Reviews by johanlefourbe

First of all, I have to admit it, I had been smoking some cannabis for about a decade and even though I did stop about 10 years ago, I can’t deny that I’m rather familiar with what goes on when you are stoned. So, with this in mind, to be honest, I thought it was easily one of the best stoner films I have seen so far. Indeed, the two main characters were really well written with and Kal Penn and John Cho both gave some really solid performances. Seriously, they were totally relatable and their behavior was highly recognizable which was really pretty neat. During their big journey to White Castle, they made the craziest encounters and some of them were quite hilarious but, unfortunately, some others didn't work so well, I’m afraid. Still, all in all, I had a good time watching this and it was a big improvement for Danny Leiner whose directing debut was the dreadful 'Dude, where's my car?'. To conclude, in spite of its flaws and even though it was nothing really amazing after all, it was still a decent watch and it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though I enjoyed the first movie, since most sequels are disappointing, I wasn't really expecting much from this flick. Eventually, I was actually positively surprised. I mean, it was not as refreshing and original as the first flick but I thought it was still pretty good. I mean, the 'heart condition' didn't work as well as the whole adrenaline thing but it was still good enough. The masterstroke was that they picked up the storyline right where it stopped the last time and even though the whole thing was far-fetched, it still made some sense, at least in the crazy world of Chev Chelios. So, once again, you had a succession of messed-up and preposterous action scenes but that's the whole point of those movies. I must admit that that some scenes didn't work very well this time and some characters were really annoying (for example, the one portrayed by Bai Ling and 'Venus') but each time I was thinking 'Ok, now, it is just not working for me anymore...', they would throw some unbelievable action scene and I had once again a huge grin on my face. The point is that, with most of the action movies I watch, even though they can be entertaining, they are just so generic and they are missing either an original story and/or some interesting characters. It is usually only about the fighting, the explosions, the chases, that kind of stuff and I usually get bored fairly quickly. With Chev Chelios, they pushed the envelop so far out and they didn't give a sh*t about getting a R rating. As a result, I just had a good time watching those and that's all that counts. To conclude, it was not better than the first flick but it was still better than most action flicks coming out those days and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Well, it has been a while since I have seen such a convoluted thriller... The best to do with this flick is to know as least as possible about it before watching the damned thing. Basically, there were 4 different parts. The first part was just an agonizing introduction of the characters. Indeed, the story centered on Hayden Christensen and his relationship with his hot girlfriend portrayed by Jessica Alba, his relationship with his annoying and castrating mother portrayed by Lena Olin, his relationship with his friendly doctor portrayed by Terrence Howard, his medical situation, his job and I almost forgot to mention, the guy was filthy rich! That was a lot of information and they kept throwing all this information at us in just about 20 minute and it was obviously a little bit too much to handle. Anyway, you had then the 2nd part which was the best one. Indeed, the main character got this vital surgery and instead of falling asleep as he should, he got into some ‘anesthetic awareness’ meaning that during the anesthesia, he was paralyzed but fully conscious during the procedure and, suddenly, the whole thing became quite fascinating. I mean, this whole concept of ‘anesthetic awareness’ was just very well directed and acted and it was really interesting to watch. However, instead of going further in this direction, and explore the physical and psychological implications of such a condition, they decided to throw some unbelievable twists... And that's when the 3^rd part came in... Indeed, out of nowhere, it turned out that the whole surgical team and his brand new wife were comploting against him to get his money! Seriously, it was just so lame and ridiculous… However, it was pretty obvious that even though they kept telling you that he was going to die, he was obviously going to survive because, you know, it is a Hollywood production after all and such movies are always quite predictable, I'm afraid. And then you had the 4th and final part with yet another major twist... In this hospital, who could provide a matching heart for our poor young fellow ? The mother, of course!!! I figured this out pretty easily but I was wondering how they would play this out and check this out... She swallowed some pills and, within 2 hours,  she managed to call another surgeon, to die, a complete new surgical team came onsite and managed to transplant her heart into her son's body. Seriously, it was quite impressive how ridiculous it was... In my opinion, the subject was actually really interesting and it could have resulted in a good movie but, unfortunately, they decided to make this a thriller and they kept throwing some unbeliveable twists during the whole thing. To conclude, if you like this kind of far-fetched thrillers, you may end up enjoying it more than I did but, in my opinion, it was pretty average and it is not really worth a look.

Just like River Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix actually started out his acting career as a young child. However, whereas his big brother booked some immediate success, Joaquin Phoenix didn't get much attention as a child and it took him more than 10 years to eventually reach fame. After watching this movie, well, it was not really surprising, I'm afraid. Indeed, the whole thing was really similar to some over kids flicks such as 'The Goonies' or 'Stand by me' but it never reached the level of those movies. One of the main issue was that they never managed to get the tone right as the scenes were either too serious or too frivolous. Furthermore, the 3 protagonists were about 12 years but they still got their hands on a real gun, they drink some vodka, they beat up some guys, one of them gets threaten at point blank, another one gets shot at and almost drowned... Seriously, it was probably a little too much for a kids flick like this one. At least, Joaquin Phoenix did his best and he had a couple of good scenes but I wasn't really impressed by the performances provided by those children. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was a goodhearted family feature, it was still a failure and it is not really worth a look, except maybe if you are curious to see Joaquin Phoenix when he was a young kid.