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Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 2 August 2013 02:10
(A review of Double Jeopardy)I always had a weak spot for Ashley Judd but, unfortunately, she is not on the A list anymore. Unfortunately, when an actress reaches 40 years old, there is a good chance her career will end for good and there are only a handful of exceptions like Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon or Sigourney Weaver. Anyway, back in those days, Judd was very popular and her specialty was definitely the thrillers. Indeed, it all started with āKiss the girlsā which was the most successful one but she made a whole bunch of those which turned to be pretty underwhelming. This movie is a really good example. I mean, Ashley Judd did her best with the material and Tommy Lee Jones has always been pretty awesome playing those no-nonsense police officers. So, they both did a pretty good job but, unfortunately, the story was just way too preposterous for me. Indeed, basically, it is one of those thrillers which take a concept (in this case, the fact that in the US you canāt be charged twice for the same murder) but, of course, the whole thing didnāt make much sense and the makers pretty much try to covered those flaws with a tensed mood and some generic action scenes. To conclude, I have seen worse but it still remains a rather average thriller and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 1 August 2013 09:14
(A review of Flawless)Basically, it is one of those movies I ended up watching just because Michael Caine was in it but, to be honest, I really had a hard time to figure out if I actually liked it. First of all, the introduction was really tedious. It was like a warning 'Don't worry, the first 20 minutes will be really tedious but, with this lame intro, we want to make sure you understand that it will become really exciting at some point'. Pretty weak, in my opinion. Still, the whole thing looked pretty good and it was nice that Demi Moore portrayed someone who was not 20 years younger than she actually was (She was still 7 years older than her character but nevermind). Anyway, she was not bad at all even though her job was pretty thankless since she was clueless about what was going on almost until the end. Michael Caine was, as usual, pretty awesome and really made the whole thing really watchable. Eventually, I always had a weak spot for heist movies and it was a nice touch that it took place in the 60's when it seemed more doable to rob some diamonds without all the nifty technical security gadgets that they have nowadays. Still, I wasn't entirely convinced by the whole scheme. Indeed, it is really hard to believe that Caine could go on all night without being spotted at any moment by the security guard. I guess, those videos were not recorded at the time otherwise, it would have been even more obvious. To conclude, my rating might be a little bit too generous but I enjoyed most of it and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 1 August 2013 02:18
(A review of The Firm)I already saw this movie but since it was ages ago, I thought I might as well check it out again.Ā
Back in those days, Tom Cruise was the biggest and unchallenged movie star and all his movies were making some big bucks. This time, he showed up in one of those John Grishamās book adaptations, it was easily the most successful one and I have to admit it was actually fairly entertaining. It's too bad that, as usual with Grisham's work, the story was still too far-fetched for my taste though and the whole thing was probably too long as well. Still, I really have a weak spot for Sydney Pollackās work, his directing was as usual pretty solid and it was neat to see how much he managed to elevate this material. Concerning Tom Cruise, he was as usual quite charismatic but I don't think he gave here one of his best performances. The fact that his character was rather bland and so naive probably didnāt help and it was rather annoying that he turned out to be after all so clever that he managed to outsmart everybody including his 'firm', the FBI and the mob. In fact, I was more impressed by Gene Hackman who managed to deliver a much more interesting and flawed character with so much less screen time than Cruise. To round up the cast, you had also Jeanne Tripplehorn, Hal Holbrook, Terry Kinney, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, David Strathairn, Gary Busey, Tobin Bell and they all did a pretty good job even if it was rather pushing it to give an Academy award nomination for Holly Hunter for her performance which was not even 6 minutes long. Anyway, to conclude, even though I donāt think it is anything really amazing, it is still a decent thriller and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 31 July 2013 09:56
