Reviews by johanlefourbe

Well, I’m finally done with my Tarkovsky cycle (I still have to watch ‘Offret’ and ‘Nostalghia’ because they were unfortunately not included in my Blu-ray box set). To be honest, this journey has been just as fascinating as it was frustrating and I actually ended up somehow with arguably his most challenging movie. Can you imagine this? Watching the most difficult movie from the most difficult director I know? The funny thing is that, with a running time of less than 2 hours, it was rather short, at least, for a Tarkovsky movie. Basically, the main difference with the other movies directed by the Russian master was that, even though they were all also extremely opaque and intricate, they were at least linked to some genre (WWII drama, medieval epic, Science-Fiction), even if Tarkovsky didn’t care much about the usual trademarks linked to these different genres. In this case, he went this time for something completely freewheeling and I can imagine that it can be quite fascinating and exhilarating if you manage to get into in his flow and state of mind but, to be honest, I really struggled with the damned thing. Seriously, through the whole duration, I was scratching my head wondering what the hell was happening in front of my eyes and it was only afterwards, much later on, that I finally managed to get more or less some understanding about this movie. Basically, it was about a man that you never see and sometimes hear talking reflecting on his youth and his relationship with his mother and reflecting on his present and his relationship with his ex-wife. The fact that both women were played by the same actress probably didn’t help to make the whole thing less opaque and confusing but this casting actually somehow made sense since, on a subconscious level, all our partners are somehow some kind of reflection of our mothers. I also wonder if the black-and-white scenes were dealing with his past and the color scenes were dealing with his present but it sounds way too easy and conventional for this director. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was probably one of the most difficult movies I have ever seen, it was still quite fascinating and it is definitely worth a look but only if you really like the genre though. 

To be honest, since this movie had been rather poorly received, I had some rather low expectations but since I have a weak for Reese Witherspoon and since it was directed by Atom Egoyan, I still wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, even if it was an interesting true story, the movie turned out to be seriously weak though. I have to admit that I wasn't really familiar with the West Memphis Three case before watching this movie but I think it might have been a blessing since it did help me to slightly more appreciate this movie, at least, more than it actually deserved. However, it didn't change the fact that, even though Egoyan had a rather solid track record back in the 90's, the directing was here actually seriously clunky. Indeed, even though the whole thing should have been about the investigation on both sides (how the cops tried to pin these murders on these 3 teenagers without a single shred of physical evidence and how their lawyers tried to prove that there was no merit in these accusations) which seemed to be a no-brainer to me, instead, they kept focusing on Reese Witherspoon's character who, well, pretty much did nothing through the whole thing. I mean, sure, it must have been awful for the parents of the deceased kids but if this woman didn't have anything relevant to say or do regarding this case, except being played by a A-lister, well, I wish they put their focus on something more interesting. Concerning Colin Firth's character, he did seem at first to be more promising but it didn't last long, I'm afraid. Of course, there was the fact that Firth was probably completely miscast to play an American with a southern accent but it didn't really bother me after all. What bothered me even more was the fact that, except making some moralistic statement about the death penalty, the guy didn't do much after all. Seriously, it would be fun to count how many meaningless close ups you get on these two characters. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was a strong story, this movie was just really weak and you would be wise to watch instead the many heralded documentaries about this topic. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Carice van Houten, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, even though the material was super interesting, to be honest, the damned thing turned to be rather half-baked, I’m afraid. Indeed, it was quite fascinating to spend some time in a TBS facility (in the Dutch Judicial system, it is possible, when a judge is convinced that the suspect, at the time of the offence, was suffering from a defective development or pathological disturbance of the mental faculties, that the suspect get interned in a jail functioning as a psychiatric hospital instead of a regular jail). However, it was just too murky what Halina Reijn was trying to achieve with her directorial debut. On the other hand, the poster seemed to be pretty obvious, but, whatever was her point, it took just too damned long to get there. I guess that the main idea was to show that relationships, especially romantic ones, can be really complex, even really messed-up, and that love can happen in the most unlikely and unhealthy ways. The problem, mostly with Nicoline (played by Carice van Houten) was that they never displayed her in another professional context during which was she was actually fully functioning. As a result, there was no point of reference to compare with what she was going through during this movie. With Idris (played by Marwan Kenzari), it was less problematic but his mohawk was a rather heavy-handed way to show that the guy was ‘trouble’ and I wonder if his character wouldn’t have been more intriguing without it. Anyway, to conclude, it’s too bad the whole thing turned out to be rather empty and pretentious but the material was still pretty strong and, in spite of its flaws, it still think it is worth a look. 

To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of Pokémon (on the other hand, I have to admit that I was at some point pretty addicted to the videogame ‘Pokémon Emerald Version’ on the Game Boy Advance during a summer vacation) but since this movie was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I'm pretty sure it was the first movie I saw dealing with these famous creatures but I think they made here the most of this material. Indeed, they created an interesting world and all these Pokémon creatures looked really neat with some cutting-edge CGI. It was also a master move to have the most famous Pokémon voiced by Ryan Reynolds and it was pretty neat to have this character involved in a detective story. So, the basic stuff was fine but, unfortunately, the story turned out to be pretty boring though. By the way, to turn these cute Pokémon’s into some wild creatures with some gas, wasn’t it exactly the same plot used in ‘Zootopia’? Well, I already thought this storyline was hardly interesting in ‘Zootopia’ and it didn’t change this time around. On top of that, in this case, I don’t think the ending made much sense (where was the body of his father all this time?!?) or maybe I missed something but, to be honest, I don’t really care. So, even though I really liked the detective angle, I wish they came up with a more entertaining and less derivative story and I wonder if the fans thought it was really satisfying. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was not bad and it is worth a look, especially if you are a fan of Pokémon. 

