Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was really eager to check it out. Eventually, I turned out to be even better than expected and it is indeed a really unique and amazing animated feature. To be honest, I never had the opportunity to read the comic-book which sounds amazing as well but, apparently, it might be easier to appreciate this movie more if you haven’t read the book since they are so similar. Anyway, the story was just really interesting and sometimes actually quite heartbreaking. In spite all of this, they still managed to put some funny moments which was rather incredible, considering the rather dark topic. Eventually, it is also an incredibly valuable movie showing the life of Iran at the time. Basically, it was in fact a country which was fairly modern and progressive but fell into religious obscurantism after the general uprising against the Shah of Iran. The other interesting thing is that, when the main character got to Europe, she did enjoy the freedom there but she had actually a hard time to connect with the locals as they didn’t turn out to be so friendly at all. As a conclusion, even though the main character had a strong feeling for her home country, she still couldn’t accept the rules and values of this place but, after emigrating, she still felt alienated as well in this new place which is unfortunately the fate of many refugees. To conclude, I was really impressed by the damned thing, it is one of the very best animated features ever and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I always had a weak spot for the romantic-comedies, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, the main asset with this movie was its impressive cast. Eventually, it turned out to be fairly entertaining  with a few nice scenes. Still, to make a fiction out of a self-help book seemed to be a rather misguided idea, even if this book was apparently a best-seller, but I thin the whole thing actually had some potential. Eventually, the main issue was that there were just way too many story-lines and, as a result, none of them was actually properly developed. In my opinion, it would have worked much better if they would focused the whole thing on 2 or 3 stories. In fact, it is gimmick that they have been using a lot lately in rom-coms, which is basically to have a whole bunch of sub-plots loosely linked with each other (see ‘What to Expect When You're Expecting’ also based on some self-help book, ‘Valentine’s day’, ‘Mother’s Day’, ‘New Year’s Eve’, ‘Think Like a Man’, …). I think this trend actually started with ‘Love Actually’ which must probably be one of the most overrated romantic-comedies ever made. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Even though I didn't expect much from this flick, since I have a weak spot for Ray Liotta, I thought I should give it a try. At least, on the positive side, I must say it was pretty nice to see him doing something else than his usual psychos but, a part from that, I can't say I really enjoyed this movie though. Indeed, above all, the whole thing was just way too sentimental and predictable for me. I mean, they did try to develop an interracial love relationship and that's a noble cause but there was absolutely no depth concerning the characters and it made the whole thing rather tedious to watch. It’s too bad because the material was interesting but the serious lack of passion between these characters who were supposedly in love terribly hurt this picture. Concerning Whoopy Goldberg, it seems that she used to only show up in either some obnoxious comedies or some over-sentimental dramas like this one but, unsurprisingly, we don’t hear much from her anymore. Anyway, to conclude, I was kind of bored during the whole thing and I don’t think it is  really worth a look, except maybe if you want to see Ray Liotta doing something completely different than his usual stuff.