Reviews by johanlefourbe

James Foley is not a really famous director but he has made a few notable flicks such as 'Glengarry Glen Ross'. He has also made this forgotten gem which is easily one of his best efforts. However, even though the directing was indeed rather decent, the main attraction was to see Sean Penn and Christopher Walken portraying son and father. As expected, they were quite amazing, eclipsing the rest of the cast which was actually rather decent (Mary Stuart Masterson, Chris Penn, David Strathairn, Kiefer Sutherland, Crispin Glover). Apparently, Robert De Niro turned down the father part because he thought it was too dark but I'm glad Walken took over since he gave here one of his best performances. Even though Christopher Walken shows up sometimes it some rather dubious productions (apparently, he loves so much his work that he never says no to a part), I think he is a terrific actor and if you have any doubt, you should check this movie. Against him, you have a rather young Sean Penn and he was just as impressive. Even though you could argue that the plot is not really original, you can't deny how intense the confrontation was between those two actors. To conclude, even though it is pretty much forgotten, it is actually a pretty strong drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I kept coming across this movie, I was really intrigued by it. Furthermore, the ratings were pretty decent so I was really eager to check this it out. Eventually, it turned out to be one of the best romantic comedies I have seen in a very long time. Indeed, to start with, the story felt really touching and all the characters very well written and very well portrayed. For once, the whole thing was not based on some lame concept and some stereotypical figures but you could feel that especially the writers spent a good amount of time to make sure that their characters were 3 dimensional. I also liked the fact that it took place during a specific time period and I also enjoyed the political background, even though they didn't do much with it. Still, I was missing something and it felt short of being really remarkable. The point is that even though they hit the right note remarkably often, they still remained in the safe zone and never really pushed the boundaries of the genre. Furthermore, at the end, they really force on you this happy end as if the audience couldn't handle a sad romance which ends badly. Still, there are many things to enjoy here, I thought it was pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I have a weak spot for Denzel Washington, I was definitely eager to check this flick. You may have forgot it but Denzel Washington had to thank his breakthrough to Edward Zwick when he was cast in 'Glory' resulting in his 1st Academy Award. So, this was the 2nd time they worked together but this time, he was the lead. Eventually, it was a solid military thriller. One of the most intriguing aspect in this movie was the cast. Indeed, another prominent star in this prodution was Meg Ryan who was trying to be seen as a serious actress and she could have developped a more various career like other actresses like Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock or Reese Witherspoon. Eventually, even though it was a decent attempt, she would always remain the queen of the romantic comedies and when don't hear much from her anymore. Actually, the best performance was eventually provided by no one less than Matt Damon who was totally unknown at the time. Damon gave a rather heartbreaking performance as a soldier drug addict losing 40 pounds which seems rather excessive since he was on screen for less than 15 minutes. However, it seemed that it was worth it since that, thanks to this performance, he was eventually noticed by Francis Ford Coppola who offered him the leading role in 'The Rainmaker' and by Steven Spielberg who hired to play the title character in 'Saving Private Ryan'. Coming back to the movie itself, like I said before, it is a rather entertaining military thriller but like any Hollywood thriller, it had to end up with some rather convoluted twist which is something that always disappoints me. Still, it is and remains a decent flick and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I already saw this movie but since it was ages ago, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, to be honest, while rewatching it, I was surprised by how little I actually remembered the damned thing. For example, I didn't remember that it was so long (around 4 hours) but I have to admit that the time passed by fairly quickly which is always a good sign. Anyway, it is definitely an epic love story which has been the highest grossing movie ever made (adjusted for inflation) forever and, even if it didn't really blow me away, I still could see why it was so loved and was such a success. Eventually, what still bothered me was mostly the portrayal of the black people in this picture. Indeed, the whole point of the Civil war was actually to dictate the fate of the black community, something the Confederate states obviously didn't care at all, and yet, this movie never seemed to really care about its black characters either as they were all poorly developed or even sometimes reduced