Reviews by johanlefourbe

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.

I really didn't know what to expect from this flick since I have a weak spot for John Goodman, I thought I should give it a try anyway. Eventually, I thought it was an interesting feature about the survival wild child genre. I also liked the fact that almost all the characters were some really nice and decent people even the director of the juvenile 'prison' was not really bad. Movies can be pretty cynical and it was rather refreshing to see a flick without evil at every corner and that's too bad they felt compelled to add the 'evil' police guy who's chasing Moon throughout the whole thing. Of course, I understand that they added him to add some tension, drama and even humor but I think it would have been interesting to see a movie populated with only some nice people. The other issue I had was that the movie didn't really know what it wanted to be. I think it was supposed to be a family feature (I'm not even sure...) since the whole escape was treated like a game and when the kids were all alone in the woods, they made it seems way too neat and too easy. On the other hand, you had some really dark and realistic scenes which didn't really fit the genre (for example, in the opening scene, you had Moon carrying his dead father and burrying him...). So, it kept switching tone between family-friendly and dramatic-realistic and it felt ratheruneven. Still, in spite of its flaws, it was a nice take on the survival movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn't really planning to see this flick but since there was nothing else really interesting to watch I thought why not? The first thing I thought while watching this remake is that I suddenly realized I just love movies dealing with amnesia. Indeed, 'Memento' is my favorite movie and I really loved 'The Bourne Identity' (much more than the sequels) and, of course, the original 'Total Recall'. What made those movies fascinating, at least, to me, was that they focused more on the pyschological and emotional turmoil lived by the main character and not so much on the action scenes. In my opinion, that was the big mistake made in this version. Indeed, the action stuff was pretty cool and entertaining but you never get the opportunity to root for Doug Quaid. Colin Farrell tried really hard and I don't think he should be blamed. It is like Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel. They were both pretty badass but they didn't have anything else to offer, I'm afraid. Still, the whole thing was not a total failure. Indeed, the action scenes were pretty neat and it has been a while since I have seen such an impressive vision of the future. To conclude, I thought it was still a decent attempt and even though it was not better or even as good as the original version, it was still worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I don't think it was that bad. Ok, now you're thinking I'm crazy but let me put some context around this statement... This flick is notoriously one of the worst sequels ever made so, beforehand, I thought it would be just awfull and since my expectations were so low, this flick had actually a shot to positevely surprise me. Does it make any sense? Anyway, of course, it is pretty average and it remains a disappointing sequel. First of all, it is obviously pretty funny that they decided to make an action flick around a huge boat which is not really a fast vehicle at all. Keanu Reeves knew that this was a stinker going nowhere so he wisely staid away of it and it was a terrible blow for Jason Patric and Jan de Bont whose careers never really recovered from this disaster. Still, I thought the whole thing was midly entertaining. I mean, Jan de Bont is a decent action movie director, Willem Dafoe is always a badass bad guy and there were some entertaining sequences and I think the original opinion is a little too harsh. Of course, it is pretty average but the genre doesn't require anything mind-blowing (As a matter of fact, Roger Ebert surprisingly gave it a 3 stars review). To conclude, it is not that bad but it is still pretty average and, eventually, not really worth a look.