Reviews by johanlefourbe

Around 2005-2006, they released 2 movies about Truman Capote. One was ‘Capote’  which turned out to be a massive critical success and this was the other movie but it was barely noticed when it was released. Well, to be honest, even though it was a decent watch, it was indeed not as good as ‘Capote’ . Still, it doesn’t mean that it was a bad movie. Indeed, for example,  the cast  was pretty neat (Sigourney Weaver, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sandra Bullock, Isabella Rossellini, Jeff Daniels, Daniel Craig). Furthermore, the directing was solid as well. However, I didn’t care much for the abrupt change of tone. Indeed, at some point, the whole thing was rather funny and then, suddenly, it would become rather bleek and then funny again. The best scene to describe this movie would be actually the very first one. Indeed, it looked quite gorgeous, the acting was fine fine but what on earth did it have to do with the rest of the movie?!? Pretty much nothing, I’m afraid. Also, the ‘interviews’ were a weak idea and it gave the whole thing a bad fake documentary feeling. To conclude, it was not a great picture but it remains a fascinating story so I think it is still definitely worth a look.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since it was on the list ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I have to admit it, even though I have some huge respect for their legacy, I have actually never been a big fan of the Beattles and I never really cared for their music. Still, even so , I thought it was actually a rather enjoyable feature. To be honest, I wasn't really able to follow the whole thing as it was in English without subtitles and the accents were sometimes rather thick but, obviously, this movie was not really about the plot or the dialogues either. At the time, it was a surprising box-office hit and many bands tried later on to release some similar movies like this one but most of them were some massive flops (the worse one being probably ‘Spice World’). Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie didn’t seem to be something for me, I thought it was actually pretty cool and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are a fan of the most famous band that ever existed. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was really eager to check it out. By now, I have seen several movies dealing with Alzheimer disease, the most famous one being probably ‘The Notebook’ but even though ‘The Notebook’ was a decent romantic feature,  it gave an almost cute view on this disease (on the other hand, would you expect anything else from a book written by Nicholas Sparks?). This movie however was anything but cute and it is easily the best feature I have seen about this subject. Indeed, even though it was her directing debut,  Sarah Polley did a fine job here, the acting by both leads was just amazing and the story was simply quite heartbreaking. 5 years later, Sarah Polley would finally deliver a new directing effort, ‘Take This Waltz’ , but it barely got noticed when it was released and, to be honest, even though it was a decent watch, it was a big step-down from this very impressive directing debut. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, even though it was really not a cheerfull picture, I thought it was a really strong drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Following the amazing ‘The Proposition’, many of us were anxiously waiting for a next directing effort coming from John Hillcoat. Eventually, after 4 long years, the guy was finally coming up with a new project which was a really high profile adaptation of a classic book written by Cormac McCarthy so the expectations were huge and there was a big buzz about the movie before its release. Well, eventually, even though it was fairly well received when it came out, it didn’t turn to be such a huge a critical success after all. Personally, I really loved the mood though. Indeed, it must be the most grim and realistic apocalyptic movie I have ever seen. On top of that, Viggo Mortensen delivered, once again, a very strong performance and the directing was solid as well. Eventually, the only really issue was that, while the story was fairly entertaining, it was actually the weakest point in this movie. Indeed, even though the book was apparently quite amazing (I haven’t read it though), there was nothing really ground-breaking about the story told in this movie, I’m afraid. Above all, I thought that the end didn't make much sense to me. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t completely blow me away, it was still a good movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though I didn’t have such huge expections before watching the damned thing, I was still rather disappointed by this movie. Basically, they tried to deliver a quirky modern romantic-comedy with a fairy tale vibe but even though it was rather well made and even though there was a really nice cast  involved (Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Reese Witherspoon, Russell Brand, Nick Frost,...), I still had a really had a hard time to really care about the damned thing, I’m afraid. First of all, the whole plot was just really predictable (which shouldn't be really a problem) and above all seriously dull (which was definitely a big issue). Like I said, it was basically some kind of modern fairy tale and, obviously, it was not really my kind of thing at all but if the concept sounds appealing to you, you might actually end up enjoy it more than I did. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was actually pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a nice cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I have to admit that I had never heard about the Russian resistance before, so, only for this,  it was already  a really interesting movie. On top of that, I thought that the story was just really impressive. Of course, I have to admit it, the whole thing was nothing really original, it was actually full of clichés but I thought it was a well made picture, always entertaining and sometimes ever rather emotional. Concerning Daniel Craig, even though I’m glad that the James Bond gig gave him some worldwide recognition, it seems that his other roles didn’t get much deserved attention which is too bad. Anyway, I thought he was really good in this movie and Liev Schreiber gave also another really strong performance. Concerning Edward Zwick, I always had a hard time to really care about the work of this director but this movie must be, after ‘The Siege’, his most underrated one. To conclude, even though it was maybe not a masterpiece, I thought it was still a really solid historical drama and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I always thought that the damned thing looked really lame but I thought I should give it a try anyway. Well, I have to admit it, even though I didn’t care much about the damned thing, I turned out to be much better than I expected. First of all, after ‘The Terminator’ but before ‘Aliens’, James Cameron did write the screenplay for this movie but it was apparently vastly changed by Sylvester Stallone afterwards. Anyway,  it was basically a brainless action movie which was too bad because the first instalment was actually rather thoughtful. Still, I have to admit that the damned thing was sometimes quite entertaining, at least  for the most part of it. What really bugged me was that even though Stallone was pretty badass, I thought that his acting was seriously below average. Above all, I thought that the ending was just really cringe-inducing to behold.  Indeed, it was much too patriotic for my taste and it kind of ruined the whole thing for me. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t really work for me, if you love this kind of big cheesy action movies from the 80’s, you may end up enjoying this one.