Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was one of the last movies starring Keira Knightley that I haven’t seen, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I had never heard of Katharine Gun before so it was definitely an interesting story and, at least, it was miles better than the really disappointing ’The Aftermath’ which I also watched recently. In fact, I mentioned Knightley but there was actually a rather big cast involved (Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Ralph Fiennes, Jeremy Northam) and I liked this approach. Indeed, even though the whole thing started with an albeit reckless but still courageous young woman, eventually, this movie clearly displayed that, at the time, in contrary to the US, in the UK, a vast majority of the population was actually against this war and many people were more than eager to help and support Katharine Gun. Basically, following the lead of Bush and his administration, Blair (who was at some point one of the most popular British prime ministers) and his government went pretty much all the way to make sure that the second Irak war was going to happen. Indeed, after the complete Trump nightmare, we tend to forget that W. Bush was pretty much god damned awful as well, dragging the US but also many other countries, not in one but in two wars. While the war in Afghanistan was a total mess (after a whopping 20 years, all the foreign troops are gone and, apparently, within only a few months, the Talibans will take over the country again), the war in Irak was based on some terrible lies and this movie was a great reminder. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was really eager to check it out. Well, first of all, it was a really badass title. Furthermore, I have to admit that I didn’t know much about Fred Hampton and it was really neat to learn more about this inspiring guy. Indeed, that he had accomplished so much and that he had reached such wisdom at such a young age was just really impressive and it would have been interesting to find some actors who were actually around the same age of their characters (Indeed, Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield were both at least 10 years older than their characters). Still, there is no denying that Kaluuya and Stanfield both delivered such strong performances, they were both quite pitch-perfect and seriously spellbinding to behold. So, the whole thing was strong and delivered an important message in the process and, yet, it was still missing something to completely win me over though. First of all, even though it was dealing with a really interesting story, the whole thing was still rather predictable. Indeed, from the moment you see Bill O'Neal meeting FBI agent Roy Mitchell for the first time, everything else happening afterwards was hardly surprising. I wonder also if it wouldn’t have worked better if it would have been more nuanced. Indeed, even with the most controversial black character, Bill O'Neal, they displayed a lot of compassion (basically, the guy was pressured by the FBI to work for them) whereas most of the white characters didn’t get the same curtesy. I mean, Martin Sheen was praised for his performance playing some kind of monstruous version of J. Edgar Hoover but, to be honest, it was borderline caricatural. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, it was still a fascinating tale with 2 awesome performances and the damned thing is definitely worth a look. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty bad things about this flick, obviously, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, after working with Roland Emmerich on many blockbusters, apparently, Dean Devlin thought he could also direct his own disaster flick. Eventually, it was at least quite an achievement that Devlin managed to deliver something worse than anything delivered by Emmerich so far (alright, ‘Godzilla’ might be even worse but still…). It’s too bad because the idea of making a disaster flick around climate change was intriguing and the damned thing actually had some potential. Unfortunately, I turned out to be one of these blockbusters which try to look very smart but end up being incredibly dumb. I mean, their first stupid move was to choose Gerard Butler to play some genius scientist. Seriously, there was not a single thing that he said that actually sounded convincing. On the other hand, Jim Sturgess was not much better and delivered another really weak performance (on top of that, the fact that this ’super’ scientist’s brother would work for the staff of the US president was just some really lazy writing). Concerning the rest of the cast (Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara, Andy Garcia, Ed Harris, Robert Sheehan, Mare Winningham, Zazie Beetz), only Zazie Beetz managed to be interesting/entertaining in a just a few scenes, all the rest was just wasted playing some really poorly written characters. Coming back to the ’master’ plan of the bad guy, if you destroy the whole Earth, how was it going to bring back the USA back on top?!? Anyway, to conclude, I guess I was actually rather generous with my rating here, the damned thing was really weak and you should probably avoid it. 

The most interesting about this movie is that it came at a turning point in Woody Allen's career. Indeed, until that point, in spite of the dramatic shenanigans in his private life, Allen had managed to release one movie virtually every year for almost 50 years without any trouble whatsoever. However, after this movie was released, Allen got caught up in the whole #MeToo movement and his career pretty much crashed and burned. He still managed to make 2 movies since then ('A Rainy Day in New York' and 'Rifkin's Festival') but, at this point, you might wonder if he shouldn't call it quits and just retire. Concerning the movie itself, well, to be honest, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing. I mean, it was visually quite a beautiful movie (no wonder that he worked with the same cinematographer he used for ‘Café Society’) and it was pretty neat to spend some time in Coney Island during the 50’s. However, even though I did like the fact that it was for once dealing with a middle-aged woman, unfortunately, she got entangled in another misguided love triangle, some gimmick used other and other again by this director. Above all, as usual, his approach was rather icky regarding this subject. Basically, Mickey starts an affair with Ginny (who happens to be married) and then falls in love with Carolina (who happens to be Ginny’s stepdaughter) which was, in my opinion, rather messed up. However, in Allen’s world, there is nothing really wrong in Mickey’s behaviour and choices because there is basically nothing you can do when you fall in love, some kind of Mantra Woody Allen has kept repeating ever since he himself fell in love with his girlfriend’s daughter more than 25 years ago. The other thing that bothered me with this movie was that it was, in my opinion, rather misogynistic. Indeed, while Mickey’s actions were deemed acceptable, Ginny, in spite of a really solid performance by Kate Winslet, was described as a selfish, moody and even borderline hysterical multiple home wrecker. They didn’t spend so much time on Carolina but they were not really kind with this young woman either. Indeed, pretty much all her decisions were considered as at best unwise but they always had a dramatic outcome not only for her but also for the people around her. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was another rather weak effort from this director, I guess it is still worth a look though, especially if you are interested in Woody Allen’s work.

