Reviews by johanlefourbe

Honestly, I wasn’t really interested by this flick but, Nick, my step-son, really wanted to see it so I bought the DVD for his birthday. Well, I think he thought it was decent but I didn’t like it much. I mean, I always had a weak spot for Renny Harlin’s work, he has made a couple of fun B features but it has been a while since he made something really entertaining. This time, he tried to make maybe his most ambitious movie so far but the whole thing was just an underwhelming copycat. Basically, visually, it was in the same style of ‘300’, which seems to have become the reference in this genre and, storywise, it was almost the same plot as in ‘Gladiator’. I mean, come on! Did they really think we wouldn’t notice?!? To throw Hercules in the mix, one of the most generic hero you can think of, was certainly not enough. Finally, Kellan Lutz might have the good body shape but his acting was rather poor and he definitely didn’t have enough charisma to carry this movie. To conclude, I think my rating might be actually quite generous here, it is a really weak movie and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but Roger Ebert really loved it, he even picked it up as one of the best movies released in 2012, so I was really eager to check it out. Basically, it is a very dark Norwegian feature which gives some really interesting and harsh insights about what must happen with drug addicts when they manage to get clean. Indeed, one of the ‘positive’ aspects of being a junkie is that the drugs give you a purpose, a meaning to your life, maybe it is all rotten but still. But what happens when it’s gone? Even though the drug addicts have become more or less healthy, there is a huge vaccum in their life and, for the main character, it seems impossible to fill this vaccum. Getting in contact with friends and relatives, seeing how they managed to live a ‘normal’ life, doesn’t help either because this way of life seems difficult to understand or even rather pointless when you have turned your back on it for 5 years or even longer. In my opinion, all this stuff was missing from ‘Trainspotting’ and that’s the reason why I always had some mixed feelings about this classic. Here, all these ideas were very well developed by the director and helped by an amazing performance given by the main actor. Unfortunately, from the moment he got to the party, I thought it was not really compelling anymore. I mean, from the moment he gets there and starts to drink, you know the guy is lost and, then, the only thing you have left is waiting for the predictable ending to show up. Still, to conclude, even though it didn’t completely convince me, it remains a very strong drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested by the subject.

Honestly, beforehand, I had never heard of this movie but since I have a weak spot for François Truffaut, I still wanted to check it out. Apparently, it is one of his more obscure movies which he made after ‘Jules et Jim’ and, maybe that’s why it didn’t get much love when it was released. Indeed, ‘Jules et Jim’ was one of his most popular flicks so the expectations were pretty high but, instead he came with this rather dark drama. So, it is not one of his most popular movies but I thought it is was still pretty good. To be honest, it wasn’t a really original love story (except for the ending which came a little bit from nowhere) but thanks to Truffaut’s effective directing style, it was still a very nice watch. On top of that, it starred the always delightful Françoise Dorléac, the older sister of Catherine Deneuve who tragically died at only 25 years old. This actress had some tremendous potential and I wondered what she could have achieved if she had lived a bit longer. To conclude, even though it is not a masterpiece whatsoever, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Truffaut’s work.

Personally, I have never been a huge fan of ‘The Silence of The Lambs’. Sure, I did like it, it is definitely an entertaining flick but, in my opinion, it is a seriously over-the-top thriller with some preposterous scenes. The sad thing is that even though this movie has become a huge classic, many people tend to forget that it wasn’t actually the first film starring Hannibal Lecter. Indeed, 5 years before, Michael Mann directed this flick which was an adaptation of ‘Red Dragon’ which would be remade more than 15 years later by Brett Ratner. All right, I have to admit it, it wasn’t better than ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ which still remains by far the best movie involving Lecter but it was still pretty good though and it sure deserves to get more attention. The most interesting thing about this flick is how vastly different the mood and the tone was. I also enjoyed Brian Cox’s performance as it was something really different than Anthony Hopkins'. Indeed, his Lector was much more down to earth which was very welcome. To conclude, I think it is actually a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, after her breakthrough with ‘Basic Instinct’, except for ‘Casino’ which was quite brilliant, did Sharon Stone ever do anything really amazing? Not really, in my opinion. The main issue, aside the fact that she is in fact not a really great actress, is that she usually makes some poor choices concerning her movie projects. Indeed, after her massive 90’s classic, she made this flick which was yet another steamy erotic thriller also written by Joe Eszterhas who was one of the most successful writers at the time in Hollywood. On one hand, it was actually rather smart from her to do this movie since it allowed her to surf on her newfound popularity but, on the other hand, the movie was not really good and it actually damaged her career preventing her to be taken actually as a serious actress instead of a good looking chick who doesn’t mind to get naked in front of the camera. Anyway, the whole thing is a rather preposterous thriller with some gratuitous sex scenes and it was actually watchable but still utterfly forgettable. To conclude, I have seen worse but I don’t think it is really worth a look, except if you didn’t get enough of seeing Sharon Stone having sex with some random guy.

