Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wonder how I ended up watching this flick. By now, somehow, I have seen most of the movies starring Hilary Duff and, to be honest, there were all rather worthless and this movie was unfortunately not an exception. I mean, it was not the worst one I have seen (In my opinion, ´[Link removed - login to see]´ was the ultimate piece of turd she has made so far). I mean, Hilary Duff is quite charming and she might have some talents but the plot of her movies are just abysmal. Honestly, if you dig, there was actually there somewhere an interesting story but the characters were just really obnoxious. Seriously, it woud be difficult to pick up which one was worst, the mother portrayed by Heather Locklear or the daughter portrayed by Hilary Duff who were both stuck into this stupid and completely predictable story. Of course, I was obviously not the target audience and there is a good chance that my 17 old step-daughter would enjoy it more than I did but, still, there are way better movies out there for teenagers or young girls to watch. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was pretty bad and I don’t think it is worth a look whatsoever.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick which seemed to be rather obscure but since I have a weak spot for Harvey Keitel and Emmanuelle Béart, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I remember very well, back in the 90's, Harvey Keitel made a huge come-back thanks to 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Bad Lieutenant' but it seems that, since the beginning of the 2000’s, he hasn't done anything really impressive, I'm afraid. Well, eventually, I thought was it really difficult to judge this flick... I mean, on one hand, the whole thing was rather poorly written as it was pretty far-fetched and messy. On the other hand, the directing was actually pretty decent, I enjoyed the mood and I really enjoyed the acting, especially by Harvey Keitel and Emmanuelle Béart. Afterwards, when you think about it, it was pretty obvious that the makers didn't care much about the story and that they were more interested by the characters and their emotional turmoil and, somehow, it did remind me of David Lynch's work. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still an intriguing flick and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Harvey Keitel's work.

Eventually, even though Tobe Hooper achieved some major success with 'The Texas Chainsaw massacre', his following features never had much critical or financial success. The only exception would be this feature but many argue that this movie actually belongs to Spielberg (He produced it, wrote the damned thing and some says that he even cast the film, directed the actors, and designed every single storyboard). But, anyway, how was this movie eventually? Well, it was not bad at all but, to be honest, I can't say I was really blown away by the whole thing. Of course, the special effects were quite impressive, even more when you think that it was made 30 years ago. However, if some scenes did work pretty well, some others didn't and the whole thing was not really well written in my opinion. I mean, I'm not an expert whatsoever but I really wonder if Spielberg did any research on poltergeists before writing this flick. Above all, even though the whole thing was fairly entertaining, it was never really scary and it was probably what I was missing the most. Still, in spite of its flaws, it remains a classic, it is one of the few horror flicks with a decent budget and it is definitely worth a look.

At some point, I found a cheap dvd for this movie so I thought I might as well check it out. This movie was Amy Heckerling’s 2nd directing effort, following her successful debut with 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' so there was definitely some potential for something really neat. Well, basically, it turned out to be some kind of parody of those gangsters flicks from the 30's and 40's. Unfortunately, even though it seemed to be an interesting idea and even though there was a nice cast involved, I didn't like the damned thing much. First of all, I have never been a big fan of parodies in general and this one, except for a few nice ideas, wasn't really funny at all. There was one thing that I enjoyed though and it was Mickael Keaton's performance. I was rather surprised when I discovered that it was only his 3rd movie. Indeed, the guy was really funny and charismatic and he channeled a little bit the same energy he would eventually give for Beetlejuice, another part he would land a few years later. Anyway, to conclude, I have seen worse parodies but this one was still rather tedious, in spite of Keaton's effort, and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you really like the genre.