Reviews by johanlefourbe

Back in the 70's, Francis Ford Coppola made 4 movies and all of them became masterpieces. I mean, the guy was on fire and, basically, the best film director working at the time. Unfortunately, 40 years later, even though he had a prolific career, he never reached this level again. Anyway, at some point, Coppola did make a come back after 10 years without directing anything and the end result was actually pretty good. First of all, the black and white cinematography was really neat and reminded me of those good old neo-realist features (as a matter of fact, Coppola was inspired by 'La notte' while making this movie). Concerning Vincent Gallo, you may hate the guy or not but he delivered here a really solid performance, like the rest of the cast. Still, even though the story was intriguing, to be honest, it wasn’t really fascinating and it was rather obvious that the accent was on the style and the performances rather than the substance. As a result, sometimes, I didn't care much about what was going on. Still, according to Coppola, it was the most beautiful film he has ever made and, indeed, it was a visual marvel. To conclude, it was a rather intimate and well made drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Coppola's work.

Following his come-back thanks to 'Iron Man', Robert Downey Jr followed up with another high-profile gig, a modern version of one of the oldest characters, Sherlock Holmes. I always had a weak spot for Guy Ritchie's work, even though he hasn't done anything amazing since 'Snatch'. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I thought it was pretty good. Indeed, this movie looked really good and the action scenes worked pretty well without overshadowing the rest of the movie. Of course, the best was the casting. Indeed, Downey Jr was awesome and totally rocked this performance and Jude Law was a good choice for Watson. However, to be honest, the whole thing it was still nothing mind-blowing though. I mean, it was fairly entertaining and I enjoyed how they rationally explained everything at the end like a good old Holmes tale but, honestly, it was not a really strong story. Basically, they were way too busy making sure the whole thing looked badass, that Robert Downey Jr sounded cool when they should have spent more time on a strong and spellbinding story. It was the same issue with the dialogues, some of them were entertaining, but some other were way too convoluted and I understand that they wanted to make it sound clever but it didn’t always work. Anyway, to conclude, it was still a well made and entertaining blockbuster and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was really so eager to see it. Well, I wasn't disappointed, that's for sure. Indeed, it was pretty much a masterpiece and easily one of the best French movies I have seen during the last 10 years. I was already impressed by Audiard's previous directing effort, 'De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté', but this movie was even better. Basically, it was one of the grimmest, dreariest jail dramas I have ever seen and, compared to this movie, 'The Shawshank Redemption' was a pretty much a disney flick. Indeed, the jail was so dirty, so depressing, they tell you about reintegration but how could you become a better person after spending time in such a vile and hostile environment?!? The main character was a fine example as he started out as a scary lamb but slowly became a wolf, even though he was still traumatized by the first murder he committed there. To this purpose, they added some paranormal, dreamlike sequences but they did fit perfectly with the grim reality of this picture. Even though you eventually spend more than two hours with this guy, you are never sure about his thoughts or his feelings and it made the whole thing even more spellbinding to watch. Anyway, to conclude, it was a rather depressing feature but also a masterpiece and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Antoine Fuqua and was starring Jamie Foxx, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all,  even though Jamie Foxx originally started out with some comic parts and, eventually, became an Academy Award winner, in between, he actually tried to become an action movie star but it never really worked out very well. I mean, it seemed at first like a good idea, to combine his wisecrack humour with some badass action scenes which is reminiscent of Bruce Willis, probably my favourite action movie star ever. The problem was that, in this movie, his character should have been  entertaining but, eventually, he turned out to be more obnoxious than anything else. Furthermore, Antoine Fuqua is a decent director but the whole thing was rather uninspired and bland in my opinion. Sure, you had some unexpected twists but they felt pretty random and obligatory. Above all, I was rather bored by the whole thing and even though it may not have been one of the worst action movies I have ever seen, it was still pretty much unremarkable. Anyway, to conclude, it is a rather average action flick and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.