Reviews by johanlefourbe

Even though I have always been a fan of Wallace and Gromit, to be honest, it is not my favorite feature starring those two amazing characters. If I recall it correctly, I saw it when it was released with my ex-wife and step-kids and I have just re-watched it recently with my daughter. As a matter of fact, I prefer 'The Wrong Trousers' which remains, in my opinion, their best movie. Indeed, I really loved the first and second short movies they made but then, from then on, I thought that the stories were not really inspired. Basically, if you have seen 'The Wrong Trousers' and, to some extent, 'A Close Shave', you'll notice that all the movies afterwards pretty much followed the same pattern. Indeed, they basically have the same plot and I always thought that it was kind of disappointing. Still, it doesn't change the fact that the animation was once again just mind-blowing, the two characters but also the supporting ones were great, the jokes were hilarious and the whole thing was still really entertaining. To conclude, even though the story was nothing really original, it remains a very well made and fun clay animated feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I kept hearing good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. I always tried to follow Walter Salles' work but, honestly, he never really managed to became a great director. I mean, he made some pretty good movies but he never became one of the greatest and it is pretty much the same thing concerning Gael Garcia Bernal. Ever since I saw this young actor more than 10 years ago in 'Amores Perros', I thought he was very talented and might become one of the most interesting actors of his generation but it honestly never really happened. Anyway, those two guys got here together to tell this tale about Che Guevarra. The most interesting thing about this historical figure is that there is absolutely no middle ground concerning him. I mean, he is considered either a role model, a legendary revolutionary figure fighting for the poor and the underprivileged or a blood thirsty dictator, a torturer who killed many innocent people. I always find this intriguing. Anyway, here, they chose a different approach and decided to tell the story of the young Guevarra way before the Cuban revolution. Personally, I really enjoyed this flick. Indeed, the directing was smooth and Bernal gave, as usual, a very good performance and it was just a rather fascinating story. After watching this flick, it seems hard to believe he became a heartfless killer but it is just a movie after all, not a history class. To conclude, I thought it was really good and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I thought this movie was just so embarassing... I mean, I have a weak spot for romantic comedies but this was just plain average. In the same year, they managed to release 2 rom-coms dealing with artificial insemination and both were just terribly uninspired. At least, with 'The Back-Up', I enjoyed the chemistry between the two leads and, right from the start, they knew what was going on. Here, you just had this terribly annoying misunderstanding/lie trick stretched out forever... Once again, I felt so bad for Jennifer Anniston. I mean, she seems to be quite talented but she always ends up playing this kind of character in such boring movies. Justin Bateman also played his typical character but, at least, he made me laugh a couple of times. Eventually, I above all enjoyed Jeff Goldblum who made me laughed every time he was on the screen, even though his character was completely underwritten. I shouldn't even mentioned Juliette Lewis and Patrick Wilson who were completely wasted here. Basically, even though there was actually a fine cast, the story was just terribly pedestrian and I couldn't wait until it was finished. To conclude, it is a really weak romantic comedy and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

Well, I really didn't expect to be blown away like this... I mean, I have to admit it, I was at first intrigued. Indeed, it is not every day that you get the opportunity to watch a movie written and directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski's siblings. Eventually, it is one of those movies which absolutely needs to take 3 hours, I couldn't imagine a shorter version. Basically, during the first hour, I thought I was watching something inspired by David Lynch's work, because of the randomness produced by the whole thing. But then, at some point, I started to see the connections between the characters and the different storylines and, at the end, I was just really overwhelmed. Basically, you have 6 stories more or less intertwined together, a couple of costum dramas, a couple of science-fiction tales, a 70's thriller and a comedy mixing Guy Ritchie's 'Snatch' and a glorious escape from a retirement home and all those stories were eventually quite spellbinding to watch. Still, it wasn't completely flawless though. For example, I'm still not sure if it was such a good idea to have the same actors playing several characters. I mean, it was definitely a bold move but, somehow, it did transform the movie in some kind of game like 'Let's spot Hugh Grant in this scene! Was he the blood thirsty warlord?!?'. I mean, it was rather distracting and it was the same thing concerning the make-up. You had some real black people, some fake black people, some real Asians, some fake Asians and some ridiculous big noses and it was, once again, rather distracting. Still, it is such a bold and ambitious picture, it really floored me, at least, the first time I watched it. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is really an acquired taste, I really enjoyed it and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see something really inspiring.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but with such a cast, I really had to watch it at some point. Eventually, it was a decent action flick, no less and no more than that. There was indeed a great cast (Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Karl Urban, Morgan Freeman, Ernest Borgnine, John Malkovich, Brian Cox, Helen Mirren, Richard Dreyfuss) and they all seemed to have a lot of fun with this concept. There were also some decent action scenes and I really enjoyed a few scenes with some witty dialogues. Still, who am I kidding? It was nothing amazing though. Indeed, the plot was rather disappointing and really pedestrian and it felt as if the makers stop caring about developing the concept beyond then 'Ok, let's get some old actors together who would be some retired top spies'. Eventually, even though the material was pretty cool and the cast was quite awesome, there was a certain laziness to the whole endeavor and that's too bad since it could have been much better than this. Eventually, they of course had to come up with a sequel but it turned out to be a flop which was hardly surprising. Still, I had a good time watching this movie, I was entertained throughout the whole thing and I think it is definitely worth a look but don't expect anything really amazing.

