Reviews by johanlefourbe

It doesn't happen very often but I actually saw this movie just because I loved the poster. I know, it might sound weird but I thought this poster looked so intriguing, I just had to see the damned thing. Eventually, I thought that it was actually not bad at all and I especially loved the poetic bits. Eventually, they tried to mix those poetic bits with some standard ‘I-work-at-the-supermaket-and-I-have-so-much-fun-with-my-colleagues’ comedic parts and those funny scenes were not bad but nothing more (I'm a big fan of ‘Clerks’ and it is the masterpiece in this genre). In my opinion, it is as if the makers were afraid to go all the way in the symbolism and poetic stuff and so they had to add some supposedly ‘funny’ stuff at some point. By the way, during the whole thing, I was wondering where I saw before Sean Biggerstaff, the actor playing the lead, and many years later I discovered that the guy was one of those many kids who played a small part in the Harry Potter franchise. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was probably not a masterpiece, there was still something quite mesmerizing about the damned thing and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see something original. 

Since my wife and I really loved the first installment, of course, we were really eager to watch this follow-up and I had some rather high expectations. Well, to be honest, even though it was extremely enjoyable and entertaining, I thought it was actually a slight step-down from the near perfection provided by the previous movie. Indeed, once again, the directing was really solid and, above all, those 2 characters, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, remained really fascinating to follow. And, yet, I thought it didn’t work as well as the first movie. Indeed, what bothered me was the fact that Lisbeth Salander got personally involved in this case. As a result, the plot became too far-fetched and to implicate her and her past in the mix was in fact a rather misguided choice. Still, I really loved the damned thing. Basically, what I loved about this whole franchise was how so different and refreshing it was compared to your average Hollywood thrillers and I can't wait to see the final installment. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely blow me away, it was still a very good thriller and it is definitely 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. Anyway, since Judi Dench and Maggie Smith were involved, I actually had some rather high expectations concerning the damned thing. Indeed, in my opinion, Judi Dench is just an amazing actress and Maggie Smith is usually quite solid so I thought it would be really neat to have them working together. Unfortunately, even though the beginning was not bad, after a while,  I pretty much lost interest in the story. Seriously, the whole thing was in fact rather dull and, eventually, I really had a hard time to care about the characters and what they were going through. To conclude, even though it turned out to be rather disappointing, thanks to the actresses involved, I still think it was watchable and I guess it is worth a look.

I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though the movie was rather well done and both leads were really charming, I can’t say I really cared about the whole thing though. Basically, the main issue I had with this flick is that it was just really full of annoying clichés. Seriously, the whole thing was really nothing original whatsoever and it was just completely predictable. Concerning Scott Hicks, it took him about 6 years to come up with a follow-up to ‘Hears of Atlantis’, a rather obscure adaptation from a Stephen King book, and this movie was quite a step-down (on the other hand, the recent ‘The Lucky One’ was probably even worse though). Anyway, even though the story was rather underwhelming, I have to admit it, the whole thing was rather cute but it could have been much better and I really believed that the actors involved deserved a better tale than this one. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch, above all thanks to Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart, I think it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Kate Hudson, I thought I might as well check it out. Indeed, after watching ‘Good Luck Chuck’, I thought it would be another lame comedy with Dane Cook and my expectations were very low but, eventually, I have to admit it,  I was actually positively surprised by the damned thing. I mean, sure, it was nothing really amazing and the concept was rather limited but I thought it was actually fairly entertaining and some of the scenes were in fact quite hilarious. Seriously, when you read what the main character was supposed to do (men whose women have dumped them hire the guy to take their ex-girlfriends out on the date from Hell, so the women would go back to their old boyfriends) , there is no way it should have worked and, yet, it was actually quite funny. Even Dane Cook was actually pretty good here which means quite a lot. It was also pretty neat to see that Alec Baldwin has become such a dependable comic actor and with Cook, they had some nice chemistry. To conclude, even though the whole thing seemed to be really lame and stupid, it turned out to be actually a decent comedy and I think  it is 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 was quite eager to check it out again. In fact, for once, I had actually read the book before watching the movie. Eventually, I did enjoy the book more than the movie though. I was for example bothered by the fact that a character who was psychiatrist in the book suddenly became a patient in the movie which wasn't really convincing and a rather poor decision in my opinion. Above all, they messed up the tone. Indeed, most of it was a really solid psychological drama dealing with mental illness, especially postnatal depression, which was a subject I had never seen developed before in a movie. However, they also added a few thriller scenes and also some comedy. Unfortunately, this mix was just misguided and it was an obvious attempt to make the  whole thing not too heavy and easier to swallow for the mainstream audience. It's too bad because the scenes dealing the mental struggle of the main character and her treatment were actually really well done. Furthermore, they gave us here some of the most realistic childbirth scenes I have ever seen. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was pretty good with another very good perfomance by Carice van Houten and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movies.

