Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a huge weak spot for Emma Thompson, I was still eager to check it out. I must admit it, it all started pretty good and I really admired the relationship between Charles and Sebastian thanks to the great performances by Matthew Goode and Ben Wishaw, two actors who keep impressing me each time I see them again. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie was rather dull. Of course, Charles falls for the sister which it was terribly predictable and, honestly, not really interesting. And the rest of the story was not much better, I’m afraid. I mean, they try to convince you that the mother, the catholic dogma and even the house have some terrible influence on this family, basically, destroying them but I didn’t really buy it. The main issue, in my opinion, is that the book itself (which I haven’t read) probably develop much more all those elements whereas they all felt pretty much half-baked in this movie. I mean, at some point, Sebastian goes to Morocco and for a while, I thought he was dead since he wasn’t around anymore and nobody was talking about him but, no, apparently, he was still alive! What happened to him? Why was he not coming back? Why didn’t they get in touch with him? Why didn’t Charles get in touch with him? And it is the same about most of the characters and the sub-plots. It’s too bad because I think the whole thing really had some potential. Indeed, the cinematography was pretty good and the relationship between those two guys was really interesting. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, above all thanks to the actors involved, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

Before reading this, you will get the usual warning... If you haven't seen the movie yet and you have any intention to see it some day, don't read this review, stop right now and try to avoid any trailers of any piece of information. It's the best way to watch it. Then, the second important thing : was it fake? I honestly don't know but, frankly, I don't really care. Every documentary is more or less manipulated but it seemed genuine to me, for what it's worth. Anyway, I thought it was pretty good. It started as some kind of facebook diary, then it became a thriller for a while, and at the end, it was something else entirely. The point is, at least, that's my point of view, in real life, people will tell you a lot of sh*t, and on the internet, it is 100 times worse and that's the main reason why I never, really never, get too close with people on the net. And that's basically the weakness with this movie. I mean, when you read the messages she sends, it was really obvious that those were fake and it was rather mind blowing that the guy didn't realize earlier what was going on (Eventually, it was only after 8 months of this cyber relationship that he suspected that something fishy was going on). On the other hand, it was quite priceless to see his emotions evolved, going from a crush, to love, to awareness, anger, bitterness, and unexpectedly compassion. Indeed, you would expect them to completely tear her up apart with her filthy lies but, no, they go along with her for a while and rather gently they tell her she should stop. To conclude, I thought it was pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are into weird documentaries.

P.S. : It is rather weird but just a couple of days before watching this movie, I started a correspondance with another listal member who told me at some point he had watched around 20 000 movies. When I told him that he must be at least50 years old and that he must have watched 500 movies each year for the last 37 years, he changed his story by saying that he had watched 14 000 short movies ((amateur and professional) did he count his home videos as well?!?) and watched about 6000-8000 feature films. Also, and that's the best part, apparently, he is a screenwriter who do some rewrites on original scrips for feature films or TV and he sells some ideas to some famous screenplay writers who buy the rights to re-sell it to some studios or producers.... I think I have found my own catfish, how about that?

I find it really difficult to judge this movie. Indeed, I thought it was pretty good, probably the most original biopic I have ever seen but, honestly, I thought the whole thing was a little too damned alienating. Back then, when I was a kid, my dad would listen very often to Bob Dylan so I have some very fond memories of his music but,I must admit it, I was and still am rather oblivious about his music and the guy himself. Of course, I have heard about his sudden sometime even bizarre 'transformations' but not much more than that I'm afraid and I think it is imperative to really know the man and the songs to fully appreciate this movie (I really wonder what my father would think of this movie but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't care for it). Actually, this flick reminded me of two other movies I saw recently. The first one is 'Accross the universe' which was another interesting experiment, making a movie using the songs of the Beattles. The other movie is 'Cloud Atlas' in the way that it intermingled various stories with different timelines, constantly switching back and forth between the stories and with a very thin connection between those tales. Personally, I thought it was better than 'Accross...' because the story was more intriguing and the experiment was much bolder whereas 'Accross...' was just a standard musical. However, I did prefer 'Cloud Atlas' because, even though it took me a while, I was eventually able to connect with the whole thing whereas it never happened here and some bits, especially the one starring Richard Gere, were just way too obscure for me. Still, the directing was really good, there was a great cast involved and it remains a very original feature. To conclude, even though it is definitely an acquired taste, I thought it was pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in experimental movies.

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. For many years, Oliver Stone had been a struggling director and at the time of production, he thought that this movie was going to be his last chance, having already made 'Seizure' and 'The Hand' which were both failures. However, in 1986, he made two movies which both managed to be, at least critically, successful. Of course, we all remember 'Platoon', crowned with the highest prize, in my opinion the best movie about the Vietnam war and rightfully considered as his magnum opus. However, we tend to forget the other movie he made back then in 1986, a movie so overlooked that it did not even have a wide distribution in the United States. Eventually, it was re-released after the success of 'Platoon'. Anyway, it is actually a damned fine picture. Indeed, it is one of those edgy movies that Stone used to make before going soft. The subject was topical with some very good performances, even by James Belushi, usually one of the least interesting actors I have ever seen. James Woods, a really underrated actor, gave here one of his typical nervous performances and I think he was really good in this. Anyway, to conclude, it is actually a pretty good movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Oliver Stone's work.

