Reviews by johanlefourbe

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a pretty cool cast, I thought I might as well give it a try. First of all, it was very nice to have once again William H. Macy playing the lead and he delivered a decent performance but, to be honest, he didn’t do such a good job as writer on this feature. Indeed, half of it was pretty good but the other half seriously went nowhere. Let’s start with the good stuff. The whole little world behind the scenes making those widely different movies was really intriguing and remembered me of my days when I was a production assisant at the NFTA (Dutch film school). Indeed, it shows how relentless and fully absorbing movie making can be. Personally, I really had a hard time to connect with this world and the people involved in it who were completely caught up in the movie making process, a process which I found rather thankless and tiresome (as you might guess I didn’t pursue a career in this direction). Unfortunately, the rest was not really good, I’m afraid. Take the main character. Apparently, he didn’t produce a movie for a decade but, completely out of the blue, he manages to start up the production on a massive blockbuster with a seemingly huge budget and, constantly, he keeps making some bizarre decisions and for no apparent reasons, the Hollywood executives keep giving their blessings. It didn’t really add up with the loser suicidal producer who couldn’t get anymore job. The other thing that really bothered me was his obsession with Meg Ryan’s character and the way their relationship was developed. It was rather distracting and even though it got better towards the end, the damage was already done. To conclude, it is a movie with some good ideas but the execution was really deeply flawed so I don’t think it is really worth a look.

If you follow my work here on Listal, you might have noticed that I am slightly obsessive concerning my movie watching and I keep watching compulsively movies regardless of the quality, just because an obscure actor that I like is in it. One of my first obsessions was the movies starring Robert De Niro and, by now, I have seen almost 70 movies starring the great thespian, more than any other actor. Even though it has been some great fun tracking down his movies, there was a major downside though. Indeed, in the last 15 years, De Niro has made only one great movie (‘Silver Linings Playbook’) and the rest was rarely decent but usually pretty weak and you even had some pure garbage along the road. Well, this movie belongs to the last category, the garbage. To start with, it is one of those features which displays Robert De Niro prominently on all the promotional material where in fact, he is just maybe 15 minutes in the movie. Still, Greg Kinnear and Rebecca Romijn are both some charming actors, Cameron Bright definitely showed some potential but even they couldn’t save this flick from being terribly underwhelming. Basically, it is a very weak thriller with a rather preposterous plot and I really had a hard time to care for the whole thing. To conclude, it is pretty bad and not really worth a look, even if you are a huge fan of Robert De Niro’s work.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since the ratings were pretty good, I thought I should check it out. Basically, it is a rather typical (American) football biography with some historical background. If you have seen any of those, you pretty much have seen all of them. Still, I really enjoyed this one and, I would go even further, and say that it is the best one I have seen so far. Indeed, in my opinion, it is actually slightly better than ‘Remember the Titans’ which is probably the most heralded movie in this genre. I preferred this one because, even though it is quite melodramatic and faithfully follows the formula, it was still more subtle and, honestly, it was simply a really impressive tale. This guy Ernie Davis must have been really good as he managed to get an incredible status even though he never played pro. The main issue I had was how so many supporting characters like Jim Brown or Coach Schwartzwalder keep popping up at random, usually to give some support to the main character. To conclude, even though it is no masterpiece whatsoever, it was still a very entertaining sport drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Nowadays, the Farrelly brothers don’t seem to be able to catch a break anylonger but there was a time when they were massively successful. Indeed, after the huge success of ‘Dumb & Dumber’ and ‘There’s Something About Mary’, they came with this flick which would be their last box-office hit. This time, they were reunited with Jim Carrey who had his breakthrough thanks to them with ‘Dumb & Dumber’ and the end-result was another really daft comedy. As usual with the Farrelly brothers, most of the jokes were pretty outrageous and, back then, it still worked and I thought it was actually better than the appalling ‘Dumb & Dumber’ (indeed, I really think this ‘classic’ sucks balls and, in my opinion, it is one of the most overrated movies ever made). Anyway, the biggest asset in this movie was the impressive one-man-show provided by Jim Carrey (you wonder how this force of nature remained unknown for so long) but there were also a couple of juicy supporting parts as well. Of course, you could always argue that the whole thing was terribly gross and obviously not really accurate concerning the depiction of this mental disease but I enjoyed most of it. To conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, it remains a decent comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I have seen this one only once and it was a while back but I really liked it. It seems to be one of more obscure features directed by Steven Spielberg (with a filmography of 30 movies, built up over 40 years including the Indiana Jones franchise, ‘Jurassic Park’, ‘Jaws’, ‘E.T.’, ‘Schindler’s list’, ‘Saving Private Ryan’, it is hardly surprising that some of his other movies tend to be overlooked). However, I think it is actually one of his best dramas. Indeed, even though it was again focusing on a young boy, like ‘E.T.’ , the whole thing still remained pretty bleak which was something rather unexpected with a Spielberg feature. Furthermore, there was this impressive performance by Christian Bale who was just only 13 years old back then. Even though Christian Bale has become one of the most dependable actors of his generation, we tend to forget that the guy has been around for already 25 years. Eventually, even though his performance in this movie was praised, he never become what you could call a ‘child-star’ and it took him 17 years to really breakthrough with ‘The Machinist’. To conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I really enjoyed this flick and I definitely have to rewatch it when I get the opportunity.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a pretty cool cast, I thought I might as well give it a try. Even though it was made 6 years after ‘Pulp Fiction’, the makers were definitely inspired by this seminal classic. Indeed, you have the same back in forth in time and various character with their own agenda involved in some shaddy scam. Unfortunately, it was just another weak copycat. I mean, half of it was actually quite decent but the other half was kind of worthless. Let’s take the main character, for starters. I have nothing against Steve Zahn but he doesn’t have what it takes to be a lead actor, especially when he portrays one of his typical obnoxious figures. And to make us believe that Salma Hayek would fall for him was also rather pathetic. Still, there was indeed a very nice cast involved (Steve Zahn, Salma Hayek, Jeff Goldblum, Elijah Wood, David Cross, Tom Wilkinson, Orlando Jones, Lara Flynn Boyle, Michael Rapaport) and there were some nice ideas but even those good scenes were eventually half-baked and lost in a rather weak screenplay. Anyway, to conclude, even though I have seen worse, it was still pretty damned average and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

