Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of Steven Seagal but I was still intrigued by this movie since it was Seagal’s acting debut and since it was directed by Andrew Davis who had delivered some solid action flicks during his career. Well, it turned out to be seriously weak after all, in fact, even though it was barely 21:00 when I watched the damned thing, I still struggled to not fall asleep. Back then, following the release of this movie, Seagal was hailed as the next big action movie star but, to be honest, the guy was and still is such a weak actor. At least, he was a real Aikido master so the fight scenes were pretty good and Pam Grier was actually not bad at all as she was a different and interesting partner but that was pretty much the only positive things I could find regarding this movie. I mean, seriously, the story was a mess. Indeed, they tell you that the guy has learned martial arts in Japan, fought in the Vietnam war as a CIA agent and then became a cop in Chicago and that was only during the first 10 mins. Eventually, that’s probably what bother me the most with this actor, in this movie but also in general, was the fact that he is so pretentious. On a side note, Sharon Stone who was at the time one of the sexiest actress in the world played here probably her most boring character. Anyway, to conclude, I really didn’t like the damned thing, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I already saw this movie but, for some reason, I thought I might as well check it out again. I have to admit that, the first time around, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick and I was mostly interested by the nice cast involved. Well, the cast was indeed pretty good (Keira Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Sam Rockwell) and they all played some interesting and rather complex characters. Furthermore, it was dealing with something interesting, with the fact that even if you make some amazing friends during your teenage years, there is no guarantee that, 10 years later, you will still feel the same regarding these friends. So, the concept was interesting but, unfortunately, it was just rather poorly developed and, eventually, the story turned out be rather weird and even borderline idiotic. Indeed, when the main character started to struggle with her feeling towards her group of friends and even towards her boyfriend, what did she do? Well, she just disappeared and started to hang out with a group of teenagers…. Seriously, how was that supposed to be an improvement? How was it supposed to help her out in any way? However, it didn’t stop there and the whole thing became even more moronic when Megan decided to sleep over a whole week at this teenager’s house. The problem wasn’t that it was inappropriate, the problem was that it was just so weird as pointed out by Sam Rockwell’s character. And, of course, the fact that Megan fell in love with the father of her new friend didn’t help either. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I actually liked these characters, the concept actually had some potential and I think it is worth a look but there is no denying that the whole thing felt like a missed opportunity.

Since I have always been interested in  the writers of the Beat Generation, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, when watching this kind of movies dealing with the life of famous writers, I do fell slightly guilty. Indeed, instead of watching such movies, shouldn’t I be reading the books written by these great artists? At least, I have read a couple of books written by Jack Kerouack but I still haven’t read anything from Allen Ginsberg and, more important, still nothing from William S. Burroughs. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it turned out to be a decent watch even if it wasn’t maybe nothing really groundbreaking. Indeed, the beginning was rather weak as it is always a rather weak gimmick to start with a murder which will occur at the end. Then, they tried to introduce Allen Ginsberg’s home situation but this bit was just too short and it should have been either developed or removed completely.  Still, the makers chose an interesting part of their history as this murder had a huge impact on all these writers. Furthermore, the cast was really solid (Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Michael C. Hall, Ben Foster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Elizabeth Olsen, Kyra Sedgwick) . To conclude, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was not bad at all and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in the Beat generation. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was really eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I actually ended up with pretty much the same feeling I had with ‘Get Out’ which was another massively heralded horror flick released last year. Indeed, with both movies, the directing and acting were both really solid, it was really entertaining but, somehow, it still didn’t really blow me though away. I mean, sure, the concept was pretty neat and it was really nice to see a really good movie dealing with mutes after the terribly underwhelming ‘Mute’ from Duncan Jones but, at the end of the day, it was still a gimmick after all. Indeed, even though the characters did their best to be as silent as possible and even though they went through some massive precautions to remain safe, you know that, at some point, one of them will make some noise because, otherwise, there wouldn’t be a story to tell and it made the whole thing rather predictable. Still, I have to admit that it was a bold move to make a horror movie with barely any (spoken) dialog and, just after I was done watching this flick, I was suddenly so aware of the sounds around me and the sounds I was making myself which was just really neat. Anyway, to conclude, even if I didn’t think that it was really a masterpiece, it was still a really solid horror movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see something original. 

I really had no idea what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, it was pretty neat to see Paul Bettany playing the lead for once. Concerning the movie itself, it seemed to be another crime thriller about a top detective solving a murder case but it actually turned out to be about an actually rather average cop who completely f*cked-up an investigation with some dramatic consequences and this approach was quite refreshing. On top of that, the cast involved (Paul Bettany, Stephen Graham, Mark Strong, Brian Cox) gave some really solid performances. I also enjoyed the fact that they didn’t give so much information about Brian Cox character but you still could figure out that the guy was neither a great cop either and that his main method was mostly to frighten the suspects but also his collegues. Still, even though it turned out to be a decent watch, the whole thing was still too generic and predictable though. Indeed, basically, it was a variation on ‘Crime and Punishment’ but they didn’t add anything really new to the genre. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was not bad at all and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.