Reviews by johanlefourbe

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.

It had been years since I saw this one so I thought it was time for a re-watch, this time with Nick, my step-son. Following the surprise success of ‘Die Hard’, it was pretty obvious they would come up with a sequel pretty quickly. This time, the upcoming Finnish director, Renny Harlin, was chosen to be the director and I must admit he did a pretty good job. Bruce Willis’s status was rising at a high velocity back then and with this sequel being a success, it wouldn’t stop anytime soon. Anyway, it was definitely a fun movie and Nick had a blast watching it (we eventually watched 3 or 4 times the famous ejecting seat sequence…) but it was definitely not as amazing as the first movie. I mean, they managed to create a similar plot without making it total a copycat and they should get some credit for that. However, I think the whole thing was in fact upstaged by the big action scenes. I mean, those were impressive but what is so amazing about a shootout or a huge explosion? Not much, in my opinion, and if you have seen one of those, you have seen them all. Still, it is a very well made action flick and Bruce Willis totally rocked his performance as the almighty John McClane. To conclude, even though I don't think it is anything really mind-blowing, it remains a very well made and entertaining action flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since there was a nice cast, I thought I should check it out anyway. And, indeed, the cast was pretty impressive (Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Maggie Smith, Dan Hedaya , Sarah Jessica Parker, Stockard Channing, Elizabeth Berkley, Marcia Gay Harden, Rob Reiner, Timothy Olyphant, J.K. Simmons, Heather Locklear) and it was pretty obvious that the 3 lead actress had a blast with this flick. As a matter of fact, it was actually a box-office success (which was something I didn’t expect) and all three main cast members wanted to make a sequel but the studio was not really interested. Anyway, personally, I thought the whole thing was rather lame. Indeed, even though there were a (very) few funny moments, it was just eventually really tedious to watch. For example, Diane Keaton goes to a shrink to solve her marriage issues and later on she finds out that her counselor is actually sleeping with her husband. Not only was it not funny at all but it was also a very old and tired joke. The rest of the movie was eventually pretty much in the same spirit : uninspired, lazy and just plain boring. It’s too bad because the whole thing had some potential, especially with such an interesting cast. To conclude, it is a very average comedy and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since I have 3 kids, I always watched many family features. Honestly, I'm always skeptical when dealing with this kind of movies because I always find them terribly condescending towards children which is something really annoying in my opinion. Not this one though. Indeed, the two main characters, very well played by Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb, were really interesting and felt genuine. Eventually, they must face some dramatic events which was something that didn't belong to a kids feature according to some viewers who didn't believe it belonged in this kind of movie but I don't agree. Children are able to face drama in real life and should be able to face it a movie as well (of course, they don't need to watch 'Schindler's list' or something like that). Furthermore, I thought it was pretty neat visually speaking. Eventually, the main issue I had with this flick is that the story was interesting but nothing really mind-blowing and, above all, I thought the marketing was just really bad. Indeed, like many other viewers, I was expecting something like 'Chronicles of Narnia' or 'The Spiderwick Chronicles', but it is actually something really different which is not really bad in fact but I could have enjoyed it more without all the misleading marketing strategy. To conclude, it is nothing really mind-blowing, it remains a well made family feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are looking for something to watch with your kids.