Reviews by johanlefourbe

I remember quite well when this movie was released. Indeed, there was a pretty good buzz about it, especially because H. R Giger was involved in the design of the monster in this movie. Eventually, it took me many years to finally watch the damned thing but, unfortunately, it turned out to be a huge disappointment. It’s too bad because this concept was not bad at all, some kind of erotic SF thriller and there was a very nice cast involved (Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Forest Whitaker, Marg Helgenberger, Natasha Henstridge, Michelle Williams). Unfortunately, the whole thing was just really poorly developed, I wasn't really convinced by the story at all and even the special effects turned out to be rather underwhelming. Concerning the lovely Natasha Henstridge, I guess it seemed to be a smart move at first to make her acting debut in such a high-profile science-fiction production and I have to admit that she was perfectly cast here but I’m afraid she was never taken seriously during her career afterwards.  To conclude, I was seriously disappointed by the whole thing,  it is basically an average B science-fiction flick and it is not really worth a look in my opinion. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have always had a weak spot for Emily Blunt, I thought I might as well check it out. Indeed, it was Blunt’s 2^nd movie, she was just about 20 years but she already displayed some skills here. Indeed, I really liked the damned thing and, above all, I thought that the story was quite spellbinding. I mean,  the whole thing was in fact nothing really original and it was fairly predictable but it was well made and it worked very well for me. Eventually, there were in my opinion 2 things that prevented the whole thing to become really amazing. First of all, Emily Blunt did such a fine job in creating this spoiled bitch that it became rather difficult to actually root her and to root for the new relationship between the 2 girls. Even more problematic was the whole sub-plot involving the brother. Indeed, even though this character was also very well played by Paddy Considine and while it was interesting, it didn’t fit very well with this love story. Anyway, to conclude, even though I don’t think it is really a masterpiece, it was still a very nice watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Emily Blunt’s work. 

Obviously, since I kept hearing so many bad things about this flick, I didn’t expect much from it  but, I have to admit it, I was still curious and I was really wondering if it was really so terrible. Eventually, I just have to agree, the whole thing is pretty much awful. In fact, I was actually sometimes smiling but not because it was funny but more because it was so bad. I mean, even though I was never a huge fan of Austin Powers, somehow, this character worked while this character Guru Pitka was never entertaining whatsoever. Eventually, I felt pretty bad for Justin Timberlake  who was really the only redeeming feature in this mess. Indeed, once again, Timberlake actually gave a pretty good performance which was quite remarkable since the material was just so abysmal. Unfortunately, this movie itself was some total garbage and, since then, the career of Mike Myers has still not recovered from the blow. Indeed, during the next 8 years, he only showed up for a small cameo in ‘Inglourious Basterds’ and he did one last installment for the Shrek franchise which is definitely not much. To conclude, it is just a very lame comedy, possibly one of the worst I have ever seen, and I would really advise you to avoid it.

To be honest, since I'm not a big fan of musicals,  I wasn’t really sure about what to expect fromt this flick but it had a solid reputation, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, I really had a good time and I thought it was quite entertaining. Gene Kelly is definitely an amazing dancer (I always thought he was much more interesting than Fred Astaire) and there were indeed some impressive dancing numbers, probably the best I have ever seen in fact. Back then, there was a big controversy because ‘An American in Paris’ managed to sweep the Oscars while 'Singin in the rain' was snobbed when it was in fact considered a much superior movie by many. In fact, later on, I did watch [Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see]and, in my opinion,  I thought that the dancing scenes were actually much more impressive in this movie. Unfortunately, I really had a hard time to care for the story which was rather weak but I guess it is rather inherent to the genre. Anyway, to conclude, even though I wasn’t completely blown away by the whole thing,  it is still a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but since I'm a big fan of Donald Sutherland, I thought I might as well check it out. The main problem with Sutherland is that even though he has always been a fine actor, at least half of his movies were actually pretty much garbage, especially the ones he made in the 80’s and the 90’s and this movie was a fine example. In fact, I read somewhere that Jamie Lee Curtis actually really hated the damned thing. Eventually, I don’t think it was really so bad as the special effects and suspense scenes were decent but there is no denying that the whole thing was nothing very original or interesting either. I mean, if you don't expect too much before watching the damned thing, I guess you won’t be too disappointed though.  Basically, it was a very average B movie but I have never been a fan of the genre and I was pretty much bored by the whole thing. For John Bruno, a special effects specialist who had worked on such big productions like ‘Titanic’, it would be the first and last directing effort. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, it was still pretty weak and I don’think it is worth a look at all.

To be honest, it seemed to be a rather obscure feature but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well give it a try. Eventually, I really liked how the whole thing started. Indeed, it was dealing with a part of History which was really unknown to me. Unfortunately, the main story itself was not actually dealing with this interesting introduction (a little bit like ‘Saving Private Ryan’, a decent movie which is really overrated in my opinion). Eventually, instead, we got some supposedly inspiring true tale but, to be honest, I wasn't really blown away and it was not really fascinating whatsoever in my opinion. Indeed, it used the very old gimmick of the selfish ambitious lead character who somehow along the way grows a conscience and starts to care of a good deed instead of himself. I mean, sure, the directing was decent but, at the end of the day, the acting and the dialogues were not really convincing and the characters were fairly stereotypical and rather boring. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I think it was an interesting watch, especially the introduction, so I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Even though I'm a big fan of Paul Newman, I have never managed to watch so many of his movies (only 15 so far)  so I was really eager to check this flick. This movie was in fact a sequel to his hit ‘Harper’ and it was pretty neat to see Newman playing this pretty cool character almost a decade later. Anyway, eventually, as usual, Paul Newman was pretty good but, unfortunately, the story was seriously convoluted and I kind of missed some details. On top of that, I saw this movie on the BBC without subtitles which didn’t help but, even so, I just didn’t care much for this story. On the bright side, I have to admit that it was pretty nice to see a very young Melanie Griffith who looked just lovely back in those days. Eventually, 40 years later, there is not much left of her good looks as she is one of the best example of how misguided plastic surgery can turned out to be. Anyway, to conclude, it was a well done but unoriginal detective tale but I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Paul Newman's work.