Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick and since it was directed by Peter Jackson, I was really eager to check it out. First of all, there is no denying that this movie was and still is a technical marvel. Indeed, when you hear these veterans, it felt as if they had recorded their testimony just a week ago but, even if the Great War didn’t kill them, they are all certainly dead by now and they had been recorded decades ago. And, of course, there was this awe-inspiring moment during which you smoothly switch from a black-and-while little square to a full colour panoramic screen which was probably one of the most exhilarating things I have seen on a screen. Even though it might seem like a useless gimmick, I thought it was actually terribly effective and it felt like a time machine brought you back 100 years ago directly in these damned trenches. And yet, even if this movie was technically pretty much flawless, I was somehow not completely sold. Indeed, even though the title was pretty much spot-on and might suggest that it would be a rather dark and depressing movie displaying the horror of the so-called ‘Great’ war, I thought that the tone turned out to be rather light, even almost cheerful at some points. Seriously, for the 1^st half hour, we had these veterans claiming that they basically had a great time there or, at least, that there was nothing wrong about doing your duty. As a result, it felt pretty much like watching some propaganda piece. Of course, towards the end, suddenly, they all claimed that it was horrible and that it should be the last war but, in my opinion, they should have toned down the ‘enthusiasm’ at the beginning and spend more time on the dreadful impact this war eventually had on all these British soldiers. Anyway, to conclude, even if I didn’t really care for the approach they chose, it was still a very interesting movie and it is definitely worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Samuel L. Jackson, I thought I might as well check it out. If its title did make the whole thing sound like an average direct-to-PPV thriller, well, that’s exactly what it turned out to be after all. I mean, the beginning was not bad and, for a while, it seemed that the damned thing might turn out to be some kind of modern version of ‘Crime and Punishment’. However, it could have maybe worked if they had focused more on the fact that the main character was actually pretty sketchy. Indeed, the guy had basically lied his whole life to have a nice career, a nice family, basically a nice life, he even pretended that his step-brother didn’t exist and, at this point, he was even willing to let someone die in the middle of the street to make sure it wouldn’t jeopardize his perfect little life. So, in fact, he wasn’t exactly a nice guy but, while there was definitely something interesting to do with this fact, it is obvious that the makers definitely had a different approach. Indeed, unfortunately, they constantly tried to portray him as some kind of innocent victim which was not only fairly inaccurate but above all really tedious to behold. I mean, sure, Clinton Davis was eventually a serial-killer but it didn’t change the fact that Mitch Brockden did commit a hit-and-run. Anyway, from the moment when Clinton Davis’s true character was revealed, I’m afraid the whole thing went into auto-pilot until the very end. The only fun thing was maybe to check how much non-sense was occurring on the screen and I guess it was nice to see the lovely Gloria Reuben, even she was completely wasted playing a completely underdeveloped character. Anyway, to conclude, you might wonder if, at this point in his career, Samuel L. Jackson still need to show up in such obvious pay check gigs but there is really no reason why you should check out this movie.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but it had been a while since I saw a movie directed by Rod Reiner and since this one was also starring Morgan Freeman, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was really surprised by how weak the damned thing actually turned out to be. Sure, it was not as bad as ‘North’ was, the movie that completely derailed Reiner’s career, but it wasn't far from it. Seriously, from the moment I saw this grumpy old guy coming into town, I already knew where the damned thing was heading and I lost all interest I might have had within the first 10 minutes. Indeed, somehow, the guy will be charmed by this little town and its inhabitants and he will slowly become a very nice fellow after all. So, it was terribly generic and, to make things worse, this journey from being basically a suicidal drunkards to an average old guy with a crush with his neighbour was not exactly really smooth. Basically, the main (and only?) argument provided by this movie explaining this change of heart was the fact that he apparently fell in love with Virginia Madsen’s character but, to be honest, it was probably one of the least convincing romances I have seen. The main issue was not really that Freeman and Madsen didn’t have much chemistry, it was more the fact that I didn’t see how or why they should be in love. I mean, basically, Monte fell in love because she was able to play the piano and she fell in love because he…. Well, what did he do exactly?!? To be honest, nothing much. There were also a few sub-plots but there were all terribly half-baked. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather harmless, it was also really lame and I don’t think it is worth a look at all. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it was a rather tricky story and Kristen Wiig almost managed to make it land but not completely, I’m afraid. The main issue, in my opinion, was that there were just too many characters involved. Seriously, what was the point of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character? She is such a fine actress but she was barely used and therefore completely wasted here. Eventually, you had so many people orbiting around the main character including her parents, her best friend, her ex-husband who’s now married with a guy, 2 lovers, some student and half a dozen of her co-workers at the TV station. As a result, instead of focusing on Alice Klieg herself, on her TV-show or on her relationship with any of the people I mentioned before, the movie constantly jumps from one character to the other which was never really satisfying. For example, Linda Cardellini’s character was completely randomly introduced and her whole relationship with Alice was limited to the fact that Alice apparently thought that she might be fat. Of course, it went slightly deeper than that but, to be honest, not much more. It’s like her meetings with her psychiatrist, it could have been interesting but, instead these therapy sessions just popped up randomly with the psychiatrist basically saying every time the same thing to her. And, yet the damned thing was still not bad at all though. Indeed, even though the whole thing was obviously weird, it never became too quirky and Kristen Wiig managed to make her character quite believable and still charismatic which is quite impressive since she was playing a really difficult woman with some massive borderline disorder. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch 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, until that point, Abdellatif Kechiche had an impressive track record. Indeed, 'L'esquive' and 'La graine et le mulet' had both won the César of the best French movie of the year and ‘La vie d'Adèle’ had won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival so I was still quite eager to check his following directing effort. First of all, even though I thought that ‘La vie d'Adèle’ was one of the most spellbinding love stories ever filmed, it was still a rather controversial movie and not everyone really loved it (my gay cousin really hated the damned thing for example). The grievances against this movie were mostly regarding the super explicit sex scenes involving the main characters and guess how the guy started his new directorial effort? With nothing else than a super explicit sex scene not directly involving but still witnessed by the main character which made the whole thing even more sleazy… The weird thing was that there was no more sex at all displayed through the rest of the movie which made this opening scene even more pointless. Concerning the rest of the movie, well, even though it goes on for almost 3 hours, there was no plot but more problematic was that there was no character development whatsoever. Indeed, after 3 hours, who was Amin? Seriously, there was not a single moment during which he tells us or his friends what he thinks or feels. Sure, he was rather attractive and Kechiche obviously tried to make him poetic, smart and artistic (medical student, amateur photographer, lover of animals and obscure old movies,…) but the guy remained rather passive and empty and basically hardly interesting after all. There was also the fact that the camera constantly lingered on the asses and the crotches of all these young girls… Was the main character some kind of pervert? Or is Kechiche some kind of pervert (something that many argued ever since the controversy around ‘La vie d'Adèle’)? Maybe Kechiche wanted to show that all the boys, even the seemingly nice ones like Amin, are actually wired to look at girls this way and therefore it should be seen as something natural and not as something perverted. Maybe but it was still rather nauseating to behold. And, yet, there was also some good stuff. Indeed, Kechiche has such an intriguing naturalistic approach to filmmaking and he once again managed to get some really solid performances from a cast of unknown and first-timers. There was also something quite fascinating about this beautiful and effervescent community. Finally, even if it took way too long, Kechiche did manage to convey a convincing portrait of young people trying to have some fun during the summer. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie was a major step back for this director, it was still not a complete disaster and I actually think it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Alexandre Aja and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Furthermore, I think it was the first French movie I actually saw on Netflix which was pretty neat. To be honest, not everything really did work in this movie but I have to admit that I always had a weak spot for such minimalistic features taking place in a single location and with only a few characters involved. However, the whole thing about the character being basically stuck in a box had been actually already done 10 years ago with Ryan Reynolds in 'Buried'. The main difference was the futuristic setting and, to be honest, I figured out pretty much from the very beginning that she was in outer space. I have to admit that I didn't guess that she was a clone which wasn't a bad idea but, in my opinion, she discovered this too late. In fact, the main focus was basically to mislead the main character and the audience for as long as possible and while I understand this approach, I can’t say it was really satisfying. Indeed, for too long, she was meant to believe that she was stuck in some medical pod when her predicament had actually nothing to do with some health issue. Furthermore, was it really realistic that there wouldn’t be some kind of maintenance crew on board, like about 50 or 100 members, switching between cryosleep and maintenance shifts? Or at least some kind of security protocol for M.I.L.O. that should kick in when a clone is accidentally waking up? And, yet, the damned thing still worked though. Indeed, Mélanie Laurent had to carry the whole thing on her shoulders and she delivered here a really solid performance. It was also an interesting change of pace for Alexandre Aja who has built up a career with some rather basic horror flicks and it was interesting to see him making his first French film in almost 20 years. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of it flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wonder how I actually ended up watching this flick and I also wonder how Robert Zemeckis got involved as he wrote this movie just after finishing the ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy. Eventually, I guess the main reason I wanted to check this flick was because it was directed by Walter Hill. Anyway, this movie seems to have a decent reputation because the action scenes were pretty badass but, to be honest, I had a rather time to care about this flick. Basically, the damned thing was a rather weird mix of some modern treasure hunting feature with a typical hood drama, a genre that really flourished back then in the 90’s. I almost forgot to mention that, for some reason, there was also one of the gang members filming everything making the whole thing look like some avant-garde reality TV-show. I guess its complete randomness might seem appealing, I have to admit that the whole thing was rather unpredictable but, as far as I was concerned, it felt more like a random mess involving some rather unlikable and/or uninteresting characters. In fact, it was Ice Cube's 2^nd movie following ‘Boyz n the Hood’ and it was pretty neat to see him working with Ice-T but their relationship was reduced to some constant bickering on how they should handle their predicament. To make things worse, all of these guys (indeed, it’s such a macho action flick that there was not a single female character involved) were barely developed and they were all terribly one-note. At least, I did appreciate the fact that the most unlikely character did end up with the loot at the end but, again, just like the rest of this movie, it was terribly random and as a result still hardly satisfying. Anyway, to conclude, it was probably one of the weirdest action flicks I have seen but it wasn’t weird in a interesting way, it was just plain random and messy and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though the directing team Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini always had some potential (I especially loved their directorial debut 'American Splendor'), this movie was quite a misfire and I’m not surprised that it received such poor reviews. Basically, it started as a really generic ghost story involving a rather boring couple. Like most movies in this genre, it was some typical slow burn approach with nothing much happening for a while, except for Amanda Seyfried’s character who was anorexic. However, this aspect of her character had actually so very little impact on the rest of the plot that you might wonder why it was even brought up in the first place. And, then, at some point, they started to add pretty much anything they could find and throw it into the mix. Let’s see, we had some really half-baked spiritualism, some ghost, some Ouija session without a Ouija board, a couple of murders, some vague marital issues, anorexia, weed smoking, identity theft, adultery, some weird creature coming from the sink, a con artist becoming a very unlikely serial killer, Saul Goodman’s sidekick and Indiana Jones’s first love interest. Sure, not everything was bad, Amanda Seyfried and James Norton actually delivered some solid performances even if they were both stuck with some rather tedious and poorly written characters. Still, most of this movie was just either poorly developed or simply not interesting at all and the ending was also a pathetic cop-out. Anyway, to conclude, I’m afraid the whole thing turned out to be a waste of time for me and for all the talented people involved and I think you should pretty much avoid it. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Dakota Fanning, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I didn’t know at all what it was about before watching this movie and it turned out to be a rather dreary costume drama about a loveless marriage. It’s only afterwards that I discovered that the damned thing had been written by Emma Thompson which might explain why she was displayed on all the promotional material even though she had a rather small part. Well, even though Thompson had managed to win an Academy Award for her screenplay for ‘Sense and Sensibility’, she hasn’t exactly been productive as a writer afterwards and, above all, she never wrote anything really worthwhile. Indeed, ‘Nanny McPhee’ was a rather shameless Mary Poppins copycat and, in this case, it seems that she got heavily inspired by ‘Madame Bovary’. In fact, it was actually based on a true story but, to be honest, I just didn’t care much about the damned thing. The basic idea was to show how awful it was for Effie Gray that she ended up in such a loveless marriage but, to be honest, her situation was hardly exceptional as most marriages were not based on love back then. In this case, they tried to argue that her situation was even worse because they never even had sex but this argument was never really convincing. I mean, what would you prefer? To be married with a guy you don’t love but at least leave you alone or to be married with a guy you don’t love and forces you to have sex with him? It didn’t help that both characters were rather poorly developed. Even if you wouldn’t really know from this movie, John Ruskin was actually apparently quite a brilliant man but, in this movie, he remained an enigma with some autistic features and some possible asexual pedophiliac tendencies. The main character was not much better and while everyone, except her husband and her in-laws, seemed to agree that she was ‘amazing’, she didn’t do anything really impressive except sulking through the whole duration. Anyway, to conclude, even if the story had some potential, I never cared much for the damned thing but I guess it might still be worth a look if you like the genre.