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.

[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][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.