Reviews by johanlefourbe

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick. Indeed, the title sounded terribly lame and, seriously, when was the last time Meg Ryan or even Andy Garcia did something really impressive? Eventually, I must admit it, I was actually positively surprised by the damned thing. Obviously, since it remains a Hollywood production, the whole thing remains too polished and the narrative arc was still too pedestrian and predictable. Still, in spite of its flaws, it is easily the best Hollywood picture I have seen dealing with the subject (much better than the rather underwhelming ’28 Days’ starring Sandra Bullock) . Indeed, not only it gave a believable image of an alcoholic (easily one of the best performances by Meg Ryan), they gave us also some interesting characters but, above all, they really developed their relationship, when the woman was an alcoholic and after when she was in recovery. The man obviously loved his wife and she loved him too but from the moment she became sober, she actually became someone else and even though you would expect the husband to be thrilled, it was actually much more complex than that and it was all very well handled by this flick. To conclude, even though it was still not a masterpiece, it was still a solid and interesting drama and it is definitely worth a look.

To be honest, the main reason I wanted to watch this flick was because it was on the ‘1001 movies you must see before you die’ list, otherwise, I would have probably skipped it. Eventually, it was definitely a nice watch, something really different, but I still wonder if it really deserved a spot on the list. Indeed,I still can’t shake the thought that this movie had been included in this list mostly because it was directed by Agnès Varda, a very well known and well regarded French director, and , in my opinion, if it would have been directed by someone else, it would have never been there. Anyway, it is still a interesting, touching and rather poetic documentary. At some point, it even becomes a rather surrealist egotrip as Varda starts to film herself as she wonders about her own life. While watching this, I had actually some mixed feelings about these ‘gleaners’. Indeed, what they did was quite inspiring and I have always been attracted by the marginals, the rebels who dare fight the system but, on the other hand, this way of life seemed also so depressing but maybe it has to do with the fact I have been like the rest of us pretty much brainwashed to believe that living in full over-consumption is actually the best and the only normal thing to do. To conclude, I don’t think it is really a masterpiece but it still an intriguing little movie and it is definitely worth a look.

Since it was the last movie directed by Robert Redford that I hadn’t seen yet, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, it must be one of his most obscure flicks and it is rather surprising that he waited 8 long years to bring a follow up to his directing début, ‘Ordinary People’, at the time a big critical success which even won the Best Picture Academy Award. On top of that, he took the risk to make it without some big stars involved, except for Melanie Griffith and Christopher Walken but they both had some rather small roles. Eventually, it is a rather odd picture and there was definitely some potential but, at the end of the day, the tone was just off. Maybe it was just too light, too whimsical for me but it definitely didn’t match well with the real economic and social difficulties displayed. It is not that the whole thing was a failure, indeed, Robert Redford managed to give a very touching glimpse of this colorful community but they probably deserved a better plot. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robert Redford’s work.

While watching this flick, I was wondering if it was actually a remake of ‘Adventures in Babysitting’, a supposedly classic from the 80’s that I have watched not so long ago. Apparently, in Imdb, it is listed as a spoof since it has a similar plot except that it was definitely R-rated. Well, I didn’t really like ‘Adventures in Babysitting’ and this ‘spoof’ was not really better, I’m afraid. Seriously, what happened with David Gordon Green? He used to be one of the best American indie directors, he was even considered by Roger Ebert as one of the future best American directors but, at some point, he decided to go mainstream and while I really enjoyed a lot ‘Pineapple Express’, it is now getting pretty pathetic (apparently, ‘His Highness’, which I haven’t seen yet, is not much better either). On the other hand, I don’t think we should blame Jonah Hill though. Basically, he plays his usual part of witty smart-ass loser and while it is getting a little bit old by now, he did what he could with this poor material. Same thing with Sam Rockwell, the guy is just awesome but he deserved much better than this. To conclude, it is seriously a really weak comedy and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

I already saw this movie but since it was ages ago and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might have as well check it out again. In contrary to so many movies I watch and forget almost instantly, I did remember this one very well and I enjoyed it just as much when I watched it the first time around when I was a kid about 30 years ago. In fact, back then, street basketball was really popular (it actually made a come-back recently with the 2024 Paris Olympic games), I loved the game, I played it a lot myself and it was just really neat to see a movie focusing on this sport. The fact that it involves only 4 players makes it also actually very cinematic. Sure, it is after all a standard sport feature but even though it did follow the rules of the genre, Ron Shelton managed to add an extra edge to the whole thing and it made this flick actually stand out from the rest. Indeed, even though you get to see some pretty neat basketball action, it is actually not only about basketball, it is actually above all about hustling and the whole hustling thing was seriously neat. On top of that, Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes gave some really solid performances and they had some great chemistry together. The only thing that didn’t work in my opinion was how, completely out-of-the-blue, Gloria did end up in Jeopardy. I mean, Gloria was a solid character and the fact that she was obsessed with this TV-game was a nice touch but that she actually ended up there at some point barely made sense so it was a mistake in my opinion. At least, the way she did dump Billy at the end was pretty much pitch-perfect though. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is not really a masterpiece, this movie is still a huge guilty pleasure of mine and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but Nick, my step-son, really loved it the first time he watched the damned thing so I thought we should check it out together. Well, eventually, I didn’t like it much, I’m afraid. I mean, basically, it is one of your typical sappy family features and, either, you are 12 years old or you love this genre or it will pretty much really bore you. Sure, it is based on a rather amazing story and, indeed, it is actually a powerful tearjerker with some touching scenes here and there but, in my opinion, the biggest issue was that they did add way too many sub-plots . On top of my head, I could name a few : the main character had some problem at school, his father left him, his cousin came back wounded from an unknown war, there was also a storm, they wanted to close down the animal hospital so they have to raise some money,… Give me a break! It was seriously a little bit too much for me. At the end of the day, I think I would have preferred a documentary instead of all that stuff they added. Anyway, to conclude, I don’t think it is really worth a look but if you love the genre, you might enjoy it more than I did.

