Reviews by johanlefourbe

Even though this movie turned out to be a major critical flop, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, following the impressive ‘Mudbound’, still probably one of the best movies ever released on Netflix, the expectations were pretty high regarding this follow-up from Dee Rees but, unfortunately, the damned thing turned out to be indeed so disappointing. Seriously, it has been a while since I have seen such a huge pretentious mess. Basically, it started out as a typical political thriller about the US intervention in the various conflicts taking place in Central America during the 80’s but, even if it was nothing really original, it did have some potential. But, then, the main character got involved with some kind of shady weapons deal originated by her own father, which was just such a misguided idea, and, from this point, the whole thing just completely spiralled out of control. Indeed, the damned thing became murkier by the minute and, to be honest, it was rather difficult to make sense of what the hell was going on. To make things worse, Anne Hathaway provided one of her weakest performances in years. Of course, you could blame the material but Willem Dafoe still managed to be interesting. On the other hand, this guy would remain spellbinding no matter what they gave him to do. Concerning Ben Affleck, he wasn’t really convincing either but he had the luck that he was playing only a supporting character. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was quite a misfire and you should probably avoid it.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jake Gyllenhaal, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I didn’t even know before watching the damned thing that it was dealing with the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. It didn’t matter though, in the contrary, this way, I was more able to focus more on the characters going casually with their life before the tragedy. Anyway, this story was basically doomed to become your typical inspiring biopic but David Gordon Green chose a more gloomy and gritty approach which was much more than welcome. Indeed, not only Jeff Bauman had to struggle with the fact that he had lost his legs but also with the fact that he had become overnight some kind of hero which was a status he didn’t feel he deserved at all. Another strong aspect was also the fact that, of course, Jake Gyllenhaal, who is decidedly one of the best actors of his generation, gave here another really strong performance. Tatiana Maslany was fine as well and the relationship involving their characters was probably one of the best things in this movie. However, even if it was quite realistic and believable, the 2^nd act was not so compelling though. Indeed, of course, I can understand the struggle the main character had to face but, compared to the intensity of the 1^st part, to be honest, it felt rather flat. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a solid drama and it is definitely 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 Jason Reitman, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, following the rather disappointing ‘Labor Day’, at least, Reitman didn’t waste much time to come up with a new directing effort but, unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be much better than his previous movie, I’m afraid. The first issue was that the various scenes involving the Voyager space probe with the lovely voice of Emma Thompson were just so pretentious and didn’t add anything really interesting. Then, showing all these social media screens and windows might have seemed to be clever. However, the whole concept (even though we can virtually connect with anyone on Earth within seconds, we don’t seem to be able to have a normal conversation with the people physically right next to us) has been done before and this movie didn’t do anything really interesting with it. Eventually, the biggest problem was, in my opinion, the fact that there were just too many characters and sub-plots involved. It’s too bad because, in fact, most of these stories were actually not bad at all (I enjoyed above all the romance involving Ansel Elgort and Kaitlyn Dever) but none of them had enough space and time to be properly developed and, as a result, they all turned out to be rather half-baked. At least, it was refreshing to see Adam Sandler in a movie which wasn’t completely lame. Anyway, to conclude, even if I’m not sure if it was Jason Reitman’s weakest movie so far and it wasn’t far from it, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look though. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Curtis Hanson and Michael Apted, I thought I might as well check it out. For Curtis Hanson, this movie was a rather sad way to end an otherwise solid career. Indeed, Hanson actually didn’t manage to finish this movie for health reasons (Michael Apted had to take over and finish the damned thing) and the guy eventually even passed away a few years later. To make things worse, this final directing effort turned out to be a flop at the box-office. Well, I always had a weak spot for movies dealing with surfing and this one was probably one of the most convincing one I have seen. Indeed, it went fairly deep into explaining what you would need to learn to become really good at this sport. Indeed, you need skills but also some major physical and mental strength to become really successful. So, everything dealing with the surfing was actually quite interesting and pretty neat but, unfortunately, pretty much everything else was rather underwhelming though. I won’t blame Jonny Weston who was quite charismatic or even Gerard Butler who was not bad at all but there were just too many damned sub-plots. I mean, if they would have picked one (for example, the relationship between Jay and Kim), it could have worked fine but, instead, they kept constantly switching between various uninteresting little stories which had nothing do with surfing and which dragged down the whole thing. 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. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really interested in this movie but since it had been added in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list, I thought I might as well check it out. At first, the whole thing seemed to be a rather misguided passion project of Hugh Jackman (it took the guy apparently about 10 years to get this movie made) but, surprisingly, it turned out to be a success at the box-office which was something really unexpected from an original musical like this one. Well, it took me a while to get into this flick and, during the first scenes, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t work for me since I’m not a huge fan of such musicals. And, yet, I have to admit that it slowly won me over. Indeed, Hugh Jackman was basically born to play this part and some of the tunes were pretty catchy and managed to enhance a story which was obviously pretty basic. However, if Zac Efron and Zendaya made for a really charismatic couple, this sub-plot didn’t really work though. In fact, why did they put some focus on this character? I mean, the guy didn’t have such a huge impact on Barnum’s career after all and it seemed rather odd that his only ‘regular’ employee should get more attention while all the ‘freaks’ working for him were barely developed at all. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you really like the genre. 

I already saw this movie not so long ago but since it was so challenging, I thought I might as well check it out again, especially since I bought a really cool Tarkovsky Blu-Ray box-set. Obviously, since I’m such a major movie buff, I had to watch a movie directed by Andrei Tarkovsky at some point, especially since the guy has such a stellar reputation. Well, according to IMDb, it is his best movie, so I guess it was a good place to start. However, to be honest, even though I expected it, it still turned out to be a really difficult movie. I mean, basically, it is about three guys wandering for almost 3 hours in a place called the ‘Zone’ and, even though it does sound like a science-fiction feature, there was nothing really futuristic about this place. Of course, the fans of this movie in particular and in Tarkovsky in general would argue that this movie went just way beyond being a simple SF feature and they would be right. However, I’m afraid I was not smart enough to understand most of the symbolism, philosophical and metaphysical elements developed in this flick and I still think that the damned thing was pretty damned long and slow. Still, even if it was minimalistic, it was very often beautiful to look at and the damned thing was quite mesmerizing. Indeed, in spite of the lack of plot or character development, the whole thing is such an interesting maelstrom of ideas, theories and assumptions. Anyway, to conclude, it was probably one of the most difficult movies I have ever seen and even if I probably didn’t get half of it, I still think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you want to see something really challenging.