Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for romantic movies, I thought I should give it a try. Unfortunately, the whole thing was just terribly weak with an never-ending idiotic plot. I find it really hilarious when other viewers argue that this movie is dealing with true love. Give me a break... It deals with some of the oldest Hollywood romantic clichés, not true love. Furthermore, it provides some broad caricature of Italian people with the usual magnificent landscapes. It was also quite infuriating to see Gael García Bernal wasting his time playing such a douche. Bernal is one of those actors that blew me away at the beginning of his career but never really fulfilled those expectations. One of the other hand, I really enjoyed Vanessa Redgrave. Indeed, she rose above the inane material and gave a really convincing and heartfelt performance. Such a great actress, I must see more movies starring her. To be honest, the whole thing was not really that bad. Like I said before, it looked all really good, Amanda Seyfried looked really charming and it seems that she good be a pretty good actress if she was given the right story. To conclude, I guess I'm just too cynical for this kind of movies, anyway, I didn't like it much and I don't think it is really worth a look.

By now, I have seen almost all the movies starring Eddie Murphy (I think I miss only 4 movies). The weird thing is that I'm not even a huge fan of this guy but his movies very often come up on the various Dutch channels so I always end up checking them, out of sheer curiosity of boredom. Nowadays, he shows up in the most inane features and his career doesn't have much credibility. Another of his specialty are sequels. Indeed, apparently, if the paycheck is good, he will always shows up in a sequel. Most of them are worthless but they are a few exceptions (As a matter of fact, I prefer 'Beverly Hills Cop II' to the classic 1st installment) and this movie is one of them. I mean, it is not as good as '48 hrs', the very first movie starring Eddie Murphy, but it thought it was a decent action comedy, the typically buddy cop feature with the seasoned police officer and the clueless civilian. To be honest, it didn't add much to the formulas to become really interesting but I thought it was entertaining enough. After that, Murphy's 2nd sequel would be 'Beverly Hills Cop II' which I enjoyed but his other sequels were all really forgettable. At this point, even his regular features are pretty pathetic... To conclude, even though it was nothing amazing, it is actually a decent flick starring Eddie Murphy and therefore alone, it is absolutely worth a look.

Before it was released, there was somewhat some buzz about this flick but who could blame the mainstream audience? Indeed, Paul Bettany looked pretty awesome on the poster with his wings and his weapons. Eventually, it was a flop and after watching it, I can't say it didn't deserve this faith. Basically, the whole thing was a terrible mess pathetically trying to mix some religious stuff within an action movie. Seriously, the whole thing had some potential and it could have bee pretty bad-ass but, unfortunately, the end-result was just terribly underwhelming. Furthermore, I think I have never seen such a religion themed feature showing such a lack of spirituality. Compared to this, 'The Da Vinci Code' was a real epiphany. And what the hell happened to Paul Bettany?!? At the beginning of the 2000's, he emerged as one of the most talented actors of his generation but if you move forward 10 years later, he hasn't done anything remotely amazing, expect maybe snitching Jennifer Connelly. The best is that Paul Bettany would work again with director Scott Stewart 2 years later for 'Priest' which was equally disappointing. To conclude, even though I have seen worse movies, it is still pretty damned average and not really worth a look.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a vey nice cast, I still wanted to check it out. Basically, it was a decent story but, like I said before, the main attraction was the cast (Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, Liv Tyler, Jennifer Connelly). Back then, they were all very young, their stars were rising and it was pretty neat to see them together, plus, they all gave some decent performances. The best was obviously Joaquin Phoenix. Such a talented actor and I’m really glad is back from his fake retirement. On the other hand, his character was the most developed so he definitely had more to chew on than his colleagues. Still, even though the story was intriguing, it was still nothing really amazing. In fact, it was pretty much like the title. In my opinion, it is a pretty lame title and during the whole thing I couldn’t help thinking ‘Who care about those f*cking Abbotts?!?’. Like I said before, the cast was really good but they deserved a better story all together in my opinion. Still, I thought it was a decent drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I have actually seen this movie but it was already more than 10 years ago when it was released. Back then, there was huge buzz about this flick. Indeed, at that time, it seemed like a good idea to let Tim Burton direct a remake. Fast-forward 10 years later and nowadays we can’t wait to see him finally developing an original idea…. Anyway, a remake had been in development for almost 15 years involving various directors such as Sam Raimi, Oliver Stone, Phillip Noyce, Chuck Russell, Chris Columbus, Roland Emmerich, Michael Bay, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, and the Hughes brothers. So, the expectations were pretty high and most of us thought Tim Burton would deliver the goods. Unfortunately, the whole thing was terribly disappointing, probably the worst thing made by Burton so far. I would go even further by saying that it was worse than any movie made in this franchise which is quite shocking when you think that this new version had a budget 20 times bigger than the classic 1st installment. After re-watching it, it was even more obvious to see what they messed up. First of all, it was quite honorable that they tried to create a really different story but, in the process, they removed most of the coolest elements from the original version such as Taylor wandering on this strange planet, the fact that humans seem to be some wild animals unable to speak and, of course, they completely butchered the legendary ending. I mean, the whole thing looked pretty awesome, above all the make-up and costumes but it is as if they didn’t bother to build up a solid story. Furthermore, the acting was way below average. Back then, Mark Wahlberg was a rising star and it seemed to be a smart move to show up in such a blockbuster but he gave here probably his worst performance I have seen so far. To be honest, the rest of the cast was not much better and even Tim Roth, who looked just awesome, eventually really got on my nerves with his over-the-top psychotic monkey act. Anyway, to conclude, the whole thing was really disappointing, I’m probably being too generous with my rating, but somehow, it is still worth a look just to see those awesome monkeys.

