Posted : 7 years, 7 months ago on 5 August 2017 04:24
(A review of
Cars 3)
I was spending the week-end at my parents's house and since my little nephew wanted to check this movie, I thought I might as well check it out as well. Furthermore, since I heard it was the best installment in this franchise, I thought it might turn out to be a decent watch. Well, eventually, even though I think that my nephew did enjoy the damned thing, I really had a hard time to understand what was supposedly so good about this movie. I mean, sure, the animation was solid (it was nothing amazing though) but I Ā was rather suprised about how boring the story was after all. Before this movie was released, there was some interesting buzz about the fact that it was much darker than its predecessors but, eventually, its so-called darkness turned out to be vastly exaggerrated. I mean, sure, you get to see Lightning McQueen having a massive crash, something that was vastly exploited and displayed everywhere in the posters and in the trailers, but that was about it, everything else in the movie was seriously generic, predictable and rather tedious to behold and there was absolutely nothing dark at all about this tale. In fact, even though 'Cars 2' has a rather lame reputation, I actually enjoyed it slightly more than this borefest. Anyway, to conclude, even though the kids might love it (my 11 year old daughter actually clearly stated that she didn't care for it at all), it was nothing really amazing whatsoever and I hope Pixar will now finally drop this boring franchise.
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Posted : 7 years, 7 months ago on 4 August 2017 06:56
(A review of
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956))
Since this movie has a really solid reputation, I was really eager to check it out. First of all, it is too bad that I saw before two really weak remakes ('Body Snatchers' and 'The Invasion'), without mentioning the countless copycats such as 'The World's End', as they slightly ruined the story for me. I mean, right from the very start, I already knew how the whole thing was going to play out and, as a result, it didn't have such a huge impact. Still, it must have been pretty neat to see this movie in the 50's, when the formula was completely new. Furthermore, I wish they didn't force Don Siegel to add an introduction and this happy-end because the movie, above all with a bleaker ending, would have worked better. Still, it is a really solid horror flick, terribly effective and entertaining. Concerning the actors involved, to be honest, I didn't care much for Kevin McCarthy but he was not bad at all but, on the other hand, I was quite mesmerized by Dana Wynter who was simply quite gorgeous to look at. To conclude, even if it is 60 years old, it still works fine, it is a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.Ā
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Posted : 7 years, 7 months ago on 2 August 2017 10:25
(A review of
L'ordre et la morale)
What the hell happened to Mathieu Kassovitz's directing career? After the massive critical success of 'La haine', he became overnight the most promising French director at the time. Unfortunately, after the huge failure of 'Babylon A.D.', he decided to finish this pet project on which he spent maybe 10 years but it was again another misfire which was barely seen and rather poorly received and he hasn't made another movie since then. Well, I was still eager to watch the damned thing and I thought it was actually not bad at all. Indeed, it even reminded me of 'Paths of Glory', one of my favorite movies directed by Stanley Kubrick. However, a big difference between these movies was while Kubrick's classic was about WWI, this movie was about a rather obscure conflict whichĀ lasted only a weekĀ in New Caledonia with maybe 40 casualties. So, even though Kassovitz obviously thought that there was a major story to be told here, he was probably the only one, Iām afraid. Another mistake was to cast himself as the lead. I mean, he wasnāt really bad but it would have worked better with an older actor and, above all, his casting reinforced the whole egotrip feeling of this project. Finally, the other problem with this movie was that, even though it was dealing with a Kanak rebellion, the Kanaks didnāt have much to do as they passively waited on the sideline that the French characters would influence positively or negatively the outcome of this rebellion. And, of course, the ending which you could be translated like āIf truth hurts, lies killā was just so prententious. Still, in spite of its flaws, even though the whole thing was eventually a rather misguided project, I thought it was a well made historical thriller and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Mathieu Kassovitz's work.Ā
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Posted : 7 years, 7 months ago on 2 August 2017 08:03
(A review of
The Witches of Eastwick)
