Reviews by johanlefourbe

Honestly, I have never heard of this movie before but since   I have a weak spot for Robert Duvall, I thought I should give it a try anyway. It seems that Robert Duvall is a huge football (soccer in the US) fan, that's why he was interested in  this project in the first place. Anyway, I thought it was a decent and entertaining sport flick, no more, no less.  It follows faithfully the traditional formula and, unfortunaly, they didn't add anything new or original, preventing the whole thing from being more spellbinding to watch. Still, there were enough uplifting moments and Robert Duvall was, once again, pretty awesome in one of his typical no non-sense performances. To conclude, it is a well made and entertaining sport feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. (it is the only movie I'm the only one to have see here in listal, rather weird actually...).

I'm a huge Michael Caine fan and since the ratings concerning this flick were pretty good here on Listal and on IMDB, I was definitely eager to check it out. Eventually, even though the whole thing was rather intriguing, I can't say I was really blown away. First of all, there were 2 small things that bothered me. First, the music was terribly annoying and distracting. You know, it was one of those awful 80's soundtracks with some awful keyboards... Secondly, I thought that Julie Walters looked way too old for the part. I mean, she was supposed to be 26 but looked 36, eventually she was in fact 33 years old when she made this movie. But those were small critics. What really bothered me was the way Julie Walters started as an ignorant working class girl and ended up as someone completely different, some educated and articulated young woman. It was displayed as if the working class was kind of stupid and worthless and as if educated people are way smarter and interesting. It felt rather awkward and rather bothered me. Furthermore, like Roger Ebert pointed out, it is one of those movies when they are constantly claiming that they are reading tons of books but you don't feel that anything is actually really happening. Still, I can't dismiss this flick. Indeed, Michael Caine was really great, completely spellbinding to watch and gave one of his best performances (As a matter of fact, it is his favourite film of his own, and the performance he's the most proud of). Anyway, to conclude, even though the whole thing was rather disapppointing, it remains an interesting movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are a fan of his work.

I have noticed that this movie doesn't get much love here on Listal and on IMDB but, personally, I thought it was really good. First of all, it was the official coronation of Georges Clooney who finally got his academy award and I think he really deserved the damned thing but I think that the rest of the cast was really good too (Christopher Plummer, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet). Basically, it is one of those hyperlink plots where several stories are more or less intertwined together. You might think it is a tired gimmick by now but I have definitely a weak spot for this kind of stories, especially when they are well written like this one. Furthermore, it deals with politics which I found a fascinating subject and I'm a real sucker for movies dealing with this subject. So, they put all those elements together and it just worked very well and I thought that the whole thing was pretty spellbinding to watch. To conclude, even though it might be not very original, I thought it was a very well made and entertaining flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though I had some rather low expectations concerning this flick, since there was a nice cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Unfortunately, the whole thing turned out to be pretty disappointing. First of all, I have seen none of those Barbershop flicks and after seeing this spin-off, I don't really feel up to it... I mean, there was indeed a nice cast (Queen Latifah, Alicia Silverstone, Andie MacDowell, Alfre Woodard, Mena Suvari, Kimora Lee, Kevin Bacon, Djimon Hounsou) but except for Queen Latifah and Djimon Hounsou, all the actors involved were way over the top and it was just plain annoying. For example, I'm still not sure what to make of Kevin Bacon's performance. On one hand, it was pretty impressive because he was barely recognizable, he looked so different, he talked and moved like a totally different person but, on the other hand, it felt really forced so I still have to figure this one out. Anyway, above all, I thought the plot was awfully pedestrian and just plain boring. Queen Latifah was, as usual, very charismatic, she tried very hard and carried the whole thing on her shoulders but it wasn't enough to make this flick entertaining to me. To conclude, I thought it was pretty tedious and it is not really worth a look.

Since I have a weak spot for D.J. Caruso's work, I was definitely eager to check this flick. Eventually, it was one of the most frustrating movies I have ever seen.. Indeed, I was pissed off during most of its duration. Why? Because the whole thing really had some potential but the end result was rather laughable. I mean, before this, Caruso had made 'The Salton Sea', a flawed but interesting debut, and with this second feature, he shows again that he is a very talented director. Furthermore, there was an awesome cast (Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland, Gena Rowlands, Olivier Martinez, Tchéky Karyo, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Paul Dano, Justin Chatwin) and they all gave some solid performances. So, what went wrong then? The issue was the story itself. Basically, half of it was rather interesting and entertaining but the other half was honestly total garbage. Indeed, the whole thing was just very convoluted with some really annoying twists. It never stops to amaze me that almost every single US thrillers have to end with one of multiple improbable twists and you always get these remarks from some viewers 'I didn't see it coming!'. Of course, you didn't, but it doesn't mean it is any good, it was just made for this effect and it is completely preposterous. To conclude, even though the whole thing had some potential, I thought it was rather disappointing and it don't think it is really worth a look.

