Reviews by johanlefourbe

There was a point, during the mid-2000’s, that Judd Apatow’s comedies were pretty much ruling the box-office and, 10 years later, he is still doing some decent business, even if he is so dominating anymore. Anyway, this movie seemed to be his first box-office plot but since that I have a weak spot for Owen Wilson, I still wanted to check it out. I didn’t know this but this was in fact the very last movie written by John Hughes before he died in 2009 but the script was so modified that he requested to have his name removed and to be credited as someone else. Anyway, after all, I thought it was actually not bad at all. Indeed, Owen Wilson gave his typical performance but he was quite entertaining and those 3 kids were actually pretty great but, unfortunately,  the story didn't really work out fine. Indeed, to make fun of homeless people was something rather tricky and the whole thing felt sometimes rather misguided and not really funny. It's too bad because it had some potential. Still, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was still a decent comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Amanda Peet, I thought I might as well check it out. By the way, what happened with this actress? Even though she keeps working, we don’t hear much from her anymore but it is probably due to the fact she has reached her 40’s which means pretty much the end for most of the actresses. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I have to admit it, I was actually positively surprised. Indeed, in my opinion, Amanda Peet and Dermot Mulroney were both pretty good and they had some great chemistry together. Concerning the story itself, it was not bad but I was definitely not the best I have seen in this genre. I mean, most of it worked fine but they still used the usual gimmicks and clichés inherent to this genre preventing the whole thing from becoming really remarkable. In this case, they really pushed it even further as not one character was terminally ill but both of them. Still, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

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.