Reviews by johanlefourbe

Every movie released by Wes Anderson is a big event so I was really intrigued by this movie and I realy wanted to check it out. First of all, as usual with Wes Anderson, there was an impressive cast (Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon) and they all delivered some pretty good performances. The flick itself was basically some kind of weird comedy and I'm not sure if it actually tried to honor or to make fun of Jacques-Yves Cousteau's work and, obviously, if you don't know who is Cousteau, you won't get half of the movie. Still, in my opinion, the tone was pretty uneven and I had a hard time to follow where he was getting at with this tale but I could say the same thing about most of his movies. It might explain why I have always been intrigued by his work but still had a hard time to really enjoy it (the only exception would be ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ which was a total blast). Still, even though I wasn’t completely blown away by the whole thing, there were many hilarious scenes, I enjoyed the whole thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Wes Anderson's work.

Since I kept hearing good things about this flick (it was even chosen by Roger Ebert as one of the best movies released in 2005), I was really intrigued and I really wanted to check it out. Eventually, to be honest, I wasn't completely blown away but it was still definitely a very good movie. The point is that I still believe that it is rather an acquired taste and many people will be annoyed by the slow pace and the lack of plot. Personally, I thought it was definitely a different and thoughtful picture and I praise the director for trying another innovative direction in film-making. Still, it was not completely successful, as the movie was sometimes rather alienating and some other times the whole thing seemed rather to be a personal indulgence of the director. Still, there were many intriguing characters and it was nice to see someone like John Hawkes (a great underrated character actor) playing the lead instead of the usual suspects with some good looks. To conclude, I really enjoyed this movie a lot, it remains a rather unique and spellbinding feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though Sidney Poitier is a movie legend, I haven't seen much of his movies and he was the main reason why I decided to watch this flick. Eventually, even though it is nothing really amazing, I thought it was a pretty good movie. Indeed, it is basically a rather standard action buddy movie but, I have to admit it, it was actually very well made. Furthermore, Poitier delivered a decent performance and Tom Berenger, in his prime, did a pretty good job too. Above all, they worked very well as a couple and, thanks to them, the whole thing was pretty entertaining to watch. Concerning Sidney Poitier, I have still seen not even 5 of his movies, mostly his most recent features, and I definitely have to watch his more classic work like for example ‘In the Heat of the Night’ which I have somehow not managed to watch yet. Concerning Tom Berenger, even though he was cast recently in ‘Inception’, his career is pretty much dead nowadays and it's a shame since he made some pretty cool movies in the 80’s and 90’s. Anyway, to conclude, even though the plot was nothing really remarkable, it remains an entertaining action movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but I don’t know, it seemed to be a pretty cool idea to make a romantic-comedy with such fine actors like Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore . And, indeed, it started like a rather standard romantic-comedy, not great but not awful either, I really enjoyed Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore and I thought they had some great chemistry. But, suddenly, in the second half, the whole thing completely went down the drain. Indeed, at some point, they get married , the plot completely lost focus and the whole thing became really worthless. The best asset of this flick was the tension and attraction between those two characters and, in the 2nd half, this edge was gone and the rest of the movie was pretty much cringe-inducing. Personally, I always had a weak spot for romantic-comedies, I have seen some pretty terrible ones but it is not very often that I see one of those completely loses its edge right in the middle of it. To conclude, even though it was not a total disaster, it was still a very average romantic-comedy with a pretty bad plot and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

To be honest, I haven’t seen many movies directed by Zhang Yimou so I was really eager to check this one out as well. Eventually, I had a really hard time to judge this flick. At first, I thought it was pretty good but the more that I thought about it, the more I thought it was actually a little bit disappointing. I mean, it is definitely a well made and wel acted drama and, that’s for sure, and like I said before, at first, I thought it was a rather touching story, at the same time sad and funny. But then, I gave it some second thoughts and then, I actually thought that the plot tried to make the whole thing sound sweet and all but when you think about it for a few seconds, the whole thing was actually a mean and quite worthless way to handle a blind person. So, I ended up with some mixed feelings and, even though it was far from being a bad movie, I still think it was actually a failure. Still, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Zhang Yimou's work.

