Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I’m not really a huge fan of Beyoncé but since I kept hearing some good things about this movie and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned to be a decent watch, even if a running time of almost 150 mins was a little bit too much for me. Still, I have to admit that the dancers were all pretty awesome and I also loved the full marching band. However, like I said before, I have never paid too much attention to Beyoncé’s career but, except for a few catchy tunes, to be honest, I didn’t care much for her songs. A small detail that bothered me was also the fact that they mixed both her Coachella shows which was at first rather confusing. I mean, seriously, within one single song, they might be switching 20 times between her yellow and pink outfits which was sometimes rather jarring. Furthermore, even if I did respect the ambition displayed and the hard work done from all the people involved, in my opinion, at the end of the day, she was still singing some pop tunes in some (very) sexy outfits. Of course, you might argue that her recent work is more socially and politically conscious but the focus on the way she looked rather clashed with this new approach. In the same way, during the rehearsal footage, they displayed how she basically starved herself after giving birth to her twins just to make sure she could show up at this concert as if it was such a great achievement but I had some doubts. Indeed, it might have been more powerful to show to the world that to be a mother and have the actual body of a mother instead of looking like a top model could be something she could be pride of and, in the process, giving a better example for all the girls and women looking up to her. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was probably not the best concert I have ever seen, it was still really interesting, the work done by Beyoncé and the 100s of people involved was quite impressive and it is definitely worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Ian McKellen, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, by now, I think I have seen my share of Sherlock Holmes movies and the whole gimmick of making the character older was only mildly interesting in my opinion. At least, McKellen delivered another fine performance and I have to admit that it was interesting to see one of the smartest characters ever created struggling with senility. On the other hand, the lovely and seriously talented Laura Linney was stuck playing such a boring and thankless part. On top of that, it didn’t make much sense that she would be so bothered by the fact that her son would get along so well with such a great mind. I mean, she was acting as if Holmes was some kind of major threat but the guy seemed really harmless. Coming to the story itself, I have to admit that to see Holmes trying to remember his last case and the huge impact it had on him was actually pretty neat. However, I didn’t really get the point of the whole Japanese sub-plot. Seriously, not only it could have been easily removed but it was rather hard to believe that such a bright mind would go all the way to Japan to find some kind of magic plant. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch, even if I think that the whole thing was slightly pointless. 

I already saw this movie but, for some reason, I thought I might as well check it out again. Following ‘Young Adult’ which was loved by some but ignored by the rest of the world, Jason Reitman, Diablo Cody and Charlize Theron still decided to make another movie together. Well, to be honest, pretty much like with ‘Young Adult’, I struggled to connect with this flick. I mean, Theron gave here another really strong performance, no doubt about that, but there were just too many things that rubbed me the wrong way. First of all, it was another movie trying to prove that raising 2 or 3 kids has become apparently an impossible task nowadays which is something I find so annoying. Indeed, 80 years ago, many people used to have between 6 and 10 children and that must have been pretty tough but I keep hearing nowadays, especially in movies, people whining as soon as they have one kid which just gets on my nerves. Then, another thing that bothered me was, while Marlo was obviously exhausted and struggling to cope, her husband was playing video-games and focusing solely on his career. Of course, I’m afraid it was fairly realistic but it was just so infuriating for me because I was actually raised by my father while my mother was working and I was seriously committed and involved when my 3^rd child was born. Seriously, what prevented him from helping out in the evening, at night and in the week-ends? Finally, there were some recurring discussions about what was going with Jonah but I thought it was pretty obvious that the kid was apparently autistic and it should have been fairly easy to spot for the school staff and even more for the 3 doctors that they had apparently consulted regarding this matter. I know, I might sound like I didn’t like this movie at all but it was still a decent watch though. Indeed, the whole thing felt really genuine, it was one of the very few movies I have seen dealing with post-natal depression and Theron was just really impressive and, only for her performance, it is worth watching this flick. Anyway, to conclude, even if I think it turned out to be another disappointing director effort coming from Jason Reitman, it was not bad at all and I think it is still worth a look. 

