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Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 17 August 2011 06:28
(A review of Frankenstein)When it came out, more than 15 years ago, I saw this flick at the movie theater and, yesterday, I finally saw it again. Back then, the expectations were pretty high but it was not very well received. Indeed, this movie has a rather poor reputation but I think it is actually pretty good. First of all, I just love how baroque and decadent the whole thing looked like. Furthermore, in my opinion, the cast provided some good performances and I especially enjoyed John Cleese who was barely recognizable and, for once , he wasn't funny whatsoever but he was still pitch perfect. And obviously, it is and remains a classic but it is still quite a fascinating story. However, I have to admit it, the movie does loose some steam and focus especially during the 2nd half. On top of that, the whole thing did seem to be a huge ego-trip for Kenneth Branagh (he was the director, the lead actor and he spent way to much time without his shirt on showing off his marvelous abs). Anyway, to conclude, it is indeed far from being a masterpiece but I still think it is an interesting and entertaining adaptation and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.Ā
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An average movie
Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 16 August 2011 09:39
(A review of Angels & Demons)Back then, when 'The Da Vinci code' was released, everybody trashed it but I thought it was a little bit exaggerated. In my opinion, the main issue was that the book itself wasn't actually that great for starters. Furthermore, basically half of the book is about Robert Langdon explaining some historical facts or legends which is fine on paper but quite tricky to translate on the silver screen. Anyway, I went to see this sequel with an open mind (I even saw it in the theater somehow) and I was actually positively surprised. Indeed, it was definitely more focused than the first movie and I was rather captivated by the whole story, at least until the end. Of course, the whole thing was rather preposterous but there was something quite awesome about making a thriller in the Vatican, mixing some historical facts, myths and some good old blockbuster action scenes. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the end was so over the top, seriously, my mouth fell wide open. Whereas the rest of the movie was pretty strong, this ending was just really disappointing and actually did ruin the whole thing for me. Anyway, to conclude, it is definitely not a masterpiece but I still think it is a well made and entertaining thriller and I believe it is actually worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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An average movie
Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 16 August 2011 09:34
(A review of Erik of het klein insectenboek)Ever since I have been living in the Netherlands, I have been interested in the Dutch movies. In the 10 years I have been there, I have seen many movies and, I have to admit it, the Dutch movie industry is not really impressive. For example, every year, only a few Dutch movies manage to make a splash at the box-office and not really because they are really great. Indeed, one of the leading genres is the family feature which has been quite successful for many years. Personally, I think it has to do with the fact that, in the Netherlands, except for the animated features, all the movies remain in their native language and if the parents wants to watch with their kids a live action feature for a change, they basically have to watch a Dutch movie. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it is basically another average Dutch kids flick. I mean, the special effects looked terribly lame and, above all, the story was just plain boring. On a positive note, it was kind of neat and cute that they tried to make a movie about insects but the end result was rather underwhelming. To conclude, it is a really average flick and it is not really worth a look, except maybe if you are under 6 years old.
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An average movie
Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 16 August 2011 09:26
(A review of Hearts in Atlantis)Since I'm a big fan of Anthony Hopkins, I try to watch all his movies whenever I get the chance so I was really eager to check this movie. On the other hand, I have always been rather underwhelmed by Stephen Kingās book adaptations so I wasn't sure what to expect. First of all, I really liked the look, the pace and the general mood of the movie which was very well directed by Scott Hicks who was also responsible for āShineā. Furthermore, Hopkins but also Yelchin and Hope Davis all gave some very good performances. Unfortunately, I had a rather hard time to care about the story which was far from being really fascinating. Somehow, it reminded me of āThe Green Mileā, another Stephen King story with a rather realistic background but still with a small dash of paranormal. In my opinion, Kingās best stories were the realistic ones like āThe Shawshank Redemptionā or āStand by meā (which both came from the same book as a matter of fact) and as soon as he starts to add some fantastic elements, those stories become much less intriguing, at least, thatās my opinion. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you are interested in Stephen Kingās work.
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A good but overrated movie
Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 16 August 2011 09:19
(A review of Shine)I already saw this movie but since it was such a while ago, I thought I might as well check it out again. To be honest, I always had some mixed feelings about this movie. Indeed, back in those days, there was a huge buzz about this flick and, thanks to this feature, Geoffrey Rush's career finally took off (he even got an oscar for his performance) and he became afterwards a familiar face in many popular movies. It also launched the career of Scott Hicks who has been working in the US ever since even though none of his other movies have been really successful. Still, even if Geoffrey Rush was really strong, I wasnāt completely convinced by the rest of the movie. The first thing that I found rather odd was that, even though this movie was dealing with a mentally unstable man (thatās clearly an understatement), they spent actually very little time on his life following his breakdown and the time he might have spent in the psychiatric system. In fact, during the first half focusing on David Helfgott as a kid and as a young man, even though he was displayed as rather fragile, there was nothing much indicating that he was so mentally unstable. On the other hand, you could argue that the years of training and the huge amount of pressure might have eventually triggered his mentall illness. Eventually, instead of focusing on David himself and what was going on in his mind, they spent a huge amount of time arguing that his father was the bad guy in this story but that didnāt really work either. First of all, his behaviour didnāt really make sense as he first pushed his son to become a great pianist and, then, suddenly, he tried to stop him to go abroad to expand even more his career but why? Because he was jealous maybe? It was never clear and, in fact, many family members claimed that, in real life, the only reason he stopped David for going abroad was because he was actually worried about his mental health which made more sense than what was displayed in this movie. Furthermore, even if he would have been a huge pain in the ass, David eventually had his major mental breakdown when he was abroad and when his father was far away so, to constanly blame his old man was the wrong approach in my opinion. Anyway, to conclude in spite of its flaws, it was still an interesting story with a very strong performance by Geoffrey Rush and it is definitely worth a look.
