it did work with 'Napoleon Dynamite', I can’t say I was completely blown away and following 'Nacho Libre' which was even less impressive, the gimmick is starting to become really old by now. Indeed, all these characters are some major losers, which is not even really the main issue. The main issue is that they are usually obnoxious and, above all, not really funny. I mean, sure, Sam Rockwell had a blast in those weird cheap-ass science-fiction scenes but those scenes were not exactly hilarious. On top of that, the whole plot about the famous writer stealing the story was just really pedestrian and predictable. In my opinion, Jared Hess seems to have some interesting ideas but he should really choose a different angle in his next movie. To conclude, I think my rating might be a little bit generous here but I guess it might be worth a look, at least if you like the genre.

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.