Reviews by johanlefourbe

Right now, Disney is having another huge box-office hit with 'Beauty and the Beast' showing that the audience is apparently really eager to watch more of these live-adaptations of their most famous fairy tales. Obviously, this new trend didn't go unnoticed by the competition and Warner Bros decided to deliver another adaptation of 'Peter Pan'. Unfortunately, their plan backfired and the whole thing turned out to be one of the biggest flops released in 2015. The first issue was that it was, in my opinion,  a rather misguided idea to tell the origin of this classic character. Indeed, one of the major appeals about him was in fact the cloud of mystery around his background. Anyway, even if you would be open for this concept, it doesn't change the fact that the whole thing was just a mess. Indeed, why did it start during WWII? Why was Neverland suddenly a floating island with some flying pirate ships all over the place? Why on Earth would they all sing a Nirvana song out of the blue? There was a big fuss at the time that Rooney Mara was playing an Indian but I was actually more bothered by the fact that she and Captain Hook were about the same age which didn't make any sense. I mean, either you make the decision that you can't grow old in Neverland which wouldn't work since Blackbeard's whole plan was about becoming immortal or Tiger Lily should have been much younger, about Peter Pan's age. Eventually, the only interesting idea was to show that Peter Pan and Captain Hook were actually friends at first but even this idea was rather poorly developed. Anyway, I think my rating might be too generous here but I guess it might be, after all, actually enjoyable for its target audience, the (very) young kids, but, as far as I was concerned, I didn't care much for the damned thing.

Recently, I have been re-watching the whole trilogy directed by Sam Raimi and, even though I don't think I'm a huge fan, I enjoyed all these movies so I thought it would be pretty neat to end up with this remake, especially since it was rather well received when it was released. Well, to be honest, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing. I mean, sure, it was technically well done, I also appreciate the fact that they wanted to go into a really different direction than with the original movie and it was pretty neat to see all these nods to the original trilogy but, eventually, the whole thing turned out to be really boring. It comes down to what would you get if you would remove the humor and Ash from 'The Evil Dead'? Basically, a rather typical and tedious slasher flick. Indeed, these 2 elements were what made 'The Evil Dead' stand out among the other horror flicks so to remove these ingredients might have been an interesting idea but it didn't really work for me, I'm afraid. On top of that, I didn't help that I didn't care for any of the characters involved. At first, I was also rather worried by the fact that they added this cold turkey sub-plot which sounded really generic but, then, it did help to explain Mia's erratic behavior. Still, even this gimmick worked only for 5 minutes. Anyway, to conclude, my rating might be a little bit harsh but I thought it was just really tedious  and I don't think it is really worth a look. 

Since this movie didn't get much love after its release, I didn't expect much but since I have a weak spot for Stephen Frears's work and since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it definitely turned out to be pretty weak, in fact, I'm pretty sure it is the weakest movie I have seen from Frears so far. I mean, it was basically one of these movies starting with a very lame introduction and, after the first 5 minutes, I already knew the whole thing was pretty much hopeless. In fact, I do believe that gambling is a fascinating subject but, for one thing, they completely messed up the tone. Basically, they went for some kind of manic quirky comedy which was just completely misguided. Seriously, if you would believe this movie, in case you would lose 10 thousands of dollars with a bad gamble, you shouldn't need to worry as nobody will come up to break your fingers if you don't pay. Instead, your bookie will provide you with a plan to pay up your debts or, even worse, will help you to make an ever bigger gamble to cover your debts (both things actually happened during this movie ). I felt above all sad for the charming and seemingly talented Rebecca Hall who, for once, had the opportunity to play the lead but it turned out to be some rather clueless stripper version of Erin Brockovich. On top of that, her character was just so poorly written,  she somehow completely changed after she was (rightfully) fired for flirting with her married boss. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here,  the damned thing was a just really weak comedy and I don't think it is worth a look.

Since this movie had been very well received, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the first tricky thing about this movie was that even though it was partially dealing with the genetical links involved in a family, in fact, since the 2 boys were obviously some actors, they didn't have any biological link with either families so it felt somehow as if they were in fact switching some adopted children. I know, it doesn't sound really doable or practical but I think it would have worked better if they had somehow managed to cast some actors with their actual own children. Furthermore, the 'rich' dad was such a douchebag, it was actually rather difficult to swallow. I mean, seriously, from the moment he was told that he might have another son, he started to act as if he could make it 'right' this time around which was just so infuriating. And, yes, even with his biological son, the end-result turned out to be rather disappointing which demonstrated that the guy was after all just a lousy father. Still, the whole thing was quite heartbreaking with some nice and sober directing and some really strong performances. I also enjoyed the ending which displayed that there was still an alternative to make sure that both families were not completely torn apart. Anyway, even though the whole thing didn't completely work for me, it was still a solid drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I kept hearing some really great things about this movie, I was really eager to check it out and when I heard we would watch it with my film club, I was just thrilled. Indeed, it would be the first horror movie chosen for our film club so my expectations were really high. Unfortunately, even though it turned out to be a decent watch, I can't say I was really blown away by the damned thing though. I mean, to be honest, after watching this movie, I was actually wondering why the critics loved it so much. Seriously, the structure was just really classic and predictable and, from the moment the mystery was revealed, as usual in this genre, the whole thing went just way over the top and, to be honest, I had a rather hard time to really care about what happened afterwards. Still, even though it didn't turn out to be such a masterpiece, it was still fairly entertaining. Indeed, Daniel Kaluuya gave a really a solid performance and even though his character went through some completely unbelievable nonsense, he kept it really grounded and I was always rooting for the guy. His buddy Rodney was also pure gold and, in fact, I wish they brought him as well in this demented journey. Anyway, to conclude, even though I think it is actually overrated and even though I think my rating might be actually generous here, it is definitely worth a look though.

