Reviews by johanlefourbe

The main reason I wanted to watch this flick was because it was, at some point, included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list. It has been removed since then but since it has a decent reputation, I thought I might still check it out. To be honest, the whole tale of a young girl forced to marry a much older rich guy in the 19^th century was hardly original (For example, I saw ‘Madame Bovary’ starring Mia Wasikowska only a few months ago). This kind of tale is basically all about loneliness and boredom and the mood was indeed pretty dreary but, at least, the damned thing looked really beautiful to look at. However, the fact that the main character chose a lover who seemed to be only slightly less tedious than her husband didn’t really help to root for her (at least, the guy seemed to have some skills in the bedroom). The fact that she eventually killed a very young boy with her bare hands probably didn’t help either. And yet, I still liked the damned thing though thank to a pitch-perfect performance by Florence Pugh. The first refreshing thing was that, for this kind of parts, they usually take some actresses who are at least 10 years older than their character, but Pugh was not even 20 years old at the time and it’s just staggering that it was only her 2^nd acting part. Indeed, she displayed such acting skills and, even though we don’t learn much about what Katherine Lester might exactly think or feel after all, without any dialogues, Pugh still managed to convey so many emotions. Anyway, to conclude, even if the movie was maybe not great, it was just fascinating to see such a young talent burst into the screen in her breakthrough performance and, only therefore, it is worth watching the damned thing. 

In my opinion, even though ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ has become a cult-classic, I thought it was only a decent watch at best but since I kept hearing some interesting things about this new directing effort from Drew Goddard, I was still eager to check it out. Well, I have to admit that the damned thing definitely had potential. Indeed, while ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ was some kind of meta comment about the horror genre, this time, Goddard was obviously inspired by Tarantino’s work but he could have used some worse inspiration though. Indeed, the hotel himself was a great creation, even if Goddard seems to have stopped (or did he get stuck?) halfway through developing this intriguing location. It was the same issue with the characters. Indeed, even though there was plenty of running time (almost 150 mins), while 2 of them were provided a full background (Father Daniel Flynn A.K.A Dock O'Kelly and Darlene Sweet), all the other characters ended up being only half-developed giving a rather half-baked feeling. It’s not that they should have spent more time on each character though. For example, for Billy Lee, I would have given only the beach scene and then, I would have brought him back only at the hotel, on his own, towards the end. As a result, it would have made the character more intriguing and more menacing. Still, I have to admit that the mood and the unpredictability of the plot were quite enjoyable and, as long as you keep wondering what the hell will happen next, the damned thing was actually quite entertaining. Eventually, for me, the tipping point was when they suddenly turned Miles Miller, easily the least interesting character, into a veteran sniper from the Vietnam war. Seriously, this twist was just lame and it seemed pretty obvious that, at that point, Goddard’s card castle started to fall down under its own weight and it was apparently the only thing he could find to tie everything up (in a similar fashion, it is rather disappointing that Tarantino’s movies often end up with some massive shoot-out scenes). Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of this franchise but since all the instalments were made available by my TV provider, I thought I might as well check them out. Well, this sequel was probably the laziest I have seen so far. Basically, the dilemma faced by the makers was that John Kramer A.K.A Jigsaw had been terminally ill from the very beginning and, by this point, well, the guy was dead so how could they continue this tale without him? One option was to have his sidekick Mark Hoffman continue his work but the character and the actor playing this character were just so uncharismatic, it would have never worked. Eventually, the solution they found was to spend half of the duration showing some flashbacks scenes from the previous movies so, this way, they still managed to keep Jigsaw involved somehow. I have to admit that I do appreciate the links between all the movies, it makes it quite rewarding if you invest yourself in this franchise. However, to have them regurgitate some old scenes from the previous movies, albeit from a different point of view, was such a cheap-ass move though. Of course, this way, you do get an explanation on how Hoffman got involved in Kramer’s demented quest but it didn’t change the fact that this character remained pretty lame though. There was also a major plot-hole. I mean, sure, Jigsaw had nothing else to do then spending the whole day building up his little ‘games’ but, on the other hand, Hoffman did have a full-time job so how did he manage to be on the side a mastermind serial-killer with some vastly convoluted death games? He didn’t sleep at night maybe? By the way, I’m giving Hoffman a lot of sh*t but, to be honest, except for Jigsaw, the other characters not only in this movie but also in this franchise in general, were all weak and uninteresting (the fact that they almost all get killed off at some point is not an excuse). Anyway, to conclude, at least, I have to admit that it wasn’t a step down from the previous instalment but it wasn't a step up either and, therefore, I don’t think it is really worth a look.