I already saw this movie but since I’m planning to see ‘Glass Onion’ in a couple of weeks, I was quite eager to first rewatch it with my wife, especially since she didn’t see it yet. Well, even if I’m not sure she really cared for it (she really didn’t like Daniel Craig’s character at all), I thought it was still really good though. Basically, it is a very classic murder mystery but I still really enjoyed it though. Above all, I think was very well written and it was probably by far the smartest script delivered by Rian Johnson so far. Indeed, it seemed that the clue around Harlan Thrombey’s sudden death was given fairly early on but, obviously, the whole thing turned out to be slightly more intricate than that. Furthermore, there was such a great cast involved (Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Christopher Plummer, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell) and they were all game, especially Daniel Craig who definitely delivered here one of his best performances. It’s too bad that Blanc was disappearing from time to time when they would focus on some other characters because the guy was so much fun. Concerning the rest of the characters, most of them turned out to be barely developed after all but I guess it was rather inevitable with a big cast like this one. Eventually, the only thing that slightly did bother me was the whole gimmick around Marta puking each time she tells a lie. Indeed, I thought it was actually rather weak and the fact that she was one of the very few characters who actually knew almost everything made it rather easy for Benoit Blanc to eventually crack this case. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was maybe nothing really ground-breaking, it was still really entertaining 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 ‘Spring Breakers’ had been pretty wild, I thought I might as well check out Harmony Korine’s next directing effort. First of all, his previous movie made apparently enough waves so he had for the first time a cast filled up with well-known actors (Matthew McConaughey, Snoop Dogg, Isla Fisher, Zac Efron, Jonah Hill and even Martin Lawrence). Still, as usual with this director, Korine didn’t make it easy for us to really enjoy his new movie, that’s for sure. I mean, what were we supposed to feel about Moondog? Admiration? Disgust? Envy? Pity? I mean, sure, on one hand, the idea of going through life as some kind of endless party might sound pretty neat, even like the best thing ever for many people, on the other hand, even though it was rather unlikely that Moondog wouldn’t experience any physical issue with so much excesses, there was an obvious price to pay for his mind as you could see his mental state slowly deteriorating. Basically, what’s the point of all this fun if you’re going to become a vegetable in the process? How can you appreciate it if you can’t even remember your own name? But, maybe, that’s the whole point. Indeed, maybe, we should try to live for the fullest and die much younger and, as said by Jim Morrison who must have been an inspiration to Moondog, ‘I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames’. And, indeed, the whole thing was just so wild and so unpredictable, it was quite spellbinding to behold. Still, it was also rather dark, messy and chaotic. The fact that Moondog didn’t even really flinch following the death of his wife during a car accident (during which he was actually present) also displayed his complete disconnect with the rest of humanity. It is actually a common character trait to all drug addicts and alcoholics and it certainly didn’t make his lifestyle attractive after all. Anyway, to conclude, even if I can’t say I really enjoyed the damned thing, I still think it was a decent watch and I guess it might be worth a look, at least, if you want to see something slightly more original than usual. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Joe Carnahan and since there was a solid cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the whole concept of using the ‘Groundhog Day’ gimmick for an action flick and mixing it with some 8 bit videogames references got me sold pretty much within 5 minutes. On top of that, Frank Grillo was completely game and just pitch-perfect for this character. Unfortunately, even though the damned thing definitely had some potential, pretty much like its ugly-ass poster, it turned out to be a rather weak cheap B feature after all, I’m afraid. The first mistake they made was that, instead of discovering his predicament with the main character, we start when he has already died more than 100 times. As a result, even though it was supposed to be super ‘fun’ for the viewers, in fact, at this point, the whole thing had already become a routine, even a chore for this guy and, in spite what the makers might think, it is not so entertaining to see a character going through the motions. What was also disappointing was the fact that even though the whole thing was made to look and sound like a videogame, the reason why this guy was stuck in some time-loop had eventually... nothing to do with a videogame after all which felt like a massive missed opportunity. Instead, they went for something seriously convoluted and not interesting or entertaining whatsoever. Finally, except for Grillo who basically carried the whole thing on his shoulders and pretty much delivered here his best performance so far, the rest of the cast (Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts, Annabelle Wallis, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Jeong) was completely wasted with some really half-baked characters. Eventually, I think that the damned thing would have better worked as an actual videogame than as an actual live-action film like this one. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think that the concept was still pretty neat and it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Kate Winslet, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though I do have a weak spot for such survivalist dramas, this one was not really good, I’m afraid. Basically, the only thing this movie had to offer regarding this genre was that the 2 characters were played by some really charismatic actors (Kate Winslet and Idris Elba) but everything else was just terribly generic and predictable. Furthermore, they tried to tie the whole thing with a love story which might sound really misguided but, on the other hand, why not? However, even this angle was just so poorly developed. Indeed, if these characters would have had some deep conversations about themselves, about life in general, seriously about anything, after all, they were stuck together for weeks together, it could have actually worked. However, they didn’t seem to talk that much and, instead, the main argument provided by this movie was that, since they were both attractive and they were both likely to die soon, well, they might as well sleep together which wasn’t exactly really romantic. Eventually, the only interesting thing about this flick was that they spent the last act to show the aftermath following such a traumatic experience. Indeed, usually, in this genre, the whole thing stops after the rescue and you might assume that the characters resume their old lives as if nothing happened but, in this case, they displayed that it wasn’t the case which was quite interesting, at least, it was more refreshing than anything else displayed in this movie. Eventually, I wish half of the movie would have been about what happened to these characters after they went through such an ordeal but I’m afraid that it wasn’t the main focus here. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was seriously pedestrian and forgettable, it was still a decent watch though and I guess it might be worth a look, if you really like the genre.