Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. I did watch the first instalment (mostly because my stepson was so enthusiastic about it) but it was years ago and the only thing I could remember was how much it did bore me at the time. Anyway, coming back to this sequel, I have to admit that the people working at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium all seemed to be doing an incredible work. Furthermore, it seems that everything displayed was scientifically fairly accurate and I guess the makers should be praised to have kept the BS to the bare minimum. Still, at the end of the day, it was just rather poorly written. Indeed, there was just no pulse whatsoever, the whole thing felt rather lifeless and, eventually, in my opinion, it wasn’t much better than a very long commercial for the CMA. On top of that, it didn’t help that Nathan Gamble was not charismatic at all and, even if Cozi Zuehlsdorff was slightly better, she didn't really impress me after all. To ‘support’ them, there were just way too many actors involved, some fairly famous (Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr. , Kris Kristofferson) and a whole bunch of unknow actors. They all had not much to do, except for Harry Connick Jr., and they all showed up for only a couple of (usually useless) scenes. Seriously, the makers were so desperate that they even did include some kind of sentient pelican who was obviously supposed to be hilarious. Anyway, to conclude, even I will have to admit that this movie was completely harmless, it just didn’t care at all about the damned thing and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except if you really like the genre. 

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, like every year, Netflix tried again to release a big blockbuster (with a budget of $200 million, it was even Netflix’s most expensive movie so far) but, even though it was certainly a decent attempt, probably their best one so far, they are not there yet, I’m afraid. My advice would be that they don’t spend so much money to get some very expensive stars (Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot apparently all got $20 million each for their roles) but that they focus instead on getting a better director and, above all, a better story. Indeed, even though I always had a weak spot for movies dealing with thieves and con artists, the beginning was too generic and rather weak.  Fortunately, as soon as Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds got stuck in this Russian prison and started to reluctantly work together, it finally started to be more entertaining. Sure, Johnson and Reynolds basically played the same characters they have played time and time again before in the past but, still, their banter was quite fun. Concerning Gal Gadot, she was also pretty good and she obviously had fun with this role which, in contrary to her male counterparts, really differed from what she had done before, but I wish they gave her more to do. Furthermore, it is one thing to write a movie about some super smarts thieves but, to make them show up randomly and magically anywhere in the world is just downright lazy, especially if you keep repeating this gimmick again and again. Anyway, to conclude, even if this movie definitely didn't deserve such an expensive price tag, it was still fairly entertaining, even if it was still completely forgettable. 

I’m not really a huge fan of Justin Timberlake but since it was the last movie directed by Jonathan Demme and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. That’s one of the cool things with all these streaming services, they allow me to discover some popstars by watching some movies I would have otherwise never watched. To be honest, I was hardly impressed by Timberlake’s singing qualities but it was greatly compensated by the huge band supporting him. Seriously, they were really awesome and delivered such a heavy and gorgeous sound. I also enjoyed Timberlake’s dancing skills, even if he didn’t use those during maybe half of the concert. Still, even though Timberlake and his crew were super professional, eventually, the whole thing was so clean and polished that it became at some point slightly boring. I mean, they were all acting as if they were constantly having the time of their lives but there was seriously nothing spontaneous or unexpected happening through the whole concert. It’s an interesting that such a professional and technically flawless performance actually ends up being tedious and you almost wish that someone would show up drunk or high on stage just to shake things up. I also noticed that Justin Timberlake not once ever spoke to the audience to tell a joke or an anecdote or whatever (maybe he actually did but it was edited out off the movie like some other of his songs which were also not included) and it would have been nice if his interaction with his audience would have gone beyond than only asking them to say ‘HEY!!!’ every 5 minutes. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was probably not the best concert I have seen, I have to admit it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like Justin Timberlake’s work.

