Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but I still ended up watching the damned thing. First of all, I have to point out that I actually have nothing against sport movies in general but this one was just very average. Basically, the main issue was that Goldie Hawn was completely unbelievable as a football coach. I know, it is a comedy and it shouldn't be taken too seriously but, still, it just didn't work for me. On a positive note, it was pretty funny to see Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snipes and LL Cool J who were all giving their 1st part in this somewhat forgettable flick. Anyway, a part from that, there was not much to enjoy for me here as I have seen way too many similar movies before and this flick had really nothing new to offer about this genre. To conclude, I have to admit, it is not really bad and I have seen worse movies but it was still pretty damned average and I don’t think it is really worth a look in my opinion but, I guess, if you're a huge fan of this genre, you may end up enjoying it more than I did.

Obviously, since it was yet another obscure flick from the 90’s starring Charlie Sheen, I wasn’t expecting much but I still ended up watching the damned thing. I have to admit it, I thought it was actually a really cool title and, on top of that, I always had a weak spot for Nastassja Kinski so I was actually slightly curious about the damned thing. Apparently, it was a flop when it was released but, after watching it, I can’t say it actually deserved better. Seriously, it is difficult to believe that, at some point, Tom Cruise and Michael Douglas were actually considered to play the lead. Anyway, this movie had not really much to do with its neat title and the whole thing was pretty much a very average and rather forgettable action flick. Concerning Nastassja Kinski, ever since I saw her in ‘Paris, Texas’, I always thought that she was mesmerizing but, to be honest, except for this amazing classic, she hasn’t done anything really amazing during the rest of her career. To conclude, I have seen worse but it was still rather weak and underwhelming, I don’t think it it is really worth a look and you should watch it only if you have really nothing else to do.

Since I kept hearing some great things about this movie (it was even on the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list at some point but it has been removed in a later edition), I was really eager to check this flick and I had some rather high expectations. Eventually, I thought it was pretty good but, somehow, I still had some mixed feelings about the whole thing. Still, there was some really good stuff. For example, you get to see the monster almost right away which is quite unusual. The directing was also pretty good too. I don’t know, maybe, the problem was the fact that they tried to seamlessly combine a monster movie, a comedy and a drama. I mean, it was definitely a bold move and I have a lot of respect for the makers for at least trying something else but, as a result, it was a rather weird and interesting watch but it wasn’t exactly a home run, at least, not for me. To conclude, even though I don’t think I is really a masterpiece, it was still a solid and original feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Asian cinema.

At some point, at the beginning of the 2000’s, for 5 long years, Michelle Pfeiffer didn’t make any movie which was quite a pity. Anyway, in 2007, she finally made a come-back with this movie which was unfortunately released straight to DVD. Basically, it is a rather obscure movie but, in my opinion, it actually had some potential to be a good romantic comedy. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for such love stories involving a younger man with an older woman since my wife is 10 years old than me and I thought that the characters and their feelings were rather accurate. On top of that, I though that Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd had some nice chemistry together. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else was rather underwhelming and, eventually, it was not bad but still pretty forgettable. The main issue is that, as usual with this kind of stories, they make a whole fuss that such relationships are always doomed which is completely stupid and rather annoying. Still, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I actually had a weak spot for the whole thing and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

First of all, I'm not a big fan of those old Westerns but, on the other hand, I haven’t seen many of them so maybe I just missed the better ones. Anyway, I’m not sure if this one is actually a classic but it definitely had a prestigious director (John Ford) and 2 great actors (John Wayne and Henry Fonda) so I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I have never really understood the appeal of John Wayne but, I have to admit it, I have seen only a handful of his movies so far. On the other hand, even though I have seen just as many movies starring Henry Fonda, right from the start, I always thought he was quite fascinating and he was pretty good in this movie. It was also rather funny to see Shirley Temple all grown-up and, even though at 20 years old, she was still quite charming but, apparently, she never managed to be really successful as an adult. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I thought it was rather well made and fairly entertaining but, to be honest, I forgot most of it the very next day. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it is still worth a look, especially if you like this genre.

