Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since it was available on  Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I didn't care much for it, that's for sure. First of all, I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of David Zucker's parodies or of South Park but, at least, the concept had some potential. Indeed, if you are not a huge sports fan and even if you are,  you should be aware of the fact that major professional sports have become some huge circuses with some ridiculous amounts of money involved and that the concepts of 'playing' and 'sportsmanship' don't matter that much anymore. Well, with this movie, they tried to play around with our current unhealthy obsession with sport and it could have worked but, unfortunately, they took the wrong approach. First of all, the two main characters were rather pathetic and boring. Then, even if I have to admit that some of the jokes were quite fun, most of them were just lame. Indeed, some of their 'best' running jokes was to say 'Dude!' all the time and call one of their teammates 'Bitch' constantly, that was pretty much the level of the humor displayed. It's too bad because, if it would have been slightly less moronic, it could have been actually pretty awesome. Anyway, to conclude, I really didn't like it but if you are into this kind of humor, you might give it a try.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from this flick but it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I'm glad didn't know much about it before watching the damned thing and it ended up being one of the best Stephen King adaptations I have seen in years. I mean, sure, the concept was not really original but it was so well done and it turned out to be so much more intense than I expected. Usually, I really have a hard time to care about King's stories when there is too much paranormal stuff involved and I'm so glad he went for a psychological thriller this time around which was just so much more effective. I was wondering how they would fill up the running time but the choice to focus on a childhood trauma was a strong idea and you could easily imagine that anyone in this situation might end up revisiting their darkest memories. Even Death's visits worked also really well. To be honest, even if the whole thing was definitely a terrible ordeal, I'm not so sure that someone would loose their mind after just 5 hours though. Furthermore, I wasn't so crazy about the ending, especially since they basically turned the main character into a strong woman who actually became a better person after going through this nightmare. And, of course, the way this ending tied some loose ends with a specific mysterious character was not really satisfying or even necessary at all. Anyway, all in all, it was still a really strong Stephen King adaptation 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 decent cast involved and since it was directed by David Gordon Green, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I was actually rather surprised by how little I cared about the damned thing after all. I mean, the directing was solid and the actors involved were pretty good and I was above all impressed by Kate Beckinsale who delivered here easily her best performance so far and, yet, the whole thing never grabbed me. The issue, I guess, was mostly with its story. Basically, I was dealing with a bunch of average characters living in an average town and, except for two really tragic events, nothing really noteworthy happened though the whole duration so I had a rather hard time to care about what these characters were going through. I mean, sure,  Michael Angarano and Olivia Thirlby made a cute couple together and I understand the parallel they made with the relationship of Sam Rockwell's and Kate Beckinsale's characters as their own relationship probably started the same way but, once again, it was never really interesting. Anyway, to conclude, I still struggle with David Gordon Green's work but even if this movie was rather disappointing, I still think it is worth a look. 

Since I have always been a big fan of Orson Welles, I was really eager to check his famous last directing effort which was finally released more than 30 years after his death. First of all, even though Netflix has been criticised for putting their money in some really dubious projects just to fill in their catalogue, at least, with their massive budget, they finally managed to release this movie from development hell. Well, I wish I could say that it was really worth waiting all these years but, to be honest, I really struggled to get into this flick. I mean, it was a decent watch but, at that point, Welles was really into this experimental directing style which was really an acquired taste. In this case, it felt sometimes like watching a Fellini picture, especially '8 1/2', with this famous director struggling to finish his last movie. Of course, there was also a nice connection with Welles who himself spent years working on this movie without actually ever finishing it. Still, the whole thing was rather long, sluggish and fairly repetitive and I can't say I cared much for any of the characters involved. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn't turn out to be a masterpiece, it was still an interesting movie and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Orson Welles's work. 

I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that I really enjoyed the first action scene and, for a while, I thought the damned thing might turn out to be a nice surprise after all. On top of that, Xander Cage is so much more fun and entertaining than Dominique Toretto's who is such a bore. Unfortunately, after this cool come-back scene with the main character, I was amazed by how long it took them to bring up another neat action scene like that. Basically, most of the movie was filled with some seriously boring scenes when the characters had the most tedious conversations. Another issue was also the number of characters involved. Indeed, while 'xXx' was basically a one-man show, this time around, there was about a dozen of characters involved which made the whole thing looked like a mix of 'The Fast and The Furious' with 'The Expendables'. As a result, instead of getting some badass action scenes, they gave us some endless interactions between all these characters which was just not really entertaining at all. Anyway, to conclude, even though it could have been a fun brainless action flick, it was just rather boring and I don't think it is really worth a look.

