Reviews by johanlefourbe

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.

Even though this movie seemed to have a decent reputation, I wasn't expecting much from the damned thing but since there was a really nice cast involved (Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Seth Green, Freddy Rodríguez, Donald Faison, Jaime Pressly, Jason Segel, Eric Balfour, Selma Blair, Jenna Elfman, Melissa Joan Hart, Breckin Meyer), I really had to watch it at some point. Unfortunately, it still ended up being rather  average and borign. Actually, it was only after watching this movie that I came to the conclusion that it was maybe a parody of the genre which could explain why all the characters were so over-the-top. The only character who stood up was the one portrayed by Lauren Ambrose. Indeed, she was the only one playing it straight and I thought she was much more interesting than all these obnoxious and boring stereotypes. I always thought that Ambrose was really impressive in 'Six Feet Under' and she really deserved some better material than this movie to showcase her talent. I mean, there were here and there some good ideas and the ending was rather sweet but that was about it, I'm afraid. Anyway, to conclude, it was a rather weak High-School comedy and it is not really worth a look, except maybe you are fan of this genre.

I already saw this movie but it was such a long time ago and since I had it on DVD, I was really eager to check it out again. Back then, before I watched it the first time around, I kept hearing some really good things about this movie and I was eventually seriously impressed by the damned thing. Obviously, because of the Star Wars prequel, Hayden Christensen always had a terrible reputation but, after watching this flick, I'm not sure if it is actually deserved. Indeed, he proved here that he definitely can act as he delivered a really strong performance and the rest of the cast was pretty good as well. In fact, I'm usually not really a big fan of true stories but this one was just a fascinating. Indeed, how someone could get away with manufacturing stories for such a prestigious paper? It shows that the main character had some kind of mental disorder but, at the same time, that he was also really intelligent. You can say whatever you want about the guy but Christensen completely managed to display all the complex layers of this messed-up character, he did a terrific job and I hope some day he gets another shot with another interesting character. Anyway, to conclude, it is really an underrated gem and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though the ratings for this movie were really low, since there was a really nice cast involved (Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Sharon Stone, Catherine Keener, Albert Finney), I was really eager to check it out. Well, the beginning was actually rather promising with a nice film noir mood and an impressive confrontation between Nolte and Bridges but, unfortunately, the whole thing didn't hold up after all. Above all, the story was just really poorly written. I mean, Nick Nolte was a messed up guy looking for some kind of redemption, Jeff Bridges started out as a ruthless businessman but suddenly, the guy had a melt-down and all his decisions became really hard to follow, Albert Finney didn't have one single line of genuine dialogue during the whole thing and spoke only in cryptic riddles, Sharon Stone played an alcoholic and Catherine Keener tried very hard but ultimately she portrayed one of the most clueless and annoying characters I have seen for a long time. So, the characters were not really convincing or interesting and the story was rather weak as well with no real climax at the end. It's too bad since they seemed to have all the ingredients to make a terrific movie. Anyway, to conclude, I think my rating is actually really generous, it was a rather disappointing flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look.