Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a nice cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, even if the movie itself was not really amazing, I’m afraid, it still turned out to be a fascinating story though. Basically, as long as they were focusing on Gary Webb’s investigation, the whole thing was slightly difficult to follow because of the rapid-fire dialogues and the number of characters involved but it was ultimately quite spellbinding to behold. However, at least half of the movie was about vindicating Gary Webb’s name who definitely deserved it but, to be honest, it was not as interesting as what he had discovered which was truly quite mind-blowing. The main issue, as far as I was concerned, was that Webb himself complained that suddenly the focus was put on him instead of his investigation but that was in fact what this movie exactly did as well. Indeed, in the second half, it was only about how Webb had been mistreated and his actual investigation fell into the background which was too bad in my opinion. Still, I really liked the realistic approach they took and even if it never reached the level of ‘All the President's Men’, it was still probably one of the best movies I have seen in this genre. Anyway, to conclude, it was a really solid thriller dealing with investigative journalism 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 decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, it turned out to be another misguided and completely unnecessary American remake. Obviously, they had to tweak this story to make it fit the US setting and I have to admit that making the murderer a snitch to an anti-terrorist unit was not a bad idea. However, it was probably the only interesting thing they changed from the original story. Above all, it was a mistake to make the mother of the victim not only a colleage but also a very close friend of the main character. As a result, it completely messed up the fragile balance between the characters and it created an awkward triangle involving Ejiofor, Kidman and Roberts. There was no such triangle in the original version and the biggest victim was the platonic relationship involving Ejiofor and Kidman which used to be fascinating but, with this movie, it actually fell out of place. Seriously, I think that Kidman’s character could have been easily removed and it wouldn't have had such an impact on this version of the story. Another issue was that, since Jessica Cobb and Ray Kasten were such good friends, it didn’t make much sense that she didn’t tell him that, at least, she had killed Marzin. I mean, she knew how much he was hurt, how much he was obsessed by what happened to her daughter so to let him chase this for 13 years seemed rather unlikely. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was another rather half-baked American remake, I guess it is still worth a look but, eventually, you should skip it and watch instead the amazing original Argentinian version. 

To be honest, I have to admit that I wasn’t a huge fan of ‘Anchorman’ and I wasn’t surprised that this long delayed sequel didn’t get much love when it was released. The issue with this movie and its predecessor is that Ron Burgundy is such a moron. Sure, I get that is the whole point but I always find it difficult to care about comedies which are constantly making fun of stupid characters. In fact, they managed with Brick Tamland to give a character who was even more pathetic and cringe-inducing than Burgundy. At least, I really liked the way they made fun of the fact that the news back then in the 80’s but also nowadays have actually become another form of entertainment instead of a reliable source of information. To be honest, I was also not really sure what to make of the final scene. On one hand, it was completely wild with tons of cameos but, on the other hand, I wonder if it wouldn’t have been more fun to spread all these cameos throughout the whole thing instead of delivering them all at once during the last 5 minutes. Anyway, to conclude, even if I didn’t care much for the damned thing, it was not bad though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.