Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since I have a weak spot for Miles Teller, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I have to admit that the beginning was actually seriously promising. Sure, Miles Teller was basically playing his usual smartass guy but I think he was just really fun and, above all, this trio of friends was quite charismatic and surprisingly well developed for once. On top of that, the prospect of watching them going through a wild night of binge drinking sounded pretty neat. Indeed, I never really understood what was supposed to be so fun about ‘The Hangover’. Indeed, having a hangover is hardly any fun at all, and I wish we could instead watch these guys partying the whole night which would have been so much more fun . In this case, unfortunately, just way too early in the movie, Jeff Chang got way too drunk and the rest of the movie was about his buddies struggling to get him home in one piece. Seriously, the whole idea was hardly entertaining, I’m afraid, and I don’t really understand why the makers ruined a perfect opportunity to see some charismatic characters doing some wild sh*t while being under the influence of alcohol and/or other illegal substances. At least, in this case, you still get to see the 2 other characters having some fun and the Tower of Power in particular was actually pretty neat. Still, even if the whole thing felt like a missed opportunity, it was miles better than I expected though. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of a rather misguided approach, I had a weak spot for these guys and I think the damned thing is actually worth a look, especially if you really like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Julia Roberts, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, concerning Roberts, I was definitely one of her most interesting parts and I have to admit that she was not bad at all but, to be honest, I didn’t think that she was really convincing though. Still, I think she should be praised for tackling something so much more challenging than her usual work. Eventually, I had more issues with how the damned thing was written. Indeed, during the whole first half, the characters kept mentioning some past events that the audience didn’t witness so I felt I constantly had to catch up with them because of the lack of information which was rather frustrating. However, right when I was finally getting a better grip on the whole thing, they started this dog business which, in my opinion, completely derailed this tale. Seriously, how did it suppose to make sense that some major drug dealer would kidnap a dog to get back at a former employee?!? I mean, the best part was that he didn’t even leave any message or clues telling who was behind this snatching so you had to assume that the guy knew that Ben would roam all over the city until he find out he was behind all this. Even with this explanation, the whole thing was just way too far-fetched. Sure, I get the idea, the point was to get Ben’s mother sucked in his dark world for a little while but I still think it was seriously convoluted. Without mentioning the fact that drug lords usually don’t hire junkies to be their dealers because they are completely unreliable. However, there was one thing that completely worked and made the whole thing quite spellbinding to behold and it was Lucas Hedges’s pitch-perfect performance. I already noticed him before and, with each new part, he seemed to be more and more interesting but, here, he just simply blew me away. Indeed even if the story was sometimes rather shaky, he was always completely convincing, showing only through his eyes a variety of emotions going from sadness, despair, self-pity, self-disgust but also kindness, intelligence and street smart and so many other things. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look, if only for Hedges’s fine performance. 

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, even though the title was promising (at least, the one they used in Canada), unfortunately, it turned out to be a seriously underwhelming romantic comedy. Seriously, it was the kind of romantic comedy during which pretty much nothing worked, I’m afraid. I mean, basically, the whole point was to have Richard ending up with Olivia but the way to get there was just so convoluted, so unconvincing but, above all, not entertaining whatsoever. The basic idea was that Richard was supposed to be a major womanizer and, yet, within the first 5 mins, he was already in a long-term relationship with Kate. On top of that, there was this weird awkward scene during which he was hitting hard on Kate’s sister and, yet, none of the characters ever mentioned that fact afterwards. Anyway, even though Salma Hayek and Jessica Alba were both quite gorgeous as usual, their characters were eventually barely developed whatsoever and, if you would believe this movie, the only reason that Brosnan’s character was ever interested in them was because of their looks. Eventually, his relationship with his father was actually much more interesting thanks to a really solid Malcolm McDowell who basically stole the show every time he was on the screen which shows how poorly this movie was put together. Anyway, to conclude, even though the damned thing was rather harmless, it was still seriously weak and I don’t think it is worth a look, even if you really like the genre.

