Reviews by johanlefourbe

The original 'Friday the 13th' and 'Nightmare on Elm Street' were both some really enjoyable horror flicks so even though I didn’t expect much from the damned thing, I had to watch this flick at some point just out of sheer curiosity. Unfortunately, even with such low expectations, the end-result still turned out to be terrible... Basically, they tried to combine more or less two storylines together but I didn’t work and I thought the whole thing was just a boring mess. Furthermore, the acting was just abysmal throughout the whole thing. I guess, for the fans of the two franchises, it must have been a blast to see those two legendary villains fighting against each other, at least, I hope so but, honestly, I thought it was rather underwhelming since there was nothing really at stake (since none of them was actually alive, how could they possibly kill each other?!?). I know, I shouldn't take the damned thing too seriously but it was never scary or funny whatsoever. Still, even though it was a box-office hit when it was released, the fact that they didn’t come up with another sequel with this concept shows that nobody really cared about the damned thing. Anyway, to conclude, I thought the whole thing was pretty bad and not really entertaining and I don‘t think it is really worth a look.

Since it was the last movie directed by Terry Gilliam and, of course, the last movie starring the late Heath Ledger, I was really eager to watch this flick. Well, it was basically one of those typical Gilliam features, it is definitely an acquired taste and you either love them or you don't. To be honest, the story was rather messy and confusing but it was visually  definitely one of the most ambitious movie directed by Gilliam so far. Indeed, this time, he went all CGI on us and, I must say, the end-result turned out to be quite impressive. Furthermore, you had a nice cast (Andrew Garfield, Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Tom Waits, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell) and they all delivered some solid performances. So, the plot was a little bit shabby but, considering they lost their main actor in the middle of the production, they did a pretty good job recovering the whole thing and it was, at least, not as depressing as 'Tideland', Gilliam's previous directing effort. To conclude, it is fortunate that we had the chance to see Heath Ledger's last feature film and it is really unfortunate that we won't see him again, it is a typical Gilliam feature, really gorgeous and imaginative to look at and it is definitely worth a look.

I already saw this movie in the movie theater when it was released but, since it was already 10 years ago, I was quite eager to check it out again. Well, to be honest, I thought it was still difficult to judge this movie. Indeed, in my opinion, it had 'The Departed' syndrome meaning that it was a completely unnecessary remake of a movie which was already perfectly fine in the first place. In this case, the situation was even worse as the first version had been released only 2 years before and this 'new' version was just way too similar. However, in spite of all this, I have to admit that it was still a damned fine and entertaining thriller. First of all, I have to congratulate Rooney Mara. Indeed, from the very beginning, I was really skeptical when I heard that she would portray Lisbeth Salander but her performance was more than convincing and even though she wasn't as great as Noomi Rapace was, she was still really good though. There was only one thing that really bothered me with this version though and it was the romantic angle they gave to the relationship between Blomkvist and Salander. However, after reading the books, I actually discovered that this version was actually more faithfull to the books than the Swedish movies where they really toned down the feelings that Salander might have had towards Blomkvist. Anyway, Lisbeth Salander remains one of the most fascinating characters I have ever seen and the story was still really spellbinding. On top of that, I have to admit that It enjoyed the damned thing much more than I expected when I rewatched it, probably because it had been a while since I saw the Swedish version and read the book. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is a completely unnecessary remake, even though it was not better than the first version, it is still definitely worth a look, especially if you haven't seen the Swedish movies.

When I first heard about this movie, I thought it sounded really neat so I was really eager to check it out. Indeed, after Paul Verhoeven, Dick Maas has been the most successful Dutch movie director. Well, after trying for about 10 years (and eventually failed) to build up a career abroad, Maas was back in the Netherlands and this flick was the first Dutch movie he made following his come-back. Unfortunately, even though there was a pretty good buzz about this movie, the end-result turned out to be terribly underwhelming. It’s too bad because the concept really had some potential and I loved the original title ('The Bothox Method') but the whole thing was just not entertaining or funny at all. As the Great Roger Ebert used to say, to have some funny characters is never enough, their predicament and what they go through has to be funny as well and that was definitely not the case here. I don't think the actors should be blamed as they all provided some decent performances but I couldn't care less about their characters. Anyway, to conclude, it was a seriously disappointing comedy and it is not really worth a look, even if you are interested in Dutch movies.

I noticed that this movie was starring Ricky Gervais who was getting very famous lately but, honestly, I have to admit that I haven't seen much of his work so far. Still, I must say that he was really awesome in this movie. In fact, the plot was really similar to 'Ghost' which had been a big success back then but I have never cared for this flick, to be honest. However, if 'Ghost' was in my opinion pretty cheesy, this movie was fortunately downright hilarious. The biggest improvement was that the two main characters, portrayed by Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear were basically two jerks stuck together, one of them living and one of them dead. I have to admit that the story was pretty straightforward and predictable but the dialogues were just so funny and the actors all managed to find the right tone. I seriously never expected that I would enjoy so much a movie dealing with a guy seeing and talking to some dead people since it is usually such a tedious gimmick. Anyway, to conclude, the whole thing was a very well written and really entertaining comedy, I really had a blast watching this, it is definitely underrated and absolutely worth a look, especially if you wonder, like me, what was all the fuss about Ricky Gervais.