Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Fatih Akin’s work, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, it turned out to be one of these rare movies dealing with the Armenian Genocide and it was even more interesting that it was directed by a German director with some Turkish roots. This historical drama was also combined with an ambitious epic tale of a father looking for his lost daughters going from the Ottoman Empire to Lebanon, Cuba and even Minnesota. Finally, the lead was played by Tahar Rahim who is usually a fine actor. So, there is no doubt that, on paper, the damned thing definitely had some potential. However, to be honest, this movie never really grabbed me though . Basically, the only scene that really touched me was when the main character was watching ‘The Kid’ from Charles Chaplin but it was above all because Chaplin’s masterpiece is such a powerful movie. Maybe the scale was just too big or maybe it would have been more interesting if they would have managed to add a more developed Turkish character so we could eventually get to see this massive human tragedy from another point of view. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it was a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Fatih Akin’s work.

Since I’m a big fan of ‘Breaking Bad’, of course, I was really eager to see this sequel. Well, I thought it was a decent watch but not much more than that, to be honest. I mean, like anyone else who followed this massively popular TV-show, I was wondering what happened afterwards to Jesse Pinkman after the show ended but, to be honest, Vince Gilligan gave here the most generic answer possible. Indeed, eventually, Pinkman spends most of the duration looking for some cash and how to get out of Dodge and, sure, it was probably the most obvious way to handle the rest of his storyline but I don’t think it really required 2 hours of running time. The main issue, in my opinion, was that Vince Gilligan developed this story as if it was some kind of long episode from a TV-show, instead of really developing it as an actual feature film. As a result, half of the movie was made of fillers, basically, some scenes which could easily be removed but are still added just to fill in the running time. In a TV-show, such fillers can be annoying but they are understandable since the average season last around 16-20 hours. However, it is less acceptable when they use such scenes in movie like this one. Anyway, the flashback involving Jesse Plemons was pretty good and the whole thing was working fine until the 2 fake cops showed up to also steal the money. I mean, I think it would have worked better if Jesse would have just found the money right there and then moved on with his journey. Instead, we spent an awful lot of time with the guy running around to gather enough cash. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, it was pretty neat to get back into Vince Gilligan’s world and to see Jesse Pinkman getting some closure so the damned thing is still definitely worth a look, especially if you enjoyed ‘Breaking Bad’.

Since this movie had won the Best Picture Academy Award, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I’m surprised the damned thing reserved so much praise. I mean, sure, it was a decent watch but not really much more than that, in my opinion. As pointed out by many people before me, it was pretty much a reversed version of ‘Driving Miss Daisy’, a rather weak movie which at least had the excuse that it had been released 30 years ago. Seriously, it is rather sad that ‘BlacKkKlansman’ which was also nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award was snubbed when it was not only an impressive come-back from Spike Lee but also gave a much more provocative view on the very same subject than this movie. On top of that, even though the story was rather generic and predictable, it was also rather condescending. The worst example was probably when Donald Shirley helped Tony writing these letters. Seriously, can you imagine if it would have been the other way around, with a white guy showing a black man how to write a romantic letter? It would have been a scandal. At least, there is no doubt that both Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali both delivered some solid performances but I just didn’t care much about anything else in this movie. Anyway, to conclude, even though the damned thing is in my opinion seriously overrated, I have to admit that it is actually a rather well made old-fashioned drama and it is still worth a look but only if you really like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of Christmas movies but, even though this movie was not the worst one I have seen in this genre, it still had the weakest concept though. Seriously, not only it was a lame Christmas flick but, on top of that, also a lousy road-movie. I mean, the tone was either too light or too dark so, when you get to see the main character dropped in a middle of a desert, it was more cringe-inducing than really funny and the damned thing never managed to be really entertaining after that. Same thing with the main character, he was never really a douche-bag but never really a nice guy either but, at least, Jonathan Taylor Thomas was quite charismatic and he did what he could with this rather abysmal material. Jessica Biel was also pretty cute but that’s probably the only positive things I could find regarding this movie. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was rather generous with my rating here, the damned thing was pretty lame and it is not really worth a look whatsoever. