Reviews by johanlefourbe

Honestly, I had some rather low expectations concerning this movie but since I always had a weak spot for Guy Pearce, I was quite eager to check it out. I remember reading the book when I was a kid and, at the time, I thought it was indeed pretty awesome. Of course, the movie was definitely not as good as the book but I thought it was still quite watchable. Back in the days, after doing the awesome 'Memento' which is in fact my all-time favorite movie, Guy Pearce was pretty hot and they gave him the opportunity to star in a big budget extravanganza but, unfortunately for him, it didn't work out very well. Furthermore, I thought that Jeremy Irons, who is pretty much like Pearce one of the most underrated actors at work nowadays, looked pretty cool but the other Morloks were definitely not convincing enough. At the end of the day, it was basically a B adaptation but since the story is actually pretty cheesy, I’m not so sure that they could have done much better with this material. Anyway, to conclude, it is not a masterpiece whatsoever but if you don´t expect too much before watching it, you may end up enjoying it after all.

I have noticed that this movie has created some rather mixed reactions. Indeed, if you check the reviews on this website, half of the people are praising it and the other half think it was one of the worst thing that they had ever seen. After watching the damned thing, I was actually rather surprised by the low ratings on IMDB and Listal. Indeed, I thought it was actually a really solid movie. Of course, there was nothing much going on but that was exactly the point here and if you expected some explosions, cool special effects or awesome car chases, you should definitely watch something else. Basically, it is one of those movies where they don't really show you what is actually scary but you can read it on the faces of the leads then you have to try to put yourself in their shoes and, then, you think "Oh! my God! This is f*cking frightening!!!!". I have to admit though that the whole concept was too limited to make the whole thing really remarkable but, nonetheless, I thought it worked very well anyway. To conclude, even though I don’t think it is really a masterpiece, I thought it was a really original and efficient thriller and it is definitely worth a look.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, somehow, I still ended up watching it. As usual, Jason Biggs was basically playing the same character he plays in all his movies and he did quite well but, at this point, it is getting rapidly annoying to see him playing Jim Levenstein over and over again. Concerning Isla Fisher, this actress has just so much charm and talent, you wonder why she wastes her time in such average flicks... By now, I have seen more than half of her movies and most of them were rather underhwelming. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, the premise could have been interesting but it is just some bad excuse for some lame jokes. Basically, it is above a quirky couple going through some whimsical romantic adventure meeting some other quirky characters in the process but, unfortunately, most of those characters were in fact more obnoxious than funny. Concerning the director, Michael Ian Black, I had never heard of the guy before, he is mostly famous as a stand-up comedian but he never directed anything else after this misfire. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, I thought the whole thing was pretty lame and I think you should pretty much avoid it.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, somehow, I still ended up watching it. As usual, Jason Biggs was basically playing the same character he plays in all his movies and he did quite well but, at this point, it is getting rapidly annoying to see him playing Jim Levenstein over and over again. Concerning Isla Fisher, this actress has just so much charm and talent, you wonder why she wastes her time in such average flicks... By now, I have seen more than half of her movies and most of them were rather underhwelming. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, the premise could have been interesting but it is just some bad excuse for some lame jokes. Basically, it is above a quirky couple going through some whimsical romantic adventure meeting some other quirky characters in the process but, unfortunately, most of those characters were in fact more obnoxious than funny. Concerning the director, Michael Ian Black, I had never heard of the guy before, he is mostly famous as a stand-up comedian but he never directed anything else after this misfire. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, I thought the whole thing was pretty lame and I think you should pretty much avoid it.

Since this movie had a pretty strong rating (7.2 on Imdb), I was expecting it to be a really strong action feature. Eventually, to be honest, I thought it was rather disappointing. I mean, sure, it was not bad and the whole thing was actually rather well done (Antoine Fuqua might not be one of the greatest filmmakers ever but he is usually delivers in the goods, especially in the action genre) but there was seriously nothing original about it. Indeed, basically all the elements involved in this movie (story, characters, shots, actions scenes,...) have been borrowed here and there. On top of that, I guess I’m still missing the interesting Mark Wahlberg from ‘Boogie Nights’, we just got a glimpse of this actor in this movie but I found him there 10 times more interesting and convincing than as a lethal sniper. Eventually, the only thing that left an impression was to see the lovely Kate Mara even though her scene in her underwear was rather gratuitous. To conclude, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you love action movies but it is also completely forgettable.

