Reviews by johanlefourbe

Next week, I will probably see ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ (apparently, it is already a massive success at the box-office) and, in the meantime, I thought I could see Bryan Singer’s previous directing effort. Well, after ‘Valkyrie’ and ‘Superman Returns’, it was another flop for Singer and after watching the damned thing, I can’t say it really deserved better. Basically, it is another modernizing of a traditional fairy tale and with those, it is always a tricky gamble. At least, it remains a pretty cool story and, I have to admit it, they almost got it right. Indeed, Nicholas Hoult was a fairly good choice to play the lead and I liked the way that it didn’t take hours before they grew the beanstalk. Unfortunately, the rest of the story didn’t work very well. Indeed, it felt as if they didn’t trust Hoult to carry the movie by himself so they added Ewan McGregor to the mix which was really distracting. In my opinion, that was the major issue here, the way the whole thing was rather unbalanced and unfocused. Indeed, there was a hero but also a courageous and loyal knight played by a major actor, there were the giants who should be sufficient as villain but also some guy plotting to rule the world. And I won’t mention the wall-to-wall CGI which was quite often pretty ugly. To conclude, even though the whole thing was rather half-backed, it still remain a neat story and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre but don’t expect anything really amazing.

Honestly, I have never been a huge fan of those Harry Potter flicks but my wife really loved them and my 2 oldest kids basically grew up watching those movies. Anyway, I have to admit it, among those 8 movies, there were 2 of them which I actually enjoyed and this installment was one of them, as a matter of fact, it is my personal favorite in this franchise. Indeed, in my opinion, Alfonso Cuaron pretty much saved the franchise with ‘Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban’ as he managed to give the whole thing a really nice dark edge, a signature style which was kept throughout the rest of the franchice. However, even though the plot was decidedly an improvement on the previous installments, there were still some rather underwhelming points (for example, the whole time travelling gimmick was rather lame). This time, they finally got it right though. Indeed, I thought it was by far the most compelling story involving Harry Potter and it was the only time that I was really entertained from the beginning until the end. Obviously, the whole thing was not flawless and Harry Potter’s first crush was seriously disappointing. Indeed, I’m not sure the actress should be blamed but it felt terribly random and there was no chemistry whatsoever between Daniel Radcliffe and Katie Leung (eventually, this romance was not half bad as, in the last installments, we would discover Harry’s true love which was even more anti-climatic, utterly disappointing and even more random). Anyway, to conclude, I still don’t think it is a masterpiece whatsoever but it is in my opinion the best installment in this massive franchise.

Since this movie had a pretty good reputation (above all Roger Ebert was really enthusiastic about it), I was really eager to check it out. As usual with Todd Solondz, it was a rather realistic dark tale with some pitch black humor and we were far from all the glitter and glamour displayed in your usual Hollywood high-school comedy. And that was definitely the main quality in this movie, the fact that even the popular kids didn’t look like top models and, above all, it displayed how high-school (and, in this case, Junior High) is pretty much a long succession of embarrassing moments and, basically, for the average kid, you feel miserable most of the time. So, all the details, the dialogs, the look, the characters were really spot on but, still, somehow, I wasn’t quite blown away by the whole thing. I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t in the right mood but I had a rather hard time to care about the main character and what she was going through. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I thought that the whole thing was more sad and depressing than actually funny. Anyway, to conclude, it is pretty much one of the most realistic high-school movies ever made and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Solondz’ work.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, somehow, I still ended up watching it. Basically, it was pretty much a modern version of ‘American Gigolo’ and it could have been pretty good but they messed up the tone and the whole thing turned out to be rather underwhelming. First of all, Ashton Kutcher was vastly miscast here. Sure, he does look pretty good but you need someone with a darker charisma for this character (the obvious choice would be Ryan Gosling or Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and not Kutcher who seems rather harmless with his puppy eyes. Of course, his limited acting range didn’t help either. Same thing for Margarita Levieva, she is also a cute girl but you would need an incredibly special woman to make this dude change his ways. On the other hand, she wasn’t helped by the fact that her character was just puzzling (what was her deal? Is she a waitress? A hustler? A prostitute? Living in Los Angeles but married with some rich guy in New York?). Eventually, I was actually positively surprised by Anne Heche. Not only she looked amazing but her character was much more interesting and intriguing than those two and I wish they spent more time developing her relationship with Kutcher. To conclude, even though the whole thing actually had some potential, the whole thing was quite average and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

