Reviews by johanlefourbe

Nowadays, Jason Statham must be the most dependable action movie star in the World. In the contrary of most of his colleagues, he never makes some dubious gambles by showing up in some lame comedies or tedious family features. On the other hand, he always plays the same character again and again and it is getting rather gimmicky at this point. This movie is a fine example and it just slightly managed to not become a really weak feature. Indeed, the first 20 minutes were just underwhelming. Then, you had a bit of Donald Sutherland who managed to do what he could with his part but he disappeared pretty quickly. Then, the mid-section was the most interesting part when you had Ben Foster becoming Jason Statham’s apprentice. In the opposite of Statham, Foster is one of the most versatile actors of his generation, his character was really intriguing and, together, they made an interesting couple. Unfortunately, the ending was filled up with some underwhelming action scenes, it was really disappointing and fairly predictable and to make things worse, they kept piling up the twists at the very end. Basically, you just have to look at the action stuff since the makers didn’t want to spend too much time developing the characters and that was rather disappointing. To conclude, even though I didn’t like it much, it still remain a decent action flick and I guess it is worth a look, at least if you love the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since it was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, I thought I might as well give it a try. Unfortunately, it was just as lame as it seemed to be. Concerning Coppola, he completely ruled the 70's. Indeed, he made 4 movies, 'Apocalypse Now', 'The Godfather: Part II', 'The Conversation', 'The Godfather, they were all critically acclaimed and at least 3 of them are arguably some of the finest movies ever made. So, he ruled the 70's but it was as much a blessing as it was a curse. I mean, basically, for each movie he made afterwards, the audience was expecting another 'Godfather' or another 'Apocalypse now'. Well, it never happened and with each new release directed by him, his reputation continued to diminish and, nowadays, he is pretty much considered a has-been. Personally, I think it's a shame because he has actually made some decent flicks later on in his career but this movie is unfortunately not one of them, I’m afraid. Honestly, the whole thing actually had some potential but they completely messed up the tone. Indeed, it is basically one of those overly sentimental flicks with one of those hysterical and over-the-top performances by Robin Williams, not much more I’m afraid. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, it must be one of the weakest movies directed by Francis Ford Coppola and it is not really worth a look.

After the surprise success of ‘Babe’, it was not surprising that they decided to go forward with a sequel and, this time, George Miller himself directed the damned thing (he was the producer on the first installment). Eventually, it was pretty much a failure, barely seen by anyone and the people who saw it didn’t like it at all. One guy did love it though. Indeed, the late Roger Ebert not only liked it but actually loved the damned thing and went even on saying that it was some kind of masterpiece and even one of the best movies released in 1998. Indeed, according to Ebert, it is one of the boldest sequels ever made, some surrealistic work which was completely lost on the mainstream audience. Personally, I do agree with good Old Roger, I think it was a pretty good flick but, to call it a masterpiece, it is still giving it too much credit. In my opinion, it is one of the boldest sequels ever conceived and the makers completely stretched the material which resulted in alienating most of its audience but created wonder on Roger Ebert’s behalf and much respect from my side. To conclude, it is indeed a really weird and completely whack feature and I’m not sure if it is a nice watch for kids but it is probably one of the most misunderstood movies ever made and it is definitely worth a look.

Pretty often when people notice that I’m so crazy about movies, they ask why I never tried to work in the film industry. I actually did try, about 7 years ago. Indeed, I spent a year at the NFTA (Nederlandse Film en Televisie Academy, I think they have changed the name since then and nowadays it is called the NFA) following a training as production-assistant. It was definitely a great experience and if I didn’t try this, I would probably have spent the rest of the life wondering what would have happened if it did give it a shot. Still, even though it was really pretty neat to learn all the tricks of the game, I realized it wasn’t meant for me. Indeed, making a movie is a group effort, you have to constantly compromise with a whole bunch of people and since I’m a seriously lacking in social skills, I didn't try to further continue this career. The fact that I really didn’t connect with the other students didn’t help either. Still, during this training, I worked on 3 movies and, eventually,  this movie turned out to be the most disappointing one, I’m afraid. I mean, it wasn’t bad at all, it definitely had some potential but the whole thing was seriously pretentious. I mean, they tried to go really meta with this story but the end-result was not really impressive. Still, for a student feature, it remains intriguing and it is definitely worth a look.

It has been many years since I saw this flick and, back then, I wasn't really impressed. If I recall it correctly, I saw it as a teenager at school and I was rather disappointed because, as a kid, I grew up with Chaplin's hilarious older movies starring the Tramp so I was expecting something really funny to happen but I barely laughed during the whole thing. Back in those days, I didn't know that Chaplin had been basically thrown out from the USA because he was supposedly communist, so there was some irony which I missed concerning the fact the main character was almost facing the same faith in this feature. Eventually, I have re-watched it recently and it was actually slightly better than I remembered. Indeed, the story was still rather weak and the main character was still not really interesting whatsoever but, this time, I thought there were some hilarious scenes. Of course, if you compare this movie to Chaplin's timeless silent comedies, it is not that great or hilarious but, as a stand-alone, it remains quite funny and entertaining. To conclude, even though it is far from his best work, it remains an enjoyable comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Charles Chaplin’s work.

