Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since it was starring Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, it was probably one of the most derivative titles I came across. To be honest, it’s only afterwards that I discovered that it was based on the 47 Ronin legend but even though it was not as bad as the Keanu Reeves vehicle was, it was still pretty weak though. In fact, even though I didn’t make the connection with ’47 Ronin’, for some reason, this movie did remind me of ‘King Arthur’. Indeed, I did rewatch the damned thing not so long ago and I was rather baffled by how miscast Clive Owen was in this movie. Well, more than 10 years later, Owen was again leading another medieval action flick and, to be honest, I thought the guy was again really unconvincing. It’s such a shame because the 47 Ronin legend is actually pretty awesome and they could make a great movie out of this story. Unfortunately, in this case, the whole thing was just so pretentious and very often rather boring. Especially, in the 2^nd act, was it really necessary to have Clive Owen’s character pretending to be a drunk for so goddamned long? On a narrative level, it was also rather awkward that the really annoying bad guy turned out to be right to be paranoid all along. Eventually, they spent at least half of the duration arguing that this guy was evil, delusional and wasting all kind of resources but, eventually, he was the only one who actually figured out what was going on. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was probably generous with my rating here, the damned thing was just terribly forgettable and you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it definitely had some potential, I’m afraid it never really worked though. Indeed, the two main characters were interesting with some solid performances from Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried but the first thing that really bothered me was the back-and-forth in time. In my opinion, it is usually a useless gimmick and, most of the time, it is used because the makers don’t trust their material enough and try to make it look more sophisticated than it actually is. In this case, it was even more annoying than usual because, instead of focusing on what was happening during the actual scene involving this young woman, I was constantly wondering what happened with her father and the other way around. Concerning the part involving Russell Crowe’s character and his little girl, it was actually working fine, as long as they were focusing on their relationship but everything else was hardly interesting. Indeed, it was rather difficult to care about the lawsuit started by his in-laws as it was not only rather ridiculous but there was no room to actually develop these characters which were basically reduced to some rather underwhelming and unnecessary villains. Finally, it might seem like a small detail but it did seem that Jake Davis’s medical issues were more physical than an actual mental disease. Instead of some rather useless meetings with some fancy lawyers, maybe, they should have given some follow-up sessions involving Davis and his psychologist, especially since he spent more than 6 months in a mental institution. His daughter did get a session with a shrink but it happened just once and you might wonder why they didn’t bring this up again since her life was going through some major changes afterwards. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather half-baked, the two couples involved in the two story-lines were actually quite compelling and I think it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Dick Maas, I thought I might as well check it out. You probably have never heard of Dick Maas but he is actually, after Paul Verhoeven, the most successful Dutch director, at least, according to the box-office. This movie was quite interesting since Maas was working for the first time with some US actors (William Hurt, Jennifer Tilly, Denis Leary, Michael Chiklis) even if the action was still taking place in Amsterdam. By the way, it was rather disappointing that, even though Dick Maas was/is a major Dutch director and even though the action was taking place in Amsterdam, none of the locals were speaking at all Dutch with each other. Anyway, even if the damned thing was not as disappointing as Maas’s recent output was, I didn't care much for it, I’m afraid. It’s too bad because the concept actually had some potential. Indeed, the idea of a mute girl always telling some far-fetched stories suddenly witnessing a murder was actually pretty neat. I also liked the idea that the whole thing was taking place during their first night in Amsterdam and there was a really wild and actually well-made chase towards the end. Unfortunately, not only the whole thing looked really cheap but it was above all so poorly written. First of all, William Hurt and Jennifer Tilly were both completely wasted with some rather half-baked characters. Furthermore, beyond the fact that the jokes were constantly lousy, the script was just so lazy. For example, sure, this little girl might bump into a murder in the seedy streets of Amsterdam, why not? However, it was just so far-fetched that the victim was in fact the very same guy that her father was supposed to meet a couple of hours later on. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse from this director, it was still pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to be another critical success from Paolo Sorrentino and since it was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, I have to admit that, even though I do admire Sorrentino's work, I have never been a huge fan though and, once again, I did end up with a similar feeling after watching this last directorial effort. I mean, as usual with Sorrentino, the damned thing was visually really strong, especially the opening scenes, and the guy always provides a fairly mesmerizing mood. Furthermore, I have to admit that the beginning was actually quite hilarious, even if I did have a hard time to keep track of all the characters involved and what was actually going on. Unfortunately, they didn’t keep up this energy much longer and the rest of the movie was then intriguing but, to be honest, not much more than that. There was also the issue of the main character, obviously based on Sorrentino himself. I mean, afterwards, I understand that the guy was someone who was more an observer, noticing all kinds of interesting and odd things about anyone crossing his path which eventually will be really helpful when he would become a film director at some point. However, even if I did appreciate the fact that Sorrentino made sure that this younger version of himself was not displayed as some kind of genius, it did backfire since he was really passive and not really fascinating after all. Furthermore, his aspiration of becoming a film director completely came out of the blue and I think it was the first time I saw someone dreaming of becoming a film maker who had actually watched so very few movies (a fact acknowledged by the character himself). The fact that the guy would eventually become one of the most heralded Italian directors was even more frustrating, at least, to me who has watched more than 6000 movies so far. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely win me over, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Paolo Sorrentino’s work.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a solid cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, it was a pretty badass title, that’s for sure, and it was also a really ambitious Western epic. Indeed, it was involving no less than 4 directors (John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, Richard Thorpe). It was also one of the very few fictional features shot in Cinerama which was a short-lived widescreen process involving a complicated three synchronized cameras and the projecting of the actual film on a huge deeply curved screen. Obviously, I didn’t see in its original format and, if you watch it nowadays, since it has been formatted so you can watch it on a regular TV, there is nothing really peculiar about it except that it was with a very widescreen aspect ratio. Anyway, from an historical point of view, this movie was still pretty neat since you get to see 60 years of the US history in a fairly accurate way. However, even if their approach was fairly neutral, the tone was just too light for me. Seriously, it was even borderline cheesy at some point. Concerning the cast, of course, there was the issue that James Stewart was at least 20 years too old to play his part and was therefore really miscast (Stewart did acknowledge this fact himself). At least, the rest of the cast was really neat and was actually pretty much spot-on (James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Karl Malden, George Peppard, Eli Wallach, Russ Tamblyn). Unfortunately, I didn’t care much for any of these characters though. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.