I already saw this movie but since it was more than 20 years ago, I was quite eager to check it out again. Well, to be honest, even though I thought it was pretty neat when I was a kid, in fact, it is not really a good movie, Iām afraid. I mean, there were some nice bits, here and there, Jack Nicholson had a lot of fun with this character and they couldnāt have picked up a more gorgeous trio of actresses but, unfortunately, the whole thing was just too silly and convoluted. For example, Daryl van Horn first tries to seduce Alexandra who rejects his proposal , which made made sense, but then, he gives her another speech and she falls for him which was completely unconvincing. In the following scene, Daryl seduces Jane and it really worked fine this time. Finally, it seemed that they ran ouf of time so they just skipped Ā a similar scene involving Sukie. As a result, the motivation of these 3 women was never properly developed and they focused too much on the one-man-show delivered by Jack Nicholson. Furthermore, there were also some major plot-holes like, for example, why had Veronica Cartwrightās character such a fixation towards these women and Daryl? Towards the end, they also used some magic book to stop Daryl but how did they know that he had this book, how did they know where to find it and how to use it? In fact, this movie was actually the first one made by George Miller in the USA and it was apparently a really difficult shoot with many conflicts with the studio and he really struggled to get more or less the movie he wanted to shoot. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is a decent watch, above all thanks to a strong Jack Nicholson and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.Ā
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Posted : 7 years, 7 months ago on 1 August 2017 08:19
(A review of
While We're Young)
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Since I have a weak spot for Noah Baumbachās work, I was quite eager to check this movie. Well, the tricky thing with this director is that he very often focuses on some usually rather unlikeable characters and, to be honest, as a result, it is rather difficult to really care for them or what they are going through. This movie was a good example, Iām afraid. Indeed, this time around, Baumbach decided to focus not on one but two douchbags. The first one was Josh who was another self-rigtheous pathetic loser that Ben Stiller has played too many times by now. Seriously, towards the end, he even gave us one of his typical hysterical scenes. Of course, the other douchebag was Jamie who was at first rather annoying but then he seemed to be for while some kind of generous freewheeling selfless hippy . However, at some point, it became pretty obvious that it was an act and that the guy was rather phony and terribly manipulative and calculating. Unfortunately, since Josh was not really a nice or interesting guy, it didnāt really care about what happened to him. Still, I did like how they managed to show that success in the movie business Ā has absolutely nothing to do with being actually genuine. In fact, if you have a decent idea and you are rather ruthless, you are actually more likely to succeed and nobody will really care if you are a major *sshole. And indeed, documentaries have never been about telling truth, they are just another way of telling a story. Anyway, to conclude, even though the whole thing didnāt really convince me, it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Noah Baumbachās work.Ā
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Posted : 7 years, 7 months ago on 30 July 2017 07:51
(A review of
See How They Fall)
I think I wanted to watch this movie for more than 15 years. In the mean time, I saw all the other movies directed by Jacques Audiard who has become easily one of the best French directors nowadays so I became even more eager to watch his directorial debut. Well, eventually, even though it turned out to be definitely a solid watch, it was far from being his best movie though. Basically, it was pretty obvious that it was his first movie and, instead of going for a straightforward approach which would have been a safer choice, he went for something really convoluted, obviously, to show what he could but I'm afraid the whole plan rather backfired. I mean, the first 15 minutes were just a mess, to be honest, and it took me most of the duration to finally understand what the hell was going on. Basically, you follow two storylines, a very strong one involving an amazing Jean-Louis Trintignant and Matthieu Kassovitz who made one of the strangest couples I have ever seen, and another storyline with Jean Yanne which barely made any sense whatsoever. It is basically one of these movies that need to be watched at least twice because the first time was such a struggle to put all the pieces together but, in this case, it wasn't a compliment. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent directorial debut and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Jacques Audiard's work.
