Reviews by johanlefourbe

Larry Clark is not really a famous director here in Listal but I find his work as a director really interesting. Originally, he was an acclaimed photographer and directors such as Gus Van Sant and Martin Scorsese have stated that they were influenced by Clark's early photography. I must admit that I didn’t like much his directing debut, ‘Kids’ though. I mean, it was a very interesting flick, no doubt, but it was too much focused on being controversial and the characters portrayed were borderline caricatural. Eventually, it took me many years to see his following directing effort. Like ‘Kids’, I thought it was not bad but still nothing mind-blowing though. Even though it is still pretty dark and gloomy, compared to his other movies (‘Kids’, ‘Bully’, ‘Ken Park’), it is actually his most conventional movie so far and maybe that’s why I was a little bit disappointed. I mean, it is not bad at all but it remains a rather standard drug related feature. Still, like most of the movies made by Larry Clark, I really liked the dark tone and James Woods was just awesome as usual. To conclude, like ‘Kids’, even though it is not really satisfying, it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Finally… I’m almost there… Indeed, I spent a good chunk of this year watching everything single Star Trek movie. Anyway, since this movie was a flop and some of my dearest Listal friends told me not to watch it, I wasn’t expecting much from it, but honestly, I don’t think it was so bad at all. One thing that really bothered me with those Star Trek flicks is that they all looked terribly cheesy, even the movies made in the 90’s (the only exception was ‘Star Trek: First Contact’). This movie was no different, I’m afraid. It started with an awesome view of Romulus but that was it and we were back into cheesy SF… Still, even though the story was as usual rather convoluted and under-written, there were many things I enjoyed. I mean, the confrontation between Jean-Luc Picard and his evil clone was pretty neat and it featured a solid performance by a very young Tom Hardy (yeah, the same guy that made his breakthrough 10 years later with ‘Inception’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’). I also liked the scene where Picard decides to get a full frontal collision with another spaceship , even though the outcome was honestly rather pointless. To conclude, even though it is far from being one of the best Star Trek vehicles, I found it was not one of the worst either and it is actually worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I kept hearing good things about this flick, I really wanted to check it out. Eventually, I thought it was pretty good. Indeed, I have never been a fan of all those dreary dull sugarcoated Christmas features and it was nice to see a movie which chose to show the other side of this jolly celebration. Furthermore, I really enjoyed 'Ghost World', Terry Zwigoff's directing debut, and I thought he was a good choice to direct this flick. And of course, Billy Bob Thornton was pretty awesome. He has always been pretty underrated and unnoticed by the mainstream audience (his two minutes of fame were when he was Angelina Jolie's husband for a few years...). Unfortunately, because this movie was a success and because Thornton was so good in it, he is now kind of stuck in this mode and keeps getting typecast in similar parts ('Bad News Bears', 'School for Scoundrels', 'Mr. Woodcock',...) and that's a real shame because he is a talented actor and shouldn't be limited to this. Furthermore, even though the whole thing was pretty neat, with a nice sarcastic tone, I thought they unfortunately went soft towards the end and I think they should have gone all the way in the nastyness. Still, for a commercial feature, I thought it was pretty good, I enjoyed it 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 thought I might as well check it out again. After watching every single movie directed by Roman Polanski, except for this one, of course, I really had to watch this really bad and it took me many years to finally get my hands on the damned thing. Obviously, it is one of his most obscure movies and it was a flop when it was released but I can't say it was surprising. Indeed, it was basically some kind of very dark and twisted comedy and it is pretty obvious the mainstream audience wouldn't care for something like this. Honestly, even though I thought it was not bad, I must admit it was a really chaotic and also a rather misogynist movie. Indeed, the main character is a cute but completely clueless American girl who spends the whole movie half naked (first the top and then the bottom). In true Polanski fashion, the movie starts up with a failed rape attempt on this girl and right from the start, you never sure if you should laugh or feel embarrassed. The rest of the movie was basically a succession of encounters with some weird characters and I'm afraid the whole thing didn't make much sense. At least, Sydne Rome was really gorgeous and, if only to see her in her full glory, it is actually worth watching the damned thing. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is obviously a minor effort for Roman Polanski, I thought it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look but only if you are really interested in Polanski's work.

