Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since this movie had some really abysmal ratings on IMDb, I had some low expectations but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, eventually, even though it was definitely rather weak, there is no way this movie deserved such a low rating (2.6). Indeed, the topic was maybe not original but it was interesting, the directing was decent enough and, above all, there was a solid cast involved (Kelvin Harrison Jr., Charlie Plummer, John Corbett, Jonathan Majors, Robin Givens, Amber Heard, Terrence Howard) so I wonder from where this hatred came from. Anyway, I have to admit that the damned thing still didn’t really work though. First of all, the concept of 3 disgruntled young men hanging aimlessly in the hood was not a bad idea but it was nothing new and it had already been done so many times before and, above all, much better than in this movie. For some reason, it did remind me of ‘La haine’, a huge French classic in this genre and, when if you would compare both movies, it then becomes pretty obvious what went wrong here. Indeed, the whole point was to show these guys hanging around which was the main focus. However, it should have been also the only focus but it was definitely not the case here and the whole thing felt so disjointed as a result. Indeed, instead, they gave each young man in this trio such a complex sub-plot that they could have ditched the 2 other guys and focus only on one of them. To make things worse, with barely 80 mins, there was obviously no enough time to develop any of this so it all felt really half-baked and it all barely made sense as well. For example, who was John Corbett’s character and what was exactly his relationship with Jesse? Same thing with Amber Heard (who was pretty bad here, by the way), who was she and what was exactly her relationship with Nicky? Anyway, to conclude, even if the IMDb users were really harsh on this movie, I have to admit that it was still not really worth a look and you should probably avoid it. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since I have a weak spot for Virginie Efira, I thought I might as well check it out. We have all heard about these (true) stories about some men having 2 families at the same time over several decades. Well, this movie basically tackled the idea of how it would be if a woman would actually choose this ‘lifestyle’. Of course, for a woman, you have the issues of getting pregnant and giving birth so, in this case, half of the movie was some kind of mystery during which you wonder how the main character did end up in this situation. To be honest, I’m not sure that the explanation did make sense. I think I was above all bothered by the fact that, out of nowhere, this little girl somehow managed to figure this all out by herself which was, frankly, rather ridiculous. Indeed, kids don’t have some kind of magical instinct, they get attached to whoever takes care of them and even more to those who are kind to them and I can’t imagine how traumatizing this ‘arrangement’ could have been for her and the way they ‘solved’ this in this movie was actually rather pathetic and unconvincing. There was also the fact that, considering how old Ninon was, they had been apparently doing this for several years already which just seemed unthinkable and even grotesque. So, the concept was at first intriguing but it became rather shaky when it became clear what was actually going on. However, what really worked was Efira though. Indeed, she impressed me once again playing such a complex character who was pretty messed up and, yet, she was always so convincing and quite spellbinding to behold. 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 Nick, my step-son, is a big fan of such monsters movie so we still ended up watching it in the movie theater when it was released. In fact, ever since ‘Godzilla’ was released 10 years ago, we have seen all the movies in this franchise when they were released but, to be honest, I barely remember any of them though. Eventually, the only real issue was the fact that, to keep this franchise going, the mythology is becoming increasingly convoluted but, even if this new installment was nothing really amazing, it might actually be the best of the bunch so far though, no less than that. Indeed, I did appreciate the fact that they didn’t take themselves too seriously this time around and, above all, Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens were actually quite fun together. Furthermore, their approach was to focus on only a smaller group of human characters which was definitely a wise choice as it was definitely an issue with the previous installments which very often had to deal with a dozen of really half-baked individuals. The other thing I enjoyed was the fact that all the massive fights involving these huge monsters were in broad daylight and not at night and/or under some heavy rain which is too often the case in this genre (it was something that really bothered me with ‘Pacific Rim’ for example). It is also pretty neat that Adam Wingard apparently understands that such brainless blockbusters never need to last more than 2 hrs. Still, it is rather weird that, even though Godzilla is one of the main draws, he does show up only for 10 mins in each film.  