Reviews by johanlefourbe

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.

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from the damned thing but since I have a weak spot for Camilla Belle, I thought I might as well check it out. In fact, only a week before watching this movie, I saw 'The Return' starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and, at the time, I was just amazed how uneventful and simply boring the whole thing was. Well, while watching this horror flick, I actually had pretty much exactly the same feeling. Indeed, the directing was not bad and Camilla Belle gave a decent performance but what a bore... I mean, during literally the whole duration, you get to see Camilla Belle picking up the phone and asking 'Who's there?' and that was pretty much it. Of course, at the end, there was a confrontation with the serial killer but it was some really generic stuff. And before that, there was really nothing going on at all. In fact, it was rather surprising that they didn't explain anything about the killer but it made the whole thing even more frustrating to watch. Anyway, to conclude, at least I  have to admit that the title didn't lie but it was still a really boring horror flick and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

Even though I have never heard of this movie before, since there was an interesting cast involved (David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Garry Shandling, Justin Bartha, Eva Mendes, Ellen Barkin), I thought I should give it a try. Eventually, I was rather pleasantly surprised as it turned out to be one of the best romantic comedies I have seen for a while. Indeed, all the 4 main actors delivered some good performances and, above all, I thought that their characters were really well written as they were flawed, 3 dimensional and just plain interesting to follow. Unfortunlately, I was however not so convinced by some of the supporting characters (the editor played by Ellen Barkin, the musician, Goren) but it wasn't a big deal. Eventually, what turned to be really disappointing was actually the ending taking place in the theater. Indeed, whereas most of the movie was believable, spot-on and intriguing to watch, this scene was just so tacky, completely over-the-top and unrealistic. It's too bad since the rest of the movie was actually pretty good. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of these flaws, there were many things to enjoy in this movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in some grown-up romantic movie.

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. First of all, even though it was pretty neat that this movie was broadcast on one of our Dutch channels, for some reasons, they went for an English dubbed version and it really sucked (a few years later, they would also show the sequel, ‘Day Watch’, and this time around, it would be in Russian….). Anyway, to be honest, it was one of the most messy and chaotic movies I have seen for a long time. As a result, the whole thing was sometimes rather confusing and I'm not sure if I understood the whole story but I guess it was also the charm of this feature. Still,  it was a visually fascinating flick with some impressive special effects. Furthermore, I enjoyed also that the movie was taking place in Moscow without any Hollywood stars which was just quite refreshing. As said before, in my opinion, the plot was a mess but they did develop some interesting mythology. Still, there was such a focus on the visuals that the plot didn't get much attention and the characters could have been also more develop. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it was an original, intriguing and entertaining fantastic flick and it is definitely worth a look.

Basically, there was a time when I would go to a video game shop (which is now closed) and I would buy there on a regular basis 5 DVDs for 5 euros and, sometimes, since I would be missing 1 DVD, I would pick up pretty much anything at random just to reach 5 movies. Anyway, following this amazing process, I ended up watching some rather obscure movies and this one was definitely one of them. Since there was a rather interesting cast involved, I thought it could be interesting. Basically, the whole thing was some kind of vanity project for Luke Wilson who has always been in the shadow of his brother Owen. Anyway, Luke Wilson was the writer, the director and also the lead actor in this comedy and even though the whole thing had some potential, I thought it was rather disappointing. I mean, at first, the story was rather intriguing but pretty quickly, it was rather obvious he tried to emulate some similar quirky indie comedies, especially the ones directed by Wes Anderson, but the whole thing was eventually not really funny or entertaining. To conclude, I have seen worse movies but it still remain a rather weak indie comedy and it is not really worth a look, except maybe if you are die-hard fan of Luke Wilson.