Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I have it on DVD, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, even though this movie was not heralded like Clint Eastwood's previous work, I still really liked the damned thing though. Of course, during and after watching this flick, the one thing that kept popping in mine mind was 'was it really the most fascinating story about Nelson Mandela?' To be honest, probably not. The main issue was that, among all the great things achieved by Nelson Mandela, it is hard to believe that the rugby world cup was his greatest accomplishment and, personally, I would have rather watched something else about this great man. However, it is easy to understand that this subject was a crowd pleaser, easy to swallow and digest. Still, I thought it was an inspiring movie about one of the most inspiring historical figures that walked on Earth. Furthermore, if you compare it to the really underwhelming 'Goodbye Bafana', it was a really impressive historical drama. Once again, Clint Eastwood showed us that he is one of the best directors around (at least, back then) and you can see that Morgan Freeman had waited all his life to perform this character. Matt Damon was, as usual, pretty good but his character was not really interesting in my opinion. Anyway, to conclude, I think it is a great tribute to Eastwood's talent that, even though the subject seemed rather trivial, he managed to give it some gravitas. Therefore, the end-result was pretty neat and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Eastwood's work.

Honestly, I have no idea if Kirikou is famous abroad but I do remember that, back when the first installment was released in France, it was quite a success. Eventually, it was not really surprising that they decided to make a sequel even though they took their time and I wonder if this sequel was also successful. To be honest, the end result didn't really reach the level of the previous installment. I mean, this 1st movie was quite impressive because it was something really different than your usual animated feature and the animation was simple but really effective. Well, with this 2nd installment, it still looked very nice but it was pretty much the same thing and the freshness was gone. On the top of that, instead of telling a fully fledge tale, they decided to tell some small stories which were all fine but not really amazing and I would rather have one compelling adventure involving this little guy. Stil, it remains a very nice animated feature especially if you compare it with what you can see nowadays. 7 years later they would come up with a 3rd installment but, unfortunately, I haven’t seen it yet. To conclude, I thought it was pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I have it on DVD, I was quite eager to check it out again. First of all, Werner Herzorg is a fascinating director, I should definitely watch more of his movies and Christian Bale is definitely one of the most exciting actors at work right so, I was really excited when I heard that they would work together. And, was the end result worth it? Absolutely. In my opinion, it is probably the most accessible movie directed by Herzorg that I have seen so far, which is not a bad thing actually, and Bale gave, as usual, a really solid perfomance (once again, Christian Bale lost 55 pounds for his role and you might wonder about his sanity since he keeps losing and getting some massive weight for so many roles). Of course, the only critic you might have is that the story was not really original but it didn't really bother me and I was entertained from the beginning until the end. Even the usually obnoxious Steve Zahn didn’t bother me and, for this movie, he has delivered his best performance so far. Anyway, to conclude, I thought that it was a very good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Werner Herzog’s work.

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. Eventually, it was basically one of those cases when I heard about the movie for years, I got such huge expectations and this movie reached an almost mythical status in my mind. However, did the movie really live up to those expectations? Not really, I’m afraid. I mean, it was a good movie and it is definitely original (I think it was actually the very first mockumentary, a genre which has flourished since then but I think only this movie has really become a classic but I might be mistaken). So, I have to admit it, it was very well done and quite clever but, to be honest, I never thought it was really hilarious. Sure, I did smile a couple of times, yes, but did I actually laugh my ass off ? Never. Still, it was the beginning of a very prolific directing career for Rob Reiner who would be responsible for some major classics in the 80’s ('Misery', 'When Harry Met Sally...', 'The Princess Bride', ' Stand by Me', 'The Sure Thing'). To conclude, it is probably not my kind of humor but still, it remains a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look.

I didn’t even notice before but I’m actually the only one who has rated this flick so, I guess, it must be one of the most obscure movies I have seen so far. It is probably because it is a Dutch movie and Dutch movies don’t do well abroad and the fact that this movie was barely seen in the Netherlands didn't help either. Anyway, I thought it wasn't bad at all, it was actually quite ambitious and there was definitely some potential. Basically, it is pretty much like a Dutch version of 'Crash' (which was a good movie but not that great either). I did like the directing, the actors did a good job and the different stories were interesting but not very well developped, I’m afraid, and there were still too many clichés for me. The point is that, at the time, they released in Netherlands some very successful comedies about its current multicultural community (‘Shouf Shouf Habibi’ and ‘Het schnitzelparadijs’) and it is pretty obvious that they wanted with this movie to surf on this wave but nobody in the Netherlands was apparently interested to see something serious about the subject. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it remains an interesting flick and it is actually worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movies.

