To be honest, this movie had been for many years in my queue. Since I’m a huge fan of Aardman and since it would be released directly on Netflix, I was actually planning to see when it came out but, eventually, it took me a while after all. On the other hand, I have to admit that I was actually never a huge fan of ‘Chicken Run’ which might explain why I took my time to watch this sequel after all. Well, as usual with these guys, their Claymation was just really impressive and I can’t imagine how painstaking it must have been to deliver all these complex action scenes and all these intricate details. Unfortunately, I didn’t care much about anything else in this movie though. First, I had some issue with the story. Sure, back then, it was mildly entertaining how these chickens escaped from a farm the first time around and this idea of breaking in some high-tech fried chicken factory might have sounded great on paper. However, I thought it was a rather tedious angle after all and, above all, it was too similar to what happened in ‘Chicken Run’. The other issue I had was that the characters were once again not entertaining enough. Sure, it made sense that Ginger and Rocky had a girl, that was rather predictable, but, above all, none of them was really fun after all, same thing for the supporting characters who were all at best only mildly amusing. Eventually, after more than 20 years, you might wonder if it was really worth going back to this material, instead of coming up with something new. It’s always the issue with the movie industry, we get flooded with such legacyquels but very few of them actually end up like ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. Concerning Aardman, I still love their work but I think it’s clear that they always struggled to come up with some other really fun and charismatic characters beside Wallace and Gromit. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, I guess it was still a decent watch but I hope Aardman will come up with something completely new with their next project. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. I have noticed that this movie was not well received when it was released but I have to admit that it really touched me deeply personally. Basically, for more than a decade, I have been member of a film club and my favorite member died of cancer a couple of years ago. Another member was also currently facing an uncurable variant of cancer, quite similar to what was depicted in this movie so it was definitely quite emotional. Still, even though I did like it, eventually, I have to admit that the damned thing was just too scattered after all. Indeed, even though it seemed to be about the main character facing Stage IV cancer, it was also about Crystal (his mother), Dr. Eddé (his oncologist), Eugénie (his nurse), Léandre (his son) and Lola (his student). Most of these subplots were actually interesting (one of them was completely ludicrous though) but it was just too much to handle here. Some of it still worked like the mother and it was quite amazing to see how much Catherine Deneuve managed to achieve with a character who was rather half-baked after all. It was also rather misguided how this man who only had 1 year to live and suffered intensely through a good portion of that time period still managed to have 2 romances. The first one with his student was actually well handled. Indeed, he could have taken advantage of his position and of this young girl infatuation with his teacher but he didn’t which was surprisingly refreshing. However, the whole thing with the nurse was so bewildering. Indeed, for most of the duration, Cécile de France didn’t have much to do, except sitting in a corner and looking so sad, so she seemed rather wasted here. However, even though you could feel that she had some connection with her patient, to go kissing him and giving him some special ‘treat’ felt not only unprofessional but so wild and completely unnecessary. Then, you had also the whole deal with his lost son. It was actually so intriguing but, in fact, it was just too big to be handled as only a sub-plot. Indeed, even though you might expect father and son to be reunited and reminisce about lost time and opportunities, well, it didn’t happen, at least, I was not sure. Indeed, until the very last moment, it seemed that Léandre wouldn’t meet his father after all which was such a bold but interesting approach and, yet, he was somehow in the room when he died. However, you didn’t get to see what happened just before. Did they actually talk? Was he actually hiding in a corner the whole time? It was such a weird way to conclude this relationship. Anyway, to conclude, even though half of this movie probably didn’t work, it still touched me deeply and I think Benoît Magimel delivered here a very strong performance. 

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. Originally, Scott Derrickson was supposed to direct ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ but, since Marvel wouldn’t let him make it a horror movie (such a missed opportunity, by the way), he dropped out and made this one instead which did fairly well after all. Eventually, even if it was nothing really original, I thought it was a solid horror flick, at least it was better than ‘Sinister’, another collaboration involving Derrickson and Ethan Hawke which turned out to be rather underwhelming, at least, as far as I was concerned. I was actually surprised that the action was taking place in the 70’s and, even though it usually annoys me when a movie is set in the past without a good reason, it actually worked here, even if I was not sure why. Eventually, the strongest aspect was also the main issue here. Basically, the Grabber remained an enigma, even at the end (they didn’t even tell us his name) which was a bit frustrating but it also did add a layer of mystery without actually doing anything. In the similar way, the whole mask thing was hardly original but its random aspect and the fact that it was never explained at all made it automatically more intriguing than it probably actually deserved. Concerning the black phone thing, it was pretty much a gimmick and I’m not sure if I really cared for it but, again, it mostly worked because they never tried to rationalize it in any way. Concerning the actors involved, Ethan Hawke as usual didn’t disappoint. Casting such a seemingly sweet and nice dude to play such a creepy child molester/killer was a bold move that clearly paid off. To be honest, he wasn’t given much to do after all and the fact that his face was half-covered most of the time probably didn’t help but it displayed how good the guy actually was/is to be able to convincingly act in such limited circumstances. Mason Thames was also solid (I completely forgot that he had played in the live-action version of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’), even if his character could have been more developed. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t the most memorable horror movie I have seen lately, it was definitely a decent watch though.