Reviews by johanlefourbe

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 this movie was the one which had the most potential to be really awesome. Indeed, on paper, it sounded great, some kind of dark and pathetic comedy reminiscent of the Coen brothers. Unfortunately, the end-result was just decent and only mildly funny. I mean, I did like the whole thing but it could and should have been much better than this. Still, to conclude, even though it never really reached its full potential, I still think it is a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look.

When I was a kid, I used to love those Conan flicks. A couple of years ago, I watched again the first installment and even thought this time, the limited acting skills of Arnold Schwarzenegger was pretty obvious, I still thought it was thoroughly enjoyable, even after all these years. This sequel, on the other hand, always had a rather lousy reputation but I still wanted to check it out again out of sheer nostalgia. Honestly, I don’t think it was that bad at all. Indeed, in my opinion, it remains a fun fantasy feature with some nice atmosphere. I also thought that Wilt Chamberlain and Grace Jones were actually well cast, even though just like Schwarzenegger, they were far from being some great actors. At least, they looked pretty awesome. Eventually, Olivia d’Abo turned out to be the weakest of the bunch but since she was just only 15 years old at the time, I’ll give her some slack. Eventually, the only real issues I had was that the jokes were all pretty lame, and above all, their biggest mistake was to have toned down the grittiness to make it a family friendly production. Still, in spite of its flaws, I still believe it is a decent fantasy feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Back in the 80’s-90’s, Luc Besson was one of the most successful French directors but, at some point, the guy became greedy and, instead of directing some interesting features, he spends most of his time producing some watchable but also terribly forgettable features aimed at the international market. With this in mind, I knew more or less what to expect and I didn’t get anything less. Indeed, it is a slick looking action flick with a solid performance by Zoe Saldana and some decent action scenes but not much more I’m afraid. While watching this, it reminded me of ‘Nikita’, by far the best movie directed by Luc Besson, but this movie never had the ambition to be that good. Apparently, this movie was actually supposed to be a sequel to ‘Léon’ following the character played by Natalie Portman but it didn’t work out and they changed the story with a new character with a South American background. Eventually, even though it does look good, there were just too many details and elements that didn’t work. For example, the way she is discovered by the FBI, the way she kills a guy with some sharks and then another guy with some dogs, the whole romantic relationship with Michael Vartan,… I mean, even when he was on the top of his game, Luc Besson didn’t deliver the best stories as a director but, as producer, the end-result is even more underwhelming. Still, all in all, it remains a decent action flick and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

It is one of those movies I was somehow expecting a lot from and afterwards, I really wondered why. I guess, it was because there was a really cool cast involved (Matt Dillon, Noah Emmerich, Annabeth Gish, Lauren Holly, Timothy Hutton, Rosie O'Donnell, Martha Plimpton, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, Pruitt Taylor Vince) and the ratings were pretty decent. Unfortunately, I thought that the whole thing was rather underwhelming. I mean, the actors did the best they could with the material and some of them (like Natalie Portman for example) delivered some solid performances but I seriously had a hard time to care about the whole thing. They basically try to convince you that all those colorful characters are really interesting and worth your time but they were not that fascinating at all. I don’t know, maybe I was too young to connect with these characters who all suffered from middle-age-crisis (something which only exists in our spoiled western society). Like I said before, it was not really bad and the whole thing had some potential. Maybe that they shouldn’t have picked up Timothy Hutton for the lead part. I mean, Hutton is a decent actor but he never managed to really convince me as a lead actor. Anyway, to conclude, even though I thought it was rather disappointing, I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

The last 10 years, I have been tracking down all the movies directed by Clint Eastwoord which I hadn’t seen yet, I have just finished recently (the last one was ‘Breezy’, definitely his most obscure directing effort) and this journey was just plain fascinating (now, I’m hoping to re-watch some of them at some point as well). This movie definitely belongs to his more obscure work as well and even though it is apparently one of Clint Eastwood's own personal favorites, it wasn’t really good I’m afraid. Eventually, it turned out to be a box-office flop which was a great disappointment for Eastwood. I mean, there was definitely something quite charming and endearing about the whole thing but it never really actually took off eventually. I don’t know, even though it was nice to see good old Clint trying a different type of character, the whole thing was just too uneven, especially the tone as you never really know if you are actually watching a comedy or a drama. For once and in spite of what Clint Eastwood thought, it wasn’t really a strong story and the characters were not really interesting either. Still, it is far from being one of his worst movies, far from it, and I might give it another shot when I have the opportunity.

