Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some interesting things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though I was well aware of his notorious reputation and was expecting a rough watch, I still turned out to be one of the most disturbing and disgusting horror flicks I have seen and I have seen my fair share of really sick flicks. Obviously, it was unsettling because of its subject matter but, in my opinion, it also had to with the fact that first-time director Julia Ducournau went for such a realistic approach. Obviously, most of the duration was dealing with some really preposterous scenes but they were taking place in a believable world with some believable characters and this combination made the whole thing even more disturbing. I also appreciate how they displayed that the life in college can be just terribly bleak, despite what many US movies would like us to believe. The only issue I had was that, during most of the duration, I thought it was a mistake to have her sister having the same ‘craving’, even if it was eventually explained with a twist ending. Indeed, I started with the presumption that the main character was unique and that she was going through something exceptional but, by making her sister pretty much the same, it rather undermined the impact of this story. Anyway, to conclude, I don’t think I will ever watch this movie again but I will probably never forget it.

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, it was a rather ridiculous story even with some absurd elements. Basically, this movie was dealing with something I had never heard before, the Patrol Special Police which is a law enforcement system unique to San Francisco. To be honest, the  whole concept of the Patrol Special Police was pretty weird but it definitely had some potential and the whole thing could have been a really original cop action-comedy. Unfortunately, the makers never really managed to do something really interesting with this concept and the end-result was a succession of a rather non-sensical scenes. Eventually, what still made this movie quite watchable was Christian Slater. Indeed, even though it seems like ages ago, there was a point when Slater was actually a pretty cool actor and, in fact, this story was written specifically for him in mind for the title role. Indeed, the guy was in his early 20’s at the time and he obviously had a lot of fun playing this character who was constantly breaking the 4^th wall. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing and even if it was in fact rather half-baked, this movie 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 movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a really solid Western. Basically, it is a rather long movie and maybe 2/3 was about a posse looking for some kidnapped people, first on horse and then later on even on foot so, to be honest, nothing much else happened during this movie. Eventually, what made this movie really work was the nice mood created by first time director S. Craig Zahler and the 4 characters involved in this posse. Indeed, these 4 men were pretty neat thanks also to some really solid performances from the cast (Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins). In fact, even the character of O'Dwyer’s wife was fairly developed and went beyond the usual damsel in distress. Furthermore, towards the end, the whole thing became a rather gruesome horror freak show and it was rather surprising how well it worked mixed with the Western genre. It was also a nice touch that they didn’t explain much what was exactly the deal with this mysterious Indian/troglodyte tribe which made them even more ominous. Anyway, to conclude, it was a really decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I have always been a fan of Paul Greengrass’s work, I was really eager to check this movie.  Well, the tricky thing is that it was released only a few months after the amazing ‘Utøya 22. Juli’ which was also dealing with the same tragedy in Utoya and there is a fair chance that I would have enjoyed more Greengrass’s version if I had not seen just before another stellar movie about the subject.  Another thing that bothered me was that even though they went for a Norwegian cast, they chose to make them speak English which was really disappointing. At least, it was pretty neat that they chose a really different approach and, as a result, it is actually worthwhile to watch both movies. In this case, the scope was much larger and covered much more ground, like the preparation of the attacks and also the aftermath, but, unfortunately, it also made the whole thing rather unfocused and sometimes slightly frustrating. For example, in contrary to ‘Utøya 22. Juli’, you do spend some time with Anders Behring Breivik but even though Anders Danielsen Lie did give a solid performance, I didn’t feel that I learned really anything new about Breivik after all. Also, with this movie, you would believe that the attack on the island was fairly short and that the police showed up within a few minutes when in fact, it took them more than 1 hour to get there. Eventually, I think the movie would have worked better if they had focused only on Viljar who was such a strong character thanks to a really good Jonas Strand Gravli. Another detail that slightly bothered me was the way the characters spoke which became too elaborate, especially in the 3rd act. For example, when the lawyer Geir Lippestad says goodbye to Breivik, he refuses to shake his hand which was a good way to end this scene but, instead, he went on with a speech about how his children and grandchildren will stop people like him in the future which was just too heavy-handed. Eventually, even though such scenes were well meant, they didn’t improve the whole narrative after all. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it was still such a powerful story and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Paul Greengrass’s work.