Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this flick but, somehow, I still ended up watching it. After 3 critically acclaimed movies directed with his buddies David Zucker and Jerry Zucker (‘Airplane!’, ‘Top Secret!’, ‘Ruthless People’), Jim Abrahams  and the Zucker siblings decided to move forward with some individual project and, for Abrahams, this movie would be his first solo directing effort.  Eventually, I really had a hard time to care about the whole thing. Indeed, pretty much right from the start, after the first 5 minutes, I thought that the concept was pretty lame. Furthermore, the bad jokes during the movie didn't help much either. Finally and that would be pretty much the last nail in the coffin, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of either Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin and the characters they played were neither interesting or entertaining but, in fact, rather obnoxious. Eventually, a few years later, Jim Abrahams would go back to make some parodies with ‘Hot Shots!’ but while it was quite successful at the box-office, I can’t say I really cared about this flick either. Anyway, to conclude, I have seen worse but the whole thing was some still really average stuff and I don’t think it’s worth a look.

Back in the 90's, Emir Kusturica was pretty much one of the most important directors in the world, he is even of the very few directors who managed to win twice the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Unfortunately, we haven't heard much from him during the last 17 years, he has made only 2 obscure movies including this one and I think that's just really too bad. However, after watching this movie, I have to admit that it is not really surprising that this director has more or less disappeared into obscurity. I mean, after so many years, I was finally able to watch this flick and since I was really eager to watch it, I had some rather high expectations. Eventually, even though I definitely did like it, to be honest, it wasn't really great either. I mean, you could recognize the Kusturica style which is always pretty spellbinding to watch but, in my opinion, the story was not really dazzling like it was in ‘Arizona Dream’, ‘Black cat white cat’ or ‘Underground’. To conclude, even though it was slightly disappointing, it was still an interesting feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Emir Kusturica's work.

Nowadays, it seems that Adam Sandler has lost his touch and, except for those ‘Grown Ups’ movies, all his recent efforts have turned out to be some flops at the box-office (‘Pixels’, ‘The Cobbler’, ‘Men, Women & Children’, ‘Blended’, ‘That's My Boy’, ‘Jack and Jill’). Personally, I don’t think his movies have become worse through the years. I think there were already pretty weak right from the start, even if there were some box-office hits and this movie was a fine example. Indeed, this time, Sandler decided to remake a classic. I have seen both versions and even though the original is not one of my favorites, it was still a good movie whereas this remake was rather lame and unnecessary (was there ever a necessary remake ? good question...) and Adam Sandler was rather unbelievable in this character. Come on! How could you switch Gary Cooper with Adam Sandler?!? The best part was that it was eventually a success at the box-office... You gotta to be kidding me... To conclude, it was pretty much a typical average Sandler flick, I thought it was rather tedious to behold and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a fan of the genre. 

After hearing so many bad things about this flick, I wasn’t expecting much but since there was a decent cast, I thought I might as well check it out. Indeed, I thought it would be really terrible but, honestly, it wasn't so bad in my opinion. In fact, I liked it more than Ferrara's "Body Snatchers". Indeed, the directing and the perfomances were not bad at all but, unfortunately, the story was not really interesting or original enough. It is too bad because the whole thing really had some potential. Indeed, there was a pretty cool cast (Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright). Above all, who would have expected that Oliver Hirschbiegel, the director of the amazing 'Der Untergang' and ‘Das Experiment’, would make such a disappointing English language debut? Basically, it was pretty notorious that the production didn't go very well and eventually the film underwent massive reshooting in 2007. Indeed, the studio didn't liked the cut director Oliver Hirschbiegel delivered and, to change that, the Wachowski brothers were brought in for rewrites and James McTeigue to direct some new scenes. Still, in my opinion, even though it was rather disappointing, it was actually a decent flick and I think it is worth a look.

I don’t know if you have noticed but I’m extremely obsessive concerning my movie watching. As a result, I sometimes end up watching the most obscure movies you can think off just because one of  two actors I like were involved in the damned thing. This movie is a perfect example. Indeed, it is a really obscure feature (I was the very first listal user who actually rated it and, by now, not even 10 members have rated it so far) and I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I’m a big fan of Jeff Bridges, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, I kept wondering how this fine actor ended up in such an underwhelming feature. I mean, it was pretty obvious that he was a low budget production so it wasn’t for the paycheck, maybe, he needed to make a favor to someone else. Anyway, Jeff Bridges delivered, as usual, a decent performance but the movie itself was really average and I really had a hard time to care about the whole thing. To conclude, it was really weak and I don’t think it is worth a look, even if you are interested in Jeff Bridges’s work.

It has been a while since I wanted to check this flick. Indeed, the ratings were pretty good and there has always been something quite appealing about Isabel Coixet's work. Eventually, I have to admit that I ended up with some mixed feelings about the damned thing. I mean, I thought it was a rather intriguing movie and I liked it because the performances and the directing were very good. But the film was not flawless after all. Indeed, Roger Ebert didn't like this movie at all and he explained it pretty well in his review. Basically, one of the main issues was that, if you look at it carefully, the main character was actually so f*cking selfish. Indeed, every time she made a decision, she didn't care at all about what everybody else might think, feel or whatever. The other issue, for me, was that she was supposed to be some kind of ‘white trash’ girl but she acted, sounded, behaved more like a poet/philosopher so it didn't really fit, in my opionion. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of these flaws, I liked the movie for the reasons explained earlier, and even though it might not be a masterpiece, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

From all the movies directed by Mel Brooks that I have seen so far (I’m missing only ‘Dracula: Dead and Loving It', ‘High Anxiety’ and ‘Silent Movie’), this one was probably the most disappointing one. I mean, sure, it wasn’t the worst I have seen from this director but, considering its stellar reputation,  I was expecting a lot from this movie. Indeed, it is probably one of the most popular comedies ever made and it is definitely a classic but, personally, I thought it was seriously underwhelming and I really couldn’t see what was so great about the damned thing. I mean, sure, the concept was interesting and it was really smart to parody the Star Wars franchise but, at the end of the day, there were just a few decent jokes. Seriously, I had to smile a few times during the whole thing but I never thought that it was actually hilarious. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t really impressed by the whole thing and Roger Ebert didn’t really care for it either. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really awful, I really didn’t like it much but, if you are a fan of the genre, there is a fair chance that you might end up enjoying it more than I did.