Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since the concept sounded pretty neat, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, it turned out to be a very interesting satire about how our world could look like in 500 years. In my opinion, the whole concept was actually well done and this movie pretty often scored some major points. Unfortunately, the jokes were also very often seriously moronic, the tone was also from the same level and it did drag the whole thing down, I’m afraid. Indeed, it seemed that the makers couldn't avoid making a stupid movie as they were dealing with a stupid world which was too bad. Concerning Mike Judge, it is rather sad that, just like with his directing debut ‘Office Space’, this movie was very poorly released with little to no marketing at all so almost no one saw the damned thing when it was released. And yet, it still became a cult-classic somehow. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was definitely not a great movie, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Mike Judge’s work. 

Before this movie came out, there was some positive buzz about the damned thing but when it was eventually released, the reactions were rather mixed after all. Since it was directed by Michel Gondry, I still wanted to check it out and make my own opinion. Eventually, I'm not really sure what I should think about this flick. Indeed, it must be the goofiest movie I have ever seen as the concept was very nice and intriguing but, honestly, there was nothing much else going for this movie, except for this nice concept. Indeed, in my opinion, the characters were not very well developed and, honestly, while watching this flick, I never really cared for them and what they were going through. Still, it was pretty awesome to  see their remakes which were seriously pretty neat. Another thing that didn't work, in my opinion, is that they tried to make us believe that such 'remakes' would be popular and that some people would pay some money to watch those. Still, in spite of these flaws, I enjoyed this movie because it was goofy, original and harmless and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you enjoyed Michel Gondry's previous flicks.

Seriously, Nicolas Cage’s career has become so underwhelming lately that this movie doesn’t seem so bad after all. However, it still doesn’t mean that it  was any good either, far from it. Indeed, what a lame movie... In fact, Cage shouldn’t be the only one to blame. Indeed, it's actually rather difficult to choose between Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes which one of them gave the weakest performance.  At least, Eva Mendes did look lovely, as usual, but she didn’t have much else to offer. It's really too bad because the whole thing actually really had some potential. Indeed,  Ghost Rider must be one of the most interesting comic-book characters out there, some kind of mean SOB and they could have made something awesome (the recent ‘Deadpool’ displayed that you can deliver a darker comic-book adaptation with some tremendous results). Unfortunately, they really messed up this story and I was rather amazed about how underwhelming the whole thing was after all. Surprisingly, even though this movie was a critical failure and even though it wasn’t even really a box-office success, they still made a sequel 4 years later which turned out to be just as weak as this first installment. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, it was still one of the weakest super-hero features I have seen and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it won the César of the Best French movie of the year, I was really eager to check it out. To be honest, I'm usually not very interested in costume dramas but I was really surprised by this one. Indeed, it was actually very good and it’s a shame that it seems rather forgotten nowadays. Indeed, the directing was very good, something I didn’t really expect from Alain Corneau, the acting was awesome (Gérard Depardieu really blew me away) but, above all, I thought that the story was just fascinating. Indeed, in my opinion, it was a very interesting reflection about Art and the whole thing was just rather mesmerizing to behold. The younger version of Depardieu’s character was actually played by his own son Guillaume Depardieu who displayed some great potential in his acting debut. Unfortunately, this talented actor never really managed to fulfill those great expectations and he eventually died in some real tragic circumstances back in 2008. Anyway, back to our main feature, to conclude, I really liked this movie a lot and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.