I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it had been nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it was indeed nominated for 7 Academy Awards at the time (it did win 3 minor of them), it was actually a box-office flop when it was released. Well, to be honest, I have to admit that I have never been huge fan of musicals and I really struggled to care about this one. I was actually surprised to discover that Gene Kelly did direct this movie since he wasn’t involved as an actor but, at least, I have to admit that it was quite a lavish production. Indeed, they worked really hard to deliver a beautiful version of New York at the turn of the century and the end-result was certainly quite convincing. I was also surprised that, even though Barbra Streisand was playing the lead, she was almost never involved in the dance scenes which were, by the way, actually pretty neat but I wouldn’t have expected less from Gene Kelly. On the other hand, even though I have like zero knowledge of her work, I have to admit that Streisand did sing very beautifully here, no doubt about it. Anyway, above all, as usual with the genre, the story was just way too fluffy for my taste. I mean, seriously, what was this whole about? Even after watching the damned thing, I’m still not really sure and, to make things worse, it lasted almost 150 mins. It was basically about some matchmaker who was using the least convincing schemes ever to get people together while trying to snitch some rich guy that she didn’t love at all. I mean, if the tone would have been darker and more sarcastic, maybe, it would have been more entertaining (I doubt it though) but the way they handled this material was just so underwhelming. There was also the bewildering fact that, at 27 years old, Barbra Streisand was obviously way too young to play this character (she eventually regretted doing this movie) but, at least, Walter Matthau was a perfect choice here. Unsurprisingly, Matthau and Streisand didn’t get along at all and their characters had eventually very little chemistry. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch, even if it was definitely not the most memorable musical I have seen. 

Since this movie seemed to have a rather lame reputation, I had some rather low expectations but, since it was directed by Renny Harlin, I still wanted to check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I have a weak spot for the genre and the intro seemed to be actually promising. Unfortunately, I’m afraid it didn’t last for long and the end-result was basically some cheap ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ knock-off. Seriously, basically nothing worked in this movie after all. They made it look like some glossy flashy heist movie but I was rather amazed by how little actually happened through the whole thing. Indeed, most of the duration was filled with some (very boring) dialogue scenes between the characters. The members of this so-called ‘amazing’ team were also barely developed and not really impressive after all. I mean, they did look charismatic in the intro but the way they were characterized was rather disappointing. Basically, there was one Asian girl who could fight and then she got ONE single scene during which she beat up a bunch of goons (how did this help them to pull up this heist exactly?) and there was one Asian guy specialized in explosives who took care of ONE explosion during the whole movie (at least, it was necessary for their heist). Pierce Brosnan was supposed to be some master thief but we only kept seeing him stealing some wallets which was rather pathetic. Tim Roth seemed to be the only one who had a little bit of fun here but, to be honest, I had no idea who was his character really after all. Same thing with the guy called ‘The Prince’, it was completely unclear who this guy actually was. For some reason, the daughter of the character played by Brosnan was also involved but, even though Hermione Corfield was really lovely, this family angle was another tedious idea which should have been dropped. Then, they finally gave the only heist in the whole movie and, while it didn’t seem to be some complete nonsense, it still all looked pretty lame and it was hardly entertaining. It was also rather pathetic that they were stealing all this gold to give it to some charity. In this case, they probably should have called themselves ‘The Robin Hoods’ as suggested in the beginning of the movie (all the titles suggested were actually rather pathetic). Anyway, to conclude, I always had a weak spot for Renny Harlin’s B flicks and this movie was one of his most promising projects in years but I’m afraid it turned out to be another lame effort from the Finnish director.  

