Reviews by johanlefourbe

I'm pretty sure I already saw the damned thing but since it was probably more than 20 years ago, I was really eager to check it out again. However, I remember very well when it came out though. Indeed, my sister was really enthusiast about this movie and she was the one who actually made me discover Ang Lee.  Basically, way before ‘Brokeback Mountain’, Ang Lee directed this gem about gay love. Back then, obviously, nobody knew who was this director, myself included, but I was really impressed by this romantic-comedy. Thanks to this movie and its critical success, his career took off and he was then able to create all his following amazing features. The movie itself was obviously a comedy but a really sensitive one, it dealt very well with the subject and it was also really entertaining.  You can imagine that, with such a concept, they could have made one of these terribly lame comedies with some really stupid gay jokes. Eventually, Lee would direct one last one movie in Taiwan (the also really charming ‘Yin shi nan nu’) but he would quickly start a prolific international career becoming in the process easily one of the best directors of his generation. Coming back to our main feature, to conclude, even though this movie is nowadays pretty much forgotten, it is actually a really good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Ang Lee’s work. 

More than 20 years ago, I started to get really interested in movies and I started to discover the great classics. In this journey, one of my first discoveries would be Akira [Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see]n the 90’s, I have seen many of his movies and he has been ever since one of my favorite directors. Even though Kurosawa has been mostly famous for his samuraï movies (‘Rashomon’, ‘Ran’, ‘Kagemusha’, ‘Yojimbo’, ‘Shichinin no samurai’,…) , he also did direct a few contemporary features and this one was the best of the bunch in my opinion. Indeed, basically, it is a raw and realistic thriller and it was so spellbinding that, in its own sub- genre (abduction thriller), it is easily the best movie I have ever seen. It was actually a rather simple and straightforward tale with no shootings, no chases, no explosions, but it was still really spellbinding to behold. In my opinion, the masterstroke was to focus on the characters and what they were going through instead of the usual far-fetched gimmicks involved in this genre. Anyway, it was just a captivating story brought by an amazing cast and it shows that Kurosowa was a director with a very wide range. To conclude, I I really loved the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you're interested in Akira Kurosawa’s work.

I remember it very well, I actually saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released. Indeed, back then, I had never seen something similar before and I was quite blown away by the whole thing. First of all, I thought it was a really gorgeous movie and all the members of the cast gave some very good performances. Above all, I thought that the story was just fascinating. Indeed, by now, I have seen my share of samurai features but the whole homosexual angle was just so unexpected but also really refreshing. The only minor critic I might have is that the whole thing was rather sluggish towards the end but  that was something rather minor. By now, it is only the 3^rd movie directed by Oshima that I have seen so far (including also ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’ and ‘Ai no corrida’) and it’s too bad that I haven’t seen more movies from this Japanese master. Unfortunately, Oshima got a severe stroke in the 90’s, a stroke from which he never fully recovered and this movie would be his last directing effort. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was quite mesmerizing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Asian movies. 

I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick but since there was a pretty cool cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Indeed, with such a cast (Marlon Brando, Donald Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Thomas Haden Church, Mira Sorvino, Martin Sheen, David Arquette,...), there was definitely some potential to deliver something pretty neat but unfortunately, the end-result turned out to pretty disappointing, I’m afraid.  I mean, sure, there were , here and there a few good jokes but the whole thing was eventually rather lame. The saddest thing was to see the great Brando in yet another turkey. Indeed, after almost 10 years, he finally made a come-back with ‘A Dry White Season’ (which I still haven’t watched at this point) and, after this movie, he would make 7 other movies before passing away but almost all these movies turned out to be terribly weak. Indeed, this movie was probably the weakest one he made towards the end of his career, just behind ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ which was arguably the worst movie ever made by this great actor. Anyway, to conclude, this movie was really weak and I think you should just avoid it, even if you are a big fan of Brando’s work. 

Since this movie had some rather poor ratings, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since there was a pretty cool cast involved, I thought I might as well give it a try. Well, to be honest, I was actually positively surprised and I thought it was pretty good. Indeed, this movie was basically some typical hyperlink tale, mixing several tales making sure that all these tales are coming together at the end. Personally, I always had a weak spot for this genre and I thought that this story was rather intense and quite heartbreaking. As I mentioned, there is a very interesting cast ([Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see]Forest Whitaker, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Embeth Davidtz, Jackie Earle Haley, Jennifer Hudson, ...) and they all gave some good performances. In fact, concerning Kate Beckinsale, even though she has always been lovely to look at, she also always ends up in some rather underwhelming movies but this feature was definitely an exception. Concerning the director Rowan Woods, after ‘Little Fish’, it was another decent directing effort but, unfortunately, he would spend the rest of his career working on some rather obscure TV-shows. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie wasn’t really a masterpiece, I thought it was a decent drama and I think it is actually definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.