Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

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.