Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. Well, first of all, it is one of those movies that didn’t get much attention when it was released but it’s too bad because the damned thing is certainly underrated. Indeed, I thought it was quite brilliant, that’s for sure. The first time around, during the same time period, I saw also ‘Inside Job’ which was a really praised documentary about the same subject and it was great to see a fictional take on those events. Somehow, it did remind me also of ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ except that the resonance was just way bigger this time. First of all, there was a great cast involved (Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci), they all gave some really good performances and I enjoyed the fact that there was no main character and no real bag guy either. The only weakest link was probably Demi Moore who tried her best but I really couldn't buy her as an executive and she wasn’t as convincing as the rest of the cast who was pretty much pitch-perfect. Anyway, I thought it was a fascinating story. I mean, maybe if you don’t care about economics, about the process behind speculation, it might be dull for you but, personally, I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next even though I already knew how it would end up. The most brilliant thing is that, even though some characters might come over as despicable, their behavior, actions and words always made sense which made for some really interesting situations. Eventually, at the end of the day, it gave another example that the whole stock-market system was (and probably still is) rotten to the core. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was a very good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in the subject.

After 2008, it seems that Will Smith, who was one of the biggest movie stars in the world, decided to take a step back to manage the career of his son. You wonder if Jaden Smith would be talented enough to secure such a production on his own but his father giving him some backup, there was no way the studios would refuse. Apparently, it was a smart move to go for this remake since it was quite successful at the box-office but, unfortunately for them, their following endeavor, ‘After Earth’, was a huge flop and you wonder where both their careers will go from there. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I thought it was a fairly decent remake. Indeed, it followed the same storyline but they changed the setting, switch the karate to kung-fu, and got Jackie Chan to play the mentor which was some smart casting. Concerning Jaden Smith, you can say whatever you want, but the kid really knew how to fight and I was really surprised how brutal those fights looked like. I mean, the guy was just 12 years old but they really showed the real thing anyway! That’s probably the only really improvement on the original version, the fact that Jaden Smith really looked like a child, whereas Ralph Maccio was more a young adult. On the downside, it really took long (1 hour maybe) before they actually started the training and there were many cheesy and rather boring scenes. Still, to conclude, I thought it was not bad and I guess it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Sometimes, some people wonder and ask me, since I’m such a movie buff, why I never tried my chances in the movie business. In fact, I did. Indeed, more than 10 years ago (Jezzz…. I’m getting old..) I did one year training as a production-assistant at the NFTA, the Dutch movie academy. During this training, I worked on a short student movie directed by Max Porcelijn and, just a couple of months ago, I discovered that he made his first full length feature so I was really eager to check it out. Honestly, I wonder if anyone saw it when it was released and I’m afraid it was a flop. Basically, it has the same tone, a similar main character and even the same lead actor (Ruben van der Meer) as the short feature I worked with him and it had the same qualities and defaults. Indeed, the mood was the pretty good, the cast was fine and the story must have sounded great on paper. Unfortunately, even though the end-result was not bad, especially for a Dutch production, it wasn't really much more than that, I'm afraid. Porcelijn’s inspiration was obviously the Coen brothers but he still has to work very hard to reach their level or maybe he should try to develop his own style. I don’t know, I really had a hard time to care about those characters and what they were going through. It is one thing to write such pathetic figures but they have to be entertaining and/or interesting somehow. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is a decent black comedy and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Basically, it is one of those rather obscure movies that almost no one has seen on listal and I actually wonder how I ended up watching this in the first place. Anyway, I thought it was quite a nice watch. Indeed, I'm a huge movie buff and it is always pretty neat to see movies from all other the world, especially from a land like Tunisia which is not known for its movie production. So, it was pretty neat to get acquainted with this foreign culture and the story was enternaining enough. I mean, the whole clash between tradition and modernity was nothing really new and the romance triangle was quite reminiscent of 'The Graduate', except that the focus was put on Mrs Robinson this time. With this movie, they tried also to break some stereotypes about belly dancing, there was indeed something quite mesmerizing about this dance art and it is rather surprising that in spite of its very old tradition, it is still rather despised in the Arabian culture. I guess, it has to do with the fact that, in the Muslim culture, women can't be seen as sexual beings, that's why they are covered in the street and belly dancing does exactly the opposite, it exposes women in the most sensual way. Anyway, to conclude, I don't think the story was really amazing but it still remain a decent drama and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Tunisia or Arabian culture.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a pretty cool cast, I was quite eager to check it out. Honestly, the whole thing really had some potential. I mean, to make an action flick starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro sounded quite brilliant and the fact that it took place 30 years ago made me hope we could get a thrilling good-old fashioned thriller involving some professional killers. Unfortunately, in spite those good promises, I thought it was eventually rather disappointing. First of all, even though De Niro was displayed prominently on all the promotional material, he had a rather small part and, to make things even worse, I thought he was not really convincing which is not something that happens very often with the great thespian, even with his most tedious movies. Above all, I really had a hard time with this underwhelming plot. It is supposed to be ‘based on a true story’ but the book it was based was apparently a fake and, on top of that, the writers made up at least half of it (and I’m being generous). I don’t know, the action scenes were decent, I guess, but I really didn’t care much about the story. To conclude, I have seen worse but I still think it is a rather average action flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