Nowadays, the CGI animated features is pretty much saturated, many titles are not really amazing and ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ didn’t get much love. I eventually ended up watching it on dvd and my kids and I really loved the damned thing. In my opinion, this first installment was just daft and I think it is one of the most underrated modern animated features. With this in mind, I went to see this sequel with all my kids (plus my step-daughter’s boyfriend) and we had a pretty good time, even though it was an obvious step-down from the previous installment. Indeed, the whole thing was just really childish this time and they get rid off of most of the surrealistic vibe which made ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ so unique. They started with a pretty awesome concept , and indeed, all these mutant food animals were quite awesome but it was unfortunately the only selling point of this feature. I mean, the whole plot and Chester V (the villain) were just really underwhelming. To conclude, it was rather predictable, like most sequels, it was rather disappointing but I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you like the first installment.

Starting with 3 critical successes in a row, it seemed that Jason Reitman could do no wrong and was set to become one of the most exciting directors at work nowadays. However, his impressive progression seemed to have slow down with this 4th directing effort which didn’t get much love when it was eventually released. To start with, in his previous movies, the main character was flawed but still likeable whereas, here, even though Charlize Theron gave a fearless performance which was universally heralded, she was basically a selfish obnoxious bitch so the whole thing was harder to sell. But that wasn’t the main issue, in my opinion, the main problem was that it took way too long before she realized how insane her whole plan was. Even though the outcome was pretty obvious (except for Mavis), the way it was handled by her ex and his friends was actually quite subtle and sensitive and it was definitely one of the best moments in the movie. Patton Oswalt was also very good as a rather unlikely ally and he managed to counter-balance Mavis’ awful behavior. Eventually, the girl was a mess in high-school, a popular girl, but still a mess, and after all these years, she is still an egocentric bitch and the ending of the movie shows that she didn’t learn anything from this journey so why should we care at all? Anyway, to conclude, even though the whole thing had some potential , it didn’t really work out but I still think it is worth a look, especially if you enjoyed Jason Reitman’s previous movies.

Nowadays Pedro Almodovar is still going strong as the most prominent Spanish director but, back in the 90’s, his speciality was some rather extravagant dramedies involving some pretty colorful characters. This movie was basically one of them and, even though it was not one of his best movies, it was still pretty good though. Penélope Cruz was not yet his muse back in those days and, at the time, it was Victoria Abril who seemed to inspire the Spanish master. Even though Abril is Spanish, She has been living in France for 30 years and she is pretty famous there as well but she never had an international career like Cruze. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, pretty much like the rest of Almodovar’s work, it is pretty much over the top and the characters are always bordeline obnoxious which makes it always rather difficult to get into his movies. I still think he is an artist though since those movies have such a specific flavor and the guy basically created his own genre which is pretty remarkable. To conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, it remains a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Almodovar’s work.

Obviously, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but I thought I might as well check it out if it deserved its terrible reputation. Well, what can I say? It was indeed pretty terrible. The first striking thing is that even though it was already the 4th installment in this franchise, even though it was made made more than 10 years after the first classic movie, the shark still looked terribly cheap-ass. Not only the shark looked terrible but every time it attacks someone, you get some awful editing and, somehow, you eventually get the shark with a victim in its mouth. How it all really happens really beats me. This time around, they came around with the most ludicrous plot about an evil shark who tracks the Brody family to kill them one by one. It was seriously quite pathetic. And the ending was also priceless. Apparently, just 5 days after the movie opened in the USA with some dismal results, they reshot the climax and what you got is a scene obviously shot in a water tank with a ridiculous painting in the background. I mean, how cheap can you get? To conclude, it is pretty bad and not really worth a look.