Reviews by johanlefourbe

Personally, I always had a rather hard time with John Hugues. Indeed, by now, I have seen almost all his directing efforts (I still need to see ‘She’s having a Baby’ and ‘Sixteen Candles’ though) and, except for ‘The Breakfast Club’ which was really great, none of his other movies really impressed me. With this in mind, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since I kept hearing good things about it, I thought I should check it out anyway. Eventually, it ended up being another huge disappointment and, in my opinion, this movie is really overrated. I mean, the concept sounds indeed rather stupid but, handled properly, it could have been actually at least pretty entertaining. Basically, the whole thing was just too cheesy, predictable and actually not really funny, in my opinion. Indeed, the main thing that really bothered me was how harmless and childish the whole thing was. I mean, most teenage boys who would end up with a babe like her wouldn’t remain chaste. Obviously, a full on sex-orgy would be rather inappropriate but some raunchiness would have been, for once, rather welcome. To conclude, I don't think it really deserves it cult-status and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

I remember it very well, when this movie was released, I was still living in France and, back then, nobody really knew what to do with this flick. I mean, for the French people, who the f*ck was Howard Stern?!? I mean, we heard a little bit about his reputation but since we had never listened to his radio shows, it seemed rather pointless to release this movie outside the USA. Anyway, I can't say I'm really familiar with Howard Stern's work but still I wanted to check it out, especially because Paul Giamatti had a small part in this flick. Eventually, it is basically a rather standard but still well made and entertaining biopic. The most interesting touch was the rather unique and bold decision to have Howard Stern to portray himself and I thought that Stern did a pretty good job (he even played himself as a teenager). Honestly, he definitely displayed some potential and I actually think it is a pity that he doesn't show up in other movies. To conclude, it is a rather odd feature if you are not familiar with Stern’s work but I still think it is worth a look, above all if you are a fan of Howard Stern.

Honestly, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this flick and I above all wanted to watch it because Sean Connery had a small part in it. As a matter of fact, there was actually a rather amazing cast composed of many Britisch upcoming actors (Patrick McGoohan, William Hartnell, David McCallum, Sidney James and of course Sean Connery). Maybe most of them doesn’t sound really familiar but they eventually all became well known in the 1960s for their roles in film and television. The movie itself was not bad with some nice and suspenseful scenes and there was a decent gritty mood. Still, to be honest, the whole thing was far from being really remarkable and, eventually, I was rather underwhelmed by the whole plot. I mean, if you want to see a really amazing vintage classic dealing with truck drivers, you should watch instead ‘Le Salaire de La Peur’. Still, I thought it was pretty neat to see a very young Sean Connery (it was only his 3rd movie) and 5 years later, he would eventually breakthrough playing his most iconic part in ‘Dr. No’. To conclude, it is a rather obscure flick but I still think it is definitely worth a look, if only for its interesting cast.

I remember it very well, at the time, I was going to the movies and I was actually going to see ‘State of Play’ (a movie which turned to be actually rather underwhelming as well) but when I got to the movie theater, they told me there was a mistake in their program and ‘State of Play’ wasn’t running at all at this location. Eventually, I checked what was available at the time and I ended up watching ‘Bruno’ instead. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disappointment,  probably even the most disappointing movie I have seen which was released in 2009. I mean, I really loved 'Borat', much more than I expected so this time, I had some rather high expectations. Unfortunately, this flick never reached  the level of 'Borat' ... Indeed, there were definitely some funny scenes and the movie had some good sharp moments but the main issue in my opinion was that the lead character was just really obnoxious and it made the whole movie just painful to watch. Furthermore, whereas underneath its vulgarity, I thought that 'Borat' was actually pretty deep, this flick was just completely shallow. Still, it is far from being a bad movie and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Sacha Baron Cohen's work.

