To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but, since I have a weak spot for Sanaa Lathan and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, wasn’t this super lame title like a massive spoiler? At least, Sanaa Lathan really looked stunning here and I actually liked how her character got swept away in some cute romantic relationship with some seemingly decent guy. That was easily the best part of this movie. However, again with this title, it was obviously not going to last and pretty quickly it became another generic and really tedious stalker thriller. Unsurprisingly, the stalker guy was played by Michael Ealy who kept showing up in such cheap thrillers (see also ‘Fatale’ or ‘The Intruder’). To his defence, I think he was not helped by how poorly developed his character was here. Indeed, it didn’t make much sense how completely different Carter was when he met Leah and who he suddenly became after beating up this guy at this gas station. Of course, you could argue that he was some bipolar psychopath but, as far as I was concerned, it was actually some really poor writing. At least, it was rather surprising that she would dump him right away as, usually with movies dealing with domestic violence, they drag this moment forever. It also displayed that developing a serious romantic relationship takes time and that you can really test how strong your relationship is not when you are having a good time but when you are facing some difficult stressful situations together. But this was me thinking about relationships in general while watching this movie, it had nothing to do with what this movie actually delivered. Indeed, instead, they gave us the usual boring stalking shenanigans until the main character decided to deliver justice herself because killing off the ‘bad guy’ is basically the only way such US thriller can possibly end. By the way, it was rather hilarious that the main character would change right away her phone numbers but didn’t think about changing her locks as well or, at least, remove the freaking ‘hidden’ key sitting right outside her home. Anyway, even though Sanaa Lathan is such a lovely actress, I should probably stop wasting my time with such lame cheap thrillers, that’s pretty obvious. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but, since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I always had a weak spot for Bridget Fonda and it had been years since I saw one of her movies. It’s such a shame that she would retire only a few years after making this movie at not even 40 years old. On the other hand, if she could only get cast in such lame movies, maybe retiring was indeed the best option after all. Of course, I shouldn’t expect something award worthy since it was dealing with some gigantic crocodile but I’m afraid it was still really weak. Basically, they took the ‘Jaws’ concept and replaced the sea with some lake and replaced the shark with some crocodile so the end-result felt derivative. The only big difference was that they tried to turn it also into some comedy somehow so there was some constant banter between all the characters. Unfortunately, this approach turned out to be more pathetic than actually entertaining after all. Of course, since the material was really preposterous (something pointed out many times by the characters themselves), they could choose indeed to do something meta and hilarious but, as displayed by this movie, it is actually really tricky to achieve something satisfying (and it was obviously not the case here). The other issue with this approach was that it drastically lowered the stakes as a result. Indeed, the awesome feeling of impending dread in ‘Jaws’ was here almost completely gone which is not what you want when watching a movie dealing with some huge lethal animal. The fact that the crocodile looked really lame didn’t really help. 25 years after ‘Jaws’, it was apparently still tricky to deliver something convincing in this area. Even though the animatronic was delivered by Stan Winston, probably one of the best guys in special effects back then, it still looked rather pathetic. I know that many prefer practical effects but, after watching for years some stellar CGI work in various blockbusters, it is rather hard to take seriously older movies with some rather silly looking puppet which was probably super difficult to create. By the way, the CGI didn’t grow old well either. Coming back on the actors involved (Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson), they wrestled more with the lame dialogues and jokes than with the actual crocodile. Anyway, to conclude, it was a rather lame B horror movie and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you really love the genre. 