Anyway, to conclude, even if I will probably forget most about it within a few days, I have to admit that it was a decent watch and it is actually worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list, among other things), I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though I did like the damned thing, to be honest, it didn’t completely win me over though. Above all, in my opinion, the whole thing was rather messy. The best example would be the very first scene. Indeed, it felt as if they skipped something as none of the characters were properly introduced. I mean, who was Lulu? Where did she come from? How did she end up in this apartment? Who were all these guys trying to get her attention? After that, a lot of things did happen to her (she even ended up in the arms of Jack the Ripper) but, at the same time, you learn so very little about Lulu after all. Indeed, what was she thinking or feeling during all this? And, yet, the damned thing was still quite spellbinding to behold, above all, because Louise Brooks had such a magnetic screen presence. After watching this movie, it is rather surprising that she didn’t have a great career afterwards (she did become super famous after this movie was released but it didn’t last). Anyway, from the first moment she showed up on the screen, I was just hooked and she was definitely one of the most mesmerizing women I ever saw. There was also something about her acting. At the time, it was apparently misunderstood because she was going for such a naturalistic acting, she was basically ahead of the game for several decades and the audience back then had no idea how to deal with it. Anyway, to conclude, even if the movie itself didn’t really work, it was still pretty good though and it is definitely worth a look if only to discover Louise Brooks.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but, since I have a weak spot for Dakota Johnson and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I thought it was rather hard to judge the damned thing after all. The funny thing is that I actually saw the day before ‘Wild Rose’ starring [Link removed - login to see] and one of the things that I did appreciate with this movie was that they didn’t sugarcoat the whole thing by having the main character meet some powerful producer who launched her career and made her super famous in the process. Well, in this case, they went for the complete opposite and the damned thing was basically some kind of fairy tale which didn't have much to do with the reality. The other thing that bothered me was that, once again, it displayed how awful it seems to be working as a personal assistant. Seriously, they always make it seems as if it is one of the worst jobs on Earth and it would be refreshing to see some PA having a fulfilling job that they actually enjoy. And, yet, I have to admit that that the damned thing was not a total disaster though. Indeed, even though I didn’t believe for a second that Dakota Johnson was such a talented producer, she was still quite charming and charismatic. Furthermore, I had never heard of Tracee Ellis Ross before (it turns out that she is actually Diana Ross’s daughter which did add an extra meta layer) and she was not bad either, even though none of her songs really impressed me. Anyway, to conclude, even though the story was rather convoluted and barely worked, it was still rather harmless and I guess it is worth a look but probably only if you really like the genre. 

Since I have a weak spot for [Link removed - login to see] and since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, the movie itself didn’t turn out to be great after all though. At least, they didn’t make the mistake of turning the whole thing into some kind of Hollywood fairy tale during which the main character met some powerful producer who launched her career and made her mighty famous. Unfortunately, the story still didn’t really work though. The first issue was the lack of information regarding how Rose-Lynn really was before she went to prison. Sure, she had been ‘wild’ but how wild exactly? I mean, she had been to prison for a year but her kids reacted as if they had no contact with her for much longer than that. However, an even bigger issue was that the character was roaming around aimlessly for just way too long. Eventually, she needed the whole movie to figure out that, if she really wanted to succeed in this business, even if she was really talented, the only way was to really work at her craft and she might get there at some point. Anyway, even if the approach they took was rather frustrating, the damned thing still worked out though because Jessie Buckley gave here such a star-making performance. Indeed, even though the story itself had some issues, she was just so convincing, delivering such a fully developed and complex character. The fact that she is a strong singer of course really helped as well. Basically, she was just quite spellbinding to behold which is even more impressive when you think that it was only her 2^nd acting credit. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, thanks to an amazing Jessie Buckley, the damned thing was still definitely worth a look. 