I wasn't really planning to see this flick but Linsey, my step-daughter, came home with a pirated version of this movie that just came out so I thought I should give it a try anyway. Well, the lack of inspiration in Hollywood has become pretty obvious since, after the sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes, book adaptations, comic-books, tv-shows, the only thing left seems to be a board game.... Anyway, honestly, I thought the whole thing was pretty boring. Indeed, the introduction was really tiresome and tideous and then the rest was just a mix of various movies going from the obvious 'Transformers', 'Independence Day', 'Predator' and even 'Titanic'. I felt pretty bad for Taylor Kitsch who was supposed to be the next big star but since this movie was rather underwhelming and 'John Carter' was a huge flop, I wonder what will happen to him after this debacle. And I felt even worse for Liam Neeson... Such a good actor and such a waste of talent. I know, I shouldn't take this movie seriously, it was supposed to be a dumb movie and it was dumb with some decent special effects but the whole thing was seriously barely entertaining. To conclude, even though it was technically rather well made, the whole thing was just tedious to watch and it is not really worth a look.

Raoul Ruiz is not really well known here in listal but he is actually a quite interesting director. He actually died just last year but he had a productive career, directing more than 100 movies. Even though he was Chilean, most of those movies were made in France as he fled his homecountry from Pinochet's dictatoship. Anyway, I heard a lot about the guy so I was really intrigued by his work and when I finally got the opportunity to get acquainted, I was rather thrilled. This time around, he worked with a pretty good cast (Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli , Melvil Poupaud, Bernadette Lafont, Mathieu Amalric) and, I, above all, enjoyed Catherine Deneuve who is still one of the best actress at work nowadays. The story was pretty weird and sometimes pretty hard to follow but it was obviously not the point here. Indeed, the whole thing was more about the symbolims, some kind of meta-narration, if you see what I mean (I'm not even sure I understand what I'm saying...). Anyway, evn though I don't think I got the whole thing, I still enjoyed it because a challenging complicated smart movie is always better than a dumbed down blockbuster. To conclude, I thought it was pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I have already seen this flick a few years back but I thought it was time for a rewatch with Nick, my step-son. And, once again, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Indeed, I'm a huge fan of 'Dark City' and it was pretty cool to see Alex Proyas directing a big-budget SF flick. First of all, the whole thing looked pretty awesome (it did help that I watched it on my new purchased HD TV and even newer HD recorder. Good times!). Furthermore, I thought it was a rather smart blockbuster. Obviously, it doesn't reach Bergman's level but I thought it was pretty decent for a commercial feature. Indeed, I though that there were some interesting ideas about robots and their supposedly lack of consciouness. Still, they get side-tracked pretty often by some action scenes which were pretty awesome but I was personally more intrigued by the psychological side of the story. Anyway, this movie is another piece of evidence that Will Smith knows how to pick up his projects. Indeed, even though they are usually blockbusters and makes some huge money, they are almost always interesting (ok, 'Wild Wild West' didn't work very well but everybody is entitled to make a mistake once in a while). To conclude, I thought it was a decent and entertaining SF blockbuster and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Raoul Ruiz is not really well known here in listal but he is actually a quite interesting director. He actually died in 2011 but he had a productive career, directing more than 100 movies. Even though he was Chilean, most of those movies were made in France as he fled his home-country from Pinochet's dictatorship. Anyway, I heard a lot about the guy so I was really intrigued by his work and when I finally got the opportunity to get acquainted, I was rather thrilled. Even though I don't think this movie was really amazing, I still think it was pretty good. Indeed, first of all, you have a very good cast (Marcello Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud, Chiara Mastroianni, Arielle Dombasle, Smaïn) and I especially enjoyed the late Marcello Mastroianni who was definitely one of the best actors ever. I also enjoyed the story which was pretty surrealistic, a trademark in Ruiz work. Still, even though the story was all right, I missed a lot of the symbolism (I'm not smart enough, I guess...) and I thought the pacing was rather sluggish but it is inherent to the genre, I'm afraid.  To conclude, it is a pretty good surrealistic flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

When is the last time you saw a good movie starring Robert De Niro? I keep watching most of his new movies but most of it is just crap and after all this disappointment, it was time to rewatch a good old flick to redeem the guy. Among all the masterpieces De Niro and Scorsese made together, it is one of the least appreciated ones and it was a flop when it came out which is not really surprising. Indeed, it is a comedy but the whole thing is just so dark, so sardonic, it can't be compared to your average commercial comedic feature. That's probably why I enjoyed it whereas I usually don't care much about comedies. Once again, the directing was really awesome with here and there some pacing issues but nothing major and some amazing performances (Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard). It is also gives a grim and, I'm afraid, realistic view on the whole fandom/stalker concept. The great thing about this movie is that you never know if you should laugh or be afraid by the whole thing which is probably why the average audience dimissed it and it is exactly why I actually enjoyed it so much. Still, I'm not so sure about the ending. On one hand, it is really fascinating and provides a great twist to the whole thing, blaming Langford, the audience, everybody and shows how ridiculous the whole system is. On the other hand, where they make sure during the whole thing that Pupkin is displayed as a maniacal incapable moron, suddenly, with this ending, he becomes some kind of genius and a great comedian. Still, it is another great movie by the great duo Scorsese/De Niro and it is definitely worth a look.