lionel25 Reviews

City of Ember (2008)

A charming fantasy tale

[9/10 · 1 March 2009]

I saw this movie 2 days ago in a very rainy day. I wanted to escape worries of the day-to-day life, and I gave this movie a shot without really knowing what I should expected from it. And what a surprise! This movie was a great adventure fantasy movie with a good plot, a coherent universe and sweet characters. Probably the movie was targeted principally for kids but as an adult I never got bored a minute. I think that nowadays we do not have enough of these movies that main purpose is to create a viable alternative universe and allow you travel fro a few hours far away from your place. And this one does, so don't hesitate if you tired of watching City of Lost children for the 25th time, or you know all the dialogues of Dark City by heart, a must!

Dirty Harry (1971)

Good but looks slightly old-fashioned

[7/10 · 1 March 2009]

Difficult to comment such a movie... If you review it at the time it went out or nowadays, the appreciation is going to be very different. Indeed when it went out the movie was pretty violent and dark, with very incisive dialogues, but now compare to what we similarly make today ("In Bruges" for example), it looks quite old-fashioned. However if you put aside the lack logic in police procedures and some "loose" in the pace, many things are still extremely good. First of all some of the dialogues are still and always be memorable. Secondly there are some great acting skills that still impress today. For example, Clint Eastwood is truly amazing there, playing an inspector who is fair but doesn't make any concessions. In conclusion, a must see if you a cinema enthusiast, or a fan of Clint Eastwood, otherwise you should probably see something more recent.

Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)

Another poor attempt to capitalize on Resident Evil franchise

[5/10 · 7 December 2008]

It is amazing to see how biased are most of the comments of this movie. It looks like to make a good movie you need to use similar graphic cut-scenes than of the games, ad-up a few zombies, and of course bring back Leon and Clair. That should't be enough even for the biggest fan of the game! I am a big fan and having playing all the game what are they all about? Fear! There is a reason why it is called a survival horror... Fear is taking you up because of the dark, oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere. Arround you chaos, empty rooms, and limited light. In the background silence, except once in a while a few moans. To defend yourself only a small guns filled only with two last ammo... When do we get close to that feeling in this movie? Never, apart from a 2 minutes scene at the airport, which will not even be that oppressive because you'd spend your time wondering why on earth the characters are that stupid (two minutes earlier they ve been drilled to shoot on sight and in the head, and even though they are well trained SWATs, they run up to try to help the zombie guy... And later shoot everywhere apart from the head! Unbelievable... So no this movie is bad, and contrary to popular belief even worse than the movies from Anderson. Actually his movies wasn't that bad, the first one was quite descent (at least you feel slightly oppressed watching it), and the third one even though it stretched a lot the franchise was a good action movie. The second was terrible. Ruining the scariest villain of the series is unforgivable.

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Fun action scenes and... well nothing else!

[5/10 · 26 September 2007]

It s been a while I have not seen a great action movie with a lot of explosions, gunshots, fights, and cars chases. And honestly even though the scenes are pretty unrealistic Die Hard 4 delivers quite amazing moments. Of course Mclaine is more a superhero than a real human and therefore can survive pretty much anything, but after all everything about Bruce Willis special abilities was explained in "Unbreakable" and the main purpose of an action movie is to show off and not to stick closely to reality... Therefore the main problem with this movie is somewhere else! The scenario! *****May contain Spoilers********* I mean even though it is quite unrealistic it starts pretty well with an organization because a very long and well planned plan has taken control the US computers network... And not just superficially, the whole TV network, financial network, traffic network, but not somehow the power network, they have to do it manually (after all why not?). But then after a nearly "End of the World" start, you discover that their only reason for that is to get a ransom for some data! The bad guys offer to clear all the debt of Bruce Willis and set his children well off for their life, control the whole financial system, but do all this for money!!!! After this stupid explanation, it goes on an on without any logic from places to places, you discover that they where able to cut the power of by destroying the station but instead they lost their time in the beginning by do it manually. That the main bad guy can hack the best security system with a laptop but are not able to unlock a computer code manually... That the computer geek that they tried to kill so desperately at the beginning is useless (apart from the fact that he somehow knows the code of a very restricted area (I still can not believe this one...) And it goes on and on and on... In summary: the movie is enjoyable but you must switch your brain off otherwise it will badly affect the fun!

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

A tale on the possibility of being able to change and become better

[10/10 · 1 September 2006]

Even if the story itself can be a little controversial (a beauty falling in love with her tormentor), Disney's bring us here one of its best motion picture ever. Catchy songs, well developed characters (especially for the supporting roles), incredible animation, very romantic moments, a good drama, will make your trip into this imaginary world, an unforgettable one. Comparing to most Disney's movies this one is more "grey" than "black of white" and some may be scared that the message deliver is not clear enough for children but life is grey and rather than focusing on the tormentor part it is the idea of the possibility of being able to change and become better, the hope that this brings, that the Beauty and the Beast is all about.

The Meaning of Life (1983)

a colourful portrait of anarchy !