Since I’m a big fan of Michael Moore, of course, I was really eager to check this flick. Even though he has become the most successful documentary maker ever (at least, if you consider the box-office), this movie is actually pretty obscure and almost no one on listal has actually seen it. Well, unfortunately, I have to admit it, it is so far his weakest effort. I mean, the whole thing was basically a failure when you realize that Moore has actually become a victim of his own success. Indeed, each time he gets up on the stage, you don’t think you are watching a movie-director or a controversial thinker, you get more the feeling that you are watching a mix between a rock-star and a stand-up comedian and that was just plain wrong. I mean, they try to convince you all along that all these people came for his ideas and they did but they mostly came because, by now, he has become a huge celebrity and that it is rather sad. Also, I thought it was rather weird to have this huge focus on Michael Moore himself during most of the duration and it is not as if you got to know the guy, no, you just got to see his performance. Furthermore, I’m sorry but, in my opinion, the democracy in the USA is kind of joke, you have just 2 big parties and even though they try to convince you that there is a huge difference between Republicans and Democrats, they are in fact only slightly different. I mean, what kind of democracy is that? Therefore, the whole impact of this effort was rather marginal. Eventually, they got a Democrat in the White House, Barrack Obama, but even though he definitely seems more competent than George W. Bush, his policy follows more or less the same path and there is still a war in Irak going on. To conclude, even though I thought the whole thing was pretty disappointing, there was still some good stuff (it was a good reminder that George W. Bush more or less cheated the first time around and got incredibly lucky the second time around) and it is still worth a look, especially if you are interested in Michael Moore’s work.

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since Angelina Jolie was in it, I thought I might as well give it a try. I think it must be, so far, the most obscure movie starring Jolie that I have seen but, surprisingly, I thought it was actually pretty good, especially considering the poor ratings it gets here on Listal and on IMDb. Of course, it was nothing great whatsoever and the whole thing looked pretty cheap but I did like the tone and the cast was pretty decent (Rosanna Arquette, Angelina Jolie, Mekhi Phifer). Since it was made on a rather low budget, you didn’t get the usual preposterous action scenes and, instead, they put the focus on the characters who were, most of the time, quite intriguing. Since she is nowadays arguably the most famous female movie star in the world, you won’t see Angelina Jolie show up in a such a small production (at least, without anyone noticing) and it was rather fun to see her when she was a bit younger and not yet such a huge star. A year later, she would be in ‘Pushin Tin’ and, above all, ‘The Bone Collector’, and from then on, her star never stopped to rise, for good or bad. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, it is actually a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Angelina Jolie’s work.

Somehow, I thought this movie could be decent. I seriously don't know why I thought so but I did. Well, all I can say is that I was seriously disappointed. The first issue with this flick is that the two main male characters were played by Dane Cook and Dax Shepard, two of the most underwhelming actors at work nowadays. Dane Cook got lucky since he played a rather likeable guy but Dax Shepard ended up playing one of his usual obnoxious dudes and he was eventually more annoying than funny. Actually, the whole premise had some potential with this awesome and completely lame huge super-market. I mean, if they played it more straight and realistic, a little bit like ‘Clerks’ (one of my all-time favorites), it could have worked. Unfortunately, instead, they went for some really over-the-top and underwhelming jokes and it was mostly rather boring. Concerning Jessica Simpson, she did look good, I’ll give you that, but she didn’t have much to do but, even so, she was hardly convincing. To conclude, I have seen worse but it still remains a rather weak comedy and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I have it on DVD, I was quite eager to check it out again. To be honest, I have to admit that I have never been really a huge fan of Ron Howard's work but this movie still seemed to be interesting though. Indeed, 4 years after his success with 'A Beautiful Mind', Ron Howard was working once again with Russell Crowe and, at first, there was logically a very good buzz about this flick but, somehow, it was completely overlooked when it was released. Indeed, even though it garnered some really good reviews, it was actually a flop at the box-office. Maybe nobody wanted to see yet another flick about boxing? Well, in my opinion, it was actually really good, as a matter of fact, it was actually probably even better than ‘A Beautiful Mind’ . I mean, you could argue that the whole thing was not really original and, indeed, it never reaches the level of ‘Raging Bull’ but I thought it was a very well made and really entertaining sport biopic. Basically, even if it might be quite generic, it is still a really strong and inspiring story and, combined with the Great Depression backdrop, it was actually quite powerful. Apparently, the one who was the most hurt by this failure was neither Ron Howard or Russell Crowe, but Renée Zellweger. Indeed, until this movie, she was definitely on the A list and one of the most sought after actresses, but after this movie failed, her career went all downhill from here. Anyway, in my opinion, even though this movie was terribly overlooked, it is actually a pretty solid feature, easily one of the best directed by Howard, and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.