Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I had it on DVD, I was quite eager to check it out again. Apparently, before making this movie, Billy Bob Thornton was a struggling actor and he 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. Indeed, at first, you think it might be about a deranged killer who is let loose in the real world and goes back killing some more people but it was much more than that. Indeed, it was in fact one of the most fascinating character studies I have ever seen. Not only Thornton’s directing was pretty good, his acting was quite amazing as well. Basically, he completely disappeared behind the character and changed his face, his walk, his body language, his speech and there was not a single moment when he stepped out of character. There were a couple of moments when I thought they made Karl sound a little too smart just to fit the needs of the script but it was something really minor. I was also impressed by a very young Lucas Black. Black would eventually end up playing the very same character in every single movie (‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’, ‘Friday Night Lights’, ‘Jarhead’) but, as a child, he was quite amazing. On the downside, the whole thing was filled with some awfully decent people, except for one terrible douche bag which happened to be there only to make sure that they will be a dramatic climax at the end. Furthermore, there was also this one scene which really blew me away. At first, it seemed rather odd that Frank’s mother would let Karl so suddenly live with them when she didn’t know him at all. But then, when he finally told her what happened in his past, I thought she would really freak out and throw him out of the house but, no, she told him to sit down and fixed him some biscuits! I was really floored by this scene which was so refreshing because she reacted completely against expectation. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was a very impressive drama and, if you, like me, didn’t care much for ‘Forrest Gump’ and would rather watch something grim, bleak and realistic, you should definitely check this one out.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick, but since I have a weak spot for Micheal Douglas, I thought I should give it a try anyway. At first, it seemed to be a rather promising thriller. I mean, you had a pretty good cast (Michael Douglas, Brittany Murphy, Sean Bean, Jennifer Esposito, Famke Janssen, Oliver Platt), the mood was pretty good and a thriller taking place in a psychiatric hospital always has something intriguing in my opinion. Unfortunately, this movie didn’t hold up to those good promises and pretty quickly became just another average flick. Indeed, even though the late Brittany Murphy gave a decent performance, there was no real depth given to the whole psychological thing and it was quite difficult to take it seriously. And it was the same thing concerning Micheal Douglas. I mean, the guy gave his usual solid performance but it was just really unconvincing to see this child psychiatrist getting involved in all those action scenes. Above all, I thought the story was just truly disappointing. Indeed, basically, it is just a long succession of unbelievable twists and I stopped caring about the whole thing way before the ending approached. To conclude, even though there is a pretty cool cast, they are all wasted here, eventually, it is just a really average thriller and it is not really worth a look.

When I was a kid back in France, when I used to go to the videostore to rent some videos, I would always get petrified by the VHS cover of this movie. I was just 10 years old or something like that and I thought there was something really unsettling about it. Eventually, it took me about 8 more years to finally get the nerves to watch it and, eventually, it was not as hardcore as I thought it would be. In the mean time, I already saw 'Braindead' so I was already aware of the fact that it wouldn't be too scary. Anyway, for Peter Jackson, it was the start of a very interesting career. Basically, like some other directors like Christopher Nolan, David Lynch or Kevin Smith, he shot this movie on the week-ends with a bunch of friends and since it got enough attention, his film career was launched. Personally, I thought it was pretty good, especially considering that it was his directing debut but it was still a little too random and messy for my taste. Indeed, there was never a script for the movie and each scene was filmed from ideas Peter Jackson had come up with during the week. Still, it remains a fun movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

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, once again, I wasn't disappointed. Indeed, it remains such a fascinating thriller. Somehow, it did remind me of 'Zodiac' in the way that the main character was obsessed with this case for 25 years. At first, I wonder how they would manage to keep my attention since I (thought I) knew how it would end. Eventually, many unsuspected things happened and I was captivated until the end which was quite impressive as well. I usually don't care much about such twist endings but this one gave much food for thought. I mean, did the murderer really get his rightfull punishment? Didn't Morales become a monster by treating this man this way? Didn't he throw his whole life away to get his revenge which basically meant for him to take care of his worst enemy for the rest of his life? Just like the rest of this movie, it was really intriguing and thought provoking. Basically, this flick takes its time to develop some very interesting characters, even the smaller ones, instead of throwing at us some typical boring gimmicks. Even the unconsumed love story was quite fascinating and the fact that they never ended up with each other made complete sense considering the way the characters were developed. Anyway, to conclude, it is absolutely one of the best thrillers I have seen lately and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though I have always been interested in Asian movies, I've never been really familiar with Shohei Imamura's work (as a matter of fact, without counting this flick, I have seen only one other full length feature and a short). Still, since this movie won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film festival back then in 1997, I was really eager to check it out. Eventually, it is a rather strange flick mixing various genres with more or less success. Like most of Asian Art movies, the whole thing is rather cryptic and I'm pretty sure I didn't get most of the symbolism. Still, I'd rather watch a movie like this which doesn't give some straight answers and let me think than your usual Hollywood production where everything is completely dumbed down in order to reach the biggest audience. So, it is rather slow and somethimes a little tedious but I still liked it anyway, I enjoyed Shohei Imamura's directing and I will check his other movies when I get the opportunity. To conclude, even though it is definitely an acquired taste, I still think it is pretty good and it is absolutely worth a look, especially if you're interested in Asian movies.