I can’t believe I haven’t seen any movies directed by Akira Kurosawa for such a long time. A few years ago, I was doing a good job and ended up watching 13 of his movies but, by now, it has been almost 10 years since I saw another one of his movies. It is a real shame but maybe I will pick it up again later on. Anyway, this flick is probably one of his most famous ones and therefore I was really eager to check it out. Indeed, it is above all famous because Sergio Leone made a few years later a little remake called ‘For a Fistful of Dollars’ and it was at the time a big mess because they didn’t give credit to Kurosawa. Eventually, after watching ‘For a Fistful of Dollars’ so many times, it was rather difficult for me to really get into this flick. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it would have been the first time I saw this story but it is something you should always try to avoid : to watch the remake before the original version. Still, it is definitely an entertaining samurai flick with some very good directing by Akira Kurosawa and a solid performance by the always dependable Toshiro Mifune. To conclude, don’t be fooled by my seemingly low rating, it is a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for romantic comedies, I thought I might as well give it a try. Eventually, I thought the whole concept was pretty lame. I mean, to vow to not have sex for 40 days is fine and actually, I’m pretty sure much most of us would be able to stay easily without sex for this period of time (in fact, many of us stay months or even years alone). But it doesn’t stop here… Indeed, during this period of sex diet, of course, the main character falls in love and while any normal human being would just drop the whole thing, the guy keeps on going with his vow for no believable reason except to move on the plot. Still, the whole thing was not completely worthless. Indeed, Josh Harnett and Shannyn Sossamon were both terribly charming and had some pretty good chemistry, it is just too bad there were lost in such an abysmal tale. It is interesting to note that, at the time, Josh Harnett was predicted a bright future as the new Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise but, fast forward 10 years later, and he definitely did not fulfill these expectations. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, it remains a really weak romantic-comedy and I don’t  think it is really worth a look. 

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this sequel but since it was again a huge hit at the box-office, I still wanted to check it out. Eventually, it was pretty neat that they went to Bangkok which was a great location but, like everyone else, I was rather underwhelmed by the fact that the plot was just exactly the same as for the 1st installment. Actually, I would say that it shows how limited the whole concept was, even for the 1st movie which I enjoyed but also found rather overrated. I mean, if you have a bunch of colorful characters having a very wild night in Las Vegas or in Bangkok, why would you bother show the day after, when all the fun is gone and the guys spend all their time to recover the damages and their senses? I mean, once again, at the end, they show some pictures about the infamous night and, once again, I thought ‘Damned! That would have been awesome to see that instead!’. At least, the characters were still pretty fun and I was fairly entertained throughout the whole duration but the whole thing felt like a missed opportunity. Still, if you are a huge fan of the 1st installment, there is a good chance that you will enjoy this one as well.

Nowadays, Ron Shelton seems to be pretty much retired but back in the 90’s, he specialized himself in the sport flicks and I especially enjoyed ‘White Men Can’t Jump’. Later on, he directed also this flick about golf and, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was actually a decent feature in this genre. First of all, I know it is a rather stupid detail but it is not very often that I came across such a generic and underwhelming poster. Anyway, even though I don’t care much about golf as a sport, like most of the individual sports, it was fairly easy to provide some drama and to show some uplifting scenes. And that’s also the main issue with this kind of movies. Indeed, when you watch a game or any competition, the biggest thrill is that you (usually) don’t know what would be the outcome and this unpredictability creates most of the excitement. In a sport movie, most of this excitement is gone because everything is scripted and so there are no real skills involved whatsoever. Still, Kevin Costner and Rene Russo were both really charming and had some great chemistry together and the whole thing was rather fun to watch. To conclude, even though it was rather generic and pedestrian, I thought it was a fairly entertaining picture and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though I have watched many times the Spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood when I was a kid with my dad, I discovered his Dirty Harry flicks much later on in my life. Eventually, even though I still prefer his Westerns, I still enjoyed his famous cop features as well. The interesting thing with this franchise is that the sequels were actually pretty decent but, obviously, this first installment was the only one which became a real classic. Indeed, Harry Calahan must be one of the most notorious police characters ever created, very often copied but never matched. At the time, Clint Eastwood was pretty much in control of his career. He picked up 4 different drafts of the script (one written by no one else than Terrence Malick). made sure that Don Siegel was hired to direct this movie and he was also responsible for hiring Andy Robinson to play Scorpio. When it was released, it was a critical and commercial success but there was also some controversy as it displayed and almost glorified police brutality. Basically, the Scorpio killer was pretty messed up and, eventually, Harry Calahan was not much better, he just happened to be on the right side of the law. To conclude, I really enjoyed this flick, it is a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, when I heard about this flick, I wasn’t really interested but since it got some decent reviews and some solid ratings (it was even in the IMDb top 250 for a while), I was eventually quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, it reminded me of ‘The Blind Side’, another drama about a white woman helping a young black man which was a huge success at the box-office and, like this movie, was nominated for the Best Picture Academy award. Personally, I didn’t like much ‘The Blind Side’ and this movie didn’t really blow me away either. At least, it was dealing with an important part of American history. Basically, the main issue I have with this kind of movies, is that, unintentionally, it gives the idea that black folks are helpless until a white person comes to help them. This time, at least, even though Emma Stone was supposedly the main character, Octavia Spencer and Viola Spencer definitely stole the show. Indeed, as long as the movie was focusing on these black women, it was quite spellbinding to watch but it started to loose momentum everytime the white women had the main stage. For example, there were some half-baked plots about a romance involving Emma Stone, some murky rivalry involving Jessica Chastain (which was fine even though her character was poorly developed) and even though Bryce Dallas Howard was quite fearless a a villain, her character was borderline a caricature though. Anyway, to conclude, it was an important subject served by some strong performances but, at the end of the day, it remains a decent drama but not much more than that I’m afraid.