Reviews by johanlefourbe

Even though this movie was rather poorly received when it was released, since it was directed by Robert Zemeckis, I was still eager to check it out. Well, Zemeckis tried here again to adapt an acclaimed documentary into a feature film but, pretty much like with 'The Walk', the whole thing felt seriously misguided. I have to admit that I haven't seen 'Marwencol' yet but this movie definitely made me even more eager to see this weird and really intriguing documentary. Anyway, the whole thing seemed to be another excuse for Zemeckis to show his technical skills with motion-capture, a gimmick he has been trying to sell us for more than 15 years since 'The Polar Express' was released in 2004. However, the recreation of Mark Hogancamp's pictures with some motion-capture CGI was not such a bad idea though, at least, it wasn't the worst idea displayed in this movie. Indeed, the biggest issue was that they tried to turn a complex story with some really dark edges into some kind of whimsical Hollywood tale. I mean, the main reason 'Forrest Gump' did work (I'm not a huge fan though) was because it was actually a fantasy which was obviously not the case here and, yet, Zemeckis still tried to handle this story in a similar fashion. Hell, they even tried to shoehorn Mark Hogancamp into a rather pathetic romance with his new neighbour (obviously, a fictional character) as if to be turned into a trivial romantic comedy what was this amazing tale about Art, trauma and survival actually asked for. And, yet, in spite of Zemeckis completely misguided approach with this material, it remains such a fascinating story. Anyway, to conclude, I'm probably giving this movie too much credit but if, like me, you didn’t have the opportunity to watch 'Marwencol', you can still watch this flick in the meantime. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Emma Stone and since this movie was finally available for free on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, on paper, there is no way that I should have liked this movie. Indeed, it is pretty annoying how Disney is shamelessly recycling their old material, I never really enjoyed ‘One Hundred and One Dalmatians’, it was just way too long and the story was rather convoluted. And, yet, I have to admit that I actually enjoyed the damned thing. First of all, even though ‘One Hundred and One Dalmatians’ has never belonged to the best animated features delivered by Disney, on the other hand, Cruella de Vil has always been one of their very best villains. On top of that, Emma Stone, arguably one of the best actresses of her generation, had obviously a blast here and was once again really good. Furthermore, there was some wild energy going through the whole thing fuelled by a killer soundtrack (it has been a while since I have seen a movie with such a cool collection of popular tunes) and some amazingly insane costumes. It was also pretty neat that they made Cruella some kind of maverick Punk designer at the end of the 70’s. Concerning Emma Thompson, she was pretty good as well but she did struggle to make her character something more than a copy of Miranda Priestly, perfectly played by Meryl Streep in 'The Devil Wears Prada'. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was still another rather pointless recycling from Disney’s old material, I have to admit that they managed to make the most of this material and it is worth a look, especially if you really like this marvellous character. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Margot Robbie, I thought I might as well check it out. Not to be confused with ‘Christopher Robin’ which was released around the same period and which is also available on Disney+. In fact, both movies were actually completely different and it is rather amusing that I ended up watching both them even if I myself not really a huge fan of Winnie the Pooh but, at least, this movie made clear how huge the character became when the first book written by A.A. Milne came out. Still, I’m afraid the damned thing never really worked though. I think the main issue was the whole genesis of this book was actually by and large really tragic but it seems that the makers never really dared to really commit to the darkness of the material. Instead, because the books themselves were quite whimsical, they tried to bring some whimsicality to this real story which might have sounded fine on paper but there was nothing really whimsical about what actually happened back then. Furthermore, it made the whole thing rather unfocused. Indeed, at first, they were focusing on A.A. Milne but, as soon the book came out, the guy more or less vanished in the 2^nd act. I mean, what did he feel about his newfound fame and the impact it had on his life and above all on the life of his kid? Even more problematic was how they handled his wife, Daphne Milne. She was actually a really interesting character who had apparently some mental issues and, in fact, C.R. Milne who didn’t get along very well with his father, didn’t have much contact with his mother after his father passed away. However, in this movie, she was so poorly developed that you are never really sure if she really loved her husband and her kid or if she just wanted to enjoy money and fame. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was not a complete disaster and I guess it might be worth a look if you are really interested in Winnie the Pooh and the guy who invented the famous character. 