Once when I went to see my sister in France, I borrowed her a box-set with some documentaries directed by Raymond Depardon. Depardon is pretty much unknown here in Listal and also abroad, I guess, but he has a decent reputation in France, above all, as a documentary maker (as a matter of fact, I have seen none of his fictions but I’m not sure if they are any good). Personally, I really like his directing style. Indeed, there is no comment whatsoever, no music added. Basically, you have to make it up on your own the significance of what you just saw and I thought it was a rather spellbinding approach. This time, he was allowed to film some civil hearings which is something quite exceptional since it has never happened before in France. Here, we are really far from the glamour and excitement of your typical Hollywood feature and the only thing you get is the sober reality of some usually mundane proceedings but it gives a really striking view on common people. To conclude, I thought it was a really well made and rather fascinating documentary and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this genre.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Tim Roth and Gabriel Byrne and since I found a very cheap DVD, I thought I should check it out anyway. Honestly, I thought it was a very weak thriller. Basically, you have two half-baked plots (Scott Wolf is chasing a serial killer and Tim Roth is chasing Scott Wolf) and you have way too many sub-plots, including two romantic ones, which were even less properly developed. Apparently, it was Keith Snyder’s directing debut and he has never made another movie afterwards but I can’t say it was really surprising. I mean, the directing was not really bad but there was an obvious lack of inspiration and it felt really generic. Above all, I thought the acting was actually quite terrible. Scott Wolf, like most of the cast of ‘Party of Five', tried to develop a career on the silver screen but, except for ‘Go’ which was pretty cool, he only made terrible movies such as this one. The rest of the cast was not more convincing either. I mean, Gabriel Byrne was completely underused and it was as if Tim Roth was sleepwalking throughout his whole performance. I think that there were some good ideas and it could have been something interesting but the execution was quite disappointing. To conclude, it is a rather obscure and forgotten thriller but it really deserves this reputation and I don’t think it is really worth a look whatsoever.

If I remember correctly, I have seen this remake before the original version starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw. In my opinion, the first thing we should take into account is that whether the original version was good enough to require a remake or not? I’m not so sure. I mean, I enjoyed the Steve McQueen vehicle and it was a rather entertaining flick but the story was nothing really mind-blowing. Still, I have to admit, it was pretty neat to have Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger in the title roles. It is also rather funny to think that, back then, Baldwin was trying to be the macho leading man whereas he has nowadays built up a career as a funny supporting actor. There was here also a pretty neat supporting cast (Michael Madsen, James Woods, David Morse, Jennifer Tilly, Richard Farnsworth, Philip Seymour Hoffman) and it was definitely still a long way for Hoffman before becoming an Academy Award winner. Still, even though there were a few interesting things about this movie, it still remained a rather uninspired action flick with a really pedestrian plot. To conclude, I didn’t really like this movie, I thought it was rather boring and it is not really worth a look in my opinion.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick. I mean, even though I definitely enjoyed ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, I always had some mixed feelings about this movie. Furthermore, even though Johnny Depp is right now the most popular actor from Hollywood, I didn’t like much his recent work and is slowly but surely becoming one of the most overrated actors at work nowadays. Anyway, eventually, I thought this movie was rather disappointing. I mean, it was not bad at all but I could have been so much better than this. Above all, I thought the tone was just wrong. Indeed, even though we are supposed to be dealing with some major alcoholists, I thought that the whole thing was terribly sober. Of course, it shouldn’t be too similar to ‘ Fear and Loathing…’ but there should have been a little more mayhem and it should have been a more messy. It is like the directing, it was rather decent with some nice shots and an interesting use of colors but that was exactly the problem. The whole thing looked just way too neat and clean. Furthermore, except for Kemp , none of the other characters were properly developed, they remained really sketchy and you never got the change to know them a little bit. Concerning Kemp, I must admit that Johnny Depp gave a solid performance but, still, I wasn’t really sure what to make of his character. Was he a loser alcoholic ? A great idealistic writer ? A wasted half crazy talent? At the end, you have a text explaining that he got back to New York, married the girl and became a famous writer… While watching this, I thought ‘ You gotta to be kidding me…’. It was really unbelievable… Eventually, I never felt much excitement about Kemp’ s adventures in Puerto Rico and I honestly never felt that he himself was having a good time either. To conclude, I think there was there somewhere a pretty good flick but the end-result was rather disappointing. Still, if you are fan of Johnny Depp, I still believe it is worth a look though.

We often talk about how many actors managed to make some impressive come-backs in their career such as John Travolta, Robert Downey Jr. or Mickey Rourke but, very often, we tend to forget that for some directors, the path was also pretty hazardous and David O. Russell is one perfect example. Indeed, after helming 3 movies, he was hailed as the next best thing. Unfortunately, even though Russell was definitely a talented director, he also had some issues and he got the reputation of being quite impossible to work with (Among other things George Clooney punched him while shooting ‘Three Kings’ and he had a major falling out with Mark Wahlberg after working with him on 3 movies over a decade because Russell cast Bradley Cooper as the lead instead of Wahlberg in his last movie). Anyway, as a result, Russell managed to make only one movie between 1999 and 2010, the barely seen ‘I Heart Huckabees’. Fortunately for him, he made a major comeback in 2010 with ‘The Fighter’ which was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award and there is good chance that his last movie, ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, will be nominated as well. Anyway, way before this, before his breakthrough with ‘Three Kings’, David O. Russell directed this small wacky comedy and I thought it was pretty good. Indeed, there was a very good cast (Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, George Segal, Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin, Richard Jenkins, Josh Brolin), they delivered some solid performances and there were some seriously hilarious scenes. The main issue I had is that the story was honestly rather stupid. Ok, Ben Stiller wants to meet his biological parents, that’s fine but he keeps meeting the wrong folk and every time he has to get back on the road. It was honestly a rather limited concept. Still, thanks to the great dialogs and the actors involved, I really enjoyed it anyway. To conclude, even though I’m usually rather critical about comedies, I really liked this one and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.