After a ridiculous 6 years, Katie Holmes decided to divorce Tom Cruise and you wonder if the damaged done to her career might ever be recovered. Indeed, before becoming a circus show with her now ex-husband Tom Cruise, I believe that Katie Holmes was one of the most promising actresses around and this movie was a fine example. Basically, it was just a small movie, on eof these typical quirky indie features, but I thought that the story was nice, the directing was decent and all actors involved, including Katie Holmes, gave some solid perfomances. Indeed, the issue with many movies in this genre is that, even though the characters are supposed to be funny and/or whimsical, they sometimes end up being rather obnoxious but it wasn't the case here. Concerning the director Peter Hedges, I thought it was a solid directing effort and, a few laters, he stept up his game with ‘Dan in Real Life’, a feature similar in tone but definitely more ambitious. Eventually, ‘Dan in Real Life’ was not bad either but I still preferred his first directing effort. Anyway, to conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, I thought it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, it is quite an obscure flick and I wonder how I actually ended up watching the damned thing. On top of that, with such a lame title, this movie already had a massive disadvantage before I even started watching the damned thing. Anyway, at the end of the day, it was basically one of those typical 80's movies with a lot of cheese on the top of it. I have to admit it though, the concept was actually interesting and there was definitely some potential but the end-product was just too average for me. Furthemore, I think that Anthony Edwards was just not charismatic enough to be the lead and maybe the whole thing was just too cheesy for me... Still, I always thought that Linda Fiorentino was a fascinating actress (such a shame that she is pretty much retired nowadays), I’m pretty sure she was the main reason I watched this flick and, in the contrary to Edwards, she was just perfect for her role as she was basically born to play such femme fatales. To conclude, even though the whole thing was rather half-baked, somehow, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick (was it a really cool or actually lame title? I’m still not sure…) but since I always had a weak spot for Angela Bassett, I thought I might as well give it a try. Anyway, I have to admit that it was not bad at all after all. Indeed, in my opinion, both leads had enough chemistry and I was really able to believe that such a relationship could exist, with his positive and negative aspects. In fact, I would go as far as saying that it was one of the more convincing movies dealing with a relationship between an older woman and a younger man. Unfortunately, there were also some few annoying scenes. For example, why on Earth did Whoopy Goldberg's character had to die?!? I thought it was really lame and it seemed a real artificial way to create some unecessary drama. On a side note, this movie was actually based on a book written by Terry McMillan who had similar experience as Stella. However, even though she did marry a young Jamaican in his 20’s while she was in her 40’s , he turned out to be gay and they eventually divorced. Anyway, to conclude, it is not a great picture whatsoever but I still think it is still worth a look though.

Even though the more recent 'American Sniper' was a huge box-office success and, therefore, so far, the most popular movie about the war in Irak, in my opinion, this movie is actually the best one about this subject. In fact, back then, even though this movie was heralded by the critics, it was actually completely ignored by the audience but, somehow, almost a full year after its release, it still managed to end up winning the Best Picture Academy award. Anyway, even though I didn't care much for  'American Sniper' which was in my opinion actually seriously overrated, this movie was just really fascinating and I was on the edge of my seat during most of the duration. Indeed, I thought it was so much interesting to see a guy risking his life trying to prevent people from getting killed, including himself, instead of the usual soldiers ending killing a whole bunch of people for some usually rather dubious reasons. Furthermore, the directing was also very good and all the actors involved (especially Jeremy Renner in a star making performance) gave some really strong performances. To conclude, even if it turned out to be the lowest grossing Best Picture winner ever, I really liked the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I can’t believe I haven’t seen any movies directed by Akira Kurosawa for such a long time. A few years ago, I was doing a good job and ended up watching 13 of his movies but, by now, it has been almost 10 years since I saw another one of his movies. It is a real shame but maybe I will pick it up again later on. Anyway, this flick is probably not one of his most famous ones but I really loved it. As a matter of fact, this is the oldest movie directed by Akira Kurosawa that I have seen and, at the time when it was released, he was not yet really famous abroad (with no internet, it wasn’t really easy to reach a wide audience so rapidly as today) but it definitely changed with ‘Rashomon’ which would be released a year later and Kurosawa became suddenly overnight one of the most highly regarded directors in the world. Coming back to our main feature, it is a rather simple story but thanks to Kurosawa’s efficient directing and Toshiro Mifune’s fine performance, it was really a fascinating film noir. To conclude, it is a simple tale but masterly told and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Kurosawa’s work.