When I heard that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were finally working together (acting and writing) on new project more than 20 years after ‘Dogma’ and ‘Good Will Hunting’, I got really intrigued and the fact that the damned thing would be directed by Ridley Scott pretty much turned this movie into a must-see for me. Eventually, it turned out to be a flop but I think it’s a shame, not because it was really a masterpiece but because it was at least something else than another Fast & Furious, Star Wars, Marvel instalment or any other big blockbuster franchise. Eventually, you might wonder if they will continue making such movies if they keep losing money each time around. Anyway, at least, you can trust Good Old Ridley Scott to deliver a lavish and gritty Medieval epic as the whole thing was visually really neat and convincing. Furthermore, I really enjoyed the ‘Rashomon’ approach. Still, I thought there was a a huge plot hole in their story though. Indeed, even though they gave us basically 3 times the same story, in none of these versions, did they give us an explanation on how Jacques Le Gris managed to pay his ‘visit’ to Marguerite de Carrouges exactly at the right moment when everybody had left her castle. Seriously, I thought there was a huge gap here. I think it was also pretty obvious that Ben Affleck was originally supposed to play Le Gris so he could face his BFF which would have been pretty awesome but, unfortunately, because of some schedule conflict, he had to settle down for a smaller part. Still, he definitely had some fun playing Pierre d'Alençon (by the way, I did actually live in Alençon for a couple of years) and the whole cast was actually really good here (Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer). Coming back to the ‘Rashomon’ structure, it was neat that basically pretty much all the male characters turned out to be some douchebags after all but I’m not sure if it was really so interesting to display the woman involved in this conflict as some kind of immaculate innocent victim. Basically, it did turn the whole thing into some kind of medieval feminist #metoo pamphlet. On the other hand, it was a good reminder that women were pretty much treated like garbage back in those days. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is still 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 I kept hearing some really good things about it and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, this movie won't be popular among religious viewers as it displayed that, if you are in a really vulnerable mental predicament, religion can really f*ck you up. It actually reminded me of my best friend who was drifting for a while and came back as a fairly hardcore Muslim after a trip to Africa. After that, it became more and more difficult to have a healthy relationship with him and I completely lost contact at some point. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it was definitely a really solid directorial debut by Rose Glass. Indeed, the mood and pacing were really neat. On top of that, Morfydd Clark (Am I the only who thinks that it seems to be a name that came right out a Harry Potter novel?) and Jennifer Ehle both delivered some really strong performances. I also did appreciate the fact that it was basically a horror movie but, even so, they did put the focus on the mental and psychological turmoil experienced by the main character and not so much on the fantastical elements, which is actually a rather rare approach in this genre. Still, one of the last scenes which seemed to come right out of ‘The Exorcist’ really caught me off guard. And, yet it’s still worked brilliantly because it was so swift and abrupt. If they would have lingered longer on this, like they actually did in ‘The Exorcist’, it would have been so much less powerful. Still, I’m afraid the whole thing was slightly too dry and too thin for me. In fact, I think the makers had a similar feeling. It would then explain why they ended up adding Joy who was not necessarily a bad character but she showed up completely randomly, not once but twice, just to make sure that we did get a different perspective than only the one provided by a fairly delusional main character. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely blow me away, it was still a solid watch and it is definitely worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I was rather intrigued by the fandom around ‘Showgirls’, I was quite eager to check this documentary. In fact, the day before, I did rewatch ‘Showgirls’, especially since I saw it only once and it was such a long time ago. However, to be honest, I still thought it was a rather lame and boring erotic B feature, no more and no less. Concerning the documentary itself, well, it was definitely a decent attempt to rehabilitate one of the most vilified movies ever produced but, to be honest, it wasn’t really much more than that. First of all, they didn’t only focus on ‘Showgirls’, they actually gave a whole retrospective on Paul Verhoeven’s work. I mean, it didn’t really bother me since I’m a big fan of the Dutch master and I have seen all his movies but I thought this approach was too broad regarding the actual main subject. Sure, Verhoeven’s career was and still is actually quite fascinating, much more than this massive turkey. However, to show all his other (much better) movies and to argue that such a movie master couldn’t possibly deliver a completely worthless piece of sh... was not really a strong approach. On top of that, in less than 80 mins, you get a whole bunch of other theories (some interesting, some others seriously far-fetched), feelings, views, usually vastly contradicting each other and, eventually, the end-result did feel pretty random. Anyway, to conclude, even if this documentary didn’t change my views on this rather lame erotic cult-classic, it is still worth a look, especially if you are intrigued in one of the weirdest movie fandoms ever. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I really loved ‘Hamilton’ on Disney+, I was quite eager to check Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut. Well, while it was probably a passion project for Miranda, to be honest, I didn’t really have a connection with the material. The tricky thing is that, even though I’m well aware that ‘Rent’ was one of the most successful musicals ever produced, the only contact I had with this work was the film adaptation by Chris Columbus which didn’t really impress me. Furthermore, I’m not sure if mixing an actual stage performance with ‘Tick, Tick... Boom!’ with a rather straightforward biopic about Jonathan Larson was such a great idea. The other issue I had was that it was pretty obvious that ‘Superbia’ was just a way too ambitious project for an unestablished author. Indeed, I thought it is rather bewildering that during the whopping 7 years Larson had worked on it, nobody ever pointed this out, told him to put aside this huge project and work instead on something which might actually get produced. It was also a mistake to spend so much time on Larson supposedly struggling to write a new song. Indeed, it was a rather weak, predictable and, above all, completely unnecessary narrative gimmick. It also completely contradicted that the fact that Larson was displayed as being apparently some kind of genius who could write a song about anything within a few minutes. At least, I have to admit that the songs in this movie (all written by Jonathan Larson) were really catchy and I