Reviews by johanlefourbe

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this movie and I thought it would be an average standard action flick but since I have a weak spot for Bruce Willis, I still wanted to check it out. Eventually, surprisingly, I have to admit it, it was not bad at all after all. This movie was directed by a rather obscure French director, Florent Emilio Siri, but I must say that he did a rather impressive job since the whole thing looked very good and I enjoyed the mood as well. Of course, the story was nothing exceptional but I thought it was entertaining enough and there were enough cool action scenes to keep me interested. As usual, Bruce Willis did his thing, nothing less, nothing more, but I didn't mind as the guy will be forever charismatic and Ben Foster stole the show, once again. Foster must be one of the most talented character actors of his generation and even if he sometimes shows up in some weak movies, he always delivers some very strong performances. To conclude, against my expectation, it was actually a decent and entertaining action flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I only heard bad things about this flick, I really had some rather low expectations but since I have been faithfully following Woody Allen for almost 20 years, I still wanted to check it out. Eventually, I thought it was not that bad after at all. Indeed, it was the 2nd time Scarlett Johansson was working with Woody Allen, I particularly enjoyed her performance and I would even go as far as saying that she gave here one of her best performances. Together with Woody Allen, they really made a rather unexpected but hilarious duo. Unfortunately, even though I enjoyed the first hour, in the last half 30 minutes, the movie started to focus on some really underwhelming detective story. It was pretty obvious that Allen didn't care much about this aspect of the story as it was rather weak and nothing mind-blowing. At the end of the day, it is a perfect example about how Woody Allen‘s work ethic is rather counter-productive. Indeed, every single year, he comes up with a new movie and it is not surprising to see a movie like this one with a strong 1st half and a really weak 2nd half. If he would have spend 3 or 4 years on this production, it could have been much better. Still, an average Allen flick is always better than most of the movies I see and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Allen's work.

Since I was positively surprised by the sequel, I thought I should check this one out again. Eventually, I was not better or worse after a re-watch. First of all, the animation is quite gorgeous, with loads of details and it is very colourful. There were many cool action scenes and the whole thing was rather funny, above all thanks to Jack Black who was really a perfect choice for the lead. However, I was rather underwhelmed by the story. Basically, they picked up the most inadequate character and the only thing they found to convince us that he is indeed 'the chosen one', is the tired old routine of 'If you believe in yourself, you'll succeed...' It was far from being satisfying and the rather lame food-training scene didn't help. Furthermore, they introduced 5 awesome characters (the Furious Five) but they barely had anything to do (I'm not even sure if Jackie Chan did have a line during the whole thing... Quite a shame!). On the positive side, I have to say that the bad guy was better than in the sequel. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is nothing great whatsoever, it is still a gorgeous, fun and entertaining animated feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick but since there was a nice cast, I thought I should check it out. Eventually, I wasn't really blown away by this flick. I mean, the title was lame, the poster was lame and the story was quite average as well. Still, there was indeed a pretty cool cast (Kirsten Dunst, Ben Foster, Sisqó, Shane West, Colin Hanks, Zoe Saldana, Mila Kunis, Martin Short, Carmen Electra). It was above all pretty neat to see a young Ben Foster who back then already displayed some tremendous talent. Nowadays, he is definitely one of the most interesting up-and-coming actors at work and probably the best character actor of his generation. Even if he shows up in some disappointing movies (like this one), he always manages to stand above the material. Anyway, I have to admit it, the movie itself was watchable but it was just some really standard teen comedy routine with nothing really original or interesting about it and I really had a hard time to care about the characters or what they were going through. To conclude, I don’t think it is really worth a look, expect maybe if you are a huge fan of this genre.

To start with, you have to admit it, it is a rather lame title but, honestly, this flick actually really had some potential. Alec Baldwin, as usual, completely stole the show, Jeff Goldblum was quite funny and Nikki Reed was pretty good and convincing as well. So, the characters were all intriguing, and the actors all delivered some decent performances but they couldn't really save this mess. In my opinion, the biggest issue with this flick is that the whole thing was just really sleazy and exploitative, it definitely ruined the movie. The fact that I have a 19 years old step-daughter didn’t help either but to see a middle-aged guy having casual sex with this step-daughter was rather awkward. The makers try to make it look alright and fun by selling it as a comedy, but I really didn't buy it. Maybe I sound like a prude, but in fact, I don’t think I really mind the whole concept, it is above all the casual tone that bothered me. To conclude, I still think it could have been pretty good but eventually, at the end of the day, it is just plain average and not really worth a look.

