Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I had never heard of this flick before but since the ratings were pretty good, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, it turned out to be a decent watch. First of all, I always had a weak spot for Brian Cox and he must be one of the most underrated actors at work nowadays. Many didn't know it but he was the first actor to portray Hannibal Lecter in 'Manhunter' and since then he has been shining in various supporting parts but it is not so often that he gets to play the lead. Furthermore, the rest of the cast was pretty good as well (Brian Cox, Damian Lewis, Joseph Fiennes, Liam Cunningham, Dominic Cooper) and it was also interesting that this movie was Rupert Wyatt's directing debut. He would then afterwards direct 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' which would turned out to be a surprise hit. Even though I have seen my share of prison flicks, I was still impressed by how filthy and grim the prison was. Of course, the whole thing was not as deep as 'The Shawshank Redemption'  was but it was well made and I was entertained throughout the whole thing. I must admit that I was slightly annoyed by the whole flashback thing and the movie would have benefited by being told in chronological order but, then, considering the ending, I understand that they made this choice. Anyway, to conclude, it was a decent flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I have a weak spot for Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, I definitely had to watch this movie. Eventually, it must be one of the weirdest flicks I have ever seen. Indeed, basically, it was some mix of a gay version of 'The Shawshank Redemption', a gay version of 'Catch Me if You Can' but there was also a love story (of course a gay one) and many other things. And the weirdest thing is that it actually worked. Indeed, it was really funny and both Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor gave some solid performances and they were totally believable in those characters. Eventually, the only issue I really had was that the damned thing was rather unfocused. For example, the main character was first a cop and a family man, but then he moved to Texas, got another job, and then dumped his family and settled in Florida and all this took place during the first 15 minutes! Furthermore, I was not sure what to make of the tone they chose. Indeed, sometimes, I had the feeling the makers were making fun of the whole thing but then, you would have some rather touching dramatic scenes so it was rather uneven. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it was still an incredible story, it was a very original feature, I really liked it and it is definitely worth a look.

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.