Reviews by johanlefourbe

A few years back, there was a pretty good buzz about ‘Ong Bak’ which was apparently a rather brutal and impressive martial arts feature and I was definitely eager to check it out. Eventually, one of my colleagues had the DVD, so I ended up watching it and I was pleasantly surprised. The very same colleague had also this other flick starring Tony Jaa and I thought it would be another treat but, honestly, I thought it was fairly disappointing. I mean, of course, the fighting scenes were pretty awesome but the story was seriously underwhelming, even more than with ‘Ong Bak’. Indeed, in Tony Jaa’s breakthrough feature, the story was pretty generic and pedestrian but, at least, it was entertaining. This time, they built up this boring story around some elephants and I really had a hard time to care about the whole thing. Eventually, it is rather surprising that Tony Jaa didn’t do more movies afterwards (he has made only a little more than 5 movies after ‘Ong Bak’) but apparently, he will make his American debut next year in ‘Fast & Furious 7’ so who knows? It might be the start of a new international career (on the other hand, the guy is almost 40 years old so I’m not sure how long he will manage to physically pull it out his impressive acrobatic stunts. Such a shame that he was discovered so late). Anyway, to conclude, even though I thought it was slightly disappointing, it still remains a decent martial arts feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since the ratings were pretty decent, I thought I should give it a try. To be honest, at first, I really had a hard time to care about the whole thing and it took me a while to get into the story. Indeed, the beginning was really awkward and the way they started their relationship was very poorly built up. I mean, they tried to give it some extra meaning but something more simple would have worked better. After they got together, fortunately, it got better. Indeed, there was something nice and genuine about this romance. Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin had some good chemistry and they both delivered some solid performances. I also liked Pierce Brosnan who can be pretty impressive when given the proper material but his character could have been more developped. Than, there was this ending which seriously came out of nowhere... I guess, many people felt it was a great emotional conclusion but what did it have to do with the rest of the story? Seriously, you could end any movie, especially any drama, with a similar ending, just to add some extra impact so I wasn't really convinced. After watching this, I discovered that Allen Coulter had directed before this 'Hollywoodland', another movie which had even more potential but which also didn't deliver so it figures. Still, in spite of its flaws, it remains a decent romantic drama and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep and since Jonathan Demme is a fine director, I thought I should give it a try. 10 years after ‘Philadelphia’, Washington and Demme were working together and even though I didn’t care much about ‘Philadelphia’, I actually liked this thriller a lot. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the original version starring Frank Sinatra and, I have to admit it, it looks better and it is always rather unfortunate when you watch first the remake. Still, I thought it was a solid thriller. Indeed, there was a really interesting cast (Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep,Jeffrey Wright, Anthony Mackie, Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight, Dean Stockwell, Bruno Ganz) and they all delivered some solid performances, especially Meryl Streep who was just great as usual and seemed to have a lot of fun playing the villain for a change. Furthermore, the directing by Jonathan Demme was also pretty solid and the whole plot was quite spellbinding. Of course, since you are dealing with an American thriller, it had to end with some rather preposterous twist but it is inherent to the genre and, this time, it didn’t bother me that much. To conclude, in my opinion, it is a pretty good thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since the ratings were pretty good, I thought I might as well give it a try. Back in those days, Alicia Silverstone was not really well known, she was basically ‘that chick’ who showed up in a few Aerosmith video clips. Thanks to this flick which was a surprising success, she became a star overnight and even signed a 3-movie deal worth $10,000,000 with Sony which was a huge gamble. Eventually, she made some huge flops, ‘Batman & Robin’ among them, and since then she is pretty much forgotten nowadays. Anyway, how was her breakthrough feature? Indeed, it was not bad, a rather decent high-school comedy but, in my opinion, it was a only slightly better than the average movie in this genre but not much more I'm afraid. I mean, it was entertaining enough but it was still too stereotypical and they didn’t add enough interesting elements to the formula to make it truly stand out from the rest. Furthermore, even though Alicia Silverstone who was just 19 years old at the time, did a decent job, her character was actually more obnoxious than really funny or interesting. To conclude, even though I think it is actually rather overrated, it remains a decent flick and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast, I thought I should give it a try. To start with, the whole story was actually not really original and fairly predictable. I can imagine that it could have turned out to be some gross-out comedy with a war between this boy and his step-father. Fortunately, it was much more subtle than that thanks to some very impressive acting and some nice sober directing, even though the constant zooming in-and-out was rather distracting. Indeed, it is always a blessing when John C. Reilly plays the lead and, once again, he completely nailed it. It is so refreshing to see an average looking guy like him showing such a wide range of emotions. In this movie, he was always convincing and spellbinding to watch. Jonah Hill was also pretty good, even though his job was more thankless. Ultimately, the whole thing still remained a little too much predictable to become truely remarkable and, with only 90 minutes, they didn't really have the time to further develop the whole situation. Still, for a drama-comedy, it was still pretty solid, I really cared for those characters so it is a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since it is a huge classic, I was really eager to check it out. To be honest, I usually have a hard time to care about those old classic Westerns. Indeed, even though I enjoyed such movies like 'Rio Bravo' or 'Shane', they didn't really blow me away. Fortunately, I liked this one a lot. The point is that it is not only a Western, it is also actually a nail-bitting thriller and, during the whole thing, you wonder how it will end up. Furthermore, it was also a very interesting character study. Indeed, Fred Zinnemann, a director I start to like more and more, took his time to develop all the people in this town, not only Will Kane, who is basically your typical righteous sheriff. All the reactions of this common people felt really genuine and their reactions, even though it might seem cowardice, were actually rather understandable. As a result, you get a rather dark Western which clearly stands out from the other movies in this genre. I have to admit, I was at first a little bit disappointed by the end (great, another shoot-out during which the hero kills all the bad guys and saves the day...) but the way he throws his star to the ground, looks disgusted towards his fellow citizens and leaves the town right away with this wife was just priceless. To conclude, it is easily one of the best Westerns I have ever seen, it is a great classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though Brian De Palma is nowadays pretty much forgotten, I always had a weak spot for his work and I still try to check his movies whenever I get the opportunity. This movie was actually pretty experimental, completely different than the typical De Palma features and it was completely unnoticed when it was released. Basically, it is almost a remake of 'Casualties of War', the Vietnam war movie directed by De Palma, it follows the same plot but it takes place, obviously, in Irak, it is based on a true story and the directing style was completely different. Like I said before, it was quite experimental, and felt sometimes like a mockumentary, even though it was still something else and I'm not sure what Brian De Palma was trying to prove by making the movie this way. Eventually, it was rather distracting and the poor acting didn't help either. However, it was still a really intriguing piece. I mean, at some point, it felt pretty damned realistic and the facts displayed, even though not really surprising, were quite shattering. It is rather surprising that no movie about the Irak war has been really successful (even 'The Hurt Locker' which won the Best Picture academy award was barely seen when released) but maybe it will come one day. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it remains a really intriguing war movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Brian De Palma's work.