Since my wife and my step-daugther are (or were) kind of crazy about horses (we even had three of those at some point), I ended up watching a whole bunch of movies about thoses animals with them. Some of them were rather decent, like 'Seabiscuit' for example, but most of them were just terribly boring, at least to me. This one was definitely one of the boring ones. I mean, the story was terribly pedestrian and completely predictable and I honestly couldn't care less about the whole thing. Another thing that really bothered me was to see, once again, Alison Lohman playing the eternal teenager. I mean, it was fine with 'Matchstick men' where she gave a terrific performance but come on! Now we were 3 years later, she was 27 years old, still playing a 16 year old girl. I now, it is a small detail but I found it utterly unconvincing and I'm pretty sure there were plenty of younger actresses who could have done the job. Of course, I'm well aware I'm not the targeted audience and there is a good chance that young girls would actually enjoy this flick but I don't think it should be this boring for other viewers. To conclude, even though it is not really awful, it is still a rather average and boring flick and it is not really worth a look in my opinion.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but I thought it was actually pretty cool. Indeed, Francis Lawrence managed to make with his directing debut, a visually really appealing fantastic thriller. Honestly, I have never read the comic book so I have no idea if it was faithful or not but, honestly, I couldn’t care less. As usual when Keanu Reeves gets the lead part, you have always some people complaining how wooden he is and how awful he was but I thought he did a decent job here. Furthermore even if the character of John Constantine is actually supposed to be from Liverpool, and is actually supposed to look like someone like Sting, eventually, in the movie, the character is actually from Los Angeles but the truth is that in the original script they actually retained his nationality but since they got no response from producers, they changed him to an American and the script quickly gained attention. Anyway, I thought it looked pretty awesome, there was a cool cast (Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Djimon Hounsou, Tilda Swinton) and the whole thing was usually pretty entertaining. I might be a little too picky but I was still missing something about the story in order to make it truly compelling though. That’s always the risk with such paranormal fantastic thriller, it can get pretty preposterous and, as a result, I tend to lose interest after a while. Still, all in all, I thought it was a very well made and entertaining flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Pretty much like Robert De Niro, I keep watching faithfully all the new movies featuring Al Pacino but, just as with Robert De Niro, those movies are usually really average and, sometimes, honestly rather embarrassing especially compared to all the masterpieces they made back in those days. This movie is a pretty good example. I mean, how can you go wrong with such a stellar cast (Channing Tatum, Ray Liotta, Tracy Morgan, Juliette Binoche, Al Pacino)?!? The weird thing is that they all actually delivered some solid performances and even the directing was not bad at all. Unfortunately, the story was never really interesting and the whole thing was just really poorly written with way too many sub-plots. Still, like I said before, it was far from being really awful. Indeed, I liked the way they described the grim life in the projects and also how the precincts looked pretty shabby, not only the precinct itself, but also the convicts and even the cops themselves. So, when watching this flick, you get the feeling that there was there somewhere, at some point, a good movie but it got lost and what remains is a barely entertaining story with a whole bunch of half-baked sub-plots. To conclude, even though there was a very interesting cast, it remains a very average cop drama and it is not really worth a look, I’m afraid.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but I always thought it was a pretty neat title (I know, it is rather lame reason to watch a movie but, honestly, who cares?). Anyway, eventually, I thought it was not bad at all. Basically, it starts out as another version of ‘The Texas Chainsaw massacre’ (a group of youth get stranded in the mid-west and get chased by one of several degenerate rednecks) but then, at some point, it became something quite different, more similar to ‘Candyman’. ‘Candyman’ is one of my favorite horror movies and is criminally underrated in my opinion. Honestly, it is pretty obvious this flick never reached the level of this underrated gem though. Indeed, as long as the bad guy remained unseen, he was pretty efficient but as soon as he got more screen time, it became more laughable than scary. Still, like I said before, there were some elements I found rather enjoyable. For example, the fact that instead of a group of young people representing some stereotypes who get killed one by one, you just had a guy and his sister and I thought their relationship and dialogues felt pretty genuine, even though the performances were of course not oscar worthy bu they gave another dynamic to the genre and it was rather refreshing. To conclude, even though it was nothing really mind-blowing, I thought it was a decent horror feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

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. Ok, I have to admit, the whole thing was rather bleak to behold but it was still very interesting nonetheless. This time, he followed some common people caught by the police and we get to see their confrontation with the public prosecutor. Here, we are really far from the glamour and excitement of your typical Hollywood feature and the only thing you get is the bleak reality of some usually mundane proceedings. To conclude, even though it is not really a cheerful flick, 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.