Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Last week, I saw ‘Anna Boleyn’ also directed by Lubitsch and I was really neat how lavish this movie was for a movie produced in the 20’s. Well, this time, he brought us back to Ancient Egypt and the production value was once again really impressive. Unfortunately, even though the movie was quite strong visually speaking, I still struggled to care about the rest of it though. Above all, the story was rather disjointed, especially during the first 30 mins. It seems that they were also missing some reels so many scenes were replaced with some stills and intertitle cards which certainly didn’t help. Furthermore, back then, they apparently really loved such convoluted melodramas (the fact that it did take place in Egypt didn’t really matter) but, to be honest, it has never been really my cup of tea. When the movie started, I was pleased to see that the great Emil Jannings would be playing the Pharao. However, even though there was nothing really wrong with his performance, to be honest, he didn’t really dazzle me this time around but I can guess you can’t expect an actor to deliver the performance of a lifetime each time around. Concerning Harry Liedtke, it was even worse though as the guy was, in my opinion, just not charismatic enough to play the lead. At least, on the other hand, Dagny Servaes was really lovely. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work for me, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, when I heard that Neill Blomkamp was next coming up with a video game adaptation, I thought it sounded actually rather depressing. I mean, when ‘District 9’ came out, he was hailed as the next-best-thing (I have to admit that I was also super hyped as well) but this movie was not exactly what I had in mind for him. And yet, the damned thing was not so bad after all. First of all, when I moved into my new apartment, my son-in-law brought a Playstation 4 and, even though I did buy a bunch of games, the only one I played extensively so far has been ‘Gran Turismo’. The funny thing is that I actually wanted to play ‘Need For Speed’ but my son-in-law only had this game. So, I have to admit that it was actually pretty cool to see a gamer like me managing to become a real car racer and the fact that it was a true story was pretty insane. The other cool and surreal thing was that I’m actually from Le Mans so, the fact that they ended up at this legendary track was pretty cool (too bad they didn’t manage to shoot there but I guess you can’t have everything). Concerning the rest of the movie, sure, it was all fairly generic and predictable and if you would expect Blomkamp to take some wild swings at the genre, well, I’m afraid you will be terribly disappointed. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing ground-breaking whatsoever, I have to admit it was actually a decent watch and it is worth a look but probably only if you really care about the subject matter. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, somehow, I still ended up watching it in the movie theater. Of course, when I heard that Barry Jenkins would be helming this prequel, like everybody else, I became intrigued but, to be honest, after watching the trailer, I didn’t care much about the damned thing. First of all, I have to admit that it was pretty cool to go back to Africa because I just went there on holidays only a few weeks ago. Anyway, no matter what you think about these movies, from a technical point of view, it is incredible how realistic and convincing the animals were. On the other hand, it is still weird to see such photo-realistic lions suddenly speaking or even singing (by the way, I didn’t care much for these songs and, as far as I was concerned, they could have been removed). In spite all this, eventually, even if it was nothing mind-blowing, I guess it was still watchable though and I think it was probably better than ‘The Lion King’ (the 2019 version, even if I have to admit that I don’t remember much about it though). Basically, the way Mufasa became King was actually more compelling than how Simba got to be in this spot so, automatically, it made the whole thing more compelling, at least, to me. It was also interesting to see how closed Mufasa and Taka AKA Scar used to be when they were kids. Another thing that I did appreciate was the fact that, in contrary to ‘Wicked’ for example which was just way too long, they managed to wrap this up in less than 2hrs. Anyway, to conclude, even if I will probably forget most about it within a few days, it was not bad and I guess it is worth a look but probably only if you really 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 Carmen Ejogo and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, apparently, this movie was a remake from a movie made in the 70's which I never heard of but Whitney Houston was apparently a huge fan and she had been trying to make this remake for more than a decade. She would eventually passed away during the post-production so I'm not even sure if she did see the end-result after all. This movie was also noteworthy because it was starring Jordin Sparks, the youngest winner of American Idol, who played the main character. The fact that I only vaguely remembered her name before watching this movie shows that winning at this singing competition won't necessarily make you a huge star afterwards. Anyway, coming back on the movie itself, well, I really struggled to care about the damned thing. First of all, it was a rather weird move to have to the two best singers (Whitney Houston and Jordin Sparks) being either reluctant to sing or even against singing at all. As a result, they focused mostly on Carmen Ejogo's character and she probably gave the best (or only good?) performance in this movie while she wasn't even the main character (Otherwise, the title would have been 'Sister'). Another thing that bothered was me that the damned thing was just too long. I noticed that it was about 30 mins longer than the original version and I'm pretty sure this extra time was not necessary, especially since the plot was just so generic and predictable. Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be rather boring and I don't think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you really like the genre.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, I was really impressed by the production value displayed in this movie. Seriously, visually speaking, it was easily one of the most lavish movies I have seen from this time period and it seemed be so far ahead of anything else released back then, at least, in this area. The other thing I enjoyed in this movie was to see Emil Jannings giving another stellar performance. Sure, the guy became later on a real Nazi f*ck but, even if he must have been awful in his private life, he was probably the best silent actor, no less than that, and he was once again quite spellbinding here. To be honest, he was lucky to play seemingly the only interesting character here as his Henry VIII was basically some kind of oversexed womanizer. The fact that they really made an effort to make him actually look like the English monarch was also appreciated (which was something rather frustrating when you watched Jonathan Rhys Meyers playing the same character in ‘The Tudors’). Unfortunately, pretty much else felt pretty flat though. Sure, there was the issue that I have seen by now so many versions of Henry VIII’s convoluted love life (I already mentioned ‘The Tudors’ before which is, in my opinion, the most definite version of this story) and their approach was not really interesting, I’m afraid. For example, they decided to reduce Anna Boleyn to an innocent victim but I think it terribly weakened her character. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though 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 it did receive some solid reviews and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though I did like it, I think it was still missing something to become really amazing though. I don’t know what exactly, maybe it’s because the 70’s settings did have very little impact after all and that it could have easily taken place nowadays without changing anything about the story. Maybe I wish they managed to deliver the whole thing without including Nancy Wheeler who was the only character who was rather nasty. Indeed, it was one thing really refreshing about this movie, the fact that, except for Nancy, everybody was just nice and decent. Anyway, there is no denying that it was a really strong coming-of-age story, no doubt about it, and Abby Ryder Fortson was pretty much pitch-perfect here. Concerning Rachel McAdams, even though she did give a solid performance, I was wondering if she might have been miscast. I mean, by that time, she actually already had 2 kids of her own which, I have to admit it, didn’t expect, but I never thought she was really convincing as the mother of a teenager. Basically, in spite of her efforts, she still looked too much like a glamourous movie star and not like some average mother who was been through all this for more than a decade. Concerning the religious angle, it was also quite intriguing. Indeed, for someone who didn’t have an official religion and who even said that she didn’t believe in God, she did an awful lot of talking with him though. They also perfectly displayed that a free and lovely upbringing can also bring quite a lot of confusion. I was raised with as much as freedom as you can imagine, with indeed, no religion, and I turned out to be pretty messed up so I do have some experience in this matter. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely blow me away, it was still a really lovely movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, since it was starring John Travolta and since I had this movie for years on my queue, I thought I might as well finally watch the damned thing. Well, even though it didn’t expect much from the start, it still turned out to be seriously lame though. Where should I start? First of all, in my opinion, car racing is rather dull but this dirt racing seemed even more pathetic but it wasn’t even the main issue here. Indeed, the whole thing was just so cheap and, above all, so flat. Indeed, the plot was also really generic and completely predictable and the fact that it was all done and wrapped up in 80 mins was also another bad sign. Concerning John Travolta, even with such trash, the guy was still charismatic but it was pretty much the only thing he gave here and his performance was just really weak. Concerning Becca, I was wondering who was this really charismatic actress who looked like Shania Twain and it’s only when the movie was over that I discovered that it was actually Shania Twain herself. Well, I’m glad she was involved because she was really lovely but, to be honest, it seemed to be a rather weird career move to show up in a cheap flick like this one that very little people will watch after all. At least, you could say this movie did finally procure some kind of reunions of the Vega brothers but, since Travolta and Madsen were both rather pathetic, even the Tarantino fans won’t be pleased, I’m afraid. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that the damned thing was rather harmless, it was still a big waste of time and you should probably avoid it. 

Pretty much like with 'A Close Shave', ‘The Wrong Trousers’ and 'A Grand Day Out', I actually watched this movie for the first time in the movie theater which was a total blast but, contrary to these other shorts, I don’t have it on DVD which is a real pity. Indeed, it would be really great to watch it again at some point after all these years. Anyway, even though I always wish to see Nick Park working with some other characters than the iconic Wallace and Gromit, his attempts were not great though (see ‘Chicken Run’ and ‘Early Man’). This short was the exception though. I think it also displayed that his stuff actually works much better with such small sketches than with a full-length feature format but that’s a personal opinion. Anyway, the damned thing was just so well made and completely hilarious and it’s by far the best thing Nick Park has ever delivered which didn’t involve W & G. 

Pretty much like with 'A Close Shave' and ‘The Wrong Trousers’, I actually watched this movie for the first time in the movie theater which was a total blast and I do have it as well on DVD. So, I do have seen it couple of times, even many times, and, yet, it has been a while and I actually have a hard time to remember it in details so I guess I should re-watch it at some point. Anyway, that’s where it all started for Wallace and Gromit. Sure. the clay-motion might seem crude compared to their latter features (you have to keep in mind that Nick Park did the whole thing pretty much on his own at the time) but there is no denying that these characters were pure gold from the start. The other thing I really loved about this first short was that, from a narrative point of view, it still clearly stands out from their other movies and, only therefore, it did get some extra points from me. Anyway, I have a really weak spot for the damned thing. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Cecil B. DeMille and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it was actually a really obscure directorial effort from DeMille and, to be honest, it wasn’t really good, I’m afraid. The fact that the copy I saw was of a rather poor quality probably didn’t help but, as far as I was concerned, it was a rather typical romantic melodrama, a genre that seemed to be really popular at the time. In this case, I was rather amazed how convoluted the damned thing was. I mean, I have seen my share of romantic tales but it was probably one of the weirdest love triangles I have seen so far. Indeed, Marian Ramsay was more or less cheating with a deposed king instead of some average guy. The weird thing was how she was actually flirting with this guy so publicly. At some point, I thought this Jaromir was some kind of con artist who was trying to trick her husband into some fake wheat deal but it would be giving this movie too much credit. Instead, to get rid off the guy, Michael Ramsay actually broke a (real) wheat deal with the government of the country of this deposed king with the condition that they would give him back his throne. So, like I said, it was all pretty convoluted… To make the whole thing even more random, they had a daughter who was also involved in her own love story. In her case, it was at first weird and even cringe-inducing to see a 17 year-old girl chasing a guy who was probably in his 40’s but  I’m afraid it’s inherent to the time period. Another completely random scene was when this girl tried to explain something to her lover and they switched the scenery to the prehistoric age as if it would make her argument more potent this way. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather forgettable, I guess it might still be worth a look, at least, if you like the genre or if you are interested in Cecil B. DeMille’s work.