To be honest, I didn't expect much from this sequel but, somehow, I still ended up watching this movie. Well, I didn't care much for the damned thing, even if I did enjoy it slightly more than its predecessor but I think it mostly had to do with the fact that I had such low expectations this time around. Anyway, once again, they came up with such a derivative and predictable story and, once again, I was amazed about how fake the a cappella singing did sound. At least, the singing battle was neat and their final performance was decent enough but I was still rather bored through the whole thing. It's too bad because those girls seem to be fun and entertaining but this movie or even whole franchise only managed to give each of them only 30 seconds at the time only to deliver a supposedly funny oneliner so none of them get enough attention. Take for example Becca, she gets maybe 3 scenes showing her new work as an intern, one showing her first day at work, a second one showing her demo being rejected and a third one during which she gets the respect of her new boss. Seriously, it was so poorly developed, they should have just dropped the whole idea. The biggest victim was probably Flo who could only make some awful jokes about being an illegal immigrant. Anyway, to conclude, once again, I think I was quite generous with my rating, I seriously don't understand why this franchise is/was so popular but I guess this movie might be worth a look if you like the genre. 

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since it has a decent reputation and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a decent minimalist cat-and-mouse horror flick but, to be honest, I didn't really blow me away. I mean, the directing was really solid and Stephen Lang did deliver a pretty good performance but there were just too many elements that didn't really work for me. First of all, it was pretty much one of the most stupid burglaries I have seen but you could argue that the characters involved were no mastermind. Even more problematic was the whole deal with the abducted girl. Indeed, before she showed up, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be really rooting for these thiefs since, after all, they were robbing an old blind man. However, with this twist, the makers made clear who was actually the bad  guy which was rather disappointing. On top of that, it didn't make much sense. I mean, how would a blind man be able to kidnap a grown woman and bring her home against her will? It's like the ending, even though the only survivor was supposed to be scared shitless because the guy was still alive and free, how on earth would he be able to track her down and find her? Anyway, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still fairly entertaining and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Did we really need another sequel/spinoff from 'Ocean's Eleven'? Probably not but, at least, it was pretty neat that they came up this time with an all new female crew. Unfortunately, the damned thing still turned out to be terribly disappointing, I'm afraid. First of all, even if the cast was nice, I was still missing some other big names like Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon or Sigourney Weaver. To make things worse, the directing was terribly bland. Eventually, it's only after watching this movie that I understood how important was Steven Soderbergh for the success of the first installment. Indeed, it was full of energy, fun and witty and this new installment terribly missed all this. Another issue was that the story was rather boring and even if it was a nice idea to have them steal some jewels, the actual heist was still actually underwhelming. Seriously, I never had the feeling that I was watching some seasoned con artists and it felt more like watching some girls playing thiefs. Furthermore, why did Sarah Paulson pick up the fake necklace? It should have been someone else not involved in their scam and why wasn't she considered as a prime suspect by the insurance guy? Anyway, all in all, I didn't care much for the damned thing, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here but I guess it might be worth a look if you are a real fan of the genre.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it was nothing really original, it was still a decent shark flick mixed with a typical survival tale. What made this movie worked was, above all, the realistic minimalist approach that they chose. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for such movies dealing with one character trying to survive on their own and most of the scenes were actually quite believable. The big exception was of course the ending which was quite over-the-top but it is understandable that the makers wanted to end with something climatic. I also enjoyed a lot the surfing scenes at the beginning which were really gorgeous and, while watching the damned thing, I wondering if Blake Lively actually did the surfing herself. Well, she didn't but it was so well filmed that I couldn't make the difference with her surfing stunt double. To be honest, everything involving the background of the main character was rather generic and tedious (those scenes with the smartphone screens were just a useless gimmick) but they needed some fillers and at least Blake Lively was quite charismatic in one of her very rare star billing parts. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was still fairly entertaining and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.