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. I remember it very well, the first time around, since I am a huge fan of ‘Cidade de Deus’, I had some really high expectations with Fernando Meirelles's directing follow up. It was, this time, an international production, a spy thriller written by John Le Carré, and he had also a top cast at his disposal. On top of that, even though it didn’t become an instant classic like his previous feature, it was still critically heralded and Rachel Weisz even won an Academy award for her performance. Well, in spite of all this hype, to be honest, I was slightly disappointed and, after rewatching the damned thing, I still ended up with the same feeling. I mean, I really loved Meirelles's visually style and all the actors involved did deliver some solid performances but, eventually, even though the plot was entertaining, I was hoping for more. At the end of the day, it was a decent but still rather generic conspiracy plot, nothing much more than that I’m afraid and I don't think I really cared much about the combination with this love story. Furthemore, it is always rather disappointing when a story like this one takes place in Africa and there were still barely any African characters involved at all. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was not as great as I expected, it is still a solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Finally, the last movie of this franchise first cycle. Actually, watching those movies went much faster than I expected. Indeed, Nick, my step-son, was completely hooked after the 1st classic installment and so we have been watching all those movies in just a couple of weeks. First of all, you must admit, those guys were pretty productive. Indeed, they managed to make 5 installments in just 6 years. Honestly, I thought the quality would drastically drop following those multiple sequels but I was actually positively surprised, even by this 5th installment. Of course, the whole thing looked pretty cheesy and the characters were rather stereotypical. I mean, there was no much nuances so you had some good men, some bad men, some good apes and some bad apes and not much in between (you could even argue that this flick was actually kind of racist towards gorillas). Still, as usual, they developed some intriguing ideas as you keep following the evolution of this ape civilization. Actually, it is rather funny that ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ (which I haven’t seen yet) was conceived as a prequel since the last 3 movies already functioned as prequels developing the birth and development of those Apes. Anyway, I will find out soon enough. To conclude, even though it was not really mind-blowing whatsoever, it was still a decent sequel and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I have a weak spot for Sydney Pollack’s work and since I’m a huge fan of Paul Newman, I was really eager to check this flick. And, indeed, I thought it was pretty good. It is basically a decent journalistic thriller, quite reminiscent of ‘All The President’s men’, even though it never reaches the same level as this classic. As usual, Pollack delivered some solid directing and Paul Newman was just awesome, absolutely one of my favorite actors and I can’t believe I have seen only 15 of his movies. Sally Field (who was recently nominated at the Academy Awards for ‘Lincoln’) was also pretty good but the love affair between those two was definitely the weakest point in this flick. I mean, it was not that bad, but it was definitely a step down from the gritty realism provided by ‘All The President’s Men’ and a step forward romantic fantasy. Eventually, it all depends which one of those two genres you’d rather have. Still, even though it was nothing ground-breaking, it was still a solid and really entertaining thriller. To conclude, I really enjoyed this flicks and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Somewhere, in the mid- 90’s, Nicolas Cage thought he should become an action star and even though his first attempt was actually pretty decent (‘The Rock’) , the rest has been going from average to downright terrible. This flick is a pretty good example of those tepid features he made in the last 20 years. Apparently, this time, it was a remake from a rather obscure 70’s flick. To be honest, I haven’t seen this movie but it didn’t look great whatsoever but who knows? I might be mistaken… Basically, it is one of those tedious action movies which tries to make you forget that the plot is really abysmal by throwing at you some ‘bad-ass’ action scenes. The only issue is that even though those action scenes were not bad, they were not really impressive enough. Still, I must admit, the cast was pretty neat (Nicolas Cage, Giovanni Ribisi, Angelina Jolie, Scott Caan, Delroy Lindo, Timothy Olyphant, Robert Duvall, Christopher Eccleston, Vinnie Jones). At the end of day, since it is a Jerry Bruckheimer production, I shouldn’t be surprised by the shallowness of the whole endeavor. Concerning Nicolas Cage, he has been focusing on those average action flicks lately and his career is slowly but surely losing any credibility. For example, more than 10 years later, he would be reunited with the same director, Dominic Sena, for the even more dreadful ‘Season of the Witch’… To conclude, even though I have seen worse, especially starring Nicolas Cage, it still remains a rather average flick and it is not really worth a look, even if you love the genre.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but I still wanted to give it a try, especially since I enjoyed a lot Billy Bob Thornton's previous directing effort 'Sling Blade'. Indeed, before making 'Sling Blade', Billy Bob Thornton was a rather struggling actor and basically launched his career by starring in his own movie. It is a rather unusual move but it has been done by some other actors such as Gary Sinise, Sam Neill and even Vin Diesel. I must say I was really amazed by Thornton’s directing debut and I was really intrigued to see his directing follow-up. It was, this time, a much more ambitious project, a romantic Western from a book written by Cormac McCarthy ('No Country for Old Men' and 'The Road') and starring Matt Damon who was, back then, a new rising star. Unfortunately, even though Roger Ebert was really enthusiastic, calling it an 'elegiac Western', I thought it was pretty disappointing. I mean, the directing was solid, with some beautiful landscapes, and the music was really nice too but the story was rather tedious (can you believe that the original cut was 220 minutes?!?). Furthermore, even though Matt Damon is a fine actor, I thought that the Boston native was hardly convincing as a Texan cowboy. I mean, the whole thing was not bad, it definitely had some potential, but Thornton never managed to make it really spellbinding. Anyway, to conclude, even though this flick was rather disappointing, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.