Reviews by johanlefourbe

Personally, I have never been a huge fan of the Harry Potter franchise but my wife and kids really loved them so we ended up watching the last 4 installments in the movie theater at the time. In my opinion, this 6th installment might have been the most disappointing Harry Potter flick. I mean, like the previous installments, it was really well done and spectacular with some awesome action scenes but the story was rather underwhelming. Thanks to Alfonso Cuaron, they really improved the concept and the 4th installment was the best one, in my opinion, but after that, they never tried to push it even further. In my opinion, the biggest mistake was to bring back David Yates as a director. It's not that he did a really bad job with the previous installment, it's just that it would have been more interesting to have someone else trying to add something new  to this formula.  I mean, I have to admit it, it was not bad at all and it has always been neat to see the evolution of these characters but I can't say that the whole thing was spellbinding whatsoever and the end was just a really cold shower. Honestly, you spend more than 2 hours to get this conclusion?!? Also, what hell happened to Cho?!? I mean, Harry Potter's first crush was never really convincing but they did spend 2 entire movies developing this crush but, for this movie, she was completely dropped out for an even more underwhelming love story. Still, even though I don’t think it was anything mind-blowing whatsoever, it remains an entertaining blockbuster and it is worth a look, especially if you have followed the previous adventures involving Harry Potter and his buddies.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since there was a decent cast, I thought I might as well give it a try. Eventually, I didn’t like it much. Indeed, when  Owen Wilson gets the right material, he can be very funny but this time, it unfortunately didn't work out. Indeed, Dupree was just really too obnoxious and not funny enough and the story was just so predictable. To make things worse, Matt Dillon used to be one of the hottest actors in the 80's-90's but now he only gets work for 2nd part in such average flicks which is a real shame. To round up the cast, you have Kate Hudson who gave her usual girl nex door act and she didn’t add much to this movie. It is interesting to note that Anthony Russo and Joe Russo’s following directing effort would be ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ which was a rather odd decision but it turned out fine once again for Marvel as it was a critical and financial success. To conclude, I can't say I enjoyed this flick, I think it is just a really average comedy and it is not really worth a look. 

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this flick. Indeed, since I heard only bad things about this movie, I thought it would be something really bad. Eventually, even though it was indeed pretty average, it was definitely not the worst movie I have ever seen and I was (almost) positively surprised. In my opinion, if you don't take this movie too seriously, it is actually not completely awful and barely enjoyable (even Roger Ebert actually gave it a positive review which would still be a little too generous though). Basically, it is a rather awkward combination of various (better and with a bigger budget) adventure flicks. The main issue is that it came just after ‘Jurassic Park’, another adaptation of a book written by Michael Crichton, which looked really awesome while, here, the special effects were rather ridiculous and pathetic. Eventually, you wonder how Laura Linney's career has been able to recover from this turkey (as a matter of fact, even though it was panned by the critics, it was actually a box-office hit at the time). Anyway, to conclude, it is not one of the worst movies ever made and if you are a fan of B movies, you may actually end up enjoying it but don't expect much from this though.