can imagine that the guy must have been a big inspiration for Miranda. Furthermore, even if I didn’t know Larson, Andrew Garfield still nailed another really strong performance here. Concerning the rest of the cast, I thought that Alexandra Shipp was really charismatic but, to be honest, the movie was really focused only on Larson so she didn’t have much to do. At least, this movie did display one of the most realistic and probably one of the best break-up scenes I have seen. It was also the first time I saw Vanessa Hudgens in a musical since the ‘High School Musical’ franchise and she actually impressed me, even if her character was not developed whatsoever. Seriously, she was basically born for this genre. Anyway, to conclude, even if it never really blew away, it was still a decent watch and I think 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 there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Unfortunately, even though the concept did have some potential, the end-result still turned out to be terribly weak, I’m afraid. The first issue was that, even though the damned thing was really short (not even 80 mins), there were just way too many characters involved with each their own rather underwhelming little story. Seriously, what was the point of Jorge Garcia’s janitor character? It was also rather bewildering that, even though Anna Kendrick was prominently displayed on all the promotional materical and was presented as a lead character, she barely had anything to do through the whole duration. Anyway, the whole thing was just terribly random. Concerning the tone and the approach, even there, it didn’t really work either. Indeed, at first, the idea that everyone has to get a job at some point, no matter what, was actually intriguing but it was completely unclear what the makers eventually wanted to say about this subject. In fact, it could have been really cool if they had gone for a grittier realistic approach. For example, the (surprising topless) scene involving Cameron Richardson was not only entertaining but actually pretty effective and displayed the correct tone that they should have gone for. Unfortunately, instead, they want for some cheap jokes and a bunch of half-baked sub-plots. The ending was also extremely lame. Indeed, after going back-and-forth between being realistic or not through the whole duration, they basically threw everything out the window and went for some completely far-fetched fairy tale ending. Indeed, after all, the main character shouldn’t worry about getting a steady job as, according to this movie, the easiest and smartest thing to do was apparently to start up his own company. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing had some potential, it didn’t care much for it 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 directed by Steven Soderbergh and since there was a pretty cool cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, after going through one of the shortest retirements ever (around 3 years), Soderbergh is back at it, releasing at least one movie each year, even 2 in 2019. Well, even though I actually enjoyed this crime thriller which was so much grittier than the ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ franchise, like most of Soderbergh’s work, even if it was really stylish, the end-result still felt rather empty. By the way, Soderbergh apparently did experiment with some anamorphic lenses and, as a result, the image was very often distorted on the edges which was rather distracting. Concerning the story, since it was a néo-noir, it was at times rather convoluted but it is inherent to the genre. Indeed, one of the pleasures of this movie was to figure who was who and what the hell was going on. I wonder if it would be interesting to see it again at some point, to see if I could better figure it out, but I’m afraid I would discover plenty of plot-holes since I’m not sure that everything did make sense. Still, I did like the cynical approach as not only the police forces turned out to be crooked but the biggest gangsters of the whole bunch turned out to be the leaders of the huge business corporations. However, it was pretty weird that the whole thing became suddenly some kind of ecological pamphlet towards the end. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent watch and I think 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 I have a weak spot for Catherine Zeta-Jones, I thought I might as well check it out. Apparently, it was based on a popular old British TV-show which I have never seen but, unfortunately, this remake turned out to be terribly tedious, I’m afraid. First of all, to make a comedy around WWII is not impossible but it is really difficult and, in this case, it was a rather cringe-inducing attempt. Indeed, through the whole duration, I couldn’t help thinking about all the horrors taking place in the rest of Europa while this group of pathetic and either idiotic or senile old guys were basically 'playing' soldiers. Eventually, the only one in this group who was slightly less annoying than the rest was the character played by the always charismatic Bill Nighy. However, even if Nighy did what he could with this rather abysmal material, his character was still ruined by the fact that the guy didn’t think for one second that it was rather weird that such a woman way out of his league would try to seduce him. At least, Catherine Zeta-Jones was as usual quite gorgeous and she was a perfect choice to play such spy/femme fatale. Still, even her character was ruined by getting involved in such an inane conspiracy. Indeed, to try to convince the viewers that the key to win WWII was supposedly to infiltrate this very small community and this Home Guard platoon was just completely ridiculous. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that the damned thing was rather harmless, I just really didn’t like at all and I don’t think it is worth a look. 

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this sequel but since Johnny Depp was involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, after 7 long years after the 1^st instalment was released, who was actually asking for this movie? I mean, it’s not that ‘Gnomeo & Juliet’ was one of the worst animated features I have seen but it was also hardly remarkable and, back then, it definitely didn’t turn out to be a huge box-office success. Anyway, I have to admit that once again the animation was not bad at all and, at least, it was not much worse than its predecessor but, to be honest, it was pretty much the only positive things I could think of regarding this movie. Indeed, it was already pretty random to make a version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ starring some garden gnomes and adding Sherlock Holmes to the mix certainly made the whole thing even more scattered. At least, the detective angle was refreshing but, unfortunately, they came up with a story which managed to be seriously derivative but also too convoluted at the same time. Eventually, I felt mostly sad about Johnny Depp, who was actually the main reason why I wanted to check this flick. Indeed, if the best gig you can get is to do some voice-over work for the sequel of a 2^nd rate animated franchise, then you should know that your career is in trouble. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather harmless, it was still seriously tedious and I don’t think it is worth a look. Indeed, even for your kids, there are countless more fun CGI animated features out there for them.