Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. Like anyone else, I really loved ‘La vita e bella’ so even though I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick, I was rather curious to watch this new flick directed by Roberto Begnini. Eventually, even though it never reached the level of ‘La vita e bella’, the whole concept definitely had some potential but, unfortunately, this tale really took forever to finally take off. It was still worth the wait though  since then there were a few good moments and a few laughs afterwards. Surprisingly, it would be the last movie directed by Begnini as he hasn’t released anything new during the last 15 years. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Begnini’s work. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, somehow, I still ended up watching the damned thing. Basically, I always had a weak spot for Josh Hartnett and Leelee Sobieski but, to be honest, they both eventually had some rather underwhelming careers which is too bad since they both they really had some potential. Anyway, in this movie, they did what they could but I’m afraid it was just terribly lame. Seriously, this concept was just rather pathetic so the whole thing was pretty hopeless right from the start, I’m afraid. Eventually, I was just bored to death by the whole thing which wasn't entertaining or original at all. Concerning Chris Klein, he made this flick just after ‘American Pie’ and, following the success of ‘American Pie’, pretty much like anyone else in this cast (Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari), the guy became quite popular overnight. However, just like his other colleagues from ‘American Pie’, after several misguided choices (this movie is a fine example), his career is nowadays pretty much going nowhere. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, I think I’m being quite generous with my rating here, it was just really weak and you should pretty much just avoid it.

I don’t know if you have noticed but I tend to be really random with my movie watching. As a result, I have watched some really obscure movies and this movie definitely belonged to this group. In fact, I think I even missed something with this movie. I mean, by now, I have seen more than 5000 movies and I have watched pretty much everything from your average blockbusters to the artistic, poetic or philosophical movies but, for some reasons, I really didn’t get this movie at all. I mean, the directing was pretty good, Anne Bancroft was great but, seriously, what the hell was this all about??? Honestly, in spite of Bancroft’s impressive performance, I never really understood what was the deal with the main character so I can't say I really enjoyed it. On the other hand, I did watch the damned thing on the BBC without subtitles, so maybe, I really missed something but I doubt it and, in my opinion, it is easily one of the most opaque movies I have ever seen. To conclude, even though I didn’t really connect with this movie, I still think it is watch an interesting watch and it is actually worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, I wasn’t disappointed, in fact, I was really blown away by the whole thing. Indeed, what a suspense ! I think it is quite shame that this flick seems to be pretty much forgotten nowadays since it is actually, in my opinion, easily one of the best movies I have seen in this genre. Indeed, this movie was just so raw, so realistic, I really enjoyed how the whole thing almost looked like a documentary and it was seriously spellbinding to behold. What I most dislike in modern thrillers, is that they are always so over-the-top, even a great classic like ‘The Silence of the Lambs’. But this one stay grounded until the very end, it is really focused and just completely captivating from the beginning until the very end. When you look at the damned thing, it is pretty obvious that it would provide some great material for a modern remake and they did indeed try to remake it. The end-result would be ‘The Jackal’, a rather abysmal action starring Richard Gere and Bruce Willis. Seriously, when you watch this remake, you wonder how they managed to turn something so brilliant into something so tedious. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I thought it was a great flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are tired of all those lame modern thrillers like me.

Can you believe that I have seen every single movie starring Eddie Murphy?!? Fortunately, I didn’t pay to watch any of them, I just saw them on TV for free but, even so, it felt like a huge waste of time after all. So, from all his movies, this one probably had one of the worst concepts and it was indeed a box office and critical failure when it was released. To be honest, even though it might sound surprising, I actually thought it was in fact not bad at all and, in my case, it was one of the very few movies starring Eddie Murphy which I found at least a little bit entertaining. I mean, even though Murphy was playing the lead, I didn’t care much for his character who was in fact rather lame and completely unbelievable. In fact,  it was Jeff Goldblum who really saved his movie for me. Indeed, even though the material was rather lame, I thought he was actually really good and very often quite hilarious. Anyway, to conclude, there is a fair chance that my rating might be way too high for this movie, it is indeed a rather average flick but I still think it is worth a look though, if only for Jeff Goldum.

To be honest, I’m not sure how I actually ended up watching this flick. I guess it was because there were a couple of interesting actors involved but it was definitely an obscure feature. Since I had never heard of this flick before, I didn't really know what to expect from the damned thing but, eventually, I thought it was actually pretty decent. I mean, obviously, it was nothing original and, usually, I don’t care for such thrillers as they always use the same old gimmicks. However, here, somehow, I thought that the story was fairly entertaining and the characters were interesting enough. Basically, it is a rather subtle movie and most of it worked very well. Above all, it was nice to see Edward Burns finally working in a nice movie for once. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for this actor but, to be honest, most of his recent movies have been some major garbage (‘27 dresses’, ‘A sound of thunder’, ‘One Missed Call, ‘Echelon Conspiracy’, ...). To conclude, maybe I was a little bit generous with my rating here but I thought it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see something watchable starring Edward Burns.