I wasn’t really dying to see another adaptation of this classic US novel but since it had been very well received, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I still don’t think it is such a great story (I might have to read the book at some point to really judge it though) but I have to admit that Greta Gerwig definitely made the most of it though. Concerning the directing and the writing, Gerwig had been really praised for her work but, to be honest, I had some mixed feelings. I mean, on one hand, it was clearly an ambitious project but, on the other hand, what was so ambitious about adapting a classic book which had been adapted so many times before? Concerning the back-and-forth in time, it is an overused gimmick which I see way too often nowadays and, in this case, it was only mildly effective. Anyway, something neat about this story is that it always allowed the makers to assemble an all-star female cast and this version certainly didn’t disappoint on that level (Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, Eliza Scanlen). To be honest, Watson’s and Scalen’s roles turned out to be rather thankless as they were not really fleshed out and it shows that this story might work better as a mini-series to have more running time to properly develop each sister. However, there is no doubt that Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh were both quite impressive. I think I had a slight preference for Pugh as she was so convincing playing the same character at two very different stages of her life. Eventually, I have to admit that these characters were actually all really neat and the relationship between these sisters was just really sweet and entertaining to behold. I wasn’t really so sure about their relationship with the male characters though. Indeed, there was not much time to explain why Meg thought that John Brooke was so amazing and the switch made by Laurie from Jo to Amy still felt rather jarring. Anyway, to conclude, even if I think it was slightly overrated, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept some really interesting things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. First of all, Jean Vigo is one of these mythic movie directors who managed to deliver only one masterpiece (‘L’atalante’) before dying very young. Vigo did also manage to direct a few shorts and this one is probably the most famous one. Well, to beginning with, I just loved this title. I mean, even though this movie was made 60 years before I myself went to junior high-school in France, I completely could identify myself with these kids who felt completely misunderstood by the school and by the establishment in general. In their case, it was actually much worse though since, at least, I didn’t have to sleep there. This movie also displayed the unrest and melancholy that you can experience at this age, when you start to realize that your games are becoming childish and that you discover that the grown-ups around you are not so great after all. So, the approach was definitely quite realistic and I’m pretty sure that this movie must have been a major inspiration for François Truffaut when he made ‘Les quatre cents coups’ 25 years later. However, in spite of Vigo’s realistic approach, there was also a few seriously surrealist moments, the kind of wild combination you would see only back then when they were still experimenting on how to make a movie and these few surrealist bits made the whole thing even more unique and even quite poetic. The only critic I might have was that the whole thing was pretty random and none of the characters was really developed but, since it was a rather short movie, it was understandable. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved the damned thing and I think 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 since it seemed to have a decent reputation and since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I was well aware that Dalton Trumbo had been blacklisted and that he had kept working using fronts and aliases but I didn’t know the full extent of it (For example, I didn’t know he actually spent some time in jail) and only therefore, it was a really interesting movie. It was also interesting to see that Trumbo, before he was blacklisted, was probably the most in-demand writer in Hollywood at the time and the Blacklist completely derailed his career when he was basically at the top of his game, which did remind me of what happened to Muhammad Ali. And, yet, Trumbo still managed to be productive in the US. while many blacklisted directors actually moved to Europe, even if it was to mass produce some garbage, and, at some point, he more or less managed to bring down the Blacklist system in the process. So, the material was actually quite fascinating but, to be honest, I wasn’t really sure about the approach they chose. Indeed, even if most of the characters kept saying that the situation was really serious, even downright dramatic, the tone remained actually really light. Sure, it might have made the whole thing easier to swallow but I’m not sure if it was so much more entertaining this way and, above it really undermined the impact of this tale. In a similar way, even though I did like Bryan Cranston’s performance, it did turn Dalton Trumbo into some funny eccentric guy but it felt rather reductive to me. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject.

I didn’t have some great expectations regarding this flick but since it was directed by Luc Besson, I was still eager to check it out. Following the debacle around ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ (a movie which wasn't so bad in my opinion), EuropaCorp, Besson’s film production, was on the verge of bankruptcy so he apparently decided to take no risk with his following directing effort. However, as a result, he did deliver something terribly derivative and, even more problematic, it turned out to be another flop at the box-office. Well, to be honest, I didn’t care much for the damned thing. First of all, following the footsteps of Anne Parillaud, Milla Jovovich, Rie Rasmussen, Louise Bourgoin, Scarlett Johansson and Cara Delevingne, Sasha Luss was the latest gorgeous lady that Besson had chosen to headline his action flick but, to be honest, even though she did look fine, her performance was rather weak though. A bigger issue was that the whole thing was just so poorly written. I mean, I actually have a weak spot for the genre, the action flicks dealing with a lethal female spy, but this movie was pretty much a really weak version of ‘Nikita’, which is still by far my favourite movie from Besson. For example, half of the time the Russian characters were speaking Russian with each other and the other half, they were suddenly speaking English with each other which shows how lazy the damned thing was. Furthermore, to make the whole thing look more complicated than it actually was, they went for a mixed-up chronology which was usually more annoying than really effective. Of course, the main character had to have some rather meaningless love affairs with not one but two other spies but, beyond the fact that Sasha Luss had very little chemistry with her co-stars, it all felt rather random and gratuitous. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have actually seen worse from Besson, the damned thing was still pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if I probably didn’t learn anything really new, it was still an intriguing documentary with a whole bunch of people much smarter than me. I have to admit that, at first, the content was fairly depressing and it slowly became even darker and, towards the end, it was pretty much the most nightmarish doomsday scenario that you could imagine. At least, I’m glad I’m part of the last generation which was born before the internet and the smartphones and, as a result, I don’t actually use any social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram so I didn’t really have to feel guilty while watching the damned thing. Still, as a parent, I became slightly worried for my youngest daughter though. Indeed, she is now 14 years old and pretty much spends all her free time on her smartphone so, to hear how hurtful it could be for her on so many levels was slightly distressing. It was fairly amusing to hear other parents telling that they got it under ‘control’ though. Indeed, either, they actually don’t and they are lying to themselves or they actually do and, as a result, they pretty much cut off their kids from what is actually going in their social group. Anyway, is the situation so bad after all? I mean, when I was growing up in the 80’s and the 90’s, people were complaining that we were watching too much television, then they were complaining that our video-games were just too violent,... On the other hand, in this case, the scale is actually here much bigger and the usage is also so much intense, it just never stops. Furthermore, there is also an actual conscious choice to actually manipulate the users which was never really the case with TV and video-games. Eventually, how will it all end? Difficult to say and, if you would believe some people, nobody even knows what is really actually going on anymore. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was quite fascinating to behold, maybe slightly hypocritical from Netflix who is quite notorious in the way they try to influence its users but, at least, this movie is one more reason to stay away from all this social media nonsense and I think it is definitely worth a look.