Reviews by johanlefourbe

Even though I have always been interested in Asian movies, I've never been really familiar with Shohei Imamura's work (as a matter of fact, without counting this flick, I have seen only one other full length feature and a short). Still, since this movie won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film festival back then in 1997, I was really eager to check it out. Eventually, it is a rather strange flick mixing various genres with more or less success. Like most of Asian Art movies, the whole thing is rather cryptic and I'm pretty sure I didn't get most of the symbolism. Still, I'd rather watch a movie like this which doesn't give some straight answers and let me think than your usual Hollywood production where everything is completely dumbed down in order to reach the biggest audience. So, it is rather slow and somethimes a little tedious but I still liked it anyway, I enjoyed Shohei Imamura's directing and I will check his other movies when I get the opportunity. To conclude, even though it is definitely an acquired taste, I still think it is pretty good and it is absolutely worth a look, especially if you're interested in Asian movies.

Once when I went to see my sister in France, I borrowed her a box-set with some documentaries directed by Raymond Depardon. Depardon is pretty much unknown here in Listal and also abroad, I guess, but he has a decent reputation in France, above all, as a documentary maker (as a matter of fact, I have seen none of his fictions but I’m not sure if they are any good). Personally, I really like his directing style. Indeed, there is no comment whatsoever, no music added. Basically, you have to make it up on your own the significance of what you just saw and I thought it was a rather spellbinding approach. This time, he was allowed to film some civil hearings which is something quite exceptional since it has never happened before in France. Here, we are really far from the glamour and excitement of your typical Hollywood feature and the only thing you get is the sober reality of some usually mundane proceedings but it gives a really striking view on common people. To conclude, I thought it was a really well made and rather fascinating documentary and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this genre.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Tim Roth and Gabriel Byrne and since I found a very cheap DVD, I thought I should check it out anyway. Honestly, I thought it was a very weak thriller. Basically, you have two half-baked plots (Scott Wolf is chasing a serial killer and Tim Roth is chasing Scott Wolf) and you have way too many sub-plots, including two romantic ones, which were even less properly developed. Apparently, it was Keith Snyder’s directing debut and he has never made another movie afterwards but I can’t say it was really surprising. I mean, the directing was not really bad but there was an obvious lack of inspiration and it felt really generic. Above all, I thought the acting was actually quite terrible. Scott Wolf, like most of the cast of ‘Party of Five', tried to develop a career on the silver screen but, except for ‘Go’ which was pretty cool, he only made terrible movies such as this one. The rest of the cast was not more convincing either. I mean, Gabriel Byrne was completely underused and it was as if Tim Roth was sleepwalking throughout his whole performance. I think that there were some good ideas and it could have been something interesting but the execution was quite disappointing. To conclude, it is a rather obscure and forgotten thriller but it really deserves this reputation and I don’t think it is really worth a look whatsoever.

If I remember correctly, I have seen this remake before the original version starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw. In my opinion, the first thing we should take into account is that whether the original version was good enough to require a remake or not? I’m not so sure. I mean, I enjoyed the Steve McQueen vehicle and it was a rather entertaining flick but the story was nothing really mind-blowing. Still, I have to admit, it was pretty neat to have Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger in the title roles. It is also rather funny to think that, back then, Baldwin was trying to be the macho leading man whereas he has nowadays built up a career as a funny supporting actor. There was here also a pretty neat supporting cast (Michael Madsen, James Woods, David Morse, Jennifer Tilly, Richard Farnsworth, Philip Seymour Hoffman) and it was definitely still a long way for Hoffman before becoming an Academy Award winner. Still, even though there were a few interesting things about this movie, it still remained a rather uninspired action flick with a really pedestrian plot. To conclude, I didn’t really like this movie, I thought it was rather boring and it is not really worth a look in my opinion.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick. I mean, even though I definitely enjoyed ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, I always had some mixed feelings about this movie. Furthermore, even though Johnny Depp is right now the most popular actor from Hollywood, I didn’t like much his recent work and is slowly but surely becoming one of the most overrated actors at work nowadays. Anyway, eventually, I thought this movie was rather disappointing. I mean, it was not bad at all but I could have been so much better than this. Above all, I thought the tone was just wrong. Indeed, even though we are supposed to be dealing with some major alcoholists, I thought that the whole thing was terribly sober. Of course, it shouldn’t be too similar to ‘ Fear and Loathing…’ but there should have been a little more mayhem and it should have been a more messy. It is like the directing, it was rather decent with some nice shots and an interesting use of colors but that was exactly the problem. The whole thing looked just way too neat and clean. Furthermore, except for Kemp , none of the other characters were properly developed, they remained really sketchy and you never got the change to know them a little bit. Concerning Kemp, I must admit that Johnny Depp gave a solid performance but, still, I wasn’t really sure what to make of his character. Was he a loser alcoholic ? A great idealistic writer ? A wasted half crazy talent? At the end, you have a text explaining that he got back to New York, married the girl and became a famous writer… While watching this, I thought ‘ You gotta to be kidding me…’. It was really unbelievable… Eventually, I never felt much excitement about Kemp’ s adventures in Puerto Rico and I honestly never felt that he himself was having a good time either. To conclude, I think there was there somewhere a pretty good flick but the end-result was rather disappointing. Still, if you are fan of Johnny Depp, I still believe it is worth a look though.

