Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since I just bought an awesome brand new TV, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, unfortunately, even if it was still entertaining, it wasn't an improvement on the previous installment, I'm afraid. I mean, Tom Holland remains the best Spider-Man so far, he delivered once again a really solid performance and I really loved the vulnerability they brought to the character who, in spite of its great super powers, is just an average  teenager who wants to simply hang out with his friends during the summer break. I also loved the idea of sending him and his class to a school trip in Europe. However, to be honest, the rest of the movie wasn't really strong though. First of all, sure, some of the avengers died or disappeared but, as we have all seen in 'Endgame', there are maybe 50 other super-heroes out there and it didn't make much sense that Nick Fury would ask the help of the youngest and least experienced one for such a seemingly dangerous mission. Then, the whole plot around Mysterio was actually rather lame and it was rather disappointing that a fine actor like Jake Gyllenhaal would end up playing such a generic and rather boring villain. Furthermore, it was pretty obvious right from the start that there was something rather fishy about the guy and even though it was understandable that Peter Parker would fall for his act, it didn't make sense at all that Nick Fury would put so much faith in him. Eventually, Fury's bewildering lack of judgement was actually explained with a post-credit scene (that Marvel keeps using this gimmick to deliver some major plot points has also become such a nuisance) but this explanation was actually pretty lame after all. Anyway, to conclude, after rewatching this flick, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here and I hope the next time around they will come up with something more substantial for their most iconic character.

To be honest, when I first heard about this flick, I wasn’t really interested. Indeed, it felt like Sony was really trying to milk the famous character. Seriously, after giving us already 3 different iterations in just a decade, to go also for an animated version on top of it felt like some serious overload. However, it turned out to be a big critical and commercial success so, obviously, I became quite curious about the damned thing. Well, it turned out to be such a nice surprise and the proof that even though we are close to get a super-hero overdose, there is actually still apparently quite some creativity in this genre. Indeed, even if it might not be the best super-hero flick ever made (it wasn’t far from it though), it still managed to become the best Spider-Man flick so far. I’m not surprised that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were involved (such a pity they got kicked out from ‘Solo’ which turned out to be a flop without them) as the whole thing turned out to be such a fun wild entertaining ride. On top of that, the animation was just really neat and I wish I had seen it in the movie theatre when it was released because it was visually quite spectacular. Furthermore, this movie displayed that, to move forward with Spider-Man, they shouldn’t keep focusing on only Peter Parker because, after getting 3 young white boys playing pretty much exactly the same character, it is getting seriously repetitive and rather boring. With finally giving the lead to Miles Morales, they opened so many doors and, hopefully, the mighty Marvel will notice it and try to tackle some even more original concepts in the future. Finally, it was such a breath of fresh air to see a super-hero flick which wasn’t linked to an intricate cinematic universe. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved the damned thing 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 there was a nice cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Unfortunately, I was surprised by how half-baked the damned thing actually turned out to be. I mean, it did have some potential but there was something slightly misguided about making a movie dealing with a Soviet story with a Swedish director and an international cast with not a single Russian actor involved. Eventually, the biggest issue was with the story though. For example, the introduction which was obviously to present the main character was just awkward. Basically, the whole idea was to introduce Leo Demidov as a surviving orphan and then as  a hero soldier so you get back-to-back 2 clumsy jumps in time but, when you think about it, wouldn’t it have made the character more interesting if we didn’t know this and if we did discover it later on? Then, it took me a while to understand where the damned thing was getting but, to be honest, I don’t think the makers really knew either. Indeed, they basically tried to mix a vintage thriller taking place in the Soviet Union with a drama dealing with the Soviet dictatorship and how it destroyed so many lifes but the end-result was pretty much an overlong mess. Concerning the cast (Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, Vincent Cassel, Gary Oldman, Paddy Considine, Jason Clarke, Tara Fitzgerald), it was by far the best thing in this movie and they all did what they could with this material but most of their characters were rather poorly developed except for the main character played by Tom Hardy. Anyway, to conclude, even if it turned out to be rather disappointing, I still think it is worth a look but there is no doubt that it could and/or should have been so much better. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I really struggled to get into this flick. First of all, I have to admit that I haven’t read this book from Dostoevsky (I probably should at some point) but the guy was a fascinating writer and the damned thing definitely had some potential. In fact, I discovered that Roman Polanski had tried to launch his own version in the 90’s but, after John Travolta dropped a week before starting to shoot, the project collapsed soon afterwards which is such a shame since it seemed to be some great material for the Polish master. