Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have weak spot for such science-fiction features, I thought I might as well check it out. Apparently, back then when it was released, it was barely noticed because ‘Independence Day’ was released around the same time period. Well, eventually, I thought it was not bad at all after all. Sure, the whole thing was nothing really original and it used most of the usual ingredients you might get with this kind of movie but I thought it was actually rather well done and it was actually fairly entertaining. The funniest thing was probably to see Charlie Sheen playing some nerd for a change.  I have to admit it though, I thought he actually pulled it off and I thought he was indeed rather convincing. Concerning David Twohy,  this movie was really an intriguing sophomore directing effort but he would unfortunately then spend most of the next 20 years focusing on the Riddick franchise with some rather mixed end-results. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, even thought it was nothing really groundbreaking, I thought it was a decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest , even though the first installment has a terrible reputation, I still believe that this concept had some potential but this sequel turned out to be even more underwhelming. I mean, I’ll give you that, it wasn’t really much worse but  it was certainly not better than the 1st movie. At least, I did like the fact that they chose a really different approach but, unfortunately, this approach turned out to be even more misguided. Well, this time, they chose to mix the whole thing with a really generic teenage slasher flick and this mix was just so damned underwhelming. At least, it was R rated, the Predator looked much better this time and they didn’t make again the huge mistake of having him working with the human characters but it wasn’t enough, I’m afraid, and the story was just really weak. Indeed, the biggest mistake they made with this franchise was that the action was taking place on Earth in the present time and, in my opinion, it should have taken place in the future. As a result, for the very first time, you get to see some Aliens roaming around in a contemporary city but it didn’t really work, I’m afraid. Anyway, to conclude, it was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, even though many people, including Sigourney Weaver, thought that this crossover was a terrible idea, I thought that this concept actually had some potential. In fact, in my opinion, the set-up used in this movie was actually pretty neat and they managed to properly introduce the Predators, the Aliens and the humans to this mix. Furthermore, I really loved the fact that the main character was a woman, and, even better, a black woman which was really refreshing. Unfortunately, even though it seemed that they had done the most difficult part of the job, they messed up pretty much everything else, I’m afraid. Indeed, first of all, why did the action take place in the present day on our planet? It would have made much more sense if it took place in the future on a foreign planet. Eventually, the biggest issue was that the Predator turned out to be actually a good guy. Seriously, the awesome tagline for this movie was ‘Whoever wins, we lose’, so, the whole point was to have them go all rampage, fighting each other like crazy and killing all the humans in the process. Even in this context, against all odds, this black woman could have still survived but not as an ally with one of them. Anyway, to conclude, even though the whole thing had some potential, I’m afraid it was rather poorly developed and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

Somehow, I have managed to watch all the movies starring Eddie Murphy and, I can tell you, it has been a terribly unthankful task. I mean, seriously, when was the last time he showed up in something remotely interesting? It seems hard to believe that, already 30 years ago, Murphy was in fact one of the biggest stars in the world and it actually all started up with his stand-up comedy. With this in mind, I kind of lost all hope with this actor but since I kept hearing some good things about this show, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I never expected it to be so funny ! Seriously, it has been a while since I laughed so much which was rather surprising since I have never really laughed while watching any other comedy starring Eddy Murphy. Sure, there was a lot of swearing but it is not something that bothered me at all as the whole thing was just so hilarious. It is hard to believe that Eddie Murphy used to be so talented but his stand-up comedy has been an inspiration to many comedians that came afterwards. Anyway, to conclude, this is some great comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Obviously, like all the recent movies directed by M. Night Shyamalan, this movie has a really lame reputation but, in my opinion, it was not as bad as 'Lady in the water’ which remains by far the worst movie delivered by Shyamalan so far or even 'The Last Airbender'. In fact, I think it actually some potential but, unfortunately, as usual with this director, it turned out to be terribly underwhelming. I mean, the directing was decent and it was visually pretty neat  it but the guy has to seriously stop writing his movies. Indeed, the story just barely worked and, above all, there was again the typical dreadful Shyamalan twist at the end. I mean, with ‘The Sixth Sense’, I already thought this gimmick was lame but, 10 years later, it was seriously pathetic and nobody was buying it anymore. On top of that, I have nothing against Mark Walhberg but couldn't they pick up a more believable actor to play a biological teacher ?! In fact, Walhberg himself did admit regretting his involvement in this movie. To conclude, I still think the damned thing had some potential, it could have been nice but the end-result was just weak and I think I’m actually generous with my rating here.  

Back in 2010, Illumination Entertainment made their debut with ‘Despicable Me’, it turned out to be a big success at the box-office but nobody expected it to become such a huge franchise. In fact, back in 2010, DreamWorks, probably the least original animation studio in the world, tried to release their own animated feature focusing on a bad guy as well but it was considered a flop, even if it actually made some money at the box-office. I still ended up watching the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released though. Anyway, the concept was indeed really too similar to 'Despicable me' but I thought it was still fairly entertaining. Eventually, the main issue was, in fact just like in 'Despicable me', the bad guy was not really mean after all and I thought that was rather disappointing. As usual with DreamWorks, they had a star-studded voice cast (Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux) but it wasn’t enough to hide the fact that the whole story was terribly derivative. Still, in spite of its flaws, the whole thing was still a decent watch, above all, it really looked gorgeous to watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.  

To be honest, even though pretty much everyone was watching this TV show back then in the 90’s, I was never a really big fan of the damned thing but still I though I should check out this 2^nd feature film, just out of curiosity. Eventually, I thought it wasn't bad at all, as a matter of fact, I even enjoyed it more than the first movie they made about this show. Indeed, in my opinion, both leads were pretty good and the story was fairly entertaining. Eventually, the main issue was that the whole thing didn't really "feel" like a X-files movie at all. I mean, at the end of the day, it was more a typical detective story (a nice one by the way) and it felt as if they just added a psychic, Mulder and Scully, so they could call the damned thing an X-file movie. Unfortunately for the makers, nobody cared much about the X-files anymore, the whole thing backfired to them and this movie was eventually a flop. Still, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was not bad at all, and I think it is actually worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

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. Indeed, after 5 long years, I’m still the only Listal member who has rated the damned thing. Anyway, I had no idea what to expect from this movie but since it was directed by Sidney Lumet, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, this movie turned out to be a bit weird. Basically, it started pretty bad and I was really bored to death by the whole thing but then, surprisingly, I have to admit that it got better in the 2nd and 3rd part. The main issue, in my opinion,  was that Molly was just really annoying and she made it really difficult to understand why those 2 man would spend their life going after her. To conclude, it is a rather strange movie but I still think worth a look though, in spite of its flaws.