Reviews by johanlefourbe

Nowadays, almost all the animated movies which come out are CGI animated. One of the few who's still holding strong is Hayao Miyazaki. Indeed, this guy is the living proof that hand-drawn animated features are still worth it and that they can be damned gorgeous to look at. Seriously, only just to 'see' this movie was already definitely worth a look. Indeed, you had here so many beautiful colors, awesome details and a marvelous combination of realism and fantasy. Considering the story itself, I thought it was quite enjoyable, even though it was not as strong as 'Spirited Away' which still remains by far my favorite movie from Miyazaki. Unfortunately, as usual with this director, the main character was in my opinion rather bland and uninsteresting but, on the other hand, the title character, Ponyo, was quite delightful. On a side note, I did watch this movie with my 5 year old daughter, thinking it would be a nice watch for her since it seemed to be targeted towards very young children. That was actually a mistake since it is actually more suitable for kids older than 10 years old. Anyway, to conclude, it was a gorgeous animated feature and, even though it didn’t completely blow me away, I still enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are looking for something else than the usual CGI animated flick.

When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme and, at the time, I watched pretty much all the movies he made at the beginning of his career. Of course, growing up, I discovered that the guy wasn't actually that good but I always got nostalgic when I watch one of his flicks. In this movie, the other 'big' star was Mickey Rourke. Nowadays, everybody is saying he is great again but back then, nobody gave a sh*t about the guy. Of course, showing up in this kind of movie didn't help much... To complete this, as the wild card, they gave us Dennis Rodman. Honestly, I kind of liked his character, this giant black guy, pierced everywhere, changing his hair color every 5 minutes. Unfortunately, Mr Rodman was (and still is, I guess) a very bad actor (worst than Van Damme? I'm not sure...). The movie itself was just a really preposterous action movie, with some ridiculous scenes throughout and some terrible dialogues and even though Tsui Hark was supposed to be some hot-shot from Hong Kong, this movie was just a mess. To conclude, it was just a bad and boring movie and it is not worth a look whatsoever.

Nowadays, I have Netflix and Popcorn and not only I have since then an endless selection or 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. Indeed, I don't know why exactly but I was quite intrigued by this flick. Maybe it had to do with with the title which was quite catchy. Anyway, it turned out to be a rather standard slasher movie with some rather average performances but it is inherent to the genre, I’m afraid. Eventuall,  it took quite some time to really take off and then it got quite gory, as usual. To be honest, I have always been more interested into the scary stuff than in the gory stuff but well. Still, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch. Indeed, I liked the directing which provided a efficient gritty look and the end was, to my surprise, quite satisfactory. The twist in itself was rather predictable but I liked how it was done and finally the acting was during that part a little better than during the rest of the movie. To conclude, it was a rather standard but still well made and rather entertaining slasher movie and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.