Since I saw recently ‘Benedetta’, I was quite eager to see the only directorial effort from Paul Verhoeven that I haven’t seen so far. After almost 10 years, I just gave up waiting for the damned thing to show up on a Dutch TV-channel (for the record, I leave in the Netherlands…) and I bought instead a (probably too expensive) German DVD. Back then, even though Verhoeven made a triumphant come-back in the Netherlands with ‘Zwartboek’, it seems that he struggled afterwards to get another project started in the Netherlands. As a result, he got involved in some kind of experimental project during which the audience was somehow involved in the writing of the script. Even though they provided a making-off before the movie itself and even though I read some stuff about this project on the internet, it is still rather obscure how it was supposed to work. Coming back on the making-off, even if it was neat to see Verhoeven at work, it didn’t have much value though. Indeed, you get to see the Dutch master claiming that it was a great creative experience and, even though he did admit that it turned out to be more challenging than he expected, he never went further than this. On top of that, I have read here and there that he more or less completely changed the whole concept along the way because it didn’t work at all and, even so, I really doubt he was satisfied by the end-result. Concerning the movie itself, even though Verhoeven praised his crew and the actors during the making-off, I thought it was not much better than a really cheap Dutch made-for-TV movie. Indeed, it was visually nothing really thrilling or fancy and the acting was rather weak as well. In fact, the script was the only thing that did have some potential but, still, I didn’t care much about the choices made either by the audience or by Paul Verhoeven. In my opinion, they should have tried to keep the whole story taking place during the party at the beginning and the tone was just too light for my taste. Anyway, it is the proof that writing a movie is a really difficult task and we should probably let the professionals taking care of this in the future. To conclude, I didn’t care much for the damned thing which was pretty much a failed experiment and I think you can avoid it. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Natalie Portman, I was really eager to check it out. To be honest, I think it was pretty obvious that it was only the 2^nd directorial effort of Brady Corbet. Indeed, even though there were plenty of good ideas, half of it still didn’t work, I’m afraid. Still, I can’t remember the last time that Portman delivered such an intense performance. Seriously, it felt as if her character from ’Black Swan’ actually didn’t die and became some kind of unhinged pissed-off popstar. Eventually, she was so good that you almost wish they skipped the first part and only focused on her. It’s not that the first part was bad though. Indeed, it was really dark and intriguing but, in my opinion, these 2 parts, one focusing on when Celeste was a teenager and the other focusing on her when she was grown-up, didn’t really work well together. First of all, I have nothing against Raffey Cassidy, she was not bad at all but, to be honest, she didn’t look at all like a young Natalie Portman. The fact that she also played Celeste’s daughter didn’t help either to make her casting less bewildering. On the other hand, I have to admit that I was really floored by Stacy Martin. Indeed, in contrary to Celeste who ended up being played by 2 actresses who didn’t look like each other at all, Martin had to play the same character as a teenager AND as a grown-up and it was rather amazing how convincing she was in both cases. It’s too bad they didn’t give her much to do after all. Another issue was that the pacing in the 2 parts didn’t match at all. Indeed, the first part was taking place over roughly 18 months while the second part was taking place during a single day. Of course, you could argue that it was a creative choice but, in my opinion, it made the whole thing terribly unbalanced. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Natalie Portman's work.

I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of Whitney Houston but since this documentary was directed by Kevin Macdonald, I thought might as well check it out. To be honest, it wasn’t  the strongest documentary delivered by Macdonald that I have seen so far but it was still a decent watch though. Indeed, for example, I didn’t know that Houston was coming from such a musical family. Unfortunately, the majority of the movie was focusing on some talking heads telling their relationship with Whitney Houston and what they thought about her. Sure, you can argue that it was quite impressive that almost everyone from her entourage accepted to be interviewed for this movie (with the notable exception of Robyn Crawford). However, the issue with this approach was that everything they said turned out to be a mix of factual information, gossips, rumours and some more or less far-fetched theories. One of the most interesting comments provided was that Whitney Houston probably never really knew who she was and that’s for sure that her entourage who sticked around mostly to profit from her wealth and her fame obviously didn’t really know her either and, yet, they all had something to say but the value of their comment was dubious at best. Eventually, this movie was quite the cautionary tale displaying that, even if you are gorgeous, even if you are seriously talented and even if you are mega successful, there is still no guarantee that you will be happy after all. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing ground-breaking, it was still an interesting documentary about one of the most successful pop-stars that ever lived and it is worth a look, at least, if you are interested in the subject matter. 