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 because Russell cast Bradley Cooper as the lead instead of Wahlberg in his last movie). 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 ‘The Fighter’ which was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award and there is good chance that his last movie, ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, will be nominated as well. Anyway, way before this, before his breakthrough with ‘Three Kings’, David O. Russell directed this small wacky comedy and I thought it was pretty good. Indeed, there was a very good cast (Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, George Segal, Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin, Richard Jenkins, Josh Brolin), they delivered some solid performances and there were some seriously hilarious scenes. The main issue I had is that the story was honestly rather stupid. Ok, Ben Stiller wants to meet his biological parents, that’s fine but he keeps meeting the wrong folk and every time he has to get back on the road. It was honestly a rather limited concept. Still, thanks to the great dialogs and the actors involved, I really enjoyed it anyway. To conclude, even though I’m usually rather critical about comedies, I really liked this one and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I was one of the few who wasn’t really convinced by the American remake of the great ‘Ringu’. I mean, it was a decent flick, especially when you compare it to all those worthless remakes they made of Asian horror movies afterwards, but I thought that the original Japanese version was miles better. Anyway, since this remake was such a commercial success, it was not really surprising that they decided to make a sequel. At first, I thought it was rather interesting that they hired Hideo Nakata, the guy who made the 1st Japanese movie to direct this flick. Still, unfortunately, it ended up being another lackluster sequel like so many others. The main issue I had with the first installment, is that they tried way too much to explain and rationalize something completely preposterous and in this second movie, they followed the same trend, trying to explain even more and provide more background to this story. That’s not a good approach. Indeed, in my opinion, when you think about it, the whole concept is really laughable (beware of the killer tape!!!) and to spend so much time trying to make it somehow believable and rational is just rather ridiculous. Just keep it mysterious and mystical like any good Japanese horror flick but, no, in true Hollywood fashion, every shred of mystery has to be explained in details otherwise the mainstream audience will have to think for themselves which would be a terrible tragedy. On the positive side, I have to admit that Naomi Watts can’t do anything wrong and she gave here a decent performance as usual. To conclude, even though it is watchable, it remains a rather average horror flick and it is not really worth a look in my opinion.

I find it really difficult to judge this flick… Many people love this kind of movies, you know, the movies based on a real stories, they even created a special channel for those ‘Lifetime Movie Network’. Personally, I really don’t like this genre but since my wife really liked this movie, I thought I should give it a try. Basically, it is a rather decent drama which faithfully follows the rules of this genre but the different is that there was a major actress, two times Academy Award winner Sally Field (ok, after this flick, her career slowly went down but back then, she was a major player) who gave a really strong performance and the directing was pretty effective as well. The story was not bad, but still really over sentimental and quite pedestrian but that’s inherent to the genre. So, that’s what you get when you analyze this movie without going to deep but when you think about it for more than 10 seconds, the whole thing is actually rather unsettling. Indeed, basically, this movie is one of the most hateful representation of Muslims I have ever seen. Indeed, except for a couple of characters who dress like Occidentals and talk better English than the main character, all the other Muslim characters were portrayed as evil hysterical people. Indeed, there was not a single effort made to make us understand this people and their culture and even when they’re talking, they were always shouting like mad people in Arabic without any subtitles. Basically, it was plain and simply a rather racist feature with no subtlety whatsoever. Anyway, to conclude, even though there were some rather despicable things in this movie, if you don’t care about this or if you manage to discard them, it is actually a rather well made drama and it is worth a look, if you like the genre but make sure you know where your morals and values stand.

My God… This must be one of the most disappointing horror movies I have ever seen… The point is that beforehand, I was told the first half was really like pornographic and the second half was some very hardcore unsettling horror stuff. But, eventually, none of it was true. Above all, I thought the first half was just reall tepid. Indeed, first, they get in Netherlands where everybody speak German…. For someone living 10 years in Holland, it is quite unacceptable and just plain stupid. But then, those guys get to Slovakia where they were supposed to find this hotel where they will have the greatest sex orgy ever but, eventually, the only thing they find are 2 reasonably good-looking chicks, that’s it. Was it really worth all this hassle?!? I thought it was just so underwhelming, I really had a hard time caring about the rest of this flick. Then, the butchery started and I have to admit it was not that bad. Indeed, the concept was pretty decent but, still, it was nothing really horrifying, in my opinion. Once again, the whole thing was truly overblown. Eventually, even though it is not a really bad horror movie, the whole thing is just so dim-witted, it made it really hard for me to enjoy it. I think it was actually a step back for Eli Roth since I thought that ‘Cabin Fever’ was pretty good and way more interesting than this second directing effort. Anyway, to conclude, in my opinion, it is a very overrated and rather weak horror flick and it is not really worth a look, except if you really like the genre.

Even though I have seen all the official full length features directed by David Lynch, I though it was time to watch his even more obscure movies which are almost all available on Youtube. Honestly, since I didn’t really like ‘Inland Empire’, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick though. Indeed, this movie was a direct-to-DVD feature made of outtakes from his final directing efforts so if you enjoyed ‘Inland Empire’, you will be thrilled to get back to this strange world but if you, like me, didn’t care much about its randomness, you won’t enjoy it much. Indeed, I had about the same feeling I had while watching ‘Inland Empire’, half of the time I was thinking it was some huge crap and I was just wasting my time but the other half, I was just mesmerized by this other nightmarish world created by Mr Lynch. One thing I enjoyed is that this time around, we got to see Nastassja Kinski who was credited in ‘Inland Empire’ whereas she was there only for a split second sitting on a chair. Ok, this time she was there only for one single scene, for just 5 minutes, but at least, she had some dialogues and her scene was one of the best in this movie. To conclude, even though I didn’t really like this flick very much, it was still an intriguing piece and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in David Lynch’s work.