Reviews by johanlefourbe

Even though I had some rather low expectations concerning this flick, since I have a weak spot for Kim Basinger, I thought I should check it out anyway. Beforehand, I didn't know what it was about and, at first, I was really wondering where the story was going but it wasn't a good sign, I'm afraid. First of all, you had this very lame scene of domestic violence with a completely unconvincing performance by the guy portraying the husband. Then, you had this endless bit when Basinger goes to the shopping mall. Honestly, I think it took about 30 minutes before she finally witnessed this murder by some thugs... Maybe it was shorter but it really felt it was lasting forever. Anyway, after that she kills Rambo-style all those thugs one by one which was quite predictable. It was rather lame that each of those dudes represented a racial type : the black guy (killed first of course), the Latino, the Asian guy and the white guy who of course was the leader... What a bunch of terrible stereotypes! So, the whole thing was really lame and boring and the conclusion (Thanks to this tragedy, she finally gets the balls to face her abusive husband or she got crazy. Your call...) was just as lame. To conclude, I really didn't like this flick, I'm actually being really generous with my rating and I don't think it is worth a look whatsoever.

I already saw this movie but since I just bought an awesome brand new TV, I thought I might as well check it out again. In fact, by now, I have seen this movie a couple of times and I still enjoy it so much. Hell, the first time around, I was already sold with the 8 bit Universal logo and it still cracks me up each time I see it again. And I think it was probably the main issue why this movie didn’t really find an audience when it was released. Basically, it was made for a very specific audience and other people probably wouldn't care for it. I mean, if you have never been into gaming specifically the older games from the 80's and the 90's or if you never cared for those, all the video games references will be lost on you and they might even bother you. As far as I was concerned, I thought it was just awesome though. Furthermore, I had never seen a movie with such an ADHD syndrome and it is also something that can wear you down pretty quickly but, once again, for me, it made the whole thing even more appealing. Of course, the characters were really cartoony but most of them were pretty funny. Personally, I had so much fun watching this and I actually enjoyed it more than 'Kick-Ass' which was released the same year (By the way, while ‘Scott Pilgrim’ is a like a good vintage getting better every year, I’m afraid 'Kick-Ass' which did look awesome at first didn’t grow old so well though) . Anyway, to conclude, even though it might be an acquired taste, I really loved it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in a ADHD gaming obsessed movie.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. First of all, many consider the 70's as the best decade in the movies, especially when you are dealing with American cinema. I mean, nowadays, the big movies are somewhat entertaining but also very often kind of stupid ('Transformers', 'Pirates of the Carribean', 'Twilight',...). Back in the 70's, it was definitely a different kind of ball game though. Back then, they really took the viewers seriously and provided some reallt challenging work. This movie is a perfect example. I mean, first of all, it is a great story and you would need a very bad director to mess it up. Still, we should give Alan J. Pakula some credit to make the plot realistic but also spellbinding to watch. Coming back to what I said before, if they would make this movie nowadays, there would be some chases, some shootings and, of course, one of those dreadfull twists at the end. Not here though. Here, you really get to understand that the most part of the job was staying behind your desk, arguing with some other people on the phone, and writing a bit, meeting someone with some intel, writing some more, etc. There is no guns, no explosions, but some 3 dimensional human beings facing a terrible truth and trying to deal with it. Of course, Roberd Redford and Dustin Hoffman were back then on top of their game and gave some terrific performances showing that acting is not about your ego but about disappearing behind a character. Anyway, to conclude, it is a classic, a terric thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

