Reviews by johanlefourbe

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.

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.