Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but it had been years since I saw something starring Lindsay Lohan so I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the damned thing didn’t turn out to be only awful, it actually turned out to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen, no less than that. Back in 2013, they also released ‘Movie 43’ which had a similar concept. Indeed, it was basicallly another anthology comedy with various R rated sketches but this one was even worse though. Sure, ‘Movie 43’ was also awful but, at least, with this movie, it was somehow morbidly fun to see a stellar cast making a fool of themselves by showing up in one of the most misguided movies ever made. This movie however had only a few B stars involved (Rob Schneider, Michelle Rodriguez, Adrien Brody, Lindsay Lohan) and therefore not a single redeeming feature. I mean, the damned thing was obviously not funny at all and it turned out to be also seriously offensive but I guess it was expected with such a title. Seriously, I don’t think if I have ever seen a movie showing so much racism for supposedly comic purposes. Of course, the makers would argue that they tried to make fun of racist people but, as displayed in this movie, it is actually really tricky and they obviously failed miserably. Eventually, the material was so misguided, so disturbing, that I felt nauseous through most of the duration. Coming back to Lindsay Lohan, she was obviously still struggling in her career but also in her life in general but, by showing up in such awful parodies, she pretty much torpedoed the little amount of credibility she still had, I’m afraid. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing is just awful, its only achievement is that it managed to be even worse than ‘Movie 43’ and you should pretty much avoid it. 

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Alice Eve, I thought I might as well check it out. Basically, the whole thing was based on the concept that such isolated ATM booths are rather creepy, especially in the middle of the night but, to be honest, it seemed to be rather thin to build up a whole movie. On the other hand, I have to admit that I do have a weak spot for such minimalistic features with only one location and a few characters involved. However, beside the fact that the concept seemed rather limited, the trio of characters involved was rather uninteresting. At least, Brian Geraghty slowly won me over as he was one of the most uncharismatic leading men I have seen but it’s too bad they still tried to turn him into your average heroic guy. Concerning the bad guy, it seemed to be a smart move to keep his motivations rather murky but, on the other hand, it was also a cheap move from the makers and, on top of that, I don’t think there was actually a sensical way to explain what the hell he was doing. Indeed, it seemed to be pretty obvious that the guy didn’t do it for the money so what was his agenda then? The most likely explanation was that he was some kind of serial killer who planned his killings around such isolated spots. However, there was still some major loopholes linked to this theory. Indeed, how the hell did the guy know that there would be some potential victim(s) in the middle of the night at this very specific booth? Anyway, to conclude, the makers didn’t manage to do anything worthwhile with a concept which was rather half-baked from the start and I guess you can pretty much avoid this movie. 

Following ‘The Witch’ which had been critically successful, Robert Eggers came up with another directing follow-up which became even more popular so I was definitely eager to check it out. Concerning ‘The Witch’, I thought it was a decent watch but, to be honest, not much more than that. However, it was really neat to see how much progress Eggers made with this second directorial effort. And, yet, to be honest, it was still not completely sold though. Indeed, from the moment you see these two men showing up on this shore, you actually pretty know how it will all end. To make things worse, nothing much really happened afterwards, except seeing the two characters switching between being more or less friendly with each other and vastly antagonizing one another. Still, there is no denying that this movie was quite impressive to behold. First of all, there was the visual aspect. Indeed, the damned thing did look quite amazing and even though black-and-white movies are not so rare nowadays, here, it was a great approach and it perfectly fit the story and the tone chosen by Eggers. Then, the whole thing was seriously minimalistic, there were basically only two characters but the two actors involved both delivered some very strong performances, in fact some of the best performances of their respective careers. For Willem Dafoe, it is quite amazing that, after a career going over more than 4 decades and more than 100 movies, the guy still can come up with such powerful stuff and a couple of the speeches/soliloquies he made were just simply amazing and unforgettable (during one of these, he was actually getting buried alive, seriously, what an actor!). Concerning Pattinson, he had to face a Dafoe at the top of his game and he actually managed to be pretty much just as convincing as his colleague was. For the people still making fun of him because, 10 years ago, he did show up in the ‘Twilight’ franchise, well, if the guy keeps impressing like this, he might actually become one of the most interesting actors of his generation. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its limitations, it was still a rather spellbinding movie to behold and it is definitely worth a look and I can’t wait to see what Robert Eggers will do next. 

Since the ratings were rather low for this movie, I didn’t have some really high expectations but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, to be honest, it has been a while since I have seen something so weak starring either Rachel Weisz or Michael Shannon. That the damned thing was directed by the same guy who delivered the impressive ‘Maria Full of Grace’ was even more surprising. At first, you might be wondering what the hell was going on with these really random scenes starring Weisz but the damned thing turned out to be some kind of half-baked version of ‘Catch Me If You Can’, except that they went for an approach which was much more pretentious and much less entertaining, I’m afraid. Seriously, the whole concept was never convincing. I mean, this woman had apparently 9 different jobs in 15 years which means that she spent less than 2 years performing any of these jobs but it was rather ridiculous. In ‘Catch Me If You Can’, Frank Abagnale Jr. was maybe a master con artist but he always ‘pretended’ to perform all these jobs. In this case, she managed to be an actual doctor and later on a biologist when this kind of jobs requires years of studies and experience. To make things worse, her agenda was just so opaque. Why did she look up her old boyfriend after all these years? Because she felt lonely? His reaction was also rather underwhelming. I mean, Shannon is a fine actor but his constant wooden look was the wrong fit for this character. On top of that, after it took him forever to finally confront her, he then somehow became fascinated with her whole ‘way of life’ which was rather bewildering. Anyway, to conclude, even though there were a couple of interesting ideas, most of it didn’t work at all and the damned thing is not really worth a look, I’m afraid.