Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Indeed, even if Robert Rodriguez has been quite productive since his breakthrough at the beginning of the 90’s, his work has not always been impressive but the worst he has done so far is easily all these tedious kids flicks. Well, this one was not much better, I’m afraid. This time, Rodriguez went for a sequel of ’The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl’, arguably his most obscure movie. At least, I have to admit that it was pretty neat that they managed to bring back Taylor Dooley to play Lavagirl and it's too bad they didn’t manage to bring back Taylor Lautner, that would have been so weird. However, except for these returning characters, there was actually no link whatsoever between the 2 movies. Anyway, the damned thing was just so tedious to behold mainly due to a generic and simply terribly boring plot. To make things worse, you had a whole bunch of children and seriously not a single one of them was able to deliver a decent performance. It was rather painful to watch but, at least, I hope they did have some fun shooting this movie. Eventually, the only positive thing about this flick was that [Link removed - login to see] was as usual quite gorgeous to look at and she was actually the only one who managed to make her character believable and mildly entertaining. To be honest, you might wonder what would have happened if, back then, ’Spy Kids’, the first family feature directed by Rodriguez, would have been a flop instead of a box-office hit. As a result, the guy would have spent much more time delivering such movies like ’Sin City’ or ’From Dusk Till Dawn’. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was really harmless, the CGI looked awful but, above all, it was just seriously lame and I don’t think it is worth a look whatsoever. 

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, to be honest, I really struggled to care about the damned thing after all. First of all, I did re-watch recently ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ (which was at least entertaining) and it actually bothers me to see in such comedies that they basically tell the stories of some people getting a job that so many people would really want to have and, yet, these characters actually pretty much don’t really give a f*ck about this new job after all… Anyway, in this case, it was basically some kind of mix of ‘Wedding Crashers’ with a very long Google commercial which was probably not the greatest idea in the world. Sure, ‘Wedding Crashers’ was maybe fun but, in my opinion, it was nothing really great and to see Wilson and Vaughn still trying to pull the same gimmick almost 10 years later was probably more sad than actually fun to behold. Concerning the rest of the movie, the whole thing was just terribly generic and predictable. I didn’t help that the other characters were barely developed whatsoever but the worst was probably the one played by Max Minghella. Indeed, I always had a hard time to care for this actor (obviously the weakest link in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ otherwise stellar cast) and he gave her another limp performance playing some rather pathetic bad guy. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that the whole thing was rather harmless, I still think it was rather weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are really a fan of the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick (it was even included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list), I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I don’t think that the story was really so original. For example, back in the 90’s, Ang Lee got his breakthough with ‘Xi yan’ which was about a gay Asian guy living in New York who tries to marry some girl just to please his parents still living in Hong Kong. Still, Lulu Wang did direct a beautiful movie and I really enjoyed the sad and nostalgic approach. Indeed, what is at the centre of this tale is not really the lie to the grandmother but how the main character is torn apart between two vastly different cultures. As a result, she is in fact seriously disoriented and doesn’t belong anywhere, neither in China or in the USA. Another thing that impressed me with this movie was the pitch-perfect performance by Awkwafina. I mean, I had seen a couple of movies with her and she can be indeed really funny but it was pretty neat to see her turn down her comedic skills (and usual hysteria) and deliver such a solid dramatic performance. I wish that they did develop more her relationship with the other characters but this approach did make sense though. Indeed, the main character had spent so many years abroad that, even though she knows her relatives, she never really managed to build a bond with them, except with her grandmother. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a really solid drama, perfectly showing how alienating it can be to be bicultural, and it is definitely worth a look. 

