Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Disney+, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I always had a weak spot for this kind of rescue stories and this one was just quite amazing. Unfortunately, the introduction was rather weak though. Sure, I get that it was a way to introduce Bernie Webber as a soft mild-mannered man but the end-result was just rather awkward. To make things worse, the constant bashing of this main character during the beginning became rather tiresome fairly quickly. Anyway, in general, the characters were either poorly developed or not developed at all. For example, Ben Foster, one of the best character actors at work nowadays, had just a couple of uninteresting lines of dialogue and Eric Bana was stuck playing another really underwhelming bad guy.  Fortunately, from the point they finally get to sea to save these guys, the whole thing became seriously thrilling to behold. Indeed, the scenes when you get to see these small boat facing this huge storm were just quite amazing. Eventually, they had some impossible odds to face and even thought the outcome was completely predictable, it was still quite spellbinding. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it still turned out to be an entertaining and uplifting movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Even though ‘The Equalizer’ had turned out to be fairly successful at the box-office, I didn’t care much for this flick but since I have a weak spot for Denzel Washington and since this movie was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check this sequel. Well, to be honest, it turned out to be even worse than I expected. Seriously, I was so bored through the damned thing. Above all, it took so long to finally take off, in fact, in my opinion, the whole thing never actually took off. Indeed, I was expecting McCall to go to Belgium to investigate the murder of his friend at any moment but it actually never happened. Basically, he managed to figure out the whole case without setting a foot there which might seem impressive but it was actually rather lame. At least, Denzel Washington was not bad and it is remarkable that it took him so long to finally show up in a sequel but it’s a shame the end-result was just so damned underwhelming. Anyway, to conclude, even though I have seen worse, I just didn’t care for at all for this flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of the genre. 

Of course, since I kept hearing some great things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, even though I did like it, I can’t say I was completely blown away after all. I have to admit that it took me a while to figure out what actually bothered with this movie which had been virtually universally loved so far. Was it the saturation? I mean, we get such an overdose of super-hero movies. Even with the Joker himself, it has been already at least the 5^th iteration of this iconic character in 30 years and, even if Joaquin Phoenix was quite amazing, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and even Mark Hamill were just as heralded as he was. I mean, can you imagine Vito Corleone being played by 5 different actors? Furthermore, even though they are all making a big fuss about the fact that this movie could be a revolution in this genre, in my opinion, the story was actually rather basic and predictable. I mean, it was a decent story but this tale of a rather sad mentally ill man slowly becoming homicidal was not really original. Eventually, the genius moves from Todd Philips was not to deliver a great story but to include the Joker in the mix and to have this popular character played by one of the best actors around. Seriously, if you would remove these 2 elements, I wonder if this movie would make so many waves. And, yet, there is no denying that, once again, Joaquin Phoenix gave us here another intense and spellbinding performance. Basically, the whole thing was some kind of amazing dark one-man-show and Phoenix definitely made the most of it. Anyway, to conclude, it is obviously the darkest super-hero flick out there and even if I don’t think it is really masterpiece, it is still definitely worth a look, if only to see Joaquin Phoenix delivering another home-run. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Monica Bellucci, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, Bellucci had a rather small part after all which was slightly disappointing. Anyway, eventually, even though I did appreciate the realistic approach, to be honest, I really struggled to care about the damned thing though. I mean, the lack of plot didn’t bother me, it was basically a slice-of-life type of movie which can be a fine genre but, in my opinion, it was above all about the boring life of a rather boring teenager. There was in fact a whole bunch of other characters, almost all family members of the main character, but not one of them was properly developed and, even worse, none of them was really interesting. At least, I have to admit that all the actors involved did deliver some solid performances but we hardly get to know them at all after all. For example, why did they speak a mix of three different languages (Italian, German and French)? Eventually, in my opinion, this cloud of mystery around all these characters was just a rather artificial way to make them seem more interesting than they actually were. And I won’t mention the pathetic cheap ass TV-show showing up towards the end. 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 like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, I have to admit that I haven’t seen the original version but since it is also available on Disney+, I should eventually watch it at some point in the future. Anyway, to be honest, it took me a while to get into this story, above all, because it is a rather simple even generic tale. Indeed, by now, I have seen my share of tales about a kid bonding with a nice alien/monster/mythical creature. However, I have to admit that the gentle approach chosen by David Lowery slowly won me over though. There was also a rare sense of wonder, especially during the scenes involving a pitch-perfect Robert Redford and it is rather impressive that, from such a generic story, Lowery still managed to touch me so much. It’s too bad that the whole sub-spot about Karl Urban trying to catch this dragon was rather tedious and it would have been really interesting if they could have come up with an idea to make a compelling tale without such a generic bad guy. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie didn’t become a huge box-office success, it is in fact the best live-action remake delivered by Disney so far and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since it was on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though there were some good ideas and the damned thing had some potential, it turned out to be pretty weak, I’m afraid. Above all, their approach to the material was just completely wrong. Indeed, after watching ‘Narcos’ also on Netflix, with its gritty and raw approach to handle your average Latin cartel, it was rather difficult to take this movie seriously. Of course, you could blame Catherine Hardwicke but with her directing debut ‘Thirteen’, she had delivered one of the most realistic depiction of teenagers I have seen. Another missed opportunity was also how they handled Lino, the bad guy. Indeed, there were some scenes during which they displayed some interesting depth regarding this character but, each time around, this guy was acting again like any other generic bad guy. In my opinion, it would have been so much more interesting if he would have been actually a nice and smart man. As a result, it would have greatly confused the main character and their relationship would have been so much more complex and entertaining. Concerning Gina Rodriguez, she was not bad, at least, she did nail the girl-next-door look but, beside this, to be honest, she didn’t really impress me. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, it was rather weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look.