Honestly, I have never been really impressed by Vin Diesel but I kept hearing good things about this flick so I thought I should check it out. At the time, Vin Diesel was hailed as the new action movie star and showed up in no less than 3 potential movie franchises back-to-back (‘Pitch Black’, ‘The Fast and the Furious’ and ‘xXx’). Fast forward more than 10 years later and those franchises are the only thing starring Diesel which are slightly successful (as a matter of fact, he showed up in 10 movies during this period and 6 of them were sequels to these franchises!). Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I thought it was not bad at all after all. Indeed, the story was rather entertaining, Vin Diesel was pretty convincing and the movie really looked pretty good. However, the whole thing was still not original enough to become a genuine good science-fiction flick in my opinion. I guess something was just missing to make it totally satisfying and I think it still looked too much like a B production to become really remarkable. Still, in spite of its flaws, there were a lot of things to enjoy here, it remains an entertaining flick and it is definitely worth a look especially if you are interested in science-fiction movies

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast, I thought I should it out and I thought it would be a rather decent thriller. Eventually, I was so disappointed by this movie. Seriously, how can you go wrong with such a cast (Diane Lane, Stellan Skarsgard, Leelee Sobieski)?!? The movie actually looked alright and the actors did the best they could with the material but the plot was such so idiotic, it made the whole thing rather painful to watch. It's too bad because it really had some potential but, at the end of the day, it is basically one of those far-fetched thrillers which go for the cheap thrills and stupid twists instead of providing a decent plot which made sense. While watching this, I felt above all bad about Leelee Sobieski. Indeed, at the end of the 90’s, she was one of the most interesting young actresses and it seemed that she had a bright future. Unfortunately, she kept making some rather dubious choices and there is not much left of those good promises. Coming back to our main feature, to conclude, I have seen worse but it still remain an average flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look, even if you are a fan of the genre.

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Mickey Rourke, I thought I should give it a try. Back then in the 80's, Mickey Rourke was really popular, he was pretty high on the A list and this flick must have been made just before his career went down the drain.Basically, I thought it was a rather weird concept and I was above all impressed by the cast filled with interesting actors. Indeed, the movie itself, especially the plot, was basically a cheesy B movie and unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of this genre so I can't say I really enjoyed it (Apparently, Al Pacino was initially interested in playing the title character but ultimately dropped out of the project because he felt they had never been able to transcend the script's B-movie qualities). Personally, I think they made the best out of this concept and I’m not sure if they could have made something better out of this. On a side note, it was pretty neat to see Morgan Freeman just before he got his breakthrough (the same year, he would be seen as well in ‘Glory’ and, of course, ‘Driving Miss Daisy’).  To conclude, even though it remains a B feature, I thought it was not bad at all and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I was pleasantly surprised by 'Pitch Black', I thought I should check out this sequel. There was a time when Vin Diesel was hailed as the new action movie star and showed up in no less than 3 potential movie franchises back-to-back (‘Pitch Black’, ‘The Fast and the Furious’ and ‘xXx’). Back then, Diesel was rather arrogant and claimed he wasn’t interested in making sequels so he refused to come back for ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ and ‘xXx: State of the Union’ and agreed to do only this sequel.  Fast forward more than 10 years later and those franchises are the only thing starring Diesel which are slightly successful (as a matter of fact, he showed up in 10 movies during this period and 6 of them were sequels to these franchises!). Anyway, coming back to our main feature, the most striking thing with this sequel is that it had barely anything to do with the original movie. Indeed, it looked different, the mood was different, the only thing that remained was the lead character who was still called 'Riddick'. Actually, I didn't mind that it was so different. Indeed, the movie looked very good with some kick ass action scenes. The main issue was that the story was rather weak and it didn't work out very well. Still, even though it was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent feature and I think it is worth a look especially if you are looking for some brainless SF action flick.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I always had a weak spot for Sydney Lumet’s work, I still wanted to check it out. Honestly, I have never been a huge fan of the genre but it is probably one of the worst musicals I have ever seen. At the time, it was the most expensive film musical ever made but it turned out to be a flop and it was universally panned when it was released. Personally, I thought the whole thing was terribly misguided and the only interesting thing was to see Michael Jackson as an actor for once and before he became a massive pop star. Indeed, there was actually one scene that I really enjoyed and it was when Michael Jackson was singing solo and displaying his amazing dance moves. In my opinion, there was not much else to enjoy in this flick and, on top of that, it was agonizingly long (about 135 minutes) which didn’t help at all. To conclude, it looked pretty bad, the songs were rather lame and the whole thing was just boring so I don’t think it is really worth a look, even if you are fan of the genre.