Reviews by johanlefourbe

Ever since I saw ‘Manhattan Murder Mystery’ back then in the theater (almost 20 years ago… Dear, I feel old now…), I have been faithfully following Woody Allen through the years. Back then, I was a huge fan but, to be honest, even though I watch all his movies when I get the opportunity, I don’t care much about them anymore. The problem is that, nowadays, for every decent movie he makes, Allen has to make 4 very weak features. And the worst thing is that the ‘good’ movies are never really that amazing either. Take ‘Match Point’ for example. After it was released, there was a pretty good buzz about it so I was definitely eager to check it out. Eventually, I thought it was indeed pretty good but, honestly, nothing really amazing. The fact that I had some food poisoning or something like that maybe didn’t help so I might give it a 2nd chance at some point but, still, I‘m not really optimistic. The point is that the directing was indeed solid, there was a cool cast (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox, Ewen Bremner, James Nesbitt, Toby Kebbell) and I liked how all the characters were pretty much despicable. Still, there was something missing in the story to make it for me truly remarkable. To conclude, even though I was a little bit disappointed, it still remains a solid flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Woody Allen’s work.

D.W. Griffith is nowadays considered the first great movie director and even though I'm really curious to check his work, I also have some mixed feelings about the guy, even before I have watched anything he made yet. Indeed, his great masterpiece 'The Birth of Nation' is highly controversial but, still, considering myself a great movie buff, I couldn't avoid his work for much longer so I decided to check this flick. Eventually, I thought it was pretty good but there were many elements, inherent to the era that bothered me. I mean, the main character is an Asian man called 'The Yellow Man' and he was played by a white guy. I'm really sensitive to this kind of things and it was pretty offensive. Of course, I know, it was a common thing back in those days but, still, I couldn't help thinking that with an Asian actor, the whole thing would have been greatly improved. Still, it remains a solid drama, very dark and gloomy, and from a visual point of view, it was quite amazing. Indeed, without any dialog, Griffith still managed to drag you into this dark tale and it was quite fascinating. You can see that everything was shot on stage but the details were great and created an immersive atmosphere. Finally, it displayed one of the most striking death scenes I have ever seen (this girl, Lillian Gish, sure could act). To conclude, even though it is pretty dated, it still remains a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

While watching this movie, I was wondering what pushed Ron Howard, a famous TV actor at the time, to drop completely from acting to become a director. I mean, it is not uncommon that actors decide to become some legit directors as well (Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Ben Affleck,...) but I have never seen another guy seemingly completely dropping off from acting like that. Anyway, since it was Howard's directing debut, I was really eager to check it out. To be honest, the beginning was pretty weak but, after a while, it started to grow on me. Indeed, the whole thing is basically a very long car chase with many cars stolen and destroyed in the process and some scenes were really preposterous and actually pretty hilarious. Unfortunately, the whole concept grew thin pretty quickly and I was rather bored during most of the duration. Of course, since it is a Roger Corman production, you shouldn't expect much production value and instead, you get one of his typical B features. To conclude, even though it was nothing really awful, I don't think it is really worth a look, expect if you want to see how it all started for Ron Howard, at least when you are dealing with his directing career.

Basically, it is once again one of those really obscure French movies which almost no one has seen here on Listal. If I recall correctly, I saw this movie at my aunt's when I was on holiday in France. My wife was pretty sick (food poisoning or something like that) and while she was recovering, I ended up watching a whole bunch of dvds my aunt owned. Anyway, the director Jean Becker could be actually considered as some kind of French Terrence Malick. Indeed, after making a few movies in 60's, he stopped for 17 years, made one movie ('L'été meurtrier'), stopped again for 12 years, made another movie ('Élisa') and since 1999, he has been pretty productive, directing no less than 7 features in the process. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it was not bad. The other day, I was thinking that WWII basically represents for France about the same thing as the Vietnam war represents for the USA. Indeed, it was the last war which took place in France and it has greatly traumatized the country. As a result, just like the Vietnam war for the American directors, WWII has always been an everending source of inspiration for the French film makers and you end up with many movies varying in quality and genres. So, this movie deals with WWII and it is honestly a small, rather simple story and even though, it was alright, it was nothing really amazing and it was rather forgettable. To conclude, I still think it is a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

Personally, I never had some high expectations concerning this flick and when it turned out to be a huge flop with some pretty negative reviews, I pretty much lost all hope. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed most of it and when I was just starting to think that Johnny Depp was slowly becoming the most overrated actor in the world, he reminded me why once I used to love his work so much. Indeed, even though you could argue that he used pretty much the same gimmick as he did with 'Pirates of the Carribean', I thought that Johnny Depp was quite hilarious and with Armie Hammer, they made a great couple composed of a crazy Indian and an incompetent lawyer who doesn't want to shoot anyone. Unfortunately, all the rest of the movie, especially the plot was quite underwhelming, expect for a few decent action scenes. Indeed, it was all rather pedestrian with the evil railroad tycoon, the outlaws disguised as Indians, the two brothers loving the same wife,... Furthermore, they really messed up the tone. Indeed, even though it was marketed as a Disney family feature, it was actually quite violent (there was even a guy eating someone else's heart for God sake!) but it was also too goofy and shallow to be taken really seriously. To conclude, of course, it was nothing amazing, but I think it was actually quite entertaining and it is worth a look. Hopefully, since it is yet another flop for Johnny Depp, maybe he will start again to be considered a box-office poison and maybe he will go back to some smaller and, above all, more interesting projects.