To be honest, when I heard that they were coming up with a sequel for ‘The Shining’, it did sound like a really misguided idea. On the other hand, Mike Flanagan is at the moment one of the most interesting horror film directors so maybe he could make it work. Unfortunately, even though it did receive Stephen King‘s blessing and had received some decent reviews, it still turned out to be a flop at the box-office. Anyway, since the damned thing was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if it never came near the level of Kubrick’s masterpiece (even if it is not even near to be one of my favourite movies from this great master, it is still one of the best horror movies ever made), this sequel was still not bad at all. Indeed, the links with Kubrick’s movie were actually well done but still allowed the movie to stand on its own. However, if ‘The Shining’ was really focused (at least, the way the story was told in Kubrick’s movie), I thought this new tale was just too scattered. I mean, I did appreciate how they handled the main character, Dan Torrance, Ewan McGregor definitely delivered a solid performance and this storyline worked rather well. However, there were also two other storylines, one involving another young girl with some very powerful shining and a group of rather obscure bad guys, and, in my opinion, they really struggled to combine these 3 stories together. Above all, everything involving the True Knot was very often way too opaque and even borderline ridiculous. Indeed, this group was actually really poorly defined and it didn’t help that more than half of them didn’t do or say anything at all through the whole duration. On the other hand, I have to admit that Rebecca Ferguson was actually seriously charismatic and maybe it would have better worked if she would have been on her own. In this case, you would have had 3 stories thread each involving only one main character creating a better balance. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look but there is no denying it was still a rather useless sequel. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, after ‘Tenet’, it turned out to be another rather far-fetched conspiracy thriller with [Link removed - login to see] at the center and, at this point, he might be careful to avoid typecasting. Anyway, all in all, the damned thing was not really good. I mean, it was visually rather well done and, even though Washington’s character was hardly interesting, this actor is quite charismatic. Basically, the whole thing did remind me of ’Frantic’ and many classy thrillers directed by Alfred Hitchcock but, even if the concept was not bad, it never really worked though. The main issue was that 90% of the running time was about the main character running around and trying to save his skin and while it might seem appealing on paper, it would have been probably more interesting if they took the time to allow us to learn more about him. I mean, there were some moments when the guy felt (understandably) a huge amount of guilt and even did contemplate suicide and John David Washington was quite convincing during these moments but, each time, he had to start up to run again pretty much endlessly until they reached some half-baked conclusion during which everything was wrapped up way too nicely (Seriously, how on Earth was it supposed to make any sense that the kidnappers would bring this kid at a rally where his uncle was giving a speech?!?). Concerning the other characters, it was actually even worse though as none of them was developed whatsoever. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I think it was still a watchable though but it was also terribly forgettable, I'm afraid.

Since this movie had a pretty good rating on IMDb and since there was a solid cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I’m rather surprised that this movie has mostly received some poor reviews (only 53 Metascore) since I really enjoyed the damned thing. First of all, I have to admit that I had never heard of Mohamedou Ould Slahi before but it probably allowed me to enjoy more this movie. Indeed, this lack of knowledge did allow me to appreciate the approach they chose by not showing right away if Mohamedou might be guilty or not as it remained rather ambiguous, at least, during the 1^st half. Eventually, just like the defence and the prosecution, we slowly discover that Mohamedou might not only be innocent but that the US army actually never heard had any proof against him at all even though they kept him captive for years and even tortured to him to achieve some baseless and ridiculous confessions. Of course, you might argue like many critics that it was actually nothing new but I don’t agree. Indeed, they are actually still 40 prisoners in Guantamo Bay right now and this movie displayed in a powerful way how the US, in spite of their incredible resources, waged a senseless war on terror by terrorizing 1000’s of innocent people themselves. The fact that Kabul and Afghanistan in general has just fallen back under the Taliban regime after 20 years of US occupation made this movie even more topical. At least, even if the reviews were rather harsh, everybody seemed to agree that Tahar Rahim delivered another strong performance here and the guy was indeed pretty much pitch-perfect. On the other hand, I have to admit that the other characters played by the rest of the cast (Jodie Foster, Shailene Woodley, Benedict Cumberbatch and Zachary Levi) could have been more developed. Woodley was especially wasted playing a really thankless part who had basically no impact at all on the whole story. Anyway, to conclude, in the contrary to most of the critics, I really enjoyed the damned thing and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I had actually never heard of the Harlem Cultural Festival that took place in 1969 but I’m not the only one. Indeed, while Woodstock became the most famous festival that ever took place, this festival was actually largely forgotten, at least, by the mainstream audience. What was even more surprising was that they actually did film everything but it took a staggering 50 years before someone finally released the damned thing. Apparently, back then, nobody cared about spreading this magnificent piece of Black power, love and creativity which was basically censored in spite of its actually very positive message. Concerning the festival itself, I have to admit that I didn’t know about half of the performers but it didn’t matter and they were all really good. The fact that appearing on this stage meant so much for them really transpired in their performances which were very often quite electrifying. Eventually, the only thing that prevented this movie from becoming really epic was the fact that they reduced 40 hours of footage to only 2 hours. I mean, the documentary about Woodstock was lasting 3 hours for a reason and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have had the same impact if it would have been shorter. In this case, with an extra hour or even more, they could have fleshed out even more some of the performances or some portraits of the artists and people involved. Still, it wasn’t a deal-breaker and the damned thing was really awesome to behold. Anyway, to conclude, I really enjoyed this flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or this kind of music. 

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Olivia Munn, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I wasn’t really impressed by the 1^st instalment but the fact it still managed to spawn a sequel does display Kevin Hart’s current star power, either you like it or not. The main issue was that these two characters kept endlessly bickering exactly like they did in the previous movie. In my opinion, it could have been so much more interesting and above all so much more entertaining if they instead took the whole thing into another direction, for example, by making this duo actually working together. The fact that the plot itself was terribly generic and predictable didn’t help either. Concerning Olivia Munn, well, as usual, she looked really lovely but, to be honest, she wasn’t convincing at all. It started with some small details like, at some point, she was wearing a black outfit which seemed to be suitable for her police work but she was also wearing some heels which did really look good on her but it didn’t seem to be the most practical shoes to wear on the field. A bigger issue was that her performance was just really flat and I never believed that she was some kind of seasoned hardened police officer. Concerning our main duo, well, sure, Kevin Hart can be fun but it’s a pity that Ice Cube got stuck playing such a constantly grumpy guy and I wish his character was not so terribly one-note. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather harmless, it was still rather weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you really like the genre.