Reviews by johanlefourbe

Obviously, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since Nick, my step-son, loves ghosts flicks I thought we might as well give it a try. Basically, at the end of the 90's, they thought it would be a good idea to remake those old classics like 'Dracula' which was directed by Francis Ford Coppola or 'Frankenstein' by Kenneth Brannagh which were both not bad but they also produced some terrible remakes like 'The Haunting', 'House on Haunted Hill' and this flick. Indeed, it was terribly weak. First, you get this really convoluted and messy introduction and soon the characters were stuck in this weird house for some rather dubious reasons but there wasn't a single moment during which it became slightly compelling. Sure, the house was visually interesting but it was just some elaborate set-design, in fact, it was so elaborate that there was no connection left with the real world and therefore, it was not really convincing. Even those 12 ghosts who did look rather nasty were actually rather underwhelming. To conclude, I think I'm being quite generous with my rating here, it is just a really weak horror flick and I don't think it is really worth a look, even if you love the genre.

Even though there was a huge hype surronding ‘1492: Conquest of Paradise’, it was eventuallly a flop and Ridely Scott when through his biggest career deep so far, a deep which lasted until ‘Gladiator’ but the guy has never looked back since then as he has made about 1 movie every year for the last 14 years. Anyway, during this deep, Scott made this flick and it is definitely one of his most obscure features (I can only think of ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ which could be even more obscure). Since I have always been a fan of Ridley Scott’s work, I was really eager to check this flick and I actually took me several years to finally see the damned thing. Eventually, even though it was nothing amazing, I thought it was still not bad at all. First of all, there was a neat cast of young upcoming actors (Scott Wolf, Jeremy Sisto, Ryan Phillippe, Balthazar Getty) and Jeff Bridges, one of the best actors around, as usual, delivered a solid performance. Obviously, the story was rather generic (the main issue in most of the movies directed by Ridley Scott) but I thought it was entertaining enough. To conclude, even though it is a rather obscure feature, I think it is actually worth a look, especially if you are interested in Ridley Scott’s work.

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect from this movie but I still wanted to check it out. Indeed, on one hand, you had Chiwetel Ejiofor, probably one of the best actors around nowadays, but also, Tim Allen, probably one of the most underwhelming actors I have ever seen. Fortunately, Tim Allen showed up for maybe only 10 minutes so that wasn't enough to ruin this movie (he was still miscast though and I would have rather had someone like Bruce Willis instead). Basically, it is a rather intriguing movie about martial arts, especially jiu-jitsu, which wasn't something I would have expected from David Mamet but the guy has been doing this sport for already 6 years at the time so that explains a lot. On top of that, a third of the characters were Brazilian for no apparent reason so that was a rather odd mix. The main issue, in my opinion, is that with a running time of barely 100 minutes, there was just too many characters and intrigues to carry and, at the end of the day, half of it didn't make much sense. Still, Mamet has managed to create a rather fascinating world and Ejiofor was completely convincing and spellbinding to behold so I think it is definitely worth a look.

Comedy is probably the genre I’m the most critical about. Indeed, I don’t find most comedies to be really funny as they usually go for the stupid jokes. However, there are a few exceptions and this flick is definitely one of them. Basically, it is one of those movies I saw when I was much too young, back then in the 90’s, when you could watch pretty much anything as a kid before it became politically incorrect. Back then, even as a kid, I loved the damned thing and I thought it was just hilarious. Basically, even though it remains a mainstream production, it still stand out from the rest because it is actually pitch black and terribly sarcastic and I really enjoyed the fact that Danny DeVito, in his 2nd directing effort, never backs down at any moment. Indeed, in your average Hollywood production, at some point, they would start to turn down the cynicism in order to reach a terribly underwhelming happy ending. Not here though. Here, they go for broke and show you some of the most flawed characters you will see in a comedy. On top of that, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner gave some solid performances and they had some great chemistry together. To conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I really love this comedy and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but with a cast including Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill, I still had to watch it at some point. Well, right from the start, the whole thing sounded really ludicrous so it seemed that it was completely doomed from the start but, eventually, the main issue was in fact that they mixed up this wacky concept with a straight R-rated comedy and a really standard and boring alien invasion plot. That was just so wrong and they couldn't have chosen a worse way to handle this. I mean, if you go for something stupid like this, then, go for broke then and make something completely insane. But since it is a commercial Hollywood picture, they just gave us some glimpse of what it could have been and, instead, you just got some rather underwhelming characters going through the motions. I mean, I’m not saying that it could have been great, it was a tough sell anyway, but the way they handled the whole thing was seriously pathetic. And what was that about one of them being an alien?!? That was totally f*cking random like ‘sorry, guys, we are kind of stuck here so let’s make one of them being an alien so he explain the whole thing in a few sentences so that we can speed up the whole thing in the process’. To conclude, it could have been worse but it could have been much better so I don’t think it is really worth a look.

