Reviews by johanlefourbe

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 and this one was not an exception. Indeed, it was the only installment directed by Eastwood himself and it was actually a box-office success becoming the highest-grossing of the Dirty Harry film series. Back then, Eastwood was still credible in this kind of characters and was, of course, a total bad-ass (as a matter of fact, the famous catchphrase "Go ahead, make my day" came from this installment). You could argue that the plot was nothing really amazing or original but I thought it was pretty entertaining and I had a good time watching this flick. An interesting point is that the ‘villain’ in this case for once was a woman played by Sondra Locke who was Clint Eastwood longtime girlfriend at the time. To conclude, I thought it was a decent sequel and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I was quite impressed by this movie but, unfortunately, not really in a good way. Indeed, I was impressed by the fact that it managed to be even more disappointing than the previous installment. The first Spider-Man movie starring Andrew Garfield was fairly enjoyable but still underwhelming because it was again another origin story about Peter Parker becoming our beloved super-hero and this story was just too similar to the origin story we got with the previous trilogy. This time, since we got the origin out of the way, I thought they would do something new, a real new tale about this guy but the end-result was just not really good, I’m afraid. I mean, once again, they gave us Harry Osborn and the dynamic with him and Peter Parker was once again just way too similar. Furthermore, the way they got rid off of some key characters so they could move on the franchise was really weak as well. So, I could go on and on about what went wrong with this flick but, still, I have to admit it, it was fairly entertaining. At least, visually, it was pretty awesome with some cool action scenes and, of course, Spider-Man remains one of the most entertaining super-heros and I can understand why they want to keep this franchise alive. Furthermore, Electro was a very strong villain, too bad his backstory was terribly weak and unoriginal (it is basically another loser who gets some super-powers and becomes a maniac). Also, there was still a great chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and they deserved a better story than this. To conclude, even though the whole thing was rather disappointing, it still remains a rather entertaining blockbuster, at least if you don’t pay too much attention to the plot, and I guess it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick (it won the Best Documentary Academy award and was picked up by Roger Ebert as one of the best movies released in 2012 among other things), I was really eager to check it out and, boy, I wasn’t disappointed. First of all, contrary to some other similar documentaries dealing with some lost music artists like ‘Anvil: The Story of Anvil’ or ‘The Devil and Daniel Johnston’, Rodriguez’ music was actually pretty good and some of his songs have some mesmerizing quality ('Crucify your mind' totally gave me the goosebumps). So, that was a already good start but the best part was this incredible tale about this artist who never had any mainstream success at all anywhere in the world but, somehow, became a huge icon in South African as big as Elvis Presley or the Beatles. I was glad I didn’t know much about the guy or this movie beforehand (like the majority of the rest of the world) because this movie had some major twists. I think I shouldn’t talk much about it because I don’t want to spoil it but the last 30 minutes were pretty messianic. This tale ends up on a really inspiring note and this Rodriguez guy turned out to be one of the most intriguing music artists I have ever heard of. To conclude, it is one hell of a documentary and it is absolutely and most definitely worth a look.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since there was a nice cast, I still wanted to check it out. Well, it wasn’t very good and actually pretty tedious to watch, I’m afraid. The biggest obstacle for this flick is that it was trying to tell something interesting or entertaining with some 4 rather obnoxious and stupid characters. Obviously, it failed miserably. I mean, the actors involved (Natasha Richardson, Billy Bob Thornton, Patrick Swayze, Charlize Theron) were not that bad and you can imagine that it was appealing for them to portray someone really far from their personal background. Basically, it is a story about some rednecks who are supposed to be lovable but there was not a single moment during which I cared about them or what they were going through. The fact that the plot was terribly unsubstantial didn’t help either, I guess. For Patrick Swayze, I think it must have been one of his last recent movies I have seen and his career became rather disappointing until he tragically passed away in 2009. To conclude, maybe I make it sound as if it was really horrible but it was still fairly watchable thanks for the nice cast but it still doesn’t mean it is really worth a look whatsoever. 

Honestly, there is no real reason why I should have enjoyed this flick but I did. Apparently, it didn’t do well at the box-office but it is hardly surprising in this age when the box-office is dominated by blockbusters made of sequels and super-hero flicks. The point is that the plot is really preposterous and nothing original whatsoever but there was such a charismatic cast (Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo) and Robert Redford and James Gandolfini definitely gave some solid performances. In my opinion, it was a step-down from ‘The Contender’ which was a strong political drama directed by Rod Lurie but it was still fairly entertaining. I think the main issue with this flick was that there was an obvious lack of ambition here and it pretty much followed the formula of the genre but didn’t add anything really new or intriguing. Personally, I above all enjoyed Robert Redford. I mean, the guy is such a fine actor and, even though at 65 years old, he might be a little too old for such shenanigans, he sure delivered the goods and it is thanks to him that the flick mostly worked. To conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, it thought it was pretty good and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robert Redford’s work.