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. Well, after 3 entertaining but still rather disappointing installments, they eventually got it right. Don’t get me wrong, I thought that those movies were not bad but there was always something missing. The first one was just way too convoluted story wise with too many twists, the second one was this time way too simple with a terribly dumbed down and generic plot and the third one focused too much on Ethan Hunt’s private life. However, with this last installment, they finally managed to find the right tone. Indeed, once again, the action scenes were quite breathtaking but there were also plenty of humor in between so there was this time a great balance. Of course, the plot was once again really convoluted but there was so many fun stuff happening every 5 minutes, you just forgot about it and enjoyed the show. It was also a masterstroke to give Simon Pegg some more screen time as he was quite hilarious. Still, I have to say I was a little bit disappointed by Jeremy Renner’s character. Right now, Renners seems to get involved in as many franchises as possible (‘MI’, ‘The Avengers’, ‘The Bourne Legacy’,…) and he should watch out that we don’t get tired to see his face but he is a pretty good actor so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Eventually, I thought his character’s background was pretty lame after all. I mean, in the trailer, you felt that there was something mysterious about this guy but, eventually, it was rather poorly developed. Still, it was a very fun flick which was really entertaining from the beginning until the end. Anyway, to conclude, it is definitely the best movie coming from this franchise, it is a very solid action flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I never really cared about Roger Moore as James Bond. As far as I’m concerned, he was the worst of them, even worse than George Lazenby. Still, I have to admit, some of his James Bond installments were decent, especially the first one he made. Back then, there was a transition between Connery’s version and Moore’s version , so you get some kind of combination of both. As a result, the whole thing was not too much tongue-in-check, a trademark in Moore’s style which I always found really annoying, especially in the later James Bond’s installments starring Moore. So, this movie was pretty fun, there was a very young Jane Seymour who became one of the most memorable James Bond girls and it was pretty neat to see Bond struggling against some Voodoo shenanigans. If I’m not mistaken it is one of the very few Bond installment (maybe even the only one) featuring some supernatural elements. And there is also the huge hit song written by Paul McCartney, the first time a rock song was the theme song for a James Bond feature. To conclude, even though it is far from being one of the best, it is still a decent effort and it is definitely worth effort, especially if you like the genre.

