Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

I already saw this movie but, since in 10 days, I will finally see the sequel 13 years after this movie, I was quite eager to check it out again. I remember it very well though, many years before this movie was even released , there was a huge hype surrounding it. Eventually, it became the biggest box-office success ever. Nowadays, pretty much like ‘Titanic’ , the views concerning this flick are pretty extreme and basically, many love it but also many people really hate it so much. So, according to many viewers, it is really overrated but, personally, after seeing Avatar, I realized that 3D movies could be great and not a complete swindle. The story was maybe not original but was still entertaining and, above all, the visuals were just so amazing (and they still are, even when you re-watch it more than 10 years later). Coming out of the movie theater, I had probably the same feeling when people just saw Star Wars back in 1977. I was indeed just blown away... By now, I have seen it a couple of times on Blu-Ray, I still think it is really good. Ok, it may not be as mind-blowing as the first time, in theater, with the 3D and all, but it is still a gorgeous flick and basically a milestone in motion picture history. Coming back on the story, many believe it is just a rehash of ‘Pocahontas’ and even though it is partly true, I still think there is an extra dimension to it. Indeed, the main character finally was able to walk again and suddenly becomes another being and on a psychological and a metaphysical level, it was quite intriguing. Unfortunately, Cameron is no Kubrick and this aspect of the plot was poorly developed and James Cameron preferred to focus on the whole ‘Pocahontas’ intrigue. Anyway, to conclude, even though a lot of people trash this movie, I think it is an amazing Science-Fiction flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I already saw this movie, I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released, but I was quite eager to check it out again after all these years. I have to admit it, I was actually slightly worried about re-watching it. Indeed, when I first saw this movie, now almost 20 years ago, the twist at the end really blew my mind. But, then, since I knew beforehand what would eventually happen, how was I going to enjoy this movie? The fact that Roger Ebert, my favorite critic of all time, really didn’t like it at all didn’t help either. Well, I always thought that it was a movie you could really enjoy only the first time and, obviously, before watching this flick, you should be completely unaware of the twist occurring at the end but, fortunately, I was wrong. Indeed, this movie had a lot more to offer and, after all these years, I still really enjoyed the damned thing. In fact, even the first time around, you can sense that there is something fishy going on. What triggered me at the time was the fact that Pete Postlethwaite was playing a character called ‘Kobayashi’ which didn’t make sense since there was obviously nothing Japanese about Postlethwaite. Of course, at the end, you realize that what you saw was just some complete nonsense or, at least, a good chunk of it but isn’t it actually the case with most of the movies that you watch? Eventually, some viewers like Ebert argued there is actually nothing to understand in this plot and, therefore, it all felt really pointless but I think that’s exactly the point of the whole thing, its pointlessness. I know, it does sound really cryptic but there is no denying that this flick really impressed me, especially the first time around, I think it is a classic and it is definitely worth a look.

I already saw this movie but since I have it on DVD and since I just bought an awesome brand new TV, I thought I might as well check it out again. First of all, once again, 5 years later after Ang Lee made his 'Hulk' which is still considered as one of the worst super-heroes ever made (I think I is actually one of the best movies in this genre but that's a different story), they tried again to launch a franchise around the big green guy and once again, well, they pretty much failed. I mean, in spite of casting Edward Norton, one of the best actors around at the time, and even though it did receive some better reviews than 'Hulk', it didn't become the massive success they were hoping for. Eventually, even though I did like this movie when I saw it in the movie theater when it was released, each time I re-watch it, I find it less and less impressive. First of all, even though it seemed awesome at first that such a respected actor like Edward Norton would play Bruce Banner, he wasn’t amazing after all and, above all, he didn’t look anything like the Hulk, especially if you would compare him to Eric Bana or Mark Ruffalo. A bigger problem was the fact that the story was actually rather weak, even weaker than in ‘Hulk’. I mean, sure, the action scenes were badass, the Hulk looked much better than in Ang Lee’s movie, I’ll give you that, but I really had a hard time to care about this tale and I think it is even more obvious if you watch this movie a couple of times. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is a decent blockbuster though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.