Even though this movie was rather poorly received, since I have a weak spot for George Clooney’s work, I was still eager to check it out. Well, unfortunately, even if it was easily Clooney’s most ambitious directing effort so far, the damned thing still turned out to be disappointing. At least, it was visually pretty neat but it was probably the only thing that really worked, I’m afraid. Basically, they tried to cobble two stories together, one about seemingly the last man on Earth and another one about a spaceship crew coming back to Earth, but this mix never really worked and the movie awkwardly switched back and forth between the two tales. To make things worse, none of these stories was particularly interesting, in fact, there were even seriously derivative. I have to admit that have a weak spot for both genres, the apocalyptic minimalistic drama and the space survival thriller, so the damned thing was still watchable but, in my opinion, George Clooney has clearly displayed here his limits as a director, especially if you would compare his work to what Ridley Scott, Alfonso Cuaron or Stanley Kubrick did. At least, Clooney did deliver a solid performance and I wonder how the movie would have turned out to be if they had focused only on him (I would have even dropped the imaginary companion who was obviously a figment of his imagination right from the start). Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit it that it was still a decent watch but, at this point, following this new flop, you might wonder if Clooney shouldn’t drop his dream of being a director and focus only on his career as an actor. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Michelle Pfeiffer, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I think it was actually an interesting story and the damned thing definitely had some potential. On top of that, pretty much like with ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, I have a weak spot for such romances involving 2 broken souls falling in love for each other, probably because it’s also how I actually met my wife. Unfortunately, even if the directing was not bad, to be honest, it wasn’t really impressive either. For example, to start with a voice-over telling the thoughts of a deaf teenager was not necessarily a bad idea but the supposedly deep message felt more like some Facebook philosophy. Furthermore, this approach felt even more misguided because of the fact that the movie eventually spent very little time with this character after all. Another issue was that Michelle Pfeiffer was not really good and Ashton Kutcher was in fact even worse. I have to admit that it was a really difficult part, probably the most challenging attempted by Kutcher so far, which required to convey a vast range of emotions without uttering a word. Unfortunately, his performance didn’t go much further than looking constipated through the whole duration. This lack of acting skills was even more obvious during the yard sale scene during which Kathy Bates completely nailed it and displayed a wide scale of shattering emotions within a few minutes. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent story and I think it is 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, I actually had no idea what this movie was about and since there was a big cannabis leaf on all the promotional material, I assumed it would be some kind of wild stoner comedy. Well, this leaf turned out to be terribly misleading as, even if it turned out to be pretty wild, it was definitely not a stoner comedy. Fortunately, the damned thing was still entertaining enough though. Indeed, the whole chronological structure worked fine and all the various storylines were fairly well developed (the only exception would be the couple with Amanda Seyfried and Harry Treadaway which should or could have been easily removed). Concerning the cast, they were all pretty good and they had some rather juicy roles (David Oyelowo, Joel Edgerton, Charlize Theron, Sharlto Copley), except for a few very poorly developed female characters (Thandie Newton, Amanda Seyfried, Melonie Diaz). I was also surprised to see Paris Jackson in a very small and rather insignificant role (She is really charismatic but she doesn’t look like at all like her father which might be a good thing though). Still, even though the story and the characters were not bad, it was still missing something to really blow me away though. Eventually, I did like the approach chosen for the main character, to show him as a honest but also rather naïve and mild-mannered Nigerian man but I think it would have been more fun if the guy would have really lost his sh*t at some point (there were enough reasons to do so after all). Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Mandy Moore, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I was also wondering how they would develop a whole movie solely on the concept of 2 girls in a shark cage. Well, the title was already a major spoiler which wasn’t really a good start. Still, I always had a weak spot for such minimalistic features with only 2 characters with only 1 location and the sharks looked quite awesome and were fairly convincing so the damned thing actually had some potential. However, there was one thing that pretty much ruined the whole movie for me. Indeed, even though Mandy Moore and Claire Holt were both quite charming (even though I heard of her before, it was in fact the very first time I saw Claire Holt in action), I really had a hard time to care about their characters though. First of all, they could have paid more attention to the intro to properly introduce the 2 girls. It was not it was bad but it was seriously generic but I have to admit that it wasn’t a big deal. However, the big issue was how they kept screaming and, when they would finally settle down, they would be then talking all the time which was just so idiotic since they were supposed to be cautious about how much oxygen they used. Of course, you could argue that they were panicking but it did make their characters rather cringe-inducing to behold. I mean, can you imagine if their characters would have been slightly more cool-headed and completely silent for most of the duration? It would have been much more entertaining to behold. Finally, with their erratic and rather irresponsible behaviour, there is no way they could have lasted for so long under the water with their oxygen supply. Anyway, to conclude, because these 2 main characters were rather annoying, I didn’t care much for the damned thing after all and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

Following the mess during the production of this movie, I wasn’t expecting much but, after being stuck for years in development hell, they still apparently managed to release this movie after all so I have to admit that I was still curious about the end result. Well, unfortunately, the damned thing turned out to be pretty weak, I’m afraid. Eventually, the only positive thing about this flick was that it did provide some kind of (unintentional) metaphor about Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. Indeed, Heard was basically playing a gorgeous but eventually rather vapid and talentless girl whose only skill was to manipulate all the men around her. Concerning Depp, the once very talented actor was once again playing another character hiding being some massive layer of hideous makeup and some rather eccentric costumes meaning the guy didn’t really have to act at all. Eventually, they both played some rather ugly and destructive individuals who didn’t care much if their reckless behavior had any impact on the people around them which had a rather hairy resemblance with how they seem to be for real. Anyway, they were not even the worst character/actor in this dreadful movie. Indeed, Jim Sturgess was indeed just awful delivering one of his worst performances so far. It was not all, there was also a narrator played Billy Bob Thornton who was stuck playing a talentless washed-up writer which is such an old and tired gimmick. Basically, the whole thing was filled with some seriously unlikeable and really uninteresting characters stuck into a very convoluted and rather tedious tale. Concerning the directing, it was the directorial debut of Mathew Cullen, a guy who sounded like he came from a ‘Twilight’ novel, and, even if he blamed the producers for butchering his movie, his directing style was hardly convincing and even rather pretentious. Anyway, to conclude, the movie was borderline unwatchable and you should probably avoid it.