Reviews by johanlefourbe

I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. I was wondering if it was the first movie I saw directed by Chris Rock and, to be honest, I have to admit that I completely forgot that I saw years ago ‘I Think I Love My Wife’. Well, this movie was a big improvement on his previous directing effort but I was still not really convinced though. I mean, I did have some potential and, for at least half of the duration, it was rather unclear what was the goal of the makers but it made the whole thing actually quite intriguing. Unfortunately, when it turned out that the whole point was to make the main character fall in love with this journalist, I was rather disappointed by how generic and lame the outcome turned out to be after all. It’s too bad because there were some good ideas and some strong scenes. For example, it was a rather simple but effective trick to have constantly the people in the street calling the main character ‘Hammy’, as it displayed the pressure of being a celebrity in the process and how dehumanizing it can be. The scene where Andre Allen went back to his relatives to hang out with them was also really neat. Unfortunately, pretty much everything focusing on Chelsea Brown’s private life was rather misguided and should have been removed in my opinion. I mean, I don’t blame Rosario Dawson, she was charming as usual, but the focus should have been on Chris Rock’s character but, on the other hand, the whole fact that they fell in love was rather underwhelming to me, when it was actually the whole point of this movie. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Chris Rock’s work. 

I wasn’t exactly blown away by ‘John Wick’ but since this sequel had been even more successful at the box-office, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, once again, I was hardly impressed by Wick’s new adventure. In fact, I think that the first instalment was more spectacular but I have to admit that I barely remember it in details, except that Keanu Reeves did kill a whole bunch of goons in the most badass way possible. Well, in this sequel, he once again finished off more than 100 guys and a few women but I don’t think it was as entertaining as all the fans of this franchise claim it to be. I mean, I did like the 2 fight scenes with Common because the guy also had some skills but pretty much everyone else was some faceless thug who got shot within a split second. Concerning the story itself, even though John Wick was supposedly retired and would like to stay that way, obviously, they found a way to bring him back in the game and, apparently, it would get only worse for him from this point but that’s all what the fans of this franchise want to see so that’s all good. At least, they didn’t give him an annoying sidekick so the guy really remains a lone wolf which I did appreciate but the downside is that, eventually, he only had a few fleeting conversations with a handful of characters who were completely underdeveloped. Anyway, to conclude, even if I don’t really get the passion around this franchise, I have to admit that it was a well-made and all-around solid action flick 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 I always had a weak spot for Benicio Del Toro, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, it was rather tricky to watch this flick after ‘Narcos’ which gave such a fascinating immersive look into the life of the notorious Drug baron. On the other hand, the Netflix TV-show did provide some handy background information and it did help to better understand what happened to Escobar back then. Concerning the story itself, I was wondering if it was based on facts but it turned out to be actually a fiction. However, it didn’t matter and this tale definitely had some potential. Unfortunately, the mixed chronology was a mistake though. Indeed, it is usually a misguided gimmick and, here, it definitely did not work. I mean, many viewers complained that we didn’t see much Del Toro who gave here another really strong performance but the movie was actually not about Escobar himself but about an average kid who somehow got sucked into his world. However, each scene featuring Del Toro clearly established his character while the useless back-and-forth in time wasted some precious running time which should have been used to develop more the main character, how he did end up in this position and what he felt during the process. Eventually, Josh Hutcherson did get some blame but I don’t think he was so bad after all, in fact, he had some decent chemistry with Claudia Traisac and, above all, he wasn’t help by this approach. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, 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. 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.