Reviews by johanlefourbe

I'm not sure if Patrice Leconte is really famous abroad but he is highly respected in France where he has been making movies for almost 4 decades. One of the most interesting things about this director is his versatility. Indeed, he has made movies in my many different genres and, this time, he hsa made a sober drama with French superstar Johnny Hallyday. You might have never about the guy but Hallyday is pretty huge in France being the most famous French rocker for already 50 years. To be honest, to cast Hallyday was quite a stunt and he delivered a solid performance but, somehow, it was quite distracting and I still wonder if he was really the best choice. Still, he was pretty good and, as sparring partner, the great Jean Rochefort was, as usual, really good as well. Concerning the story, it was not bad and I enjoyed the sober directing provided by Patrice Leconte but, to be honest, it was nothing really mind-blowing and fairly predictable but it was intriguing enough. To conclude, I thought it was a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

We almost went to see this one in the theater, me and my step-son Nick, but it didn't happen but, eventually, Nick ended up buying a brand new DVD when were in France on holiday. Honestly, I really had a hard to care about the whole thing. I mean, personally, I think it is rather sad that Tom Cruise still tries to be the same mega star he used to be in the 80's-90's but, honestly, those days are gone. Not only the guy is already 50 years old but the box-office has really changed during the last decade. I mean, even Johnny Depp and Will Smith, probably the last 2 actors who could open up a tent-pole feature, had some huge flops this year and, nowadays, it is all about franchises, remakes and reboots of already established products. Even this movie which is supposed to be an original story was actually a rehash of many SF features made before. But at least, it was something new, so it gets a few points for that. And Cruise really tried, he really gave his best to give a decent performance. He didn't succeed but, at least, he tried. Finally, the whole thing looked pretty cool but, a part from that, I was seriously bored during most of the duration (I even figured out most of the twists which is not something I'm usually good at). To conclude, I think I'm being rather generous with my rating here but I guess it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Basically, it is once again one of those really obscure French movies which I am the only one to have seen here on Listal. It is even more obscure than the usual obscure French flicks I watch since barely anyone saw it on IMDB either and I could barely find any info about the damned thing on the internet, even on Wikipedia. Anyway, one of the main reason I wanted to watch this flick was because Jackie Berroyer was playing the lead. You have probably never heard of the guy but, when I was a teenager living in France, I used to see him regularly on my favorite TV show ‘Nulle part ailleurs’. I have seriously no idea if the guy is nowadays famous in France or not but, back in those days, I thought the guy was really sharp, clever and quite hilarious. In this movie, he played a character quite similar to his public image so, obviously, I had a good time watching this. To be honest, the movie didn’t have much else to offer and it was basically your typical French romantic feature with the characters talking a lot and all having some rather conflicted relationships. So, it wasn’t really mind-blowing but Berroyer was really funny so I actually enjoyed most of it. To conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, it remains a decent flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

Since this movie has a pretty good reputation, I thought I should give it a try. Basically, it is a decent and really entertaining WWII feature. To be honest, it might not be really original or mind-blowing but it was still a nice watch. Anyway, it was a pretty expensive movie, one of the most expensive ever made at the time, and it was a huge success at the box-office, apparently the highest grossing movie released in 1961. It wasn’t really surprising since there was a really nice cast (Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Richard Harris) and even though Gregory Peck felt miscast as a British soldier, I thought he was pretty cool, as usual. An another interesting element is that it was meant to be an anti-war feature but it is apparently something that was missed by the mainstream audience at that time. Eventually, they would make a sequel starring an up and coming actor called Harrison Ford. Not only this sequel was made only 17 years later but also none of the actors were coming back (on the other hand with such a gap between the two movies, that wasn’t really surprising…) and both movies didn’t have much to do with each other. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was a pretty neat WWII war feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

D.J. Caruso is one of those directors I keep following even though none of his movies were really mind-blowing. The point is that even though all the movies he has made were flawed, there was always something intriguing about them and this flick was not an exception. Basically, it is a "Twilight" version of our beloved super-hero flicks and, even though, it really sounds terrible when you hear it like this, there was actually some potential. The issue with this kind of features is that they spend way too much time on some boring and preposterous action pieces, when they should develop the characters instead (on the other hand, since it was produced by Michael Bay, it was rather naive from me to expect something else...). I mean, take 'Inception' for example, even if you don't like it, you have to admit that Nolan at least tried to develop some intriguing characters. Here, you just have your typical stereotypes going through a pedestrian plot so it was rather boring to watch. It also reminded me of 'Push', another similar failed attempt to create a franchise around some teenagers with some super-powers, in the sense that the makers managed to create an interesting world but instead of exploring the implications of such a chaotic world, they just chickened out and made it as bland as possible to make sure that the average audience wouldn't be challenged during one single minute while watching this. To conclude, I think my rating is actually pretty generous but I guess it is worth a look after all, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn't hoping much from this sequel. Indeed, I really enjoyed the first installment (I even saw it in the theater if I recall it correctly) but the sequels were really weak. This time, you get back with the same trio ten years later after the original events took place and, the first thing that you ask yourself is 'what's the whole point?'. Indeed, does anyone really care that much about this franchise so they had to bring it back? I highly doubt it. Personally, I kind of lost interest after the multiple introductions. That was so tedious... I mean, the whole meta thing was fine in the 1st installment but, by now, it has became just really annoying. One of the few funny things was to spot all the young TV actress they cast (maybe 10?) and the best one was by far Hayden Panettiere. She was pretty nice but the rest was kind of wasted. It was also disappointing that they didn't try to do something else with Sidney Prescott. Indeed, why not making here an obnoxious bitch or a paranoid mental freak? To be honest, I liked the idea to get back 10 years later and to have this over-crowded TV cast, that was a good start, but the story was just really lazy and underwhelming and I really had a hard time to care about the whole thing. To conclude, it is basically another useless sequel and I don't think it is really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

