Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, before watching this movie, I didn't even know 'The Band' but I did know Martin Scorsese and it was a good enough reason for me to check this flick. For years, I had heard that it was the best concert movie ever made and after watching it, I must say indeed that he does deserve its reputation (I think 'Woodstock' is even better but it is more a festival than an actual concert). Indeed, back then, music was really about actually playing some music with some real instruments. Nowadays, most of the work is actually done by some producers in the control room and you can never be sure that what you hear is the real thing or someting coming out from some computer. The other thing that impressed me was that even though those guys were separating, you could feel that they still enjoyed playing together. It was just so refreshing compared to other bands which kept playing for decades together for no good reasons or other bands where everybody got to each other throats in some ugly split. Furthermore, the list of guests (Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Ringo Starr, Ron Wood,...) was just really impressive as well and the whole thing was just downright impressive on a music level. To conclude, the damned thing was pretty awesome, I really loved it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like this kind of music.

A movie starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey could and should have been comedic gold... Especially with such a stellar supporting cast (Mark Wahlberg, Kristen Wiig, Mark Ruffalo, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Ray Liotta, Taraji P. Henson, William Fichtner, Leighton Meester, Olivia Munn), it could have been pretty awesome. Unfortunately, the whole thing turned out to be rather disappointing. Indeed, instead of a straight comedy or even a romantic comedy, they decided to make some kind of mix made of comedy, action and thriller. Even though Roger Ebert did like it and called it a believable screwball comedy, the story was in fact neither interesting or entertaining. The worst thing was that it was not even a bad movie at all. I mean, Tina Fey and Steve Carell had some great chemistry and they made one of the best romantic couples I have seen because they didn't look like superstars, they just looked like some regular folks like you and me, who just happened to be hilarious. But then, they brought this whole annoying plot involving the mob and I just lost interest right away... Anyway, to conclude, I think Carell and Fey are some of the funniest people on Earth and they deserved a better plot than this. However, thanks to them and the supporting cast, this movie is still worth a look though.

Since it was the only movie directed by David Lynch which I haven't seen yet, I was just dying to watch it and I can't believe it took me 6 years to see the damned thing. The weird thing was that, in those 6 years, David Lynch hasn't directed any other feature. I read here and there that he has actually retired from the movie making business but it has never been actually official. Anyway, to be honest, to watch his last movie was pretty much like torture to me. Not because it was bad, not at all, but because I was torn in two during the whole thing. Indeed, one part of myself was thinking it was just 3 hours of garbage non-sense and I couldn't wait until the end but the other part was thinking that it was actually fascinating and couldn't wait to see what would happen next. Basically, you either love Lynch’s directing style or you hate it and though I'm not a hater, I can't say I'm a lover either. I mean, I admire his boldness, the way he breaks all the rules of storytelling and, as a result, you end up ... somewhere else. Was it some hallucination? Was it a nightmare? Was is another dimension? I have absolutely no idea and even Laura Dern and Justin Theroux have both said that they had no idea what the film was actually about.... Still, I think it was an interesting approach but not much more than that. A part from that, there was a nice cast and, above all, Laura Dern was really impressive. Anyway, to conclude, it was a typical Lynch effort and it was rather frustrating, as usual, but I still think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in experimental films.

To be honest, my knowledge about football (soccer for the US readers) is rather limited but since this movie was starring Michael Sheen, I was quite eager to check this movie. For Sheen who played Brian Clough here, it was already the 3rd famous British figure he impersonated (before that, he had been also Tony Blair in 'The Queen' and David Frost in 'Frost/Nixon'). And once again, the guy was really impressive. I have to admit it, I actually didn't know who was Brian Clough before watching this movie but Michael Sheen gave such a charismatic performance, he made the whole thing really spellbinding to watch. Concerning the story itself, it was pretty entertaining but I'm not so sure if it was completely effective. I mean, according to the movie, Clough was over-ambitious, blinded by his hatred of Leeds and actually not really good without his assistant, Peter Taylor. But then, at the end, they displayed some archive footage with the conclusion that he was in fact the best English manager that ever existed but I thought it was rather contradictory with the movie itself. Anyway, it was an entertaining flick, it gave a good insight about English football back in those days, I enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested by this subject. 

I didn't have some high expectations concerning this movie but since my step-daugther brought the DVD home, I thought I should give it a try anyway. Eventually, the only positive thing I can say about it was that it was not as bad as 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' which was just really terrible. At least, the animation looked pretty good as well, I have to admit it. Unfortunately, there was nothing else to enjoy about this movie and the story was especially really idiotic. I mean, to make a family feature about the Easter Bunny, why not? To make it about the Easter Bunny who wants to become a drummer was kind of lame but to make it about a guy who literally wants to become the actual Easter bunny... That was just so stupid and completely ridiculous. Of course, my 6 year old daughter enjoyed it but young children would enjoy anything because they find it so neat to watch a movie, especially when grown-ups are watching as well. Furthermore, combining live action and animation is not necessarily a bad idea but if the only thing they can come up with is this movie and 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' than it is not really worth the trouble at all. Anyway, to conclude, even though the animation did look pretty good, it was rather lame and it is not really worth a look, even for young kids.

Since I had never seen a movie directed by René Clement before, I didn't know what to expect but since this movie is a classic, I thought I should give it a shot. Eventually, it actually turned out to be definitely one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. First, they gave us this opening with this famous melancholic guitar tune which kept coming back throughout the whole thing. Then, in the very first scene, there was this 5 year old girl holding her dead dog while both her parents were being shot by a plane. I mean, it was just 5 minutes into the movie and I was already a total wreck...Then, they kept bringing again and again some heartbreaking scenes and, as expected, the end was also completely devastating. A few weeks before, I actually saw 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and  everybody seemed to think that it was a major tearjerker but even though it was indeed pretty heavy, compared to this feature, it was actually a piece of cake. A part from that, the acting by the kids was just really impressive and I also enjoyed the writing. Indeed, all the characters were three dimensional and felt really genuine in the sense that they were sometimes nice and sometimes pretty nasty, even the two children. I have to admit that I didn't care much about the whole cross stealing thing but, a part from that, this movie was really impressive. To conclude, it was one of the most emotional movies I have ever seen and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.