Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, it was actually rather difficult to judge this movie. Indeed, I saw the original French version of this story only 7 months before and it  both movies were terribly similar story wise, so this American version felt yet like another pointless remake. Especially the fact that they remade it only 2 years later was rather puzzling to me. I mean, does the American audience absolutely need some recognizable stars to get into a movie? Eventually, this audience didn’t care anyway for this remake as it was a flop when it was released and it seems that Paul Haggis has a hard time find back his mojo as a director. Indeed, Haggis, who was first known as a screenwriter, suddenly reached stardom by surprisingly winning the Best Picture Academy Award for ‘Crash’ in 2004. His following directing effort ‘In the Valley of Elah’ was a also a flop but I really loved this movie. Anyway, this remake was not really a good strategic choice and, like I said before, it didn’t fare well at the box-office. Still, it turned out to be a decent thriller after all. Indeed, the directing was solid, even slightly better than the original version and, above all, it remains a entertaining story, even if what they added didn’t work very well. For example, the whole detour to the zoo was really not necessary and it was added just to create some fake tension. The near car crash during this detour was even more preposterous. The point was that the original story was already pretty far-fetched so to add even more ludicrous elements actually weakened the story. Concerning the actors, even though Russell Crowe was not bad, in my opinion, he was actually rather miscast. Indeed, to portray this character, this average teacher, you shouldn’t have the same guy who also played Maximus… Indeed, as soon as the action stuff began, the original character completely disappeared and that was too bad. Olivia Wilde was also miscast as a young mother when she was only 26 years old at the time. Indeed, it is always annoying when they cast a much too young girl for such a part just too add some sex-appeal. Still, in spite of it flaws, although it was a rather useless remake, I have a really weak spot for this story, it was still an entertaining thriller and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. To be honest, it is rather difficult to judge this movie so many years later after its release, especially considering the fact that the 4 sequels that followed were so disappointing and, honestly, just some rather expensive garbage. But how was this first installment? Honestly, I didn’t remember that it was so interminable, seriously, they could have easily cut 30 mins or even longer. Still, I thought it was not bad at all, especially since I didn’t have some really high expectations. Indeed, you have to give that to Michael Bay, those robots looked really awesome and the action scenes were really neat. One thing that was great with this movie is that you really had the feeling you were watching something new and quite thrilling, whereas with the sequels, there was a terrible sense of ‘déjà vu’ and the whole gimmick was getting rather tiresome (However, this aspect works much less when you rewatch the damned thing, I’m afraid). Furthermore, I thought that Shia LaBeouf was seriously charismatic and really funny in this. Back then, his career was really exploding but after starring in some of the biggest blockbusters ever made, he decided to do something completely different with his career. So, it was a really fun movie and I enjoyed most of it. Of course, it was far from being a masterpiece though and many elements didn’t work out. For example, to make us believe that someone like Megan Fox’s character would fall for a guy like Sam Witwicky was just rather pathetic. The other major weak point was that they put the focus way too much on the human characters and the robots were just some supporting characters when they should have been central to the story. Of course, since it was a huge box-office success, they decided to make some sequels and I think the mistake they made was to keep Michael Bay as a director. I mean, he did actually a decent job on this first installment but he didn’t even try to make something interesting out of these sequels whereas another director could have bring something new, something fresh to this franchise. Anyway, even though the sequels were terribly weak, this first installment was actually a decent, fun and entertaining blockbuster and it is worth a look.

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Richard Gere and Claire Danes, I thought I should give it a try anyway. Honestly, the whole thing had some potential, the material (an overzealous and obsessed public servant follows some sexual offenders) was really interesting and even though it was rather clumsy, the first half was not bad at all. Unfortunately, in the second half, from the moment they went to this ‘House of Pain’, the whole thing just became a pathetic and incoherent mess. Concerning the ‘House of Pain’, how did they get there? How is possible that such place would exist with some registered sexual offender(s) ? Furthermore, the biggest strength of this movie was Babbage's struggle as the guy did this job for far too long and now was clearly losing it. However, in the second half, they chose a path which completely shattered this idea. Indeed, basically, every single hunch Babbage had in the 1st half, happened to become 100% true (about Edmund Grooms, about Viola Frye, about Glenn Curtis). So, instead of being a very troubled man losing his mind, he became a misunderstood crime genius which was just really disappointing. Furthermore, the guy was a public servant, not a g*d*mned cop, it didn’t make any sense to make him/them investigate this case like this. Concerning Richard Gere, honestly, sometimes he can be quite good but, this time, he just gave one of his wooden performances and he was not really convincing. Concerning Claire Danes, I thought she was better than Gere but I thought it was utterly unconvincing to make us believe that such a pretty girl would be the perfect candidate for a job which basically consists of some daily confrontations with some registered sexual offenders. I was really surprised to find out afterwards that the director, Andrew Lau, was the same guy who made ‘Infernal Affairs’, one of my favorite Asian movies. Anyway, to conclude, even though the material was pretty good, the end result was rather disappointing and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

