Reviews by johanlefourbe

I remember as if it was yesterday, when this movie came out, I must have been about 12 years old and, at the time, I thought it looked pretty neat (I was really into action movies back then). Eventually, it took me about 20 years to finally watch the damned thing but, unfortunately, it turned out to be rather disappointing. Seriously, during the first scene, I already  knew the whole thing would be really lame. I mean, you get to see the bad guy who is going to change his face (something he does apparently on a regular basis...) and he tells the surgeon to NOT use any anesthetic because he wants to make sure everything goes smoothly... Everything was so wrong in this scene, especially the dialogues which were really ridiculous. Fortunately, later on, the action scenes were decent enough and rather entertaining but the whole thing was still pretty weak. Back then, Wesley Snipes was still one of the biggest action stars but nowadays, all his work is released straight to DVD, but he gave here a decent performance. The bad guy also had some charisma but the whole thing was just too cheesy for my taste. Anyway, to conclude, I may have enjoyed it more back then when I was a kid but, as a growm-up, I thought it was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look, even if you like the genre. 

At first, I wasn't really enthousiast about this flick. Indeed, it seemed to be rather oversentimental but since I kept hearing some good things about it, I thought I should check it out. Eventually, I have to admit that it was a really solid WWII drama. The best thing about it was the way they handled the main characters, the 2 kids. Indeed, it was never condescending and they never sounded smarter than they should be. Everything they said or did seemed pretty accurate and it made the whole thing even more heartbreaking. What a terrible ordeal it must have been being a 8 year old in such a terrible time and place... Still, the whole thing wasn't flawless though. First of all, during the first minutes, I thought for a while that the whole thing was actually taking place in England because of the heavy British accent but that was not a deal breaker. Eventually, I had more problem concerning the grown-up characters. Indeed, whereas the boys were very well written and fascinating to watch, the adults (nazis and jews) were all so stereotypical, it was rather disappointing. I mean, all the nazis were portrayed as some mad blood-thirsty psychopaths and the only jew was portrayed as a very kind man, almost like an angel. Of course, what happened to the Jews back then was absolutely terrible, the greatest tragedy in history but WWII movies always tend to be really black and white. Finally, the ending, though it was pretty intense, turned out to be rather annoying. Indeed, I had some issue concerning the pacing and timing. Basically, just before leaving the house for good, Bruno had enough time to go to the camp, dig a hole, switch clothes, visit the barracks and end up in the gas chamber. Then they finally discovered that he was gone only when it was too late and got to the gas chamber just 5 minutes later. Of course, it was some powerful stuff but it also felt really timed, fake and manipulative. Still, in spite of its flaws, it was a very sad and strong WWII drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, even though I did like all the movies I have seen directed by Wes Anderson, so far, most of them actually didn’t really blow me away(I did change though from 'Fantastic Mr Fox' which I really loved and all the movies he made afterwards were really awesome) . Still, the guy has a very interesting directing style so I watched all his movies with great interest. Concerning our main feature, exactly like the rest of his work, I thought it was pretty neat but I didn't think it was great. Before watching the damning thing, I even watched 'Hotel Chevalier' which worked pretty well as a companion piece but I thought it was in fact rather misleading. Indeed, to the contrary to the other brothers, they gave us a backstory for Jack and it gave the feeling that he would be the main protagonist when it was not the case. Anyway, the cast was pretty good, I enjoyed the music and India seemed to be an enchanting country. Once again, it was dealing with a dysfunctional familly (another Wes Anderson Trademark) and even though I enjoyed those excentric characters, the story was just decent enough but still nothing really spellbinding. It was also rather corny that they got close with each other towards the end. Still, to conclude, even though it was not a masterpiece, I enjoyed the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Wes Anderson's work.