Reviews by johanlefourbe

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.

I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Ron Howard's work, I still wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, it was a hell of a misguided comedy. Indeed, the Japanese guys were barely developed and were merely represented as some tight ass dictatorial douchebags which was more discriminatory than actually funny. The interesting thing is that the Americans workers were not much better, even though their demeanor was a (very) little bit more understandable and believable. Indeed, those were basically lazy, ungrateful and kind of ignorant. Above all, except for a few funny scenes, the whole thing was just rather cringe-inducing. I have to admit it, Michael Keaton, basically prepping for 'Beetlejuice', was actually pretty good but his text was very often so stupid, so offending, I felt rather bad for him and he did whatever he could with this rather abysmal material. Honestly, I think that the concept had some potential but they should have handled the Japanese culture with more care. To conclude, it is a rather obscure and forgotten comedy, obviously a minor effort for Ron Howard, and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

We often talk about how many actors managed to make some impressive come-backs in their career such as John Travolta, Robert Downey Jr. or Mickey Rourke but, very often, we tend to forget that for some directors, the path was also pretty hazardous and David O. Russell is one perfect example. Indeed, after helming 3 movies, he was hailed as the next best thing. Unfortunately, even though Russell was definitely a talented director, he also had some issues and he got the reputation of being quite impossible to work with (Among other things George Clooney punched him while shooting ‘Three Kings’ and he had a major falling out with Mark Wahlberg after working with him on 3 movies over a decade). Anyway, as a result, Russell managed to make only one movie between 1999 and 2010, the barely seen ‘I Heart Huckabees’. Fortunately for him, he made a major comeback in 2010 with this movie which was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award and so was his last movie, ‘Silver Linings Playbook’. So, I was definitely eager to watch this flick. Apparenty, it was a labour of love, a pet project for Mark Wahlberg who had been training for this movie since 2005. Wahlberg seems to be a very talented actor but also a very smart businessman, usually starring in decent action movies ('Four Brothers' for example) or even in one of the best comedies of the year ('Ted'). Still, when you watch 'Boogie Nights' or 'The Departed', you sense a greater potential but it seems barely used in my opinion. The funny thing is that even though Wahlberg was pretty good as the lead character, he is completely overstaged by Melissa Leo and, above all, Christian Bale (both won eventually an Academy Award for their performances). Furthermore, the story was just really fascinating, mixing a generic but entertaining boxing epic with some drug issues and a familly drama. This combination was really good and made up a very intriguing movie. My only critic is that the story was very good, those two 2nd characters were really good as well but the main character was rather poorly developped. Indeed, during all this social mayhem and chaos, we never really get the chance to actually get to know him. Still, it is a very strong drama, probably the best movie directed by Russell so far and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I have enjoyed all the movies directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, I was really eager to check this flick. Eventuallly, even though I enjoyed it, it must be, unfortunately, his weakest directing so far (yeah, even the critically panned 'Alien: Resurrection' was better than this in my opinion). The first disappointment was that Jamel Debbouze was cast as the lead but dropped out and was replaced by another famous French comedian, Dany Boon who had just reached some major success with 'Bienvenue chez les Ch'ti'. Indeed, Debbouze was an appealing choice but Boon was a let-down since he is usually pretty annoying. Well, eventually, I have to admit that Danny Boon was actually decent here. Futhermore, as usual, Jeunet created a very appealing world, visually some impressive combination between 'Delicatessen' and 'Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain'. Unfortunately, the story was rather weak. Indeed, with a short running time (just 90 minutes) , there was barely enough time to develop the characters which were not really interesting. The plot was not much better, going rather randomly from one scene to another. So, the whole thing was rather disappointing but, like everything done by Jeunet, the directing and production design was really good and only therefore, I still enjoyed this flick. Anyway, to conclude, after 5 long years, Jeunet didn't really deliver the goods but I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like his work like I do.