Reviews by johanlefourbe

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.

After writing 'Scream' (which was very good) and 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' (which was not bad), Kevin Williamson decided to make his directing début with another one of his scripts. Unfortunately, the end-result turned out to be seriously disappointing. Seriously, was it supposed to be funny or was is it supposed to be scary? Because this movie was neither of those. I mean, to have such a great actress like Helen Mirren waste her talent in a such an average flick was just a real shame. Actually, it was thanks to her that this movie didn't become really dreadfull since she still managed to deliver a decent performance. Concerning the rest of the cast, they gave us 3 young actors (one of them being Katie Holmes) and the gap of acting talent with Mirren was just so obvious, it was just rather painfull to watch. Above all, it was just a really weak story which did have some potential somewhere but they clearly didn't have a clue what to do with this material. Anyway, to conclude, I have seen worse movies but it was not a surprise that Kevin Williamson didn't direct any other movie after this one and, honestly, it is not really worth a look.