Reviews by johanlefourbe

Before his notorious breakdown and retirement from the movie industry, Macauley Culkin did show up in this flick. Well, you could see that the guy was growing up at the time and even if he didn't quit afterwards, it still would have been his last flick as a kid. Anyway, with no disrespect to Mr Culkin, I thought the damned thing was pretty bad. First of all, I never thought he was really amazing in the first place, even in 'Home Alone', but the whole thing was just so pedestrian and seriously boring to watch. I know, it was just a family feature but I doesn't mean it should be tedious to watch. Furthermore, at the end, they were some scenes which were rather inappropriate like for example when Culking gets shot at point blank, of course, he is not hurt but it was still rather unsettling. Anyway, for Culkin, it was yet another flop and basically the end of his movie career. The only interesting thing about this flick was the similarity between Richie Rich's life and Culkin's own life. Indeed, they were both filthy rich and famous but, at the end of the day, they were both feeling quite miserable. To conclude, I thought it was pretty lame and it is not really worth a look, even if you are a fan of Macauley Culkin.

I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick but since there was a pretty cool cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Apparently, during the whole 'Twilight' frenzy, there was actually another book adaptation dealing with vampires and teenagers but it was eventually barely noticed. It is too bad because there were actually many things to enjoy here : some cool visuals with some nice details, some fun characters and a really good cast (John C. Reilly, Josh Hutcherson, Ray Stevenson, Ken Watanabe, Salma Hayek, Orlando Jones, Willem Dafoe, Jane Krakowski). I especially enjoyed John C. Reilly who gave here another really neat performance. However, I was still not really blown away by the whole thing. Indeed, the story was honestly rather messy. Basically, there were too many characters, too many storylines and too many intrigues and the whole thing was, as a result, still rather half-baked. You could feel that it came from a book where they probably fully developped all these elements whereas, here, it was all rather rushed. Anyway, to conclude, it was nothing great whatsoever but it was still a fairly enjoyable flick and it is worth a look, especially if you like vampire flicks but cannot stand 'Twilight'.

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. First of all, do you know what is worse than a Christmas movie? A bad Christmas movie... I mean, I'm not a big fan of Matthew Broderick so I wasn't expecting much but since it was starring Danny DeVito, I thought the damned thing might still be fun. Unfortunately, it turned out to be just seriously boring with only a very few decent jokes along the way. From the start, it was a very lame concept, and after 5 minutes, I already had enough but I'm the kind of viewer who would watch a movie until the end, no matter what. It is not that the jokes were bad but they were just not funny and the story was just too predictable. Furthermore, the 2 main characters were not funny or interesting and were in fact rather obnoxious. To conclude, even though I really like Danny DeVito, even him couldn't manage to save this flick, it was just a really boring comedy and it is not worth a look whatsoever.

Even though we don't hear much from him lately, Bernardo Bertolucci used to be one of the most highly regarded directors in the world and I try to watch his movies whenever I get the opportunity. Unfortunately, this movie turned out to be probably the least satisfying one he has made that I have seen so far. I mean, it was not really bad, the directing was actually pretty good and the 2 actors (Thandie Newton and David Thewlis) both delivered some decent performances. However, it was just really poorly written and, as a result, the whole thing was honestly a real mess. Basically, there was barely any dialogue during the whole movie, then suddenly, they gave us this awful scene when Thewlis tells Newton that he loves and wants to marry her but then, in the next scene, it is as if this event never actually took place. Furthermore, it wasn’t really surprising that Thewlis would be attracted to Newton, I mean, who wouldn't be? But why on Earth would she be attracted to him?!? Seriously, there was not one single shred of evidence explaining this during the whole movie. Basically, he was just some kind of creepy guy and this movie was about a white boss who wanted to f*ck his black maid. At least, the movie was well directed and the actors were pretty good so I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Bertolucci's work. 

Since I kept hearing some great things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. And indeed, I wasn't disappointed, that’s for sure. When you think about it, to be honest, the story was nothing really amazing but what was awesome about this movie was actually the writing. I mean, they pretty much managed to flawlessly mix a comedy with a drama and a thriller with some great dialogues and some 3 dimensional characters. As a result, the whole thing was quite spellbinding to watch, especially the 2nd half. First of all, I have to congratulate the writer-director, Martin McDonagh, who gave here a really impressive directing début and the 3 main actors (Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson)  were all downright impressive. Even though Farrell got more attention, the center performance was actually provided by Brendan Gleeson who was just amazing. Like I said before, it was actually a simple story and there was no real action scene but it didn't bother me at all. Basically, it was a character-driven story and those characters were quite fascinating to watch. To conclude, it did live up to my expectations, I really loved it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are looking for an original gangster flick.