Michael Cimino is what you could consider a really doomed director. Indeed, once a wonder boy following the release of ‘The Deer Hunter’, he completely destroyed his career with the really misguided ‘Heaven’s Gate’ and he single-handedly managed to end up the golden age of American cinema, an age when the authors were given pretty much carte blanche and a seemingly unlimited budget. Since then, Cimino never really recovered, he only made 5 other movies afterwards and it has been already 20 years since he released another movie. It is actually quite a shame since the guy seemed to be actually quite talented. Anyway, he made this flick 5 years after the ‘Heaven’s Gate’ disaster and even though it was not really a masterpiece, I thought it was pretty good though. At the time, Mickey Rourke was still quite a popular actor with a pretty face and I thought he gave a solid performance. Above all, even though the story was rather pedestrian, I really enjoyed the mood created by Michael Cimino (In fact the exterior shots of New York City were actually sets which were built somewhere else and they were so convincing, so realistic, that they even fooled Stanley Kubrick who attended the movie's premiere even though he was actually born in the Bronx). To conclude, even though it is nothing amazing whatsoever, I think it is still a decent flick and it is definitely worth a look.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a pretty nice cast, I thought I might as well give it a try. Eventually, it is a rather nice comedy with a very convincing mood and look for the time period and it was actually a rather neat story. The main issue, in my opinion, is that they tried to combine too many sub-plots and themes to the main story. Indeed, on one hand, you had medicine which was constantly discovering new ways to treat their patient, therefore conflicting with the traditional ways to cure diseases but, on the other hand, there was also the situation of women who didn’t have the same rights as men at the time (do they actually have the same rights nowadays?). That was already too much to handle for such a whimsical comedy and the love triangle involving the main character with the 2 sisters was also rather unnecessary and quite predictable. Still, it was a rather fun flick, especially thanks to Rupert Everett who stole the show every time he was on the screen. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for this actor and, even though he basically always plays the same character in all his movies, I always find him really marvelous and hilarious. To conclude, even though it is nothing amazing whatsoever, it remains a fairly entertaining comedy and I think it is worth a look.

Honestly, it is such a weird movie. I mean, it is not really a bad flick, a massive director like Michelangelo Antonioni couldn’t really direct a bad flick, but, still, the whole thing was so misguided, so flawed, it is still pretty much considered as a low point in his impressive career. Indeed, when it was released it was a huge flop and it was pretty much destroyed by the critics but, somehow, there was still something intriguing about the whole thing and it has become more or less a cult-classic. Basically, it is a mix with the hippy/counter-culture spirit, Antonioni’s artistical European directing style and the US film industry as it was the first time Michelangelo Antonioni shot in America. Therefore, the end-result was a rather schizophrenic feature which was visually still quite impressive, with some nice music provided by such bands like Pink Floyd, but the plot (was there really a plot in fact?) and the pathetic characters made it really difficult to root for this flick. Eventually, Antonio would rebound with ‘Professione: reporter’ 5 years later, but he will never reach the same heights he did before with such classics like ‘Blowup’. To conclude, even though it is a rather messed up flick, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you are interested in Antonioni’s work.

I have actually seen this flick in the movie theater when it was released and, at the time, I really loved it. Indeed, back then, I never saw such a daft black comedy and I thought it was just awesome and quite hilarious. Personally, I always had a weak spot for Kathleen Turner who was still on the A list at the time and she was just perfect for this role. Since then, I have followed John Waters and watch all the movies he made afterwards (I still have to watch his older movies he made before like ‘Hairspray’ of ‘Ping Flamingos’) but, honestly, none of them really impressed like this one though. Indeed, with this flick which was pretty much the most mainstream thing he has ever done, he managed to keep his wild and dark sense of humor, combined it with an entertaining plot and also made the whole thing almost look like a standard commercial comedy. I have to admit it, towards the end, it tends to loose focus but it was still really entertaining. To conclude, it seems to be pretty much forgotten nowadays but I think it is actually one of my favorites comedies and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in John Waters’ work.