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.

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.