Reviews by johanlefourbe

Even though the ratings for this movie were really low, since there was a really nice cast involved (Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Sharon Stone, Catherine Keener, Albert Finney), I was really eager to check it out. Well, the beginning was actually rather promising with a nice film noir mood and an impressive confrontation between Nolte and Bridges but, unfortunately, the whole thing didn't hold up after all. Above all, the story was just really poorly written. I mean, Nick Nolte was a messed up guy looking for some kind of redemption, Jeff Bridges started out as a ruthless businessman but suddenly, the guy had a melt-down and all his decisions became really hard to follow, Albert Finney didn't have one single line of genuine dialogue during the whole thing and spoke only in cryptic riddles, Sharon Stone played an alcoholic and Catherine Keener tried very hard but ultimately she portrayed one of the most clueless and annoying characters I have seen for a long time. So, the characters were not really convincing or interesting and the story was rather weak as well with no real climax at the end. It's too bad since they seemed to have all the ingredients to make a terrific movie. Anyway, to conclude, I think my rating is actually really generous, it was a rather disappointing flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this movie, I was really eager to watch the damned thing. First of all, Drew Barrymore had some major ups and downs during her career as an actress but you can say whatever you want, she delivered a really neat directing debut. Above all, I really liked how she managed to mix teenage anxiety with a sport flick. Of course, the whole thing was still rather stereotypical and predictable but it was still well made and entertaining. First of all, you had a really strong female cast (Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Zoe Bell, Eve, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis) and they all delivered some solid performances. Still, Ellen Page can’t seem to move on from Juno as she keeps playing over and over again some similar characters and I hope for her she will be able to do something else in the future. Anyway, this derby roller thing (which I had never seen before) was pretty fun to watch. Above all, I really enjoyed the directing and most of the dialogues were quite hilarious. To conclude, even if the core of this movie was not original,  the execution was really good, I really liked the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look.

Like many other viewers, I was quite blown away by 'Donnie Darko' which was definitely one of the most impressive directing debuts ever. As a result, we all had some high hopes concerning Richard Kelly but, more than 15 years later, we are still waiting for something else great coming  from this director.... Anyway, 3 years after the huge failure of ‘Southland Tales’, it seems that Kelly decided to scale down and he delivered something much less ambitious than his 2 first movies. I mean, it was still another mindf*ck and it did remind me of David Lynch's work with a little bit of 'Lost' and a lot of 'Twilight Zone' in it (as a matter of fact, this movie had been inspired by a 'Twilight Zone' episode). To be honest, even though the directing was not bad and Cameron Diaz and James Marsden did what they could and provided some decent performances, the whole thing was still too preposterous for me. I mean, the whole button thing ('should they press it or not?') was already intriguing enough but they kept adding some weird stuff every 5 minutes and I kind of lost interest after a while. Still, even though it was flawed, the whole thing was still fairly entertaining and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

For some weird reasons, I was quite eager watch this movie. Indeed, this movie was actually released on June 6th 2006 (6/6/6) and my daughter was actually born the day after. At least, it seemed that there was an interesting cast involved (Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Mia Farrow, Michael Gambon). Still, they made some huge mistakes in this area. Indeed, couldn't they pick someone else more believable to play the mother? Back then, Julia Stiles wasn't even 25 years old and she looked even younger, 22 at most. Apparently, some other actresses such as Rachel Weisz, Laura Linney or Hope Davis were considered and it would have worked better with them. The other casting mistake was with the young boy. Seriously, it was one of the weakest child performances I have seen for a while. On the bright side, I must say that the rest of the cast was decent, especially Liev Schreiber. Indeed, Schreiber is a fine actor, one of the most underrated at work nowadays and he really deserved a better movie than this. Indeed, the story was really preposterous and I was sometimes laughing at what was happening on the screen. I mean, other movies such as 'The Shining' managed to deal with paranormal phenomenoms without getting so ridiculous. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was not really awful, it was still a weak horror movie and it is not really worth a look, even if you are a fan of this genre.