Reviews by johanlefourbe

It is quite tricky to review this flick because when I saw it, I haven't seen yet the original version 'Spoorloos' but now I do. Anyway, I thought it was an intriguing thriller. The directing was allright, George Sluizer was actually remaking his own movie, the acting was pretty good and I especially enjoyed the performance by Jeff Bridges who was pretty awesome, as usual. It was also funny to see Sandra Bullock who did this flick just before her breakthrough with 'Demolition man' and 'Speed'. Even though this remake was destroyed by the critics (Roger Ebert hated it) and it was a flop at the box-office, I thought the story was still quite mesmerizing. Of course, the end didn't feel right and when you see the original version, it is pretty ovious that they messed up the whole thing. In the Dutch movie, at the end, the missing girl has been dead all along and the main character is buried alive and will die the same way. Definitely one of the best ending I have seen in a thriller, no doubt. Unfortunately, in the remake, there is this totally disappointing happy ending where the new girlfriend saves the main character and the missing girl.... But, honestly, beside the terrible ending, I think it remains a solid and entertaining thriller. To conclude, even though it is one of those useless remakes, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

Well, eventually, it turned out to be yet another recent heralded comedy that I eventually found rather disappointing (pretty much like 'Easy A' which I saw last week and which I found also rather underwhelming). The major difference between these 2 comedies is that whereas I didn't care much about the story in 'Easy A', this time, the concept was actually pretty awesome. I above all enjoyed the first part, dealing with thoses awfull bosses. The second part, dealing with the 'killing', didn't work very well, in my opinion. It didn't work because there was not a single moment when I actually believed that they were taking the idea seriously (by 'they', I mean, the characters, the director, the actors and even the viewers). Personally, as soon as I don't take seriously what's going on, I don't really care anymore about the plot or the characters and I kind of lose interest in the whole thing. Furthermore, the 3 main characters were barely developed. Still, there were a lot of funny scenes and it was nice to see Kevin Spacey stealing the show like in the good old days. Man, what a great actor! It was also nice to see Jennifer Anniston finally trying something else. Her character was a little bit over the top for my taste but she delivered a solid performance. Finally, Colin Farrell looked awesome but, unfortunately, he didn't have much to do. To conclude, the concept was great but the script was not always good, I'm afraid. Still, it remains a decent comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I have a somewhat difficult relationship with Penélope Cruz. I mean, she is definitely charming and she seems to be rather talented but I'm never really blown away by the movies she's involved or her perfomances, even in the movies directed by Pedro Almodovar and the American productions in which she is usually casted are even more disappointing. Anyway, this time around, it was a Spanish flick directed by a decent director, Fernando Trueba, so I thought it should interesting, or at least entertaining. Eventually, the whole thing was pretty disappointing and, honestly, pretty boring. I mean, the story actually had some potential but I really didn' like the fluffy tone at all. Once again, I'm not sure if Penélope Cruz should be blamed but I thought her acting was rather bland, like all the other actors involved, as a matter of fact. To conclude, even though the whole thing had some potential, I thought it was an average and boring flick and I don't think it is really worth a look.

Before watching this flick, I had some rather low expectations but, honestly, it was even worse than I thought. Since I have 3 kids, I watch a lot familly features and cartoons. Some are great like everything done by Pixar, Wallace and Gromit, 'Fantastic Mr Fox' or 'Spirited away' and the rest is usually pretty average or even damned terrible. This flick definitely belongs to the 2nd group. I mean, I'm not surprised it was a flop when it came out and I really can't understand why Roger Ebert was so enthousiast about (one of the very few times I completely disagreed with him). Anyway, I thought the whole thing was an inane and boring modern fairy tale, some kind of mix of a classic fairy tale with a little bit of 'Shrek' and some bits of 'The Princess Bride'. I have nothing against Anne Hathaway and she is quite charming and all but I really didn't care about her character and what she was going through. To conclude, I thought it was pretty bad, it is definitely not worth a look and if you want to watch something with your kids, just watch 'The Princess Bride' instead.

Since I have a weak spot for Emily Blunt, I thought I should check this one out. Honestly, I think she is very talented but I'm still waiting for a movie starring this actress that will completely blow me away. I mean, she always delivers a solid performance but the movies themselves are usually rather disappointing and this flick was a pretty good example. I mean, it was a decent costume drama and it was pretty obvious that they wanted to recreate the same succesfull formula reached with 'Elizabeth' but it wasn't really good, I'm afraid. Indeed, I'm not really a fan of those dramas dealing with the so-called difficult life of the royals, privileged and financially fortunate. Furthermore, I thought the plot was pretty thin. Still, there were also some things that I enjoyed here. Indeed, the directing was pretty good and the costumes and sets were just plain gorgeous. I also enjoyed the sweet love story involving Victoria and Albert and it was refreshing to see a royal figure marrying someone she really loved instead of getting the usually gloomy relationship they usually end up with. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it remains a well made costume drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Personally, I was positively surprised by the 1st intallment. I mean, I really loved the game, at least the first one which has always been one of my all-time favorite games so I was really glad when the movie adaptation was actually pretty decent. Of course, it wasn't entirely faithfull but the mood was pretty good and reminded me of the game which was a really good thing. Before watching the sequel, I was again pretty sketpical and, unfortunately, this time around, the whole thing was not really impressive, I'm afraid. I mean, it was a good move to move the action into a whole city and it was also nice that they added Jill Valentine but it wasn't nearly enough to make this movie interesting to me. I mean, the plot was just a really standard zombie invasion and I was rather bored during the whole thing. Sure, the action scenes were allright and Milla Jovovich really kicked ass again, absolutely, but I always find this action stuff rather pointless if I don't care about the story or the characters involved. To conclude, it is not really bad at all but it is still pretty average and I don't think it is really worth a look.

