Reviews by johanlefourbe

This is the very first flick directed by John McTiernan, it was the main reason why I wanted to watch this and it took me a few years to finally get my hands on it. Eventually, even though it is a really obscure flick (only a handful of users in Listal have seen it apparently), there were many things to enjoy in this movie. Indeed, the mood was pretty good, Pierce Brosnan was rather convincing and there was something quite fascinating about this concept of modern urban nomads. To be honest, I thought it was not bad at all but still nothing really amazing though. Indeed, it felt like a typical directing debut, full of interesting ideas but still really rough on the edges. A year later, McTiernan would make 'Predator', followed quickly by 'Die Hard' and 'The Hunt for Red October', all 3 movies characterized by some really focused and effective directing so you could argue that this 1st feature was some kind of warm-up for this director . To conclude, in spite of its flaw, I still think it is an interesting feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you wonder how McTiernan started his career.

Honestly, since it is a really obscure feature, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it but since Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone were involved, I thought I might as well give it a try. Indeed, in my opinion, Carlyle and Winstone are both some reliable actors (even though it has been quite a while since I have seen anything really amazing starring Robert Carlyle) and they usually deliver some good performances. For this movie, they did a good job as well. Obviously, it remains a rather standard familly feature but thanks to those guys, it became much more enjoyable. Furthermore, it is basically a rather small production without any pretention and, as many British comedies, there is a rather depressing barren social background but I enjoyed the fact that the makers didn’t pretend that they were telling a life-changing tale. Indeed, it is a simple story about some genuine people and if you like football, or even English football, it is actually quite entertaining. To conclude, it is nothing really great or original, but I still think it is worth a look, especially if you have some young children and you want to watch something which doesn't completely bore you to death.

I have seen this a very long time ago on a French channel if I recall correctly but I thought it was pretty good. I’m pretty sure nobody outside France has heard about Jacques Perrin but the guy developed a solid reputation in his home country. His career is actually quite interesting as he started first as an actor in the 60’s with some moderate success but, suddenly, in the 80’s, he completely shifted gears and he became producer above all for animal documentaries. I think this one was the first he made and, later, he would also produced ‘Le Peuple Migrateur’ and above all ‘Microcomos’, one of the most amazing documentaries I have ever seen. Coming back to our main feature, even though it was not as amazing as ‘Microcomos’, it already used the same template which was shooting some amazing animal footage without adding some comments or narration which has always been a great approach in my opinion. As a result, you get a very interesting documentary about apes without any intrusive comments and it was actually rather fascinating. To conclude, even though it is a really obscure flick, it is actually a pretty good documentary and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Eve since I have seen ‘Exotica', I have been following Atom Egoyan’s career and, therefore, I was really eager to check this movie. It seems that Egoyan is a pretty forgotten director but he made some very interesting flicks in the 90's. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, even though this movie might not to be among his best work, there was still some quality about it. Indeed, I really loved the mood and the way it was directed. On top of that, Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth both delivered some good perfomances as well. On the other hand, I'm not so sure if Alison Lohman was the best actress for this part. I mean, she is quite talented (it is really too bad that she seems pretty much retired at only 35 years old) and very charming but she just looked so young and maybe someone more mature would have been better for this character. Furthermore, even though the story was rather spellbinding at first, later on, it kind of lost focus at some point and that was too bad. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it is actually a decent flick and it think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Scarlett Johansson, I thought I might as well give it a try. Basically, it is one of her most obscure feature but I though it looked pretty good and the directing was decent. On top of that, Scarlett Johansson has always been a charismatic and rather talented actress. However, even though it was based on a play written by the great Oscar Wilde so you could expect something smart, witty and fun, I thought the whole thing was actually rather dull and I never really cared about the story or the characters so I can't say I really enjoyed it. I was actually surprised to discover that this flick was already the fourth screen version of this play and I really wonder what was so great about this story that required some many adaptations. On the other hand, maybe I just got unlucky and watched one of the weaker versions. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, it remains a decent periode drama and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I had never heard of this flick before and I had no idea what to expect but since it was starring Steve McQueen , I thought I should check it out. At the time, McQueen was the new rising star in Hollywood after he completely stole the show from Yul Brynner in ‘The Maginicent Seven’. Indeed, it is actually funny, when you watch this classic you expect McQueen to be the big star but he was actually barely known at the time and, in fact, Yul Brynner was playing the main character but, eventually, the actor who got most of the attention was McQueen when he was in fact playing a supporting character. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it is actually a pretty osbcure flick and, like I said before, I watched it because there was Steve McQueen in it and this time, he was definitely playing the lead. To be honest, McQueen always played basically the same part and there was no exception here but they guy was just really cool as usual but, a part from him, I was kind of bored during the whole thing. Still, to conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

The other day, I noticed something funny. Indeed, even though I always considered Roger Moore the weakest James Bond, or at least, the least interesting one, I came to realize that I actually didn't really dislike any James Bond installments involving this guy (on the other hand, none of them are among my favorites either). Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it is basically a typical James Bond flick with the usual gadgets and tricks. Roger Moore delivered a decent performance, even though, like I mentioned before, he is definitely not my favorite James Bond (Sean Connery will always be the only one). Anyway, you either love those flicks or not and, at the time, this franchise was highly popular, probably at one of its highest points. There was one thing that I really enjoyed about this flick and that was Barbara Bach. I mean, sure, you definitely don't need the greatest acting skills to be a Bond girl but I think that there was something quite mesmerizing about this actress, too bad her career never really took off afterwards (eventually, she would be mostly remembered as being Ringo Starr's wife). To conclude, even though I'm not a huge fan of this franchise, it was still is rather entertaining and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Obviously, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but, somehow, I still ended up watching it, mostly because I have a weak spot for Elisha Cuthbert. Actually, to my own surprise, I thought it was actually not that bad after all. I mean, let me put it this way... Before watching this, I thought it would be completely terrible but eventually, even though it was indeed nothing impressive, I thought it was still rather watchable. Furthermore, I didn't really get the fuss about Paris Hilton. Sure, in real life, she seems really obnoxious but in this movie, I thought she was actually alright. I mean, come on, you don't need to be Meryl Streep to be in a slasher movie and I thought she did what was expected from her character, no more, no less. A part from that, I kind of liked the whole wax concept towards the end and there were some rather visually impressive scenes during this climax. To conclude, of course, it remains a rather average movie but I don't think it is as bad as everyone is saying and if you love slasher movies, there is even a chance you may end up actually enjoying it.

Honestly, I never really cared for Roger Corman’s work and I basically saw this movie because there was Jack Nicholson in it. Back then, Nicholson was really at the beginning of his career and he was pretty much unknown at the time but I thought that he delivered a decent performance. Another neat thing about this flick is that apparently a very young Francis Ford Coppola did some uncredited directing here (indeed, even though Roger Corman did shot most of the scenes in 4 days, the second-unit work was filmed over a nine month period by five different directors, Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Jakob, Monte Hellman, Jack Hill and even Jack Nicholson himself). Furthermore, I think it was the first film I saw starring Boris Karloff. Unfortunately, like I said before, I'm not really a big fan of those Corman productions. I mean, sure, those movies have some charms and it wasn't bad at all but I can't say I really loved it though. Basically, Corman would shot a lot within a couple of days for a couple of bucks, hoping for the best, and fixing the whole thing in the editing room. Still, even though it was nothing amazing, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you wonder how Jack Nicholson started his career.