A while back, I had the luck that all the Dirty Harry movies were broadcast in one of my Dutch channels as I was really eager to check this franchise starring Good Old Clint Eastwood. To be honest, there was no good reasons why this last installment should have been any good (As a matter of fact, it was the least successful of the five Dirty Harry films at the box-office)  but I thought it was actually quite enjoyable. Indeed, it was released almost 20 years after the last installment and you can feel that they were actually pushing it a little as Eastwood was almost 60 years old at the time but it still worked out and I thought the whole thing was definitely entertaining. Above all, I thought it was a decent serial killer plot, nothing really ground-breaking but still quite enjoyable. Of course, Clint Eastwood was still hugely charismatic at the time and he has never been more bad-ass than when he was playing the iconic Harry Callahan, even for a 5th installment. Another pleasure with this flick was to have Liam Neeson in a small part and Jim Carrey in an even smaller character. It is rather funny to think that, 20 years later, Neeson has become somehow an action star but that wasn’t something you could predict after watching this flick. To conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, I thought it was a decent sequel and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot Judd Apatow’s comedies, I thought I might as well give it a try. Indeed, even though this movie was directed by Jake Kasdan, it was produced and written by Apatow but I think it was more or less a flop when it was released. Personally, I thought it was pretty neat to see John C. Reilly, one of the most underrated actors at work nowadays, finally playing the lead for once and he did a pretty good job here but it wasn’t enough, I’m afraid. Indeed, basically, the whole thing is a spoof of the many music biopics we have seen lately like ‘Walk the Line’ or ‘Ray’ but, even though the jokes came non-stop, most of them were pretty stupid and, above all, not really funny. The point is that everything must have sound great on paper but, on the screen, it was seriously underwhelming. Take for the example the scene when Dewey Cox meets the Beatles in India, you have 4 actors providing a cameo (Jack Black, Justin Long, Paul Rudd, Jason Schwartzman) and it should have been hilarious. Well, in fact, this scene was just really tedious as the 4 actors all try to give a supposedly funny English accent. To conclude, even though the whole thing had some potential, I thought it was rather disappointing and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Keany Reeves and Charlize Theron, I thought I should check it out. It was actually the 2nd movie they made together, they also starred in ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ 4 years before but, this time, it was a really different genre. Indeed, it was a romantic drama and, even though it was not really mind-blowing, I thought it was a decent watch.  Apparently, it was a remake of a rather obscure and forgotten feature from the late 60’s and you wonder why they thought it was really necessary to remake this. Anyway, I thought that Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron had a pretty good chemistry. Furthermore, even though Keanu Reeves has always been criticized for his wooden acting, at least, you have to give the guy some credit for trying such different genres. Apparently, Roger Ebert really despised the whole thing but, personally, I didn’t think it was really that bad. I don’t know, I thought it was a decent romance with a rather preposterous story but it was fairly entertaining in my opinion. To conclude, even though it is nothing amazing whatsoever, I think it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre

Way before the The Lord of the Rings trilogy directed by Peter Jackson reached some massive success, there was another adaptation of these books, an animated flick directed by Ralph BakshiI. Bakshi is a rather controversial director with a rather notorious reputation in the animation world as he created some adult-oriented flicks like ‘Fritz the Cat’ which was pretty successful when it was released. Anyway, at some point, Ralph Bakshi decided to develop some fantasy features and this flick was definitely his most ambitious project. Indeed, at the time, most people thought that Tolkien’s epic trilogy was impossible to adapt and it was quite an hazardous production. Indeed, at first, it was agreed it would be a series of three films, which was later reduced down to two but the sequel would never be made, even though this first installment was actually a financial success. The main issue when you watch it nowadays is that we have been used to watch Peter Jackson’s trilogy and if you compare those two productions, this animated production is not really amazing. Still, you have to be fair and keep in mind that it was made almost 25 years ago and that Bakshi didn’t have the same budget or production team behind him. Eventually, even though the whole thing is rather flawed, it remains an intriguing animated flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

For many years, Robert de Niro has been my favorite actor and I have been watching obsessively all his movies (so far, I have seen 68 of them) but, honestly, it has been a rather ungrateful task as his recent movies have been increasingly disappointing. This movie is actually pretty interesting as it was just made before de Niro’s career started to become rather pathetic so it could be seen as a turning point in his career. Indeed, it is not bad at all and rather entertaining but it was still rather pedestrian and predictable and we are still far from the amazing masterpieces Robert de Niro used to make back in the 70’s and 80’s. For Cuba Gooding Jr., this movie would be also a turning point as he was, at the time, considered an actor with a bright future (he won an Oscar 4 years before for ‘Jerry Maguire’) and this movie would be one of the last for which he could be taken seriously.  Two years later, he would show up in the dreadful ‘Snow Dogs’ and ‘Boat Trip’ and since then, his career has been downright terrible. Anyway, to conclude, it is a rather average but well made uplifting drama based on a true story but I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.