Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but  since it was the last movie directed by Craig Gillespie that I haven’t seen so far and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a pretty neat story and the movie himself was not bad at all. Indeed, even if the story was rather generic and predictable, it was still quite entertaining though. In fact, it did remind me of ‘Jerry Maguire’ which wasn’t a bad thing though. Indeed, it was basically dealing with a sports agent working on his own, working with only one last client(s) who was his very last shot. However even if Jon Hamm was not bad, in my opinion, his role turned out to be rather thankless though. I mean, even though it made sense to portray the guy as a cold-hearted businessman, they still wanted to show him being a nice guy after all. As a result, it was rather frustrating to see almost every supporting character reminding him that he should do the right thing and to see him still being jerk again and again just to add some dramatic tensions. 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 sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Mira Nair’s work and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I didn’t know what it was about and it was a nice surprise to see that it was dealing with chess which is a fascinating game in my opinion. Of course, the story was after all rather generic and predictable but I still think it was uplifting and inspiring. On top of that, even though it might be expected from such a Disney production, they didn’t sugar-coat the damned thing at all and the life in this shanty town in Uganda seemed terribly bleak and grim as it should be. It was also refreshing that the main character was not your typical white saviour as it is unfortunately usually the case in such tales taking place in Africa. Concerning the cast, even though David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong'o were deservedly praised for their performances, I was actually even more impressed by the young Madina Nalwanga who played the main character. Indeed, there was so much depth in her performance and you could clearly see her character grow and evolve through the whole duration which was even more impressive since it was her first acting part. Anyway, to conclude, even if they didn’t come up with something really original, it was still very well done and so inspiring so 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 there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, it turned out to be another really underwhelming romantic-comedy starring Gerard Butler. Indeed, not only the whole thing was poorly put together but, even worse, it was just terribly tedious to behold. Basically, the whole concept was to have this former football star suddenly becoming a coach for some young kids and, in the process, the guy would supposedly get the attention of so many apparently desperate soccer-moms. So, it seemed to be some perfect material for a raunchy comedy but, in fact, the guy was never really interested in these soccer-moms and spent most of the duration trying to reconnect with his young son. As a result, the main character was never really described as a wild party beast or as a dedicated father and this lack of commitment from the makers made the guy completely flaccid and uninteresting. However, the soccer-moms (even one dad as well) were even more poorly developed though. For example, why on earth would Catherine Zeta-Jones’s character would try to get him a job if the only thing she wanted from him was to have some uncomplicated hot sex? I mean, a gorgeous woman like her would never need such a convoluted scheme to seduce a bachelor like this one. However, the icing on the cake was probably how the guy eventually managed to ruin his ex upcoming wedding. Seriously, it was just priceless to see Jessica Biel (probably the only believable character) saying that she never stopped loving him which seemed to be completely out-of-character. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, the damned thing was still pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Vincenzo Natali’s work and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a very minimalist horror flick but even though I have a weak spot for the genre, I still had a hard time to care about the damned thing. Indeed, a huge chunk of the duration was about a handful of characters endlessly wandering in this tall grass and constantly calling out each other and it became rather repetitive fairly quickly. I’m not surprised that it was adapted from a novella and there is a fair chance that the material was not enough for a full length feature like this one. Fortunately, the whole thing became much more interesting when they started to mix up the chronology and it could have been really neat if they kept bring up more and more characters from different time periods. However, instead, they decided to randomly turn Patrick Wilson’s character into a bag guy which was rather underwhelming. I mean, why him and not Tobin, for example, who also touched this ominous stone? In my opinion, it would have been more efficient to having all the characters fighting together some invisible threat (in fact, pretty much like in ‘Cube’, Vincenzo Natali’s directing debut). Eventually, as usual with King’s work, in spite of a decent mood and a few good ideas, the whole thing felt terribly far-fetched. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was watchable, it turned out to be another average and rather lazy Stephen King adaptation and I will probably completely forget about it within a couple of days. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it was definitely a rather generic and predictable sport flick, it was however dealing with an amazing true tale which had a huge impact on American basketball. On top of that, some of the games displayed were really entertaining and they managed to deliver some of the best basketball scenes I have seen in a movie. Still, as usual with this kind of movies, the characters were not developed whatsoever. For example, the main reason Don Haskins decided to hire black players was not only because he believed that their huge talent was wasted but, above all, because he didn’t have any money to get the best white players available. However, the movie didn’t dig in this aspect at all and, instead, you got to see Haskins drilling orders through most of the duration. Concerning the players, it was actually even worse. For example, Bobby Joe Hill was apparently one of the most talented players in the team and, yet, he didn’t go pro after college but why? Eventually, the makers simply stick to the formula of the genre without taking any risk. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still a really inspiring tale and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some interesting things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, it took me a while to get into this flick. Indeed, at first, it seemed to be a rather generic stalking thriller and, for a while, I was really wondering what was supposed to be so good about the damned thing. However, around the middle, they came up with some major twist which completely flipped around the whole story and, suddenly, the damned thing became so much more interesting to behold. And, then, when I was pretty much digging this new narrative direction, out of the blue, came another major twist which again changed everything. The complete unpredictability of the whole thing made it quite spellbinding and the movie definitely stood out from your average thriller. However, even if it was quite bold, it didn’t completely work though. Indeed, the first part was just too long and, as a result, everything else happening afterwards felt rather rushed. Furthermore, they spent a good chunk of the running time showing that the main character was torn by guilt and desperately trying to figure who was the poor guy he actually shot but, after the first twist, it was completely dropped. Same thing with Ben Russell, he went from stalking a man for allegedly killing his son to actually killing his own son within a span of 40 minutes which was intriguing but also rather far-fetched. Anyway, to conclude, even if not everything completely worked, it was still a bold thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.