Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since it is a huge cult-classic, I was really curious to check this flick. Unfortunately, I thought it was pretty bad. Ok, I'm maybe too harsh on this one but since I didn't like it at all, there is fat chance I will check it again just to make sure it was as bad as I thought it was. It was even more disappointing as I really enjoyed Ben Stiller's previous directing efforts (the completely forgotten 'Reality Bites' and the really underrated 'The Cable Guy'). I'm completely aware that Derek Zoolander, the main character, is moronic on purpose but I thought he was way more annoying than funny. I have never really enjoyed this kind of humor so I guess I'm not the targeted audience. Ok, I have to admit, there were here and there so funny bits and there was a huge cast with many cameos but it was never enough to make me forget the rest of the movie which was not entertaining at all, at least, in my opinion. I don't know, I'm more interested in some good old comedy by Woody Allen where the characters are smart and articulated instead of such 'modern' farce filled with incredibly stupid and annoying characters. To conclude, it is a really moronic and boring flick and I don't think it is worth a look at all, but I may be in the minority in this case.

Following the amazing 'Elephant' which I really loved, I was definitely eager to check Gus van Sant next directing effort. It is made in the same style but it was this time poorly received, by viewers and critics alike (just check the ratings in Imdb and Listal). Personally, even though it was definitely not as good as 'Elephant', I thought it was a solid feature. I just really dig this directing style which make the whole thing quite spellbinding to watch. I guess the issue, this time, was that Van Sant delt with a very famous public figure. I mean, with 'Elephant', we don't know exactly what happened with those guys so it gave a lot of liberty and slack to Van Sant to create his own story with some tremendous results. With this movie dealing with Kurt Cobain, virtually everybody had a meaning about what happened and most of the viewers didn't like his approach at all. I even came across a comment on Youtube about the fact that Kurt Cobain was left-handed, not right-handed as portrayed in the movie. And this was the top comment! I mean, if die-hard fans are going to bitch about such details, I think this movie was just doomed from the start. Anyway, even though I enjoyed Nirvana's music, I was able to watch the movie without checking every single detail because the purpose, in my opinion, was to give a certain feeling, not some biographical details. To conclude, even though it is nothing really mind-blowing, I thought it was an interesting flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Gus Van Sant's work.

Honestly, I never heard of this movie before but since there was a nice cast, I thought I should check it out anyway. I realised afterwards that it was a remake of a very old obscure Alfred Hitchcock feature from 1928. Anyway, the cast was pretty neat and Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas were, as usual, both fine. Above all,  I was actualy pleasantly surprised by Jessica Biel. Indeed, at first, I thought it wouldn't work with her but she eventually delivered a solid performance. Concerning Ben Barnes, I won't blame him too much but his character was just terribly spineless. Eventually, the whole thing was not bad but they never really managed to get the tone right. Indeed, it seemed that it was supposed to be a comedy but it wasn't really funny and even pretty dark sometimes. So, they switched constantly between some frivolous scenes and more dramatic moments without any warning. Furthermore, I thought that the characters were not developed enough. Indeed, the mother was way too mean and Biel's character was just way too nice, it would have been more interesting if the characters would have been more balanced. Still, I can't completely dismissed this flick and I do believe that the whole thing actually had some potential. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, thanks to the actors involved, it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look.

Before watching this flick, I had some rather high expectations. I mean, with such a cast (Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Anjelica Huston) and such a prestigious director (John Huston), I was expecting something rather brilliant, I mean, even Roger Ebert was really enthousiast about it. Unfortunately, I didn't really like it. I mean, the cast was really good, especially Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner but I didn't like much the tone of the whole thing. It tries to be a dark comedy and mixes some romantic comedy elements with traditional maffia stuff but I thought the whole thing was rather uneven. Above all, I never really laughed during the whole duration and it is never a good sign when you are watching a comedy. Don't misunderstand me, it is not bad at all, Nicholson and Turner were both very good and perfectly cast and there were numerous interesting supporting characters but I just didn't care much about the plot. Still, in spite of its flaws, it remains a decent comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn't expecting much from this flick but Nick, my step-son, is a huge fan of zombie movies, especially the recent ones and the movie was on TV, so I thought we should check it out. Oh boy... It is hard to believe they managed to make 4 movies out of this franchise. I mean, I have to admit it, I thought that the first installment was actually decent but none of the sequels did add anything much interesting to the whole concept and with this 3rd sequel, it was getting a little bit tiresome. Furthermore, even though I never paid attention to this with the previous movies, I thought that the acting was really weak and the dialoges were just pathetic. Also, it was a real rip-off of various other movies, especially 'The Matrix'. Indeed, the action scenes were virtually identical with some bullet time effect and the guy playing Wesker gave a terrible imitation of Agent Smith. Still, like all Resident Evil flicks, there were a few interesting elements like the fact that the action took place in Tokyo but it was unfortunately quickly moved to Los Angeles which was rather disappointing. To conclude, I'm getting more and more bored by this franchise, I didn't like this sequel which was the weakest of them all and I don't think it is really worth a look. And guess what? A fifth installment will be released in 2012...