Recently, Noah Baumbach really blew me away with 'Marriage Story' (in my opinion, it was even the best movie released in 2019) and since this previous directorial effort was available on Disney+, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, ever since they started to work together with 'Greenberg', Greta Gerwig has become Baumbach's muse but, to be honest, their movies start to really look a like by now. I mean, even though Gerwig can play a flamboyant self-absorbed loser who can be equally fascinating and annoying at the same time like anyone else in this business, I'm afraid I have seen her playing this character too many times by now. However, what made this movie still really work though was the really neat relationship between these 2 'almost' sisters. Indeed, there was something really genuine about their relationship and it was nice to see how well they connected with each other. Eventually, if you would take these 2 girls separately, I think they would be only mildly entertaining but, together, they were so charismatic and interesting to behold. Concerning the other characters, well, unfortunately, they didn't work so well, I'm afraid. With them, it was pretty obvious that they were added just to add a few laughs so they all showed up more or less randomly but, above all, they were clearly not as well developed as Tracy and Brooke were. In fact, not only the characters felt pretty random, everything happening through the whole thing felt rather random. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn't completely work, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Noah Baumbach's work.

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jennifer Garner and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be one of these movies arguing that raising kids has become such an impossible task nowadays and, to be honest, I always have a hard time to relate with such movies. The fact that I got 3 very easy children to raise doesn’t help I guess. Anyway, in my opinion, raising children is not really about when you should say ‘No’ and when you should say ‘Yes’, it’s actually more about building trust between you and your child. So, you can see I didn’t care much for the whole set-up but, at least, it was nice that it was dealing with a bilingual family, even if they did actually very little with this aspect after all. Still, I have to admit that there was something pretty neat to see these kids calling all the shots for one single day. However, for some reasons, they completely derailed the whole thing during the 3^rd act by sending the parents to jail for some rather dubious reasons. Finally, the tone was just so feather light. Indeed, the parents were nice, the kids were nice, there was barely a conflict even at the beginning of the movie and I get that it was probably done on purpose but it would have been more interesting if the characters would have been slightly more complex. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that this movie was rather harmless, I didn’t really care much about the damned thing and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. I remember that it had been a huge flop when it was released but, in fact, I think it actually had some potential. Unfortunately, even though the material was utterly depressing but still really topical, they went for an upbeat inspiring tone which was rather misguided. Furthermore, this movie clearly suffered from the ‘Dead Poets Society’ syndrome. Indeed, such movies, instead of actually focusing on the noble cause which was supposedly what the movie was supposed to be about, actually prefers to focus on the main characters and their outgoing personality. In ‘Dead Poets Society’, you got plenty of rousing speeches from John Keating but actually very little poetry. In this case, they spent much of the duration showing how brave and resourceful these two women were and also showing their respective home situations but, eventually, they spend very little time explaining what was actually really wrong at their school and how they were going to fix this. Concerning the cast, I think that Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis gave some solid performances, even if their characters were rather poorly written. Gyllenhaal was basically playing some kind of variation of Erin Brockovich and it was probably not a great idea to have her character starting a relationship with one of the teachers. Concerning Davis, the focus on her private life was also a big mistake. Indeed, if you might wonder why Jamie Fitzpatrick didn’t help her kid instead of fighting her battles against the school system, at least, you could argue that she didn’t have the necessary bagage to properly help her out herself. With Nona Alberts, it was a different story though. Indeed, sure, her kid was struggling at school but, come on, his mother was a freaking teacher so she could basically tutor him 1-to-1 for about one hour everyday which is a luxury that most of the kids going to this damned school didn’t have. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing didn’t really work, it was still dealing with a very important subject and, only therefore, I think it is actually worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that, since I’m a stepdad myself, I did feel a connection with the material and, as a result, I probably gave the damned thing some extra points that it might not actually really deserve. Still, I think they got some aspects right. Basically, being a dad (biological or not), as displayed in this movie, consists mostly of simply being always around and take care of millions of things without showing to your kids that it might be a massive burden. Well, as long as the movie was focusing on this, it was actually working fairly well and it could have been a nice surprise if they actually scaled down the absurd competition between the 2 dads. Of course, the conflict between the two men was basically the whole point of this movie but, to be honest, I didn’t care much for it. I mean, it was pretty neat that Mark Wahlberg was playing his character as being really cool, with some swag and much more wit than I expected and Will Ferrell was playing his usual moron with a heart of gold but it did work with this material. However, I think it would have been more entertaining if they would have chosen a more down-to-earth approach instead of turning Wahlberg’s character into a semi-psycho. Anyway, to conclude, even if I probably give this movie too much credit, it was still a decent watch 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. On top of that, I just loved this poster which was actually one of the main reasons I wanted to watch the damned thing. Unfortunately, even though it had the potential to be a solid modern Hitchcockian thriller, I wasn't really impressed after all. The problem with such thrillers is that no current director has the same skills as Alfred Hitchcock did, especially not someone like Paul Feig. On top of that, Feig was even more ambitious as he tried to mix his thriller with a comedy but, to be honest, this mix never really worked. Indeed, as a result, you got some massive switch in tones which were rather jarring. To make things worse, the whole plot of a woman faking her own death to then come back to blame her husband had already been done pretty much verbatim in ‘Gone Girl’ only a few years ago. Finally, what was the deal with this vlog? I mean, sure, this way, they could show that it was a movie really linked to a specific period of time and it was also a way to show how lonely the main character actually was. However, in my opinion, it would have been more efficient to have her having an average job and trying to juggle everything between her kid, her job and her investigation regarding her lost friend. Still, the whole thing had a nice dark edge and Anna Kendrick was pretty much born to play such square losers who happen to be actually quite resourceful after all. I think it would have worked better if they had tone down the jokes, amplify the dark side of these two women and maybe drop the terribly bland Henry Golding. 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. 

I have to admit that I’m not exactly a huge fan of The Notorious B.I.G. but since this new documentary was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, the beginning was pretty much a mess. Maybe they wanted to show how unique and intimate the footage would be but I was hardly impressed. Fortunately, the whole thing did settle down at some point when they started to go chronologically from the very beginning of his life. Indeed, it was pretty neat to discover that the guy was actually half Jamaican and that he spent actually every summer when he was a kid in Jamaica. Even more interesting was to see how much involved he was involved in crack dealing before his breakthrough as a hip-hop singer. I also did appreciate the fact that they didn’t spend too much time on his beef with Tupac as enough has been said about the matter during the last 25 years. Basically, in my opinion, it was some kind of really misguided PR stunt which completely got out of hands at some point. So, the whole thing was not bad at all but, even without being a Notorious B.I.G. expert, I didn’t feel I heard anything really new. It didn’t help that at least half of the duration was about his friends and relatives talking about how talented the guy was. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was not really ground-breaking, it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Hip-Hop. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Rosamund Pike, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be an interesting story but, beside being a solid history lesson, to be honest, it never really managed to engage me emotionally. For example, even though Ruth Williams did seem to have the best intentions and she did seem to really love her husband, it didn’t help that she spent much of the duration being cloistered in her house, waiting that everything go sorted out without much input from her. For her husband, it was not really much better, I’m afraid. Indeed, even though the guy gave a couple of rousing speeches, he didn’t seem to have so much power after all since Botswana, at the time called ‘Bechuanaland’, was actually a British Protectorate which means the country was protected but also controlled by the British government. And, yet, somehow, he managed to get the independence for his country and he managed to turn it into a Democracy which was quite remarkable. Without mentioning the fact that, through his impulse, Botswana went from being one of the poorest countries in the world to become one of the top 4 richest African countries. Another interesting fact was how much influence South Africa still had at the time, in spite the fact that their Apartheid politic was supposedly considered as ‘outrageous’ by all the Western countries. As you may have noticed, I didn’t even mention yet the fact that Seretse Khama did marry a white British woman when pretty much everyone, in Great Britain and in his own country, were against it. Indeed, while this marriage was the main focus of this movie, I’m not sure if it was really the most interesting thing this man actually achieved. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still an interesting historical drama and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.