Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I have to admit that I had never heard of this movie before but since it was starring the great Emma Thompson, I thought I should give it a try. Unfortunately, even though there was indeed an interesting cast involved (Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Carla Gugino, Simon Baker, Gil Bellows, Til Schweiger, Philip Baker Hall), I can say I really cared about the damned thing though. I mean, I was glad for Carla Gugino that she was able to play a lead part and she definitely looked terrific, as usual, but, to be honest, her acting wasn't nothing really mind-blowing, I'm afraid. Apparently, she has been in a long relationship with the director of this movie, Sebastian Gutierrez, and they would be keep on making many movies together after this one but none of them make many waves either. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, above all, I wasn't impressed by the plot which tried to emulate some kind of néo-noir crime story but I thought it was in general pretty weak and rather boring. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse movies, it was still pretty damned average and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since it was available on the KPN pluspakket, I thought I might as well check it out again. To be honest, I have to admit that it was actually slightly better than I remembered but I still can't say I was really impressed though. Indeed, to be honest, I wasn't exactly blown away by ‘Saw’ which is, in my opinion, rather overrated, but, I have to admit it, even though the whole thing was rather far-fetched, it was still a rather interesting and entertaining horror flick. Apparently, this first sequel has a solid reputation but I wasn't expecting much from it and, indeed, it turned out to be nothing really great, even the 2nd time around. Seriously, I really don’t get what was supposed to be so great about this flick and  the whole thing was just rather pointless. Indeed, the acting was fairly  weak and the plot was, in my opinion, way too similar to the 1st movie. I have to admit that I did appreciate the fact they didn’t completely reveal in details the pasts of the involved characters and kept the whole thing this way more ambiguous and mysterious. That was a nice touch. However, the fact that there was actually really no link whatsoever between Eric Matthews and Jigsaw was rather lazy and disappointing and Amanda’s real agenda was actually pretty obvious from the start. Anyway, what remained was a bunch of nasty death scenes and the fans must have been thrilled but I wish they brought up something new but I guess that would be too much to ask from the movie moguls who always go for the easy money. Anyway, to conclude, even though it wasn't really bad, I still think it was rather average and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except, of course, if you are a die hard fan of the genre.

Following all the hype surrounding this feature which eventually managed to win the Best Picture Academy Award (a historical event for a French movie), I obviously had to watch this movie at some point. Well, eventually, even though I did like damned thing, to be honest, I can't say I was really blown away. I don’t know, maybe it had to with the fact that, to the contrary of many viewers who loved this movie, I have seen my share of old silent movies and even though I'm a huge fan of silent comedies, especially the ones starring Charlie Chaplin, I always had a hard time enjoying silent dramas and this one was not an exception. On top of that, the story was entertaining enough but it wasn't anything I haven't seen before. However, I have to admit it, it was still an original and inspiring experiment. Indeed, the directing was really solid, they gave a good feeling about this time period and the performances were really good. I was above all impressed by Jean Dujardin who was just amazing and he really deserved to receive an Academy award for his tremendous work. To conclude, even though I don't think it is really a masterpiece, it was still an original and entertaining flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see something really different than your usual blockbusters.

How ridiculous will it get? After remaking classics, now they have decided to make a prequel of the remake... I mean, they must be 1000s of struggling young writers with some original and interesting stories who would give anything to make sure their screenplays were produced. Unfortunately, the studios would rather make some quick bucks with a known brand and, as a result, they keep giving us such uninspired flicks. Still, if you forget all this, I have to admit it, the damned thing was actually watchable. Indeed, the first ten minutes, when they introduced Leatherface where not bad at all. But then, they gave us once again some young and sexy people on a road trip and they, of course, ended up being completely slaughtered... How refreshing and original... To make things worse, they also added some lame subplot about the Vietnam war but it didn't work very well. I must say that the second half was pretty nasty and they obviously tried to surf on the popular torture porn trend at the time but it was more disgusting than really scary, in my opinion. Still, the directing was not bad and I have seen worse horror movies but the whole thing was still really pointless and not really entertaining. Anyway, to conclude, obviously, I didn't like the damned thing and it is not worth a look, especially if you are a fan of the original classic.

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'.