Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Catherine Zeta-Jones and Guy Pearce, I thought I might as well give it a try. On top of that, I am a huge fan of movies involving magicians, illusions and such tricks. For example, 'The Prestige' is definitely one of the my all-time favorite movie. So, since this movie was dealing with Harry Houdini, arguably the best or at least the most famous illusionist that ever lived, there was definitely some potential for something really neat. Unfortunately, this flick eventually failed to really impress me. I mean, I’ll give you that, the movie was well done with some nice directing and I don’t think that the actors should be blamed as they did what they could with this material but the story was not really captivating, I’m afraid. It’s just a shame that, with someone so fascinating with such a rich life, they couldn’t come up with a better tale than this one. Anyway, to conclude, even though it turned out to be a disappointment, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since it won the Best picture Academy award back in 1955, I was quite eager to check it out. After watching the damned thing, the first thing I thought was how interesting it was that such a small and low key feature would actually win the Best picture Academy award. Indeed, do you think it would have a chance against our contemporary epics with a huge budget such as ‘Gladiator’, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, ‘Dance with the Wolves’, or ‘Titanic’? Even if  some smaller productions did win the big prize recently like ‘Spotlight’, ‘Birdman’ or ’12 Years a Slave’, they were still much more ambitious than this movie. Eventually, the fact it was so small was definitely part of its charm and why it was fairly successful commercially and critically when it was released. For Ernest Borgnine, a character actor throughout all his lengthy career, it was definitely a all-time high and he even won the Academy award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance. Anyway, I thought it was charming movie, with a a really solid Ernest Borgnine 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. Anyway, following this amazing process, I ended up watching some rather obscure movies and this one was definitely one of them. Indeed, since I had never heard about this movie before, I really didn't know what to expect before watching the damned thing but I have to admit it, it was in fact not bad at all. Obviously, the premise really sounded lame and, yet, there were some really hilarious scenes. Unfortunately, there were also a lot of weird stuff and a few very awkward situations that were actually more painful than actually entertaining to behold. On top of that, I’m not sure that Allen Covert was really the best choice to play the lead. To conclude, I guess maybe it's more enjoyable if you're completely stoned but I have to admit it, it was miles better than I expected and I actually think it is really worth a look especially if you like the genre.

Even though this movie had a rather lame reputation, since I always had a weak spot for Wes Craven, I thought I should check it out. Indeed, Wes Craven was a pretty cool director and he has made some awesome movies. However, this was definitely not one of them... Apparently, I read somewhere that the production was a mess and you could see it on the screen. Indeed, Craven spent more than 2 years on this movie, shooting, re-shooting, and re-shooting again with a different script and a really different cast. Eventually, the end-result was seriously weak with a really lame story, some lame dialogues and some lame special effects. It was even supposed to be R rated but, once again, the Weinstein brothers changed their mind and went for a PG-13, ruining even more the whole thing even more. You might wonder if the original version might not have worked better but we’ll never know, I’m afraid. For Wes Craven, the blow on his career was huge and the only films he would manage to make afterwards would be the rather weak ‘Scream 4’ and the even more underwhelming ‘My Soul to Take’ which was just really sad. To conclude, the whole thing is rather disastrous and you should probably avoid it.

Ever since ‘The Sixth Sense’ turned out to be one of the most overrated movies ever made, I had my doubts about M. Night Shyamalan’s qualities as a director. However, even if I had some doubts, I have to admit that the guy had some skills and I would have never expected his career to become such a disaster. Indeed, not so long ago, a movie directed by this guy was patiently awaited by movie fans around the world. I mean, up to ‘The Village’ or, at least, ‘Signs’, his movies were quite successful at the box-office. But it all changed with the dreadful ‘Lady in the Water’ (which is still his worst movie so far). Indeed, nowadays, all his movies are awaited with dread and they all crash and burned at the box-office and they are always destroyed by the critics. With this movie, it seemed that Shyamalan was going towards a complete new direction and, even though I was maybe in the minority, I thought that the whole thing actually had some potential. Indeed, even though I never really followed this TV show, I did watch it a couple of times with my kids and, if done properly, it could be turned into an awesome franchise. Unfortunately, the end-result was just terribly weak and underwhelming, frustrating all the fans of this beloved TV-show. The outcry at the time was so huge that, even though it was quite successful internationally, any planned sequels was just cancelled. Visually, it was not bad but the plot and characters were just really poorly developed. This could be linked to the bizarre decision to adapt a 20-episode TV season into only 90 minutes. Anyway, it was another mess coming from this director and it is considered by many as one of the worst movies ever made. To conclude, in my opinion, honestly, it was not as bad as 'Lady in the water' but it was still a very average flick.

To be honest, it has been years since I have seen this movie and maybe I should check it out again at some point. Anyway, even though this movie has a rather poor reputation, especially if you compare it to Woody Allen’s more prestigious work, I always had a weak spot for the damned thing. Indeed,  even though I'm not sure if it is the most hilarious movie I have ever seen, it is definitely the most hilarious title ever and it did have some hilarious moments. Indeed, for this movie, Woody Allen went pretty wild and the whole thing was quite hysterical. Obviously, I have to admit it, like any other anthology film, not all segments were really amazing but I thought  that all of them were actually fairly enjoyable. My favorite segment was probably the last one, when you get to see some sperm just before they are ‘launched’ into the great unknown. It was just pitch-perfect and I also enjoyed the previous segment about some weird sexual experimental going wrong as it was completely absurd but really entertaining as well. Anyway, to conclude, even though it is probably not a masterpiece, I really liked the damned thing and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Woody Allen's work.