I already saw this movie but since I just bought a brand new awesome TV, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, unfortunately, even after rewatching the damned thing, it is still pretty much one of the most disappointing movies coming from the MCU which is such a shame. Indeed, from the 4 MCU movies released in 2021, this one seemed to be the most interesting. How awesome it would have been that Chloé Zhao, after scoring a Best Picture Academy Award, would follow this up with a massive blockbuster which would also turn out to be one of the most challenging MCU instalments ever made? So, I was really rooting for this movie but, to be honest, I'm afraid it turned out to be rather weak after all. I mean, it’s not that it was bad, far from it, in fact, it did have quite some potential but this potential was unfortunately pretty much completely untapped. Indeed, this group of characters was quite intriguing and the fact that they lived for thousands of years could have opened so many doors, especially on a metaphysical level. Sure, they did scratch this idea but it was really superficial and, eventually, they were stuck facing the usual monsters threatening our planet. On top of that, within 5 mins, I had already figured out that Arishem had some ‘secret’ agenda and it was rather disappointing that, after thousands of years, these ancient seemingly wise characters didn’t figure this out on their own at some point. Eventually, it is rather disheartening that Chloé Zhao claimed that Marvel gave her plenty of freedom but I wish they gave her instead a better story to work with. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was not a bad MCU instalment so it is still worth a look but there is no denying that it could have been so much better.

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this flick but, somehow, I still ended up watching the damned thing. At least, it was not worse than its predecessors. On the other hand, I have to admit that I didn’t remember much about them except that they didn’t really impress me at all. However, it was definitely not an improvement either. Indeed, if some of the jokes were actually fairly amusing, most of it was still completely forgettable. On top of that, the plot was just so generic and hardly entertaining and, after 10 mins, I lost most of the interest I might have had at the beginning. Apparently, the plot was also almost identical to the 1^st instalment which was rather lazy but, on the other hand, you could argue that all the James Bond flicks pretty much all look alike. Still, in this case, it didn’t help that the bag guy was rather lame. Jake Lacy was also hardly intimidating with his puppy eyes and he would be the last guy I would hire to play a nefarious villain. On the other hand, Olga Kurylenko was a perfect choice to play such a femme fatale. Indeed, Kurylenko was as usual quite gorgeous to look at and she did what she could with this material but it is rather sad that, exactly 10 years after getting her breakthrough with James Bond, the only gig she could get was to show up in such a lame James Bond spoof. Eventually, even though the idea of turning Mr. Bean into an incompetent spy had some potential, it’s too bad they never managed to properly develop this idea into something really entertaining after 3 instalments. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse (the Mr. Bean movies are pretty much unwatchable for example), it was still rather weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Anya Taylor-Joy and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if it turned out to be a decent watch, to be honest, it wasn’t much more than that though. Basically, the main idea was to show that Barack Obama at such a young age was already so much deeper and thoughtful than his peers but, to be honest, I never really bought it. Indeed, in my opinion, it was leaning too heavily on the mystic mythology around the former US president and to keep giving us some shots of Barry lost in his thoughts was definitely not enough. I’m not saying that the idea didn’t have some potential though. Indeed, it was quite interesting to see that, even though Obama was full of swagger and confidence during his presidency, in his younger years, the guy was actually really struggling with his identity and his fairly complex background. However, during one of the (very few) really strong scenes, it was pointed out by another completely random character that, basically, all Americans have a complex background but it would take many more years until Obama managed to grasp this concept and accept who he actually was. Furthermore, I’m not sure if it was the right move to focus on his relationship with this white girl. Obviously, why shouldn’t Barack Obama date a white girl? It was definitely not the problem and they spent quite some time to display that she was a very nice bright girl and that they were a good match. However, we all know that this relationship would eventually lead to nowhere so, after spending so much time arguing the merits of this union, they made it crumble rather unconvincingly. As a result, it made the whole thing seemed like a waste of time not only for Obama but also for the viewers. Anyway, to conclude, even though the damned thing did struggle to be more than just an infomercial, it was still not bad though and I think it is worth a look.