Since I have been living in the Netherlands, I have always been interested in Dutch movies. It is a rather small industry, not many movies are released every year and most of the actors and actress are usually also TV host, singers and/or musical stars. At least, once a year (I should say, usually only once year), there is one Dutch movie which does very well when being released and in 2007, it was this feature. With such a cast (Thomas Acda, Carice van Houten, Wendy Van Dijk, Daan Schuurmans, Paul de Leeuw, Peter Paul Muller, Chantal Janzen, Huub Stapel), it was pretty obvious that it will attract the audience. You are probably not familiar with those names but they are all really famous in the Netherlands. And what about the movie itself ? Basically, it is just a rip-off of 'Love Actually', another hyperlink romantic comedy with some various intertwined love stories. Even though I thought the whole thing was rather entertaining, I can't say it was really mind-blowing though. I wasn't a big fan of 'Love Actually' in the first place. I mean, I have a weak spot for romantic comedies and I'm a huge fan of hyperlink movies but I don't think the two things work well together. Eventually, you just end up with many half-baked love stories and I'd rather have 3 or 4 fully developped romances instead. For this Dutch version, it is just the same results and it is even more annoying as they didn't add anything original to the concept. Still, it remains a well made and entertaining romantic comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I didn't expect much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jennifer Lopez and Michael Apted's movies, I thought I should check this one out. Honestly, I thought it was just bad. I'm probably being too harsh on this one and it might not be as bad as I remember but I definitely won't rewatch it just to make sure. First of all, I don't think Jennifer Lopez is such a bad actress. I mean, her acting career is pretty much dead at this point but, back then, most of her movies were hit at the box-office, including this one, and she showed up in a few interesting flicks (Angel Eyes, The Cell, Out of Sight, Blood and Wine). Since Michael Apted is a solid director, I thought they would make together an interesting or at least entertaining movie. Unfortunately, it was neither interesting or entertaining. It was just another dumb thriller/action flick with a dubious message ('Vengeance is fine and killing the bad guy is even better' and all that crap...). Basically, the main attraction is to see JLo kicks some guy's ass, that's it, and this movie has absolutely nothing else to deliver. To conclude, I really didn't like it, as a matter of fact, I found it rather despicable and it is definitely not worth a look.

I wasn't expecting much from this movie but I was still curious to see this version, so I gave it a try anyway. Indeed, I'm actually a huge fan of the original version which is, in my opinion, the best movie directed by Mel Brooks and one of my favorite comedies. Well, eventually, I was actually really disappointed by this remake. First of all, it was not really a remake, it was in fact an adaptation of the broadway play which was an adaptation of the first movie. Apparently, the broadway show also produced by Mel Brooks was a huge success but this movie was a flop (just like 'Rent' which was released the same year). Personally, I thought that the songs didn't add much to the whole thing, except making the movie even longer than it needed. Furthermore, both Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick both tried very hard but they never came to the level of their predecessors, Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. Eventually, the only thing I really enjoyed was Will Ferrell who was really hilarious but that's about it, the rest was just very long and rather boring. To conclude, in my opinion, it is just another useless remake and it is not really worth a look, expect maybe if you are a die hard fan of the Broadway show.

Usually, expect for a few exceptions, I found kids flicks utterly disappointing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of animated movies but most of them which are specifically aimed at children, even many Disney classics, are barely entertaining because, mostly, they don't take children seriously. However, like I said before, there are few exceptions and this movie is one of them. Honestly, I'm not familiar at all with the popular children's books series and I thought it would be yet another dull movie to watch with my children but I was wrong. Indeed, first of all, I really enjoyed the good old hand-drawn animation, it looked really charming and it is a real shame they dropped this technic alltogether and almost all the animated features are nowadays computer animated. Of course, the story is nothing mind-blowing but I thought it was real good, even perfect, for children between 2 and 9 years old. Since I'm not the target audience, the whole thing was not really spellbinding to watch, explaining why my rating is not entirely positive but it is a really good feature for young kids. To conclude, it is a rather forgotten animated movie but it is definitely worth a look, especially if you have young children.

I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since my wife loves movies about dancing, I thought I should check it out anyway. Furthermore, the ratings were pretty good, even Roger Ebert liked it so I thought it could be a nice surprise. Well, eventually, the whole thing turned out to be disappointing after all. Basically, it was a typical drama about an teacher/outsider who comes in a difficult school and it followed faithfully the rules of the genre but I thought it was terribly uninspired, uninspiring and rather dull to watch.  It was also pretty obvious that it was not a realistic movie and that it should be handled as some kind of fairy tale (to get the students attention, he just needed to turn up the volume or the way they danced at the end (totally choregraphed and way above their level) and how they ended up winning the trophy) but, still, I just didn't like it. On the positive side, Antonio Banderas was very well cast and did a good job and I must admit that there were here and there some nice dance scenes but it wasn't nearly enough to make the whole thing entertaining to me. To conclude, I thought it was really average and I don't think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die hard fan of the genre.