Honestly, when you see the kind of movies I watch, you might wonder why I waste my time with this kind of garbage. I often wonder myself… I guess, since I have a weak spot for Amy Smart, I thought I should give it a try, even thought I had some rather low expectations. This movie actually follows the same plot as ‘Zack and Miri make a porno’ but even though ‘Zack…’ was a little bit disappointing, compared to this bore-fest, it was actually a masterpiece. Basically, it is one of these comedies which pretends to be raunchy but in fact they toned down the skin as much as possible so the makers don’t get any trouble and can attract as many viewers as possible. Unfortunately, this approach is totally wrong and completely lame. I mean, it might sound weird, but the whole thing had some potential and, indeed, for most guys at that age, it is a really frustrating time and, if they had handled this material properly, it could have been actually pretty awesome. Basically, they should have made something much more daring, drop the awkward teenagers, let them shoot their porn, let them have some fun and let see how far it goes from there. But, unfortunately, the whole thing always remained in the safe zone with some tedious jokes along the way. Anyway, to conclude, it was pretty bad and it is not worth a look whatsoever, even if you like the genre.

Nowadays, Tom Hanks doesn’t make many movies and he does direct even less features (it was his 2nd directing effort) so I thought I should check this one out. Honestly, I had a hard time to believe how underwhelming the whole thing was… Seriously, the whole thing did have some potential, especially considering the current state of our economy but the whole thing was seriously poorly written. I mean, the guy gets fired, his neighbor advices him to go to college, so far so good, but then he joins a scooter gang?!? Not only it wasn’t funny at all, but it was seriously tedious. Then, he gets a wardrobe makeover, a house makeover, and we are supposed to care? And I won’t even talk about the whole lame romantic plot about the main character falling in love with his teacher… They should have made a dark comedy or something like that but they seriously messed up the tone. The only thing I really enjoyed was the first scene involving Bryan Cranston. But, then, with his 2nd scene, they made sure we shouldn't care about him by making him a useless douche bag. To conclude, I actually think that my rating is pretty generous, it is a really weak comedy and it is not really worth a look, I’m afraid.

Ever since I moved to the Netherlands, I have watched many Dutch movies but, honestly, most of them are not really interesting. However, all the members of my film club were really enthusiast about this guy, Alex van Warmerdam, so I became really curious about his work. Eventually, I wasn’t disappointed. Indeed, even though I have seen only this movie so far (and I will definitely check his other movies when I have the opportunity) , he is already in my top 5 best Dutch movie directors ever. The point is that his style is really original, something terribly lacking in your typical Dutch movie, and this flick would be actually really difficult to explain. Basically van Warmerdam, who has a nice visual style on top of that, seemingly mixes dark comedy with some thriller elements and some rather random violence and the end-result was pretty impressive. The main issue I had is that I don’t think he really cared about the characters. I mean, he put them in some really weird situations and they all react pretty randomly which makes the whole thing intriguing but also rather pointless. If you add with that the fact that there was no real plot whatsoever, the whole thing felt rather unsubstantial. Still, there was a lot of hilarious moments and the whole thing was pretty bold, definitely. To conclude, today I have discovered a really talented director and even though this movie might not be a masterpiece, I really enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movies.

Like most movie viewers, I have lots of respect for Morgan Freeman and even though I had no idea what to expect from this flick since Freeman was in it, I was definitely eager to check it out. Even though Morgan Freeman is a great actor, he often plays the same character over and over again (the old wise man) and, this time, he was playing something really different and it was really refreshing. It was also obvious that he was having a good time and it was nice to see him showing some range. With Paz Vega, they made a interesting couple, even though I thought that Vega might be too good looking to portray a supermarket cashier. Unfortunately, the story was not entirely convincing. Indeed, the running time was not even 80 minutes, you only spend some time with Freeman and Vega (there is also a short introduction with Jonah Hill and a blink-and-you-will-miss-it scene with Danny DeVito at the end) and, even though the makers try to convince you that those characters were fascinating, I actually had a hard time to really care about them. There was definitely something intriguing about Freeman’s character but it wasn’t enough, I’m afraid. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you want to see Morgan Freeman trying something really different.

Pretty often when people notice that I’m so crazy about movies, they ask why I never tried to work in the film industry. I actually did try, about 7 years ago. Indeed, I spent a year at the NFTA (Nederlandse Film en Televisie Academy, I think they have changed the name since then and nowadays it is called the NFA) following a training as production-assistant. It was definitely a great experience and if I didn’t try this, I would probably have spent the rest of the life wondering what would have happened if it did give it a shot. Still, even though it was really neat to learn all the tricks of the game, I realized it wasn’t meant for me. Indeed, making a movie is a group effort, you have to constantly compromise with a whole bunch of people and since I’m a seriously lacking in social skills, I didn't try to further continue this career. The fact that I really didn’t connect with the other students didn’t help either. Still, during this training, I worked on 3 movies and this movie turned out to be the best one. It is rather funny because, at first, I had the least expectations about this flick. Basically, it sounded really cheesy on paper but maybe that’s why it was actually rather successful. Indeed, in the contrary to the other movies I worked on, it wasn’t pretentious at all and completely delivered what it was supposed to deliver. So, basically, it is a rather cheesy but fun horror flick with some decent special effects, especially considering the low budget (it was a student feature after all). To conclude, even thought it was nothing really amazing, it was actually a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.