Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect 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, to be honest, I actually think that this story had some potential and I really wonder how it all went down in reality. Unfortunately, Scott Derrickson took the most generic approach possible which made the whole thing at best only mildly entertaining and at worst rather silly to watch. I mean, I have to admit that the mood was decent enough and there were some spooky scenes but the makers clearly never really had the ambition to go beyond that which was rather disappointing. Concerning the cast, Joel McHale and Sean Harris were fine in their respective parts but, unfortunately, Eric Bana was actually rather weak here. I mean, I always had a weak spot for this actor but his performance in this movie was just so wooden. On the other hand, you could argue that he couldn’t help it if his character was rather poorly written but I still think that he didn’t do much with this character. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still watchable but I will probably completely forget about it the very next day.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, that’s not with this movie that McG will improve his poor reputation, that’s for sure. I guess it might be slightly more enjoyable for kids around 12 years but I was just bored by the damned thing. In fact, I always hated summer camps so the concept actually had some potential but, unfortunately, they chose such a boring and generic approach.  On top of that, the CGI was pretty ugly and it wasn’t much better than what you would get from a ‘Resident Evil’ video-game but that wasn't even the biggest issue here. Indeed, to make things worse, all the kids involved were just pretty weak, except for the black boy who was not bad but he wasn’t helped by the fact that his character was very often rather obnoxious. And what was the deal with these Chinese girl?!? I mean, she was very cute but, if I understand correctly, she was an orphan who came all the way to the US to join some summer camp but why?!? And how did she get the money for such a journey? Maybe I did miss something but, to be honest, I don’t really care. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

Since it was the last movie directed by Lars von Trier that I hadn’t watched so far, I was really eager to see the damned thing. Well, aesthetically, von Trier kept the same monochrome approach he used in his previous movies, except that this time he went for a classic black-and-white. To make it look even more experimental, they also added at some point the title of the movie on the top left corner and it remained there until the very end but, to be honest, I thought it was rather distracting. Concerning the rest of the movie, well, it might be the most meta movie delivered by von Trier, at least, so far. Indeed, instead of making a classic outbreak thriller, he made a movie about a director writing a movie about an epidemy and he played the director himself. He even played the character within the actual movie supposedly about this epidemy. It’s interesting that, after playing this lead, von Trier would never be an actor again (at least, only some very small parts). Aside from that, as usual with this director, it was pretty dark and bleak but there was also a playfulness very rare coming from this guy and it was very much welcome. It was also seriously random though which made the whole thing unpredictable but also rather messy. Finally, von Trier apparently couldn’t help throwing a rather cringe-inducing pitch-black ending with some non-stop screaming woman. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t completely work, I thought it was quite original and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Lars von Trier’s work. 

Since I kept hearing some interesting things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I thought the damned thing was quite a mess. Basically, Olivier Assayas delivered a fairly realistic feature with some paranormal elements and while this mix was interesting, it was never completely convincing. Basically, Assayas had wrapped this movie into a cloud of mystery but even though it was effective, it was also fairly easy and, in my opinion, it made the whole thing equally intriguing and frustrating to behold. For example, even though you spent the whole duration with the main character, eventually, you don’t get to learn much about her after all. However, I won’t blame Kristen Stewart who gave here one hell of a one-woman-show though. Indeed, it’s such a shame that she will be always remembered for the ‘Twilight’ franchise because I always thought she had some potential. In this movie, she was quite spellbinding to behold and she probably gave her best performance so far. On top of that, there is no doubt that it was an interesting ghost story with a much more interesting approach than the one you usually get from your average Hollywood production like ‘The Sixth Sense’ or ‘Paranormal Activity’ for example. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting much from this flick but since there was a nice cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, it still gets on my nerves when they greenlight a sequel for movies like this one just because they were fairly successful at the box-office. I mean, I have to admit it, I did actually like ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ but it certainly didn’t require a sequel. Anyway, I was so bored by this movie. Basically, there was no real plot and, instead, each character or couple of characters had their own sub-plots but there was not one of these sub-plots that turned out to be actually slightly entertaining. The worse was probably what they did with Dev Patel’s character. Indeed, this guy was already slightly obnoxious in the previous instalment but, here, they actually turned him into some egoistical douche. Seriously, it was just so annoying to see him constantly ignoring his lovely fiancée to do what exactly? I’m not even sure. Then, the way he handled this Guy Chambers character was obviously meant to be funny but it was again so obnoxious. By the way, concerning Richard Gere, he was actually a fine addition to the cast but, like everyone else, he was unfortunately stuck in another underwhelming sub-plot. Anyway, to conclude, I couldn’t care less for this sequel and I don’t think it was worth a look at all. