Reviews by johanlefourbe

I actually saw this movie before and, to be honest, the first time around, I thought the whole thing was just terrible. Indeed, back then, I was pretty sure it was one of the worst movies I had ever seen. However, since I kept hearing that it wasn’t so bad after all, I decided to check it out again. Well, eventually, I have to admit it, it was actually slightly better than I remembered. I mean, obviously, the story was very often seriously preposterous but it's obviously something inherent to this genre and, at least, they tried to keep a scientific approach as much as possible. Back then in 1997, for some reasons, they decided to release 2 different movies dealing with volcanoes, and even though ‘Volcano’ was actually less successful at the box-office, I actually preferred ‘Volcano’. Indeed,  this other movie about the same subject was in fact even more preposterous but I thought it was actually more fun. Still, there is no doubt that both movies were actually rather lame. Anyway, to conclude, this movie was still nothing great and I don’t think it is really worth a look but if you are die-hard fan of the genre maybe you might end up actually enjoying it more than I did.

Tomorrow, I’m planning to watch ‘You don’t Nomi’, so I thought I might as well re-watch this movie, especially since it has been ages since I first saw it. Well, after all these years, even if this movie now belongs to the stuff of legend, to be honest, it is still pretty bad though. I mean, it is basically a rather lame and boring erotic B feature, no more and no less than that. Indeed, the first issue I had was that, beside the fact that the story was terribly derivative, they never really settled for a specific tone. Basically, it was never really glamourous or really gritty or really sleazy. Of course, Paul Verhoeven argued that it was supposed to be some kind of satire but, even from this angle, it was never convincing whatsoever. Then, another major issue was the main character who was just really lame. Sure, I have to admit that Elizabeth Berkley, who was only in her early 20's back then, looked really hot but her character was actually more cringe-inducing than really entertaining. Eventually, years later, Verhoeven would take the blame and said that he pushed Berkley to deliver such a ‘performance’ but I still think she never managed to make her character intriguing or entertaining whatsoever. To make things worse, all the other characters involved were not much better at all. For some reason, there was also a completely random rape scene towards the end which had really nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Anyway, for Berkley, her career was pretty much ruined from the start but, to be honest, if she had been really talented, she would have made a come-back at some point. For Verhoeven, this movie would be the beginning of the end and, nowadays, he left the US and he was back making movies in the Netherlands (where he managed to make only one movie after all). Anyway, to conclude, this flick is still a train wreck and you should watch it only if you are curious to see how bad it actually is.

I already saw this movie but, since it was ages ago, I thought I might check it out again. It is in fact a remake of ‘La cage aux folles’, a huge classic in France but, I have to admit it that I have actually never seen this French movie. Well, a lot of people seem to really love this movie (Paul Thomas Anderson is apparently a huge fan) but, I don’t know, maybe I was in a bad mood when I saw the damned thing the first time around but I thought it was just really lame and even borderline awful to watch. Indeed, at the time, the story and the jokes seemed to be just so stupid and not funny at all and, in my opinion, it was one of the worst movies starring Robin Williams I have ever seen. Well, after all these years, I have to admit that it was not so bad at all after all. I was still not really sold by the jokes, even they didn’t bother me that much anymore, but, above all, if you put aside all the comedy stuff, it is in fact a sensitive portrayal of two sweet (if slightly hysterical) gay men who were completely able to raise a perfectly fine straight young man. I really did appreciate the fact that they all loved and cared for each other without any prejudice. Still, 30 years later, the whole thing does feel dated though with all these gay characters played by some straight guys, except Nathan Lane who was still in the closet at the time. Anyway, to conclude, even though I’m still not a huge fan, I have to admit that it is a decent comedy after all and it is in fact worth a look, especially if you like the genre.