Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I always had a weak spot for Danny De Vito, I was quite eager to check this flick. Well, even thought the damned thing was definitely fun, to be honest, it didn’t completely worked and I think it was mostly due to the fact that it was De Vito’s directing debut. Indeed, the whole thing felt rather unfocused and it took such a long time to finally take off. I mean, the concept definitely had some potential but the way to get there was just too convoluted and not really convincing and therefore the end-result was not always really entertaining or, at least, not as entertaining as it could have been. However, I really enjoyed the tone though. Indeed, even if we have nowadays a lot of successful raunchy comedies, we don’t have so many dark comedies like this one and I have a huge weak spot for the genre. Furthermore, Danny De Vito and Billy Crystal both delivered some solid performances and there were some really hilarious scenes. Eventually, it was a promising a directing debut, a nice warm-up for De Vito, and his directing follow-up would be the much more focused and even more entertaining ‘The War of the Roses’, a movie I somehow watched about 30 years ago in the movie theatre when I was about 9 years old. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like Danny De Vito’s work. 

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.