Reviews by johanlefourbe

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 this flick had a rather lame reputation, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing and, indeed, I can't say I really enjoyed it much. First of all, I have noticed that, nowadays, Diane Keaton keeps showing up other and other again as the same annoying character in all her last movies. Concerning Katie Holmes, if you can forget the whole Tom Cruise thing, she used to be a very promising actress but here, she was even worse than Keaton. In fact, it was the first movie she made after marrying Cruise and she actually turned down the opportunity to reprise her role as Rachel Dawes in ‘ The Dark Knight’to star in this film. Seriously, it must be one of the most misguided career choices ever made by an actor. Anyway, it was a very average flick and it is definitely not worth a look.

To be honest, since I had never heard of this movie before, I had no idea what I should expect but since I had a weak spot for Mira Nair’s work, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, I I really loved the damned thing and it turned out to be one of these great underrated obscure features that no one has ever heard about. I mean, sure, the whole thing was well directed and acted but, above all, I thought it was just a really fascinating story. Indeed, in my case,  it touched me personally as my father left the Netherlands to live in France and I left myself France to live in the Netherlands so I was definitely able to relate with what the main character was going through. I have also to point out that I was quite impressed by Kal Penn who had built so far a career in (fairly underwhelming) comedies. Concerning Tabu and Irrfan Khan, I have to admit that I didn’t know them at the time but they were really good as well in this flick. To conclude, even though it is quite obscure, it is in fact a very good movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Mira Nair’s work.

To be honest, I really wonder how I actually ended up watching this flick. I guess the main reason was because we used to own some horses at some point and I thought my wife would be interested in the damned thing. Basically, it was based on the book of the same title which was and still a massive best-seller but, to be honest, I usually don’t care at all about movies dealing with animals. So, with this in mind, I wasn't really expecting much before watching this flick but, I have to admit it, I was actually positively surprised by the damned thing. Indeed, even though the story was rather straightforward, I thought the whole thing was actually rather well done and its cuteness, something that should have already annoyed me, was actually quite appealing. For example, to hear the thoughts of the horse should have been really lame but, somehow, it didn’t really bother me. For what its worth, it is probably of the best movies I have seen in this genre. To conclude, obviously,  it was still nothing great but I thought it was quite enjoyable and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in horses. 

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, I had really never heard of this movie before so I wasn't sure what to expect from the damned thing. Eventually, the whole thing actually had some potential and it could have been a hilarious parody of all this boring sport movies. This time, they decided to focus on bowls, a sport coming from England which was basically some kind of weird version of pétanque, the French national sport. And, indeed, I did laugh a lot at the beginning but, unfortunately, it didn’t last long enough and,  after a while, the whole thing was another succession of the usual cliches you get with this genre. To conclude, it's really too bad because I really believed it actually had some potential but, eventually, it was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth  a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I always had a weak spot for Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, it was basically yet another one of these interesting projects starring Norton which didn’t turn out to be so great after all. I mean, the whole thing definitely had some potential. Indeed, first of all, it was completely shot on location in China and I thought it was quite gorgeous to look at. Then, the directing was decent and, as usual, Edward Norton and Naomi Watts both gave some really performances. Unfortunately, even though Norton was really passionate about this tale (apparently, he had been working on it as far back as 1999), I thought it was rather underwhelming and I had a rather hard time to really care about the characters and what they were going through. In fact, the book written by W. Somerset Maugham was supposedly even bleaker than this adaptation so I wonder what Norton actually saw in this story. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was slightly disappointing, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

By now, I have seen most of the movies starring Jason Statham and, even though I have some respect for the guy and even though he is usually pretty badass, to be honest, most of his movies are actually rather boring. The main issue is that he basically always plays the very same character in all his movies which has become rather tedious in my opinion. Anyway, there has been a few exceptions and this movie was definitely one of them. Indeed, before watching the damned thing, I heard many good things about this flick so I was rather anxious to see it. Eventually, I thought it was really neat. First of all, I knew nothing about the story which probably made the whole story even more spellbinding to watch. Basically, it is a rather straightforward heist feature but the fact it was based on a real story probably help it to stay grounded and, in my opinion, it is easily one of the best movies in this genre. I have noticed that some people compare this to Guy Ritchie's movies (‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ and ‘Snatch’) but I didn't really get this comparison (expect of course for the fact that Jason Statham was involved in all these movies). Anyway, it was definitely a really entertaining movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

After 'El laberinto del fauno', Guillermo del Toro suddenly became hugely popular among the mainstream audience and everybody seemed to be pretty excited to see his following feature, even more than when the first installment was released. Personally, I wasn’t sure about it (I wasn’t exactly blown away by the first installment) and eventually, I was right. I mean, pretty much like the first movie, I have to admit it, it was visually pretty impressive but the story was seriously not really inspiring. Sure, it was interesting and entertaining enough and some of the characters looked pretty bad-ass but I really had a hard time to care about the whole thing. Maybe I was bothered by all the romantic stuff, maybe the whole thing should have been darker, I don’t know. But I guess that's not the point here. Since then, there has been some never ending discussion about a possible 3rd installment but it seems unlikely that it will ever get made. Not only there is apparently some rights issue involved but also Del Toro seems to be one of the busiest directors in the world, even though he manages to make only 1 movie every 5 years. Anyway, even though the whole thing didn’t really convince me, it still looked really gorgeous, and only for this, it is definitely worth a look.

By now, I have seen almost all the films directed by Jim Sheridan (I’m only missing ‘The Field’). Nowadays, we don’t hear much from the guy and ever since he went to direct ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin'’, easily one of the weirdest career choices ever made by any director, his career was never the same afterwards and it has been more than a decade since he has released a critical hit. Eventually, if things don’t improve for him in the near future, he would be forever remembered as the one director who did manage to work no less than 3 times with the great Daniel Day-Lewis. From this trilogy, the movie was probably the least prestigious one but I still really liked it. Sure, the story was nothing really amazing but Daniel Day-Lewis was, as usual, pretty awesome. Indeed, the guy spent a staggering 3 years training as a boxer in preparation for this role and, as long as the movie was focusing on this character, it was quite spellbinding. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was definitely not a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Daniel Day-Lewis’s work.

I thought it would be good but it turned out to be much better than I expected. It is rather funny that when the rumor came out that David Fincher was making a movie about Facebook, many people started to actually trash him (you should have checked the boards on IMDB when they still existed). Indeed, it is pretty obvious that an average director would have made an average flick with this material but Fincher succeeded in making one of the best movies of the year. I mean, I don't even care about Facebook at all, I understand that many people really love it but I really don't care about this website whatsoever. I remember it perfectly, I went to see this movie with my wife in the movie theater and, after just 5 minutes, after the break-up between Jesse Eisenberg and Rooney Mara, I was already hooked. I seriously don't care if Mark Zuckerberg is actually a completely different person in real life, the Mark Zuckerberg they showed in this movie was just fascinating. Basically, the guy was a genius but he didn't look like most of your typical lead characters, physically and mentally. Furthermore, he was a disaster in the way he interacted with other people and this whole combination was just spellbinding to behold. So, the writing was quite impressive, but the directing was just as good and so was the acting as well. To conclude, in my opinion, it was yet another really strong directing effort from David Fincher and it is definitely worth a look.