to some really insensitive caricatures. As a result, during the whole thing, I couldn't shake the idea that the plot was about the poor love life of some rich slave owners and not much more than that. Still, the rest of the movie was quite impressive though. Above all, Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable produced here one of the most memorable and fascinating couples ever put on the screen. To be honest, I didn't expect Rhett Butler to dump Scarlett O'Hara at the end but it was quite powerful and it became eventually one of the most famous scenes ever put on the silver screen. Anyway, to conclude, in spite its flaws, it is still an impressive epic drama, a classic, and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I really loved 'Simon' which is one of my favorite Dutch movies, I was really eager to check Eddy Terstall's following directing feature. Well, whereas 'Simon' was a masterful but rather standard drama, this time, Terstall came jup with a rather experimental feature around sex. Unfortunately, this experminent was a failure. Indeed, Terstall mixes various stories in a mozaic style and using various movie techniques. Even though the subject and approach were really interesting, the end result was still rather disappointing, I'm afraid. Indeed, the acting was never really convincing, it was sometimes decent but it was often rather weak (Katja Schuurman was the worst example) but they were not really helped by the pretentious dialogues. There was also an obvious wish to shock the audience, above all with the weird and almost offensive animated sections. The point is that ever since 'Turks Fruit' became a huge success, there has always been a lot of nudity and sex in the Dutch movies but the makers never make really clear if they want to study sexuality in the Dutch society, sexuality in the Dutch movies or just to be rather exploitative about the whole thing. Anyway, to conclude, it was a rather disappointing experiment but I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you are interested in Dutch movies.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since it is available on Disney+, I was quite eager to check it again. Anyway, back then, the Pixar features were quite amazing and this movie was not an exception. First of all, the story actually did sound rather lame (a rat becoming a cook) and you could imagine that their colleagues at Disney could have ruined the whole thing by making something really childish, oversentimental and completely cheesy. Fortunately, the plot surprisingly worked and the whole thing was funny, touching and quite entertaining and, as usual, the animation was downright gorgeous. Even though Brad Bird was credited as making yet another impressive animated feature, as a matter of fact, this project was actually developped by Jan Pinkava from 2001 until 2005 when Brad Bird took over. Apparently, because they lacked confidence in Pinkava's story development, Pixar management decided to replace him and they seemed to have made the right choice since it was again a massive success for them, however, we will never know how Pinkava's version would have turned out to be (there was a similar conflict with 'Brave' for which director Brenda Chapman was also replaced). Coming back to our main feature, the only issue I had was that, even though Remy was indeed a great character, in my opinion, Linguini was not so strong though and they did struggle to make the two characters work convincingly together. Anyway, even though it is not my favorite Pixar movie, it is still one of their best productions and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since it is considered a classic, I was really eager to check this flick. Honestly, I'm not really familiar with Billy Wilder's work but I have fortunately managed to watch a few of his movies lately ('The Apartment', 'Some Like It Hot', 'The Seven Year Itch', 'Sabrina', 'Sunset Blvd.') and this movie was easily of one of his best. The first striking thing about this movie is its introduction when the voice-over tell you that they had never made a flick about a POW camp before. I don't know if it was indeed true but, personally, it was indeed the oldest I have seen so far (for example, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' came soon after in 1957 and 'The Great Escape' in 1967). What I enjoyed the most was that the main character played by William Holden was not some hot-headed macho hero like Steve McQueen in 'The Great Escape'. No, he was a smart but really selfish con-artist looking only for his own interests and there was not a single moment when he suddenly had a change of conscience and became heroic, even at the end, he seemed mostly concerned about saving his ass. The other characters were not too bad but a little too stereotypical in my opinion and I was a little bothered that too many German characters spoke English fluently but it was something inherent in Hollywood back then and it still is nowaydays. Still, I liked the solid directing by Wilder, the tone and this main character so I really enjoyed this flick which has inspired all the similar movies that came afterwards about the same subject. To conclude, it is a really good movie, a