Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, with its quirky poster and title, it seemed to be rather intriguing so I was quite eager to check it out. Basically, like many actors before him, Liev Schreiber decided to make his directing début and, eventually, I thought it turned out to be actually pretty good. Indeed, the directing was decent enough and, above all, I really loved the first half which was just hilarious with some great dialogues and some seriously weird and whimsical characters. But, then, during the second half, it became suddenly really deep and serious and the end was eventually even rather heartbreaking. To be honest, this rather brutal switch was a little bit hard to digest. Still, the story was really intriguing and the actors delivered some good performances. Indeed,  Elijah Wood was fine but I was also impressed by 2 unknowns actors called Eugene Hutz and Boris Leskin. It is interesting that even though Elijah Wood had reached some major stardom with the Lord of the Rings trilogy since then he has mostly showed up in such small and even rather obscure productions like this one. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its quirkiness, I thought it was a pretty good tale and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Following Brad Bird's foosteps, Andrew Stanton, another big shot at Pixar, got the opportunity to direct a live action feature. Right way, they gave him a huge project which was no less than the most expensive movie produced by Disney so far. Well, first of all, the special effects were really awesome and they displayed some of the best CGI I have ever seen. Furtheremore, the story was also pretty cool so the whole thing really had some potential. Unfortunately, I thought it was eventually rather  poorly written after all. Indeed, the introduction and the ending were just too convoluted and I wish they skipped all this and focused more om the action which was pretty badass. It was the same thing concerning the dialogues, they were all rather weak, they tried way too much to explain what was going on but it was not necessary whatsoever and rather boring to watch. Still, I really liked this world and those awesome aliens and Taylor Kitsch was rather well cast. To conclude, a lot of people were predicting that it will be another flop for Disney (like 'Prince of Persia' a few years back), and it was indeed nothing mindblowing, but I thought it was actually pretty entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Ever since the huge success of the 'Harry Potter' movies, the major studios have tried to adapt many more Young Adult books hoping they will find their new cashcow. Well, in this genre, I think I have never seen a movie which was so similar to Harry Potter. Indeed, they hired the same director (Chris Columbus),  the young hero had some parental issues, he had 2 friends (a boy and a girl) and they all went to a paranormal school... Fortunately, they did switch the wizards and witches for the Greek gods, otherwise, it would have been pretty much a straight remake. Anyway, even though the whole thing had some potential, it still felt rather half-baked. Above all, while most of the Harry Potter movies lasted at least 150 mins, this one was not even 2 hours which was just way too short to deliver something that would really work. I mean, first, they had to introduce Percy in our world, then he had to discover his actual background, then he had to go to his 'special' school and finally he had to solve some quest. Seriously, that was just way too much to handle and everyhing felt really rushed. Still, if you don't analyze it too much, it was not bad, the second half was fairly entertaining (I especially enjoyed the casino thing) and Logan Lerman was quite charismatic. To conclude, it was nothing really mind-blowing whatsoever but it was still rather well made and fairly entertaining and I guess it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I have never heard of this flick before but since it won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival, I thought I should check it out. Well, eventually, even though it was a decent watch, to be honest, I still had a hard time to really care about the damned thing. I mean, it wasn't bad at all but the damned thing was just so sad and depressing. Basically, it was taking place somewhere in Mongolia where there was no running water, electrity (pretty much how it used to be in West-Europa 200 years ago). But, apparently, it wasn’t enough hardship so the main character broke her back, her husband was handicapped and even though she loved her husband, she had to divorce him to marry someone else who would provide for the whole family... Seriously, even if I have seen my share of dark movies, it was still really gloomy and the ending was even more heartbreaking... Fortunately, the directing and acting were not bad and, above all, this movie gave an interesting look on a foreign culture which I didn't know before. Still, I can't say that this movie was really entertaining. Anyway, to conclude, even if I wasn’t really sold by this flick,  it was still an interesting movie and it is worth a look, especially if you want to see something really different.