Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. I already saw the remake with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis at some point but, to be honest, it was a while back and I don’t remember much about it. Well, this 1st version is usually considered as one of the better Disney live-features (before they became this massive entertainment juggernaut including Marvel and Star Wars among many things) but it doesn’t mean much. On top of that, I have never been a huge fan of the body swap genre, even if this movie is usually considered as one of the best in this genre. Eventually, what bothered me the most was how outdated the damned thing was nowadays. Indeed, Mrs Andrews AKA the Mother was basically a housewife stuck at home and her life was limited to doing endless chores, especially for her husband which was, in my opinion, really demeaning. The most annoying thing was that the way her life was depicted in this movie was supposed to be funny but I thought it was actually rather cringe-inducing. On the other hand, Annabel was such a pitch-perfect teenager portrayal though, probably one of the best I have ever seen, which was even more impressive coming from a film which was made around 50 years ago. The fact that Jodie Foster was really 13 years old when she shot this movie instead of a few years older which is very often the case in the genre also helped but the main reason was that Jodie Foster, before she became one of the best actresses of her generation, was actually a really talented child actress. Anyway, to conclude, even though I actually had a hard time to care about the damned thing, I have to admit that it was not bad though and it is worth a look, at least, if you really like the genre. 

To be honest, 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. From the 3 directorial efforts Elizabeth Banks has churned out so far, well, I think it was the most satisfying one. Sure, if you hear the title and you think that it sounds like a stupid movie and above all, a waste of time, then this movie is not for you and you should probably skip it. As far as I was concerned, it was a really daft concept and Banks certainly did her best to deliver a seriously wacky movie. My favorite bit was probably the one with these paramedics which ended up with a really wild and insane chase with an ambulance and this coked-up bear. Did this movie completely work though? Well, even though I have to admit that Banks almost pulled it off, it wasn’t a complete success though. The main issue was that they kept throwing pretty much everything they could think off and, well, half of it was rather half-baked. For example, it was a good idea that Ray Liotta playing a major drug lord would spend almost the whole running time taking care of his grand-kid, that was funny. However, the whole sub-plot about his son played by Alden Ehrenreich who was depressed because his wife/ex/girlfriend/whatever passed away was neither interesting or entertaining enough. As a result, his relationship with his friend/dealer/colleague/whatever played by O'Shea Jackson Jr. was also rather underwhelming, even though both actors can be actually pretty good. However, their biggest misfire was to have these 2 very young kids doing some coke… Sure, somewhere in the world, you will have such young children doing hard drugs, that wasn’t the issue, the issue was that, in this case, it was supposed to be funny when it was probably one of the most cringe-inducing scenes I have ever seen. It now reminds me of a Dutch rom-com I saw during which a kid did swallow some Viagra by accident which was just so lame but this was actually even worse. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent B feature and I think it is actually worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

To be honest, since this movie got some rather poor reviews, I wasn’t expecting much but I have been following the MCU ever since ‘Iron Man’ was released so I was still eager to check this last instalment. Well, unfortunately, I would I have to agree as it was possibly the weakest MCU film I have seen so far. It’s too bad because the first movie starring a black Captain America could have been a huge event. The issue with Captain America is that, pretty much like DC’s Superman, the character himself is already actually pretty boring and, what was disheartening with this last movie, was that they managed to make this African-American version even more boring than the classic Caucasian version. To make it even worse, they gave him a completely bland supposedly wise-cracking sidekick who was so tedious obviously to make this Captain America slightly more charismatic than he actually was. Concerning the idea of going back to ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and bring back Samuel Sterns and Betty Ross, sure, why not? Unfortunately, the plot was just terribly generic and underwhelming. I mean, the Leader is/was supposed to be a super smart villain so the possibility were pretty much endless but then, he basically hypnotized random people so he could avenge himself which was probably one of the most predictable plots you could think of. Concerning the Red Hulk, they really put the character everywhere on the promotional material but, eventually, he only showed up during the last 20 mins and, to be honest, except for the color, he displayed exactly the same behavior as the classic green version so the character did feel rather pointless. Anyway, to conclude, I actually think I was rather generous with my rating here, I guess we shouldn’t expect so much from a super-hero flick (at least, not anymore) but, with such a groundbreaking main character, it could or should have been so much more awesome than this tepid end-result. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since this prequel was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though this new installment doesn’t seem to have a great reputation, to be honest, I don’t think it was bad at all actually. Basically, one thing that always bothered me with this franchise was that the concept didn’t really make much sense to me. Indeed, why would the violence stop if you would allow people to do whatever they want for 12 hours? However, the context around the purge was much more developed than in the previous movies (especially with the very first movie which was so frustrating in that regard) so this movie was the one that made the most sense to me which resulted in a more rewarding viewing experience. Basically, they finally displayed that, outside the purge, there is still actually some criminality, even if the purge supposedly helped drastically dropped the criminality (after watching this movie, it is really doubtful though). Then, they also displayed that the whole concept is actually bogus since white militias were dropped to wipe out some whole black neighborhoods. Finally, I always had some doubts about the psychological ‘merits’ of the purge and, with this movie, it became obvious that it was above all a political tool after all. So, I actually liked the approach they took for this prequel but, unfortunately, pretty much nothing else did work in this movie though. Sure, it is always nice to see Marisa Tomei but there is not much she could do with such a half-baked character. The rest of the cast was even worse though as they all gave such weak performances but, on the other hand, they were not helped by the fact that all their characters were really poorly developed and not interesting whatsoever. The action scenes were also all rather underwhelming. Anyway, to conclude, I might be too generous with my rating here but I think it is worth a look but probably only if you really like the genre.  

