Reviews by johanlefourbe

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since there was a nice cast, I still wanted to check it out. First of all, I really have to point out how unappealing the title was. I mean, when you hear this title, do you really feel like a giant urge to watch this movie? Not me. It actually reminds of another movie with also a terrible title, 'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood' (which title is the worst? Difficult to choose...). In both movies, you have a young woman who is confused concerning her love life and she gets advise from her mother/grand-mother and her excentric circle of friends. Once again, you have here a rather impressive cast (Winona Ryder, Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft, Alfre Woodard, Jean Simmons, Kate Capshaw, Dermot Mulroney, Rip Torn). Even though Winona Ryder was the lead, she was pretty much uptsaged by those great actresses. They are so good, you wish they would be get something more substantial than this to chew on but, I guess, it is better than nothing. For Winona Ryder who was a few years before making this one of the most popular actress at work, it was yet again a rather disappointing feature and nowadays, we are still waiting for a great come-back. Still, I have to admit, if you manage to put aside this terrible title, the whole thing is actually not bad at all. To conclude, if you want to see some great actresses at work, you should definitely watch this flick but don't expect anything really amazing.

Even though I wasn't expecting much with this flick, since I have a weak spot for romantic comedies, I still wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, this one was just terribly average. Basically, it is one of those romcom with a concept based on some rather random superstitious belief (here, if you pick up a coin thrown in the fountain of love in Rome, the person who threw it will fall in love with you). Seriously, I think I have never seen a good movie based on some superstition. The main issue, in my opinion, is that instead of getting to know the characters, you spend a lot of time with some stupid jokes around the superstitious stuff. There was actually a pretty good cast but even though Kristen Bell was really charming, she honestly didn't have much to do and her character was rather bland. On the other hand, I must admit that I was actually positively surprised by Josh Duhamel who was the only highlight in this debacle. Indeed, even though his character didn't have much personality either, he managed to make his character really funny and quite appealing. To conclude, even though it was not really awful, it was still a really weak romantic comedy and I don't think it is really worth a look, even if you like the genre like I do.

Since I'm not a huge fan of this genre, I wasn't expecting much from this flick. However, since I have a weak spot for Joe Dante's work, I still wanted to check it out. First of all, I was quite surprising to discover that John Sayles was one of the writers on this movie (Apparently, he used the profits from the film to fund his own projects. It was also his scriptwriting debut). Eventually, since it is a Roger Corman production, you pretty much already know what you are getting into, even before the whole thing started (blood, naked chicks and some cheap thrills). As I expected, it was a rather weak horror/monster flick with some cheap ass special effects, a total rip-off of 'Jaws' but since Spielberg himself loved it, they didn't even get sued. I was actually surprised that they even went far enough to slaughter some kids at a summer camp and, I have to admit it, it was slightly better than the horrendous sequel which was James Cameron's directing debut but it doesn't say much. I guess, I wasn't really the best audience for this kind of cheesy movies and if you are fan of the genre, you will probably enjoy it more than I did but I wouldn't recommend it and I don't think it is really worth a look.

Honestly, I never heard of this movie before but since a colleague had the DVD, I thought I should check it out anyway, especially since I have a weak spot for William Hurt. Hurt is an actor with a really peculiar career. Indeed, he started out int the 80's and quickly became one of the most succesfull actors at work, resulting with 5 of his movies being nominated for the best picture academy award in only 6 years ('The Accidental Tourist'(1988), 'Broadcast News' (1987), 'Children of a Lesser God'(1986), 'Kiss of the Spider Woman'(1985), 'The Big Chill' (1983)). Eventually, none of these movies won but it was quite remarkable. Anyway, as soon as the 90's started, his career went unfortunately rapidly down the drain. Such a shame because he is actually such a fine actor. Anyway, how was this movie eventually? Was it any good? I'm afraid not. Indeed, it was just one those dreadful straight-to-DVD features. Basically, it is a boring thriller, with a far-fetched plot with some annoying twists, some weak directing, even the acting was poor. Watching this, we are far from the Oscar material tackled by Hurt in the 80's that's, for sure. To conclude, it is actually pretty bad and it is not really worth a look.

You have probably never heard of him but Pim Fortuyn was one of most notorious Dutch politician from the last 50 years. Indeed, suddenly, masses of people who never cared about Politics before became fanatically infatuated with this guy (my wife is one of those) whereas the other part of the Dutch population really despised him for his demagogic style and the way he manipulated the frustrations of the average Dutch man and woman (I personally belonged to this 2nd group). Basically, back then he was one of the only politicians who said exactly what the people wanted to hear (You are fed up with the foreigners? Let’s get rid off them! You are fed up with the taxes! Let’s get rid off them! You are fed up with schools/hospitals/whatever? Let’ s get rid off them!). In my opinion, the appeal was that he gave some very simple answers to some very complex issues. Anyway, to make things even more dramatic, just before he was about to make an historical victory at the elections and probably become prime minister, the guy was shot. And you thought that such things only happened in the USA… As a result, he became some kind of martyr and we will eventually never find out if he was indeed the new messiah or just full of sh*t. Anyway, this movie is about this fatal day when he was killed and the makers basically developed some conspiracy theories about what might have happened or not. It is obviously quite reminiscent of ‘JFK’ even though it never reaches the level of Oliver Stone’s movie. Indeed, some ideas worked or some others didn’t and there were maybe a little too many sub-plots. The weird thing is that the director of this movie, Theo van Gogh (yeah, the great-grand-son of Vincent’s brother) was also killed in some political execution even before this movie was released… Indeed, those were dark days for the Dutch community. To conclude, even though it is not really amazing, I thought it was a really interesting thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movies.

I had some rather low expectations about this movie but since I have a weak spot for Jennifer Anniston and Paul Rudd, I still wanted to check it out. Basically, it is one of those ill-advised romantic comedies which tries to convince you that if a gay man or woman gets close enough with a very hot individual from the other sex, they will eventually go straight. Of course, in this case, the gay guy eventually remains gay but they toy with this concept during the whole movie. So, I’m not a huge fan of those stories and this one was especially poorly written and contrived. Indeed, even though the running time was under the two hours, it felt more like three hours. Jennifer Anniston, still in ‘Friends’ back in those days, was quite charming but she pretty much gave her usual performance. On the other hand, I thought that Paul Rudd was actually pretty good as he tried really hard to make his character convincing even though he was not helped by the weak script. A part from them, there were just way to many 2nd characters, a few of them interesting but most of them rather tedious. One of those exceptions was the character played Nigel Hawthorne. Such a fine actor, such a fine performance and such a waste of time for him to even bother showing up for such a short screen time. To conclude, it was not really awful, there were here and there a few good ideas but, all in all, it was a long, boring and misguided romantic comedy and I don’t think it is worth a look, even if you like the genre.

On paper, this movie sounded really awesome. Indeed, a movie dealing with a S.W.A.T. team made of Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Jeremy Renner, LL Cool J and Michelle Rodriguez could and should have been really badass. At some point, some directors such as Zach Snyder, Michael Bay, Tony Scott, John Woo, Antoine Fuqua, Rob Cohen, Joel Schumacher, and Michael Mann were all offered the opportunity to direct this flick but they were all too busy and eventually a guy called Clark Johnson took over this project. Never heard of him? Me neither and apparently, he is a rather obscure director who mostly did some TV shows. Anyway, how was the movie actually? It was actually rather entertaining but still nothing amazing though. The main issue is that they chose to go for the standard action stuff instead of a more gritty realistic approach. So, the action scenes were not bad but honestly nothing I haven’t seen 100 times before. Same thing about the story, it was really generic and the characters were hardly developed as well. It is a real shame because with such a cast and such a concept, it could have been a really interesting action flick but they didn’t want to take any risk, that’s pretty obvious. To conclude, I think I’m rather generous with my rating, but the cast was really cool and the whole thing was pretty entertaining so I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre, but don’t expect anything really amazing.

A few years back, I saw the remake directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Harrison Ford, Greg Kinnear and Julia Ormond. It was not bad but still nothing amazing and I was really curious to see the real thing which is considered a bonafide classic. Eventually, even though I thought this original version was pretty good and obviously better than the remake, I still can’t say I was really blown away by the whole thing. I don’t know, I really find it rather difficult to relate with those movies they made back then with a very young girl falling in love with a very old guy like in ‘To Catch a Thief’ or ‘Gigi’ (It is pretty much like imagining George Clooney having a relationship with Lily Collins…). Furthermore, even though Audrey Hepburn was quite lovely, I found her character not really irresistible first of all because she keeps obsessing about David Larrabee who was a real douchebag and also the fact that she falls in love with Linus Larrabee within a few days made her character not really reliable either. Still, in spite of these flaws, I did enjoy this movie and it was above all thanks to Humphrey Bogart. Indeed, Bogart who didn’t get along at all with his 2 co-stars, really stole the show here. He played against type as a seasoned businessman and his performance was so subtle, it was quite something. I have to admit it, I haven’t seen many movies starring Bogart but after his impressive turn in ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’, he once again really impressed me. To conclude, even though I don’t think this movie is really amazing, it is and remains a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

After ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ and ‘Snatch.’, Guy Ritchie suddenly became one of the most exciting directors at work. Unfortunately, his follow-up ‘Swept Away’ was a terrible disaster, hated by the critics and the audience alike, and it was a huge flop at the box-office. Personally, even though it was definitely a weak effort especially compared to his previous movies, I don’t think it was that bad but it was obviously a huge blow for his promising career. Nowadays, it seems that he has regained some amount of respect but his last features (‘RocknRolla’, ‘Sherlock Holmes’) were not as amazing as everyone seem to think in my opinion. Anyway, between his huge flop and his come-back, Guy Ritchie made this really obscure flick which was barely noticed when it was released. Some people would argue that it is one of the best movies ever made but, honestly, it is not really that good. Basically, Ritchie tried to make his usual gangster flick but this time with some philosophical ideas added to it, some kind of mix between ‘Snatch’ and ‘Inception’. Of course, Ritchie went way over his head here and the whole thing never really worked. The best example is that the movie starts with 4 different quotes! I mean, to start a movie with one single quote is not really interesting but with 4 of them is just really lame, it gives you the feeling that the director doesn’t have any ideas of his own. Eventually, the rest of the movie was not much better, with a terribly murky plot. But don’t misunderstand me, it is not a bad movie at all. Indeed, the kinetic directing was quite awesome with some very neat visual things and Jason Statham really impressed me. Not only he wasn’t bald this time but I really had the feeling that the guy was actually acting for once and, even more surprising, he was really f*cking convincing. Furthermore, I think that the story really had some potential and it could have been indeed a great picture but I guess, they were too ambitious and the whole thing just spun out of control. To conclude, even though it must be the most obscure movie made by Guy Ritchie and even though it is not really good, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this director’s work.