Reviews by johanlefourbe

After watching ‘Paris, je t’aime’ and ‘New York, I love you’, I was quite eager to check this new instalment, especially since it was available on Netflix. Well, even if this movie was apparently rather poorly received, I thought it was actually a decent watch. Indeed, I did like the fact that they slightly mixed all the storylines together and that there was no clear separation between each little story. Still, I can’t say the damned thing was a smashing success though. The first thing that bothered me was the fact that, even though this movie was supposed to be about Berlin, almost all the characters spoke only English. In fact, almost all the characters were either some expats or some tourists and it was a little bit weird to see a movie focusing on Berlin without including more people actually born in Germany. Concerning the shorts themselves, to be honest, I had a hard time to care about the fantastic elements and, sometimes, they did struggle to make them look more than just some cheesy postcards. Still, I did like the vibe of the whole thing and, on a side note, it is pretty impressive that even though Mickey Rourke looks awful after some misguided plastic surgery, the guy is still terribly charismatic. However, what the relationship between a father and his lost daughter might have to do with Berlin is rather questionable but I guess you could say that about all these short. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have a weak spot for this series of anthologies and this one is also worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it had been fairly well received, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, it turned out to be rather disappointing after all. I mean, sure, it was a decent historical/political drama but not much more than that. Above all, the damned thing was quite generic and predictable. Seriously, from the very first scene, I was pretty much able to figure out everything that would happen afterwards. Furthermore, another thing that bothered me was the fact that, following the events depicted during this movie, we are supposed to believe that afterwards women were given equal pay pretty much all over the world. Well, obviously, that’s not true and, 40 years later, women still don’t get the same salary as men for the very same job. What has actually changed is that the whole situation is now more hypocritical in the sense that, by law, women have the rights to get the same salary but, in reality, they don’t. At least, I do have a weak spot for Sally Hawkins and she was a good choice to play the lead but the way her character became suddenly a political activist was rather far-fetched. Concerning the male characters, it was even worse though. Indeed, except for one guy who was fully supporting these women, all the other men were portrayed as some chauvinist morons which was not only reductive but also actually pretty sexist. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look but don’t expect anything really amazing before watching the damned thing. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since there was a solid cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though I did like ‘The Big Short’, to be honest, I thought it was rather overrated and, with this new movie from Adam McKay, I once again ended up with some mixed feelings. First of all, after giving its President a full feature movie (the also decent but not really exceptional ‘W.’), to give its Vice President its own movie, aren’t we give this administration slightly more attention than it actually deserved? I mean, seriously, even if Dick Cheney was one of the most notorious and probably the most influential American Vice President that ever lived, who would actually remember him in 50 years? In fact, even if it seemed that the Bush-Cheney administration would be the all-time low in American politics, right now, Donald Trump is brilliantly showing that, somehow, it always can get worse making the relevance of this movie even more questionable. Still, I have always been a sucker for movies dealing with politics and, at least, there is no doubt that there was a strong cast involved (Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell). Above all, I was seriously impressed by Christian Bale. Indeed, once again, the actor went very far to actually looked like the real guy but his performance went way beyond that and he basically completely disappeared in this character. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t anything really mind-blowing, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some great things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, for Jordan Peele, it turned out to be another home-run as this movie was another box-office and critical success and, personally, I think I enjoyed it even more than ‘Get Out’. Indeed, the damned thing was just so spooky and quite scarier than Peele’s previous directing effort and, on top of that, Lupita Nyong'o gave not one but two very strong performances. Still, unfortunately, pretty much like with ‘Get Out’, once again, the concept was rather far-fetched after all. Seriously, ever since I saw this movie, I kept thinking about it and, to be honest, none of it made much sense. I mean, where did the Tethered come from? Who’s in charge? How do they live? How does it actually work? At some point, Red started to give some explanation but, even after rewinding this scene and watch it a 2^nd time, it still didn’t make much sense to me. Of course, I get that this movie was supposed to be some kind of allegory about minority cultures in the US but it is an excuse that could be used for most non-sensical movies. Furthermore, I figured out the twist fairly early on and, while Adelaide’s behaviour could be explained, Red’s behaviour, considering this twist, didn’t really work though. For example, if Adelaide managed to escape really easily, why didn’t she escape as well? Above all, why did she never confront Adelaide with what she did? After all, she pretty much ruined/stole her life. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t flawless, it was still another really strong horror flick from Peele and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Albert Hughes’s work, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I did end up with some mixed feelings. I mean, the damned thing was hardly original and, on top of that, it took a while to finally get started. Still, even if Kodi Smit-McPhee’s character seemed to be rather wimpy at first, eventually, the character still worked and its sensitive side might have actually saved him. Indeed, he couldn’t kill this defenceless wolf like that, he actually needed him to survive and to make it through this hazardous journey. Furthermore, thanks to the modern CGI technology, they managed to provide a realistic wolf and I did appreciate the fact that they didn’t try to ‘humanize’ the behaviour of such a wild beast. Eventually, to me, the most interesting thing was probably the fact that Albert Hughes started his career with directing ‘Menace II Society’, one of the best movies in the Hood genre, and to see him coming up with something so completely different 25 years later was actually pretty neat. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, at least, if you really like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Fatih Akin’s work, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, it turned out to be one of these rare movies dealing with the Armenian Genocide and it was even more interesting that it was directed by a German director with some Turkish roots. This historical drama was also combined with an ambitious epic tale of a father looking for his lost daughters going from the Ottoman Empire to Lebanon, Cuba and even Minnesota. Finally, the lead was played by Tahar Rahim who is usually a fine actor. So, there is no doubt that, on paper, the damned thing definitely had some potential. However, to be honest, this movie never really grabbed me though . Basically, the only scene that really touched me was when the main character was watching ‘The Kid’ from Charles Chaplin but it was above all because Chaplin’s masterpiece is such a powerful movie. Maybe the scale was just too big or maybe it would have been more interesting if they would have managed to add a more developed Turkish character so we could eventually get to see this massive human tragedy from another point of view. 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 are interested in Fatih Akin’s work.