If I recall correctly, I saw this movie at my aunt's when I was on holiday in France. My wife was pretty sick (food poisoning or something like that) and while she was recovering, I ended up watching a whole bunch of dvds my aunt owned. Since I kept hearing good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. However, I ended up with some rather mixed feelings. First of all, it is indeed quite an intriguing documentary. The visuals were often really amazing and it was quite fascinating to follow these penguins. Still, there was one thing that did really bother me and that was the narration (personally, I saw the original French version but I don't think the language was the issue here). Apparently, the makers thought it would be a great idea to add some pseudo poetry-philosophy to comment these events. Personally, I thought it was a terribly misguided choice and it really bothered me throughout the whole thing. Not only it wasn't educational at all but above all, it felt really pretentious. Why they didn't do something like in 'Microcosmos' (an amazing French documentary, you should check it out)? Indeed, put some music, remove the comments alltogether and let nature tell its own story. So, the narration bothered me and, quite frankly, I don't think they showed things I didn't already knew before. Still, it remains a beautiful documentary and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

If I recall correctly, I saw this movie at my aunt's when I was on holiday in France. My wife was pretty sick (food poisoning or something like that) and while she was recovering, I ended up watching a whole bunch of dvds my aunt owned. From all the movies I saw at that time, it was easily the worst one. Seriously, I really despised the whole thing. Basically, it is one of those comedies which tries to surf on one of those new hypes, in this case, the importing of young fresh brides from Eastern Europe and hilarity should follow. Well, it wasn't funny, that's for sure. I mean, I have nothing against Michel Blanc, he has been one of the most famous French comic actors for decades and he has been quite hilarious many times in the past but even he couldn't save this tedious affair. Indeed, the material was borderline offensive, the jokes were not funny and rather awful and the whole thing was, of course, completely predictable. I know, my rating might seem a little bit harsh but this flick just completely rubbed me in the wrong way and I hated much of it from the beginning until the end. To conclude, in my opinion, it is a pretty bad comedy and it is not worth a look whatsoever, even if you are interested in French movies.

Basically, it is once again one of those really obscure French movies which almost no one has seen here on Listal. If I recall correctly, I saw this movie at my aunt's when I was on holiday in France. My wife was pretty sick (food poisoning or something like that) and while she was recovering, I ended up watching a whole bunch of dvds my aunt owned. The director Jean Becker could be actually considered as some kind of French Terrence Malick. Indeed, after making a few movies in 60's, he stopped for 17 years, made one movie ('L'été meurtrier'), stopped again for 12 years, made one movie ('Élisa') and since 1999, he has been pretty productive, directing no less than 7 features in the process. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it was not bad. I mean, there was a pretty good cast (Jacques Villeret, Jacques Gamblin, André Dussollier, Michel Serrault, Isabelle Carré, Éric Cantona) and they all delivered some solid performances. The directing was alright as well but, to be honest, I didn't care much about the story. I mean, it was entertaining enough but not much more I'm afraid. To conclude, it remains a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since I'm a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock, I was really eager to check it out. So far, it is his oldest movie I have seen. The funny thing is that is that I recently saw the remake which was made 80 years later but both movies were actually really different as the remake mostly focused on the 3rd act of this very old silent feature. To be honest, with most silent dramas, I rather have a hard time to get into the whole thing. I mean, basically, you spend the whole duration trying to read the lips of the characters to figure what the hell they are actually talking about. Without dialogues, movies actually radically changes, in my opinion, with a greater focus on body language and weird faces. Still, with a guy like Hitchcock in the directing chair, you are bound to have some pretty nice shots and I wasn't disappointed with some really dark scenes with interesting contrast. Honestly, the story was not really strong and it only took off in the last 15 minutes but, all in all, it was interesting enough. To conclude, I still think it was a decent silent feature and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Hitchcock's work.

Back in 2009, Ryan Gosling was supposed to star in 'The Lovely Bones' but dropped out just a few days before shooting started. It seemed, at that time, like an odd move since there was a big buzz around this movie (which did flop eventually) and for a couple of years, Gosling pretty much vanished from the scene. Flashforward 2 years later and the guy made a huge come-back with this movie so, of course, I was really eager to check it out. Honestly, it is probably the darkest, the gloomiest relationship I have ever seen in a movie. I mean, especially when you are married with kids (like me), the whole thing felt way too familiar and, frankly, was really depressing to behold. I still liked it though. Indeed, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams were really impressive here, giving some of their best performances and the whole thing was really well written. I don't think I have often seen a better movie portraying the daily struggle a married couple have to face everyday (going to work, taking care of your kid(s), doing the groceries, feeling exhausted most of the time, looking and feeling like sh*t, noticing every little irritating things about your partner, the attraction and affection slowly disappearing,...). In my opinion, being a couple, it is just plain f*cking hard and this movie pretty much proved that point. To conclude, even though the whole thing was pretty confronting, I still think it is worth a look but don't expect anything cheerful.