Reviews by johanlefourbe

Nowadays, I have Netflix and Popcorn and not only I have since then an endless selection of movies to chose from but, as a result, I have became slightly more picky regarding the movies I watched. Before, I used to watch pretty much anything as long as it was starring one of two actors I was interested in, sometimes, I would end up watching some really obscure. This movie was a perfect. In this case, I have to admit that I always had a weak spot for Hilary Duff. I mean, sure, she is far from being a great actress but I always thought that she was quite charming. Anyway, by now,  I have seen already almost all her movies many flicks and, to honest,  she always hows up some very average even very bad movies and a few of them have already ended on my Top 50 worst movies ever made... This movie was a good example. I mean, the story was lame, the acting wa really weak and I was just bored throughout the whole thing. The only positive thing I think of is that it might be enjoyable for young girls between 9 and 14 years old, otherwise you'd better pass on this one.

Since I’m huge fan of Paul Thomas Anderson, of course, I had to watch this movie at some point. Apparently, this directing debut was not exactly a pleasant experience for Anderson as he had not much control over it (something that would change from his next movie) and he had to fight really hard to make sure that it wasn’t completely butchered before it was released. Anyway, even if it wasn’t one of his best movies, I still turned out to be a pretty decent watch. Indeed, in spite of a very limited budget, the whole thing was visually pretty neat and there were still some really neat shots which was quite impressive since it was a directing debut. Instead of the usual big stars, the cast was composed of some very good character actors and they all delivered some really strong performances. I must say I was a little bit underwhelmed by the plot or the lack of it but the version I saw was rather short (about 95 minutes) and a longer director's cut might be a better watch. Anyway, to conclude,  even though it is a rather obscure feature, I thought it was pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in PT Anderson’s work. 

Nowadays, I have Netflix and Popcorn and not only I have since then an endless selection of movies to choose from but, as a result, I have become slightly more picky regarding the movies I watch. Before, I used to watch pretty much anything as long as it was starring one or two actors I was interested in and, as a result, I would sometimes end up watching some really obscure features. This movie was a perfect example and the only reason I watched it was because it was featuring Demi Moore’s acting debut. Well, eventually,  it had been a while since I had seen such a bad movie... Seriously, the directing and the acting were just terrible and the whole thing felt fairly amateurish. It seemed that the makers were also way too ambitious since there were no less than 3 story lines all involving the main character. Indeed, the guy was not only a high-school football star but he was also great violin player and, on top of that, he was almost deaf as well… If they did focus on one of these tales, it might have worked better (I highly doubt it though) but none of these story-lines was properly developed. Anyway, to conclude, it was just a terrible and boring movie and you should definitely avoid it.

Obviously, this movie has a really lame reputation and it is considered by many as one of the worst super-heror movies ever made. As far I was concerned, at the time when I saw the damned thing, I had already seen so many movies in this genre and, to be honest, I was starting to get a little bit tired of them so I wasn't expecting much from this flick, especially since it was so poorly received. Eventually, even though it might seem surprising, I was actually rather pleasantly surprised by the damned thing. First of all, I wasn't really familiar with the Green Lantern before watching this movie but I must say he is a really awesome super-hero. Furthermore, the visuals were great and for once, I really enjoyed the 3D. So, everytime the movie was taking place on Oa or was dealing with the guardians, the movie was pretty cool but, unfortunately, everytime the movie was dealing with Hal Jordan's back story and his life on earth, I have to admit that it was rather underwhelming. Furthermore, Blake Lively might seem to be a charming girl but she was far from being a believable jet pilot. Anyway, to conclude, I don’t really get the massive grudge against this movie and, even though it was far from being revolutionary, the Green Lantern was an impressive super-hero, the movie  looked pretty awesome and I think it is actually worth a look.

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this movie and, in fact, I basically watched the damned thing only because Paul Giamatti had a small part in it. In fact, you could go all the way back to the 80’s and blame ‘Coming to America’ for this. Sure, ‘Coming to America’ was really popular (I actually really didn’t like it), but, unfortunately, it gave basically Eddie Murphy the greenlight to go on and keeps disguising himself over and over again in several of his movies. Eventually, even though the concept was seriously misguided, it unfortunately had a ripple effect and Martin Lawrence thought he should use the same boring gimmick, disguising himself into a big fat black woman, supposedly to some hilarious effect. Well, I have to admit it, there were in fact a few funny scenes but most of the damned thing was pretty much abysmal and I can't say I enjoyed this flick. Eventually, this movie was really successful at the box-office and they came up with a 1^st sequel (which I have still managed to watch somehow) and a 2^nd sequel (which I’m actively avoiding). Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, even though I have seen worse, it was still pretty lame and I don’t think it is worth a look at all. 

Even though I wasn’t really sure about this movie, since I have a weak spot for Edward Zwick’s work, I was quite eager to check it out, especially since this movie was his directing debut. Well, even though it wasn’t really grounbreaking I thought it was not bad at all. Still, there were a few things that did bother me. First of all, the music was just really weak. Basically, it was one of these cheesy soundtracks typical of the 80's and it was borderline cringe-inducing. Furthemore, the dialogues felt a little bit overwritten and the whole thing was rather predictable. And, yet, there was still some good stuff in this movie. Indeed, I really liked the characters. They were really three dimensional and, for once,  they had also a believable life and some genuine behavior. Finally, even though they never were some amazing actors, Demi Moore and Rob Lowe were a great couple in this movie and they had some great chemistry together. Almost 30 years later, they came up with a remake with a black cast and I should watch it at some point since it is available on Netflix. Anyway coming back to our main feature, to conclude, it is definitely not a masterpiece but I think it is still worth a look, especially if you are looking for a realistic romantic movie.

Obviously, since the reviews for this movie were just terrible, I had some really low expectations concerning the damned thing. In spite its really lame reputation, I still wanted to check it out since I loved the cartoon when I was a child (in fact, I even saw the very first episode of ‘Dragon Ball’ when it was aired on the French television). Well, even though many people complained about Michael Bay for virtually raping their childhood with the ‘Transformers’ franchise, compared to what they did with this movie, you could say that Bay didn’t do so bar after all. Indeed, in this case, the whole thing was just plain bad. In fact, I have to admit that the story was actually rather faithfull to the cartoon but the dialogues were ridiculous and the special effects were just pathetic. One of the worst thing was the fact at the movie started like an average standard high-school comedy?!? Seriously, how did they come up with this idea? That was just so lame. To conclude, even though I do believe that they were some decent ideas here and there, the end-result was still pretty boring, ugly and not entertaining whatsoever so the whole thing is definitely not worth a look whatsoever. 

To be honest, I really wonder how I ended up watching this flick. I  mean, I do remember that I saw it when it was on TV but why did I choose it? I guess it sounded intriguing so I decided to give it a try. And how on Earth did Victoria Abril ended up playing in a Icelandic movie?!?  Eventually, it didn't really matter since I rather enjoyed this movie which displayed some colorful and interesting characters. I thought it gave also an interesting view on the life in Iceland even if  it may not have been accurate at all. Eventually, I think the whole thing was slightly too quirky for my taste but I thought most of it worked fairly well nonetheless. Since then, Baltasar Kormákur has actually developed a decent career, splitting his time between some rather obscure indie productions in Island but also in the US and some actually fairly decent action flicks made in Hollywood (‘Contraband’, ‘2 Guns’ and ‘Everest’ which was easily the most interesting one of this bunch). To conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.