Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, it has been ages since I have seen this flick but I still can remember it very well. First of all, I have noticed that even though Bertrand Tavernier must be one of the best French directors, he doesn’t seem to be really famous abroad which is too bad because he has directed some amazing movies. This movie is perfect example and probably one of the best movies delivered by the French director. Indeed, it must be one of his most accessible movies and he managed to deliver here something that was at the same time seriously entertaining but also really thoughtful. Basically, it was a great drama/crime movie giving a rather shocking view on how emotionless we have all become nowadays. On top of that, the actors involved all gave some very good performances and the directing was quite impressive. There was such a difference with Hollywood production as they didn't go for the cheap tricks and there was absolutely no redemption at the end. For the lovely Mary Gillain, she gave here a star-making performance but she never became really huge after all after this . To conclude, even though it is a rather obscure feature, I really loved the damned thing, it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

Basically, it is another really obscure French movies that almost no one has seen on Listal. Indeed, not even 10 Listal members have rated it so far and even on IMDB, not even 1000 people has rated the damned thing. For some reasons I can’t remember, I actually saw the damned thing in the movie theater and I was in fact quite blown away by this feature. Indeed, it is a really intense movie which flawlessly combined some thriller elements in a family drama and this mix was just spellbinding to behold. Indeed, the directing and acting were all very good but, above all, I thought it was just a fascinating story. For Anne Fontaine, following the already successful ‘Nettoyage à sec’, it was another complex and yet realistic feature and it’s a really shame I didn’t manage to follow her work since then. In fact, I could say the same about Natacha Régnier who had her breakthrough just a couple of years before ‘La vie rêvée des anges’ and even though it seemed that she would become one of the most interesting French actresses, she actually soon disappeared from the limelight. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is a really obscure feature, I really loved the damned thing it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

To be honest, it was a seriously obscure Dutch movie (I was even the first listal member who has rated the damned thing) , so I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since it won the Golden Calf for the best Dutch movie of the year, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, I thought that the story was actually pretty neat. Indeed, it strongly reminded me of 'Internal Affairs' and its remake 'The Departed' except that this movie was actually made years before. Anyway, the lead actor was pretty good and the rest of the cast was also fine as well and, yet, the whole thing never completely blew me away. I mean, the story was really strong, the actors were fine so it definitely had some potential but, if you compare it to some similar thrillers coming from the US or any other countries, it still felt fairly cheap, I’m afraid. It is the problem with most Dutch productions, they usually lack some ambition, at least, that’s my opinion. Still, even though it didn’t turn out to be a masterpiece, it was still a really solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movies.

I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Ben Affleck, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I wonder if they will ever make a movie about Ben Affleck’s life as he has had one very convoluted career. Indeed, at some point, he was pretty much hailed as the worst actor around but, within a few years, he suddenly became one of the most interesting directors at work, winning even a Best Picture Academy Award in the process. Back in 2006, Affleck was starting his come-back starring in 4 movies and even though the other 3 were decent (‘Clerks II’, ‘Smokin' Aces’ and above all ‘Hollywoodland’), this 4^th feature was pretty weak, I’m afraid. I mean, there were some interesting ideas and,  for example, the topic (talent agents) was really interesting but, unfortunately, it was really poorly developed and I had a really had a hard time to care about  this story. Furthermore,  it was quite difficult to feel sorry about Ben Affleck's character when the guy had with Rebecca Romijn such a gorgeous woman as a wife. To conclude, I think it’s too bad because the whole thing had some potential but I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I’m not really a huge fan of musicals but since this movie is a huge classic,  I always wanted to watch the damned thing. First of all, even though I never really cared for Fred Astaire, I always thought that Gene Kelly was very charismatic and he was, of course, a great dancer but, even though this movie was supposed to be his magnum opus, I have to admit that I had a rather hard time to really care about the damned thing. I mean, sure , I did like it but I can't say it really blew me away. Even though the story is usually the weakest point in most of the musicals I have seen, I actually enjoyed this plot but, to be honest, I expected more from the songs and dances. I know, it might sound surprising but most of these dance sequences didn’t really impress me and, eventually, I thought that the dance scenes in ‘An American in Paris’ were actually cooler than in this movie. Anyway, it probably had to do with the fact that I am not a fan of musicals and, at the end of the day, it remains a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

