Reviews by johanlefourbe

Even though this movie seemed to be a rather obscure feature, if you would believe the impressive IMDb rating (7.5), it was in fact some kind of cult-classic so I was quite eager to check the damned thing. Well, to be honest, even if I did like this movie, it still took me a while before getting into it. Basically, the main problem I had was that, from the start, I pretty much already knew where the whole thing was going. Indeed, this tale was actually heavily inspired by 'Oliver Twist' so, if you are familiar with this tale like I was, it felt slightly redundant. As a a result, I wasn't really captivated by the whole thing and I had actually had a hard time to really care about what was going on. Still, at some point, it finally started to really grab me with the scene when Freddie Highmore grabbed a guitar and started to literally slam it. Indeed, I thought it was really awesome and, from this point, I finally got hooked by the story and the actors who, by the way, all provided good performances. Eventually, even though it was not really original, it was rather well made and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I have always been interested in politics, especially left-wing politics, this flick was pretty much a must see for me. First of all, I thought it was dealing with a really fascinating story, on top of that, the directing was decent enough and all the actors involved gave some solid performances. Unfortunately, even though it seemed that all the ingredients were present to deliver a masterpiece, the end-result was pretty good but not really mind-blowing, I’m afraid. Basically, the main issue, in my opinion, was that there were just too many characters and too many sub-plots involved and most of them were not propely developed. For example, Baader seemed to be a jealous guy and I was expecting that the makers would show more about this subject but, after 5 minutes, they just dropped this. It was the same thing with Meinhof who seemed to be worried a lot about her kids but, then, her children suddenly disappeared and you didn’t hear from them anymore afterwards. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was dealing with a really interesting subject, I thought it was a solid political thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

This movie seemed to be really lame and, to be honest, I wonder how I actually ended up watching the damned thing. Anyway, when I was a kid, there was this show called ‘Le manège enchanté’ on TV but even though I have to admit that it was a pretty cute and harmless puppet show, it was aimed obviously towards the very small children. For this movie, they tried to modernize the whole thing with some computer animation but the end-result was just terrible. Seriously, it is not very often that I came across such an ugly animated feature. To make things worse, they also changed its traditional whimsical tone but the whole thing was eventually just way too sophisticated and scary for young kids and still too boring and childish for grown-ups. Basically, nothing worked with this movie. If you check online, you will see that they are 2 different versions around, this one voiced by the UK voice-cast and another called ‘Doogal’ with a US voice-cast and, to be honest, I’m not even sure which version I saw but I don’t really care at all.  Anyway, to conclude, the whole thing was just a huge failure and it is not worth a look at all. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a really nice cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I thought it was actually pretty good. I mean, on one hand, the story was completely preposterous and, to be honest, it didn't make much sense but, on the other hand, during WWII, the Nazis did many things which didn't much make sense at all with the terrible consequences that we all know. Thus, what happened in the movie somehow actually followed their neurotic and psychotic way of thinking. However, even with this analysis, there were still a few annoying scenes (like, for example, the scene involving confrontation between Mengele and Lieberman really didn’t work in my opinion). Anyway, all in all, it was a good flick thanks to some competent directing, some awesome actors who delivered some really decent performances (Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier and James Mason) and the story was maybe horrifying but also rather fascinating. To conclude, even though the whole thing never reached the level of a masterpiece, it was still a decent historical thriller and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I had some rather low expectations but since I have a weak spot for Ray Liotta, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though I was expecting the damned thing to be seriously lame, I thought it was actually a really fun flick. Indeed, I can't remember the last time I saw such a preposterous, hysterical and rather insane action movie but it was actually pretty damned entertaining. On top of that, in my opinion, Ray Liotta was just pitch-perfect to play the main character and I don't think another actor could have played his part. The movie was actually full of dark humor and I was seriously laughing my ass off throughout the whole thing. In fact, I’m apparently in the minority as my wife thought  it was a really weird that I was laughing during this movie and Roger Ebert thought it was a piece of garbage so I guess it is an acquired taste. Anyway, to conclude, I have to admit it, the whole thing was still nothing great but I thought it was an entertaining action flick and if you don’t take it too seriously, you might actually end up enjoying the damned thing. 

I’m pretty sure that probably nobody knows who the hell is Bertrand Tavernier here on Listal but he is actually one of the best French directors. In fact, I used to closely follow his work back in the 90's but I kinda lost track of him since I moved to the Netherlands. Anyway, I had once again the opportunity to watch one of his last flicks and this time, it was a movie set in the USA with a very interesting cast so the damned thing really had some potential. Eventually, I though it was a well made movie with a very nice mood. Tommy Lee Jones gave his usual no-nonsense tough guy act but he does it so well, it didn't bother me and John Goodman really shined as a badass gangster. Unfortunately, the story was rather weak. Indeed, it was a rather generic detective story to which they added some ghosts visions but the paranormal stuff really never worked. Also, for most of the duration of the movie, this case didn't seem to go anywhere when suddenly, they found some clue and the whole thing was pretty much wrapped up during the last 10 minutes. To conclude, even though the whole thing was slightly disappointing, I thought it was still a decent thriller though and I think it is worth a look.

I wasn’t really what to expect from this movie but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, it turned out to be a decent watch. As a matter of fact, you had here pretty much two movies in one. Indeed, at first, it was an interesting drama about a guy who suffered some severe brain damage after a terrible car crash and you got to see how he had to learn to deal with it. The second half of the movie then completely switched the genre and it became suddenly a rather standard heist movie. To be honest, I'm not really sure if this combination was even really interesting. I mean, for example, did his handicap really have an impact on the heist? I don’t think so, so what was the point of combining both styles? In spite of these flaws, the movie was very well directed and the actors were really good (especially Joseph Gordon-Levitt who has become one of the most dependable actors right now) and I remained entertained throughout the whole thing. To conclude, even though it was exactly a masterpiece, it was still a solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.