Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of Christmas movies but, even though this movie was not the worst one I have seen in this genre, it still had the weakest concept though. Seriously, not only it was a lame Christmas flick but, on top of that, also a lousy road-movie. I mean, the tone was either too light or too dark so, when you get to see the main character dropped in a middle of a desert, it was more cringe-inducing than really funny and the damned thing never managed to be really entertaining after that. Same thing with the main character, he was never really a douche-bag but never really a nice guy either but, at least, Jonathan Taylor Thomas was quite charismatic and he did what he could with this rather abysmal material. Jessica Biel was also pretty cute but that’s probably the only positive things I could find regarding this movie. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was rather generous with my rating here, the damned thing was pretty lame and it is not really worth a look whatsoever. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect but since this movie had been a success at the box-office and since it seemed to be a decent comedy, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was surprised by how lame it actually turned out to be. Seriously, right from the very first scene, I was already pretty much done with the damned thing. Basically, you get this beautiful woman still looking gorgeous after raising kids for 10 years, she has a brand-new car, a huge house, a job she loves but we should still feel bad for her because life is so stressful? Indeed, it was yet another tedious comedy about the fact that parenting has supposedly become so difficult nowadays, a concept I find so annoying. On top of that, Mila Kunis was rather miscast in my opinion. Indeed, she wasn’t really convincing as a woman who had been a mother for a rather long time and, above all, she didn’t look like someone who had spent a decade raising 2 kids. Eventually, what was the damned thing actually supposed to be about anyway? I mean, it was called ‘Bad Moms’ but it was basically about a group of mothers occasionally getting drunk and having a really tedious feud with their PTA president but, before, during and after the movie, there was not a single moment during which these women were actually being some really bad mothers. At least, I have to admit that there were a few really funny scenes, usually involving Kathryn Hahn, but most of the damned thing just didn’t work for me at all. Anyway, to conclude, even though I have seen worse, I thought it was actually pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of ‘Mary Poppins’ (since I have Disney+, I should re-watch it at some point though) but since I have a weak spot for Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks, I was quite eager to check this movie. Well, even though it was a decent watch and easily better than most live-action movies produced by Disney, to be honest, I was  still not really impressed by the damned thing though. Basically, it is a rather well known fact that P.L. Travers reluctantly gave the rights to her precious character, that she was really difficult during the production and that she eventually didn’t like the movie at all. Well, even though it might have sounded interesting on paper, unfortunately, in my opinion, it was actually insufficient to fill in 2 hours of running time, at least, not with the way it was developed by John Lee Hancock. Basically, they kept repeating some scenes usually involving Travers being a pain in the ass over and over again. The flashback scenes, while they were important to give some background to the main character, had the same issue. Indeed, after 2 or 3 of these flashbacks, we actually got the point that her father was a fun and whimsical guy but also probably a bipolar alcoholic so these scenes became quickly rather repetitive as well. They were a few scenes that did stand out though, like the one when P.L. Travers relived a dramatic speech from her father (easily the best scene in this movie) and the surprise meeting between Disney and Travers in England (a meeting which obviously never happened). At least, there was a solid cast and it has been a while since Emma Thompson gave such a strong performance. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still fairly entertaining and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, this movie was one of the victims in the Weinstein debacle as it was supposed to be released just around the time the scandal broke down. Eventually, it was released much later on by another studio but it was barely noticed. Anyway, it is basically a fairly classical biblical tale focusing this time on Mary Magdalene. As a result, you get the usual anti-Jewish vibe which is unfortunate but rather inherent to the genre, I’m afraid. What was more surprising was the fact they turned this classic story into some kind of feminist manifesto. Sure, the main point was to rehabilitate this woman who had been labelled as a prostitute for centuries (In fact, as we learn at the end of this movie, she had been officially rehabilitated by the Vatican only a few years ago) but the makers went way beyond then only showing that she had been a genuine apostle. Indeed, not only she wasn’t trusted by any other male apostle, according to this movie, she was apparently the only one who really understood Jesus which was a rather bold statement. Not only it was pretty much some kind of reverse sexism, above all, it made this character pretty much flawless and, therefore, a little bit underwhelming, especially since we already had Jesus who was arguably the most flawless human-being that ever lived. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Steven Soderbergh’s work and since it was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. Like anyone else, I heard about the Panama papers but, to be honest, I didn’t really dig too much in this affair so, only for that, it was pretty neat to see a movie dealing with this subject. On top of that, Soderbergh chose a rather light and slightly wild approach and while you might argue that such a tragedy deserved a more serious treatment, it did make the whole thing easier to swallow. The intro was also pretty neat. Indeed, of course, it made sense that, at some point, we switched from trading to coins and paper money. However, nowadays, most money transactions have turned into an invisible financial flow and this constant virtualisation of money in general has turned the current financial system into a completely unreliable mess. Another point made by this movie was that the whole purpose of this system has always been to improve the position of the wealthy part of our population, crushing or at least exploiting the meek but the makers didn't point out that, if the meek were rich, they would probably do the exact same thing but that’s another discussion, I guess. Still, in spite of some really strong material, the damned thing was still too random though and some of the small stories involved were not always really compelling. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was still another slightly half-baked project from Soderbergh, it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this director.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but somehow, I still ended up watching the damned thing. Well, sure, it turned out to be a really generic and predictable romantic-comedy but, probably because I had such low expectations, I didn’t think it was so bad after all. Indeed, Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel were both quite charismatic and they had a nice chemistry together. Still, there is no doubt that the concept was pretty weak though. Above all, it is still so cringe-inducing to see such movie characters struggling to take care of one baby. For example, back then, my grand-parents had no less than 7 kids and it is always rather pathetic to see some adults having such a hard time with one single toddler (I myself raised 3 children and I never experienced such despair). Seriously, you even get a scene during which they are in panic just because they have to change a diaper which was just so lame. And, yet, I did like this couple and with a slightly less generic approach, it could have been actually interesting. Anyway, to conclude, I have to admit that my rating was probably generous here and I guess it might be worth a look but only if you really love the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but  since it was the last movie directed by Craig Gillespie that I haven’t seen so far and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a pretty neat story and the movie himself was not bad at all. Indeed, even if the story was rather generic and predictable, it was still quite entertaining though. In fact, it did remind me of ‘Jerry Maguire’ which wasn’t a bad thing though. Indeed, it was basically dealing with a sports agent working on his own, working with only one last client(s) who was his very last shot. However even if Jon Hamm was not bad, in my opinion, his role turned out to be rather thankless though. I mean, even though it made sense to portray the guy as a cold-hearted businessman, they still wanted to show him being a nice guy after all. As a result, it was rather frustrating to see almost every supporting character reminding him that he should do the right thing and to see him still being jerk again and again just to add some dramatic tensions. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Mira Nair’s work and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I didn’t know what it was about and it was a nice surprise to see that it was dealing with chess which is a fascinating game in my opinion. Of course, the story was after all rather generic and predictable but I still think it was uplifting and inspiring. On top of that, even though it might be expected from such a Disney production, they didn’t sugar-coat the damned thing at all and the life in this shanty town in Uganda seemed terribly bleak and grim as it should be. It was also refreshing that the main character was not your typical white saviour as it is unfortunately usually the case in such tales taking place in Africa. Concerning the cast, even though David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong'o were deservedly praised for their performances, I was actually even more impressed by the young Madina Nalwanga who played the main character. Indeed, there was so much depth in her performance and you could clearly see her character grow and evolve through the whole duration which was even more impressive since it was her first acting part. Anyway, to conclude, even if they didn’t come up with something really original, it was still very well done and so inspiring so it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.