Since this movie is quite a classic, I was really eager to check it out and I had some rather high expectations. To be honest, I thought it would be better than this but still, it remains a damned good picture nonetheless. There was an impressive cast (John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Rod Steiger, Bourvil, Robert Wagner, Paul Anka) and even though there were some critics that many of those actors were actually too old to portray their characters (For example, at 54 years old, John Wayne was actually twice older than Col. Benjamin Vandervoort actually was) , they were all pretty good and the story was interesting enough. I don’t know, 40 years later, Steven Spielberg made ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and even though I think this movie was vastly overrated, I have to admit that its introduction, its depiction of the D day, was just unforgettable and it was probably one of the most impressive scenes I ever saw and, compared to this, ‘The Longest Day’ is a solid feature but not as mind-blowing as this sequence. To conclude, I still think it is a fine WWII feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

This was so bad... Beforehand, I had some very low expectations but since I have a weak spot for Shannyn Sossamon, I thought I should give it a try anyway. Eventually, the movie was a complete waste of time... First of all, Shannyn Sossamon has a very small part so you shouldn't watch it just for her. It was also sad to see Carrie Fisher showing up in such a bad movie. I mean, I don't think she was/is a great actress but she definitely didn't deserve this.... Concerning Steven Strait, if you have never heard of the guy before, that's not really surprising, I have seen the 4 first movies he made ('10,000 BC', 'The Covenant', 'Undiscovered', 'Sky High') and they were all pretty bad. Ok, the guy looks charming but, honestly, he is at best an average actor and I'm being nice here. Concerning Pell James, that's another story. You have probably never heard of her either but she is actually a rather talented actress. I mean, the same year, she showed up in 'The King', she was pretty impressive in this movie and it is so depressing to seeing her showing up afterwards in such a bad flick... Basically, it is one of those unoriginal and uninspired flick dealing with with a struggling musician. In its genre, it's probably one of the worst I have seen. Just avoid it...

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, somehow, I still ended up watching the damned thing. I don’t know if you have noticed but I’m clearly obsessed about my movie watching and, sometimes, I end up watching some really obscure features just because there is 1 or 2 actors I like that are involved. In this case, I think I watched this flick just because there was Jada Pinkett Smith in it. Eventually, I thought she was indeed pretty good, she pretty much stole the show every time she was one the screen but everything else was just pretty lame. By the way, I have noticed something weird about this flick. Indeed, in some posters and some of the stills, you see Keenen Ivory Wayans with his hair completely shaven and a big earring and on some other posters and stills, his hair is back and the earring is gone. Did he actually change his appearance during the movie? I don’t think so but, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter, the whole thing was just really underwhelming. Anyway, to conclude, even though I have seen worse, I don’t think it is really worth a look and you should pretty much avoid it.

To be honest, I had never heard of this flick before but since it was starring Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, I thought I should give it a try anyway. First of all, eventually, it was a rather obscure feature, there were lots of good things in this movie. Indeed, the directing was solid and, above all, the actors involved gave some very good performances but unfortunately the story didn't work out so well. I don't know exactly what was the issue with the plot but even though it was definitely interesting, it was still missing something to be really remarkable. Maybe it was because I have seen too many similar stories before, anyway, at the end, I didn't really care much about the characters involved and what they were going through. It's too bad because it really had some potential but it was just not spellbinding enough. On a funny side-note, it was actually the first I actually saw Deborra-Lee Furness, the much older wife of Hugh Jackman. No offence, but it was rather difficult to picture her with such a hunk. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it remains a solid drama and it think it is definitely worth look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick. Indeed, when it was released, it was a huge commercial and critical flop and it was even considered as one of the worst movies released in 2005. With this in mind, I thought it would be completely terrible but, even though it was indeed really average, it could have been much worse and there were in fact a few good things. Maybe that’s because it was actually a really cool story and, so, as the end-results was just so underwhelming, that’s why people got so pissed off about it. On top of it, the production company went went bankrupt during post-production, so, they managed to get only $30 million to work, instead of the $80 million they were supposed to get and, as a result, the visual effects looked pretty terrible. Anyway, there were some elements of the story which were actually quite interesting (this whole butterfly effect theory remains really fascinating) and the cast was actually pretty decent (Edward Burns, Ben Kingsley, Catherine McCormack) . At the end of the day, it is a typical Hyams effort with some potential but still a terrible half-baked end-product. To conclude, I wouldn't recommend it but it was not a complete failure in my opinion.