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out and I had some rather high expectations. To be honest, I actually ended up with some mixed feelings about the damned thing. I mean, sure, I thought it was pretty good and Casey Affleck gave definitely a really good performance, resulting in his breakthrough. I don’t know, maybe the issue was that my expectations were too high before watching the damned thing but, in my opinion, the story was rather far-fetched like most of the other thrillers out there. Eventually, at the end of the day, it was basically decent and fairly entertaining, absolutely, but it was nothing really ground-breaking, at least, that’s my opinion. Still, I have to admit that it was really neat to see Ben Affleck, one of the most despised actors in the world at the time, making such an impressive come-back as a director and the guy definitely displayed some skills in this area. Eventually, he made afterwards ‘The Town’ and ‘Argo’, both critically praised, so his track-record as a director is pretty impressive so far. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely 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. Following this amazing process, I ended up watching some rather obscure movies and this one was definitely one of them. From all the movies that I saw at the time, it might have been the most obscure of the bunch (indeed, 5 years later, I’m still the only Listal members who has rated the damned thing). Anyway, even though this movie wasn’t really bad, I can't say I really enjoyed it either. I mean, it was pretty neat that Brendan Gleeson was playing the lead for once and he did try very hard to make his character compelling. Same thing for Andy Serkis, he was not bad at all either and, as a bonus, there was even Cillian Murphy in his very first part. Unfortunately, I couldn't care less about the story or the characters involved. Anyway, to conclude, all in all, I thought the whole thing was really underwhelming and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I had really no idea what to expect from this movie and the main reason I wanted to check it out is because I always had a weak spot for Keisha Castle-Hughes. Indeed, after the amazing ‘Whale Rider’, I tried to follow this fascinating actress even if she disappeared into obscurity very quickly after her fast rise to international stardom. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, even though it was nothing really groundbreaking, I thought it was still a nice little drama with some interesting 3 dimensional characters. Unfortunately, the only thing that didn’t really work for me was the ending which actually slightly ruined the whole thing for me. Indeed, I won’t go into too many details but I was particularly annoyed by the obligatory dramatic complications they added at the end of the movie. It's too bad because until then it was pretty good. In my opinion, it felt really forced and it was a misguided way of adding some extra dramatic climax and it was rather misguided in my opinion. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, I still think it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Mark Wahlberg, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, I was at first positively surprised by the damned thing. Indeed, the concept  was not bad at all  and you might think that something like this would never happen in real life but, in fact, the whole thing was inspired by the real-life story of Tim Owens who was the singer in a Judas Priest cover band and then was chosen to replace singer Rob Halford when he left Judas Priest. Seriously, that was a really dope story. Furthermore,  I thought that Mark Walhberg did a pretty good job as well in this flick. Unfortunately, in spite of its awesome material, the makers seriously messed the whole thing up, I’m afraid. Above all, the weakest point with this movie is that it didn't know which way to go and it was just seriously unfocused, especially concerning the tone. Indeed, was it supposed to be satirical or something more realistic? To conclude, even though the story was actually pretty awesome, the whole thing turned out to be rather underwhelming and I don’t think it is really worth a look.