Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might  as well check it out. Well, basically, it turned out to be some kind of spin on ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ concept but, this time, it was dealing with a woman who didn’t get old anymore. Well, even if this idea was nothing really original, it was not bad though. Eventually, the biggest issue was after all with Blake Lively. I mean, she wasn’t awful, in fact, it was quite brave that she took this part which was her most challenging character so far but, even if she tried really hard, I never had the feeling that I was watching a 107 year old woman on the screen. She wasn’t helped by the fact that they turned her character into some kind of genius which was pretty lame. Of course, you could argue that her brain didn’t degenerate like for the rest of us but it was a stretch to say that she would somehow remember all kinds of random trivia through her long life. Anyway, the fact that Lively was maybe not the best choice to play the lead was even more obvious when she was with Ellen Burstyn who was so pitch-perfect each time she showed up. I was also fairly impressed by Harrison Ford who was also quite convincing. 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. 

Ever since I was a kid, I was quite curious to see this flick and, eventually, it took me more than 2 decades to finally watch it. Well, the damned thing with such an awesome title and really neat concept really had some potential and it could have been such a terrifying horror flick. Unfortunately, they decided to turn it into a typical Spielbergian cheesy feature which was rather disappointing. Indeed, it was really neat that the main character was an actual arachnophobe and, with this guy facing some ugly horrifying lethal spiders, it could have been a psychological nightmare but the guy got over his phobia way too easily to become suddenly your average boring hero. Apparently, Frank Marshall afterwards has said something like "People like to be scared but laughing, like a roller coaster. No one wants to be terrified” which is a pretty dumb statement. Indeed, in my opinion, the whole point of watching a horror flick is to get scared sh*tless. Still, I have to admit that John Goodman was quite hilarious though and he completely stole the show as the awesome Delbert McClintock. The ending was also pretty neat as I didn’t expect them to drop this little town to go back to San Francisco. Anyway, to conclude, even if it could have been so much better, it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.