There was a time when Alison Lohman was one of the most promising actresses around. And then, back in 2009, she did a small part in the average ‘Gamer’, met her future husband Mark Neveldine who directed this flick, married the guy, got a kid, and since then she has never made any more movies. How sad is that? Lohman had her breakthrough in 2003 with ‘Matchstick Men’, one of the better movies directed by Ridley Scott, and a year before, she made this flick for which she delivered also a very strong performance. To be honest, the whole thing didn’t work perfectly, there were too many characters with not enough room for them all of them and some bits just didn’t work very well. Still, it is not very often that you get to see so many strong female characters played by a stellar cast (Robin Wright, Michelle Pfeiffer, Renée Zellweger). The best one was probably delivered by Michelle Pfeiffer who many thought would get an oscar nomination for her work (it didn’t happen after all because the movie was barely seen at the time) and she was indeed very strong here but I was still impressed by Alison Lohman who never got upstaged at any moment by those more experienced actresses. To conclude, I think this movie deserved more love and it is definitely worth a look.

Last year, I discovered that Curtis Hanson had retired because of Alzheimers. It sounds rather tragic that his career ended up this way. Hanson was actually quite a late bloomer as he had his biggest success with ‘L.A. Confidential’ rather late in his career. 3 years later, he came up with this follow-up which was barely noticed by the audience, even though it received some stellar reviews. Personally, I really liked this flick and even though it might not have been as epic as ‘L.A. Confidential’, it was almost as good and it definitely deserved more love. First of all, there was a very solid cast (Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey Jr., Katie Holmes) and they all delivered some solid performances, especially Douglas who was universally praised at the time. Personally, I always had a weak spot for this kind of characters, those guys (they are always guys, aren’t they?) who are or who were once brilliant but still can’t help being some terrible losers and, as a result, their life always seems to be a mess. In this case, it is even more enjoyable because Michael Douglas always plays the exact opposite, some shallow but terribly charismatic and successful SOBs and it was a just a blast to see him play around with his image. To conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I think it is still a really solid drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

It has been a while since I have since this flick and there is a fair chance that the whole thing just really stinks but when I was a kid, I really had a weak spot for this movie. Indeed, at the time, I was just around 13 years old and, like most of the kids of my age, I had watched multiple times the first installment and I thought it was quite hilarious back then. Eventually, I even saw this sequel in the movie theater with a whole bunch of buddies and we all had a great time. It is actually quite interesting that a bunch of French kids would love it when, in fact, we have missed more than half of the pop jokes there. The point is that Wayne and Garth were just really funny, even the 2nd time around, and I thought it was actually quite brilliant that Wayne would organize his own ‘Woodstock’. At the time, Mike Myers was easily one of the most popular comedians and he had another homerun with Austin Powers but, unfortunately for him, his career took a massive dive after ‘The Love Guru’(indeed, a truly horrendous flick) and you might wonder if he might recover from the blow one day. Anyway, even though it is nothing really amazing, I think it remains a fun comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

It was a little less than 20 years since I last saw this flick, and I thought it was finally time for a re-watch. To be honest, the first time around, I really despised the whole thing. Actually, I remember it very well the first time I watched it. Indeed, I was with my sister at the video shop to rent some VHS and, suddenly, I saw this flick there. To be honest, it really looked lame but it was directed by Kevin Smith, the guy responsible for ‘Clerks’, one of our all-time favorite movies, and even though it was odd that neither of us had heard about this sophomore effort, there was no doubt we had to watch it though (To be honest, I was in fact really passionate about it but I have to admit that my sister was actually not convinced). Well, eventually, it was easily one of the most embarrassing movie experiences I ever had… Indeed, eventually, we both thought it was actually awful and I even think that my sis didn’t even watch the damned thing until the end. I mean, it was so bad that even Kevin Smith at the time apologized for it. Still, somehow, it became a cult-classic, almost as big as ‘Clerks’ and, after all these years, I thought it was time to check it out again. Well, eventually, even though it wasn’t such a total disaster after all, I still think it was a terrible failure though. I mean, the concept was great, to make a movie in a mall, about the youth wasting their time there was awesome and a natural step after ‘Clerks’. Unfortunately, the execution was really terrible. Indeed, this time, Smith had a decent budget so he developed a whole bunch of underwhelming and half-baked scenes. This time, he hired some ‘stars’ but while some of them were fine like Jason Lee, Ben Affleck or Joey Lauren Adams, the rest (Jeremy London, Shannen Doherty , Claire Forlani) looked nice on the eye but they were actually rather pathetic on the acting department. Finally, and that was the saddest thing, half of the dialogues worked very well but the rest was just really weak. Anyway, to conclude, it is rather amazing that Kevin Smith’s career managed to recover from this misfire but, even so, the guy never reached the same awesomness he delivered with ‘Clerks’ ever after and that’s just too bad.

Basically, it is one of these rather cheesy 80’s flicks and even though I thought it was fairly entertaining, I can’t say I really loved the damned thing. I mean sure, it was all quite watchable, there was a really charismatic cast (Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin and even Kevin Spacey in a very small part) but I seriously had a hard time to care about the story. Indeed, it seems that Hollywood has never managed to take office jobs seriously, especially when women are involved, so in the 80's they came up with a bunch of fluffy comedies about the subject. This one is probably the most successful one, financially and critically, and, I have to admit it, it was at least miles better than the rather inane 'Nine to Five'. Still, I had a hard time to care for Melanie Griffith who did her best to convince me that she wasn't there thanks to her pretty face (yeah, she still looked cute at the time) but because she actually could convincingly portray a really smart woman. Obviously, she was completely upstaged by the great Sigourney Weaver who really had a blast here. To conclude, after all, it remains a harmless comedy and I guess it is worth a look but don't expect anything really amazing.