Reviews by johanlefourbe

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.

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.