Reviews by johanlefourbe

I don’t know if you have noticed but I tend to be rather random with my movies and I very often end up watching some really obscure features just because there was 1 or 2 interesting actors involved. This movie was a perfect example and the main reason I watched it was because the lovely Emmy Rossum was involved. By the way, what happened to her? Indeed, after showing up 2004 in both ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, she was supposed to become the next best thing but, in the following 5 years, she did only ‘Poseidon’ and ‘Dragonball Evolution’ which were both some massive critical flops and her career never seemed to really recover. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I can't say I was blown away by the whole thing. I mean, it was a decent watch and the cast and especially Jason Isaacs was not bad at all but the movie took really forever to take off. I have to admit it that Sofia Milos looked really gorgeous in this movie though and I might end up watching ‘CSI: Miami’ just for her. Anyway to conclude, it was not bad at all and if you like romantic comedies, you may end up enjoying it even more than I did.

Even though I should re-watch ‘Halloween’ at some point, to be honest, I wasn’t exactly blown away by the whole thing. I mean, I respect this movie for the impact it had on the horror genre and I thought it was decent but, in my opinion, it didn't grow old very well. With this in mind, I wasn't expecting much from this 6th sequel and there were basically two things that appeal to me about this feature. First of all, I liked the idea that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) would have a new confrontation against Michael Myers once again 20 years later, even though it would be rather improbable when you think about it. The second thing which I found intriguing was that the cast was actually pretty interesting for a horror film like this one (Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, LL Cool J, Janet Leigh, Joseph Gordon-Levitt). However, the whole thing was still rather disappointing. I mean, the story was really standard and it was neither really scary or entertaining, in my opinion. Eventually, 4 years later, they would make one final installment, also starring Jamie Lee Curtis, but it seemed to be even worse. Anyway, to conclude, I was rather bored by the whole thing and I don't think it is really worth a look, expect maybe if you are die-hard fan of this franchise.

I don’t know if you have noticed but I tend to be rather random with my movies and I very often end up watching some really obscure features just because there was 1 or 2 interesting actors involved. This movie was a perfect example and I was rather curious to watch it only because Tobey Maguire and Benicio del Toro were involved. Unfortunately, the end-result turned out to be rather disappointing. I mean, I don’t think we should blame either Maguire or Del Toro, they both tried very hard, but the material was just really weak and there was no way they could save this movie. Seriously, the directing was borderline amateurish, the story was just average and even the characters were not interesting whatsoever. Coming back to Tobey Maguire, the very same year, he would have his breakthrough with ‘The Ice Storm’ but we don’t hear much from him anymore which is too bad because I always thought he was a decent actor. Anyway, to conclude, even though I have seen worse, I think I have been rather generous with my rating here, the whole thing 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 have a weak spot for Simon Pegg, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, the first issue I had with this movie is that Thandie Newton was in fact completely miscast in my opinion. I mean, it is not that she was bad but, in fact, she is so gorgeous that I had a hard time to believe that anyone, especially someone looking like Simon Pegg, would actually drop her on the altar.  I mean, right away, that was something really difficult to admit. Still, I really like Simon Pegg and, as usual, he was quite funny here but, without him, I’m not sure I would have cared at all for this rather pedestrian story. It is interesting to note that this movie was actually David Schwimmer’s directing debut. Eventually, a few years later, he would release a follow-up called ‘Trust’ which was something completely different, a really strong and rather heartbreaking drama. Anyway, to conclude,  in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent comedy and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

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.