I remember, when I saw the trailer, I seriously thought it could be pretty badass but then I heard only bad things about this flick so I wasn't that enthusiast anymore. Well, it must have been one of the most misleading trailer I have ever seen. I mean, there were a few nice action scenes but nothing remotely badass like I saw in this trailer. Basically, it was some kind of mix between 'Black Hawk Down' and 'War of the World'. The big difference is that Jonathan Liebesman definitely doesn't play in the same league as Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg, that's for sure. I mean, you could argue that the story was pretty weak concerning 'War of the World' but, at least, Spielberg knew how to create some excitement from this story. Here, you just have a bunch of faceless soldiers going from one point to another without much coherence and, somehow, miraculously, they manage to save the city. I still believe that the concept had some potential but the whole thing was just terribly underwhelming. On the positive side, Aaron Eckhart remains a very dependable actor, probably one of the most underrated actors at work nowadays, and he did what he could with this thankless job (Apparently, he said he never had so much fun in a movie before and he would love to return for a sequel. What a terrible idea...). To conclude, it was yet another piece of evidence that you should never judge a movie by its trailer, it was just a very weak SF feature and it is not really worth a look, even if you love the genre.

Even though Peter Weir is a very highly regarded director, he has made only 2 movies since 'The Truman Show' was released in 1998. I thought that 'Master and Commander' was rather disappointing and even though his last movie was better, I still thought it was rather underwhelming. Indeed, even though this true (which might be a fake) story sounded really amazing on paper, I'm afraid it wasn't so amazing as a film. Basically, you follow those men and this young woman walking for miles and that's about it. Every once in a while, it seems that they will run out of water or food but, in the nick of time, they always find salvation. This pattern was repeated several times and, at some point, it got really tiresome above all since you already knew that they would survive. Nothing much else occurred even when they encounter Saoirse Ronan, they just kept endlessly on walking. The weird thing is that even though there were not so many characters and even though you spend more than 2 hours with them, you never get to really know them at all and, as a result, they were all reduced to some stereotypes (the leader, the old wise man, the cook/artist, the funny guy, the priest, the thief and the innocent girl). Still, it remains an impressive tale, the directing was solid and the cast was pretty good so I more or less enjoyed it but I think I'm rather generous with my rating here. To conclude, it remains a decent flick and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Peter Weir's work.

Honestly, I have never heard of this movie before and, if I recall correctly, I ended up watching it just because it was on the TV. Apparently, it was Santiago Amigorena’s directing debut. Once again, to be honest, I have never heard of this guy before but apparently it is a guy from Argentina who built up a career as a screenwriter (‘Upside Down’, ‘Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)’, ‘Bon plan’, ‘Peut-être’, ‘Post coïtum animal triste’) and Juliette Binoche was with him at the time which would explain her involvement in this movie. Anyway, I thought it was not bad at all. Basically, it is a spy movie but something completely different than James Bond or Jason Bourne. Indeed, there was not much action here and the whole thing was more about some obscure characters who seem to be some spies dealing with some osbcure business. I make it sound rather cryptic and it is exactly how the movie was and it was its major appeal but also its major flaw. Indeed, on one hand, I enjoyed this different approach but, on the other hand, very often, I had no idea what was going on and it was rather frustrating. Still, the directing was solid and there was a very nice cast (Juliette Binoche, John Turturro, Nick Nolte). To conclude, even though the whole thing was rather flawed, I thought it was an original spy feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

After hearing here and there that this movie was great (it was even the best movie released in 2011 according to IMDb for a while), I was really curious to check it out. Eventually, I thought it was a solid and entertaining super-hero flick but I can’t say I was really blown away by the whole thing. I mean, the story was decent, there was an awesome cast and it was fun but, honestly, except for moving the action to the 60’s and give us some younger versions for (some of) the characters, there was honestly nothing really revolutionary about this prequel. After 4 movies, I’m actually pretty much done with this struggle concerning the X-men whether they should exterminate human-kind or accept that they will be always considered as some weird freakish outcasts. It was interesting during the 1st two movies but now, it’s getting rather tiresome and I wish they would move on towards something else. Furthermore, pretty much like any other X-men feature, there was again the same issue that there was just way too many characters involved and, except for 2 of them, the rest was not developed and they were basically limited to do a few tricks from time to time. Still, even though it was nothing amazing, I still enjoyed this flick. Indeed, there was one thing that made this movie stand out from the rest of your average super-hero movies and it was the relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. Even though the rest of the movie was pretty standard, those 2 characters were very well written and their relationship, how it started, how it evolved, was really interesting. Furthermore, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender both gave some very good performances so I was really hooked when both men were on the screen. To conclude, even though I tend to think this movie is rather overrated, it is indeed one of the better super-hero movies out there and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

