Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Winona Ryder, I thought I should check it out. By the way, what the hell happened to her?!? During the 90's, she was one of the most popular actresses at work but, suddenly, her career went downhill and she has been rather struggling ever since. Well, with such flicks, I can't say I'm really surprised... I mean, it was basically one of those quirky comedies with some rather excentric characters but the whole thing didn't work very well. I mean, there was an interesting cast (David Arquette, Josh Charles, Joseph Fiennes, Lukas Haas, Tom Hollander, Juliette Lewis, Julianna Margulies, Tim Blake Nelson, Alessandro Nivola, Chris Penn, Winona Ryder, Robin Tunney, Wilmer Valderrama) and the concept definitely had some potential. However, even though some scenes were quite funny, they tried too much to be quirky and the whole thing ended  up being actually more annoying and stupid than anything else. It was the same thing with the main character, he was just a whining obnoxious guy and he actually got on my nerves throughout the whole thing. Anyway, to conclude, even thought the damned thing could have been a decent watch, it turned out to be a disappointing indie comedy and it is not really worth a look.

According to Roger Ebert, this was one of the best movies coming out in 2009 and it won the Academy Award fot the best foreign movie so I was definitely curious about it. It had been a while since I watched a Japanese movie and within the first 10 minutes, I understood why I was always loved these movies. Indeed, the directing and acting was so understated and quite fascinating to behold and it is such a big difference with Western movies, especially American movies, which tends to explain every single thing happening on the screen, something which is in fact rather boring. Furthermore, this movie was about a very interesting ceremony dealing with the cleansing of dead bodies before they are cremated. It was something we obviously don't have in the Western culture and those proceedings were rather emotional and mesmerizing to watch. Still, even though I really liked this movie, it was still missing something to become really awesome. Maybe it was because there were some humorous bits during the first half which were rather superfluous or maybe it was because the characters were not really fascinating. Still, it was a very well made drama, it gave a very interesting view on Japanese culture and traditions and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Japanese movies.

I didn't really know what to expect from this flick before watching it. I mean, I have never seen the TV show it is based on and, frankly, even though I have seen every single movie directed by Tim Burton, it has been a while that he really did blow me away. Furthermore, the (terribly misleading) trailer gave me the feeling that it would be a straight comedy reminiscent of 'The Addams Familly' which wasn't really promising either. Fortunately, it turned out to be actually not bad at after all. Indeed, it was visually really neat, especially the introduction which was some kind of Gothic extravangaza and the tone was just perfect. Furthermore, I really enjoyed Johnny Depp who was quite hilarious and it has been a while since he gave such a solid performance. The rest of the cast was also pretty good but they didn't stand a chance against Depp, except maybe for Eva Green. Still, even though I enjoyed this movie, I was still missing something though. Indeed, there were a few misfires like the sex scene or the concert with Alice Cooper where the tone was gone and they went for the cheap jokes. Furthermore, the ending was rather disappointing as it was a rather boring and uninteresting final fight between the two major protagonists. Still, to conclude, even though it wasn't entirely satisfying, it was still a fairly enjoyable flick and it is worth a look, especially if you like Tim Burton's work.

Even though I really have a weak spot for romantic movies, most of them are usually disappointing so I didn't expect much before watching this flick. Eventually, I was pleasantly surprised and I couldn't believe how intense the whole thing was sometimes. First of all, there was a nice cast and they all gave some decent performances. Above all, I really enjoyed how complex and conflicted those characters and their relationships were portrayed. Indeed, it was really refreshing and much more interesting that the stereotypes you usually get with this genre. Of course, it still followed the usual formula but they provided enough depth to make it interesting. Another issue was that there were probably too many characters and some of the sub-plots didn't work so well. Still, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this flick. One of the most daring choice they made was to make the main character played by Zach Braff such a complete dick. Of course, his feelings were understandable and he seemed to be a nice guy but come on, his girlfriend (Jacinda Barett) was pregnant but he still managed to go out with a young student (Rachel Bilson), kissed her, got back home, got busted by his girlfriend, went back to the student, had sex with her and the day after, he still came back to his girlfriend and asked her to get back together! I couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was pretty obvious that he was done with his girlfriend and that he just wanted to have a quick f*ck with the student but they still tried to force them back together at the end, following the tired formula I mentioned before and it didn't really work in my opinion. Still, even though the whole thing was flawed, it was actually one of the best romantic dramas I have seen for a very long time and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.