Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I have always been fascinated by politics, this movie sounded really interesting to me. Well, the first thing that impressed me with this movie was how little politics these guys were involved in and how much time they spent instead running their little schemes. Eventually, in spite of a few far-fetched scenes (for example, would you open the door in the middle of the night to a perfect stranger only because he claims he is supposedly working with your father?), it was much more realistic than your average American thriller which made the whole thing much more spellbinding to behold. Concerning the main character, I never saw this actor before but he did deliver a really solid performance. I also liked the way this character was displayed as someone smart, charismatic who always gets what he wants and who has apparently no conscience whatsoever. Still, there was some major flaws in this plan though. I mean, it is pretty obvious that the guy was in full survival mode through most of the duration but his whole victim act, as pointed out in the final scene, became slowly slightly annoying and even rather pathetic. Finally, I thought it was actually rather depressing to find out that everybody at the top was apparently as corrupt as he was. Anyway, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, it was still terribly entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Like anyone else who has a decent taste in movies, I have been anxiously waiting for ‘The Irishman’ but, suddenly, out of nowhere, Martin Scorsese released another movie and, of course, I had to watch it, especially since it was available on Netflix. To be honest, I have to admit that I did struggle a little bit to get into the damned thing. Indeed, even if I did grow up listening to his music thanks to my father, I have never been a huge fan of Bob Dylan and, to be honest, I find his aloof attitude actually slightly annoying. At least, the whole thing was really original as it was some kind of combination of a standard concert movie with a documentary but also a mockumentary. Indeed, there were apparently some fake stuff and it was slightly too bad that the whole thing with Sharon Stone properly never happened. That Jack Tanner guy also really looked familiar and that made sense because he was in fact he a fictive character played by actor Michael Murphy. As a result, everybody involved claimed that this project was something creatively amazing but, as far as I’m concerned, it did look like a mess and the mockumentary elements didn’t really help me to shake this feeling. Still, to conclude, even if I wasn’t completely blown away, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Bob Dylan or in Martin Scorsese’s work.

To be honest, I really had no idea what to expect from this flick but since I was directed by Doug Liman, I was quite eager to check it out. Like I said before, I didn’t know what this movie was about and it actually turned out to be a very minimalistic war movie with only one location and three characters. In fact, out of these three characters, one was dead fairly early on and the other one was actually a voice-over so the whole thing was pretty much a one-man show from Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Well, even though I have a weak spot for the genre, I wasn’t really impressed by this movie though. I mean, I won’t blame Taylor-Johnson, the guy once again delivered a really solid performance and I was even fairly impressed by John Cena even if he had here a rather small part. However, the concept was not bad but not much more than that, I’m afraid. Indeed, the whole idea of this Iraqi sniper fooling the US army to get some extra kills might sound cool but, in my opinion, it was rather far-fetched. Furthermore, even if you would believe that such a thing was possible, it didn’t make much sense that he would try to talk endlessly with Isaac. Seriously, what was the point? Because he was bored? The first contact made sense because, this way, he could retrieve his details but, then, he could have just left him to die. 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. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though the damned thing really had some potential, to be honest, it didn’t really work though. It’s too bad because, once again after ‘Office Space’, Mike Judge delivered another believable work space environment and pretty much all the characters were realistic and entertaining. Above all, I was just seriously impressed by Ben Affleck. Indeed, even though Jason Bateman was fine, he basically played his usual character whereas Affleck really went really out of his comfort zone and completely nailed it. Seriously, I think the guy easily gave here one of his best performances. Eventually, the scenes involving Bateman and Affleck were by far the best in this movie but most of the other characters worked fine as well, except for Mila Kunis’s character though. Indeed, in my opinion, the only real issue with this movie was concerning this girl. I mean, I don’t blame Kunis, she was lovely as usual and she did what she could but her con artist didn’t belong in this tale at all and this character completely derailed the whole thing. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent comedy and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Lasse Hallström’s work, I thought I might as well check it out, especially since it was available on Netflix. First of all, seriously, when was the last time the Swedish director did deliver something really interesting? Anyway, even though this movie was apparently rather successful at the box-office, I didn’t really care about the damned thing, I’m afraid. Basically, it was a rather peculiar concept dealing with a dog going through 4 reincarnations which was already weird enough but, to make things even more convoluted, the dog actually remembered everything that happened in his previous lives. Eventually, it all depends if you will like this idea or not but, at least, it wasn’t dealing with some talking dogs which was a relief. In fact, if they would have focused on only 2 dogs (Bailey and Buddy), it would have worked so much better because all the other lives/reincarnations were rather half-baked and uninteresting. To be honest, even this story was actually too bland but, a least, Ethan, especially as a boy and a teenager, had a really genuine touching bond with his dog and that’s when the movie displayed some potential. Anyway, to conclude, maybe if you are really into this kind of movies, you might end up enjoying it more than I did but, as far as I was concerned, the damned thing was not really worth a look. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick (it even won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival), I was really eager to check it out. Well, I wasn’t disappointed and the damned thing really deserves its stellar reputation. Apparently, Hirokazu Koreeda has the reputation of being the greatest humanist director at work nowadays and, after watching this movie, it is pretty easy to understand why. Basically, this time around, Koreeda focused on a group of people who all had been rejected and pretty much forgotten by the common society and who are now living in a marginal lifestyle with its own rules and moral code. Koreeda’s masterstroke was that he never judges or praises the characters and, for the first 90 minutes, you see how they cope living completely in the margin of our society. So, it was already quite interesting with some complex 3 dimensional characters but, during the last act, they managed to push the whole concept even further. Basically, after a tragic event which was doomed to happen at some point, they completely get sucked back into our world and it all became seriously heart-breaking and even more powerful than it already was. I have to admit that I wish I learned a little bit more about Aki as she was the only character who didn’t really get a real closure in my opinion but it wasn't a big deal. Eventually, following ‘Like Father, Like Son’, this movie was an even stronger argument from Koreeda that the strongest bond between the members in a family is not blood but love. Anyway, to conclude, it was a really strong drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I really had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by David Cronenberg, I still wanted to check it out. Well, at first, it seemed to be a rather odd project for Cronenberg, especially at this point of his career, but, apparently, he was a huge fan of the play and he was really eager to direct this movie. However, the whole thing eventually turned out to be after all about one of the most messed up romantic relationships I have ever seen and, then, it made sense that Cronenberg would be so attracted to it. However, in contrary to ‘The Crying Game’ which delivered one of the most shocking twists ever and in spite of a solid performance by John Lone, it was pretty obvious from the start that Song Liling was actually a man. As a result, it was rather difficult to understand what was the deal exactly with the main character. I mean, I don’t blame Jeremy Irons, he was a perfect choice to play this character and he was as usual pretty good but was this guy a complete idiot? Or was he actually aware of Song Liling's true nature and was he wrapped up into some kind of really weird sexual fantasy? Unfortunately, the makers never did confront this issue at any moment through the whole duration, even towards the end, when René Gallimard was asked point-blank what was going on during a trial. On top of that, as if this story was not complicated enough, Song Liling turned out to be a spy which was rather odd because, when she first got acquainted with Gallimard, the guy was only an accountant and therefore hardly an interesting target for a spy. Of course, he got a promotion but to give such a promotion to an accountant didn’t make much sense, without mentioning the fact that Gallimard was apparently vastly incompetent at his new position. Anyway, to conclude, even though the whole thing was seriously half-baked, there was still something quite fascinating about this weird romance and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in David Cronenberg’s work.