Reviews by johanlefourbe

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.

To be honest, it has been ages since I have this movie and I should definitely re-watch it at some point. Anyway, even though I was very young or maybe it was in fact because I was so young but I thought that this movie was just quite mesmerizing to behold. Basically, in my opinion, this movie is all about mood and either you’ll be hypnotized by this mood (what happened in my case) or I’m afraid the whole thing might bore you to death. Indeed, there is no real plot, there is definitely no action scenes, in fact, nothing much really happened during the whole thing. And, yet, I thought it was quite mesmerizing. We basically follow this 2 characters and their fascinating conversation filled with some beautiful dialogues. Indeed, in my opinion, this movie is the closest thing you will get of watching a poem instead of reading it. Alain Resnais did deliver a really impressive directing debut here but even though he always had a stellar reputation in France, I can’t say I really ever cared for the rest of his work (I still have to watch ‘L'année dernière à Marienbad’ though). To conclude, I think it is a great movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and I should definitely re-watch it at some point. Even though I did give a try with Luis Buñuel’s work and even though I did like his surrealist work, I actually preferred this movie and I think it is the only one I have seen so far coming from this director that really blew me away. Indeed, the great thing about this flick is that it manages to combine Buñuel’s surrealist vibe with a tale somewhat more straightforward and realistic. Concerning Catherine Deneuve, I always thought that she was quite a fascinating actrice and she probably delivered one of her best performances in this movie, at least, among the movies I have seen starring this actress so far. Eventually, I really liked the directing and, above all, this story was just fascinating. Indeed, it is one of the very few (almost) mainstream movies managing to deal with sex and eroticism without being exploitative. This movie was also a neat critic about the middle-class life style which can be so boring that it could drive a woman to do something so drastic with her life. Anyway, to conclude, I think it is a great classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.