Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I'm not really sure why but I was really eager to check this movie. Indeed, I really wanted to like this flick. I don't know, the title was pretty awesome and the whole thing seemed at first full of promises. Unfortunately, the end-result was rather disappointing. Eventually, it is a typical Peter Hyams effort, as it is a just a B-movie with some very cheap special effects (apparently, the famous makeup artist Stan Winston was involved and while many praised his work in this movie, I was honestly not really impressed). Apparently, Hyams originally wanted Harrison Ford to play the lead character but there was no way Ford, especially at the time, would be in such a cheap half-baked horror flick so they got Tom Sizemore instead who was just happy to be the lead man for once. As usual with Peter Hyams, the whole thing actually started with a pretty cool concept but the guy doesn't seem to be able to do something really impressive with those interesting ideas. To conclude, I thought the whole thing was rather lame and I don't think it is worth a look but maybe if you love B-movies, you may end enjoying it more than I did, otherwise you'd better pass this one.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since I always had a weak spot for Glenn Close, I thought I might as well give it a try. The first installment was not bad but you can wonder if this sequel was actually really necessary (isn't it always the case?!?). Obviously, the first movie was nothing amazing whatsoever but its appeal was above all to see Glenn Close who was having a ball and she completely nailed this part . So, since she was such a success, they decided to move forward with another installement. On top of that, this time, you had also Gérard Depardieu but I honestly wondered what the hell he was actually doing here... I mean, the guy is pretty much the best French actor of the last 30 years and it would be great to see him work with some great directors in Hollywood (he did manage to work with Ridley Scott and Ang Lee though) but, most of the time, he ends up in such underwhelming features. Anyway, to conclude, it might be a nice flick for the (very) young kids but for everybody else, it is rather boring and I don't think it is really worth a look at all.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since I always had a weak spot for Glenn Close, I thought I might as well give it a try. Indeed, I thought it would be completely lame but I have to admit that there were in fact some good things in this flick. First of all, obviously, Glenn Close gave a rather impressive performance and she completely stole the show everytime she was on the screen. You could easily see that she was having a ball and she completely nailed this part. As a result, she was the main actraction and indeed, the focus was rather put on her than on the dogs. And that was the main issue with this movie, those dogs. Indeed, with the cartoon, thanks to the animation, they were full of expression and life and the makers were able to have some fun with hem. But here, they just look like, well, some dogs. Anyway, in this case, you have to keep in mind that there was definitely a target audience, the young children, and they will definitely like it more than I did. To conclude, I didn't really enjoy it and, if you're grown-up, I don't think it is really worth a look, however, I guess young kids would probably enjoy the damned thing.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast, I thought I might as well give it a try. Indeed, it is quite an obscure feature (I was only the 2nd listal member who had rated this feature) but I'm afraid it does deserve its reputation. There was an interesting cast (David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino, John Leguizamo, Ving Rhames, Forest Whitaker, Donnie Wahlberg, ...) but that's basically the only interesting thing this movie had to offer and it really failed to impress me in any way. Back then, I remember it very well, David Caruso was showing up here and there in some mildly interesting movies and it seemed that he was on the verge of breaking through. Eventually, in 2002, he was hired to play the main character in 'CSI: Miami', the only job he did in the following 10 years and he hasn't done anything else since it stopped in 2012. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, the story was not interesting enough, the directing was just pretty average and the whole thing was therefore really forgettable. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, I don't think it is really worth a look.

