Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I really had no idea what to expect from this flick but since I was directed by Doug Liman, I was quite eager to check it out. Like I said before, I didn’t know what this movie was about and it actually turned out to be a very minimalistic war movie with only one location and three characters. In fact, out of these three characters, one was dead fairly early on and the other one was actually a voice-over so the whole thing was pretty much a one-man show from Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Well, even though I have a weak spot for the genre, I wasn’t really impressed by this movie though. I mean, I won’t blame Taylor-Johnson, the guy once again delivered a really solid performance and I was even fairly impressed by John Cena even if he had here a rather small part. However, the concept was not bad but not much more than that, I’m afraid. Indeed, the whole idea of this Iraqi sniper fooling the US army to get some extra kills might sound cool but, in my opinion, it was rather far-fetched. Furthermore, even if you would believe that such a thing was possible, it didn’t make much sense that he would try to talk endlessly with Isaac. Seriously, what was the point? Because he was bored? The first contact made sense because, this way, he could retrieve his details but, then, he could have just left him to die. 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 there was a decent cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though the damned thing really had some potential, to be honest, it didn’t really work though. It’s too bad because, once again after ‘Office Space’, Mike Judge delivered another believable work space environment and pretty much all the characters were realistic and entertaining. Above all, I was just seriously impressed by Ben Affleck. Indeed, even though Jason Bateman was fine, he basically played his usual character whereas Affleck really went really out of his comfort zone and completely nailed it. Seriously, I think the guy easily gave here one of his best performances. Eventually, the scenes involving Bateman and Affleck were by far the best in this movie but most of the other characters worked fine as well, except for Mila Kunis’s character though. Indeed, in my opinion, the only real issue with this movie was concerning this girl. I mean, I don’t blame Kunis, she was lovely as usual and she did what she could but her con artist didn’t belong in this tale at all and this character completely derailed the whole thing. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent comedy and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Lasse Hallström’s work, I thought I might as well check it out, especially since it was available on Netflix. First of all, seriously, when was the last time the Swedish director did deliver something really interesting? Anyway, even though this movie was apparently rather successful at the box-office, I didn’t really care about the damned thing, I’m afraid. Basically, it was a rather peculiar concept dealing with a dog going through 4 reincarnations which was already weird enough but, to make things even more convoluted, the dog actually remembered everything that happened in his previous lives. Eventually, it all depends if you will like this idea or not but, at least, it wasn’t dealing with some talking dogs which was a relief. In fact, if they would have focused on only 2 dogs (Bailey and Buddy), it would have worked so much better because all the other lives/reincarnations were rather half-baked and uninteresting. To be honest, even this story was actually too bland but, a least, Ethan, especially as a boy and a teenager, had a really genuine touching bond with his dog and that’s when the movie displayed some potential. Anyway, to conclude, maybe if you are really into this kind of movies, you might end up enjoying it more than I did but, as far as I was concerned, the damned thing was not really worth a look. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick (it even won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival), I was really eager to check it out. Well, I wasn’t disappointed and the damned thing really deserves its stellar reputation. Apparently, Hirokazu Koreeda has the reputation of being the greatest humanist director at work nowadays and, after watching this movie, it is pretty easy to understand why. Basically, this time around, Koreeda focused on a group of people who all had been rejected and pretty much forgotten by the common society and who are now living in a marginal lifestyle with its own rules and moral code. Koreeda’s masterstroke was that he never judges or praises the characters and, for the first 90 minutes, you see how they cope living completely in the margin of our society. So, it was already quite interesting with some complex 3 dimensional characters but, during the last act, they managed to push the whole concept even further. Basically, after a tragic event which was doomed to happen at some point, they completely get sucked back into our world and it all became seriously heart-breaking and even more powerful than it already was. I have to admit that I wish I learned a little bit more about Aki as she was the only character who didn’t really get a real closure in my opinion but it wasn't a big deal. Eventually, following ‘Like Father, Like Son’, this movie was an even stronger argument from Koreeda that the strongest bond between the members in a family is not blood but love. Anyway, to conclude, it was a really strong drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I really had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by David Cronenberg, I still wanted to check it out. Well, at first, it seemed to be a rather odd project for Cronenberg, especially at this point of his career, but, apparently, he was a huge fan of the play and he was really eager to direct this movie. However, the whole thing eventually turned out to be after all about one of the most messed up romantic relationships I have ever seen and, then, it made sense that Cronenberg would be so attracted to it. However, in contrary to ‘The Crying Game’ which delivered one of the most shocking twists ever and in spite of a solid performance by John Lone, it was pretty obvious from the start that Song Liling was actually a man. As a result, it was rather difficult to understand what was the deal exactly with the main character. I mean, I don’t blame Jeremy Irons, he was a perfect choice to play this character and he was as usual pretty good but was this guy a complete idiot? Or was he actually aware of Song Liling's true nature and was he wrapped up into some kind of really weird sexual fantasy? Unfortunately, the makers never did confront this issue at any moment through the whole duration, even towards the end, when René Gallimard was asked point-blank what was going on during a trial. On top of that, as if this story was not complicated enough, Song Liling turned out to be a spy which was rather odd because, when she first got acquainted with Gallimard, the guy was only an accountant and therefore hardly an interesting target for a spy. Of course, he got a promotion but to give such a promotion to an accountant didn’t make much sense, without mentioning the fact that Gallimard was apparently vastly incompetent at his new position. Anyway, to conclude, even though the whole thing was seriously half-baked, there was still something quite fascinating about this weird romance and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in David Cronenberg’s work. 

Since I always had a weak spot for Danny De Vito, I was quite eager to check this flick. Well, even thought the damned thing was definitely fun, to be honest, it didn’t completely worked and I think it was mostly due to the fact that it was De Vito’s directing debut. Indeed, the whole thing felt rather unfocused and it took such a long time to finally take off. I mean, the concept definitely had some potential but the way to get there was just too convoluted and not really convincing and therefore the end-result was not always really entertaining or, at least, not as entertaining as it could have been. However, I really enjoyed the tone though. Indeed, even if we have nowadays a lot of successful raunchy comedies, we don’t have so many dark comedies like this one and I have a huge weak spot for the genre. Furthermore, Danny De Vito and Billy Crystal both delivered some solid performances and there were some really hilarious scenes. Eventually, it was a promising a directing debut, a nice warm-up for De Vito, and his directing follow-up would be the much more focused and even more entertaining ‘The War of the Roses’, a movie I somehow watched about 30 years ago in the movie theatre when I was about 9 years old. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like Danny De Vito’s work.