(A review of The Dilemma)You can say whatever you want about Ron Howard but the guy is very versatile and after many years, he is making again a comedy, a genre that really launched his career back then with 'Splash'. Unfortunately, the end-result was really disappointing. Indeed, it has been a while since I have seen such a tedious comedy. Ok, I wasn't really in the right mood, I'll give you that, but it was still pretty weak and not funny whatsoever. Furthermore, there was barely any chemistry between any of the 4 actors involved in those 2 couples and the movie really focused solely on Vince Vaughn (who hasn't made a good comedy since 'Wedding Crashers' released 8 years ago) and the rest of the cast, which had some potential, was pretty much wasted (Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum, Queen Latifah). Also, it was once again another failed attempt for Winona Ryder to make a come-back. I mean, recently, she keeps popping up in some high-profile projects like this one or 'Black Swan' or 'Star Trek' but she never managed to make it really work for her. Still, there was some interesting stuff in here, some interesting darkness, but the makers never really figured what to do with the whole thing so you end up with one of those underwhelming comedies where one of the characters has some big secret which will be, of course, revealed at the end. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, it is still one of the weakest movies directed by Ron Howard and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 31 July 2013 02:52
(A review of Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen)If I recall correctly, I saw this movie way before Lindsay Lohan started to get in trouble. Back in those days, my step-daughter had the perfect age to watch this kind of stuff so I ended up watching it with her. Man, will Lindsay Lohan ever come back? The point is that, for someone like Mickey Rourke or Robert Downey Jr., it doesnāt really matter if their way of life more or less destroyed their looks (especially for Rourke) but, for a woman, it is really a different story. Indeed, they have pretty much to look very young like forever which is of course impossible and, for Lohan, she nowadays looks 10 years older than her real age. Anyway, back in those days, Lindsay Lohan was still (more or less) innocent with a seemingly bright future and this one was one of those Disney features she made back then. To be honest, it was watchable but it still pretty weak though and compare to this, āMean Girlsā was pretty much a masterpiece. The main issue is that, even though Lohan did her best, the main character was not really interesting and seriously rather obnoxious so I had a really hard time to care about her or what she was going through. To conclude, I didnāt care much about this flick and I donāt think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you want to see Lindsay Lohan before she was a total train wreck.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 31 July 2013 02:02
(A review of Windtalkers )When the word came out that John Woo was coming to Hollywood to expand his career, many of us got pretty excited. Indeed, at that time, Woo was probably the most heralded director coming from Hong Kong and to have his kinetic directing style combined with a massive budget for a wide audience was a nice prospect. Eventually, the end-result was not that impressive. I mean, his Hollywood dĆ©but āHard Targetā was not bad, one of the very few watchable movies starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, and āFace/Offā was really cool but it was probably his only Hollywood movie which was really successful (on the other hand, ā Mission: Impossible IIā which always had a bad reputation was actually the highest grossing movie released in 2000). Anyway, this movie is probably the most disappointing one he has made in this period. The worst thing is that the story was actually really intriguing and it was a great idea to make a WWII feature focusing on those Indian code makers. But thatās what went wrong here, somehow, they didnāt focus on them at all and the Indian guy became just merely a sidekick to the typical white hero portrayed by Nicolas Cage. From this point, even though the whole thing was not that bad visually speaking, the story felt like a huge travesty. Of course, as usual, you could blame Nicolas Cage but I think he did what he could with this material. To conclude, even though the whole thing had some potential, it turned out to be one of the most disappointing WWII feature I have seen and it is not really worth a look.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 30 July 2013 08:41
(A review of Spawn)Even though the ratings were pretty weak, I still wanted to check this one out. I mean, come on, the material was actually pretty interesting. Indeed, here you have a cool super-hero , a cool moody poster, a cool lead actor... Wait a minute... Let me see, who is the lead actor...Michael Jai White... Who the f*ck is that ? Ah yeah! I know, he got killed by the Joker in the Dark Knight!! What a performance ! Sorry, I'm just being ironic here... Anyway, Michael (or is it Michael Jai?) didn't have enough star power to pull this movie towards a sequel... To be honest, I'm pretty harsh with Michael Jai White since he was not that bad after all. I was really surprised that Roger Ebert actually liked this movie a lot, above all, because he thought it looked really awesome. I'm sorry, with all due respect, except for a few things like Spawn's costume, it actually looked pretty awful. Furthermore, the acting was pretty abysmal as well, especially Martin Sheen gave one of his worst performances. Concerning John Leguizamo, damned, that clown was annoying but, I guess he was supposed to be annoying. Still, like I said before, even though the end-result was really weak, there was something quite appealing about the main character, it's just too bad he didn't get a better movie (apparently, Jamie Foxx is trying to launch a reboot so who knows?). To conclude, I think I'm being pretty generous with my rating, it is pretty much one of those misguided super-hero flicks they made in the 90's and I don't think it is really worth a look.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 30 July 2013 06:51