Back in the 80's, Debra Winger was on the A list and she was one of the most wanted actress in the world. But, suddenly, in the mid-90's, she just disappeared which was/is quite a shame. Apparently, it was actually her own choice to stop after making this flick. Honestly, I have my doubts but whatever happened, it definitely managed to kill her career. I mean this was her last flick (she actually appeared in other movies but only 4 in the last 16 years!) and unfortunately it was a flop. Honestly, I think it's too bad because it is actually a pretty good romantic feature. Indeed, I though it was fairly realistic, with some believable 3 dimensional characters and it reminded me of 'When Harry met Sally...' in some way. Even though it was a promising directing debut for Billy Crystal, it was a flop when it was released. A few years later, he would direct the baseball feature ‘61*’ which would be much better received. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, it remains a really solid romantic-comedy which should get much more credit and it is is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I always considered Sean Connery to be the best James Bond ever, I was really eager to check this flick. However, in my opinion, it is probably his least impressive Bond flick. I mean, it is rather well made and Sean Connery is awesome as usual but the story was less captivating than the other Bond flicks. Still, apparently, Sean Connery was quite pleased with this flick and it was even his own favorite performance as the most famous spy in the world. Eventually, he will even end up remaking this flick in the 80’s with ‘Never Say Never Again’. Personally, even though I thought it was really neat that Sean Connery decided to play again his most iconic part, I always thought it was a pity that it was a remake and a remake of a rather weak story. Still, it was the most popular Bond movie racking up 140 million ticket sales so those movies were still hugely popular at the time (and with the current revival with Daniel Craig, it will remain so for many years to come). To conclude, even though it is far from being one of the best installments, it remains entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in the Bond movies. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. First of all, following his great performance in 'American Splendor', you can say that with this flick, Paul Giamatti really sealed the deal. From now on, he would be a major actor to reckon with (on the other hand, since then, he hasn’t played many lead parts in fact but he is definitely a highly respected actor). I also thought that Thomas Haden Church was quite amazing (thanks to this movie, he finally had his breakthrough) and together they were just a great duo. To be honest, I don’t think the story was anything really mind-blowing but the whole thing was just very well written and acted. Indeed, Alexander Payne, one of the most intriguing American directors at work nowadays, has once again created some fascinating 3 dimensional characters. If you expect shoot-outs, explosions and chases, you should probably avoid this one but if you are looking for a character driven movie with some great acting, you won’t be disappointed. To conclude, I think it absolutely deserves its reputation and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Alexander Payne’s work. 

I must have been 13 or 14 years old when I saw this flick and I had the pleasure to see it in the movie theater when it was released. I must admit it, at the time, I was quite blown away by its visual aspect. I mean, back then, there wasn't such an overdose of CGI like today, back then it was something new and it was just downright impressive. Actually, there were just 6 minutes of CGI and the rest was animatronics, just to give you an idea about the fact that wall-to-wall CGI is absolutely not needed. Anyway, this movie definitely belongs to the biggest classics directed by Spielberg and it was the highest grossing movie ever made until 'Titanic' came out. Still, even though I was completely blown away by the special effects, I still can't say the same thing about the plot and the characters though. I mean, even though the whole thing was very entertaining and definitely kept me on the edge of my seat through most of the duration, it was still nothing extraordinary and all the characters were all really stereotypical and none of them was remotely interesting. But, damned, it was still awe inspiring to see for the very first time ever such realistic dinosaurs on the silver screen. Anyway, to conclude, even though storywise I think it is rather pedestrian, it is still a huge landmark in motion picture history and it is pretty much a must-see.

Since I always considered Sean Connery to be the best James Bond ever, I was really eager to check this movie. However, in my opinion, it is probably one of his weaker Bond flicks. I mean, it was rather well made and Sean Connery was awesome as usual but the story was less captivating than his other Bond flicks but, at least, it was sligthly better than ‘Thunderball’ which is, in my opinion, the weakest Bond flick starring Sean Connery. At the time, it was already the fifth movie featuring Sean Connery as James Bond and you wonder if he was still enjoying himself. Still, this flick delivered the goods with some cool action scenes and exotic destinations (I especially enjoyed the fact that most of the action was taking place in Japan for once) but it unfortunately they didn’t add much to the James Bond world. I was rather surprised to find out that Roald Dahl, of all people, did write the screenplay and Roald Dahl himself apparently later said that of all the filmed adaptations of his written works, this one was the only one where he liked the end result. Anyway, to conclude, Connery kicks ass as usual and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are a fan of those Bond movies.

When I first heard about this flick, I was rather excited since I really loved 'Sin City' but later on I heard all the lukewarm critics so I wasn't dying anymore to watch it but still, I thought I should give it a shot. And indeed, the end result was really disappointing. I mean, sure, the movie had some rather visually impressive sequences but then, some other scenes just looked downright embarassing and ridiculous. The story was also really weak, it was nothing original whatsoever and the dialogues were just laughable throughout the whole thing. On the positive side, the cast was pretty good, except for Gabriel Macht and Paz Vega. Indeed, Gabriel Macht didn't have the charisma to pull this off and he gave a rather poor performance. And why on Earth did they pick a Spanish actress to portray a French character?!? Vega didn't look or sound French at all. Anyway, it is quite obvious that they wanted to get the same success they had with 'Sin City' but it didn't really work out, I'm afraid. To conclude, it's a pity because the whole thing really had some potential and even though it was not a total disaster, it was still a major failure so I don't think it is really worth a look.