Reviews by johanlefourbe

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.

Peter O'Toole was a fascinating actor and the fact that he never won any acting Academy Awards is a proof how much those guys are sometimes really out of touch. I have to admit it though, it must have been really difficult to choose between Forest Withaker who gave a really strong performance in 'The Last King of Scotland' and O'Toole who was also really strong in this movie. Indeed, he was quite amazing and especially the first 20 minutes were just hilarious. Of course, the movie was about him meeting a very young girl and, for the rest of the movie, there was this debate about what you should think of him. Indeed, was he an old dirty pervert or just an old guy who should be entitled to have one last glimpse of female beauty? To be honest, even though this discussion was interesting, it wasn't as interesting as O'Toole's fascinating character. I understand that they wanted to spice up the whole thing but I thought that the study of an old man in his twilight days was interesting enough without all this stuff. Anyway, even if I wasn’t completely sold, I still liked this movie, it is actually one of the best movies about this subject and it is definitely worth a look.

Since I have a weak spot for John Carpenter’s movies, I definitely had to watch this flick at some point. Back then, Carpenter was at the top of his career and all the movies he directed at the time became some classics. This one came after 'Halloween' and before 'Escape from New York' and it must be his most spooky movie. According to Roger Ebert, the fog was a disappointing villain but I don't agree with him. Indeed, I thought it was very efficient and I always enjoyed it when, in a horror movie, the protagonists have to face a faceless and dehumanized enemy (see 'Cabin Fever' as well for example). Another thing I enjoyed was that Carpenter didn't waste any time with some sub-plots involving the characters, those stories are always pointless in my opinion. Instead, he focused on the fog and its effects and that was much appreciated. Of course, the acting was rather cheesy and the whole thing was nothing really amazing but it was still one of the most satisfying ghost movies I have seen and it still stands out pretty well 30 years later. Anyway, to conclude, I really enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Carpenter's work.