Reviews by johanlefourbe

I didn't have some huge expectations concerning this movie but since I kept hearing some good things about it, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, following the huge flop of ‘The Mummy’, Universal cancelled their Dark Universe for the 2^nd time (They had already failed with ‘Dracula Untold’ a few years before), so, instead of a big blockbuster starring Johnny Depp, they gave us something much smaller produced by Blumhouse and starring Elisabeth Moss instead. Well, it paid off since this movie was fairly successful at the box-office and it even managed to receive some decent reviews. To be honest, I still think the concept was really flimsy but there is no doubt that Leigh Whannell made the most of it. Indeed, in spite of its title which was there only for some marketing purposes, he basically made the ultimate stalker movie and the fact that the guy had the possibility of becoming invisible was eventually almost an afterthought. Well, I have never been a huge fan of the stalker genre but what made this movie still work was above all another fearless performance by Elisabeth Moss. Indeed, from the very beginning, her character was just so completely strung out and only became worse as the movie moved along. In this genre, they usually show the main character has being terribly strong and resilient but, here, they put much more focus on the psychological turmoil experienced by this woman and, combined with a strong performance from Moss, it was much more compelling to behold. However, this movie still followed the rules of the genre and, during the 3^rd act, the main character completely changed and became some kind of super vigilante. Of course, it was not really surprising but not only it vastly contradicted the rest of the movie, it was above all hardly satisfying. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was not really ground-breaking after all, it was still a decent thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I did struggle to really connect with this movie. I mean, it did give an interesting and really bleak view on the life in China back in the 50’s and 60’s. In fact, while watching the damned thing, I was wondering how the director got away with making something like this in China. Well, he didn’t. Indeed, during the production, they apparently smuggled the movie out to Japan and then released the movie worldwide. Anyway, basically, it deals with some average people, living some average life and, apparently, they all went along fine in a rather peaceful community. However, following the drastic decisions of the Chinese Communist party, their lives were suddenly turned upside down and fear became suddenly a major factor in their everyday life. What stroke me was that you get to see them living for years under such a political system which was originally designed to be fair but, eventually, you didn’t see them experiencing any improvement on their living conditions at all. So, that was all quite interesting but the main issue I had was that, even though you spend more than 2 hours with the characters, you don’t get to know any of them after all. I guess it might be one of the virtues of this movie, the fact that you have to figure out on your own what these characters might be thinking or feeling. However, since I’m not Chinese and since I was born in the 80’s, it was rather difficult for me to relate with them. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a very interesting movie though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I never thought that ‘Zombieland’ was such a great movie but since this sequel was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that this 2^nd sequel was actually quite fun. Indeed, the 4 original characters (Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita, Little Rock) all came back with the same cast and they had a really nice chemistry together. Still, I have to admit that I didn’t recall that Columbus and Wichita did hook up in the previous instalment but, to be honest, I thought it was pretty obvious that these 2 characters didn’t belong with each other. However, a bigger issue was with the new supporting characters though. Sure, it was a great idea to add some new faces, maybe even expand their group at some point, but, unfortunately, I didn’t care for any of them. The only one who might have had some potential was Rosario Dawson’s character but she was barely developed at all and was added in the mix just to make sure that Tallahassee would finally get some bedroom partner. However, ALL the other added characters were barely entertaining and, sometimes, even seriously annoying. Of course, I understand that it was the whole point for Madison, the character played by Zoey Deutch. Indeed, she was supposed to be cringe-inducing to behold but the end-result was hardly entertaining. First of all, there is absolutely no way that such a clueless brat could have survived for so long during a zombie apocalypse but, above all, I think it would have been so much more interesting if this girl would have been pretty badass and an actual threat for Wichita. And yet, thanks to the original cast, the damned thing was still fairly entertaining with some seriously witty oneliners. Anyway, to conclude, even if the whole thing felt like another pointless and rather misguided sequel, I think it is still worth a look though, especially if you enjoyed the previous instalment. 

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. I have to admit that I have never been a fan of Wrestling and, even though this movie was a decent attempt to legitimize this ‘sport’, to be honest, I wasn’t still not really convinced. Another thing that bothered me was that, even though Dwayne Johnson was displayed prominently on all the promotional material, he actually had only 2 small scenes (the 1^st one was pretty cool though). Anyway, the movie itself was pretty much a generic sports feature faithfully following the rules of the genre. The end, even if it was fairly entertaining, didn’t make much sense to me though. Indeed, since all the fights in Wrestling are fixed from the beginning, if the fighters have a script to follow, how can you actually win a fight?!? Saraya/Paige should have known even before the fight started that she was going to win or maybe I completely misunderstood this ‘sport’ but, to be honest, I don’t think I really care. There is one thing that really worked though with this movie and it was Florence Pugh. Indeed, so far, I have seen her only in this movie and ‘Midsommar’ but she seriously impressed me and I can understand why she is considered as one of the most promising upcoming actresses working today. In this movie, she completely disappeared in her character, she was really convincing and seriously charismatic. In fact, it was rather annoying that it took the character the whole duration to figure how charismatic she was but I blamed more the script then Pugh’s strong performance. Anyway, to conclude, even if I still think that Wrestling is terribly tedious, I have to admit that this movie was still fairly entertaining and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Olga Kurylenko, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though Kurylenko is extremely lovely, to be honest, she has spent at least half of her career showing up in some rather sh*tty movies and this one might be the worst of the bunch I have seen so far, I’m afraid. Indeed, not only the damned thing was terribly generic and tedious but most of it didn’t really work at all. For example, if it wasn’t necessarily a bad idea that these bank robbers would wear some high-tech suits, however, to give them some flashy coloured lights to recognize who was who was just lame and ridiculous. At least, it was neat to see Kurylenko playing a highly qualified robber but, to be honest, she was never really convincing. On top of that, even though the plot was seriously generic, some big chunks didn’t make much sense. For example, who the hell was this red-haired woman called Jessica?!? Why would an American senator hide a USB stick with sensitive information in a safe deposit box in South Africa? Was Kurylenko’s character actually hired to retrieve this precious USB stick? Coming back to this evil senator, it seems that Morgan Freeman apparently showed up for this movie as a favour for the director but I hope for him that he did get a nice pay check from this mess. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was a huge waste of time for myself and for all the people involved and you should pretty much avoid it. 