(A review of Mickey Blue Eyes)I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Hugh Grant, I thought I should give it a try. Nowadays, the guy is pretty much retired (on the other hand, I read a couple of times that he always found film acting pretty tedious so maybe it is all for good) but, when this movie was released, he was pretty much at the heights of his career. Unfortunately, it was not really good, I'm afraid. Basically, it is one of those typical comedies when they throw an average guy (in this case, Hugh Grant) into the mafia world. It is a concept I never liked (except maybe with 'Analyze this' but it was actually the other way around) and even 'The Freshman' which was loved by the great Roger Ebert was pretty tedious in my opinion. Anyway, you get the picture, Hugh Grant plays his typical clueless British fellow, James Caan plays his typical tough guy and hilarity should follow. Well, it never really happened, I'm sorry. To conclude, I have seen worse but I still think it is one of the most underwhelming movies starring Hugh Grant and I don't think it is really worth a look, even if you like the genre.
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A good movie
Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 29 July 2013 09:41
(A review of The Abyss)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. Well, this movie is visually quite impressive and was, at the time, rather groundbreaking (It was in fact one of the first films to make proper use of CGI technology). To be honest, the first time I saw the damned thing, I wasn't so sure about the story though. I mean, it was entertaining enough, that's for sure, but it was still rather generic in my opinion. Many years later, I watched the director's cut but I'm not sure if the extra 15 minutes were actually welcome. It seemed that it explained too much what was the deal with those aliens whereas the shorter version kept it mysterious which worked better in my opinion. Furthermore, as usual with James Cameron, the characters were really stereotypical and I especially dreaded the bad guy portrayed by Michael Biehn. It was pretty obvious that they put him there just to create some tension but it didn't work very well. Still, in spite of the poor characterization, both Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio were actually really good, especially during the resurrection scene which was really amazing but, apparently, they both had a dreadful time filming this movie (apparently, Ed Harris even refuses to talk about this movie). It is not really surprising but, for the viewer, there was a lot of fascinating stuff thanks to all those wet scenes and the under water scenes. Back in those days, you could see that James Cameron was already caring a lot about all that underwater stuff and it felt really genuine. Eventually, even though it was really entertaining, I think that there was just too much to deal with (the underwater oil rig, the major world crisis, the romance between Harris and Mastrantonio, Biehn going crazy, the aliens,...). Still, it remains a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in James Cameron's work.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 29 July 2013 11:05
(A review of The Da Vinci Code)When the word came out that they were making a movie adaptation, there was a huge buzz about it. Eventually, even though it made some big bucks at the box-office, it wasnāt very well received. Eventually, I saw it a few years later after borrowing the DVD from a colleague and even though I had some rather low expectations, I donāt think it was so bad after all. Indeed, I thought it was actually a fairly entertaining thriller and it was fun to see an American thriller taking place in France for once. Of course, since half of the book (which I have read afterwards) was actually about Robert Langdon giving some historical or mythical background, it didnāt translate well to the silver screen. Furthermore, even though it was indeed a fun book, it was actually not really brilliant in my opinion. I mean, Dan Brown basically deals with historical facts, wild theories, improbable legends and fairy tales in the same way at face value and, as a result, it was difficult for me to take the whole thing seriously. Furthermore, I donāt really get all the fuss against this movie. I mean, as if the book was really brilliant to start with. I have to admit it, even though it was definitely entertaining, it was far from being a masterpiece but the makers did their best with this material and the end-result was not even half as bad as everyone claimed. To conclude, of course, it is not really anything amazing, but I still think the movie is actually a decent blockbuster and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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