Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was quite eager to chek it out. Eventually, even though I did like it, I can’t say it really blew away though. I mean, the damned thing was actually hardly original and, when you see this flick, it almost felt like a remake of [Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see]which was a huge success back in the 90's. Well, to be honest, I never really enjoyed  ‘The Full Monty’ which was, in my opinion, was rather disappointing but I actually enjoyed more this copycat involving those old ladies. First of all, Helen Mirren and Julie Walters both gave some solid performances and the English humor was just quite hilarious in this movie. To be honest, I think they did cheat a little by casting Helen Mirren as she is possibly the most gorgeous women above 60 years old. Anyway, of course, as I mentioned before, the whole thing was really predictable and, on top of that, it really lost some steam in the second half but, still, the humor was quite awesome and I thought it was a nice, refreshing and entertaining comedy. To conclude, even though it was actually nothing really groundbreaking, it was still a decent comedy and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some great things about this flick and I was really eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I actually ended up with some mixed feelings. I mean, I'm a sucker for romantic comedies and this movie was probably one of the best movies in this genre that I have seen a very long time. Indeed, the movie was really well directed and written and it featured two really strong performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Unfortunately, in my opinion, there were a few things that did prevent this movie to reach total awesomness. First of all, the way they went constantly back and forth to tell the story didn't really work for me. In my opinion, it was in fact an unoriginal and uninteresting gimmick which didn't add much to the story. Furthermore, I thought that Zooey Deschanel's character was in fact an obnoxious bitch and I wish this character would have been slightly more balanced. Still, even though I wasn’t completely sold by the whole thing, the story was so much better, realistic and entertaining than 99.9 % of all the romantic features produced by Hollywood, I really enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look.

Even though I didn't have some really high expectations before watching this flick, the damned thing actually still managed to disappoint me. Indeed, it was a really average B feature which borrowed pretty much everything from tons of other movies such as 'Star Wars', the 'Alien' franchise and even 'Titanic'. The cast was full of B actors (Treat Williams, Famke Janssen, Wes Studi, Jason Flemyng, Cliff Curtis, Djimon Hounsou) and they all gave some very poor performances, except maybe Famke Janssen who was at least bareable. On top of that, the plot was not really entertaining and the special effects looked very cheap and were not really convincing at all. By now, I have seen many movies directed by Stephen Sommers ('G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra', 'Van Helsing', 'The Mummy Returns’, 'The Mummy', 'The Jungle Book') but even though none of them was really amazing, this movie was probably the worst one he has directed so far. It is possible, if you are into this genre, that you may end up enjoying it more than I did but I highly doubt it though. Anyway, to conclude, it was an unoriginal and boring B production and it is not really worth a look.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by André Téchiné, I thought I might as well check it out. Basically, back in the 80's and the 90's, André Téchiné was one of the most highly regarded movie directors in France. Actually, he may still be highly regarded nowadays in France but since I haven't been living there for almost a decade, I'm not really up to date. Anyway, the guy knows how to direct some fine pictures and this flick was a good example. Indeed, it was dealing with some rather sensitive subjects like homosexuality, bisexuality, open relationships and AIDS but never in a tacky way and the end-result was just way more interesting than what you get in most of your standard Hollywood features. Furthemore, all the characters involved were complex, 3 dimensional and realistic and all the actors gave some solid performances. However, I wish they did develop more the two female characters and some of the scenes were rather awkward (the dance scenes, the 'fight' scene, and the voice-over in general). Still, in spite of its flaws, the whole thing was pretty neat and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since I always had a weak spot for Jack Nicholson, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest,  I have to admit that I was slightly sketpical regarding this movie since it was already the fourth version of the novel written by James M. Cain. Fortunately, the only other version I have seen before was the impressive 'Ossessione'. This time around, the leads were played by Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange and I must say that they both delivered some strong performances. However, whereas 'Ossessione' was a model of simplicity and efficiency and started a whole new cinematic trend called 'neo-realism', this time, it seemed that they couldn't manage to get the tone right. Indeed, they kept switching genre all the time from thriller to drama and then to romance and eroticism. So, the whole thing seemed rather unfocused and it didn't help that the end was rather lame and disappointing. Still, I just love the material and it remains a fascinating story about lust and guilt. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.