[8/10 · 1 September 2006]

Ah, the meaning of life! As the concept itself the movie is meant to lead up to endless conversations between those you will consider it as a masterpiece and those (not so many, I am pretty sure) who you will consider it as a piece of crap. Trying to be a little objective, I would think that this movies is a big shambles which makes you laugh most of the time, bring some interesting ideas a couple of time, and irritates you once in a while. The movie, even more than the Life of Bryan and Holy Grail, tries to take any conventions and rules that the English society or occasionally others have, mixes them up irrationally or enjoys itself doing exactly their opposite, bringing a colourful portrait of anarchy. A must see, at least once in a while to keep your mind open !

The Astronaut's Wife (1999)

Decently made but without any tastes

[6/10 · 1 September 2006]

I do think that Johnny Depp is a very good actor, even one of the best of his generation and Charlize Theron is for most of the time amazing, too, so you would think that the encounter of such actors would bring you an unforgettable moment of cinema? You're wrong! Jonny Depp is far from being amazing here, he even fails to deliver an average performance with his character's palette of expression limited to a cold face and a once in a while smile. Charlize pretty much play the samecharacter than in the Devil's advocate but seems even more insecure andweeps for most part of the picture. Concerning the storyline, the pace of the film is so slow that you will find yourself falling asleep after a couple of minutes. So why a 6? Because cinematographically speaking, it has no plot hole and descent shots. In a word it is decently made but without any tastes.

Taking Lives (2004)

A movie kept between two ideas

[6/10 · 31 August 2006]

This movie has a very good start, an interesting serial killer but lack completely on the storyline. It is not that the storyline was done on the rush and have plot holes. It is more that the movie finds itself kept between two ideas unable to decide which one it should follow. The first one is the conventional thriller which is made of pieces of puzzle to follow that a psychopath left behind because of his own megalomania and for the pleasure of the viewer to understand before the main agent of the movie does. The second is an original approach that consists to enhance the link and even fascination that exists between the bright agent and the killer to its paroxysm to try to play with the viewer on his conception of what is bad and what is right (Hannibal). Because this movie is not able to make a choice we find ourselves frustrating on both sides. It would be better to watch the Bone collector and after The Silence of the lambs rather than this in between movie.

Wimbledon (2004)

A nice feel-good romantic comedy

[8/10 · 31 August 2006]

I've seen this movie when I woke up this morning before going to work and I was charmed by it. It is a nice feel-good romantic comedy, perhaps pretty obvious in its storyline, but with good performance (even Kirsten Dunst that I normally dislike was quite charming) and excellent tennis scenes enhanced by catchy special effects. Of course it is not as good as Nothing Hill because it lacks these unforgettable moments of pure humor and even if the characters are charming, they are not as colorful as the one in Nothing Hill, but if you want to boost your temper on a depressing rainy day, this film is highly recommended! At least it gave me the right support that I needed before leaving my cosy flat to face this hard day of labor.

The Other Half (II) (2006)

An funny and cheerful movie

[8/10 · 29 June 2006]

I ve seen this movie yesterday on DVD. I Did not expected too much of it but it did much better than just a lose-some-time entertainment. It was cheerful, funny, well played, and most of all very romantic. Of course if you expect a deep sociological movie do not see it, but if you want to kill a rainy Sunday afternoon, you will enjoy yourself very much especially if you are in a couple who is not able to understand the other's passion and even better if the other's passion is football. The only dark thing about this movie is that it has (especially in the beginning) some very creepy and rather amateurish shots, a bit like these bad erotic movies. However it gets very soon better or you don not care so much anymore because you focus on the story and on the performance of these very good actors. 8/10

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Unconvincing, too biased...

[3/10 · 18 May 2006]

Exactly as Kylopod describes in his comment, watching this film was very disappointing because it fails completely to deliver properly build arguments. It is well made as Bowling for Columbia was, but in spite of getting better Michael Moore criticism has fallen into an hymn of auto satisfaction. Every shot of this movies are so biased that after a while it fails completely to convince the viewer to even listen to Michael Moor's arguments which might be a little bit true. For example as he was talking about America's coalition for Irak we see ridiculous picture which should represent countries and the lack of support that they bring to the USA, but no mention was made from UK, Australia, Japan, Spain, Italy, South Korea, Poland... which forces are definitely more serious than the one show in the movie. Michael Moore only used to defend his idea the tactics to turn his enemies into ridiculousness rather than trying to find any good arguments. All in all if what we see is right, we can conclude that Bush has no brain, his administration is only thinking about selfish interest (how about Moore.. do all the money he made from his pictures and books go to charities or poor Iraky kids?),Irak was the best country in the world far from the corrupted world of USA, Marroco do only have monkeys, Roumania still lives in Middle Age, Holland people are retarded hippies who spend their time smoking pot, every person with a turban is a terrorist, and that if a person of your family is a criminal we should imprison all the family.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Old fashioned

[6/10 · 23 November 2004]

When I was a kid,I remember watching Indiana Jones again and again never getting bored... It has everything, great characters, story happens in many places around the world, it has the awful nazies... It was such a wonderful movies, but 25 years later i must admit that adventure movies have changed a lot and in a good way... The actors, the sets are less fake, in Idiana Jones the set looks like plastic, the actress is always screaming and drinking trying to show that she has some part in the story but doing nothing in particular... at least in our days girls have a real role, here in Indiana Jones she is less intelligent, less strong, she's immature... Awful ! No It was a good movie and sure it has a place in the story of cinema but I really doubt that new generation will watch it in the future as a godfather which will definitely still be watched in 50 years... note 6/10 for the nostalgie