In my opinion, this movie is the perfect example what went/is wrong with Richard Gere’s career. Personally, I don’t think he is actually a bad actor, actually he can be pretty intense, but most of his movies focus on his heatthrob image which is a mistake, in my opinion. Indeed, it is fine to look at a good-looking actor or actress but, after 5 minutes, it gets very old and, eventually, it is what is going on with the character which is really interesting, not how good looking he or she is. Like I said before, this movie is a fine example. I mean, basically, it is a remake of a French movie starring Gérard Depardieu (a movie I haven’t seen, unfortunately) and, to be honest, even though it is based on some real events, it is a rather preposterous story which was rather difficult to buy. The fact that it is preposterous doesn’t need to mean that it would automatically be a failure but, since they unfortunately put the focus so much on how great looking he is instead of putting the focus on what is actually going on with this guy in his mind, it didn’t work out very well. To conclude, it is not really a bad movie and I think it is actually worth a look but I think it could have been much better than this.

For almost 20 years, I have been a huge fan of Robert De Niro’s work, I have been watching obsessively almost all his movies (I have managed to watch already 70 of his movies so far which is not that bad, I believe). Anyway, at the beginning of the 90’s, his career was still pretty good (at least, if you compare it to the poor movies he is making nowadays) and this movie was not one bad at all, even if it was definitely one of his more osbcure movies. The first interesting thing about this flick is that it was Irwin Winkler’s directing debut. Winkler is above all famous as a producer and he was involved in some major classics like the whole Rocky franchise and most of the movies directed by Martin Scorsese. Anyway, at the time, it seems that he wanted also to get in the directing chair and managed to get the great Robert De Niro involved. Basically, it is an intriguing drama about McCarthyism, definitely an interesting subject, but somehow, I thought the whole thing was rather flat. Still, even though it was far from being a masterpiece, I thought it was a decent flick and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested by the subject.

For almost 20 years, I have been a huge fan of Robert De Niro’s work, I have been watching obsessively almost all his movies (I have managed to watch already 70 of his movies so far which is not that bad, I believe). Anyway, at the beginning of the 90’s, his career was still pretty good (at least, if you compare it to the poor movies he is making nowadays) but this movie was not one of his best. Basically, it is one of these flicks for which he gave quite a decent performance but, unfortunately, the plot was rather pedestrian and predictable. Still, De Niro and Fonda had some nice chemistry and they definitely made a cute couple. For Jane Fonda, this movie would be the end of her career, at least the first part of it. Indeed, she got married afterwards with Ted Turner for 10 years and came back to acting 15 years later. Unfortunately, her stellar career never really recovered from this long hiatus and she hasn’t done anything really interesting in the last 10 years (on the other hand, to make her come-back with the terribly underwhelming ‘Monster-in-Law’ was rather ill-advised). To conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, I think it remains a decent drama and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robert De Niro or Jane Fonda.

Honestly, I was always had a hard time with this franchise. Indeed, even though the 1st installment was a surprise success at the box-office, I thought it was rather underwhelming which is too bad because the concept actually had some potential. Anyway, at the time, it seemed that Robert Rodriguez found his new cash-cow and kept making Spy Kids flicks until the audience really got fed up (which happened pretty quickly eventually). Indeed, since the first installment was such a success, of course, they had to come up with a sequel which was also fairly successful at the box-office. Personally, it gave me the same feeling as the previous installment and I didn’t care much for it but, I have to admit it, my kids really liked it a lot. At least, it was nice to see Steve Buscemi playing a mad scientist, even though his ‘creations’ looked really awfull but, on the other hand, we shouldn’t blame Buscemi for the really poor CGI used in this flick (if you watch it 10 years later, it is even more pathetic). To conclude, I didn’t like it much and I don’t think it is really worth look, except maybe if you are a fan of this franchise.