Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since there was a nice cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, even though the damned thing definitely had some potential, I’m afraid it was a little bit too much to chew on for Ewan McGregor for his first directing effort. Afterwards, I was wondering why McGregor didn’t follow the examples of Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. Indeed, for their first directing effort, they respectively delivered ‘Nil by Mouth’ and ‘The War Zone’ and one of the reasons these 2 movies worked so well was the fact that Oldman and Roth made movies about an environment they were both familiar with. On the other hand, McGregor, a guy who grew up in Scotland in the 80’s, decided for some reason to make a movie taking place in the US during the 60’s which was probably not the best idea. Furthermore, McGregor was rather miscast and, for this role, I think that someone like a younger Tom Cruise would have been a better choice. However, the main issue was probably that he struggled with the story itself. Indeed, it was quite complex and it was supposed to be dealing with the psychological turmoil lived by these 3 characters but, unfortunately, that was something that McGregor barely managed to scratch. I mean, this golden couple was kind, patient, not conservative whatsoever, and, yet, from the very start, there was something going on with their kid but they never dug really far enough. I mean, at some point, there was a rather ridiculous session with a speech therapist arguing that the young girl might be jealous of her mother. Seriously, since when a speech therapist might have the required skills to detect and diagnose some kind of Oedipal complex? It seemed completely way off base and it was never properly developed afterwards. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie was pretty much a failure for McGregor as a director, it was still an intriguing story though and I think it is worth a look. 

Since this movie had been a huge critical and commercial flop, I wasn’t expecting much but since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, maybe because I had such low expectation, but I didn’t think it was so bad after all. However, it doesn’t mean that it was really good either though. Indeed, following the disappointing ‘Apocalypse’, I thought they would go for a reboot in a couple of years since most of the actors involved seemed to be pretty much done with this franchise so I was rather surprised that they were coming up  with another sequel. At least, there was then the hope that they might end up on a higher note. Unfortunately, for some reason, they made the bewildering choice of telling once again the story of Jean Grey becoming the Dark Phoenix. Sure, it is apparently a classic story in the comic-books but it had already been done with ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ so the whole endeavour felt rather misguided and completely unnecessary. Anyway, as a result, this last instalment turned out to be the weakest of the bunch. It's too bad because it was rather promising that they killed off Raven fairly early in the movie but this tragic event was rather poorly handled and felt therefore really anticlimactic. Another issue was Jessica Chastain’s character who was such a bland and generic bad guy and, in my opinion, this character could have been actually easily removed. In fact, one of the few interesting things in this movie was the fact that, while he meant well, Charles Xavier probably f*cked up Jean Grey and maybe some other young mutants with his approach and I think it was a huge missed opportunity when they did not focus on this. Indeed, the fact that a seemingly good man could loose his way and mess up the people he was supposed to help in the first place sounded quite fascinating but, unfortunately, this movie obviously preferred instead to follow the most pedestrian path available. Finally, the last thing that bothered me with this movie was the fact that there were just way too many mutants involved. Seriously, for example, was it really necessary to bring Magneto in this tale? Eventually, it shows how difficult it is to have so many super-heroes in one movie and, except for the MCU, it seems that nobody else is able to actually pull it off. Anyway, to conclude, I was probably generous with my rating here, I guess it was still watchable though, but there is no doubt that it was one of the most useless and misguided sequels ever made.

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was suggested by one of my favorite Listal members, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though the beginning was intriguing, unfortunately, from the moment that Charlotte drugged Lizzie and had her cut off her own hand, well, the whole thing pretty much lost me. Obviously, it won’t be the first twist in this movie as it would seem at first that Lizzie would to try to get her revenge from Charlotte but, before the final act, both girls would be eventually turning against Anton, their mentor. Obviously, at some point, Charlotte would finally explain her drastic action but, even so, it didn’t make much sense to me. At the end of the day, the ultimate goal was pretty much to make Anton pay for was he did but was it really necessary to mutilate Lizzie in the process? In this case, it seems that Charlotte could have pretty much skipped this part of her plan. I guess the makers wanted to show that, ultimately, everybody involved in this twisted tale, perpetrators and victims, had become eventually batsh*t crazy. There was also a good amount of shock value involved and an almost constant desire to mislead the viewers but both gimmicks were rather overused in my opinion. Eventually, if the idea of turning ‘Whiplash’ into a gory horror flick might be appealing to you, you will probably enjoy this movie more than I did. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch, I especially enjoyed the chemistry between Allison Williams and Logan Browning, and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

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.