Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Mary Elizabeth Winstead and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, this movie definitely had some potential. Indeed, the action scenes were very well done and quite entertaining, I really loved the Japanese setting and, above all, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was really convincing and completely badass. And, yet, I still struggled to care about the damned thing after all. The issue was that the story was just so generic and predictable. Basically, Winstead ended up playing some kind of female version of John Wick which probably sounds cooler than it actually was. To start with, sure, ’John Wick’ was decent action flick but I also think that it is also rather overrated. Basically, I don’t think that watching a seemingly invincible assassin killing in the most badass way possible an endless army of thugs is really so much fun. In this case, they added the fact that the main character was also slowly dying which seemed intriguing at first but this idea did backfire after all. Indeed, the movie then constantly switched between scenes during which the main character was barely able to walk and scenes during which she would kick some major asses as if nothing was wrong with her anymore. I won’t blame Winstead, in both modes, she was actually always quite compelling but you basically can’t have a character dying and giving some martial-arts masterclass at the same time, that’s just some very sloppy writing. Concerning her side-kick, once again, the character had some potential but they really pushed her sassy side and I think it is rather doubtful that a Japanese teenager would have such a flawless control of the English language. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch but I’m pretty sure I will completely forget about it within a couple of days. 

To be honest, after watching ‘Das Experiment’ and the US remake ‘The Experiment’, I wasn’t exactly dying to see a 3^rd movie about this story but, somehow, I still ended up watching this movie. Well, I have to admit that it is still such a fascinating tale and the fact that they took a different approach than the previous movies still made the damned thing really interesting to behold. Indeed, while watching this flick, I was wondering what was made up this time around but, apparently, nearly all the dialogues between the ‘guards’ and the ‘prisoners’ during the experiment were actually taken directly from the actual footage of the real-life experiment. Another intriguing thing was that, except for one event during which a guard did hit a prisoner with his baton, there was in fact very little physical violence involved after all. However, the psychological violence was again immense making the whole thing at the same time quite fascinating but also really nauseating to behold. However, while ‘Das Experiment’ focused mostly on how much power can corrupt people, this movie focused more on how much completely misguided this whole experiment turned out to be. Seriously, the damned thing had actually very little scientific value and it had after all not much to do with replicating the relationship between guards and prisoners in an actual jail. In my opinion, it became more a study on how much people can take if you basically torture them relentlessly hours on end. Of course, you could argue that prisons can be terribly dehumanizing but it is actually a tragic side-effect of these establishments and it was never their actual purpose. Furthermore, this whole experiment had some really shaky rules which were basically shattered pretty much right from the beginning. Finally, it was rather bewildering how Dr. Philip Zimbardo seemed to be considered as some bona fide psychologist when he got completely sucked in his own experiment. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie might seem rather unnecessary since ‘Das Experiment’ was already a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested by this subject. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, the damned thing was just so damned long, I think it was the longest movie ever made by Adam Sandler. Seriously, if there is no valid reason why some brainless action flicks like ‘Transformers’ or ‘Fast and Furious 23’ should last more than 2 hours, well, this rule should definitely apply also for all the moronic comedies starring Sandler. Still, I have to admit that it turned out to be slightly better than ‘The Do-Over’ but it wasn’t such a difficult goal to achieve. Indeed, the concept was not bad and it was not completely random. Still, even though they tried to sell the idea that the main character was a hilarious new creation, in fact, Sandler played his usual moronic cringe-inducing guy, basically, a talentless hack who was never funny whatsoever. However, only half of the movie was about his ‘exploits’ as a manager and the other half was about some really unlikely love story with one of his talents. Unfortunately, this romance was never convincing whatsoever and, eventually, the movie was never really about this manager believing in the talents of his protégé but, actually, it was the other way around which was just rather weird. Anyway, it was rather sad to see a lovely girl played by the gorgeous and talented Jennifer Hudson falling in love with this obnoxious man for really no reason whatsoever but, apparently, it is another rule that, in every Sandler movie, he has to get the nicest girls around even if his characters are borderline awful. To conclude, even if I have seen worse from Sandler, the damned thing was still really weak and I don’t think it is worth a look whatsoever. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and since there was a decent cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, after ’The Favourite’ which was pretty damned amazing, it was rather tricky, even jarring, to get back to the dark absurdism which has always been Lanthimos’s most unique trademark. Furthermore, it has been 6 years since I saw ‘The Lobster’ and I kind of forgot how Lanthimos treats his characters as some emotionless zombies without much thoughts or feelings. Seriously, as a result, it was rather difficult to really engage myself in this movie but also in his work in general. So, it was definitely a bleak and rather difficult movie, that’s for sure, but the damned thing was still really intriguing. In my opinion, it was some kind of allegory. Basically, in spite of the massive technological steps we have made as a specie and the fact that many of us have reached a certain level of comfort, life is still a huge chaotic mess. In this case, all the characters involved remains cold and even emotionless because they keep rationalizing some really preposterous events but that’s basically what we all do on a daily basis. Sure, the scale is not the same and the end-result is (hopefully) not so dramatic or so completely weird but our behaviour is actually really similar. Eventually, the biggest mistake that you can make with this movie is keeping asking yourself how Martin actually did it and focus too much on this point. Sure, it is understandable that you might wonder about this but it was obviously not the point at all with this movie. Concerning the cast, Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman were both pretty good but Barry Keoghan was the one who really stole the show with a pitch-perfect performance. Anyway, to conclude, even though it turned out to be, as usual with this director, terribly dark and challenging, it is still definitely worth a look, especially if you want to watch something really different. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Harrison Ford and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I didn’t know much about this story before watching this movie and I was at first surprised that the main character was not the one played by Harrison Ford but some kind of CGI version of Beethoven (the dog, not the German composer). Seriously, even though this dog was technically well made, I never really got used to the damned thing. I mean, considering the dangerous situations he was involved with, you wonder how they could have shot this movie with a real dog (they actually did it with another version made back in the 90’s with Rutger Hauer playing Harrison Ford’s role). However, the main issue with the CGI approach was that they really pushed as much as possible his ability to tell his feelings and thoughts without actually having him speak (Thank God they didn’t him make him speak… that would have been truly awful). However, as a result, this dog displayed way more facial expression than your average dog and it did make him look really fake, I’m afraid. And, yet, I have to admit that the damned animal still grew on me at some point. Indeed, I haven’t read Jack London’s book but his adventures turned out to be actually fairly entertaining. Finally, the idea of a dog going back to wilderness might sound romantic but, since I’m not a huge fan of the whole pet concept, there was something quite appealing about the idea. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and, if you can stand this fake*ss dog, it is actually worth a look.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since I have a weak spot for [Link removed - login to see] and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was actually surprised by how disappointing the damned thing actually turned out to be. I have to admit that the way they tried to mix up two different timelines with some completely different tones was actually ambitious but, unfortunately, it just never really worked. I won’t blame Shailene Woodley and Felicity Jones as they were both not bad at all and they did what they could with this material but, I’m sorry, their characters were just boring. To make things worse, they were both involved in such poorly developed romantic relationships. As a result, all these romantic connections turned out to be rather tedious. Especially with Woodley, the only reason why her lover was so much better than her husband was, well, because they said so. Sure, he did write these romantic letters but, to be honest, these letters never really impressed me. With Jones, it was not much better in the sense that she basically fell in love with the only male character involved in her storyline. The fact that she spent at first a good chunk of the running time to actually emasculate the guy didn’t help either. However, what was really the last straw for me was the fact that Jennifer clearly chose for Anthony not once but twice and twice they were both pulled apart and the only reason why was to deliver some lame dramatic punches. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, the damned thing still turned out to be so underwhelming and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I already saw this movie but since it bought a brand new awesome TV, I thought I might as well check it out again on Disney+. One of the (very few) positive effects of the Corona pandemic is that we got to see a whopping 4 Marvel features in a single year. In this case, even though ‘Black Widow’ officially belonged to the 4th phase, in fact, it took place in the past and I was really eager to see their first story taking place after ‘Endgame’. Well, the intro focusing on Tony Leung’s backstory was really neat and to see the Honk Kong legend for the very first time in a US blockbuster was already quite mind blowing. The transition with the present time worked fine as well and the action scenes that followed were pretty much some of the best delivered by the MCU so far. Indeed, Marvel had promised a martial-arts extravaganza and they definitely did deliver. It was also a nice surprise that at least a third of the dialogues were actually in Mandarin. On top of that, Awkwafina was a perfect sidekick. Unfortunately, from the moment that Shang-Chi’s family was finally reunited, the whole thing really lost some steam though. I mean, first of all, if his father knew all along where he and his sister were, couldn’t he find another less convoluted way to get them back? Anyway, after that, the whole story turned out to be after all about releasing some rather random monster so there could be at the end another huge fight involving all these characters. Seriously, how many times do they have to conclude their movies exactly the same way?!? The 2^nd time around, it bothered me even more. Basically, you have a really neat first hour, 30 mins during which nothing really noteworthy happened and during the last 30 mins, some endless generic and rather tedious ‘climatic’ battle. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t turn out to be such a game-changer after all, it was still a solid Marvel blockbuster after all and it’s definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

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. To be honest, at first, I thought it would be another half-baked drama starring Hilary Swank (that her career turned out to be a disappointment after no less than 2 Academy Awards is definitely an understatement) but I have to admit that the damned thing was not bad at all after all. Indeed, even if it was maybe nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a convincing drama about a rather ordinary family facing the dreadful challenges of Alzheimer’s disease. Above, all the characters were well written and felt genuine and the whole cast did a fine job here (Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Robert Forster, Blythe Danner, Taissa Farmiga). I was in fact above all impressed by Robert Forster who was pretty much pitch-perfect here and it’s interesting that the guy delivered such a strong performance so late in his career (In fact, it would be one of the last movies he made before dying in 2019 giving his work in this movie an extra layer). Eventually, the only thing preventing this movie from being even more compelling was the fact that every character had their own sub-plot but it turned out to be too much to handle. I mean, it wasn’t necessarily a bad idea, it did make sense that all of them had their own issue, that’s how life goes and, even if there is some major tragedy impacting a whole family, everyone has also their own little trouble going on. Unfortunately, there was just not enough room or time to develop each sub-plot and the biggest victim was probably [Link removed - login to see]’s character. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a solid drama and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.  

I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since it was starring Johnny Depp, I was still eager to check it out. Well, I won’t blame Brad Furman who’s a solid director as the whole thing looked decent enough and I think he did what he could with this material. Indeed, to be honest, the main issue I had was that I really struggled to care about this story. Seriously, I mean no offense but how many movies about the Notorious B.I.G. do we really need?!? Only a few months ago, I already saw on Netflix the most recent documentary about the rapper. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, the conclusion was that Suge Knight was (probably) behind this murder. Wow… Wasn’t it something that was common knowledge for almost 20 years? However, the movie didn’t really focus on him but on the fact that he had some links with the LAPD or more that the LAPD had some links with him. The basic idea was that, ever since the beating of Rodney King or probably even before, the LAPD was pretty much rotten to the core and, to complicate things even more, a few years later, the O.J. Simpson displayed that the judicial system in LA was apparently not much better. Well, according to this movie, all these major events might have had a huge impact on how the investigation on the death of the Notorious B.I.G. went down. However, even if they tried to turn his killing in some massive conspiracy, at the end of the day, he was just another young black man who was killed like so many others and, usually, these murders never get solved. The fact that Russell Poole did apparently spend 20 years on this case didn’t change these facts and, to be honest, you might wonder how many cases involving some other young black guy killed in a similar fashion he could have solved in the meantime. Concerning the characters, well, there was something meta going on there since a major washed-up actor was playing a washed-up police detective and his partner was also some washed-up journalist. Eventually, both characters, even if I have to admit that they made some interesting points, were more pathetic than really interesting. Anyway, to conclude, it’s not that it was really a bad movie, it’s just that I really didn’t care about this story and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

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.