Honestly, I thought that the whole thing looked pretty lame and I had some rather low expectations but since I have a weak spot for Michael Douglas, I still wanted to give it a try. Eventually, I was actually surprised that the end-result was not bad at all after all. Apparently, it is a remake of a movie starring Peter Falk and Alan Arkin which I haven’t seen so I can’t compare but the original seems to be way better, even though you might wonder if it was really so good that it deserved to be remade. Anyway, concerning this remake, above all, I thought it was really refreshing to see Michael Douglas trying something completely different, I thought he was pretty good and he actually pulled it off. Furthermore I thought that he had also a good chemistry with Albert Brooks. However, I have to admit it, the story was a little too over-the-top and far-fetched for me. Basically, they started with a nice concept but it was barely developed and, therefore, the whole thing was still nothing amazing. Still, in spite of its flaws, I think it is actually an fun action comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Thanks to Pixar, Disney is still ruling the animation world but they don't seem to manage to reach much success with their own productions and this movie is a pretty good example. To be honest, it was at least better than ‘Chicken Little’ or ‘Meet the Robinsons’ and I would go as far as saying that, until that point in time, it was actually their best computer animated feature. Still, it was far from reaching the Pixar greatness. I mean, the animation was decent, the characters were quite cute but the story was still way too pedestrian and predictable to make it exceptional whatsoever. I guess the problem with Disney was that they wanted too much that their productions would look like those made by Pixar and Dreamworks when, in fact, they should try to keep their own identity and make some real Disney flicks ('Tangled' is a pretty good example, in my opinion). Recently, they did have a major critical and financial success with 'Wreck-It-Ralph' so we'll see if they manage to keep this new interesting trend. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, in spite of its flaws, I still believe that it is a fairly entertaining animated movie and it is worth a look, especially if you want to to watch something with your kids.

Honestly, I can't say I enjoyed any of those Blade movies, even the one directed by Guillermo del Toro is way overrated, in my opinion. Anyway, this last installment is easily the worst of the trilogy. Even though they added 2 new upcoming actors (Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel) and they both did a decent job, it was definitely not enough to make this movie more interesting or entertaining. As a matter of fact, I just re-watched it, the extended edition this time which wasn't really an improvement (what can I do? Nick, my step-son, just loves vampire movies...) and I was amazed this time about how annoying Ryan Reynolds was, I mean, his character. He often plays some wise-ass but in this movie, it was just beyond tedious as the guy doesn't have one straight line of dialog during the whole thing and continuously throws some worthless oneliners. Furthemore, by now, we know Blade kills vampires but after 2 movies, the whole thing is getting repetitive and they even threw in Dracula but I thought it was pretty pathetic. It is actually quite surprising that David S. Goyer who was involved in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, arguably the best super hero movies out there, could direct one of the lamest comic book adaptations ever made.To conclude, in my opinion, it was just a pretty bad action movie and it is not worth a look, even if you enjoyed the previous installments.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but, for some obscure reasons, I still wanted to check it out. I guess there was something quite appealing about this topic and the whole thing definitely had some potential. If you are intrigued by the subject, you can find some rather fascinating stories and when you read about those, you wonder why they didn’t end up in this movie instead of this tedious plot. Anyway, eventually, I wasn't really positively or negatively surprised by this flick. I mean, when the two lead characters are portrayed by Joshua Jackson and Paul Walker, two of the most underwhelming actors of their generation, you pretty much know that you should lower your expectations. Anyway, it is basically a rather routine college/secret brotherhood thriller. Like I said before, I do believe that the whole thing actually had some potential and if the makers did handle the subject a little bit more seriously, it could have been really intriguing but, instead, they didn’t take any risk and, as result, this movie was rather cheesy and predictable. Still, I have seen worse movies and I was mildly entertained. Anyway, this flick is far from being amazing, it is rather forgettable and it is not really worth a look.

Even though that it did look pretty bad, since it was a huge success, I thought I should check it out with my step-son. Oh boy... What a waste of time! I think Nick thought it was alright but I thought it was just plain bad. The story was so moronic and those 'chipmunks' were way beyond obnoxious. Apparently, those chipmunks come from a beloved cartoon which I have never seen but, after watching this, I’m not really interested but I hope it is a little bit better than this adaptation. The only positive thing I could think of is that the animation was pretty nice but, on the other hand, since it is nowadays pretty easy to mix live action with animation, we will get even more moronic movies in the same trend (‘HOP’, ‘Yoggi Bear’,…) The worst thing about this flick is that it eventually launched a whole franchise (they are even working on a 4th installment at this moment… Can you believe this?). It is rather sad that children nowadays should watch this (and, apparently, many parents made their children watch this since it made a chuck load of money) when they are many more interesting family features out there. Eventually, I thought it was pretty bad and, in my opinion, you should just avoid this and if you have some kids, you should just watch something else...