Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Mike Flanagan and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though Flanagan might be one of the most interesting up-and-coming directors in the horror genre, this movie was seriously disappointing though. I mean, there were a couple of interesting ideas but it is always difficult for me to care when they mix such interesting and real issues like trauma and insomnia with the most basic and generic fantastic tropes of the horror genre. As a result, you get such scenes during which a therapist would make the most interesting remarks of the whole movie about the nature of dreams but it was completely discarded and they focused instead on some random generic bogeyman. To make things worse, the lovely Kate Bosworth was pretty weak here. First of all, even though she was supposed to be deeply depressed and sleep deprived, she was always fresh-faced. Her performance was also far from being convincing but she wasn’t helped by the fact that the psychology of the characters was barely developed at all. I mean, through most of the duration, she was a grieving mother but, suddenly, she completely changed and became some kind of expert private investigator who conveniently figured out the whole thing during the last 10 mins. Finally, the ending was pretty weak as well. I mean, the logic/concept was not bad but the way to get there was so rushed and convoluted and I don’t think it is really necessary to explain every single piece of mystery at the end of such horror flicks. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, it didn’t care much for this damned thing and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since I have a weak spot for Jennifer Lopez, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, as usual with Lopez, it turned out to be rather half-baked, I’m afraid. The most bewildering thing about this flick was how it mixed 2 completely different storylines which was such a weird move. Indeed, at first, it seemed to be dealing with a woman in her 40’s faking her CV to get a better job which could have worked if they didn’t go for such a light and limp approach. However, at some point, pretty much out of nowhere, they switched gears as it turned out to be that one of her colleagues, the daughter of her boss on top of that, turned out to be her long lost daughter she had once given up for adoption. Eventually, maybe each story could have worked separately but to mix them was just so awkward and it basically never worked. At least, Jennifer Lopez was quite gorgeous as well and she definitely had some nice chemistry with Vanessa Hudgens. Unfortunately, because of these two conflicting storylines, the two actresses had to constantly switched between being competing colleagues and being a mother and daughter starting to get acquainted with each other which was, as mentioned before, at best rather misguided but usually seriously ineffective. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you really like the genre. 

Almost a year ago I did see the remake by David Lowery and since I did like it, I thought I should watch this original version at some point, especially since it was available on Disney+. The interesting thing about this movie was that it was one of the few early attempts from Disney to mix live-action with some animated characters, something which has become pretty common nowadays thanks to the rise of the CGI technology. Well, apparently, it wasn't really a success when it was released but, since then, it has become more or less a cult-classic but, to be honest, I really struggled to care about the damned thing. Eventually, I don’t know what bothered me the most, the fact that the tone was just so sweet, it was borderline syrupy, or the fact that the story was actually pretty weak. I mean, it was rather odd that there was no proper introduction explaining how Pete and Elliott actually got acquainted but it wasn’t really a big deal. A bigger issue was that pretty much everything happening was just terribly random. To make things worse, I thought that Sean Marshall was rather obnoxious and I’m not surprised that the kid soon retired after playing in this movie. The fact that his character kept telling everybody that his best friend was a dragon was also just so annoying and pretty stupid. I mean, at some point, you would hope that he might figure out that it wasn’t such a smart move and just shut up about it. At least, Elliott was a cool character (in fact, it would be the last work done by Don Bluth for Disney before he left the company disillusioned) and I liked the fact that the character was completely mute but there were some long stretches during which this dragon was seriously missed. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually really generous with my rating here but I guess it might be worth a look, however, only if you really like the genre.

