Reviews by johanlefourbe

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick. Indeed, Meg Ryan and Timothy Huston are some of the biggest has-beens in Hollywood but, still, since I always had a weak spot for Meg Ryan, I thought I might as well give it at try. Well, unfortunately, I have to admit it, this flick was as underwhelming as the rest of Ryan’s work during the last decade (this movie was actually Ryan’s last movie and she hasn’t done anything much since it was released in 2009). I mean, basically, the whole thing works almost like a play, it takes place mostly in one single house, and Hutton and Ryan are basically on their own during the whole thing with some guest appearances by Kristen Bell and Justin Long. There was nothing wrong with the set-up but it was tricky and to make it work, they needed some great characters and/or some great actors and it was here not the case, I’m afraid. Honestly, I’m not sure what was the biggest issue, the characters of the actors themselves, but there was one sure thing is that it was quite cringe-inducing to behold. To conclude, the whole thing was not completely worthless but the concept was poorly developed. Actually, it had some potential and there was a nice ambiguity with the very last scene but, still, the whole thing was still very weak and it is not really worth a look.

Since I’m a huge fan of Andrew Niccol’s work (both ‘Gattaca’ and ‘The Truman Show’ are among my all time favorites, ‘Lord of War’ is a great underrated gem and even I enjoyed ‘S1mone’), I was really eager to check this flick. At last, after 6 long years, he was finally coming up with a new directing effort and my expectations were pretty high. Unfortunately, it turned out to be his weakest work so far, I’m afraid. I mean, it wasn’t bad at all, in fact, he came once again with a really fascinating futuristic concept, it’s just too bad the plot was actually rather weak. Indeed, I especially enjoyed the fact that they explained the whole concept within a few minutes and then moved on with the actual story and, until the casino scene, the whole thing was going fine, but, from then on, it became a rather tedious non-stop chase with a dash of ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ on top of that. To make a thriller was fine to me, I mean, ‘Gattaca’ was after all also a thriller, but the major difference is that it was also very contemplative in the sense that it gave the time to the characters and the viewers to think about all the consequences and the impact of such a strange way of life. Here, the characters were barely developed and the cast (Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Alex Pettyfer) didn’t manage to give some life to them. The only actor who stood out was Cillian Murphy, though he did look at least 10 years older than 25 but nevermind. He was the only one who managed to give his character a certain amount of intensity, even though his bad guy was as much underdeveloped as the rest. Basically, the whole thing felt like a missed opportunity but I still 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 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