Since I have a weak spot for Nick Cassavetes' work and since it was the last movie he directed that I haven't seen yet, I was really eager to check this one out. I was also intrigued also by the fact that this flick seemed to create some polarizing responses. I mean, half of the viewers think it is a great tearjerker and the other half seems to think it is just an awfull tearjerker. Personally, I thought it was pretty good but not really great though. The main issue for me was that, in my opinion, the whole thing was too elaborate. Take the scrapbook for example. It looked awesome but it was pretty obvious that it was made by a professional designer and not by some teenager dying of leucemia. Furthermore, there were way too many characters (the sick girl, the little sister, the big brother, the father, the mother, the aunt, the sick girl's boyfriend, the judge, the lawyer, the lawyer's dog,...) and almost all of them had their own sub-plot and, even though most of them were interesting, they were all barely developed and rather half-baked. Still, I liked this flick. I mean, the premise (a young girl refuses to donate her organs to her dying sister) was really fascinating and definitely heartbreaking. It is too bad the whole thing fell apart at the end (indeed, during the courtroom scene, she confesses that her dying sister told her to do so but, this way, it  terribly weakened this character who basically didn't have the right to have her own desire, feelings and thoughts but she was only allowed to follow what her mother or her sister told her to do). I still really enjoyed all the characters and the cast gave some very good performances, especially Cameron Diaz. I have seen some viewers complaining about Diaz and I know she can be pretty annoying but I think it was really not justified in this case. Indeed, in my opinion, she gave here a terrific performance, probably the best of her career. It was a difficult role because she had to be, at the same time, a loving mother but also a saint and also a ruthless dictator who wouldn't listen to anybody. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it remains a decent drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since it was Fellini's last directing feature, I was definitely eager to check this flick. It is pretty obvious that it is not one of his many masterpieces ('8½', 'La dolce vita, 'Le notti di Cabiria' or 'La strada') but it is still really interesting. This time aroud, Roberto Benigni had the privilege to work with the great maestro for his last movie. Even though I have nothing against Benigni, I'm not a fan and I'd rather have Marcello Mastroianni who was always awesome and fascinating when working with Fellini. As usual with this director, there is not much of a plot here and the whole thing was rather difficult to follow and it is always something that prevented me from really enjoying some of his flicks, even some of his best ones. I mean, I don't always need a straightforward plot but I do need to know a little bit what the hell is going on or then I have to get a very strong emotional reaction concerning the movie itself (For example, I sure didn't understand every thing from 'Teorema' but, emotionally, it touched me deeply). In this case, I enjoyed the directing and the whole thing was watchable but it was nothing really mind-blowing, I'm afraid. Still, if you like poetic and artistic movies, it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Fellini's work.

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. Eventually, I thought it was not bad but not much more than that and my wife thought it was even actually pretty bad. On the positive side, Emma Stone was really good as she gave here her breakthrough performance. I also enjoyed the dialogues, even though they felt sometimes overwritten especially when the parents were involved. The main issue was that I didn't really care much about the story. I don't know, in Europe, or at least in France where I spent all my youth, in high-school, 90% of us lost their virginity between 14 and 18 years old and nobody made a big deal out of it. I mean, some of us were pretty promiscuous but they were no gossip because nobody really cared about what the others were doing because we had to take care of our own sh*t. After reading Roger Ebert's review, I understand that the whole thing was actually rather caricatural but it still doesn't change the fact that I didn't care much about the plot at all. Furthermore, I laughed a few times (my wife didn't laugh once...) but it is not like the whole thing was really hilarious at all. Still, even though it didn't blow me away, it remains a decent comedy and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I have never really heard of this movie before but since someone lend me a dvd, I thought I should give it a try anyway. It was made after 'La strada', my favorite movie by Fellini and before 'Le notti di Cabiria' and 'La Dolce Vita'. It is not one of the most famous movies directed by Fellini and it is one of his best but I still think it was pretty good. For this feature, he left for a while his extravagant poetic style and chose this time for the neo-realism and maybe that's why it wasn't as succesful as the other movies he made back then. There is not much of a plot here and it focus more on the characters but that's fine since those characters were pretty fascinating to watch, especially the main character perfectly portrayed by Broderick Crawford. Furthermore, even though it is a rather sober feature, the directing is, as usual with Fellini, really flawless and makes the whole thing quite spellbinding to watch. To conclude, it may not be a masterpiece but it is still a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Fellini's work.