On paper, it sounded like a great project, to have 3 great masters delivering each of them a short about love and sex. Unfortunately, it turned out to be rather underwhelming after all.  Indeed, Antonioni's segment was easliy the worst one of the bunch, Sodebergh's short was not bad but nothing really impressive and, eventually, only Wong Kar Wai's bit did actually work. 

'The Dangerous Thread of Things' by Michelangelo Antonioni
In my opinion, it was easily the weakest one of them and it is a shame that it will probably be the last movie directed by Antonioni. Still, in spite of these flaws, it was rather well directed but, unfortunately, it was just way too slow and symbolic for me. I just didn't get it, I guess. One good thing though, there was a very nice naked lady for half of the duration but that's it, there was nothing much to see here, I’m afraid and my rating was actually rather generous for this segment (06/10)

'Equilibrium' by Steven Soderbergh
It was a little bit better than the previous segment but it was still nothing great though. First of all, it was beautifully shot in black and white and then you had the always awesome Robert Downer Jr. But that's about it... Basically, the whole thing tried to be funny but it was not and the story was just not really interesting. (06/10)

'The Hand' by Wong Kar Wai
At last, this one was easily the best one of these short stories. Indeed, the directing was awesome, the story was quite fascinating and indeed erotic. On top of that, Gong Li gave a really solid perfomance. (07/10)

To conclude, it is not really a must see but considering that all the shorts are directed by some of the best directors around, it is still worth a look though.

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since the ratings were really good, I thought I should check it out. Indeed, it is nowadays a rather forgotten movie but I thought it was actually fascinating. In my opinion, it is one of the darkest dramas ever made about WWII I have ever seen and I thought that there was a really impressive amount of depth put in the characters, especially the main one who was quite fascinating. Indeed, the directing was very well done and, above all, Klaus Maria Brandauer gave probably the best performance of his career. Since then I have seen some other movies starring this guy but none of them really impressed me like this one. Anyway, he was really mesmerizing here, giving life to a fascinating but also flawed character. On top of that, this movie was also a very interesting meditation about Art and while watching this you might wonder, when you are dealing with Art in general, where does it start and where does it end and how far should you go in order to reach your artistic goals? To conclude, I was really positively surprised by this flick and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I kept hearing good things about this flick, I was really eager to watch it. To be honest, I'm not usually a big fan of those cheesy 80's action movies. I mean, some of them are decent but most of them are rather underwhelming, in my opinion. However, I have definitely a weak spot for this one. Indeed, first of all, there was the mighty Rutger Hauer in all his greatness and, only for his performance, you ought to yourself to check this one out. Obviously, the story was just really preposterous but I thought it was entertaining enough and it kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. One of my fellow Listal friends compared this movie with Hitchcock's work in his review but that's a little bit exagerated... I mean, it is a fun piece of trash but that's it, nothing less but nothing more either and without Rutger Hauer who managed to get a lot from a very limited concept, I’m afraid the whole thing would have been pretty lame. To conclude, I thought it was a fun movie to watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I kept hearing some really good thing about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. First of all, it is thanks to this movie that Jeff Bridges' career really took off and it was just really neat to see him when he was much younger (and, apparently, already very talented). Basically, it is one of those movies during which nothing much really happen. In fact, nothing much is even told by the characters. I know, it doesn’t sound really exciting but, basically, it is way more nuanced than your usual flick and you had to carefully analyse the body language and the looks that the characters give to each other to really understand what's going on (I’m not sure I did but just to follow them was quite spellbinding). For Peter Bogdanovich, this movie was a huge breakthrough and, at the time, he was hailed as the next best thing but, even though he was quite productive in the 70’s, none of his other features managed to reach this level of awesomeness though. Anyway, to conclude, it is rather an acquired taste but I really liked it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.