This movie is an exception. Indeed, there is a rule saying that a sequel should never be better than its predecessor but, fortunately, there are a few exceptions and this movie is one of them. Indeed, if I recall it correctly, ‘Before Sunrise’ was the first movie directed by Richard Linklater which I had the pleasure to watch and it was definitely a solid romantic feature. However, you could feel that Linklater was still inexperienced with the material (It was only his 4th directing effort and his first romantic outing). It was the same thing concerning Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Their performances were pretty good and I believed in their characters but I thought that the whole thing was a little too self-conscious and pretentious. So, 10 years later, they came back with the same characters and they got back where they left it and the end-result was just quite impressive. Indeed, the director and both actors had grown older just like the characters and wrote together this impressive piece of work. Basically, just like the previous installment, there is not much action during the whole thing, just 2 characters talking to each other. It sounds dull but it was just the opposite, it was really spellbinding to watch. And this time, there were so many layers, the joy to see each other again, the bitterness about the missed opportunities, the frustration concerning their life, the love still lingering there somewhere and many more. In the first movie, it all ended in a rather melodramatic way but it fitted perfectly those characters at that moment in their life. This time, the ending was more ambiguous and, once again, an improvement. To conclude, it is probably the best romantic feature ever made and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Oh dear... It was even worse than I thought it would be. I mean, I didn't have some really high expectations concerning this flick but even so it turned out to be a huge disappointment. Indeed, it must be one of the weakest haunted house movies I have seen so far... Basically, you wait during the whole thing for something scary to happen but nothing remotely frightening happens during the whole duration. I thought it was some king of mix between 'Saw' and 'The Haunting', expect it was never unsettling or scary at any moment. Even though the cast was actually decent (Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras), the performances were quite terrible going from very cheesy to just plain annoying. Even though it seemed to be an interesting idea to remake an old horror flick (I haven't seen the original version), they couldn't have made a more terrible job than this. Compare to this, the remake of 'The Haunting' which was released the same year almost look like a masterpiece. At least, it had some decent special effects which wasn't the case here at all. To conclude, it is a very weak horror feature, I'm actually being really generous with my rating here, and it is not really worth a look whatsoever.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since it was available on the KPN pluspakket, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, first of all, I usually don’t care much about the hype around most movies. I mean, I saw Titanic maybe a couple of years after its release (I really boycotted this one for a long time), the first Harry Potter flick at least 6 months after it was released, same thing with Twilight and it took me a while to finally see ‘The Hunger Games’. I eventually watch all these movies, just to check what was the fuss about, but always on my own terms and I never rush to watch them. Anyway, the first time around, my sister had this movie on DVD so I thought it was time to finally see the damned thing. Eventually, I must admit it was not bad at all but I still think it is extremely overrated though, especially concerning the gore aspect. I mean, I was nothing really hardcore in my opinion and, honestly, it still remains pretty mainstream, especially if you compare it to the weird sh*t coming from Asia, especially Japan, it is actually pretty harmless. Still, I have to admit that the concept was pretty cool and they definitely managed to create an unsettling mood. Of course, since it is an American thriller, you had some very far-fetched and rather ridiculous twists but it is inherent to the genre. Eventually, was it original ? Yes, it was intriguing. Was it really groundbreaking or amazing? Not really. Since then, I have seen all the sequels and, even though the die-hard fans might disagree, I thought they were all terribly underwhelming. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn't blow me away, I must admit it was actually a decent horror flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick since some loved it (Roger Ebert) and some didn’t like it at all (Xanadon’t) but I was still eager to check it out anyway. Eventually, even though I enjoyed most of it, I can’t say it was really good though. The first issue, in my opinion, considering its rather short running time (just a little bit more than 80 minutes), I thought there were way too many supporting characters (Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Mary-Louise Parker, Jenna Fischer, Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Olivia Thirlby) and none of those characters were properly developed. Basically, for most of them, they would show up once really randomly, and then once again only when was required by the script. Furthermore, I thought the scenes came the one after the other rather randomly. For example, at first, you see the main character at the doctor and then, you move 6 years later but it was rather difficult to find the connection (of course, it was explained eventually but it was far from being really convincing). I also found it rather exaggerated that when the main character has finally hit bottom, he goes to work at a dinner with his friend, you would think ‘Ok, the guy has messed up but he is now starting all over from scratch’ but, no, it doesn’t end there and he finally gets beat up for some rather dubious reasons. So, it was honestly rather poorly written but, like I said before, I still enjoyed most of it. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for Michael Douglas, especially when he plays this kind of fast talking oversexed sleaze. In fact, he even gave here one of his best performances. Indeed, he managed to give his character many layers and, eventually, even though the guy is basically a worthless and very destructive sex addict, he is also very charming and fun to be around. To conclude, even though the whole thing is actually a failure, I still think it is worth a look especially if you have a weak spot for Michael Douglas.

Ten years ago, when the first trailers showed up for a hopeful big summer blockbuster, many thought it would be a disaster. Indeed, they were taking on a genre which until then produced only flops and this flick was starring some relative unknowns backed up by quirky character actor Johnny Depp, and finally it was based on a very unlikely source material. But the summer of 2003 saw "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl" become a monster hit, launching one of the biggest modern-day franchises turning Depp from a box-office poison with a few die-hard fans to a global megastar. But how was this 2nd sequel? It was not bad and even rather entertaining but it all depends to which movies you will compare it eventually. I mean, if you compare it to some other recent blockbuster such as the ‘Transformers’ franchise or ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’, then it is rather decent with some impressive action scenes and some pretty cool special effects. But if you compare it to Johnny Depp's older and more obscure work such as ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, ‘Dead Man’, ‘Ed Wood, ‘What's Eating Gilbert Grape’, ‘Arizona Dream’, … than it is pretty damned disappointing. Above all, the story was just a mess. Indeed, it went along for way too long and it was just way too convoluted. After watching this 3rd movie, you wonder if they should have made those sequels at all but since the 1rst movie was a huge success, it was rather inevitable. To conclude, even though it is nothing amazing whatsoever, it still remains a fun blockbuster and it is worth a look, especially if you enjoyed the previous installments.