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect but since this movie had been a success at the box-office and since it seemed to be a decent comedy, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was surprised by how lame it actually turned out to be. Seriously, right from the very first scene, I was already pretty much done with the damned thing. Basically, you get this beautiful woman still looking gorgeous after raising kids for 10 years, she has a brand-new car, a huge house, a job she loves but we should still feel bad for her because life is so stressful? Indeed, it was yet another tedious comedy about the fact that parenting has supposedly become so difficult nowadays, a concept I find so annoying. On top of that, Mila Kunis was rather miscast in my opinion. Indeed, she wasn’t really convincing as a woman who had been a mother for a rather long time and, above all, she didn’t look like someone who had spent a decade raising 2 kids. Eventually, what was the damned thing actually supposed to be about anyway? I mean, it was called ‘Bad Moms’ but it was basically about a group of mothers occasionally getting drunk and having a really tedious feud with their PTA president but, before, during and after the movie, there was not a single moment during which these women were actually being some really bad mothers. At least, I have to admit that there were a few really funny scenes, usually involving Kathryn Hahn, but most of the damned thing just didn’t work for me at all. Anyway, to conclude, even though I have seen worse, I thought it was actually pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of ‘Mary Poppins’ (since I have Disney+, I should re-watch it at some point though) but since I have a weak spot for Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks, I was quite eager to check this movie. Well, even though it was a decent watch and easily better than most live-action movies produced by Disney, to be honest, I was  still not really impressed by the damned thing though. Basically, it is a rather well known fact that P.L. Travers reluctantly gave the rights to her precious character, that she was really difficult during the production and that she eventually didn’t like the movie at all. Well, even though it might have sounded interesting on paper, unfortunately, in my opinion, it was actually insufficient to fill in 2 hours of running time, at least, not with the way it was developed by John Lee Hancock. Basically, they kept repeating some scenes usually involving Travers being a pain in the ass over and over again. The flashback scenes, while they were important to give some background to the main character, had the same issue. Indeed, after 2 or 3 of these flashbacks, we actually got the point that her father was a fun and whimsical guy but also probably a bipolar alcoholic so these scenes became quickly rather repetitive as well. They were a few scenes that did stand out though, like the one when P.L. Travers relived a dramatic speech from her father (easily the best scene in this movie) and the surprise meeting between Disney and Travers in England (a meeting which obviously never happened). At least, there was a solid cast and it has been a while since Emma Thompson gave such a strong performance. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still fairly entertaining and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, this movie was one of the victims in the Weinstein debacle as it was supposed to be released just around the time the scandal broke down. Eventually, it was released much later on by another studio but it was barely noticed. Anyway, it is basically a fairly classical biblical tale focusing this time on Mary Magdalene. As a result, you get the usual anti-Jewish vibe which is unfortunate but rather inherent to the genre, I’m afraid. What was more surprising was the fact they turned this classic story into some kind of feminist manifesto. Sure, the main point was to rehabilitate this woman who had been labelled as a prostitute for centuries (In fact, as we learn at the end of this movie, she had been officially rehabilitated by the Vatican only a few years ago) but the makers went way beyond then only showing that she had been a genuine apostle. Indeed, not only she wasn’t trusted by any other male apostle, according to this movie, she was apparently the only one who really understood Jesus which was a rather bold statement. Not only it was pretty much some kind of reverse sexism, above all, it made this character pretty much flawless and, therefore, a little bit underwhelming, especially since we already had Jesus who was arguably the most flawless human-being that ever lived. 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. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Steven Soderbergh’s work and since it was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. Like anyone else, I heard about the Panama papers but, to be honest, I didn’t really dig too much in this affair so, only for that, it was pretty neat to see a movie dealing with this subject. On top of that, Soderbergh chose a rather light and slightly wild approach and while you might argue that such a tragedy deserved a more serious treatment, it did make the whole thing easier to swallow. The intro was also pretty neat. Indeed, of course, it made sense that, at some point, we switched from trading to coins and paper money. However, nowadays, most money transactions have turned into an invisible financial flow and this constant virtualisation of money in general has turned the current financial system into a completely unreliable mess. Another point made by this movie was that the whole purpose of this system has always been to improve the position of the wealthy part of our population, crushing or at least exploiting the meek but the makers didn't point out that, if the meek were rich, they would probably do the exact same thing but that’s another discussion, I guess. Still, in spite of some really strong material, the damned thing was still too random though and some of the small stories involved were not always really compelling. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was still another slightly half-baked project from Soderbergh, it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this director.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but somehow, I still ended up watching the damned thing. Well, sure, it turned out to be a really generic and predictable romantic-comedy but, probably because I had such low expectations, I didn’t think it was so bad after all. Indeed, Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel were both quite charismatic and they had a nice chemistry together. Still, there is no doubt that the concept was pretty weak though. Above all, it is still so cringe-inducing to see such movie characters struggling to take care of one baby. For example, back then, my grand-parents had no less than 7 kids and it is always rather pathetic to see some adults having such a hard time with one single toddler (I myself raised 3 children and I never experienced such despair). Seriously, you even get a scene during which they are in panic just because they have to change a diaper which was just so lame. And, yet, I did like this couple and with a slightly less generic approach, it could have been actually interesting. Anyway, to conclude, I have to admit that my rating was probably generous here and I guess it might be worth a look but only if you really love the genre.