Reviews by johanlefourbe

Basically, there was a time when I would go to a video game shop (which is now closed) and I would buy there on a regular basis 5 DVDs for 5 euros and, sometimes, since I would be missing 1 DVD, I would pick up pretty much anything at random just to reach 5 movies. Anyway, following this amazing process, I ended up watching some rather obscure movies and this one was definitely one of them. Well, I wasn't expecting much from this movie but since my wife has a weak spot for thrillers, we ended up watching this one together but the end-result was rather pathetic. Was there actually anything any good in this flick ?!? Not really... Indeed, the story was bad,  the directing was really weak and the acting was not really better, I’m afraid. Should I add something else? Concerning Dominique Swain, she made a interesting debut with ‘Face/Off’ and ‘Lolita’, both released the same year but, even though she has been steadily working ever since, most of her movies have been such obscure and underwhelming direct-to-DVD garbage. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, the whole thing was a total waste of time and it should be avoided at all costs.

Before watching this movie, I wasn't expecting much but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Unfortunately, even with those low expectations, after 5 minutes, I was already bored to death by the whole thing. Indeed, it was actually a very lame and rather stupid concept (the ending made eventually the whole thing even worse.... I mean, you are supposed to believe that Jennifer Love Hewitt who became a music executive, had actually a crush on the band when she was a kid and that's the only reason why she deciced to promote this band??! It was seriously really too far-fetched for me, sorry...) . Concerning Jennifer Love Hewitt, after 20 years in the business, I think we can all agree that she is one of the cutest girls around (she seems to look even better as she gets older) but I have noticed that most of the her movies are usually such obscure and really lame productions. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, the only redeeming feature was probably Ben Stiller who was pretty funny but he was there only for 5 minutes. It was also rather neat to see Will Ferrell before he became famous. Still, a part from that, it was a really average comedy and it is not really worth a look, I'm afraid.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Kevin Costner, I thought I might as well check it out. Unfortunately, the whole thing turned out to be a major disappointment. Indeed, I'm actually a real sucker for movies dealing with politics and I do think that this movie actually had some potential. Unfortunately, the topic was just poorly developed and this movie was just plain average. First of all, I'm really annoyed by those movies where the parent is supposed to be some kind of complete moron but, somehow,  their kid turns out to be a real genius.. Seriously, it is just a really tedious and unrealistic gimmick. In this case, it was even more annoying as this supposedly stupid father was played by Kevin Costner. Indeed I like this actor, he is a really charming actor but that was exactly the issue here. Indeed, the guy was just way too damned charming to play this part. Eventually, I would have worked better with someone like Billy Bob Thornton playing his usual despicable SOB performance. Anyway, even if you would put this aside, the story was still pretty weak. To conclude, the whole thing felt like a missed opportunity and, eventually, I don’t think it is really worth a look.

It seems hard to believe that, not so long ago, Matthew McConaughey was mostly focusing his career on such movies. I mean, at least, you have to admit it, at first, this movie didn’t sound like a really bad idea. Indeed, Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson already worked together for ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ which was arguably McConaughey’s most watchable romantic-comedy. Unfortunately, even though it could have been something, the whole thing turned out to be just plain average. Basically, the main problem with this movie is that its main selling point was to have Kate Hudson in bikini and Matthew McConaughey shirtless through most of the running time. I mean, sure, they both looked fine but it was certainly not enough and the story and the jokes were just really weak. It’s too bad because such movies dealing treasure hunting can be a lot of fun but this one didn’t have much to offer, I’m afraid. Eventually, 3 years later, McConaughey would make an unexpected come-back with ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ but we are waiting still for something really impressive from Kate Hudson. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, the whole thing was a rather shameless cash grab and even though I have seen worse, I don’t think it is really worth a look at all. 

When was the last time that Will Ferrell has released a successful comedy? I think it must have been ‘The Other Guys’ but even this movie actually turned out to be seriously disappointing, at least, as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, there was a point in his career that Will Ferrell made some kind of sports trilogy and, following ‘Talladega Nights’ and ‘Blades of Glory’, this would be his last sports-related comedy. Obviously, it was a basically one of those typical sport movies and it was really predictable. Indeed, the whole thing was about  a team of losers but after following some supposedly miraculous training, they became suddenly awesome winning all their games in the process. Anyway, it all depends if you can stand Will Ferrell or not. In my case, even though he can be pretty annoying, I think he is sometimes funny, at least he was back in those days. Furthermore, the supporting cast was pretty neat here (Woody Harrelson, André Benjamin, Maura Tierney, Will Arnett, Jackie Earle Haley, Jason Sudeikis, Kristen Wiig). To conclude, even though it might not be considered as one of the best comedies ever delivered by Will Ferrell, I thought it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.