Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I thought I should check it out. Eventually, the whole thing was another example of my theory that you shouldn't know too much before watching a movie. In this case, if you would know what it was about before watching the movie, the first 30 minutes would have been then completely useless. Thankfully, I didn't know anything about the damned thing and, thanks to this lack of information, it created a compelling ominous atmosphere. Of course, I knew that something fishy was going on but I never sure knew what it was exactly, at least, during the first 30 minutes. Somehow, it did remind me of Hitchock in the way the suspense was slowly built up and the beginning was indeed rather slow but I thought it was quite efficient. To be honest, the performances were rather poor but it was a good thing that the characters were portrayed by some unknown actors (except for one I have seen before but he was not a big star whatsoever) and it enhanced the feeling of gloominess and hopelessness which dominated this flick. To conclude, even though it was probably not a masterpiece, I thought it was an original and interesting thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood, I was quite eaget to check it out. Well, even though it turned out to be a decent watch, to be honest, I was actually still rather underwhelmed by the whole thing. Basically, it was one of those quirky indie comedies which try to be clever, funny and, well, quirky but, eventually, the end-result was, in my opinion, stupid, pathetic and honestly, rather boring. It's too bad because the 2 main characters were actually really interesting. Indeed, Evan Rachel Wood delivered, as usual, a solid performance but Michael Douglas was even better and the guy really stole the show. This actor has become famous for usually playing the same type of character, the arrogant, confident and powerful SOB and he does it very well. However, this time around, he went for something completely different, some kind of psychologically deranged person, he did it so well and he completely disappeared behind the character. To conclude, even though I thought the whole thing was rather disappointing, I still think it is worth a look though if only to check Michael Douglas's fine performance.

Against all expectations, ‘Crocodile Dundee’ was a massive worldwide success,  so, obviously, since this movie was such a surprise success, a sequel was inevitable. I have to admit it, when I was kid, I thought this guy was pretty cool and the first installment was indeed quite charming and funny  but, unfortunately, this sequel was not really convincing, I’m afraid. I mean, sure, there were here and there a few funny scenes but the whole thing was just too long for my taste and some characters were just too stereotypical.  Eventually, I have this feeling that this 'Crocodile' Dundee character was actually more appealing for kids than grown-ups. For example, the scene where he hits a coca-cola tin with some stones might be great when you are very young but it is just way too corny for any adult. At least, from a financial point of view, he did make sense to come up rapidly with this sequel which  was still quite successful at the box-office but, eventually, 13 years later, when everybody completely forgot about this character,  they still came up with a 3^rd installment which was a terrible idea and obviously nobody care for the damned thing. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I thought it was an average sequel and it is not really worth a look.

After 'Murder on the Orient Express', it is the second Agatha Christie's adaptation have seen recently. Basically, they pretty much followed the same template and, once again, they gave us a prestigious cast. In fact, I must say that I enjoyed this story more than the one they gave in  'Murder...'. Indeed, concerning ‘Murder…’, even though it was a fun movie to watch thanks to all the stars involved, I thought that the plot was actually rather disappointing and, in my opinion, it actually worked better in this movie. Furthermore, some of the characters were actually quite hilarious like Mrs. Van Schuyler (Bette Davis) and Miss Bowers (Maggie Smith). Unfortunately, some other characters were rather obnoxious and not really entertaining like Salome Otterbourne (Angela Lansbury) and Dr. Bessner (Jack Warden). Still, I thought the plot was quite thrilling even if I figured out the whole thing rather early on, even before anyone got killed. Inceed, except for 1 or 2 things, I thought it was actually quite obvious but it was still enjoyable anyway. To conclude, even though the whole thing was nothing really amazing, I thought it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like this genre.