Since I have always been intrigued by John Cassavetes's movies, I was quite eager to check out this movie. To be honest, I have to admit that it had been years, even decades, the last time I saw one of his directing efforts. Well, within the first 10 mins, I remembered how challenging his work can be. Indeed, with this movie, Cassavetes probably gave one of the less glamourous and definitely the bleakest look of what it can mean to be an actor. Still, as mentioned before, the damned thing was quite challenging, above all, because the main character was so destructive and also rather pathetic. As a result, I had a hard time to really care about what she was going through. Especially, at the end, when the actual opening night finally took place, I thought it was just infuriating to see her showing up very late, completely inebriated and even barely able to walk. I mean, I didn't really mind the money that could be lost or the fact that the audience maybe showed up for nothing, I was actually pissed off for her crew and colleagues. Indeed, so many people worked so hard so that this drunken diva could go on this stage and there might be 1000's of actresses who would do anything to be in her position but will never get such an opportunity. Still, there is no doubt that Gena Rowlands was just amazing and she gave here such a fearless and pretty much pitch-perfect performance. On top of that, I just love the way Cassavetes shot and edit his scenes, it gives his pictures such a raw and realistic feeling. Anyway, to conclude, even though it wasn't an easy watch, it was still pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Cassavetes's work.

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, the first tricky thing with this movie was that even though you see Winston Churchill struggling, we all know that he would eventually prevail and become one of the most famous British Prime Ministers. Eventually, somehow, even if we already knew the outcome, the makers still had to manage to make the story either entertaining or interesting enough. I have to admit that, since I’m half-French half-Dutch, I have always been intrigued by the history of Great Britain during WWII since this country had such a vastly different experience of this war than France and the Netherlands. Still, even though it might seem that the whole thing was historically accurate, actually, half of it was pretty much some fantasy to promote the glory of the famous Briton. The most obvious scene was when Churchill took a sudden trip with the London underground. I mean, you don’t need a PHD in British history to figure out that something like this never happened and I thought it was a rather heavy-handed trick to display that Churchill was actually really interested in what the average British folk was thinking and feeling about these dramatic events. However, if you dig a little further, you might discover that this movie was actually filled with other historical inaccuracies which was slightly disappointing. Above all, it would have been nice if they had delivered a more nuanced portrait of the British politician. Still, there is no doubt that Gary Oldman gave a stellar performance here and the guy was here quite spellbinding to behold. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a well-made historical biopic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Even though I didn’t have some huge expectations, since this movie was directed by Niki Caro and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, in the sub-genre of the inspirational sports tale based on a true story, to be honest, it was hardly original but it was still fairly entertaining. Indeed, even if Kevin Costner is not the box-office draw he used to be, the guy is still quite charismatic and he was a fine choice to play this coach. However, even though they spent enough time to show that he had absolutely no experience in coaching a cross-country team, they didn’t really display how he became such a great coach after all. And, yet, the main issue was in fact that they spent too much time on Kevin Costner’s character and not enough on the actual runners. Seriously, I don’t think I would be able to name all the 7 runners even though I saw the movie just yesterday. I mean, 3 of them were pretty much reduced to the ‘Diaz brothers’, except for Danny whose only characteristic was that he was a little bit chubby (in fact, even though the real Danny Diaz did really help winning the title back in ’87, he wasn’t overweight at all which shows how poorly developed these characters were). Concerning the rest of the McFarland community, well, it wasn’t much better I’m afraid. Indeed, the movie started with a string of negative Latino stereotypes and ended with another string of Latino stereotypes which were at least positive this time. And, yet, in spite of its flaws, it was still a touching story. Indeed, the life in McFarland seemed rather rough and the future pretty much hopeless for these kids but, thanks to this sport and this coach, it did open so many doors for them and it gave this community something to be really proud of. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was fairly generic, I have to admit that it was still a decent inspirational sports tale and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though I definitely could see why this movie has such a stellar reputation, to be honest, I still struggled to really connect with the damned thing. The point is that this movie is actually very simple and very complex at the same time. Indeed, it is simple in the sense that Ozu didn’t use any gimmicks or visual tricks to shot his movie as it was composed of static shots with minimal cuts. In a similar fashion, it was dealing with some average people with no secret agenda or deep secrets and nothing really extraordinary happened to any one of them through the whole duration. And, yet, it was such a complex movie in the sense that Ozu never tells you what the characters are actually thinking or feeling, he doesn’t tell you what he himself is actually thinking or feeling about what is showing to you and he is certainly not telling the viewers what they should be thinking or feeling. It is definitely a nice approach but it is also quite disorienting following years of watching rather dumb US movies in which every piece of information is pretty much spoon-fed to the viewers. Still, what the hell did Ozu mean with his movie?!? The more I think about it, the more I believe that this movie was actually dealing with the meaning of life, no less than that. It might explain why it is still completely relevant even 70 years later for someone like me who was born in Europe and had no direct connection with Japanese culture. Indeed, basically, for the most part of our lives, we will struggle some way or another to connect with other people, even with the people the closest to us. As a result, we are all pretty much very lonely and it is fitting that Noriko, the nicest person in this movie, is actually the loneliest. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a strong movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.