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Fritz Lang and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it was less obscure than the other movies I have seen from the 20’s and even though it seemed to have a decent reputation, to be honest, I had a rather hard time to get into the damned thing though. It’s the oldest movie I saw from Fritz Lang (I have to admit that I completely forgot that I also watched ‘Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler’ about 2 years ago which was released only 1 year later) but, even though there were some interesting ideas, the whole thing was just too disjointed for me. At some point, he completely deviated from the main story to tell 3 different tales taking place in different locations which was obviously an excuse Lang used to indulge himself. The Arabic and Italian tales were not bad at all, the production design was pretty cool, however, with the Chinese tale, it was really cringe-inducing to see the same (Caucasian) actors playing some Asian characters as well (It then reminded me of ‘Cloud Atlas’ which used the same trick of using the same actors to play characters with various ethnicities and it did receive some huge criticism back then). On the other hand, I have to admit that this Asian segment was the wildest one with some magical stuff involved. However, the issue with these 3 separate segments was that they had no impact whatsoever on the main tale after all so it all felt rather pointless to me. At least, visually speaking, it was pretty good for a movie made in the 20’s, I also really liked the way they depicted Death and I’m pretty sure it did inspire many movies that came afterwards. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work for me, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Fritz Lang’s work. 

Since I heard some pretty good things about this flick and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Of course, I had heard of the West Memphis Three (I have even watched ‘Devil’s Knot’ which was probably one of Atom Egoyan’s weakest directorial efforts) but I haven’t watched the ‘Paradise Lost’ trilogy (on the other hand, I’m not sure if I would need to watch 7 hrs on this topic) but, with this documentary, they covered pretty much the whole case so if you would watch only one movie, it would be the best option. Anyway, it was such a heartbreaking story, not only 3 young boys were brutally murdered but also 3 other young boys had to spend 20 years in jail for a crime they obviously didn’t commit. While watching this movie, I was thinking about some fictional crime shows I have been watching like ‘True Detective’ when you get to see some incredibly smart detectives but I think that, in reality, many (most?) police officers involved in such cases are actually vastly incompetent. I mean, even though it was a wild story in the media in the 80’s and 90’s, the whole satanic angle has been debunked by the FBI, it was actually never a thing. Anyway, it was quite ridiculous how they went for this and the locals completely eat it up. Then, there was the fact that they had no evidence whatsoever, that at least one of them had 5 people testifying he was not  even near this area and, finally, that they coerced a confession from the weakest minded of them after interrogating him for hours. The only thing that didn’t really work for me was the focus on Terry Hobbs’s possible guiltiness which was, in my opinion, rather inappropriate. I’m not saying that Hobbs couldn’t have possibly did it but the evidence against him was too thin in my opinion. Above all, the bulk of what they had against him was some testimonies of people talking about him and what happened almost 20 years after the fact. Basically, just like with the West Memphis Three, these testimonies were just not reliable at all (seriously, don’t ask my ex-wife what I might have done 20 years ago… She might tell you the most terrible stories) and I’m really surprised that they went down this road. In fact, even though it was barely mentioned in this movie, a similar thing already happened to John Mark Byers who also became a suspect at some point during the 2000’s. Anyway, to conclude, this movie was another proof that the judicial system in the US is pretty much a joke, especially if you are poor and this movie is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject. 

I have been following Pedro Almodovar’s career for maybe 30 years so, of course, I was quite interested in his first full-length feature (before that, he also did a few shorts in English, to practice, but I haven’t seen these). To be honest, I needed a few mins to adjust myself to the fact that the characters wouldn’t be speaking Spanish as everything else from the production design and the music felt so like some Almodovar stuff. Well, I did think it was a decent watch but, to be honest, it wasn’t one of his best movies though. Obviously, the cool thing was to see him working with some of the best English-speaking actresses in the world, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, and as long as the movie was focusing on them, it was pretty much rock-solid. Indeed, you don’t really get to know about their past together (I actually thought at first that they were at some point a lesbian couple which wasn’t the case at all after all), but they had some instant chemistry together which was really nice to see. Unfortunately, when he did try to wander somewhere else, especially with anything with a more direct link with the US culture, he didn’t fair so well, I’m afraid. I mean, if you’re going to mention the Vietnam war, a massive traumatic experience for the American people, and do nothing interesting with it, except using it as the reason why a couple didn’t work out, then you should maybe restrain yourself. There was also a rather weak scene involving a burning house which felt like a complete failed attempt to show the American mid-West. I think it was also a mistake to bring back Tilda Swinton to play the daughter because it felt like an unnecessary gimmick, especially since it was only for 5 mins. Anyway, to conclude, even an average Almodovar is still pretty damned good and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in the work of the Spanish master.