I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since I have a weak spot for Brit Marling and since it was available on Disney+, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though this movie seems to have a solid reputation, it completely rubbed me the wrong way and, to be honest, I didn’t like it at all. First of all, even though the poster was quite beautiful, for the movie itself, they went for this godawful camcorder esthetics that the movie look not 10 years old but 20 years old. Nowadays, we watch all movies in high HD resolution so it was just jarring to see something so ugly. Even more problematic was the story though. Seriously, the whole concept of the young innocent woman wiping out a family and then getting acquainted with the sole survivor, even having a romantic relationship with him, while of course withholding her true identity, was just seriously generic, predictable and, above all, rather tedious. There was also the issue that, even though William Mapother is a solid actor, to be honest, he is not really charismatic and the way the movie was directed probably didn’t help. On the other hand, Brit Marling is such a luminous gorgeous woman, even if she puts on a hoodie and some overall, and I don’t think that they had much chemistry together. Of course, I shouldn’t forget to mention that while this completely unlikely and tacky romance was taking place, there was actually a new planet showing up in the sky, a planet which happened to be an exact copy of our planet Earth. Sure, I understand that there was supposed to be some kind of deep philosophical meaning about all this and I guess I didn’t get it. As far as I was concerned, the whole Earth 2 thing was added just to give some extra layer to a really average romantic story dealing with hidden identity and massive trauma. By the way, I don’t think it ever happened to me before, to have an actor or actress on a pedestal like Brit Marling and, after watching only two of her movies  (this one and ‘The East’ which was also disappointing), I’m wondering now if she was actually any good after all. Anyway, to conclude, I really didn’t care much about the damned thing and I actually don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was starring Chloë Grace Moretz and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, once again, I knew nothing about the story before watching this movie but, even though the story itself was quite interesting, the movie itself was not really impressive, I’m afraid. First of all, even though Moretz did give a solid performance, I was wondering if she might not have been too young to play a reporter at the New York Post. However, I discovered afterwards that Susannah Cahalan was only 24 years old when she had to face this disease. There is no doubt that Thomas Mann was miscast though. Indeed, she seemed way out of his league and they had no chemistry whatsoever. The fact that his character didn’t check on his girlfriend seemingly for days probably didn’t help either. However, the main issue was that the movie itself was rather poorly made. I mean, when it all started to get pretty bad, she kept on going to her work, didn’t get to a doctor, didn’t contact her parents for way too long. What the movie also completely failed to display was that it all took place during a single month while it seemed to take much longer. And, yet, it was still interesting though. I thought it was also intriguing that they constantly rejected a psychiatric ward admission since her behavior was obviously psychotic. On the other hand, since her health in general was deteriorating at such a rapid pace, it was probably not a psychiatric issue. It did remind me of what I went through with my ex-wife. Indeed, she had always been plagued by chronicle diseases and, at some point, it became really bad. So, of course, we went to the hospital, the doctors did check on her and I will never forget the first time they said ‘ Yes, we think we know what she has but, unfortunately, we can’t really cure it’ . And, this happened time and time again. In this case, some kind of ‘magical’ doctor showed up, figured it out very quickly and saved her (which was, by the way, not how it happened in the book apparently). In real life, even though doctors know a lot, they still don’t know everything and there are so many rare or complex diseases that still can’t be cured. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. It was another movie I watched while I didn’t know anything about the story which remains one of my favorite way to watch movies, even if it might seem odd. Especially in this case as it turned out to be quite fascinating. Unfortunately, even though the material itself was quite strong, I’m afraid the movie itself was not great though. First of all, there was the back-and-forth in time. Sure, it made sense narratively speaking to tell the story of Martin as an adult and showing some flashbacks of his youth with Dovidl but it is still a rather worthless gimmick and, even in this case, it didn’t mean that this approach was really satisfying. However, a bigger issue was how they rather poorly handled the material and especially Martin and Dovidl. Basically, it was a story about traumatic loss and how 2 completely different individuals handled this trauma. To make Martin the main character was, again, narratively speaking a logical choice but they completely failed to make him interesting enough. Indeed, they reduced him to a rather talentless boring guy who seemed jealous of his (adopted) brother (the way they told at the end that his wife actually slept with Dovidl was especially humiliating and completely unnecessary). With Dovidl, it wasn’t much better. Indeed, they constantly reduced him to a selfish egocentric genius because he seemingly chose to drop also his surrogate British family after already losing his biological Polish family. Why the guy did leave them suddenly and why didn’t he reach out to them to all these years, that was the obsessive argument made by this movie. However, like I said before, the whole point of this tale was the traumatic experience they both had, explaining their weird erratic behavior, and this movie completely failed to show that. The only moment when you could finally feel it was when they played this magnificent violent music, some of the most beautiful violin music I have ever heard. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still an interesting story and I think it is worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it seemed to have a decent reputation and since it was starring Michael Caine, I was quite eager to check it out. By the way, I actually saw first the remake starring Sylvester Stallone but it was more than a decade ago and I don’t remember anything about it though, except that it wasn’t really good at all (the intro was awesome though). Well, first of all, I actually saw the original classic on the BBC and, to be honest, I have to admit that I did struggle with the dialogues (apparently, I was not the only one since this movie was re-dubbed for the US market as they thought the accent of some of the gangsters was just too heavy). Fortunately, the story turned out to be simple enough but it’s just too bad I couldn’t really follow what they were saying. Anyway, while watching this movie, I wondered if this movie might have been an inspiration for ‘John Wick’. Indeed, if you would replace all these super repetitive and rather boring actions scenes from ‘John Wick’ and replaced them with an actual story and some actual dialogues, I would probably enjoy more this franchise and I’m pretty sure it would be actually quite similar to this British classic. Anyway, there is no doubt that Caine was awesome as he delivered here one of his most iconic performances. Indeed, Carter was such a badass but also a really believable gangster. That was the other nice thing about this movie, how gritty, grim and realistic it all felt. Indeed, Mike Hodges went for a documentary-like approach and it made this movie quite fascinating to behold. And to think that it was his directorial debut made the whole thing even more impressive. To be honest, it was still missing something to become really amazing but a re-watch with some subtitles might help me to make up my mind about the damned thing. Anyway, to conclude, it is a really solid classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was starring James McAvoy and since it was available on Disney+, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though it seems that it did receive some rather abysmal reviews when it was released, I actually really liked the concept. Igor didn’t even actually exist in Mary Shelley’s book, he came up later on in one of the many film adaptations but, even so, focusing on their relationship gave a very nice spin to this ancient old tale. Indeed, somehow, it became a really neat bromance with some massive gay undertones which was really cool. On top of that, in my opinion, James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe were some perfect choices to play these 2 guys. Unfortunately, it’s too bad that I didn’t care much for the other characters and I wish they focused only on this odd couple. Sure, Andrew Scott was not bad playing a pious detective chasing them even if the religious angle was actually not needed. There was also some rich dude sponsoring them but he had also no added value whatsoever and became some kind of unnecessary bad guy. However, the worst of the bunch was the character played by Jessica Brown Findlay. Indeed, in this version, Frankenstein didn’t have a hot girlfriend but Igor did which was obviously such a misguided idea. Sure, I get that she was added to the mix to show that Igor was actually a very nice guy but I didn’t need her to understand that. Eventually, this story didn’t need any of these characters, the relationship between them was already so fascinating, I’m pretty sure that, if they would have focused only on them, the damned thing could have been pretty amazing. Indeed, the really cool thing was that it humanized so much Victor Frankenstein who suddenly became more than this mad scientist involved in some ghastly experiments. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was actually a decent watch and I think it is worth a look. 

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. First of all, when I first saw ‘Coming to America’, I didn’t like it at all but I had the opportunity to re-watch it before this sequel and I have to admit that it was better than I remembered. I still don’t think it was one of Murphy’s best movies but I finally could understand why it was so popular though. However, did it really require a sequel more than 30 years later? At least, it was promising that it was directed by Craig Brewer who also gave us 'Dolemite Is My Name', easily the best thing Murphy did during the last 30 years. Well, unfortunately, I’m afraid I didn’t care much about this sequel though. I think the main mistake they made was to have most of the action taking place in Zamunda. Indeed, while I was re-watching ‘Coming to America’, pretty much everything taking place in New York was fairly entertaining but everything taking place in Zamunda was actually ACrather cringe-inducing, even borderline offensive when you watched this movie decades later. Well, with this sequel, they flipped the concept by bringing Akeem’s son from Queens to Zamunda but, even though the concept made sense, it meant that most of the action had to take place there which was a huge mistake. Sure, they tried to tone down the offensiveness of the material. For example, the rose-bearers didn’t have to constantly through petals following the prince and they also tried to show that Akeem’s daughters were strong (which didn’t really work since two of them had nothing to do through the whole duration) but, as far as I was concerned, it was still more offensive than really entertaining. At some point, Ryan Coogler did a pitch which was rejected by Eddy Murphy and I really wonder what he would have done with this material. Anyway, to make it work, they should have hired either a African writer or someone with some deep knowledge about the African continent instead of churning out some barely entertaining stereotypes which already felt outdated when the previous movie was released more than 30 years ago. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather harmless, it was still rather weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was starring Jennifer Hoffman, I thought I might as well check it out. On top of that, it is one of these rare movies that I watched only because I really loved the poster. Seriously, it is one of the sexiest posters I have seen. Unfortunately, if you were expecting some entertaining erotic thriller, well, you’ll be rather disappointed. It’s too bad because Antoinette Beumer had a pretty good track-record but I’m afraid it was probably her weakest movie so far. I mean, I have to admit it, visually speaking, it was better than your average Dutch production. However, even though the concept seemed simple enough, it was just so poorly developed. It also didn’t help that Loes Haverkort and Mark van Eeuwen made such an uncharismatic couple together with no chemistry whatsoever. In fact, even with Pierre Boulanger (who was not bad, even if his character was also barely developed at all), Haverkort had also barely any chemistry. I mean, sure, she was/is really pretty but I think she was rather weak and she never managed to project to the audience what her character was going through internally. In fact, I