When I heard about this movie, I have to admit it, I thought it sounded really daft but, surprisingly, the whole thing turned out to be really damned entertaining. Indeed, I thought it would be all right but it was actually much better than I thought it would be. Basically, it is actually a very original animated movie, really weird but in a good way, with some very funny parts. Since then, Chris Miller and Phil Lord have then become some major players in Hollywood thanks to the success of this movie, ’21 Jump Street’ and ‘The Lego Movie’ and while all these projects sounded really silly on paper, they didn’t chicken out, they completely went for it with some really impressive results. Here, they managed to make a fun and rather surrealist animated feature and, of course, the whole concept didn’t make any sense but who cares? Instead, you get some hilarious characters, some awesome jokes and one-liners and I actually enjoyed it even more after numerous re-watches. A couple of years later, of course, they came up with a sequel (without Miller and Lord on board) and even though they developed a nice new concept with these mutant food animals, this 2nd installment didn’t have much else to offer, I’m afraid. Anyway, I was a really fun animated feature and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I had it on DVD, I thought I might as well check it out again. Even though it did receive some really poor reviews, I thought it was not so bad. Indeed, the cast was pretty good (Anthony Hopkins, Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt) and the sets and costumes were also quite gorgeous. However, the story didn't really work. Maybe it's because it took like an hour before del Toro finally became a werewolf, I don't know. Anyway, it turned out to be actually rather boring, especially the 2^nd time around I watched the damned thing and they didn’t add anything really new or interesting to the genre. Eventually, the main issue was that the damned thing was just too generic and predictable. I really wonder how the whole thing would have turned out if Mark Romanek didn't leave the project in the middle of the production. I mean, Joe Johnston is a decent director at best, no less but not much more than that, whereas Romanek is a really intriguing director. On the other hand, it seems that Mark Romanek is a rather difficult guy who keeps dropping out from high profile projects. Anyway, even though the whole thing was indeed rather underwhelming, I don't think it was as bad as everyone says but it could have been much better. 

When was the last time that Will Ferrell had a box-office hit? I think it was with ‘The Other Guys’ which was, by the way, seriously disappointing. Anyway, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but, somehow, I still ended up watching the damned thing. However, to my surprise, I thought it was actually not bad at all. Basically, at the end of the day, it all depends if you can stand Will Ferrell or not and I thought he could be quite funny back in those days. I mean, you basically get a joke every 10 seconds and obviously some jokes were really funny but some were really lame. Still, even though I think it was not bad, I was definitely not blown away by the whole thing but I guess I'm not a huge fan either of this kind of over-the-top humor. I mean, when a story deals only with moronic characters, after a while, it becomes rather tiresome and not really entertaining. Seriously, at some point, I was thinking that they all could go to Hell since I didn't care much about them. To conclude, it is an average movie with some funny moments but if you like this humor, it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are a die-hard Will Ferrell fan.

Obviously, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since Nick, my step-son really loved The Mummy franchise, I thought we might as well check it out. To be honest, I thought it was not bad, at least, better than I expected. Indeed, even though the Rock made his introduction in ‘The Mummy Returns’, he was in the movie for only maybe 10 minutes which was rather disappointing so I thought it was pretty cool idea to make a spin-off about this character. Eventually, Dwayne Johnson was actually pretty good in this flick but, unfortunately, pretty much everything else in this movie was seriously underwhelming. Above all, what bothered met the most was the fact that there was absolutely nothing really original about the damned thing. Eventually, as a result, even thought this movie had some potential, I was kind of bored by the whole thing. Concerning Dwayne Johnson, even though he seemed back then to be  just another wrestler trying to become actor, he actually managed to become one of the most successful action movie stars in the world. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, even though it could have been a decent guilty pleasure, I’m afraid the whole thing was just too lazy and I don’t think it is really worth a look.