Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I had seriously no idea 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. With the Golden Calfs, the winners are usually some big box-office success (such as ‘Alles is liefde’, ‘Zwartboek’, ‘De Tweeling’ or ‘Minoes’) or something really obscure that almost no one saw when it was released. Well, this movie definitely belonged to the 2^nd group, that’s for sure, but I thought it was still a decent watch. Indeed, it was probably one of the most minimalist movies I have ever seen as there were basically only 2 characters, they did almost nothing during the whole movie and from the beginning until the end, you learn almost nothing about them. I know, it doesn't sound really interesting and that's right, in a sense, the movie is not really interesting but I still enjoyed it. Indeed, the 2 actors involved were pretty good and I really liked the subtle directing. To conclude, even though it was nothing really ground-breaking, I thought it was still an interesting original drama and I think 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 Phillip Noyce’s work, I thought I might as well check it out. I didn’t know this before watching this flick but, apparently, the main character was based on Zatoichi, the famous blind Japanese samurai. More than a decade later, the great Takeshi Kitano would make also a really neat movie about this character. Well, at the end of the day, I wasn’t exactly blown away by this modern American version but I thought it was still a decent watch. Indeed, basically, it is one of those typical cheesy action movies that Rutger Hauer used to make at the end of the 80’s. Indeed, back in those days, Hauer used to be king of the B movie and I thought he was actually pretty good in this movie. Apparently, they were even planning a sequel but since this movie didn’t do as well as expected at the box-office, this sequel was cancelled. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was still fairly entertaining and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since my wife and I really loved the previous installments, of course, we were really eager to watch this conclusion and, once again, I had some rather high expectations. To be honest, I thought that the 2nd sequel was slightly disappointing but I really had to see this conclusion if only to get a glimpse of Lisbeth Salander who is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating characters in recent movie history. Eventually, it was still unfortunately not as good as the 1st movie but it remained still pretty damned entertaining. Indeed, pretty much like in the 2nd installment, the story was still too far-fetched for my taste. On top of that, eventually, you barely get to see this time anything really involving Noomi Rapace (indeed, 3/4 of the movie she is in a hospital and then in jail). Still, in spite of its flaws, it remains a fascinating trilogy and Lisbeth Salander was just mesmerizing, from the beginning until the very end.  To conclude, even though I’m not sure this movie was a real masterpiece like the 1st installment was, it was still a fine sequel and a very neat conclusion to this awesome franchise and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Honestly, I didn’t expect much from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Indeed, not only this movie has a really poor rating, I also read that, apparently, of all the movies he has made so far, Casey Affleck is the most ashamed about this one. I can see why... The funny thing is that I don’t think Affleck was actually so bad in this movie and his performance didn't bother me so much. Indeed, the rest of the cast (Wes Bentley, Eliza Dushku and Luke Wilson) who seemed at least promising were even worse than him. Seriously, they were are all really terrible and the worst performance was probably the one delivered by Luke Wilson... I know, I make it sound as if it was awful and it was indeed pretty weak but the funny thing is that the concept behind the movie was actually pretty decent but it was unfortunately really poorly developed. It didn’t help that the whole thing looked really cheap as well. Anyway, to conclude, the acting was way below average and the whole thing seemed to be a missed opportunity so I can't possibly recommend this movie. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick, especially since it had a rather poor rating on Imdb, but since I always had a weak spot for Donald Sutherland, I thought I might as well give it a try. Eventually, even though I usually don’t care much about the genre (in my opinion, ‘The Exorcist’ is in fact one of the most overrated movies ever made), I thought that this movie was actually fairly entertaining and it was above all rather well directed. Unfortunately, I was not really convinced by the rather far-fetched twist at the end but it is unfortunately inherent to the genre, I’m afraid. Furthermore, the inclusion of the modern story didn’t add much and could have been easily completely removed if you ask me. Still, it was really neat to see again the lovely Rachel Hurd-Wood. Indeed, it was her 2^nd movie after ‘Peter Pan’ but, unfortunately, the movies she made afterwards became more and more obscure and it seems she never managed to really breakthrough in spite of her interesting potential. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, to conclude, even though it was not very original, I thought it was rather well done and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like this genre.

For some reasons, I actually ended up watching this flick in the movie theater when it was released. I guess there wasn’t much else to see it at the time and I probably thought it could be a decent watch for my step-son. First of all, I never understood what happened with this franchise. Indeed, when the 1^st installment was released, it was a huge success and, pretty much like everyone else, I though it would be the 3^rd huge fantasy franchise, next to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Harry Potter’. However, ‘Prince Caspian’ didn’t do as well as expected and this movie would be their final attempt. Eventually, this movie was even less successful and it was pretty much the end of this franchise. Anyway, in spite of all this, I thought it was rather well made with some decent action scenes. Still, to really enjoy it, you shouldn't analyse too much the story or the characters involved since it remains all rather shallow. To conclude, even though it was not challenging at all, I thought it was still fairly entertaining and I think it is worth a look, especially if you have enjoyed the previous installments in this franchise. 

I wasn’t  really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Michael Caine, I thought I might as well check it out. Apparently, Roger Ebert really despised the whole thing in one of his earliest reviews but I didn’t think it was bad at all. Basically, it is one of theses typical war features dealing with a whole bunch of characters, each of them with their own separate sub-plot. So, obviously, it was nothing really original, that’s for sure, but there was a really neat cast involved (Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Ian McShane, Michael Redgrave, Robert Shaw) and I really enjoyed the historical details provided in this movie. Still, even though the plane fights were well made, they still became kind of boring after a while. The other issues is that there were just too many character involved and, as a result, none of them was properly developed. Seriously, sometimes, some of these characters would be gone and you would eventually never found out exactly what happened to them. To conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, I thought it was still a decent watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.