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Posted : 7 years, 7 months ago on 30 July 2017 03:35
(A review of
The Son of Bigfoot)
When my daughter told me that she wanted to watch this movie, I have to admit that I didn't know at all what she was talking about which is usually not really a good omen. So, I looked it up and, honestly, I thought I looked really lame but we still ended up watching it in the movie theater together. Well, I have to admit it, it was not as awful as I expected it to be. I mean, it was still pretty weak but, at least, it was watchable. Furthermore, the animation, while not being anything groundbreaking, was decent enough and even the 3D effects were not bad at all which was a nice surprise coming from a Belgian-French production like this one. Unfortunately, I still had a hard time to care about the story. I mean, once again, it wasn't the worst story ever but it was still really generic and terribly boring. To conclude, to be honest, I wouldn't recommend to watch this movie, there are so many better movies out there to watch but if you want to entertain some very young children, I have to admit that there is a fairly good chance that they will actually enjoy it.Ā
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Posted : 7 years, 7 months ago on 29 July 2017 08:35
(A review of
The Last Face)
When I heard that Sean Penn was finally coming back with a new directing effort, almost 10 long years after the amazing 'Into the Wild', obviously, I became quite excited. However, when it was released, it turned out to be a huge critical flop but I still wanted to check it out anyway. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the damned thing really deserved its poor reputation. Seriously, pretty much nothing worked in this movie. Indeed, first of all, they made the usual mistake of dealing with Africa and yet still only focusing on 2 Western characters. I mean, except for one doctor with a very small part, the Africans were only limited to either helpless victims or monstrous psychopaths with barely any dialogue whatsoever. Then, the directing was also surprisingly weak and also terribly pretentious. I mean, they criticized the whole Western world for not caring but they still managed to waste more than half the running time with a completely generic love story involving two white doctors. At least, Javier Bardem was a very good choice as he was charismatic without being too handsome and he did what he could with this material. I wish I could say the same for Charlize Theron who was as usual insanely gorgeous but her good looks actually worked against her and, to make things worse, she gave here one of her weakest performances ever. To conclude, I think I'm being rather generous with my rating here but I gave it a few extra points because it was dealing with something important but there is no doubt that the whole thing was terribly weak and disappointing.Ā
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Posted : 7 years, 7 months ago on 29 July 2017 08:02
(A review of
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets)
I already saw this movie when it was released but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. The first time around, I was hoping that it would be at least just as visually impressive as 'The Fifth Element' turned out to be 20 years ago. Well, eventually, I wasn't disappointed as this movie was easily the most amazing movie visually speaking that I have seen since 'Avatar'. Indeed, Luc Besson managed here to create a fascinating world with so many different species and, on top of that, there were 2 or 3 scenes in the movie that were just dazzling to behold. Unfortunately, I'm afraid it didn't grow old very well and I wasn't so impressed by its visual aspect while I rewatched it though. Maybe it is one of the very few movies you should watch in 3D and only in the movie theater. Anyway, even the first time I saw the damned thing, I didn't think it was really that great after all. Indeed, even though the whole concept was really generic (everyone is looking for some kind of MacGuffin), Besson still managed to end up with an incredibly messy story and most of the scenes followed each other very awkwardly. I mean, everything looked amazing but each scenes were rather poorly linked with each other with some major plot-holes. In fact, the beginning was promising and the first mission was neat but as soon as they gathered the converter, the whole thing started to fall apart narratively. Concerning the cast, at least, Cara Delevingne was fine but I'm afraid Dane DeHaan was rather miscast and I never though he was convincing playing some kind of supposedly reckless space adventurer. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look but there is no doubt that it was actually rather disappointing and I'm not surprised that it was a huge flop when it was released.
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Posted : 7 years, 7 months ago on 28 July 2017 08:34
(A review of
Robot & Frank)
Since I kept hearing some good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, it turned out to be a decent watch but not much more than that, to be honest. Indeed, after such movies like āBlade Runnerā, āHerā or āEx Machinaā, it is rather tricky to come up nowadays with something really original and interesting about AI and, this movie, even though it was entertaining enough, never managed to really impress me. I mean, they tried to combine the whole robot thing with an old man obviously suffering from Alzheimer disease and the guy happened to be as well some kind of master thief but, in my opinion, they chose this mix above all to allow this movie to stand out from the other movies in this genre. Anyway, I still have a weak spot for such minimalistic features dealing only with 1 or 2 characters and as long as the movie was focusing on Frank Langella and Peter Sarsgaard, the whole thing still worked fine. Anyway, to conclude, even though I think I will forget the whole thing really soon, I have to admit that it was still not bad at all and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.Ā
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