Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since it was ages ago, I thought I should check it out again. Well, to be honest, I didn’t remember much and I have to admit that it was actually not so bad after all. I mean, I still think that most of the plot was rather idiotic. Indeed, basically, it was some kind of modern Western involving some bouncers which wasn’t really a great mix. However, above all thanks to Patrick Swayze’s charisma, the damned thing was still watchable. There was also another thing that bothered me though. Indeed, one of the main idea was that the main character was some kind of Zen bouncer and that, according to him, violence should be used as a last resort and, in a fight, nobody actually wins and other things like that. And yet, almost all conflicts were resolved with some huge fights with many bystanders loving it. It was een worse with the ending as the main character killed off a whole bunch of henchmen with his bare hands. Of course, I’m well aware that you shouldn’t have such high expectations with a basic action flick like this one but, in my opinion, it made the whole thing looked really stupid. Anyway, to conclude, even though I didn’t like it much, I guess it might be worth a look but only if you really like the genre. 

Since I saw again ‘How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass’ recently, I thought it was really time to see this notorious movie directed by Melvin Van Peebles. Well, basically, it was a similar situation that we had with ‘Ed Wood’ which was a great movie about the making-off of ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’ which was pretty awful. I mean, this movie was not as bad as ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’ was but, to be honest, it wasn’t really good either. Indeed, half of it was about Sweetback running around and the other half was pretty much impossible to follow. Furthermore, it was rather poorly shot with some weak performances. And, yet, while watching this flick, you shouldn’t forget that it was a huge milestone. Indeed, pretty much like ‘Black Panther’ released in 2018 displayed that there could be successful blockbusters with a all black cast and crew, this movie broke many stereotypes concerning the black folks and even launched the Blaxploitation genre. Furthermore, that was also the good thing about watching ‘How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass’, was that it made clear that making this movie was difficult, mostly on a financial level but not only, and this struggle also deserves some respect. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look. 

Obviously, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. I had heard of these hardcore Christian movies but it was the first one I saw (for some reasons, I don't think ‘The Passion of the Christ’ belongs to the genre because of its high production value but I might be mistaken) but I was rather amazed and even appalled by the end-result. Indeed, the whole thing was basically some massive propaganda garbage based on the Rapture and it is rather scary and depressing that some people would actually believe that something like this will happen in the future. I mean, if I did understand correctly, it doesn’t really matter if you are a good or a bad person, it only matters if you put your faith in God and then, and only then, you will be saved and sent to Heaven. But it went further than that, apparently, you have to believe in the ‘right’ God since a Muslim who seemed to be a rather decent man wasn’t spared because of his faith. At least, they had the decency to save all the children regardless of their beliefs. Otherwise, everyone else, the drug addict, the gambler, the capitalist, the adulterer, the investigative journalist, the cute-opinionated-student-with-a-big-mouth, they were all pretty much doomed but, on the other hand, what really happened? Allright, millions of people just disappeared  suddenly but would such an event suddenly bring the collapse of the World? I doubt that. I mean, with a massive natural disaster, a nuclear world war, an alien invasion or a zombie outbreak, I could understand why but I thought it was rather far-fetched that it would happen so fast in such circumstances. And, of course, the whole thing looked terrible, especially the cheap CGI, the performances were so weak and the dialogues were borderline laughable. To conlude, the damned thing was pretty bad and you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick, especially after I watched the trailer which made the whole thing looked really lame. However, Nick, my step-son, was really eager to check it out so  I still saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released. Well, eventually, I have to admit that it was not so bad at all after all. I mean, sure, it was still nothing groundbreaking but, for a shark movie, it turned out to be actually fairly entertaining. Indeed, I was slightly worried about the jokes but even though those were barely funny, they didn’t turn out to be too annoying. Same thing with the romantic link between Jason Statham and Bingbing Li, it was pretty pathetic and they had no chemistry whatsoever but it wasn’t really a big deal either. But, obviously, this movie was mostly about a big fat shark and this beast was quite impressive. Concerning the complaints of Jason Statham that the movie didn’t turn out to be as gore as he had expected, it really didn’t bother me either. Indeed, the action scenes were pretty badass and I don’t think that tons of blood or seeing some shredded limbs in closed-up would have be such an improvement. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, it turned out to be a decent watch after all and I think it might be worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

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, even though this movie was a critical and commercial flop when it was released, to be honest, I don’t think it was so bad after all. Indeed, the whole thing looked amazing, the action scenes were badass and they managed to nail the mood of the original Japanese animated feature. However, even if the story was decent enough, unfortunately, they did make some mistakes though. Of course, there was the whole controversy about casting Scarlett Johansson in the lead role and I think she was indeed miscast but not because she is not Asian. I mean, since Johansson is one of the only bankable actresses in the world, it completey made sense that the producers chose her so the whole white-washing controversy was rather ridiculous and even Mamoru Oshii, the director of 'Kokaku Kidotai', gave his blessing. What bother me with her was the fact she was just too small to play the Major (1,60 meters), she wasn’t physically threatening enough and I never had the feeling that she was actually a lethal killing machine. Furthermore, even though she is usually a decent actress, I thought she gave a rather weak performance which was rather surprising since she complained nailed it a couple of years ago with a similar character in ‘Under the Skin’. On the other hand, she wasn’t helped by the fact that they pretty much ruined her character. Indeed, one of the major trademarks of ‘Ghost in Shell’ is the fact that the Major is a cold, mysterious and ambiguous character. The fact that she might be struggling with her identity was always only implied and never really stated but, in this US version, it became a major focus which completely changed this character and, in the process, she became just too weak and emotional. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think that it could have been so much worse and I believe it is actually worth a look, especially if you like the genre.