Basically, it is one of those movies which somehow I never watched when I was a kid but since I kept hearing some good things about this flick, I really wanted to check it out and I had some rather huge expectations. Eventually, I thought it was a fun and entertaining kids flick but not much more, I'm afraid. Furthermore, with the title, somehow, I was expecting a fantasy feature but, obviously, it was something entirely different. Anyway, pretty much like 'Big', another 80's classic, I think I would have I enjoyed it more if I would have watched it back then when I was a kid and I'm pretty sure that the people who really love it are still fond of it above all out of sheer nostalgia. Indeed, in my opinion, even though the young characters were quite fun, they were still rather shallow. Of course, you could argue that since it was a family feature, I shouldn't take it too seriously but, personally, I think there is no reason why a children movie shouldn't have any depth whatsoever. Still, it was pretty neat to see such actors like Sean Astin or Josh Brolin when they were so young and they must have had a blast while working on this flick. Anyway, to conclude, even though it wasn't as great as I was hoping for, it is still a fun flick, a classic from the 80's, and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

At last, it seemed that Eddie Murphy would finally come up with a watchable feature after decades of garbage. Unfortunately, it was a flop but I still wanted to check it out as I always end up watching Murphy’s movies at some point. Eventually, even though it was indeed a major improvement on Eddie Murphy’s latest work, I was still quite underwhelming though. Indeed, maybe we should blame Brett Ratner who is always an easy target but it was just a rather weak story and one of the most tedious heist I have ever seen. Somehow, they gathered a decent cast (Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Téa Leoni, Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe) but none of those characters was remotely interesting. Furthermore, it took forever to take off with an endless introduction and Eddie Murphy came very late to the party. And indeed, when Murphy finally got involved, it started to be a little bit more fun but the plot was terribly weak. Man, the guy needs another supporting character but, instead, with some really edgy director like Quentin Tarantino for example. Anyway, even though it wasn’t really awful, it was still pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

You can say whatever you want about Ron Howard but the guy is quite a versatile director, he has tried a lot of different genres and this time, he tried his luck with one of the oldest genres, the Western. Unfortunately, it wasn't really good, I'm afraid. I know, my rating might seem a little bit harsh but I seriously didn't care much for this Western. To start with, this genre doesn’t seem to interest much the modern audience nowadays. Except for ‘Unforgiven’ which is already more than 20 years old by now, there hasn’t been any really successful Western for a very long time (with the recent failure of ‘The Lone Ranger’, don’t expect any high-profile movies in this genre anytime soon). Anyway, even though there was a nice cast who definitely did a pretty good job, it was a flop at the box-office. Like I said before, myself, I didn’t care much for the whole thing either. Indeed, even though the actors were decent, the story was pretty pedestrian and seriously underwhelming. It is basically one of those cases where Ron Howard’s directing turns out to be rather bland and uninspiring. To conclude, it is a rather weak Western and I don't think it is really worth a look.

Since I kept hearing good things about this flick and since I always had a weak spot for Alan Parker's work (by the way, it is a real shame that he seems to be retired nowadays), I was really eager to check his directing debut. Honestly, it was quite ambitious to make a movie only with children as his debut as kids are notoriously difficult to work with and as they are not allowed to make long shooting days. Even though I'm not a huge fan of musicals, I thought it was pretty neat and Parker already displayed some solid directing skills. Another interesting aspect was to see a very young Jodie Foster who was at that the time already a famous child star. To be honest, even though I have always been a fan of Foster, I haven't seen much of her work as a child so it was pretty neat to see her in this flick. Eventually, it was also an intriguing concept to have some kids portraying some gangsters but it was not really mind-blowing in my opinion. To conclude, even though it is nothing really great, it remains an original musical and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I actually already watched this movie but it was at least a decade ago and since there was a really impressive cast, I wanted to give it a 2nd chance. And indeed, the cast was pretty neat (Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams , Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Busta Rhymes, Dan Hedaya, Toni Collette, Mekhi Phifer, Elizabeth Banks) and, even though I enjoyed Samuel L. Jackson who was the best possible choice to portray the most bad-ass black cop ever, I was above all impressed by Jeffrey Wright. Indeed, Wright is a very good character actor and he was easily the best thing in this flick. Unfortunately, the movie itself was not really good though. I mean, it starts with a promising flashy and steamy title sequence with the original Shaft theme but, as soon as the movie starts, it became a middle of the road cop feature with a rather pedestrian plot. Apparently, Samuel L. Jackson himself was disappointed by this movie and it was indeed a box-office failure. John Singleton, a once so promising director, had a great project here with some potential but, somehow, they didn’t take enough risks and the whole thing was sometimes actually rather boring. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of a very interesting cast, it is a rather average flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look.