Honestly, I didn't have high expectations before watching this but the end result was even worse than I thought. If I recall correctly, I rented this flick at the local dvd shop (which has been closed now for a couple of years already) and since we had already seen all the good animated features, we ended up watching this. Like I said before, I didn’t think it would be great but it was eventually truly underwhelming. I mean, the animation actually didn't look bad at all but the story was just so boring, it was easily one of the least entertaining animated features I have ever seen (and I have seen quite a few). Nowadays, the CGI animated market is massively competitive, above all dominated by the giants Pixar and Dreamworks, even Disney struggles and the other studios have to bring their best game if they want to succeed in this ruthless environment. Animated features like this one simply don’t stand a chance and within a few weeks, they disappear quickly from the box-office. Basically, the whole thing was just too standard, predictable and it was simply just boring to death. To conclude, it s pretty bad and not worth a look, only maybe if you are younger than 12 years old.

Back in the 90's, John Dahl made some rather amazing and underrated film noirs and since then, I have tried to check out all his movies. This time, he actually tried a totally different genre, the war drama and the end result was not bad at all but I can't say it was really mind-blowing either. I don’t know, all the ingredients were there to make a decent flicks, there were some pretty good actors (Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Sam Worthington, Joseph Fiennes, Logan Marshall-Green, Connie Nielsen) who delivered some decent performances and the story was quite interesting. Unfortunately, somehow, the movie never really took off and never got really inspiring or fascinating. It is probably due to the fact that none of the characters were really interesting which was rather surprising from John Dahl. Indeed, in his previous movies such as ‘Kill me again’, ‘Red Rock West’ , ‘The Last Seduction’ or ‘Rounders’, even though the plot was not always really strong, the characters were always rather murky and quite compelling to watch. Here, they were rather bland and stereotypical. Still, in spite of its flaws, it remains a well made war drama and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I don't know why exactly but, somehow, I had some rather high expectations before watching this flick. Eventually, it wasn't bad but I can't say I was blown away by the whole thing either. Basically, the major appeal was to see Shia LaBeouf before he made it big with ‘Indiana Jones 4’ and the ‘Transformers’ franchise. And indeed, LaBeouf definitely displayed some potential and delivered a convincing performance. On the other hand, I thought that Sigourney Weaver's performance was a little too over the top for me but I guess it has to do with the tone which remained rather sweet since it was a family feature. Furthermore, I thought that the story was not really fascinating whatsoever but, still, it was entertaining enough. I don’t know, in my opinion, I think the whole thing really had some potential and it could have been better if it would have been a little bit darker. Since it is a Disney production, of course, there was a fairly good chance that this production wouldn’t be too risky and would be really faithful to rules of the genre. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it remains a decent and well made family feature and it is worth a look but keep your expectations low.

Conversation between between Ridley Scott and Russel Crowe :

Scott : Russel, you know what I want to do ?
Crowe : No... what then?
Scott : I would like to spend a month in the South of France, drinking some wine, eating some good food...
Crowe: Sounds good to me. Actually, I'm tired of being the tough guy with all those exhausting action scenes...
Scott : I know! Let's shoot a fluffy romantic comedy in France!

6 years after booking an impressive and rather unexpected success with 'Gladiator', Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe decided to work together again but this time, they decided to do something completely different. Indeed, the second time around, they made this romantic comedy set in France. Honestly, the whole thing seemed to be actually a good excuse for them to go to the south of France to have a good time there. I don't think Russell Crowe was really the best choice to portray a romantic lead but he was alright and Marion Cotillard (before she reached fame in Hollywood) was charming as always. Of course, the movie was full of annoying clichés about France and the French people but the story was entertaining enough. To conclude, it is a rather standard but well made romantic comedy and it is actually worth a look, especially if you are interested in Ridley Scott's movies.