Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since this movie is rather obscure, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the damned thing but since I'm a huge fan of Thomas Vinterberg, I was really curious to check it out. Following ‘Festen’, his great masterpiece, Vinterberg spent afterwards 5 long years and no less than $10 millions on ‘It’s All About Love’, a movie which turned out to be a huge flop and was completely destroyed by the critics. Well, this time, it took him only a year to come up with something new and even though this follow-up was not as good as 'Festen' and even though it once again received some mixed reviews, I thought it was still pretty interesting. Indeed, not only was it directed by Thomas Vinterberg, it was also written by Lars von Trier and, together, they made a rather weird movie about weapons in the USA. Unfortunately,  the movie didn't really give any conclusion or clear view on the subject and, as a a result, it was a little bit too cryptic for me and it made the whole thing rather frustrating to behold. Still, even though it didn’t really win me over, there was still something quite mesmerizing about this movie and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Thomas Vinterberg’s work.  

Even though this movie is pretty obscure (I was only the 4^th listal member who has rated the damned thing), for some reason, I thought it seemed pretty neat so I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, the whole thing turned out to be really underwhelming, I’m afraid. It’s too bad because the concept of the story was actually quite interesting and it definitely had some potential. Indeed, you started in our world and, somehow, ended up in this fantasy world which was pretty neat but this whole idea was really poorly developed. On top of that, the animation was really mixed as the whole thing was some times decent to look at but, for some other scenes, it just looked really average, especially when the characters were in motion. Eventually, the biggest problem with this movie was the fact that I was just really bored during the whole duration. To conclude, it was another interesting attempt to make a CGI animated in Europe (this movie was the first German CGI animated feature) but the end-result was just terribly disappointing and I don’t think it is really worth a look, even if you have a weak spot for the genre. 

Honestly, since the whole thing looked pretty lame, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but I still ended up watching the damned thing. I mean, I have nothing really against Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher but everybody knows they can be pretty annoying. So, I wonder who thought that it would a great idea to put them together in a movie.  Eventually, even the concept of the 2 characters getting married in Vegas was just pretty lame, the whole thing was just really predictable and, above all, rather boring to behold. Basically,  it all felt like a PG version of ‘The Hangover’. I mean, I have never been a huge fan of ‘The Hangover’ franchise, especially with these underwhelming sequels, but at least, the makers understood that if you were going to talk about people getting shitfaced in Las Vegas, then you should go all the way. Here, you get instead one of these fake raunchy comedies (some kind of specialty for Cameron Diaz if you check her career) and the end-results was indeed pretty weak. To conclude, even though I have seen worse,  it was still a really average romantic comedy and it is not worth a look, even 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. Honestly, before watching this, I wasn't expecting much with this flick but I didn't expect it to be so bad... Indeed, basically, they tried to provide some black humor but it was simply not funny at all and, eventually, I think it must be one of the worst school related flicks I have ever seen in my life. Some jokes were so bad, it was obvious that the makers wanted to shock the viewers but it was just really pathetic to see. The whole thing was just downright embarrassing and, clearly, this movie was a career low point for all the people involved, even for Jason Biggs. To conclude, it was pretty bad, it is definitely not worth a look and you should probably just avoid it.

When I first heard about this movie, I thought it sounded really promising so I was quite eager to check it out. Indeed, it is always intriguing when a US production hires a great actress like Juliette Binoche. Eventually she was, as usual, really good here and it was very nice to see her doing something else. I was also impressed by Emily Blunt who once again stole the show in a rather small part and it is such a shame she never really managed to become a major leading actress, at least, that’s my opinion. Concerning Steve Carell, I thought he was all right but he didn’t really impress me. Anyway, eventually, it turned out to be a decent watch but not much more than that, I’m afraid. Indeed, they basically tried to mix comedy and drama which is something really tricky and even though, it did work for some scenes, with some other scenes, this mix was rather awkward. A couple of years before, the same director made ‘Pieces of April’ and I thought it worked better. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still not bad at all is and I think it is still definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Seriously, I thought this movie was just awful. How the hell did I actually ended up watching this flick?!? Indeed, I just despised the first instalment and even though it was a massive success in France, I thought it was easily one of the most overrated movies ever produced so I should probably have avoided this sequel. The whole story is, in fact, that I was able to buy the 1st three movies on DVD and they were just 1 euro for each so I thought I might as well give this franchise a second chance. Well, the 2nd time around, I still hated the first instalment and this sequel was not really better or worse. Indeed, it was so lame... Once again, they gave us another bad story, some bad acting and some really really average action scenes...You may wonder why I watched the whole franchise if I hate it so much... Good question! Well, the point is that I'm a big fan of  Marion Cotillard and I try to see everything she is in it. By the way, she was completely under-used in all 3 movies so that was quite a waste of time. At least, with this 3rd instalment, they gave us a cameo by Sylvester Stallone but, for some reasons, he was dubbed in French so even this neat cameo was actually ruined. Anyway, to conclude, it was pretty bad and you should avoid this garbage.

Ever since I have been living in the Netherlands, I have been interested in Dutch movies. However, in my opinion, it is a rather small industry, especially if you compare it to France, and most of the Dutch movies terribly usually lack any kind of ambition so most of them turn out to be rather underwhelming. Still, from time to time, they release some really interesting features  and this movie was definitely one of them. The sad thing is that even though it was probably one of the best Dutch movies released during that particularly year, pretty much no one in the Netherlands actually saw the damned thing when it came out. Anyway, it was indeed a very realistic movie with some very good performances, especially by Frank Lammers who is definitely one of the best Dutch actors at work nowadays. Unfortunately, even though I’m nowadays fluent in Dutch, I still had a hard time to follow everything said by the actors and it prevented the whole thing from getting a (probably deserved) higher rating. Anyway, to conclude, even though it might not be a real masterpiece, I really liked this movie a lot and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movies.