Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it was pretty obvious that it was a directing debut but I don’t mean it in a negative way. Indeed, the thing I enjoyed the most about the damned thing was how it burst out of creativity and it was basically a very nice mix of a frightening reality with some maddening surrealism. However, if Boots Riley definitely displayed some potential, the whole thing still felt sometimes like a loose cannon with some rather random stuff happening every two minutes and you could feel that he could have used a filter to remove some of his ideas. For example, it was pretty cool that the main character had to use a ‘white’ voice to make more sales but I think it was a mistake to have LaKeith Stanfield being dubbed by someone else. I understand that it was another surreal gimmick but I think it would have been even weirder and effective to have Stanfield doing his best to sound like a white man with his very own voice. Furthermore, I have been working almost all my life as a helpdesk worker so it was pretty neat to see a movie focusing on this kind of job. However, telemarketing is probably the worst job you could get in this sector and, while I understand why they would fight to get some better working conditions, to be honest, wouldn’t it be a better idea to simply look for a better job? Another thing that slightly bothered me was the fact that the main character was apparently pretty bad in this job but, out of nowhere, he became somehow incredibly successful. I wish this part had been slightly more developed but it was obviously not an aspect that Boots Riley was interested in. Anyway, to conclude, even if some of the ideas didn’t completely work, the whole thing was just so original and creative and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like surrealist movies. 

Of course, since this movie has a rather lame reputation, I wasn’t expecting much but I have to admit that I was actually curious to see if it was really so bad. To be honest, I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of ‘The Blues Brothers’ but this movie is the proof that most timeless classics don’t need to get a sequel 20 or 30 years later and that these beloved movies are pretty much better left alone.  Coming back to our main feature, it is usually considered as one the most misguided sequels ever made and, after watching the damned thing, it does indeed deserves its notorious reputation, I'm afraid. Of course, the first issue was to make this sequel even after John Belushi passed away which was already such a misguided choice. Seriously, it was pretty much like when The Doors tried to go on without Jim Morrison, of course, they failed miserably and this movie was obviously doomed to fail as well without Belushi. However, it wasn’t even the only issue with this flick. Indeed, the whole thing was just so tone-deaf and so tedious to behold. At least, it was pretty nice to see so many great artists (B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Erykah Badu, Eric Clapton, Isaac Hayes,…) even if they probably should have used their talent for something more worthwhile. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was pretty much a big waste of time for me and for all the the people involved and you should probably avoid it.  

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Dustin Hoffman, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if it was watchable, to be honest, I can’t say I was really blown away though. The main issue was that the damned thing was just so generic and predictable. To make things worse, Dustin Hoffman was rather weak and was not really convincing as a world class choir master. However, The thing that annoyed me the most were the ‘bad guys’ involved in this story (mainly, the father of the main character and a couple of kids at his new private school). Seriously, it was just pathetic to see his father deciding to send him abroad but, above all, the reason why the guy would take this decision seemed rather dubious. Was it only because the kid sang beautifully during a concert? Sure, it made more sense that there would some tension or competition with the other boys in the choir but all these conflicts were just terribly generic. At least, Garrett Wareing was not bad, I wonder if he did provide his own singing and, eventually, I have to admit that the music scenes were sometimes actually pretty awesome. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was not bad and I think it might actually be worth a look but only if you really like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a fine cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, I wasn’t really convinced by the damned thing to be honest. Basically, even though the material definitely had some potential, the main issue was that there was just too much stuff going on, too many characters involved in too many sub-plots. Take Meryl Streep’s character for example, her husband just killed himself, she had cancer, she was a drug addict and she had a mean and vicious temper. That was already a lot to deal with but she also had one sister and three daughters and they all had some baggage, skeletons in the closet or other major issues to deal with. In my opinion, it would have worked better if Violet only had one daughter, the one played by Julia Roberts because all of the other characters were not enough developed above all as there were too many of them. Still, the cast was pretty neat. Above all, Julia Roberts gave here a very rare challenging performance and, of course, Meryl Streep completely nailed it once again but, at this point, I wouldn’t expect less from her. Furthermore, this movie displayed some of the mightiest arguments I have ever seen in a movie. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look though, if only to see Julia Roberts playing for once an interesting character. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick and since it was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, I was really impressed by the damned thing, in fact, it turned out to be easily the best movie I have seen released so far in 2019, no less than that. Basically, it was some kind of modern version of ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ but while this fairly outdated movie only scratched the surface of this topic, this movie however went so deep, giving such a thoughtful and well balanced analysis on the subject.  Above all, the biggest strength of this movie was to properly developed both sides of the equation displaying how devastating the whole process can be. I mean, it did make sense that Nicole wanted to get back to Los Angeles but it did make just as much sense that Charlie wanted to keep his whole family in New York. I did help as well that Scarlett Johansson gave here the best performance of her career so far (Adam Driver was also pretty amazing though). This movie also provides the best explanation on why most relationships are actually pretty much doomed to fail nowadays. Indeed, basically, the main reason why Nicole and Charlie eventually got a divorce was because they both wanted it all. Indeed, to make it work, one of them should have been able to sacrifice their own wish, Nicole could have stayed in New York or Charlie could have dropped his work and go to live in Los Angeles but neither of them wanted to let it go. As a result, even if both seemed to be some really good parents, I never thought that their kid was their main priority, otherwise, they would have found some other way to avoid spreading their kid's life over 2 coasts. Eventually, it is really symptomatic of our Western way of life, the fact that we went it all, to have a meaningfull life, a great career, a few kids (maximum 2 nowadays), an amazing partner,… but to have it all, is just a massive pipe dream which crushes so many couple like the one displayed here. And, yet,  this amazing movie shows how messy we are but also that our messy nature makes us, human beings, actually quite fascinating to behold. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved this movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Rooney Mara and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though apparently everybody pretty much hated the damned thing when it was released, to be honest, I thought it was actually not bad at all. At least, it was watchable which is rather unique for a modern horror remake delivered by Platinum Dunes. One of the biggest critics about this movie was the fact that it was way too similar to the original version but it didn’t bother me, in the contrary, I thought that it was rather faithful and the mood was decent enough. I also enjoyed the fact that they kept focusing on one character who would turn out to be Freddy’s next victim. It was actually pretty neat because, as a viewer, you would root for them for a while until they got mercilessly killed and it’s too bad they didn’t continue with this concept until the very end. Still, there was plenty of stuff that didn’t work though. For example, if Jackie Earle Haley was a decent choice to take over from Robert Englund, however, they completely messed up Freddy Krueger’s look. Sure, this make-up was maybe more realistic but it was not charismatic at all and it was just a hot mess. Another major issue was that not a single kid did remember going to this school together and none of them remembered either the events that occurred either. Sure, that one of them would suppress these memories would have been fine but all of them? That was some really lazy writing. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie has a seriously lame reputation, I thought it was actually a decent watch but, of course, it is still a rather useless remake and, if you have the choice, you should always go for the original version directed by Wes Craven. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a nice cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, it turned out to be a nice little movie, no more and no less than that. Obviously, the biggest appeal of this movie was to see Robert Redford and Jane Fonda working again together for the first time in almost 40 years. Eventually, to put again these actors together again was a really neat idea since they had such a fine chemistry and, as a result, they made one of the cutest couples I have ever seen. Unfortunately, if focusing on this man and woman and how they evolved as a couple was fine for me, the makers didn’t seem to think that it was sufficient so they felt compelled to add a sub-plot involving the woman’s child, her grand-child and even a freaking dog. Seriously, it was rather sad to see Matthias Schoenaerts, one of the best actors at work nowadays, playing such a thankless part. I mean, sure, I get it that this character would be at first slightly shocked to see his mother getting friendly with his old school teacher. However, there was no evolution in his behaviour and it was just annoying to see that this guy would not give his approval to move on with this relationship, especially since it seemed to make her so happy. Concerning the kid and the dog, it was all rather harmless but I don’t think this couple needed such useless gimmicks to make them more interesting. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was so cute to see these older characters acting like some teenagers in love for the very first time so I think it is actually worth a look, especially if you like the genre.