I wasn't really eager to check this right now but Nick, my step-son, bought the DVD so I still ended up watching it. Honestly, I really had a hard time to care about the whole thing and I was rather constantly bored. Basically, it follows this new trend of modernizing a very old tale but the end-result was not really impressive. First of all, they decided to give the huntsman a bigger role but, as a result, the plot was pretty much over-crowded since you had Snow White, the huntsman but also the prince and the dwarves who all popped up rather randomly. Then, you had the matter of the casting. First of all, Charlize Theron was just brilliant and completely upstaged everyone else involved. Chris Hemsworth was a sound choice and gave a decent performance and it was nice to have some familiar faces to portray the dwarves even if they didn't have much to do. And, of course, you had Kristen Stewart who played the title character. I understand that they wanted to go for something else than the classical look and, since Stewart is one of the most recognizable young actresses nowadays, it sounded once again like a sound choice. Still, I think she was miscast. I mean, Snow White is supposed to be the fairest of the land and Stewart who is quite charming just didn't fit this description. Even later on as a bad-ass Joan of Arc like warrior, she was still not convincing. Still, I guess it was visually appealing with some interesting special effects but it was still not grim enough to make it really interesting or stand out. To conclude, I think I'm being really generous with my rating here but I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

After hearing not so many good things about this flick, I wasn't expecting much but my kids were keen on watching an horror flick so we ended up wathing this. Personally, I always had a weak spot for the found footage genre. Indeed, I loved 'The Blair Witch Project' and I enjoyed both '[Rec]' and 'Paranormal Activity'. However, after watching this flick, I now understand the whole fatigue concerning this genre. First of all, the reason why they choose this directing style is pretty obvious. It is really cheap ass. Furthermore, it is quite usual that they use non-professional actors making the whole thing even less expensive. So, all those aspects were present here but two things were missing, originality and cleverness. Indeed, except for a few creepy moments, it was pretty tedious and really uninspired and all these flaws were even more obvious with the ending. Many criticized this ending and, indeed, the makers pushed themselves into a corner and it was indeed pretty underwhelming. To conclude, I don't think it was really awful but it was definitely pretty weak and I don't think it is really worth a look, even if you love the genre.

Once again, another underwhelming feature starring Jackie Chan... It should probably give up on the guy already but, somehow, I keep on trying. On the other hand, this flick is apparently not one of his better Hong-Kong productions so maybe I should keep looking. Somehow, it is not surprising that I didn't like it since I thought that 'Police Story 3' was already terribly underwhelming. The first issue I had was that the whole thing was dubbed in English instead of the original language, Mandarin. That was so terribly annoying. Furthermore, as usual with Jackie Chan's work, the acting was really weak but I liked the idea of putting this character in a spy intrigue even though it was not developed after all. Of course, the action scenes were pretty neat but there were not many of them and they didn't manage to make me forget how underwhelming the rest was. Anyway, to conclude, I thought the whole thing was pretty boring and I don't think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of the genre.

Oh boy... That's one really obscure flick... If I recall correctly, back then, one of my colleagues had the DVD so that's how I ended up watching it. Basically, it is a rather odd and misguided mix. Indeed, you had here some American mafia crime style stuff and also some Scottish humor and, even though it was a bold experiment, it didn't work very well, I'm afraid. First of all, it was never really funny but it's always tricky to make a comedy about the mob. I mean, I did like 'Analyse this' thanks to de Niro but that's about it. I didn't like 'The Freshman', 'Mickey Blue Eyes' or most Mafia comedies and this movie was not an exception. The characters were neither funny and interesting and I couldn't care less about the whole cultural shock (another useless gimmick used in countless comedies). Eventually, I gave the makers a few extra points for trying something original but I'm being pretty generous with my rating here. To conclude, it is indeed a pretty obscure feature, I think I should remain that way and I don't think it is really worth a look, even if you like the genre.