Reviews by johanlefourbe

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...

Even though I love movies and watch tons of them, sometimes, I just don’t connect with some directors, no matter how hard I try or how many time I spend watching their movies. Kim Ki-Duk might be the best example of this. Indeed, by now, I have seen 4 movies directed by this guy and this flick is the only one which actually convinced me. As usual, the directing was sober but still really beautiful and I really loved it and the acting was also quite impressive. Also, for the first time in a Kim Ki-Duk feature, I thought the story was actually more compelling than frustrating (which is the case with all his other features I have seen). Still, even though I thought the story was intriguing, I still wasn't blown away by the whole thing and, like the rest of his work, I think it is rather overrated. I don’t know, I have seen my share of Asian features and I usually like them a lot but I probably don’t get his work and each time around, I fail to see what is so amazing about them. Still, the next time I get the opportunity to watch one of his movies, I will definitely check it out because, even I don’t really understand him, the guy is an artist, that’s for sure. To conclude, even though I don’t think it is really amazing, it remains a beautiful and spellbinding movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this flick, since it was directed by Lasse Halstrom, one of my favorite directors, and since my wife is a huge fan of ABBA, I thought we should check it out together. First of all, I don't really care about Abba. I mean, I don't think their music is really bad but it is definitely not my kind of music, that’s for sure. Therefore, I wasn’t the target audience and I’m afraid this movie would interest only the fans of ABBA. You could argue that it is indeed the whole purpose of this movie but I would disagree. Take ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ for example, even though it was conceived for the Beatles fans, it is actually a solid feature and can be enjoyed by someone (like me) who doesn’t really like their music. Therefore, in this case, the end-result was rather underwhelming. I mean, there was no real plot, they didn’t even try and all you get to see is a bunch of ABBA concerts but there was absolutely nothing really new or interesting about the group. Basically, just like their music, this movie was really shallow and boring. To conclude, I thought it was pretty damned average and this movie is worth a look only for the die-hard fans of this band.

Honestly, before writing this review, I had to check again what the hell it was about. Seriously, even though I have seen it quite recently, I kind of completely forgot what the hell it was about. It is how forgettable it was... Basically, it is a rather average romantic-comedy with the old tired body switch routine. At least, I have to admit it, Meg Ryan and Alec Baldwin were both quite charming together but they didn't succeed in making this more interesting for me. I mean, the body switch trick is one of the the worst movie gimmick I know and , in my opinion, only a handful of movies like ‘Big’ (which still wasn’t really a masterpiece) did use this gimmick with some satisfying results. Of course, you need some suspension of disbelief to be able to enjoy a story like this but, still, if the makers don’t provide an interesting setting or characters, it is pretty tedious to watch. I don’t know, I thought the whole thing was terribly pedestrian and predictable and, like I said before, 5 minutes later, I already forgot about the whole thing. To conclude, I have seen worse, but it remains a very average romantic-comedy and it is not really worth a look, even if you like the genre.

Honestly, I find it rather difficult to review this movie. Indeed, I thought it was a rather weird flick. Basically, it has barely anything to do with the original version. But on the other hand, it was actually not really a bad thing since I wasn't a huge fan of this 80’s ‘classic’. Furthermore, Romola Garai and Diego Luna (both of them are actually pretty talented if you check the rest of their career) were not bad and they had some good chemistry. Still, who am I kidding? Obviously, once again, the story was just really weak and the attempt to set the movie during the historical events in Cuba was just laughable. I mean, you either make a fluffy movie or you make a serious one, you don't mix these things by making a fluffy movie which such a serious historical background, it is really annoying and it just doesn't work. On the other hand, I’m obviously not the target audience and I think my wife who loved the original movie thought it was pretty good. Anyway, all in all, it remains a rather average dancing movie and it is not really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of the genre.