Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that I was actually really impressed by the damned thing and, in this genre, it is probably one of the best movies I have seen. Indeed, the main character was such an interesting and realistic character, a really complex and fully-fledged human-being and Hailee Steinfeld gave easily by far her best performance so far. Another refreshing aspect about this movie was the fact that there was no actual bad guy and, even though the movie mostly focused on Nadine, the rest of the characters did make sense, at least, their action and behaviour were realistic and believable. And, yet, it seems that this movie was still missing something to really blow me away. To be honest, I have seen this movie yesterday and I still don’t know for sure what bothered me though. Maybe it had to do with the fact that all my first girlfriends were actually friends of my sister, one of them was even her very best friend, but it never became such a drama like it was displayed in this movie. Eventually, at some point, you might wonder if you should care so much about some girl who basically can’t get along with anyone at all. I mean, her brother never did anything wrong but she still hated his guts for some obscure reasons, she basically insulted the only teacher who had a weak spot for her and those were the two people who actually cared the most about her and she was pretty nasty with them. And, yet, the fact that she was so flawed and messed-up made her quite fascinating to behold. Eventually, the whole thing was so sharp that, afterwards, I kept having flashes of my own teenager years. Anyway, to conclude, it could be that my rating was actually rather harsh this time around, it is indeed a really good coming-of-age drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though this movie barely got noticed when it was released, I still wanted to check it out. Indeed, I still haven’t watched ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ and I really liked the idea of a modern horror flick taking place in the Amazon with some cannibals. Unfortunately, it turned out to be another seriously weak directing effort from Eli Roth, I’m afraid. Seriously, the first half, pretty much until their plane crashed in the jungle, was just cringe-inducing to behold. Above all, it was due to the fact that the damned thing was so poorly written. I mean, you had a bunch of characters who were all barely/badly introduced and Lorenza Izzo was the only one who was at least a little bit charismatic but she couldn’t do much with this rather abysmal material. The cast was still pretty weak though. The political agenda of this movie was also pretty much impossible to follow. I mean, on one hand, it was supposed to be a trashy horror flick involving a cannibal tribe living in the Amazon so they were basically the evil bad guys but, on the other hand, they tried also to be realistic about the environmental threat  going on in the Amazon and the fact that such tribes should be protected so we should care about them after all? Seriously, it was just priceless to see the main character coming back from this ordeal and reporting that there was nothing wrong with this tribe…. Seriously, just WTF?!? At least, when they finally got to this village, after 45 mins of pretty much nothing interesting going on, the mayhem was not bad and pretty gruesome to behold but even these scenes became rapidly repetitive and rather tedious to behold. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing had some potential, it still turned out to be pretty weak after all and I don’t think it is really worth a look except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since it was produced by DreamWorks Animation, I thought I might as well check it out. Indeed, since this movie had been more or less a flop at the box-office and, with such a seemingly lame title, I was pretty sure it would be really weak. However, I have to admit that I was actually rather pleasantly surprised. Sure, it still didn’t reach the level of the most average Pixar productions but, at least, it was miles better than the abysmal ‘The Boss Baby’ also released in 2017 by DreamWorks Animation. Basically, it turned out to be a really daft animated comedy and its whacky humour actually worked fine. I also enjoyed George and Harold, above all they had such a good chemistry together and their relationship was pretty neat.  Concerning the story itself, even though the way Mr. Krupps suddenly became Captain Underpants was pretty cool, they did struggle to further develop the story from this point though. Indeed, even though this transformation was pretty cool and unexpected, it also turned out to be terribly unpractical, something which was pointed out by the main characters almost right from the moment it happened. Basically, it was funny for 2 minutes but, to build up the whole plot around this idea was a little bit too much. Furthermore, from the moment that Captain Underpants basically came to life, the whole thing became increasingly messy and chaotic but it was also definitely part of its charms. Anyway, to conclude, even if I had some really low expectations, I have to admit that it turned out to be a decent watch after all and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

After this movie had received to some really bad reviews, I didn’t expect much from the damned thing but, since it was on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I think there was in fact a couple of good ideas but most of it was just terribly average at best and some of it was some total garbage. Eventually, the most bewildering thing was why such a generic action flick required a whopping running time of 150 mins?!? Seriously, it was as if they forgot to actually edit the damned thing and put every single shot in the actual movie. As a result, they did end up with a whole bunch of scenes going on for way too long with no actual purpose whatsoever. At least, they could have given us plenty of interesting or fun characters, after all, there was apparently plenty of time for that but, no, there were only 3 characters who were not even developed at all. I almost forgot that there was in fact a 4^th character played by Sharlto Copley but his sub-plot was so half-baked and completely useless, I wonder why he was even there at all. Seriously, who was this guy and what did he have to do with the rest of the story? It’s too bad because the concept was not bad, at least, it was not much worse than the concept developed in ‘The Purge’  and this movie did manage to spawn several sequels. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, the damned thing was pretty bad and you should pretty much avoid it. 

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. There has been recently a resurgence of the romantic-comedy genre on Netflix but this movie was easily the best one I have this so far in this genre on the streaming platform. Indeed, even if the story was nothing really ground-breaking, the main characters were so well written, they were some really convincing and relatable fully-fledged human-beings. Furthermore, Ali Wong and Randall Park were both charismatic and had some great chemistry together. Eventually, the only thing that didn’t really work for me was that some of the supporting characters were rather weak. Seriously, Keanu Reeves and Jenny were just so annoying. Of course, it was done on purpose but I never thought that they were entertaining. Furthermore, Sasha Tran seemed to be such a strong and smart woman, it was rather hard to believe that she would start a relationship with such a massive douche-bag like Reeves (as portrayed in the movie, not in real life) or a long term relationship with Brandon who was not much better. Anyway, as long as the movie was focusing on Sasha and Markus, it was however pretty much pitch-perfect though. Indeed, the way they met, how they connected as kids, the awkwardness when they were teenagers, how they fell apart and how they got together… Everything was believable and entertaining to behold. Finally, during the last act, in the romantic-comedy genre, there is always some kind of conflict during which the main couple gets separated but it is usually pretty lame and bogus. Not here though, the reason why Sasha and Markus might not make it as a couple after all was quite realistic. Of course, it was pretty obvious that they would still end up together but their journey was still quite compelling. Anyway, to conclude, even it didn’t revolutionize the genre, I really enjoyed this romantic-comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.