Even if I have lost faith a long time ago in Woody Allen, I still keep watching his new movies once in a while, for old times' sake. Some of them (a very few) get some good reviews but, in my opinion, he hasn't done anything really great for at least two decades. Anyway, this movie was a very average one, that's for sure. This time, Larry David plays the typical Woody Allen character but this version was even more obnoxious, vicious and mean than usual. At least, he was very funny and some of his dialogues were just hilarious which is something Woody Allen still can deliver. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the other characters. Indeed, the character played by Evan Rachel Wood and her parents were just terrible. Indeed, I thought that Wood was really not convincing or maybe it was just that her character was just poorly written, I don't know. It was just striking that the main character was really interesting whereas this young girl was just some pathetic caricature. To make them a couple was also rather ridiculous as if Woody Allen still needs to believe that a 20 year old girl could still fall for someone like him. To conclude, in my opinion, it is one of the weakest movies directed by Woody Allen, even worse than 'Scoop' or 'Cassandra's dream', fortunately, Larry David made the whole thing watchable and I guess it is worth a look if you are die hard fan of Woody Allen's work but don't expect anything remotely amazing before watching the damned thing.

Even though it seems like ages ago, there was a time when every single movie directed by Rob Reiner was a big hit, critically and usually also financially. I mean, just check his track record : 'This Is Spinal Tap', 'The Sure Thing', 'Stand by Me', 'The Princess Bride', 'When Harry Met Sally...', 'Misery'. This great combo started in 1984 and was ended by the dreadful 'North' released exactly 10 years later in 1994. This movie was the last one in this impressive serie. Basically, it is a rather standard court drama taking place in the military world. What makes it better than the usual flicks in this genre was first of all the very solid directing by Rob Reiner. He managed indeed to make one exciting thriller. The other great thing about this movie was the cast (Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak, Christopher Guest, Noah Wyle, Cuba Gooding Jr.). Back then, Tom Cruise was a huge megasuperstar, every single of his movies were some huge hits, Demi Moore was one of the most popular actress, things have changed a lot in 20 years... Anyway, even though both of them were pretty good, they were eventually both blown away by Jack Nicholson who gave once again an impressive performance, playing against type an uptight conservative high ranked soldier. At the end of the day, you won't learn anything really new with this film but you will be really entertained, that's for sure. To conclude, it is a really solid court room thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

You might not know who is Jean-Paul Rappeneau but he is actually one of the most highly regarded directors in France. You might have heard of his version of ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ which had some success also abroad. Anyway, apparently, even though Rappeneau had a very long career, starting in the mid-60’s until the 2000’s, he has made only 7 movies so far and usually with 7 or 8 years in between (a little bit like Terrence Malick). Anyway, since his productivity is pretty low, you could expect that each and everyone of his movies would be a great masterpiece, especially in this case, with such a cast (Yves Montand, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Souchon, Lauren Hutton). Unfortunately, I thought this movie was terribly boring. The tone of the whole thing was really frivolous and it was made this way on purpose but I found it really difficult to care about the plot, above all, if the characters themselves didn’t care about it either. I don’t know, they all try to convince you that they all have a jolly good fun but I wasn’t convinced, far from it. I haven’t seen many movies starring Isabelle Adjanie (only 11 out of 32 films) but it is so far the most disappointing one(behind, of course, the dreadful ‘Diabolique’). To conclude, even though it was watchable, I thought it was a really average flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look, even if you are interested in French movies.

For Paul Verhoeven, it was his 3rd critical flop in a row and it was basically the end of his career in the US. Honestly, even though it seems to be considered as one of his weakest movies, I don't think it is really so bad actually. Indeed, it is basically a very dark version of this famous story with some awesome special effects, even for today's standards. As usual with this director, the whole thing was pretty violent and (very) sleazy, and at some moments, it almost felt like some pretty neat introduction to some super villain. Unfortunately, I must admit it, the dialogues were terribly cheesy and, even though the cast was decent (Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Shue, Joshn Brolin), the acting was pretty average. Above all, the story was just pretty weak, especially during the ending which seemed to come out from some very average slasher flick. Honestly, while watching it, I couldn't help thinking that Verhoeven didn't care much about this project and didn't really try to exploit the very interesting ideas displayed in this story. And, indeed, later on during his career, Verhoeven did admit that got involved in this project because it was the only film he could get off the ground at the time. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is actually a decent flick and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Paul Verhoeven's work.

This movie is one of those cases when you expect a masterpiece but eventually, it doesn’t really blow you away. I mean, I kept hearing some very good things about this flick so I had some very high expectations. Don’t misunderstand me, I still think it is a pretty good flick but there was never a single moment when I thought that the whole thing was either hilarious or really brilliant. Basically, it is a rather funny and sad comedy, definitely more interesting than your standard mainstream comedy, but I had a hard time caring about those characters and what they were going through. Apparently, all the profanity was back then a big deal and they thought off removing it completely but 40 years later, there is nothing really shocking about it. It is the only movie directed by Hal Hashby that I have seen so far but I thought that his directing style was pretty good and I will probably watch his other movies such as ‘Being There’ or ‘Harold and Maude’ when I get the opportunity. Concerning Jack Nicholson, I thought he was pretty good but if you don’t like his usual hysterical foul mouthed characters, you won’t like this one either. I don’t know, I really wanted to connect with this movie but it just never happened, maybe I should re-watch it at some point and give it another shot. Anyway, to conclude, even though I thought it was a little bit disappointing, it still remains a solid and original comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.