classic, and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I'm not sure I should review this picture. The point is that I was completely stoned out of my mind when I watched this. I used to smoke a lot when I was younger but it had been a while when my brother-in-law proposed me a joint. After that, I watched this flick which became a rather surrealistic experience. Apparently, it was one of those huge financial and critical flops directed by Joel Schumacher starring this time a whole bunch of young stars (Chace Crawford, Rory Culkin, 50 Cent, Zoë Kravitz, Emma Roberts). Still, I enjoyed most of it. Indeed, like I said before, because I was really stoned the whole thing felt rather surrealistic. It was enhanced by the fact that the movie was shot digitally and not on film (at least, it felt like it was!) as a result, it looked really sharp and detailed. There were also some dreamlike scenes which looked even weirder to me and, on top of that, some drug sequences enhanced by my own intoxication. Concerning the story, it dealt with a lot ot characters and there were probably too many sub-plots. There was a story about some fictional drug called twelve but it was really barely developped so you wonder why they didn't stick to some crack but then, the title wouldn't make much sense. The cast was actually decent, except maybe Emma Roberts who didn't convince me but like I said before, the characters were not well developped. Finally, there was this very chaotic and messy ending where most of the characters were reunited. Even though I was under the influence, I was still able to see that this ending was not really good. To conclude, there is a good chance that this movie was actually pretty bad, but because of the circumstances, I enjoyed most of it and I think it is worth a look.

P.S.: did you know that they call hashish 'shit' in France? My American friends always found it really hilarious. It is indeed a rather stupid name.

Since I have always had a weak spot for Neil Jordan's work, I was really eager to check this movie. This time, he was finally working with Colin Farrel, one of the most famous Irish actors of the last decade so I was really wondering how it would work out. Basically, it is one of his smaller and more intimate features and I really enjoyed the gentle and soft tone of the whole thing. Furthermore, Farrell gave a solid performance and Alicja Bachleda was quite charming (they were actually a couple back in those days) and I mostly enjoyed this flick. Still, I must admit it , the story was rather weak, generic and predictable. Basically, it is one of those movies which starts out as some kind of fairy tale but ends up as a rather sordid and pedestrian drug drama. I was also not really convinced by the small girl. I mean, this girl gave a decent performance but the fact that her character kept constantly whining about the fact that Ondine was some kind of fairy got pretty annoying pretty fast. Eventually, it was Neil Jordan's subtle directing that saved this movie and managed to make it enjoyable to watch. To conclude, even if it is an obscure and rather weak effort for Neil Jordan, it still liked it and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this director.

As usual with Steven Spielberg, I was a little bit skeptical with this movie. I mean, would it be like 'Schindler's list' or more like 'War Horse'?. Fortunately, I must admit that it was almost as good as 'Schindler's list'. Indeed, I thought it was a fascinating historical picture but not only was it fascinating from a historical point of view, it was also a spellbinding policitical intrigue. Indeed, to see Lincoln managing to get all the necessary votes was quite something, reaching out to his opponents, blackmailing, bribing, was quite something and a great lesson in Political strategy. Of course, as usual, Daniel Day-Lewis was just amazing and the only thing that stands in his way to win the Academy Award is the fact that he has already won two of those. The other actor who also completely blew me away was Tommy Lee Jones who simply gave his best performance of his prestigious career. They were also some other decent actors like Joseph Gordon Levitt and Sally Field but I honestly didn't care much about their sub-plots. So, it was a very good flick, one of Spielberg's best, but still, there were a few things that bothered me. Indeed, even though the tone was usually really good, Spielberg couldn't help throwing some over-sentimental uplifiting music, a trademark of his. Another critic I would have is that the characterization was rather simplistic. Indeed, you had the good guys, the bad guys and on top of that, Lincoln who was some kind of half-god and I'm sure the whole thing was a little bit more complicated back then. Finally, pretty much like in 'Amistad', in my opinion, it suffers that, even though it deals with the fate of black people, the black folks just pop up in small measly roles which be might true historically speaking but, as results, they remain some faceless and helpless creatures who can't deal with their life without the help of the Great White man. Still, even though it is not a perfect feature, it is still a very good movie, the best made by Spielberg since 'Munich' and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.