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Sam Rockwell, I thought I might as well check it out. On top of that, one of my former colleagues told me at some point that it was not bad at all. Well, eventually, I was amazed by how little I cared about the damned thing after all. I mean, right from the moment the main character shot that poor girl by accident, I was already pretty much done with the whole thing already. Basically, it was some kind of mix of ‘Affliction’ with ‘A Simple Plan’, two far superior movies but, seriously, it was just so damned generic and predictable. Concerning Sam Rockwell, I have to admit that it was pretty neat to see him playing the lead for once and he did what they could with this material but his character was just a terrible loser with no redeeming features whatsoever. The rest of the cast was also fine (William H. Macy, Jeffrey Wright, Joe Anderson) but their characters were just tedious as well. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, the damned thing still pretty much felt like a waste of time and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I didn’t know before watching the damned thing that it was actually based on a real story. Anyway, it turned out to be a surprisingly topical movie since massive wildfires are increasing all over the world (USA, Brazil, Russia,…). On top of that, this movie went beyond your average action flick and I really enjoyed the realistic approach which made the whole thing much more entertaining to watch. However, they did make a couple of mistakes though. First of all, the whole thing felt pretty random and there was sometimes a lack of transition between various scenes. However, a bigger issue was the inclusion of the private lives of 2 firefighters. Of course, it was rather expected but it didn’t work well with the rest of the movie. It’s too bad because the other scenes when you get to see the firefighters socializing outside their work were actually fine. Anyway, as I mentioned before, I didn’t know it was actually based on a true story and I was really flabbergasted when they killed off pretty much this whole team of firefighters. Of course, it made sense since it was what happened in real life but it would have been a really bold move if it would have been a fiction. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I have always been a big fan of Orson Welles, I was really eager to check this documentary. In fact, I saw ‘The Other Side of the Wind’ last year on Netflix and, even though it was supposed to be a huge event (it was usually considered as the greatest masterpiece never released), to be honest, I thought it was a decent watch but not much more than that. Of course, it didn’t help that I had heard so many things about this movie through the years and I already knew most of what they told. Eventually, in my opinion, this movie raises the following question about Orson Welles: was he really a doomed artist or just some one-hit-wonder? To be honest, after watching most of his movies, I’m not so sure but I have never seen another director whose failed projects has generated such an obsession. Even myself, when they displayed a few scenes of ‘The Dreamers’, ‘Don Quixote’, ‘The Deep’ and ‘The Merchant of Venice’, I became extremely intrigued by these other doomed projects. Eventually, you might wonder if Welles hemself didn’t become more legendary than his own movies (with the exception of ‘Citizen Kane’, of course). Still, it was quite heart-breaking to see that, in spite of its status, nobody in the US movie community would try to help him out to finish his last directing effort. Anyway, to conclude, it was a solid documentary and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Orson Welles’s work. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Nicolas Winding Refn’s work, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though it was, as usual with this director, a visually spellbinding movie with a killer soundtrack, to be honest, I didn’t feel much connection with the damned thing. The first thing that bothered me was that Elle Fanning was rather miscast in my opinion. I get that she was chosen to play this seemingly pure and innocent girl but she was never really convincing as a top-model who was supposed to be apparently incredibly gorgeous. I mean, she is a decent actress, no doubt about it, but, to be honest, I don’t think she was attractive enough and, above all, charismatic enough for this part. Considering the rest of the movie, it is pretty obvious that Winding Refn didn’t care about providing a realistic take on the average life of a top-model living in Los Angeles which wasn't necessarily a bad thing though. Eventually, the damned thing turned out to be so surrealist that, as a result, it felt like watching a David Lynch movie dealing with top-models which might sound more appealing than it actually was. To be honest, it seems that Winding Refn's movies are getting increasingly pretentious and less and less rewarding. Anyway, to conclude, even though I didn’t really work for me, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Nicolas Winding Refn’s work.