I already saw this movie but, since it was ages ago, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, to be honest, I have to admit that I was actually rather confused by this movie and it took me a while to finally get it (if I did get it at all). The first time around, I had no idea what this movie was about and I thought it was interesting that Buñuel, the most famous surrealist director, would start his career with such a hyper-realistic documentary. The stuff displayed in this documentary was actually pretty extreme and, somehow, I hoped it might be some kind of dark mockumentary but it was apparently the real deal. However, when I start reading about this movie afterwards, I was so surprised to find out that it was after all a surrealist documentary and not something hyper-realistic like I thought it was. Eventually, after rewatching the damned thing, I think I understood (at least, I hope so) what Buñuel was trying to do here. What was displayed was actually still fairly realistic, it was pretty much how the Hurdes was in the 30’s, the surreal aspect was mostly that it was a Spanish director making such a ghastly shocking documentary about a region in Spain. Indeed, such movies were always about some far-out exotic country (‘Les maîtres fous’ which was made 20 years later was a perfect example) and it was completely unheard of to do it about a seemingly modern country, especially his own homeland (Unsurprisingly, this movie was banned in Spain for a while). This style of documentary called ‘Ethnofiction’ blurred the lines between realism and fiction and, basically, Buñuel wanted to parody the genre, in the process, reducing his home country to some medieval backward land which was, I guess, pretty surreal. Anyway, even though it turned out to be much more complex that I thought, it was still a decent watch though.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it had been fairly well received and since it was available on Amazon Prime, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I always had a weak spot for heist movies and this one was basically some modern variation on ‘Heat’, probably one of the best movies in this genre, but its slightly derivative aspect didn’t bother me, in the contrary. Indeed, it looked really slick (they also put a dash of ‘Drive’ in there) and the cast was just really stacked (Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro). Unfortunately, it’s too bad that maybe half of it didn’t work. For example, I loved the details they put in the opening heist, especially the precision displayed by Chris Hemsworth’s character such as putting some lenses to cover his deep blue eyes. And, yet, during the final heist, the brown lenses were gone and he didn’t bother at all to hide his identity which felt so sloppy for such a consummate professional. I had a similar issue with the characters. Indeed, there were all intriguing and even though all the actors involved were solid, except for Davis, all these characters turned out to be rather half-baked after all. Seriously, what was the point of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character who showed up just for one scene? I also didn’t buy that Nick Nolte’s character would try to backstab Davis seemingly so easily. Indeed, it can’t be that easy to find someone so skilled and after investing in such a solid work relationship, it seemed rather unlikely that he would throw it away after having just one seemingly small argument. Concerning Halle Berry, she still looked so lovely but her character didn’t really work either. I wish she played someone else than some assurance policy woman who was used and abused by seemingly everybody (her clients, her colleagues, the cops, the nice thief and the bad thief). Eventually, the only reason why the police managed to catch this thief was because she once again changed her mind and ratted him out to her yoga partner. Finally, in contrary to ‘Heat’, they went for some really misguided and rather preposterous happy ending. I know, I make it sound really bad but I actually enjoyed many things in this movie. Indeed, the main character was really cool and so fascinating and I believe that Chris Hemsworth might have given the best performance of his career here. The actions scenes were also neat and I just really enjoyed the whole vibe. Anyway, to conclude, even though it could have been even better, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since I have a weak spot for Adèle Exarchopoulos, I thought I might as well check it out. I didn’t know anything about this movie before watching it and, to be honest, when I found out that it was dealing with people mutating into animals, I actually lost interest pretty much right away. Indeed, it did feel terribly gimmicky and it was not as if we didn’t already have enough real-life threats to deal with nowadays. And, yet, I have to admit that it did slowly win me over after all. Indeed, it was basically what a X-Men movie would look like if you would remove the super-powers, and I thought it was actually an intriguing idea. On top of that, for a French production like this one, the special effects were actually quite impressive. Unfortunately, it’s too bad that the damned thing turned out to be narratively so clunky. I didn’t mind that it’s started not at the very beginning of this epidemic but, in the middle of it. However, even though it seemed at first that it would be about how this family would face the mutation of this wife/mother, after she escaped, she almost completely vanished after that. Basically, after her escape, she was used only as an excuse to have François having something to do for the rest of the movie. Eventually, they shifted their focus towards the son who by the way never seemed to be really bothered by his mother’s situation. On the other hand, the poor kid had so much going on. Indeed, his mother was a mutant, because of her, he had to move to the south of France, he had to go to a new school, make some new friends, he even managed to score a girlfriend (who also had a rather odd behavior), he became besties with another mutant and, obviously, he began mutating as well. Not all of it was bad, in the contrary, but there was so much material that they could have developed a whole TV-series with that. Concerning Romain Duris, they really struggled to give his character anything really interesting to do during the whole movie and, most of the time, he was left roaming aimlessly in this forest, preferably with this cute police officer. By the way, their relationship was seriously half-baked. In fact, Adèle Exarchopoulos did end with the most bewildering character here. Eventually, she was terribly wasted as her sole function was apparently to show that not all cops are bad after all. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though. 