believe that Jennifer Hoffman, who played the sister, would have been a better choice to play the main character. Concerning Peter Paul Muller, I always had a weak spot for this actor but I’m afraid his character was the most half-baked of the bunch. I mean, right from the start, they tried to create this ominous atmosphere around this guy but it never worked and it was even rather pathetic. I mean, he was a contractor, and apparently even a good one, and they were looking for people to work on their new house so all his (rather non-sensical and still unclear) schemes seemed really unnecessary. I mean, he could have simply gone to their house, introduced himself, and he would have gotten the job on the spot. There was absolutely no need to do some weird shenanigans in some supermarket. And his next master plan was to have his step-son having sex with his employer to blackmail her to finance some of his building projects? It was seriously convoluted and, since her husband seemed to be listening to every word he said, completely unnecessary. Anyway, to conclude, even if it might have had some potential, the end-result was eventually rather 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 was starring Rachel Weisz and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it was well made and Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin were both some really solid choices to play their respective characters, to be honest, I really struggled to care about the damned thing though. First of all, from the moment you hear that his cousin Ambrose had fell in love with his other cousin Rachel, everything happening afterwards was just too predictable. Even more problematic was their approach to focus only on Philip Ashley’s thoughts and feelings. The fact that the guy was such an annoying moron probably didn’t help. I mean, I do understand that he was supposed to be immature with barely no contact with women (if they would have developed slightly more his time with Ambrose as a child, it could have helped instead of giving us a 5 mins voice-over) but, as far as I was concerned, he was more annoying than actually interesting and/or entertaining and I never felt sorry for him. In fact, one of my last relationships was also with a very manipulative woman, some scam artist who was after my money but, in contrary to Philip, I was always aware of the fact that she might not be the real deal after all and, when I found out that she was really fake, even though I have to admit that it was quite a blow, I certainly handled it better than this moron. Seriously, how many red flags do you actually need? To see him persisting in this relationship, even though it was obviously not going to work out at all, was getting so much on my nerves. Another thing that didn’t work was that when Rachel passed away, pretty much because of him, they made her suddenly look ambiguous. Indeed, she was maybe not such a manipulative bitch after all which was an interesting concept but it would have been more efficient if they would have made her more ambiguous from the very start and not during the last 5 mins. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was starring Frances McDormand and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be some rather obscure feature based on some apparently popular children books written by Ludwig Bemelmans. Anyway, I really struggled to care about the damned thing. I mean, I never really cared about the genre, even when I was a kid, and this one was basically a rather weak mix of ‘Mary Poppins’ with ‘The Aristocats’ or ‘One Hundred and One Dalmatians’. At least, it did display that Frances McDormand can play pretty much anything but, to be honest, her character was barely developed at all. I mean, who was Miss Clavel actually? Where did she come from? What was her feelings and her thoughts? Did she always want to be a nun? Through the whole duration, you might wonder about this woman but, unfortunately, you will learn pretty much nothing about her. Same thing for the twelve girls living at this boarding school, except for Madeline, none of them was developed whatsoever and I would be hard-pressed to give the name of any of them, even though I saw this movie only yesterday. Concerning the rest of the movie, there was barely a plot and, instead, it was succession of episodic adventures involving Madeline, Miss Clavel and the other students but none of these events was really interesting and/or entertaining. Unsurprisingly, a major thing was the owner of the school trying to sell this house which was probably the most generic approach you could think with this material and, obviously, at the end, they didn’t sell the school which was also just so predictable. Anyway, to conclude, even though I have to admit that it was rather harmless, it was also terribly tedious and I don’t think it is really worth a look, even if you need to entertain some young kids. 

To be honest, I didn’t care much about ‘Book Club’ but, since this sequel was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, I have to admit that I was at first actually pleasantly surprised. Indeed, the intro taking place during the COVID pandemic was a little bit random but it was fine but, above all, I just loved the fun banter between this group of life-long friends. Indeed, it was so entertaining, it seemed for a while that it might turn out to be a massive improvement on its seriously underwhelming predecessor. At least, up until they went to Italy. Indeed, even though it wasn’t a bad idea to send these characters abroad, everything happening there was just not interesting or entertaining enough. Basically, it became some kind of very long commercial for Italy which was as boring as it might sound. Indeed, there was no drama or tension whatsoever as these women went from one quirky event to another. I was also seriously annoyed by the ending. Indeed, the whole point of this trip was Vivian’s bachelorette party, the conclusion of this trip was her finally getting married with Arthur, something which seemed impossible for such an independence glorious woman for decades but then she didn’t go through with it after all?!? I completely disagree with the approach chosen by this movie which was basically that getting married was supposed to be some kind of surrendering for her. In my opinion, it was the opposite, it was an incredibly romantic gesture from her and the start of a new adventure. Of course, they then swapped their couple with Diane and Mitchell which was predictable but having this couple getting married was so much less symbolic and therefore so much less interesting. Anyway, to conclude, even though the beginning was actually promising, it turned out to be rather weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except if you really like the genre.