Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since my wife was really eager to watch it, I thought I should give it a try. Unfortunately, it turned out to be really average. It’s too bad because I think  it actually had some potential. Basically, it was about a woman going into a middle-life crisis and she decides to travel to 3 different countries during a year. It does sound pretty neat, doesn't it? However, the whole thing turned out to be surprisingly dull. In fact, it reminded me of 'American Beauty'. In this great flick, the main character, when facing middle-life crisis, actually stays at home, smokes some weed, and goes to work for a fast-food chain. It did sound dull but it turned out to be just so fascinating to watch. In this movie, it was just the opposite. Travelling around the world sounds and should be damned exciting but it wasn't because none of the characters involved was really interesting and when you have such a supporting cast including Billy Crudup, James Franco, Javier Bardem and Richard Jenkins, it is a damned shame. Eventually, the most annoying character was the main character portrayed by Julia Roberts. I mean, there was not a moment into the whole movie during which I could identify with her and it had nothing to do with the fact that she was a womand and I am a man. Furthermore, the 3 exotic location were really poorly used as they just looked like some postcards and all the locals were so stereotypically portrayed, it was just really annoying to watch. To conclude, I was seen worse movies but it was still really weak and eventually, it is not really worth a look.

Since I'm a huge fan of Neil Jordan, I was really eager to check out this movie. First of all, to be honest, I have to admit that it had been a while since this director really blew me away with one of this movies. Fortunately, I was eventually pleasantly surprised by this flick. Basically, it was one of those movies where a man and a woman are stuck together against their will but, eventually, they get some connection. The difference here was that the characters were so well written and played, they were quite fascinating to watch. Furthermore, I really enjoyed the directing providing precisely the right amount of humor, drama, romance and suspense. Of course, the fact that Michael Caine had a small part didn't hurt either as he once again gave another strong performance. Bob Hoskins, for once playing the lead, was also really good here.  Eventually, the whole thing turned out to be  a simple tale but it was very well told and just plain entertaining. To conclude, even though it is rather forgotten nowadays, I really liked the damned thing and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Neil Jordan's work.

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[Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see]’ it seemed that Tarsem Singh could become one of the greatest visionary filmmakers at work right now. At that point, he had made 3 movies and they were really amazing to look at and his 3rd feature was not an exception. Indeed, the costumes, the set dressing, the special effects, everything was just quite gorgeous and some shots were some impressive cinematic paintings. However, like with his directing debut 'The Cell', the story turned out to be rather underwhelming. Basically, it was some rather generic Greek action flick, similar to '300' or 'Clash of the Titans' but it was pretty weak and the dialogues were just really tedious. Fortunately, the action scenes were pretty neat but there were not so many of them and all the scenes involving the characters just talking to each other were rather boring and lacked dramatic strength. The first time I saw it, it was in the theater and the awesome visuals made it possible for me to forgive the weak story. However, I re-watched it later on the small screen with Nick, my step-son, and the lack of strong plot and interesting characters was even more obvious so the whole thing was after all definitely nothing mind-blowing whatsoever. Still, it remains a gorgeous movie to look at and, just for that, I still think it is worth a look.

Since I'm a huge fan of Ang Lee, I was really eager to check this flick even though it is definitely one of his most obscure features. Eventually, it did take me a while to get my hands on the damned thing and I wish I could say that it was worth the wait but, unfortunately , it turned to be his most disappointing directing effort I have seen so far. I mean, it was definitely nice to see Ang Lee trying another genre, the Wester/costume-drama, the cast was also pretty interesting (Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jim Caviezel, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jeffrey Wright, Mark Ruffalo, Jewel Kilcher, Tom Wilkinson) and they all delivered some solid performances. Unfortunately,  even though, the directing was solid, as usual with Ang Lee, there was a big issue with the story. I mean, it was nothing really awfull but it was still pretty generic and it was definitely nothing really mind-blowing whatsoever. At the end of the day, I didn’t care much about the characters and/or what they were going through. Still, even though the whole thing was rather disappointing, I still think it is actually worth a look, especially if you are interested in Ang Lee's work.

First of all, to be honest, I'm not a really a huge fan of costume-dramas. Indeed, in my opinion, the characters in such stories are in fact always shallow, annoying and rather uninteresting. However, even if I usually don’t care for the genre, I have to admit that James Ivory manages most of the time to make his characters actually quite fascinating to watch and this movie was a fine example. This time, it took place in Shanghai, just before WWII and I have always been fascinated by this rather obscure page of history. Furthermore, the directing was really good with some really nice set-dressing and I just loved the mood they managed to create. Ralph Fiennes was, as usual, really strong and even though I have before never been really impressed by Natasha Richardson, I must say that she was really convincing in this movie. In my opinion, the story was rather generic but interesting enough and above all, thanks to Ivory's expertise in this genre, it was really compelling to watch. To conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, I actually really liked the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I already saw this movie (in fact, I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released) but, since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. Back in those days and, in fact, still right now, Leonardo DiCaprio was and is one of the most interesting actors at work and I wasn't really surprised to see him making a movie at some point with the great Ridley Scott. To complete this awesome combination, you had Russell Crowe so this flick definitely had some potential. Well, first of all, as usual with Ridley Scott, the directing was fine and there were a couple of really solid action scenes. Furthermore, DiCaprio and Crowe delivered some decent performances and I thought they were both fairly convincing. Still, even though it was pretty good and certainly entertaining, I can't say the whole thing really blew me away after all though. Indeed, like most of the movies directed by Scott, the visuals were fine but the story was rather shallow after all. I mean, the plot kept me interested but there was definitely something missing though. The main issue was that Roger Ferris was doing his best to work with the locals but, each time around, his boss Ed Hoffman would ruin all his hard work and this gimmick was repeated time and time again. It was also a poor idea to have the main character getting involved with an Arabian local girl. I mean, everything else about the main character was really convincing, except this part which was obviously added to humanize this guy but I think it would have been more efficient to only show him as a puppet at the mercy of his superiors. Still, I thought it was well made, I enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Ridley Scott's work.