Since I am a fan of Naomi Watts and even more of Sean Penn, I definitely had to watch this flick. Apparently, it was a flop when it was released but I thought it was actually pretty good. Indeed, it is a realistic thriller-drama which deals with spies and politics and I thought the whole thing was actually quite fascinating. At first, it reminded me of 'Green Zone' another movie dealing with the fact that the USA went to war for some phony reasons. However, this flick went further than this and it developed some interesting themes such as patriotism, loyalty (to your country but also to your husband/wife) and truth. I almost gave it a higher rating but the whole thing was still not really satisfactory partly because it was too short (about 95 minutes) to really develop such interesting ideas but above all because it was really too much biased. Indeed, Plame and Wilson were only portrayed as poor victims and I thought a more balanced approach would have been more interesting. Still, it remains a fascinating story, with some very good acting and some solid directing by Doug Liman. To conclude, even though it didn't really reach its full potential, I really liked it and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick as it was barely seen when it was released and I have never been really impressed by Antoine Fuqua's work, even 'Training Day' was rather overrated in my opinion. Eventually, I thought it was pretty good, probably Fuqua's best movie, even if this project was probably too ambitious for him. Indeed, it deals with 3 story-lines about 3 different cops working in New York and even if all the stories were interesting, they all could have been more developed, especially Richard Gere's story-line. Indeed, basically, he did nothing heroic or outstanding during his 22 years career as a cop but, suddenly, when he just retires, he becomes some kind of cow-boy. Rather far-fetched if you ask me . Still, I thought it was well made and there was a pretty cool cast (Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lili Taylor, Ellen Barkin). It was also nice to see Wesley Snipes to show up in a decent movie instead of all the straight-to-DVD garbage he has made recently. I also loved the very first scene with Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio. Indeed, even if I suspected that one of them would die, I thought it would be the other way around and I always find it ballsy and just plain awesome to have a big name actor killed in the very first minutes. To conclude, even though it is actually nothing really amazing, it remains a decent and well made cop drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though Jean Dujardin just had his breakethrough internationally thanks to 'The Artist' (he will even show up in the next Scorsese, 'The Wolf of Wall Street'), in France, he has already been famous for more than 10 years mostly thanks to the TV-show 'Un gars, une fille'. Honestly, since I have left France, I haven't followed his work but a French colleague gave me this DVD so I thought I should give it a try. Honestly, just by looking at the cover, I wasn't expecting much and, indeed, the whole thing was pretty lame. Apparently, Dujardin has created this character when he was a comedian and since this character was really popular, they decided to create a movie around this guy (not a brilliant idea but that's just me...). Indeed, if you thought that 'The Artist' was rather artistic and subtle, this movie is basically the complete opposite, I'm afraid. Indeed, even though there were a few funny bits here and there, most of it was just really idiotic, tedious, pathetic and rather embarrassing to watch. There is a good possibility that you would enjoy this flick more than I did if you are into parodies, a genre which I'm not really fond of. To conclude, I have seen worse comedies but the whole thing is really average and it is not really worth a look and if you really want to see something starring Jean Dujardin, you'd better wait that 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is released.

What makes difficult to review this movie is the fact that M. Night Shyamalan has now become the laughtingstock of the movie world (even though most of his movies are still financially successful) but we shouldn’t forget that when this movie was released, he was still a promising and highly regarded director. Anyway, many people think that it started to go bad for him with this movie but I don’t agree. In my opinion, it is with the awful ‘Lady in the water’ that his career went down the drain. Until then, all his movies were pretty decent, very well directed, nothing really mind-blowing but usually pretty entertaining (yeah, I’m not a fan of ‘The Sixth Sense’ which is one of the most overrated movies ever made in my opinion). This movie is not an exception. The directing was pretty awesome, really atmospheric which reminded me of Hitchock, there was a pretty cool cast (Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson, Michael Pitt, Jesse Eisenberg) and they all delivered some solid performances. Unfortunately, as usual with Shyamalan, the story was rather disappointing. I mean, it was really entertaining and it managed to keep me on the edge of my seat until the end but, then, the twist (again!) kind of ruined the whole thing for me. I mean, for the 4th time in a row (‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘Unbreakable’, ‘Signs’), Shyamalan ended up the proceedings with yet another half-baked twist... Basically, in my opinion, the guy is a very talented director but a rather poor writer and if someone (good) would write his screenplays, we might end up with something interesting. Still, to conclude, if you forget the hype for a minute, it is actually a decent and entertaining thriller and it is definitely worth a look.

After watching ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’, I thought it was time to see Richard Gere’s other classic from the 80’s. Even though I didn’t really like ‘An Officer…’, I could see its appeal but I had even more a hard time to enjoy this other flick though. Why Roger Ebert loved this movie so much and even put it on his top 10 best movies released in 1980? It is beyond me… I can understand that for many women, to see Richard Gere portraying a gigolo, was a real wet dream but except for some full frontal nudity, I thought the whole thing was rather chaste though. Above all, I thought the tone was rather terrible. I mean, it was never really fluffy like ‘Pretty Woman’, never really sleazy like ‘9 ½ weeks’ or dark like ‘Klute’. Indeed, the flick never really knows what it should be and it mixes a glimpse of a gigolo’s life, a love story and a police investigation but none of those elements were properly developed. In my opinion, they should have got rid off the love story, focus on the murder, make the whole thing way darker and unsettling and we could have ended up with a pretty good thriller. On a positive note, I must admit that Richard Gere gave a decent performance but, a part from that, I can’t say I really enjoyed it. To conclude, I think I’m being really generous with my rating here but I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you have a weak spot for Richard Gere.

Honestly, I had never heard of this movie before but since there was a pretty cool cast, I thought I should check it out anyway. Eventually, I thought it was pretty good. Indeed, even though I have nothing against costume dramas, it is usually a genre I find rather difficult to enjoy. Indeed, those movies usually focus on the privileged class and show how life was hard for them which is something I always find difficult to care about . I usually end up thinking ‘get a grip on yourself, you whining spoiled brat!’. However, when they manage to add an interesting twist, like they did in this movie, it can be pretty enjoyable. Indeed, here, they focus on an outsider (Robert Downey Jr.) and immediately, the whole thing became more interesting, at least, to me. Like I said before, the cast was pretty interesting an I wasn’t disappointed (Robert Downey Jr., Sam Neill, David Thewlis, Polly Walker, Meg Ryan, Ian McKellen, Hugh Grant). Such fine actors brought altogether, it was a real treat. Above all, when you think that Robert Downey Jr. was a huge drug addict back then, it is really impressive to see him giving such a performance. The main critic I would have is that the whole plot still remained rather pedestrian and predictable but I definitely had a good time watching this. To conclude, it is a very well made and, for once , entertaining costume drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.