For some rather obscure reason, it has been a movie that I wanted to watch for so many years. I mean, before watching the damned thing, I didn't even know that it was actually dealing with Henry Miller, one of my favorite writers. Well, eventually, even though the material was quite awesome and this movie had some potential to be amazing, it turned to be only a decent watch, I'm afraid. The first thing that bothered me was, while most of the cast was pretty much spot on (Maria de Medeiros, Uma Thurman, Richard E. Grant), I thought that Fred Ward was a really disappointing choice to play Henry Miller. Indeed, I have nothing really against Ward, he was apparently a last minute replacement after Alec Baldwin left this project just before they started to shoot, but the guy was never really convincing and I never believed that I was watching one of the greatest American writers. Concerning the rest of the movie, well, it seems that Philip Kaufman really struggled to present these larger-than-life characters and their inner struggle. As a result, the whole thing felt really random and while it was interesting, it was never really fascinating to behold. To conclude, even though it turned out to be rather disappointing, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested by this subject.

Of course, I already saw this movie, in fact, I even saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released but I never saw it again afterwards so I was really eager to check it out again. The most interesting thing about this 2nd sequel is that it stands out so much from its predecessors. Indeed, while the previous movies were some horror comedies, this movie was some kind of daft time-travel adventure, actually pretty similar to 'Back to the Future Part III', and in fact, I believe that this movie can be quite enjoyable for kids around 12 years old while the rest of the Evil Dead franchise could be hardly considered as some family viewing material. I think it was a really nice move from Sam Raimi to go with something completely different because most sequels keep endlessly repeating the same formula every time again with some usually rather disappointing results (as a matter of fact, there are some debates that 'Evil Dead II' could be in fact a remake and not an actual sequel to 'The Evil Dead'). Still, even though Ash was fun with a solid Bruce Campbell, at the end of the day, it remains a really silly movie. Furthermore, even if I must have loved the climatic fight scene against the army of darkness when I first watched it as a kid many many years ago, this time around, I thought it took much of the running time and it became rather boring and repetitive at some point. At least, Embeth Davidtz was easily the best love interest in this franchise, by far. To conclude, even though this movie might not be a classic, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I didn't expect much from this movie but since I had a weak spot for Olivia Munn, I thought I might as well check it out. Well,  it was pretty neat that for once she was playing one of the leads and she did look really gorgeous but I'm afraid it was still not enough to make this movie worth my time. Indeed, it turned out to be a really lame raunchy comedy. Basically, it was one of these comedies with a really weak concept so it was pretty much hopeless right from the very beginning. I mean, there were a couple of decent jokes here and there but most of it was just pathetic and not funny at all. Seriously, it was actually the 2nd time around this year that I saw a guy in a sperm bank knocking down a shelve full of sperm samples on himself and it was still more cringe-inducing than hilarious  this time around. At least, the damned thing was slightly better than 'Beerfest', also directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, which was really abysmal but it doesn't mean much. Anyway, to conclude, it would be great to see Olivia Munn in a really good R rated comedy one day but, in the mean time, you should rather skip this one.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Hugh Jackman, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it was really similar to 'Cool Runnings', that's for sure, in fact, the Jamaican bobsled team was involved in the same Olympic games as Eddie Edwards was. However, the big difference between these 2 movie was that, when I watched 'Cool Runnings', I was just a kid, and to watch such a tale as a grown-up, it didn't really work so well, I'm afraid. Indeed, the formula was just so obvious and the whole thing was just too generic and predictable. Furthemore, the quirkiness and mannerisms displayed by Edwards was actually more annoying than really entertaining but the performance by Taron Egerton was actually apparently quite accurate. And, yet, I have to admit that the damned thing actually slowly won me over. Indeed, even though you could easily figure out which jump he would pull off or not, I have to admit that his 2 jumps at the Olympic games were quite exciting. Finally, in this age, when top athletes have become some kind of super stars and are paid some ridiculous amounts of money, Eddie Edwards was actually really inspirational and displayed what sport really should be about which is doing your very best regardless of the results and have a bloody good time. 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.