John Carpenter’s movies have always been appreciated by the remakers and, so far, already 4 of his classics have been remade (‘The Thing’, ‘The Fog’, ‘Halloween’ and of course ‘Assault on Precinct 13’) . However, this time, if I’m not mistaken, Carpenter picked up the director himself and chose Jean-Francois Richet, a rather unknown French director at least abroad who made some solid flicks in France so I was really curious to see the end-result. Unfortunately, it is quite common for European or Foreign directors to make their debut in America with a remake and, usually, the outcome is pretty disappointing. And indeed, unfortunately for Richet, his American debut was far from being impressive, I’m afraid. I have to confess, I first saw this remake and then many years later, the original version made by Carpenter but after seeing the real thing, the issue with this remake was even more obvious. In my opinion, the first version was pretty good but nothing really amazing but, above all, most of the choice made concerning this flick were made because there was basically not enough money and to remake this with a budget ten times bigger didn’t make much sense. The fact that it looked cheap made it in fact more appealing and it was definitely part of its charm. Furthermore, this time, they modified the plot and basically removed the darker tone, the political/sociological message and instead, they gave us some rather standard action fare with some really annoying multiple twists. I’ll give you that, there was a pretty neat cast (Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne, Maria Bello, Drea de Matteo, John Leguizamo) but, a part from that, there was not much to enjoy with this remake. To conclude, I thought it was a rather disappointing action flick and it is not really worth a look in my opinion.

Since I enjoyed both previous movies made by Wayne Kramer, ‘The Cooler’ an underrated and overlooked gem and ‘Running Scared’ a somewhat overrated but still pretty cool cult classic, I was definitely eager to check his following directing effort. This time, the material was once again really interesting and he had a massive cast at his disposal. Basically, it is one of those hyperlink features with various tales more or less connected with each other. Unfortunately, except for one very good segment, I thought the whole thing was rather underwhelming. Indeed, there was this very good bit about a teenage Muslim girl who wrote a heartfelt but very controversial essay about 09/11. Since she is just a teenager, she obviously didn’t fully realize the awful repercussions this essay would have on her family. This story was powerful and really heartbreaking and even though some of the other stories were rather interesting, none of them reached the intensity displayed in this segment which surprisingly didn’t feature any of the big name actors. There were a couple of things that also bothered me in this movie. First of all, Ashley Judd had one really messed up eyebrow (probably the result of some bad plastic surgery) and she looked half-astonished each time she showed up. I know, it was something rather trivial but I thought it was really distracting. The other thing that bothered me were all those nude scenes starring Alice Eve. Don’t misunderstand me, she looked really stunning and I really don’t mind nudity in a movie. But what was the point to show her not once but maybe 4 or 5 times completely naked? I thought it was really gratuitous and actually really exploitative. To conclude, it is a flawed movie and apparently Harvey Weinstein has recut the movie without Wayne Kramer and removed 30 minutes, but even so most of the stories were not compelling enough. Still, since I’m myself an immigrant, son of an immigrant, it remains a dear subject to me and I think it is worth a look.

Honestly, for many years, I have been defending Nicolas Cage, arguing that he is actually a very good actor but the amount of garbage he has been making lately is quite remarkable. I know many of us would categorize this movie as yet another Cage piece of turd but it was actually not bad at all, at least that’s my opinion. Of course, it is not a masterpiece whatsoever but what did you expect exactly?!? It is and remains after all a blockbuster produced by Jerry Bruckheimer so if you expected something award worthy, you’ll be disappointed. Personally, I have to confess, ever since I have seen Indiana Jones as a kid, I always had a weak spot for those treasure hunting movies and this one was not an exception. Of course, it never comes near the level of awesomeness of the original Indiana Jones trilogy but I thought it was entertaining enough. Of course, the plot was really preposterous and to try to make us believe that Nicolas Cage could be a scientist was downright laughable but it was never meant to be a serious flick, it was meant to be a fun feature and as such, it was rather successful. Furthermore, the action scenes were decent and the cast was pretty neat (Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Plummer) so what else should you ask for? To conclude, in my opinion, I think it is actually a rather entertaining blockbuster and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre but don’t expect anything amazing though.