Since I’m a big fan of ‘Breaking Bad’, of course, I was really eager to see this sequel. Well, I thought it was a decent watch but not much more than that, to be honest. I mean, like anyone else who followed this massively popular TV-show, I was wondering what happened afterwards to Jesse Pinkman after the show ended but, to be honest, Vince Gilligan gave here the most generic answer possible. Indeed, eventually, Pinkman spends most of the duration looking for some cash and how to get out of Dodge and, sure, it was probably the most obvious way to handle the rest of his storyline but I don’t think it really required 2 hours of running time. The main issue, in my opinion, was that Vince Gilligan developed this story as if it was some kind of long episode from a TV-show, instead of really developing it as an actual feature film. As a result, half of the movie was made of fillers, basically, some scenes which could easily be removed but are still added just to fill in the running time. In a TV-show, such fillers can be annoying but they are understandable since the average season last around 16-20 hours. However, it is less acceptable when they use such scenes in movie like this one. Anyway, the flashback involving Jesse Plemons was pretty good and the whole thing was working fine until the 2 fake cops showed up to also steal the money. I mean, I think it would have worked better if Jesse would have just found the money right there and then moved on with his journey. Instead, we spent an awful lot of time with the guy running around to gather enough cash. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, it was pretty neat to get back into Vince Gilligan’s world and to see Jesse Pinkman getting some closure so the damned thing is still definitely worth a look, especially if you enjoyed ‘Breaking Bad’.

Since this movie had won the Best Picture Academy Award, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I’m surprised the damned thing reserved so much praise. I mean, sure, it was a decent watch but not really much more than that, in my opinion. As pointed out by many people before me, it was pretty much a reversed version of ‘Driving Miss Daisy’, a rather weak movie which at least had the excuse that it had been released 30 years ago. Seriously, it is rather sad that ‘BlacKkKlansman’ which was also nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award was snubbed when it was not only an impressive come-back from Spike Lee but also gave a much more provocative view on the very same subject than this movie. On top of that, even though the story was rather generic and predictable, it was also rather condescending. The worst example was probably when Donald Shirley helped Tony writing these letters. Seriously, can you imagine if it would have been the other way around, with a white guy showing a black man how to write a romantic letter? It would have been a scandal. At least, there is no doubt that both Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali both delivered some solid performances but I just didn’t care much about anything else in this movie. Anyway, to conclude, even though the damned thing is in my opinion seriously overrated, I have to admit that it is actually a rather well made old-fashioned drama and it is still worth a look but only if you really like the genre.