Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I really struggled to care about this movie. Basically, I have to admit that the main reason I actually watched the damned thing was because I have a weak spot for the lovely Gemma Arterton but, eventually, she was the least interesting actors in an otherwise solid cast. Indeed, the rest of the cast (Terence Stamp, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Eccleston) was fine, especially Redgrave who gave here a fine performance and she was cruelly missed later on. Unfortunately, everything else involving the choir was just so tedious and generic. Sure, I get that it was supposed to be heartwarming and all but I thought it was much more interesting to focus only on this interesting old couple. Indeed, there was something really genuine about them and, behind all the pain and sorrow, you could feel that they really cared for each other. However, for no good reason whatsoever, Arthur somehow did resent the choir when it was obvious that it was giving great joy to his wife during the final days of her life. Basically, his behaviour was just too much plot driven and the way they pushed the viewers to first resent him and finally root for him was barely entertaining. Anyway, to conclude, thanks to the cast involved, it was still a decent watch but I think it is worth a look only if you really like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Neftlix, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though Scott Cooper had so far a really nice track-record and even though this project definitely had some potential, to be honest, I can’t say I was really impressed though. I mean, to be fair, it wasn’t bad at all. Indeed, the whole thing looked really genuine and Cooper managed to deliver a nice dark mood (the first scene was especially really brutal). Basically, it seems that Cooper wanted with this movie to show that the war between the Indians and the White people was highly traumatizing for this country following some massive massacres done by both sides (however, back then, only the Indian people and culture did end up being completely wiped out in the process though). Anyway, even if this concept had potential, the whole thing was just too long and too slow. However, what bothered me the most was how the main characters evolved. Indeed, Rosamund Pike’s character went through the most awful experience and, as a result, she couldn’t stand Indians which was understandable. However, it did last for only 5 minutes and, afterwards, she seemed to get along fine with them rather too easily. An even bigger issue was the evolution displayed by Christian Bale’s character. Indeed, the guy was pretty much a butcher who hated the Indians with a vengeance and who despised his last mission to bring this Indian chief to his ancestral grounds. Of course, it was pretty obvious that he would get a change of heart but this process was never properly displayed. Seriously, it was rather weird to see this guy suddenly calling the Indian chief ‘my friend’ towards the end and it was even harder to swallow to see how they tried to turn this butcher into some kind of hero fighting for the Indian cause. Anyway, to conclude, even if I wasn’t completely sold, it was still a well made Western and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, when I heard that they were coming up with a new reboot/remake/sequel for this franchise, I can’t say I was really excited but since it had been rather well received (it was even the most successful Halloween movie ever released at the box-office), I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, even if this movie was labelled as a direct sequel to the first ‘Halloween’ movie, I thought that most of it was still pretty much a remake though. I mean, sure, the intro with these 2 journalists was definitely something new and it was probably the most interesting part of this movie but, from the moment Jason managed to escape, it pretty much became a remake in my opinion. Still, it was fairly entertaining and it was especially nice that they used the iconic tune written by John Carpenter himself. Of course, it was also pretty neat to see Laurie Strode fighting against her nemesis 40 years later and, somehow, she reminded me of Sarah Connor in ‘Terminator 2’. Indeed, both characters had some traumatizing experiences when they were younger and both characters spent several decades training just in case their worst nightmare would showed up again. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was still a decent watch 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 Keira Knightley, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, even though I have obviously heard about Colette, especially since I’m French, I have to admit that I have never read one of her books. Still, there is no doubt that she was a fascinating woman and easily one of the most influtential French women that ever lived. So, the whole thing definitely had some potential and it was a decent biopic but, to be honest, it wasn’t really much more than that. I mean, the whole thing was quite beautiful to look at and they really did their best to recreate a convincing version of Paris at the beginning of the 20^th. Furthermore, Keira Knightley was a very good choice to play the lead and it has been a while since she had delivered such a solid performance. However, the approach was just too generic, I’m afraid. Indeed, this journey of an incredibly creative woman being exploited by her husband has been done before and her relationship with Willy could have been better developed. I mean, why did she actually fall in love with him in the first place? Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you interested in this writer.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, basically, it turned out to be some kind of mix of ‘Office Space’ with ‘Project X’ and, even though it might sounding terribly misguided, it could have worked if they had focused only the Christmas party itself. Indeed, everything else involving the closing down of the company was rather underwhelming and to think that throwing a huge party would be a great idea to save this company was just a terrible idea. At least, I have to admit that some of the jokes were quite funny but some of them were rather cringe-inducing (the worse one was probably when Jennifer Anniston told a very small girl to go f*ck herself). Concerning the cast, I always had a weak spot for Jason Bateman who is always fun but the guy always ends up playing the same character in all his movies. Concerning Olivia Munn, she was gorgeous as usual but she was hardly convincing as a nerdy tech expert and her great ‘invention’ at the end turned out to be pretty pathetic. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, I can’t say I was really impressed by the damned thing and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Dwayne Johnson, I thought I might as well check it out. Video-game adaptations always had a rather lame reputation and most of these movies are usually deemed to fail but this one was probably the most miguided adaptation I have seen in a very long time. To be honest, even though I used to be a hardcore gamer, I don’t think I have ever played this game, or maybe on my Amstrad computer ages ago. Anyway, it was never a game with a profound concept, in fact, it has always been considered as a major King Kong knock-off, so the potential storywise has always been seriously dubious. Well, at least, I think that they actually managed to make the most of it. Indeed, the CGI was decent enough, I did like the introduction and there were a few spectacular scenes. Still, I can’t say I was really impressed by the damned thing though. As I mentioned before, the material was rather lame and it might have worked if they had chosen a seriously wacky approach but, unfortunately, the tone was just so serious which made the whole thing even more pathetic than it already was. On top of that, I was amazed by how they turned George from a nice gorilla into a blood thirsty monster and finally into a fully fledged hero who saved the day. Seriously, these switches were just jarring and displayed how poorly conceived the whole thing was. Concerning Dwayne Johnson, he did have a few nice one-liners but it was hardly his most entertaining performance but he wasn’t helped by this poor material. Anyway, to conclude, I have to admit that I was expecting it to be much worse but I still think it was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

Lately, DC movies have been terribly hit-and-miss but since this movie had been fairly successful, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that the damned thing turned out to be quite entertaining. Indeed, basically, it was some kind of fun mix of ‘Big’ with ‘Spider-Man’ and most of it worked fine. Above all, I really liked the dynamic between Billy Batson and his foster brother Freddy (the conclusion with this whole team of super-heros composed of foster kids was also really neat). Still, even if this gimmick of having two teenagers goofing around with some super-hero powers was fun, this gimmick did overstay its welcome at some point. To be honest, in my opinion, if the intro was pretty good,  the makers did struggle to further develop the story beyond having these two kids discovering these powers. As a result, they had to face Mark Strong as their bad guy but while Strong is a decent actor, by now, I have seen him too many times playing a similar character. Anyway, the whole conflict between Shazam and Sivana was pretty generic. Finally, I’m not so sure if Zachary Levi was the best choice to play this character. Indeed, Levi was fun, that’s for sure, but, with his goofy face, it was pretty much impossible to take this character seriously and I think that, with a serious dramatic actor such as Michael Fassbender for example, it would have been even more effective. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing groundbreaking, it was still a decent and fairly original super-hero flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect but since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick and since I always had a weak spot for Chan-wook Park’s work, I was really eager to check it out. Well, eventually, I was really impressed by this movie. First of all, it looked really gorgeous and, in this area, it is probably the best movie that Chan-wook Park has delivered so far. On the other hand, I have to admit that I didn’t know anything about the plot when I started to watch the damned thing and, to be honest, I did struggle at the beginning to completely follow what the hell was going on and who was who. However, eventually, it turned out to be such a fascinating multi-layered tale. Indeed, for starters, this tale was told from 2 different points of view resulting in a strong thriller with no less than 3 different cons. But they didn’t stop here as they managed to mix it with a strong love story. Seriously, it was quite fascinatng to see these 2 women trying to con each other but eventually falling in love. On top of that, there were some really neat erotic scenes. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved the damned thing, it was easily one of the best movies delivered by Chan-wook Park so far 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 Sandra Bullock and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. When it was released, Netflix made a big fuss that it had been watched by millions of viewers within a few days and, while it was indeed miles better than ‘Bright’, it was still nothing really amazing though. Sure, it was a fairly entertaining post-apocalyptic thriller but, in my opinion, it didn’t bring anything really new or interesting to the genre. I mean, after ‘A Quiet Place’ released the same year, they came up with a similar gimmick and you might wonder what would be their next gimmick (some threat attacking us because we can smell them?). Another issue was that, even though Sandra Bullock was as usual pretty charismatic, none of the characters were properly developed, even the main character. At least, this movie definitely had some cultural impact as, at the time, it started the trend of the ‘Bird Box Challenge’ which consisted of doing some random stuff blind-folded. Seriously, I think we have reached a very low point when we start to pretend to be blind just to entertain ourselves. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.