Reviews by johanlefourbe

Nowadays, we don’t hear much from Michael Moore but there was a time when the guy was the most successful documentary maker in the world. Basically, it is with this movie that he got his breakthrough and, even though I always enjoyed his work, this movie was much better than anything he has ever done before or after his career. Indeed, the whole thing was just fascinating to behold and I would go as far as saying that it is pretty much my favorite documentary. I mean, sure, I’m well aware of the fact that Michael Moore has been accused of being dishonest and of manulating his material and, obviously, the whole thing was seriously biased but it didn't matter to me. More than a decade later, we still hear on a regular basis such horrible stories coming from the USA and, for most of the Europeans like me, it is rather difficult to understand why they are still attached to their antic gun laws after so many lives have been lost so pointlessly. Anyway, in my opinion, this movie is at the same time entertaining, moving and educating, I think it is a great achievement and by far the best movie delivered by Michael Moore.

I don’t know if you have noticed it but I tend to really random concerning the movies I watch and, rather often, I end up watching some really obscure features like this one (I was only the 2nd listal member who has rated the damned thing). In this case, the main reason I wanted to check it out was because such fine actors like Gabriel Byrne and William Hurt were involved but  even though they did a decent job, they couldn't prevent this movie from being really generic and above all rather boring. Basically, I have seen in the past too many movies with a similar plot before (the most obvious example would be ‘The Juror’ starring Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin and, to my surprise, it was released 2 years after this movie when I thought it was in fact the other way around). On top of that, when you think about it for a few minutes, it is clearly a rather preposterous concept, to be honest and, to make things worse, this flick didn't offer anything new or original. To conclude, I think I was rather generous with my rating here, I thought the whole thing was just plain average and it is definitely not  worth a look.

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, I had no idea what to expect from this movie but since it was directed by Richard Attenborough, I was quite eager to check it out (it would be in fact his last directing effort and it is rather sad that such an acclaimed director would end up his career with a direct-to-DVD feature that was barely seen by anyone). Anyway,  even though it was nothing really ground-breaking,  I thought it was not bad at all. Indeed, this movie was well made and quite well acted but, unfortunately, the story was rather far-fetched. However, there was a rather impressive cast (Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Neve Campbell, Pete Postlethwaite, Mischa Barton) and, in my opinion, a movie directed by Richard Attenborough is always worth a look.

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this movie but since it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film festival, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, even though I did admire this movie, I have to admit that I had a rather hard time to really connect with the whole thing. I mean, sure, on one hand, I thought this movie was very well made. Indeed, it was visually pretty neat and the whole thing was quite mesmerizing to behold thanks also to some really solid performances. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I missed many things. Basically, it is one of these movies were the characters really don’t talk that much so you are really never sure what they think, what they feel and what the hell is actually going on with them. I guess I might not be smart enough as I didn't get all the symbolism involved but it still think it was a beautiful movie. To conclude, even though I wasn’t completely blown away by the whole thing, it was still a fine movie to watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Asian movies.

After struggling for so many years, Ryan Reynolds finally got a hit with ‘Deadpool’ (as a matter of fact, I still have to watch the damned thing).  Through all these years, the guy has done pretty much everything : indies, horror flicks, romantic-comedies, action stuff, thrillers, and many super-hero features. Most of them eventually flopped critically and commercially. Well, this movie was one of his comedies and I’m afraid it was rather forgettable. Indeed, I can't say I really enjoyed the damned thing. I mean, Ryan Reynolds was definitely charismatic, Amy Smart was as usual really cute, they had some decent chemistry and the whole was sometimes fairly entertaining.  However, in some scenes, especially the ones involving Anna Faris, the whole thing became just so  annoying, it was rather cringe-inducing to behold. Basically, Faris launched her whole career playing such obnoxious girls and  it worked so well for her that she is nowadays mostly famous for being married to Chris Pratt. Concerning the director Roger Kumble, he actually started out with (the rather overrated) ‘Cruel Intentions’ but it went all downhill from there for him and nowadays he just gets hired to direct some episodes on some random TV-shows. Anyway, to conclude, it was a rather weak romantic-comedy with a very poorly developed concept and I don’t think it is is really worth a look.

Even though this movie was certainly not a priority, for some reasons, I still ended up watching the damned thing in the movie theater with my step-son. I guess there wasn't much else to see at the movie-theater at the time. Anyway, before watching this, I wasn't expecting much but, eventually, I thought it was not bad at all after all. To be honest, I didn't really follow the whole story (in my opinion, it wasn't exactly really thrilling) but the best quality of this flick was in fact its animation. Indeed, the whole thing was seriously gorgeous to look at and, only for this, I think it is worth checking this flick. To be honest, I think it will have some difficulty to find an audience since the owls may look too childish for the adults but the tone might be too dark for the young children (the really convoluted title probably probably won’t help either). It's too bad because it is a very original animated feature compared to the usual productions delivered by Pixar and Dreamworks. To conclude, I thought it was not bad at all and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in animated features.

Before watching this flick, I had some rather mixed feelings about this feature. Indeed, on hand, there was a fair chance the whole thing would be terribly lame and I always thought that Brendan Fraser was one of the most underwhelming actors ever. On the other hand, I thought that the concept definitely had some potential and, above all, Elizabeth Hurley was completely born to play this part. So, I thought could be funny and/or sexy but, unfortunately, it was neither of them. Indeed, as usual, Brendan Fraser was really pathetic but I don’t think he was even the biggest problem here. Indeed, I thought the whole thing was just plain average and simply rather boring to behold. I mean, with a concept like this one, they could have delivered something edgy and slightly dangerous but, instead, they went for a safe and completely tedious tale with a PG-13 rating (always the kiss of death for a supposedly sexy comedy like this one). For Harold Ramis, it was another disappointing directing effort and we were far from the greatness displayed by ‘Groundhog Day’ with this movie. To conclude, even though it could have been a fun movie, it was really weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look.