To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jim Carrey, I thought I should check it out. At first, it seemed to be one of those whacky comedies that Carrey used to make in the past but, as soon as those pinguins showed up, it became pretty obvious that it was just a rather underwhelming family feature. It might be entertaining for young kids (I doubt it though) but for any adult, the whole thing is just way too non-sensical. Why did his father send him a pinguin? Why does he suddenly decide to keep them? Why do his children think it's awesome to spend some time in a freezing apartment with some pinguins? I mean, even his ex-wife acts as if it is the greatest thing in the world. Basically, the premise was completely ridiculous and the fact that it took place in a realistic modern world made it even worse. Of course, you could argue that since it is a kid flick, it doesn't need to make any sense, as long it is really mushy. Well, I think it is a terribly condescending approach towards children, that's for sure. To conclude, it wasn't really bad but it was still pretty damned average and I don't think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of Jim Carrey.

I was just a kid when saw the first installment and I thought it was pretty cool. Indeed, it was actually a decent sport feature and even though it pretty much followed the standard formula, I thought it was actually rather edgy and pretty funny, especially when I was young. I even re-watched it recently and even though the flaws were pretty obvious this time, it was still pretty entertaining and it definitely held up pretty good. Back in those days when I was young and innocent, since I really enjoyed it, I end up watching the sequel as well. Unfortunately, this 2nd installment turned out to be pretty disappointing. I mean, the 1st movie was ok but it was nothing amazing whatsoever and the material was just too fine to justify a follow-up. Nonetheless, since ‘Major League’ was mildly successful, they of course had to milk it for what it’s worth. The fact that this sequel showed up 5 years later was not a very good omen either and pretty much everyone had lost interest in these characters at that time. Still, most of the cast returned (Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Rene Russo for a 2 minutes cameo) except for Wesley Snipes who became a major star in the mean time. To conclude, it is a rather poor sequel and it is not really worth a look, even if you enjoyed the first installment like I did.