Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie but since it won the best picture Academy award, I thought I should give it a try. It is only the 3rd movie directed by Fred Zinnemann that I had the pleasure to watch (following 'The Day of the Jackal’ and ‘The Nun's Story’) and I’m more and more impressed every time by his work. I mean, those 3 movies were completely different but they all displayed some fascinating stories, some very solid acting and some expert directing. This time around, I was above all impressed by the dialogues. Indeed, it was basically a play adaptation and even though it was about 2 hours long, nothing much actually really happened but there was a lot of talking, that’s for sure. Eventually, it’s a pity that I saw this on the BBC without subtitles and I’m afraid I honestly missed 50% of it which prevented me to enjoy the whole thing even more. Still, it was all very good. I mean, nowadays I’m always surprised about how dumbed down the movies are and after watching Zinnemann’s feature, it was even more obvious. Indeed, in this movie, all the characters were so articulate, everything they said made complete sense and instead of getting some loud explosions, or some fancy CGI robots, you get instead an amazing battle of wits. Not only the dialogues were impressive but the acting was also quite amazing. As a matter of fact, it took me several minutes to actually recognize the great Orson Welles. Too bad his character died fairly quickly but I was equally impressed by Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw and (a very young) John Hurt. To conclude, it is an inspiring feature dealing with morals, religion and politics, I really liked it and it is definitely worth a look.

Even though I’m not a huge fan of musicals, since it is a huge classic, I was still interested in this flick. The directing by veteran George Cukor (‘A Star Is Born’, ‘Born Yesterday’, ‘Adam's Rib’, ‘The Philadelphia Story’) was solid and Audrey Hepburn was also really charming and gave a decent performance even though she wasn’t even nominated at the Academy awards at the time. Hepburn was back then at the top of her popularity and she reprised the role which was originally played by Julie Andrews on Broadway. Eventually, it was a tremendous success and eventually won 8 Academy awards and since then, it has became one of the most beloved musicals ever made. Eventually, personally, I thought it was pretty good but nothing really mind-blowing though. I mean, it is a very well made musical, with some pretty good songs but like most of the musicals, I thought the story was actually pretty weak. I know it is inherent to the genre but I don’t believe it is necessary that musicals should have such fluffy storylines. Still, it remains an enjoyable flick, absolutely. Anyway, to conclude, it is a pretty good classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I have been living in the Netherlands, I have always been interested in Dutch movies and since this movie won the Golden Calf of the best Dutch movie of the year, I was really eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I thought it was rather disappointing. Basically, like many Golden Calf winners, I actually wondered why they picked up this movie. I mean, even though a few of those winners were really outstanding (‘Zwartboek’, ‘Paradise Now’, ‘Simon’, ‘De Tweeling’,…), many of them are just some terribly boring family features or some really obscure flicks that almost nobody has seen. This movie falls in the last category. I read somewhere on the internet that someone compared the directing to the Dardennes brother style and I thought it was indeed pretty accurate. The acting was also pretty good but, still, I didn’t really like this movie. I mean, it was just so terribly boring… Like the Dardennes brothers, they used an intimate and natural approach to the directing, shooting the characters very closely, almost right in their face but the big difference with the Dardennes work, is that the characters were really not interesting, especially the secondary characters. In this case, since I didn’t care about the story and the characters involved, it was really hard to get into this flick. Still, even though it is a really tedious watch, it remains a well made movie and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movie.

Since I’m still a huge fan of Robert de Niro, I still wanted to check this flick, even though I had some rather low expectations. Eventually, I found it rather difficult to judge this movie. Indeed, half of it was pretty neat and entertaining but the other half was just pure garbage. I mean, the concept was actually pretty awesome and I loved the idea of a human being who could use all his brain. Furthermore, I thought that Bradley Cooper was well cast and he delivered a solid performance. It was also visually pretty neat but I thought also that it was a lot of camouflage to hide the fact that they didn’t really know how to visually display this concept. Still, like I said before, there was also tons of garbage. To start with, Abbie Cornish was terribly underused and I’d rather not talk about Robert de Niro… Such a legendary actor showing up for such an uninteresting part… I mean, any actor could have done this job and it was just yet another disappointing title to his already disappointing (recent) resume. Furthermore, I thought there were some huge plot holes. For example, at some point, it was made clear that the drug was lethal and the main character was supposed to die soon. So, he wisely decided to stop and his girlfriend was supporting him. But then, 5 minutes later, he was back on the drugs and everything was fine and, at the end, he was having diner with his girlfriend and everything is peachy?!? It is obvious that the makers at the end couldn’t make up their mind about this drug. Was it bad? Was it lethal? or ws it actually really awesome? Eventually, the biggest issue, in my opinion, is that, in spite of its title, this movie was actually terribly limited when you consider the scope. Basically, when the main character becomes the smartest man on Earth, he decides to become a Wall Street yuppie?!? Couldn’t they come up with something more inspiring than this? Still, it remains a pretty cool concept and I was entertained more or less through the whole thing and I still think it is worth a look but don’t expect anything amazing though.

Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of musicals but I do love movies and I’m open to all genres so I still watch one of those from time to time. I thought this one was not bad but it is definitely not one of the best I have seen though. It was directed by Richard Attenborough and you may wonder, after reaching such critical acclaim with ‘Gandhi’, if this follow up was not some kind of step back in his career. At least, you can’t argue that the guy was trying something different. It was also fun to see Michael Douglas to doing something else than his usual fare. And what about the movie itself ? Personally, I thought the dancing and the singing were pretty good but the story was not spellbinding enough to really hold my attention. I know, it is something inherent to the genre but the few musicals that I really enjoyed (‘West Side Story’, ‘Cabaret, ‘Sweeney Todd’,…) had an entertaining story and I think it is a key element to make a musical truelly enjoyable and not just really only about the dancing and the songs. Still, it remains a decent musical and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I keep watching Tim Allen’s features but there are always disappointing so I had some very low expectations concerning this flick. Not only he was again playing the lead but, this time, it was also his directing debut so it couldn’t be good. Eventually, I must admit it, it was actually slightly better than his usual fare. First of all, there was a pretty cool cast (Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Ray Liotta, J.K. Simmons, Julie Bowen, Kelsey Grammer, Jeanne Tripplehorn) and I especially enjoyed Sigourney Weaver which displayed some pretty good comedic skills here. Still, who I am kidding ? Like I said before, even though it was a little bit better than the usual Tim Allen’s flicks, it was still damned average. I mean, the whole thing was just really unfocused with way too many poorly developed and boring sub-plots. As usual, Tim Allen played the same guy all over again and I never believed one second that this guy had spent any time in jail. I mean, there was here and there some funny stuff above all thanks to Sigourney Weaver and I think that there was there somewhere a pretty good film but it was very well hidden under all that crap. To conclude, once again, it was another average and boring Tim Allen feature, as usual, I didn’t like it and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

Honestly, I found it rather difficult to review this movie. I mean, the fact that we know this tale back and forth make it really difficult to enjoy this movie. In my opinion, if it was the first adaptation, it would be really mind-blowing. At least, you have to admit that the whole thing looked really good and I thought there was also a decent cast (Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Lynn Redgrave, Olivia Williams, Ludivine Sagnier). Above all, it was really faithful to the original story which it was its blessing but also its curse. Indeed, as it is so faithful, you already know what’s going to happen next every 30 seconds and it makes the whole thing sometimes a little bit tedious to watch. Still, I thought it was pretty good and I enjoyed it. For P. J, Hogan , who went from a nice indie debut (‘Muriel's Wedding’ ) to a huge blockbuster (‘My Best Friend's Wedding’), it is yet another intriguing director effort. Too bad he made also some pretty tedious flicks (‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’, ‘ Unconditional Love’). Anyway, even though it is not really original and didn’t add much to this tale, I thought it was a gorgeous version, I really liked it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you don’t know what to watch with your kids.

After taking a 5 years break to get pregnant and take care of her twins, Jennifer Lopez came back with a romantic comedy about a woman who (guess what?) gets pregnant and ends up with some twins. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much but since I have a weak spot for romantic comedies, I thought I should check it out anyway. And, indeed, the first 20 minutes were downright terrible. Seriously, the whole thing was really going nowhere. However, to my surprise, it got better from the moment she told the guy rather quickly that she was pregnant which I didn’t really expect (afterwards, I thought it was kind of stupid of me… I mean, how long could she hide from him that she was pregnant?!? Anyway…). From that point, it got a little bit better and I liked how the couple evolved. Indeed, both leads were really charismatic, they had some good chemistry and I enjoyed the way they kept arguing throughout the whole thing even during labor. It felt pretty genuine. Still, most of the movie was rather worthless. I mean, he worked in a farm which was just way too big, the supportive characters were really poorly developed and the argument at the end was just really thin and completely plot-driven. Honestly, there were few things that worked in this movie but the rest was just some really poor old rom-com gimmicks. To conclude, even though it was not as bad as I thought it would be, it was still pretty average and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

It is probably one of the most obscure French movies I have seen. Indeed, I’m the only here in Listal who has seen it and on IMDB not even 150 people have rated it. Still, even though it is definitely obscure, I thought it was pretty good. I always had a weak spot for Pascal Bonitzer’s work who is above all famous for his work as a screenwriter (‘La Belle Noiseuse’, ‘Ma saison préférée’, ‘Généalogies d’un crime’,…) but also directed a few movies which are not really famous but which I enjoyed nonetheless (‘Petites coupures’, Rien sur Robert’, ‘Encore’). Anyway, this time around, he wrote and directed this feature which displayed a pretty good cast (Edouard Baer, Géraldine Pailhas, Charles Berling) and they all delivered some solid performances. Basically, it is one of those typical French romantic movies. Nothing much happen at all, expect that the characters talk a lot and they are all involved in some rather convoluted romantic relationships. Personally, I really have a weak spot for this kind of movies because they display some real (at least who seem real) 3 dimensional human beings and I always find easier and more interesting to identify with them than with the boring stereotypes provided by Hollywood. To conclude, even though it is nothing really mind-blowing, I enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies and/or if you like the genre.

Since I kept hearing good things about Shane Meadows, I was definitely eager to check his work. Eventually, I really got lucky to start with one of his best movies and I was certainly not disappointed. Indeed, he managed to set his movie in a specific historical time and place (England in the 80’s) and he also managed to create some fascinating characters to watch. Basically, it shows how dreary the life was for some people in England during that time (is it really any better nowadays?) and how slowly some of them moved towards the National Front and their extreme right wing ideas. This movie displayed also an interesting notion which I wasn’t aware about those skinheads. Indeed, apparently, the skinheads were at first more about a specific lifestyle (music, clothing, haircuts,…) than some actual ideology but, at some point, when some of them needed a goal, a purpose, they shifted towards right-wing politics and, above all, violence towards minorities. However, this flick was not just about history and it also dealt with some very interesting 3 dimensional characters. I mean, instead of showing us some skinheads breaking havoc, they displayed that they had a very strong sense of community but also that they didn’t have much purpose and that they were terribly confused. The only critic I have is that they tried to add a romantic sub-plot involving Combo, it didn’t work out really well but that wasn’t a deal breaker. To conclude, it is a heartbreaking but fascinating picture and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.