Reviews by johanlefourbe

I was quite blown away by 'Mar adentro' which was basically the best Spanish movie I have ever seen so I was really eager to watch Alejandro Amenabar’s following directing effort. I was rather amazed that this movie was barely seen and quickly forgotten. Indeed, it might not have been Amenabar's best movie so far but I thought it was still pretty good. Basically, it was dealing with philosophy, science, religion and love and most of it was actually quite spellbinding. The main issue was that it was probably too ambitious and all those ideas were not really well developed after all. For example, there were not one but two romances around Hypatia but I understand why they added those. Indeed, it was to add some human dimension to these grand scale events but those romances were more annoying than anything else eventually. Furthermore, the movie was fairly anti-Christian since the Christians were portrayed as merciless bullies. Of course, they destroyed some invaluable books and artifacts in the past but so did the Muslims, the Jews, the Pagans or any other religion. Eventually, the message was really striking but the execution was rather heavy-handed. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still an intelligent film, something rare nowadays, and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Religion.

[Link removed - login to see]To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Dwayne Johnson, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it is not very often that you see a major action star like Dwayne Johnson starring in a drama and, quite surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the damned thing. I mean, sure, the introduction was rather messy but then they displayed the life of the youth in this kind of neighboorhood and how merciless and hopeless their life can turn out to be. So, when they all got involved in this (US) football thing, I was really believing that they were willing to do something else than shooting at each other. They managed to show us that those kids never have had any opportunity, except selling drugs, and, here, they finally got to do something else and it worked. Of course, the whole thing was still rather stereotypical, you wonder if they could become friends so quickly and some of those kids behaved completely different from one moment to another but it was inherent to the genre. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing mind-blowing, I thought it was actually a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though I'm not a big fan of Barbra Streisand, since she won the Oscar for the Best actress for this movie, I thought I might as well check it out. In fact, when you think about it, could you imagine Christina Aguilera winning an Oscar for 'Burlesque', Britney Spears for 'Crossroads' or Mariah Carey with 'Glitter'? It seems that, nowadays, we shouldn't have huge expectations towards such movies. even though, Jennifer Hudson did manage to win the Oscar for 'Dreamgirls'. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I thought it was not bad. Indeed, the songs were pretty good and I have to admit that Barbra Streisand did deliver a solid performance. Unfortunately, like most musicals, the story turned out to be nothing mind-blowing. Furthermore, it was also rather long (around 140 minutes) and the whole thing was rather slow so I got rather bored at some point. Of course, since I'm not a fan of Barbra Streisand and since I'm not a fan of musicals either, I was not really the targeted audience and that could explain why I didn't like it very much. Anyway, to conclude, I still it was a well made musical and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Nowadays, I have Netflix and Popcorn and not only I have since then an endless selection of movies to choose from but, as a result, I have become slightly more picky regarding the movies I watch. Before, I used to watch pretty much anything as long as it was starring one or two actors I was interested in and, as a result, I would sometimes end up watching some really obscure features. This movie was a perfect example and it was indeed was pretty average. Basicallly, it was one of those straight-to-dvd flicks with poor acting, directing and storyline. I was above all rather amazed by Paul Walker who played the lead here. I mean, I have to admit it, the guy had the looks but, man, as a actor, he was rather clueless and this flick was a good example. The fact that the whole thing was ratheer poorly written didn't help. For example, the character portrayed was supposed to be some kind of loser but then, out of the blue, he was riding a bike, a horse, taking down about 20 henchmen with his bare hands and he also became some kind of sharp shooter. However, even though the whole thing was pretty average, it was not one of the worst movies I have seen, and I do think that the story actually had some potential. Still, it is pretty average and not really worth a look.

Before watching this flick, I wasn't expecting much but, at least, I thought it would be a fun watch. First of all, I have to give some credit to Alexandre Aja. Indeed, I heard about the damned thing and I thought there would be loads of boobs and gore but they really went all the way, with lots of nudity and some nasty gore scenes. Still, even though my step-son apparently really loved it, I can't say I really cared for this movie though. Indeed, I was eventually rather bored during the whole thing and, as far as I was concerned, it was never really funny or scary. To make things worse. I didn't care about any of the characters so it was rather difficult to get into the story. Of course, I know, I shouldn't take this movie seriously but, still, if you compare it to 'Jaws, it was rather weak. Like I said before, my step-son who is 15 years old really enjoyed it and I'm maybe too old to appreciate a movie with naked chicks and blood-thirsty fishes. I have nothing against these things but I still need a compelling story and some more or less interesting characters. Anyway, to conclude, it was rather boring and it is not really worth a look in my opinion.