To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of Harry Potter but I was still eager to check this last installment in this Wizarding World franchise. Well, this movie is usually considered as the lowest point in this franchise, critically and commercially, and I’m afraid I would have to agree with this assessment. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, J.K. Rowling took the wrong approach with this franchise right from the start. Indeed, Newt Scamander was a pretty cool character, completely different than Harry Potter, and, in my opinion, each movie could or should have been about Scamander going into some exotic locations looking for some mythical creatures. Unfortunately, the guy eventually has to stop some evil wizard which was rather disappointing as it was pretty much exactly what Potter had to do. I mean, in contrary to many viewers, I didn’t have any problem with Johnny Depp playing Gellert Grindelwald, I think he did a fine job, but this character is just way too similar to Voldemort (seriously, don’t they have exactly the same goal?). To make things worse, there was this time around a whole bunch of half-baked sub-plots involving various romances and some more or less obscure genealogy and the end-result was just pretty messy. It’s too bad because I do have a weak spot for Newt Scamander and it was also pretty neat to see a younger Albus Dumbledore, even if he showed up only for a few scenes after all. Anyway, to conclude, even if the whole thing was rather weak, I have to admit that it was quite spectacular and I guess it is worth a look if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, it turned out to be a decent watch but, to be honest, I have seen better in this genre. First of all, I had the misfortune to see the international version so most parts were therefore shot in English but I would have rather watched instead the Norwegian version. A bigger issue was that, even though the six men involved in this expedition seemed to be all rather exceptional, the makers barely develop them at all, even the main character Thor Heyerdahl. For example, Knut Haugland was reduced to a guy who threw up most of the journey, enjoyed the company of some parrot and spent most of his time while trying to make the radio work. For Bengt Danielsson, it was even worse as his only contribution was apparently that he knew how to use the camera. Then, even if there was something quite spellbinding about their journey, the makers never really managed to show the psychological impact it must have had on them. Instead, they went for the usual gimmick of having one crew member freaking out but, apparently, this portrayal of Herman Watzinger was denied by his family and, indeed, the makers did admit that they made this up to add some conflicts to the story. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it was still a fascinating story and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Like everyone else, at least in the Western world, I grew up with McDonald’s so I was quite eager to see how this company started out. Well, to be honest, even though it was a decent watch, it didn’t to turn out to be anything really mind-blowing after all. I mean, right from the start, you already knew how it was going to end so the journey to get this conclusion had to be really interesting and/or surprising but it turned out to be generic and rather predictable. On top of that, they really struggled to provide some interesting supporting characters. Indeed, aside from Ray Kroc and the McDonald brothers, all the other characters were rather poorly developed and, as a result, they were all rather tedious. The worst one was probably Ray Kroc’s first wife. Indeed, it was such a thankless part for Laura Dern who did pretty much nothing else than whining all the time, even after his new project finally turned out to be a massive success. On the other hand, his 2^nd wife played by Linda Cardellini was hardly more fascinating. Still, there is no doubt that Michael Keaton was a perfect choice to play the main character and he delivered here a really solid performance. The tricky thing was that, even though Kroc was pretty much the only one who believed in his project, we all knew that he was going to succeed at some point and how he got there was neither really impressive or shocking either. I mean, of course, you could argue that the guy had been terribly ruthless with the McDonald brothers but, on the other hand, he gave them several times the opportunity to get involved in the expansion of their franchise. They also seemed rather naïve and you might wonder what they were expecting by going into the franchise business. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still not bad and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, it took me a while to get into this story. Indeed, during the first scene, when you get to see Lady Bird and her mother on some kind of road trip, I thought they were both rather obnoxious and I was worried for a while that the damned thing wouldn’t work for me after all. Fortunately, it slowly won me over though. Indeed, Greta Gerwig managed to create here such a realistic and compelling main character. Seriously, they even gave this teenager some acne which I had never seen before in such a movie dealing with teenagers. And, on top of that, Saoirse Ronan probably gave her best performance so far. Furthermore, her slightly messed up but highly recognizable relationship with her mother, the thing that bothered me at first, turned out to be actually quite spelldinding after all. Indeed, they both had flaws in their behaviour but you could feel that they were in fact mostly struggling more with themselves then actually with each other. Of course, at the end of the day, was the whole thing anything really ground-breaking? Not really but it was still one of the most realistic depictions of teenager life I have seen and the fact that it was coming from a woman provided a really interesting perspective. Anyway, to conclude, I really liked this flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some interesting things about this flick and since I have a weak spot for Kathryn Bigelow’s work, I was quite eager to check this flick. Well, following the acclaimed ‘The Hurt Locker’ and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, Bigelow delivered another strong historical politically charged thriller and the end-result was once again pretty impressive. Indeed, you might wonder if a white woman was the best choice for this material but the whole thing still looked great. Above all, it was quite gritty and realistic and you could get a decent feeling on what it must have been liked back then in Detroit. To be honest, I had my doubts about the running time though. It is not really that it was too long but, from the moment they started to move the action to the infamous Algiers Motel, the pacing slowed down so drastically. In fact, the movie didn’t move forward for maybe 50 minutes and I wasn’t sure if it was really the right decision. I mean, on one hand, it was dreadful to see and you can only imagine how traumatizing it must have been for the survivors so it was effective. On the other hand, I can’t help wondering if it would have worked just as well with spending slightly less running time on these specific events. Furthermore, in spite of the fairly long running time, you never really get a clear idea about what’s exactly going on with Philip Krauss. Indeed, if you would believe this movie, he was pretty much responsible for everything that happened at the Algiers Motel but you never really understand why. Was he just a bigot or was he actually kind of crazy or even some kind of psychopath? Indeed, even though all the other characters were fairly well developed, they were all rather straightforward though and Krauss was, in my opinion, the only real complex character but it seems that the makers didn’t really know what to do with him after all. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t completely convinced me, it was still a strong and powerful drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. Well, even though I did like it, I wasn’t completely blown away by the whole thing to be honest. Even though this movie might seem to be, at first, about the rebooting of a murder investigation, it had in fact little do with this investigation at all after all. Basically, it was mostly dealing with 2 characters and how they have to face guilt, judgement and then redemption. However, if this process worked fine with the main character thanks to a really strong performance delivered by Frances McDormand, I wasn’t completely convinced with what happened to Jason Dixon though. Indeed, from the moment that he reads the letter that Willoughby left him, they completely flipped his character around. I mean, so far, Dixon was a fairly pathetic incompetent and easy to hate cop and it was actually quite funny to hear Willoughby saying that he was or could be a good cop since we saw completely the opposite so far. However, from this point on, this character changed drastically, even showing some decent detective skills but this change was rather hard to swallow. Of course, I don’t blame Sam Rockwell, the guy gave another strong performance, it’s just that this story seemed to have just too much impact on his character. Still, it was a rather complex tale with some interesting characters and I should probably re-watch it at some point to make up my mind for good about the damned thing. Anyway, to conclude, even though I wasn’t completely sold, it was still a really solid comedy-drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.