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A surprising movie
Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 16 August 2011 09:06
(A review of Switchback)Honestly, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast, I thought I might as well give it a try. Eventually, I thought it was not bad at all. Indeed, it is a rather forgotten and unknown thriller but it's actually too bad since it was actually quite entertaining. Indeed, this flick was rather well made and I thought that the tension was very well built up. Furthermore, all the actors involved (Dennis Quaid, Danny Glover, Jared Leto, R. Lee Ermey, William Fichtner) delivered some solid performances. Of course, since we are dealing with a thriller and since it is inherent to the genre, there were some improbable and annoying twist(s) but, somehow, it didn't bother me that much this time. Afterwards, I have discovered that this movie was the directing debut of Jeb Stuart whose name might not sound familiar but it is actually the guy who wrote āDie Hardā, one of the best action movies ever made and, in this movie, there were also very nice scenes as well so it figures. To conclude, even though it is nothing groundbreaking whatsoever, it is actually an entertaining thriller and I think is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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An average movie
Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 16 August 2011 08:58
(A review of Imagining Argentina (2003))Even though it is a rather obscure flick, since Emma Thompson is one of my favorite actress, I was really eager to watch this flick. Like I said before, it is actually a rather unknown and forgotten movie directed by Christopher Hampton who is mostly famous as a screenplay writer (he even won a Academy award for the screenplay he wrote for āDangerous Liaisonsā which was an adaptation of his own play). Coming back to our main feature, it is a rather well made drama with some solid performances but, unfortunately, I wasn't really convinced by the combination of the political intrigues (which were very interesting) and some paranormal phenomenon (which wasn't really spellbinding). It was a rather odd mix and while it was a bold move, it didnāt work out very well. Indeed, even though it started out as a rather gripping and realistic political drama, it suddenly lost itself in some paranormal mumbo-jumbo which was rather disappointing. For Hampton, it would be so far his last directing effort which is too bad because even though this flick was somehow misguided, it was still not awful whatsoever. To conclude, even though the whole thing is really flawed, I still think it is worth a look.
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A bad movie
Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 16 August 2011 08:41
(A review of Beerfest)Oh my God... Maybe you have noticed but I watch a lot of movies and sometimes I even watch some major garbage for the weirdest reasons you can possibly imagine. For example, I watched this flick which really looked and sounded terrible just because Donald Sutherland had a (very very) small part in it. Obviously, watching this flick was a huge waste of time. I mean, as you can imagine, the whole thing was just really moronic and I know it was actually the whole point but it was also supposed to be funny and it was not the case at all. Apparently, this project was developed by an American comedy group called Broken Lizard and their previous feature āSuper Troopersā (which I havenāt seen) became a cult classic. Anyway, with this new feature, in my opinion, it was basically about some stupid characters doing some stupid things from the beginning until the end and I was bored senseless while watching this. I donāt know, because I never really enjoyed drinking endless liters of beer in my youth (I was more a weed lover but thatās another subject altogether) so maybe I wasnāt really the best audience for this. Anyway, to conclude, it was neither funny or entertaining and I donāt think it is worth a look whatsoever.
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An average movie
Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 16 August 2011 08:33
(A review of Pluk van de petteflet)In the Netherlands, kids movies are really popular and quite often very successful and since I have been living there, I have seen quite a few of them. However, I must admit it, most of them are actually boring to death and this flick was not an exception. It was directed by Ben Sombogaart, one of the very few Dutch directors with a really decent career, and he started his career with family features until he made āDe Tweelingā, a really impressive WWII feature. Afterwards, he went back to this kids flick which was an adaptation of a famous book written by Annie M.G. Schmidt (you might have never heard of her but she is pretty huge in the Netherlands and you can consider her the Dutch Roald Dahl). Anyway, coming back to our main feature,Ā I mean, it was rather well made and all but it was not entertaining whatsoever. Indeed, it was basically made for very young children but, personally, I thought that the characters were rather annoying and the story was just lame. Like I said before, maybe it is a nice watch for kids under 6 years old, otherwise I donāt think is really worth a look.Ā
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A surprising movie
Posted : 13 years, 6 months ago on 16 August 2011 08:26
(A review of Chaos)Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since there was a decent cast, I thought I should check it out. Fortunately, this movie turned out to be a nice surprise and it was actually better than I expected. Back in the 90's, Wesley Snipes was a major action star but nowadays his movies are really lame and most of a time directly released in DVD. As a matter of fact, I found out later on that this movie was actually also released on direct-to-DVD in the USA but it still turned out to be one of the best movies starring Wesley Snipes I have seen in the last 10 years. Indeed, the whole thing was rather well made with some cool action scenes and the story was rather decent with a good cast (Wesley Snipes, Jason Statham, Ryan Philippe). I read here and there that some viewers thought that Jason Statham gave a poor performance but I thought it was rather irrelevant. Indeed, Statham has a rather limited range as an actor and basically plays over and over again the same character but I thought he was rather convincing in this flick. Above all, I was entertained during the whole thing. To conclude, it is not a masterpiece whatsoever but it remains a decent action movie and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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