To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of this franchise but since this 3^rd instalment was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, at least, I have to admit that each new instalment has been more badass than the previous one and this one delivered some non-stop massive action scenes without taking much of a breath. In fact, at this point, the plot had pretty much disappeared and what was left was John Wick constantly fighting against some nameless assassins who wanted to get the bounty hanging above his head. The movie also developed further the rather murky mythology around this character but, to be honest, I always thought it was rather pretentious and only mildly entertaining. Concerning Halle Berry, I had some rather mixed feelings. I mean, I always had a weak spot for her but, to be honest, even if she did win an Academy Award ages ago, she is not really a great actress after all. Anyway, even if she was not bad during the action scenes, I didn’t think she was really convincing during the rest of the movie. On top of that, I’m not sure if it was such a great idea to give John Wick a partner as the guy had been a lone wolf so far. Anyway, eventually, even though Berry was given top billing, she eventually had maybe 30 mins of running time after all. On the other hand, I have to admit that I was actually positively surprised by Mark Dacascos. Indeed, I knew that the guy had some major martial-arts skills but I didn’t expect him to be so funny as he kept stealing the show each time he said something. It was also pretty neat that Wick went to some exotic location like Casablanca but, to be honest, this trip turned out to be rather pointless if you consider the finale outcome. Anyway, to conclude, even if I still think that this franchise is rather overrated, I have to admit that it was a decent watch and it is 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 I have a weak spot for Miles Teller, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, there were tons of stuff that didn’t work in this movie. Indeed, the beginning and ending were both pretty weak and there were plenty of non-sensical events occurring through the whole duration. And, yet, the concept actually definitely had some potential and I really liked the idea of two strangers stuck together after a one-night stand. Indeed, as result, you had a very minimalistic approach with only 2 characters and 1 location which was promising. However, as displayed by Richard Linklater in his masterful ‘Before…’ trilogy, what makes or breaks this kind of movies are the characters involved. Indeed, they basically need to be compelling enough to compensate the lack of plot or dramatic events. And, unfortunately, that was probably the biggest issue with this movie. On one hand, once again, Miles Teller actually really nailed it. Sure, Teller pretty much played his usual laid-back dude but it was pretty much pitch-perfect for this material. On the other hand, I wish I could say the same about Analeigh Tipton. I mean, she was charming enough and she had some good chemistry with Miles Teller. However, her character was rather poorly written as she was supposed to be quirky, I guess, but she ended up being actually slightly hysteric and often rather annoying. Eventually, it felt like a missed opportunity to deliver something empowering, showing that a young woman can handle such an online one-night stand without freaking out or being described as a major slut. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it might be worth a look but only if you really like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, while it was interesting to see a story focusing on the white people who fought against the Apartheid in South Africa, it was still rather weird that there were only 2 black characters involved with some really small parts but, with this story, I can’t think of a way they could have been more inclusive. However, eventually, this movie didn’t deal much with this matter after all as it was more a typical jail escape flick. And, in this area, it went completely the opposite way of the over-the-top stuff from ‘Prison Break’ as they chose a really realistic approach. Still, even though many people were impressed by how these guys managed to pull this off, to be honest, I thought that this prison, which was apparently rather notorious in South Africa, didn’t seem to be really secure. I mean, sure, back then at the end of the 70’s, they didn’t have video camera systems, at least, not in South Africa, but it seemed that at night, there was only one guard left. I mean, it was pretty neat to see Harry Potter, I mean, Daniel Radcliffe spending months crafting all these keys in wood but the fact that they didn’t encounter anybody during their nightly explorations and during their final escape was rather odd and anti-climactic. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I thought I might as well check it out. A couple of weeks ago, I had already been impressed by ‘The Edge of Seventeen’ which felt pretty accurate but this movie went even further though. Seriously, the damned thing was just painfully realistic. However, to be honest, this realistic and pretty much pitch-black approach made this movie quite fascinating but also difficult to watch. Indeed, my youngest daughter is about the same age of the main character and, just like her, she spends most of her free time on her smartphone using some similar apps so, as a father, the damned thing was rather hard to watch. Fortunately, my daughter is a bright and very social kid with many friends. The father was also a tricky character but also really well handled in the way he struggled to communicate with his kid. Furthermore, when he said such things like ‘Cool!’ to his daughter, it was exactly the same way I sometimes talk to my daughter which was pretty disturbing. Still, the guy seemed to be pretty much out of his depth and completely out of touch with her but I’m afraid that's the case for many parents. Concerning the main character, it was refreshing that Elsie Fisher was the right age and not a few years older which is often the case with this genre and she gave here a really strong performance. However, the main character was just so uncharismatic, so average, in fact, she barely had any redeeming features, as a result, it was rather difficult to really care about what she was going through. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, I really enjoyed the hyper realism displayed in this flick and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect but since there was a huge hype around this flick and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I was rather sceptical at first since I had never heard of this musical of even of Alexander Hamilton himself before watching this flick. To make things worse, in general, I’m not a huge fan of musicals and the idea of watching 150 mins of non-stop singing with no straight dialogue whatsoever, on a single stage, didn’t sound really appealing to me. However, to my surprise, I really loved the damned thing. Indeed, right from the very first song, I was impressed by the lyrics and the singing skills of this crew and I was pretty much hooked. It did help that Lin-Manuel Miranda had some major hip-hop influence for his lyrics and it was rather surprising how well it worked within such an historical context. But the damned thing was not only seriously entertaining, it was educational and, within a little more than 2 hours, you get also some fascinating crash-course about a crucial period of the history of the United States. Seriously, at some point, you get to see a cabinet meeting involving George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and, obviously, Alexander Hamilton and this scene was just so interesting but also so entertaining which would be the last thing that you might expect from a 'cabinet meeting'. Eventually, this movie was also a great reminder that the USA as a country, in spite of its flaws and various mistakes, remains intriguing and, to go back to its foundations and focus on its most overlooked founding father was just so fascinating. Anyway, to conclude, I was really impressed by the damned thing, it was a good example that most Broadway musicals movie adaptations are actually misguided and it shows that such movies could be so much more successful if they tried to stick as much as possible to the original version/format. 

Since this movie had been really poorly received, I wasn’t expecting much but since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, after ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’, I’m afraid it was another pathetic attempt from Kenneth Branagh to launch a new franchise. Eventually, by releasing it on their streaming platform, it seems that Disney dodged a bullet because it is pretty obvious that it would have been a major flop if it would have been released theatrically. To be honest, I have to admit that I wasn’t really familiar with the book it was adapted from but, with ‘Thor’, Branagh already tried to make a movie mixing our world with a 2^nd fantasy world. However, here, this mix never worked though. I mean, after maybe 20 mins, we finally got to see the fairies world but this first glimpse was just so abrupt, it pretty much came out of nowhere and it felt really awkward. Another issue was that all the kids involved gave some rather weak performances, especially Ferdia Shaw. Seriously, I felt bad for him since it was his first movie but the young boy was pretty much supposed to carry the whole thing on his shoulders and, well, he pretty much failed, I’m afraid. Of course, you could blame the material but he was never charismatic or convincing enough and I never had the feeling that I was watching some really smart and resourceful young boy. But, above all, the biggest issue was that I was so bored from the beginning until the very end. Apparently, they did remove the thing that sounded the most intriguing about the books, the fact that Artemis Fowl II was a 12-year-old prodigy who had dedicated his life to criminal activities, leading in the process the Fowl criminal empire. Basically, he was supposed to be a bad guy which did sound pretty cool but this idea was completely cancelled in this adaptation. Anyway, to conclude, the whole thing was pretty much a massive failure and you should probably avoid it.