Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but, even with some rather low expectations, the damned thing still turned out to be pretty disappointing. At least, I have to admit it, the special effects were pretty decent, the supporting actors did a pretty good job and Ben Stiller did his usual hysterical guy but he didn't really bother me. In fact, what really bothered me about this flick was the actual concept. I mean, I do love museas and I don't think that making the exhibits 'alive' would make the museas more interesting whatsoever. In fact, I think that the whole idea was actually rather insulting. Anyway, as a result, the whole thing was not really enjoyable to me and, to make things worse, I thought it was pretty boring. Eventually, I never understood the popularity of  this franchise. I mean, somehow, how they managed to deliver a trilogy with this concept is beyond me and the fact that all the instalments turned out to be failry successful at the box-office was just really unbelievable.  To conclude, I have seen worse movies but it was still a really weak family feature 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 Baz Luhrmann, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, before watching the damned thing, I kept hearing that this movie was supposed to be an Australian version of 'Gone with the Wind' but, in my opinion, it was in fact more an Australian version of 'Out of Africa' in my opinion. Anyway, what first bothered me was the fact it took them a very long time to find the right tone. Indeed, at the beginning of the movie, the whole thing was really over-the-top and rather comical to watch, but, then, slowly, it became more and more dramatic and even quite epic. And, indeed, you had here I all the basic elements of a good old epic : drama, romance, war, betrayal, murder, and even some some historical facts put here and there. There were also some nice shots and even though, Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman were not Robert Redford and Mery Streep, they still delivered some solid performances. To conclude, even if it was rather flawed and nothing really mind-blowing, I thought it was still an enjoyable and well made epic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Nowadays, I have Netflix and Popcorn and not only I have since then an endless selection of movies to choose from but, as a result, I have become slightly more picky regarding the movies I watch. Before, I used to watch pretty much anything as long as it was starring one or two actors I was interested in and, as a result, I would sometimes end up watching some really obscure features. This movie was a perfect example and the only reason I watched it was because it was featuring Brad Pit.It is actually a really rare movie. Indeed, basically, it was in fact made in the 80's in Yugoslavia but, when the war started, all the footage was lost. Eventually, it took them 5 years to recover the footage and the movie was finally released in 1996. It was also Brad Pitt's first lead role which was the main reason why I wanted to check the damned thing, And how was the damned thing eventually? Well, pretty bad, I’m afraid. Indeed, the directing was rather laughable, the dialogues were most of the time ridiculous and even the acting was terrible as well (it is rather difficult to believe that Brad Pitt would become an impressive actor twenty years later). I think the whole thing had some potential and you can feel that, somewhere, there was actually a decent tale to be told from this material. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is a rare movie, it is still pretty bad and it is not really worth a look.