I actually rewatched ‘Smile’ recently and I enjoyed it even more the second time around so I was quite eager to check out this sequel. Ever since I saw the trailer, I was intrigued by this movie and, well, I wasn’t disappointed after all, that’s for sure. First of all, with horror sequels, they usually just keep repeating the same beats over and over again which is always so lame. However, in this case, even though the concept was the same, focusing on a really famous popstar changed completely the whole vibe which was so cool. On top of that, the way they portrayed the life of such a huge popstar seemed so realistic and the way it was mixed with a basic horror storyline was very well handled, even better than in the previous movie. Indeed, even though many people might dream of becoming super famous (even myself when I was a little kid), this movie perfectly displayed that, in spite of all the glamour, fame and money, this type of lifestyle seems actually terribly lonely and isolating after all. I mean, what’s the point of all this if you can’t share it with anyone and if you fee like sh*t most of the time? There is also such a creepy scary aspect with all this people who don’t know you at all and still want something from you. This, of course, worked perfectly well with the horror genre. Finally, while Sosie Bacon was really good in ‘Smile’, Naomi Scott was actually even better here. Indeed, she was actually pretty convincing as a pop singer but, above all, she displayed so well the torment that she was experiencing. In fact, even without this demon/entity chasing her, you might wonder if her life would have been so preachy (probably not). Eventually, the only thing that bothered me here was how a completely random character managed to find her to tell her the in’s and out’s of what was actually going on in her life. It seemed way too convenient and a rather lame way to avoid that the movie would be only about her being tormented by this entity (which would have been fine by me). Seriously, how plausible was it that the guy would manage to find the cell phone number of such a big star only a day after Lewis Fregoli died? And why on Earth would she listen to and believe on top of that the completely weird far-fetched story from some total stranger? However, it was all fixed by showing that most of what the main character experienced actually never happened at all but they got me worried at some point. Anyway, to conclude, I really have a weak spot for this horror franchise and I will definitely check the next instalment.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, it turned out to be another useless misguided US remake of a perfectly fine movie (after watching ‘Speak No Evil’ less than a week ago, I should probably watch something else in the near future). To be honest, it had been a while since I saw ‘Turist’, almost 10 years, and even though I did like it, it didn’t really blow me away though. Still, what really worked with this movie was that, even though there were some humorous moments, it was never really a comedy or then it was a really dark one. Anyway, what was intriguing was I could never exactly pinpoint what was the genre here. Well, all this was actually gone with this US version which was a rather lame basic comedy without the satirical sharp edges displayed in the original version. I have to admit that Julia Louis-Dreyfus was actually pretty good here though and she actually managed to find the right tone. Unfortunately, it was such a mistake to get Will Ferrell for this movie and, in my opinion, he was completely miscast here. Indeed, the guy built a whole career playing some really pathetic characters so, of course, he would run away if there would be an avalanche and, since it was expected, such a crucial pivotal scene felt completely unclimactic here. As a result, since his character was pathetic and unlikeable, it was almost impossible to care about what he and his family was going through. The two boys were not given anything to do, they were not developed at all and I couldn’t even tell you their names even though I saw this movie yesterday. Like I said before, Louis-Dreyfus was not bad though but I was just wondering how could this woman have been really in love with this man even before the whole avalanche drama. To make it work, they should have chosen someone very average looking, like they did in the original version, or they could have gone in a completely different direction and choose a big star like Brad Pitt, George Clooney or Tom Cruise, someone you would never expect to act like that. Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be pretty weak and you should probably avoid it. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it was directed by Ridley Scott, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it will probably go down as one of his biggest flops and, to be honest, I didn’t think it deserved a better fate. I do have a weak spot for such post-apocalyptic futuristic tale, which was probably another reason why I was curious about this movie, but it seemed that Scott turned out to be a rather poor choice to direct it. The issue with this story was that it did feel rather generic and the way it was handled by the veteran director made it so flat. Seriously, it was like there was no pulse whatsoever throughout the whole duration. I think he would have been better suited to direct something more like ‘World War Z’ with some big action pieces. Here, there were a couple of action scenes which were obviously well made but it was obviously not the point of this movie. The focus should have been the characters and what they had become in this wasted land but it was something way too subtle for a visual technician like Scott (his only movie where he managed to do something like this was ‘Thelma & Louise’ and I’m actually not a fan of this movie). There were basically only 4 characters and, except for Hig, they were totally half-baked. Indeed, the only positive thing here was Jacob Elordi who was not only quite charismatic but he also managed to bring a lot of depth in his character. He did feel really stunted emotionally and I did appreciate that he took his time to finally start having a relationship with Cima (in fact, I would have dropped the final scene and let the characters start their relationship on their own terms, not because Scott needed to wrap his movie). Concerning the other 3, well, I’m afraid it wasn’t really great. Margaret Qualley had a rather thankless task here playing the love interest and it didn’t help that her character fell in love with Hig within 5 mins but she was simply not given anything else to do. Sure, Josh Brolin was fun and had the best one-liners but that’s basically all he was reduced to be, some funny sidekick who happened to be a lethal killing machine. Out of these 4 characters, the most bewildering and useless one was played by Guy Pearce. Basically, he was added to the mix only to make sure that Cima wouldn't be alone (because, of course, there is now a way a pretty woman like her could survive such an apocalypse without a man) but his character was just too similar to Brolin’s character (hell, they even looked very similar). It was interesting that, from the moment that Bangley came back in the story, Pops had no dialogue anymore and he almost completely vanished from the movie. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t completely awful, it might be the most forgettable movie ever delivered by Ridley Scott.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it was starring James McAvoy and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. I actually saw the Danish version with my film club in the movie theatre and, to be honest, even if it was not bad at all, it didn’t really blow me away so I have to admit that I was rather sceptical about this US remake. On the other hand, it was definitely an intriguing story and the idea of James McAvoy playing this character was really cool so it still could work. Something that did bother me with the original version was that the Danish couple was just so tedious and spineless, I just never really cared for them at all. At least, with Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy, they did get some really charismatic actors this time around, even if this couple still remained spineless but it was also the whole point of this story. Something I was really missing with this remake was the culture clash aspect. Indeed, in the Danish version, it was dealing with a Danish couple going to a foreign country (the Netherlands) to visit a Dutch couple so everything felt strange and alien for them. However, this aspect was here completely downplayed as I didn’t feel such a huge cultural gap between this US couple who already lived in the UK for a while and this British couple. Basically, there was one boring regular couple and a more unconventional seemingly free couple but the whole cultural aspect was actually pretty much gone which was too bad. The main attraction here was obviously James McAvoy who was basically born to play such unhinged psychos but, to be honest, I think I actually preferred Fedja van Huêt. Indeed, I believed he brought more nuances to his character. To be honest, it was never clear why Ben and Louise were interested in Paddy and his family since they didn’t have anything in common. This aspect was also better developed in the Danish version as van Huêt was often weird but also very often actually really fun and charming. Finally, they obviously completely changed the ending and, this time, this US boring regular couple of course had to prevail so the whole message that middle-class people are just so polite and boring that they might cause their doom was obviously completely lost here. Eventually, I think the only real issue was that it came too fast after the original version (only 2 years) and a bigger gap between the two movies would have been nice. Anyway, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch. 

I had actually already seen this movie a few years ago but, after some technical issue on this website, my review was deleted so I thought I might as well check it out again. On top of that, I will watch soon the sequel on Netflix so it was another reason to rewatch this movie. Well, even though I thought it was not bad when I first saw it, I actually enjoyed it even more the second time around. Sure, at the end of the day, it was maybe nothing groundbreaking but it had been a while since I had seen such an efficient horror movie. Indeed, as usual with this genre, they went for some gimmick, but there was something really creepy about all these characters smiling so weirdly. The fact that I’m not great with eye contact in general because, somehow, I have some kind of phobia that people would then start acting weird like they did in this movie if I make eye contact with them, probably also helped. In general, the damned thing was really creepy, more than most modern horror flicks, and I did remember that Caitlin Stasey’s death scene was really gnarly (and it still was when I saw it again). In fact, the rest of the movie was not so gory, it was more some psychological horror which I actually find more interesting. On top of that, for once, the fact that nobody believed the main character was very well done here and it was completely understandable that everyone would consider that she was having some major nervous breakdown. It also had to do with the fact that Sosie Bacon, Kevin Bacon’s daughter, actually gave here a solid performance, so much better than what we usually get with this genre. I also really liked the idea that she thought she could beat this evil entity who actually just tricked her, that was a neat conclusion. Eventually, the only thing that didn’t really work for me was this weak love triangle involving the main character, her ex who was a cop, and her fiancé who was probably the most half-baked character in this movie. Indeed, I wasn’t sure if Jessie T. Usher should be blamed but they clearly never managed to properly flesh out this relationship. Anyway, to conclude, it was actually a really solid movie, no doubt about it and, now, I’m really pumped to see the sequel which might be even better.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it was included in ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?’ list, I was quite eager to check it out (For some reason, I also thought that it was included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list but it was apparently not the case). I have to admit that I had never heard of Humphrey Jennings before watching this movie but he apparently became famous with such short movies he made in the 40’s. To be honest, even though I understand why it was included, I wish they didn’t add this introduction by Leonard Brockington. Indeed, I loved the fact that there was no commentary or narration and removing this intro would have made the whole thing even more evocative. Concerning the rest of the movie, it gave a pretty good look on how life was back then during WWII in England. Personally, I have always been intrigued by this time period in Great Britain as their experience of WWII was so different to what happened in France and in the Netherlands and the other countries occupied by the Nazis. Of course, they still had to face the Blitzkrieg and suffered great losses but they basically remained undefeated after all and you could say it has shaped this country much more differently than the rest of Europe, maybe even leading to the recent Brexit. Anyway, it gave a pretty neat time capsule showing how British people lived at the time and I can understand why Jennings was considered a poet of the English cinema. Of course, it was still some propaganda but the approach chosen by Jennings was so subtle, without the introduction, it would have been the most subtle propaganda movie I had seen.