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. Eventually, it was surprising how similar it was to ‘The Killer’, the last directorial effort by David Fincher. However, if Fincher’s movie turned out to be slightly disappointing, this movie displayed what would have been the end-result if it would have been directed by a 3^rd rate director and starring a 3^rd rate actor to play the main character. On the other hand, they were not helped by the fact that the story didn’t make much sense. Basically, both movies followed a similar plot. Indeed, there was a 1^st assignment which went smoothly, a 2^nd assignment which was botched and then his employer hatched up a plan to get rid off this killer. Sure, it might sound like a spoiler but it was pretty obvious what was the real purpose of this 3^rd assignment and the fact that the main character, who was supposed to be a ‘virtuoso’, didn’t figure this out by himself before was rather pathetic. To make things worse, this 3^rd assignment was just ludicrous. Indeed, how was he supposed to kill his target if he didn’t have an actual name or a picture and only some obscure code and a specific location? As a result, he started to wipe out everybody who showed up at this diner instead of walking away which again didn’t make sense. The fact that he only did spare the waitress was not a big issue (he didn’t seem keen to kill random innocent people) but there was no good reason whatsoever why he should have spent so much time with her while being on a job. Concerning the cast, I have to admit that I’m not familiar with Anson Mount’s work but the guy certainly didn’t impress me with his wooden acting and he felt like a cheap Arnold Schwarzenegger’s clone without the body-builder frame. Concerning Abbie Cornish, I noticed that she was much more chubby than usual but she was still really lovely and it worked actually fairly well to play this ‘waitress’ character. Anyway, to conclude, even though I do have a weak spot for the genre, the damned thing was rather weak and you should probably avoid it. 

I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but, since it was starring Liam Neeson, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, unfortunately, it turned out to be yet another completely forgettable B action flick which Neeson has kept doing ever since ‘Taken’ turned out to be a surprise  success. To be honest, you would wish that, at 70 years old, he would finally be getting too old for this kind of movies. However, some other actors like Sylvester Stallone displayed that you can keep showing up in such movies pretty much forever. Anyway, coming back to the movie itself, it’s not that it was really bad after all, it was mostly terribly generic and derivative. Still, the story didn’t make much sense though. Indeed, if you would believe the movie which was actually never clear about that point, the cartel was chasing this woman and her son because one of their relatives had stolen money from the cartel and gave it to them. First of all, running with some stolen drug money was hardly a good plan but, above all, after this relative and this woman were killed fairly early on, why on Earth would this cartel keep chasing this little boy through the US? I mean, they did have indeed a bag of money but it didn’t seem that much though and, above all, it hardly seemed worth the trouble. Concerning Neeson, he was not bad but this material is just beneath him and I hope he will finally find something more interesting to do with his time in the foreseeable future. Concerning Katheryn Winnick, I have to admit that I’m not familiar with her work but it is the 2^nd movie I have seen with her recently and, even though she is quite gorgeous, I was amazed by how weak she was once again. I really hope she is better in ‘Vikings’ if I ever manage to watch this hit TV-show. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather harmless, it was still pretty weak and you should probably avoid it. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but, since I have a weak spot for [Link removed - login to see], I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I didn’t expect the damned thing to be so weak after all. Eventually, it seems that the makers watched too many movies directed by Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie but I’m afraid the end-result was more pathetic than actually entertaining. The very first scene was a perfect example as you get to see these 2 thugs talking about one of their romantic relationships just before starting a heist which seemed directly lifted from ‘Pulp Fiction’. At least, Olivia Cooke was really charming and charismatic but she was pretty much the only thing that did work in this movie. Indeed, she managed to do a lot with a character who turned out to be barely interesting after all. Still, even though I can see how it would be an interesting challenge for her to play an Irish character, you might wonder why they hired an English actress to play this part. On the other hand, they also ended up with Alec Baldwin playing an Irish drug-dealing homicidal priest which was probably one of the weirdest casting choices I have seen in a very long time. Coming back on the movie itself, the plot was terribly generic and barely entertaining and, even though they obviously tried to emulate Tarantino and/or Ritchie, the dialogues were terribly flat and hardly fun. To be honest, it felt as if the damned thing didn’t have any pulse whatsoever. It was the same thing with the characters, Pixie was not bad thanks to Cooke but all the other characters involved were just poorly developed but, above all, so boring to behold. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t a complete disaster, it was still really tedious and you should probably avoid it.