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it was not bad but this concept of a bleak dystopian bureaucratic society had already been done many times before, most famously in ‘Brazil’. Concerning Jesse Eisenberg, I thought he was pretty good playing these 2 characters but it was difficult to root for this main character who was such a pathetic loser. Furthermore, even though it was a nice surprise that the 2 lookalikes seemed to get along fine, unfortunately, very soon, the whole thing turned into some paranoid nightmare which was just generic and predictable. 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 flick but it seemed to be an interesting story and since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it could have been a great movie with a really strong story about a very important subject, it turned out to be only a decent watch, I’m afraid. First of all, what was exactly the deal with Emmeline Pankhurst? In this case, it wasn’t really up to the makers since she was one of the actual historical characters involved, but I didn’t really get why she was hiding when all the other women involved were taking so many risks. I mean, can you imagine if Martin Luther King Jr or Gandhi would have been hiding instead of being directly involved? Anyway, the movie was not bad about Pankhurst and, instead, they decided to focus on a random fictional woman but it didn’t really worked out. I won’t blame Carey Mulligan as she delivered another solid performance but her character was not really interesting, I’m afraid. Basically, she had been created to embody all these women and what they were going through so she was more a basic archetype than an actual fully fledged human being. Concerning the other characters, it was actually even worse as they were even less developed and, everything they did or said was only to move the plot forward. Anyway, to conclude, even if the whole thing turned to be slightly disappointing, it remains a very important story with a great historical value so I still think it is worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Pedro Almodovar, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I’m not surprised that it didn’t make much waves when it was released. Indeed, it was a decent watch but there is no doubt that it was a minor effort for the Spanish master. The main issue I had was that, even though it was fairly short (not even 100 mins), it still felt seriously drawn-out. I mean, through the whole thing, you get to see some rather random scenes but, afterwards, I came to the conclusion that they didn’t have much to do with the plot or, at least, the connection was just very thin. Then, there was this final revelation but it was just so hard to swallow. Maybe it was because the whole thing was focusing solely on Julieta and never on Antía but it was as a result pretty much impossible to understand her choice. Seriously, to leave her mother like this without any explanation and without reaching out to her in more than a decade was just so cruel and, once again, fairly incomprehensible. Before that, we did spend quite some time with Julieta and her family but nothing really dramatic ever happened which might have explained Antía’s drastic decision. I mean, sure, it was very sad that her father died at sea but the guy was a fisherman, those things happen, and nobody could predict that he would end up in a storm like that. That’s probably the issue, the fact their family seemed to be so stable and harmonious and, in my opinion, there was never enough tension or drama explaining such a dramatic twist. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work, it was still well directed and acted and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Almodovar’s work. 

Even if this movie was a big commercial and critical flop, I still wanted to check it out though. It’s a shame because a Predator flick written and directed by Shane Black sounded so cool at first. However, it was indeed pretty weak, in fact, it turned out to be only slightly better than the terrible ‘Alien vs Predator’ movies. I mean, there were a couple of decent ideas but there were a whole bunch of bad ones as well. For example, I really have a weak spot for Olivia Munn and she tried really hard but to have a scientist trying to fight off such a skilled killing machine was lame. I mean, at some point, you get to see her running around with some toy gun after the predator which was just rather pathetic. Even worse, they decided to add some kid to the mix which was rather misguided. Indeed, as a result, you get to see some violent R rated action scenes with a young boy in the middle of the action. To make things worse, the kid was some autistic genius which has become such a lame and lazy gimmick. Finally, I don’t understand why they keep trying to turn the Predator into a good guy. Indeed, it’s such a tedious approach and it doesn’t make the character more entertaining at all. In this case, there was also just way too much explanation about the motivations of the Predators when this character has always been more interesting when he remained mysterious. Eventually, the only original idea I did like was the fact that the team of soldiers facing the Predator was composed of mental patients but even this idea was poorly developed. Seriously, it was maybe fun for 5 minutes but it got old very fast. Indeed, it could have been really neat to see this team of crazy guys having no sense of what is going on, taking some incredible risks and actually succeeding but, instead, they turned out to be some cowards which was definitely not what this kind of movies needs. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, the whole thing felt like another missed opportunity to finally do something interesting with this franchise and I don’t think it is really worth a look.