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Mel Gibson’s movies as a director but, I have to admit it, all the previous movies he had directed had been intriguing and I was quite eager to check his last directing effort. Well, I have to admit that I was actually seriously impressed by the damned thing. First of all, I don't know if it is historically accurate or not and, honestly, I don't really care. I mean, the fact that the actors were unknown and spoke an ancient language help to give you this feeling that it seemed to be genuine and accurate and that was good enough for me. Furthermore, I thought the movie really looked awesome and the story kept me fascinated until the very end. Even though I knew the main character would make it at the end, I kept asking myself HOW he was going save his ass eventually. The only small critic I would have is that you wonder how this guy who was heavily wounded, exhausted, probably starving, managed to run for hours in the jungle, escaping a whole squad of warriors in perfect shape but that was definitely not a big issue. So, if you expect a documentary about the Maya civilization, it will probably let you down but if you expect an awesome action/thriller, I swear you won't be disappointed. In my opinion, it is easily Mel Gibson's best director effort and it is definitely worth a look.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since I kept hearing some good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. In fact the funny thing I gathered before watching it is that most of the viewers actually really love it or either find it rather lame and there is not many people in between. So, I was curious to see it and make my own judgment. After watching the damned thing, I can see why some people are crazy about it. I mean, Gerard Butler (probably the only romantic feature he has made so far which is actually worth a look) and Hilary Swank were both pretty good and they gave some decent performances. Obviously, the story had some nice romantic moments but, to be honest, was it enough to make it a really great movie ? I don't think so. Seriously, at the end of the day, I'll give you that, the whole concept was maybe romantic but it was also really far-fetched and, in spite of its qualities, the whole thing remained a rather predictable romantic picture filled with clichés. However, even though I wasn't really sold, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since Sam Peckinpah is a very interesting director, I was really eager to check it out. When I think of Sam Peckinpah, I always think of 'The Wild Bunch' so it was rather interesting to see a WWII flick directed by him, for a change. To my surprise, I thought it was actually really good and I even think I enjoyed it more than 'The Wild Bunch' which is considered as Peckinpah's seminal classic. Indeed, it is a rather underrated war movie and, in my opinion, it is basically what 'Inglourious basterds' should have looked like: less talk and more badass action. Basically, as expected with Peckinpah, the tone was really dark and gloomy and it was really interesting to see the point of the view of the Germans for a change. On top of that, even though it is basically an action flick , it still managed to show how merciless war can be and the effects it has on the soldiers. To conclude, even though it doesn't get much credit, it is a rather dark but still pretty fascinating picture and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Sam Peckinpah's work.

For many years, I was really eager to check this flick but since it is pretty obscure, the opportunity didn’t arise. However, some day, out of nowhere, it was broadcasted on TV so I still ended up watching the damned thing which was really cool. Indeed, back in the 60's-70's, Costa-Gavras was one of the most highly regarded directors in the world and even though he is nowadays pretty much forgotten, he actually keeps making some movies. This picture was one of his last efforts and even though it didn’t reach the level of his masterpieces like ‘Z’ for example, I still really enjoyed it. Basically, it is something really light and it's a pitch black comedy dealing with your current economic situation. To be honest, very often, I find most of the comedies rather underwhelming because they are just plain stupid but I thought that this one was really sharp and rather well done. Eventually, it was still missing something to become really amazing, maybe it was still too light for my taste. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is not really a great movie, it is still a solid comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Costa-Gavras’s work.

To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick. Indeed, even I thought that the first installment really had some potential with a nice concept, I thought it was rather disappointing. This time, with this sequel, I thought was not really better or worse than the first movie. Basically, it follows the same lines: cool action scenes + shallow plot. Obviously, it is not really my kind of thing but it remains watchable and it was fairly entertaining. Back then, I wasn’t really fed up with Jason Statham constantly playing over and over again the same character (the guy definitely needs to try something else by now) and he was definitely bad-ass in this flick. I thought that Kate Nauta was also a pretty neat villain but she didn’t do much after this movie which is too bad. Unsurprisingly, they would eventually come up with a 3rd installment and it was just as forgettable as the other movies in this franchise. To conclude, even though I didn’t care much for the whole thing, I have to admit that it was still a decent action flick and if you loved the first one or any action movies in general, you may end up enjoying it more than I did.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I heard a lot of good things about it, I was quite  eager to check it out. First of all, I really loved the introduction. The tone was perfect, Jason Statham was really bad-ass and it was an impressive and very well shot action scene (since it is a Besson production, it wasn’t really surprising). But then, unfortunately, it was the only scene that really impressed me... I mean, the rest of the movie was not bad and fairly entertaining, but honestly, I thought  it was just some generic action stuff which I have already seen 1000 times before. Sure, it was well done but, in my opinion, it was not really exciting and, as a matter of fact, almost boring. It is quite a pity because the whole thing definitely had some potential but, as usual with Luc Besson, they didn’t care much about the story or the concept and just wanted to show some bad-ass action scenes. To conclude, even though it is a decent flick, it is nothing really special but you may end up enjoying it more than I did if you are a huge action movies fan.