I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I had never heard of the damned thing before but it turned out to be so much better than I expected. Eventually, it’s too bad I saw it on the BBC without subtitles but, even though I did struggle with the dialogues, the damned thing was still quite impressive. Indeed, even though it did start like a rather conventional POW story, eventually, it turned out to be one of the bleakest anti-army movies I have ever seen. In fact, the story was not actually dealing with some regular POW’s but with a military prison with some British soldier convicted for some minor offences such as insubordination, being drunk while on duty, going AWOL or petty theft. So, everyone involved, guards and prisoners alike, were all soldiers on the same side and, yet, the treatment displayed went way beyond only ‘punishing’ the convicted soldiers. Indeed, they had to face such sadistic treatment that all the men sharing this cell slowly became pretty much mad. Seriously, towards the end, the situation got completely out of hand and the whole thing was just a massive chaos but it was actually quite fascinating to behold. For Sean Connery, this movie was the opportunity to show that he could do something else than James Bond and while you might expect him to play your usual tough guy, his character turned out to be slightly more complex and Connery definitely delivered here one of his best performances. Anyway, to conclude, even if it is a really obscure movie, it is actually really good and it is definitely 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 Lily James, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it did sound like a really weird mash-up and I remember that there was a pretty good buzz about this movie before it got released. However, I’m not surprised that it turned out to be a flop after all. Indeed, I don’t think that zombie fans were really eager to have their beloved monsters get stuck in the middle of some stuffy vintage romantic intrigues and, the other way around, I don’t think that Jane Austen fans would be happy to have some ghoulish monsters randomly popping up in the middle of some romantic encounters involving Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. As a result, you might wonder who was supposed to be the audience for this flick. At least, it seems pretty obvious that the cast (Lily James, Sam Riley, Bella Heathcote, Suki Waterhouse, Douglas Booth, Charles Dance, Jack Huston, Lena Headey, Matt Smith) had quite some fun with this material and the whole thing looked pretty good but, to be honest, I thought it was just really boring. Basically, the only way it could have worked was if they would have gone for something completely wacky, I mean, wasn't it supposed to be the whole point from the very beginning? Unfortunately, instead, they gave us a rather weak version of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ combined with a rather weak zombie flick (the worst part was probably this rather inane sub-plot about the fact that the zombies could be somehow ‘tamed’ by eating some pig brains…) and this mix was just so tedious to behold. Anyway, to conclude, I just didn’t care for the damned thing at all and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

In fact, I actually saw first Steven Soderbergh’s version which had been a huge flop when it was released but it was ages ago and I didn’t remember much about it. Still, it was pretty neat that, after a WWII drama and a medieval epic, Tarkovsky was coming up with something completely different and again really ambitious. Anyway, as usual with this director, it turned out to be terribly challenging though but, at this point, I wouldn’t expect less from the Russian master. And, yet, even if it was pretty tough to watch, there was still something quite mesmerizing about the damned thing. In my opinion, it was some kind of reflection on the fact that we are, as a specie, terribly arrogant because we have been ruling this Earth for millenniums (we also ruined the damned thing by exploiting all its resources but that’s another story) but, in fact, we barely know ourselves after all. As a result, we would be actually rather poorly equipped if we would encounter another kind of life form in some distant future. Indeed, in the vast majority of SF films, aliens are portrayed either as some human-eating monsters or as a superior life-form who actually are very similar to us and they always fit some logical frame corresponding with how we see ourselves and how we see life in general. However, as it was displayed in this movie, we would probably encounter something completely ‘different’. In fact, the gap between what we would expect and what we would actually get would be so huge that we would probably not have the mental and psychological capabilities to handle such an encounter. At least, that’s what I got from the damned thing but maybe Tarkovsky actually meant something completely different. Concerning the rest of the movie, well, I’m sorry, but it did feel like a very long and rather ugly episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’, to be honest. Anyway, to conclude, even if I’m not sure if I really understood this flick, there was still something fascinating about it and it is definitely worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this sequel but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, pretty much like the previous sequel from this franchise, I have to admit that I was actually rather positively surprised by the damned thing. First of all, it was pretty neat to see again the charismatic Ed and Lorraine Warren, even if they were involved only at the beginning and at the very end.  Furthermore, unlike with the first instalment which turned out to be so underwhelming, once again, they didn’t focus so much on this evil doll which was a smart move. Instead, they explained that she was some kind of vessel or magnet for other spirits which was not a bad idea since it allowed the makers to unleash a whole bunch of ghosts, spirits and other demons in the Warrens' house. The downside was that it did make the whole thing seriously random. However, a bigger issue was that the whole setup didn’t make much sense whatsoever. Indeed, the Warrens had a room full of very evil and dangerous artifacts but what do they do when they go on a business trip? Well, they just leave this responsibility to an underaged baby-sitter… However, it actually got even worse. Indeed, Ed Warren actually LEFT the freaking keys to get to this room on his desk which was just completely unbelievable… Sure, I understand that they had to find a way to get Annabelle out of her closet but I wish they did find something slightly more convincing. It was also rather bewildering how much the Warrens completely downplayed what happened when they got back home. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it was actually a decent horror flick though and it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre.