Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it had been quite successful at the box-office, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, the story was rather generic and predictable and I have to admit that I was rather disappointed that at least 95% of the dialogues were in English but it might be accurate since English is apparently the most spoken language in Singapore. And, yet, the damned thing still slowly won me over though. Indeed, Constance Wu and Henry Golding made a cute couple and they had a nice chemistry together. Above all, the up and coming Awkwafina was just awesome, stealing the show every time she was on the screen time and I wish she would have had a bigger role. Furthermore, the conflict between what would be right for Nick Young as an individual and what would be right for his family was actually rather well handled. Still, is it something really specific to Asian cultures? I mean, I’m pretty sure that in rich European and American families, people are very often pushing their kids to marry someone with a similar social and economical background. Still, this phenomenom is probably different in Asia and, for a fluffly rom-com, it was done quite convingly. There was also the fact that a huge and strong family like the one displayed in the movie can be seriously overbearing but, in spite all that, the main character still loved his family (at least, most of its members) which was another thing well depicted in this movie. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, I thought it was a solid romantic-comedy 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 there was a nice cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. On top of that, I was really intriguing to see Guillaume Canet delivering his first English-speaking feature as a director. Well, it turned out to be a really ambitious project featuring an impressive cast (Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, Marion Cotillard, Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana, Matthias Schoenaerts, James Caan, Lili Taylor) and, on paper, it did sound like a pretty neat gritty 70’s crime drama. Well, unfortunately, even though the damned thing definitely had some potential, it turned out to be rather disappointing. In my opinion, it seems that even though Canet had the best intentions, the project was just too ambitious, I’m afraid. Above all, there were just too many characters involved. Seriously, what was the point to have such a neat cast if they all ended up playing some rather poorly developed characters? As a result, there were also a bunch of sub-plots which all turned out to be half-baked. Eventually, I think they should have focused more on the two brothers and drop at least half of the characters. At least, the whole thing looked really nice and there was a cool soundtrack so the mood was fine but I couldn’t help thinking that Canet spent the majority of his time and energy to make sure the whole thing looked period accurate when he should have put more attention on the story and the characters involved. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work, it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, this movie did sound terrible but since I have a weak spot for Robert De Niro and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, the concept turned out to be just as lame as I expected. Sure, there were a (very) few decent jokes but pretty much nothing did work though. At least, Robert De Niro and Zac Efron were charismatic but, without them, the damned thing would have been completely unwatchable. Still, it is really sad to see De Niro pretty much pissing on his own legacy with such garbage. Sure, in the same genre, I have to admit that I did like ‘Meet the Parents’. Indeed, back then, it was surprising and pretty neat to see the veteran actor showing up in a raunchy comedy and, above all, to see him really nailing it. However, 20 years later, this gimmick has really overstayed its welcome and it has become seriously cringe-inducing to behold. The saddest thing would be that this movie wasn't even the worse thing De Niro has delivered lately. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here, the damned thing was just really lame and you should pretty much avoid it. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, within the first 10 minutes, I was reminded by how difficult Antonioni’s movies can be to grasp. Was it supposed to be a thriller? I mean, with this story of a man switching his life with some dead guy who happens to be an arms dealer did sound like a thriller but it was obviously not what Antonioni wanted to achieve. Indeed, first of all, there was no music whatsoever and there was barely any tension through the whole duration. In fact, while watching this flick I was thinking that the damned thing didn’t have any pulse whatsoever and, eventually, it might be one of these movies which are more interesting to think about afterwards then to actually watch. The more I think about it, the more I think that it was actually about emptiness. Indeed, in my opinion, what defines us is who we are and what we do and, from the moment the main character stripes himself from these elements, he just became an aimless vacuum. Still, in my opinion, Antonioni didn’t really follow his own rules. Indeed, the main character did have a purpose, a goal, which was to avoid the people who were looking for him. And, of course, there was the fact that he still managed to hit on some random cute young girl just because to be completely confused is apparently an irresistible aphrodisiac. Anyway, to conclude, maybe I should check it out again in the future but even if I really struggled to get into this movie, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Michelangelo Antonioni’s work.