Even though I always had no talents whatsoever in chess, I always thought it was fascinating so I was quite eager to check this movie. I have to admit that, even though I obviously knew Garry Kasparov (with Bobby Fisher, they were/are the only chess players really famous outside the chess world), I have to admit that I had never heard of Judit Polgár and her sisters before watching this movie. Well, it turned out to be a really straightforward basic documentary but I thought it was a really interesting watch. Indeed, Polgár was such a bright kid, a genius in this field, and then a fascinating woman who remained at the top through most of her career which was obviously really impressive. In fact, up until she played against Kasparov for the first time, they made her seemed to be unbeatable but it wasn’t the case. Indeed, she was apparently very successful but she didn’t win all the time and I wish they talked a little bit more about what happened when she might lose a game. What was also amazing for me was how sexist the chess world used to be (and maybe still is?). Indeed, if there is a sport for which men and women should be able to compete against each other, it would be definitely chess. And, yet, basically up until Polgár and her sisters showed up and played just as well and very often better than most men, it finally changed (at least, a bit). In fact, it’s a shame that it took her 15 games to beat Kasparov (did she ever beat him again afterwards?) because, as a result, she remained ‘only’ the best female chess player while he remained the best chess player ever. I think one of the things I enjoyed the most with this movie was how they displayed some chess moves in details. Like I said before, I’m really bad at chess and I can’t argue that I understood half of what they explained but it was still really cool to go deeper in this sport. I really appreciated this technical side instead of saying endlessly that Polgár was amazing which still took at least a third of the running time. There was some discussion about the fact that the Polgár sisters were raised from a very early age to only learn to play chess and at a very intensive rate. However, they didn’t put too much focus on this aspect after all. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was probably too generic to be exceptional, it was still a decent watch though. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it had been a box-office success, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I’m really glad that I didn’t know what it was about before watching the damned thing, I wondered for a while where it was going and it was much appreciated (it was so annoying that one of the posters did display them at the dinner at the end though). Anyway, I really liked the concept. Indeed, should we know the worst thing that our partner ever did? And if we did, how would we react? Sure, as a principle, we all assume that we should know everything about our partner, even the worst things, but, in fact, we never do because, at the end of the day, we don’t even know ourselves completely. In this case, there was the fact that this poor girl was obviously deeply depressed when she was planning this thing. In this state, we all have some darks thoughts, I sure did, and I was amazed that nobody at this table pointed this out, especially her fiancé. By the way, the setting didn’t really work. Sure, confessing something like this to your partner, that was totally possible but I didn’t buy that you would tell something like this casually at a dinner with a bunch of friends present. I was also bothered by how Robert Pattinson’s character was acting like such a dick when he found out about her dark past. I mean, sure, his situation was messed up but there was not a single moment when he stopped self-pitying himself for just a minute and ask his wife-to-be how she actually felt. I was also confused by Alana Haim’s character. Indeed, up until the wedding, I thought she was Emma’s best friend but, actually, she wasn’t. In fact, Mike was Charlie’s best friend and Rachel was married to Mike so her connection with Emma was not that deep so it explained how she could treat her friend this way. I also wondered how it would have been if they had switched the parts, if it would have been the groom who would have had such a dark past and not Zendaya, one of the cutest women in the world. I was also not so sure about the tone. Indeed, it seemed that they went for some dark satire but I never thought it was really funny at all. Finally, I wish I had seen them more as a couple during the two previous years. Since we saw so little of them as an item, it was rather difficult to judge how seismic this revelation was for both of them. Still, it was an intriguing analysis on how romantic relationship are based on the most trivial things which don’t actually really matter. At the end of the day, if most couples would have some real talk about who they are and what they actually think and feel, most people would or maybe should actually walk away.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it had been a big box-office success, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I’m rather amazed that such a weird movie could be so popular with the mainstream audience but it might have to do with the popular ‘The Backrooms’ videos that Kane Parsons started to upload on YouTube when he was only 16 years old. In fact, it was just mind-blowing that Parsons could come up with such a movie like this one at only 19 years old. So, I have to admit that I had no previous knowledge of ‘The Backrooms’ internet phenomenon whatsoever but I was still definitely sucked in this fascinating movie. How could I describe it? It was basically a vibe which you really need to dig to appreciate the whole thing. In my case, it felt either like some kind of fascinating videogame or some really unsettling nightmare. Indeed, while watching this movie, I was thinking how awesome it would be to have a videogame following the same principle, during which you would go from one weird empty yellow room to another weird empty yellow room without any explanation whatsoever and without any specific goal to achieve, except going further and further. I know it might have seemed very pointless to many viewers, that’s why I was surprised that something so offbeat could be such a box-office success, but I thought it was actually quite fascinating and I was very pleased that it didn’t come with some kind of explanation. In fact, it seemed that Clark became pretty closed to figure it all out, at least, in his mind, because most of what he said was some incomprehensible rambling. I also liked how they developed enough Clark and Mary so I could invest myself in these characters even though they never really explained their specific connection with the Backrooms. Basically, nothing was really explained in this movie, there was no real conclusion either and this approach could be frustrating but it was exactly the reason why I really connected with this movie. To be honest, the first part was a little bit slow and, like so many other things in this movie, I was a bit thrown off by the running time (The movie was presented as being +2hrs but, in fact, it was around 106 mins with a whopping 15 minute post credit scene). Anyway, I think this movie is an acquired taste but I really liked the damned thing, that’s for sure.