Posted : 7 years, 9 months ago on 30 May 2017 08:49
(A review of
The Prophecy)
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[Link removed - login to see]I always wondered if this movie was any good and since Iām a big fan of Christopher Walken, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the damned thing definitely had some potential and there was something quite fascinating about this religious mythology. Unfortunately, Iām afraid it turned out to be a disjointed mess. Ā Indeed, the worst scene was probably the one when Thomas meets Simon. Basically, just before standing on some random roof, Thomas goes home and suddenly sees Simon standing on a chair. But why was actually Simon waiting for him? That was never clear but, even worse, this scene didnāt have any proper conclusion at all. Instead, they suddenly jumped to something completely different involving Ā another enigmatic character walking down some street. Ā To be honest, the first 20 minutes were actually so hard to follow that I actually had to re-watch the 1st half a second time around to make sense of the damned thing. Furthermore, I wasnāt really convinced by Elias Koteas who felt like a cheap version of Robert De Niro. Fortunately, the rest of the cast was pretty cool, especially Christopher Walken who was basically born to play such characters. Ā To conclude, even though I though it was rather poorly developed, the concept was actually pretty awesome and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.Ā
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Posted : 7 years, 9 months ago on 28 May 2017 05:56
(A review of
In the Crosswind)
In France and Netherlands, Ā there has always been some kind of obsession about what the Nazis did during WWII, which is understandable but, as a result, many atrocities that happened elsewhere in the world never seemed to get the attention they deserved. In this case, they focused instead on what the Soviets did in Estonia and some other Eastern European countries and since I didn't know much about these events, it was already a really interesting watch. However, instead of going for something straightforward, Martti Helde, in his directing debut, decided to go for something much more original, shooting in black-and-white, with no dialogues and only a voiceover provided by the main character. In fact, he went even further as most of the movie was composed of very long shots with everybody standing still. Well, it was all very beautiful to look at, that's for sure, but did it really enhance this story? To be honest, I'm not so sure. I mean, at first, you keep wondering how they pulled it off and even though it must have be peen painstakingly difficult to coordinate, it felt as if the tale was not strong enough and the makers tried to cover it up somehow showing off their skills in the process. The fact that I dozed off a couple of times wasn't a good sign either Ā (it may have had to do with the fact that it was so warm in the movie theater though). To conclude, even though it didn't completely blow me away, it was still an intriguing watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you want to see something really original.
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Posted : 7 years, 9 months ago on 27 May 2017 08:24
(A review of
Dances with Wolves)
I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since I had it on DVD, I was quite eager to check it out again. Well, even though I thought it was pretty neat when I was a kid, to be honest, I don't think it did grow old very well. I mean, it is a really solid epic Western with a really uplifting soundtrack but the damned thing is also so sweet and romantic, I almost feels like a classic Disney family feature. Indeed, even though it was a Revisionist Western and even though it did reverse the usual stereotypes in this genre, it was nonetheless still seriously stereotypical. Basically, Ā this time around, the white people were all described as mean, ignorant and violent, while all the Indians were described as gentle, wise and peaceful. But the best of them would be eventually John Dunbar who was at first the best white man around and then, also the best Indian around. I mean, the guy was something, he was handsome, charming, good with the animals and kids,... Even during the buffalo hunting scene, he was again the very best around, beating the Indians at their own ancestral tradition. The weird thing was that the guy was in fact a soldier who left his post and duty to live with the Indians. He even gave them all the guns he had. Can you imagine if, nowadays, an American soldier in Irak would go AWOL to go living with the locals as a Muslim giving them also a whole stash of weapons in the process? I wonder if he would then be considered such a hero. Anyway, in spite of all this, if you don't analyse it too much, it is still a decent Western (in fact, it is still the highest grossing Western ever made) and it is definitely worth a look.
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Posted : 7 years, 9 months ago on 26 May 2017 09:55
(A review of
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales)
After watching this movie, I wonder if it will be such a success at the box-office. Maybe thanks to the lack of competition, it might still make some money but I'm pretty sure it will end up being the lowest grossing installment in this franchise. I mean, after 6 years, you might hope they would have managed to bring something new and exciting but, unfortunately, they didn't make much of an effort and they pretty much recycled the same formula. Ā One thing that bothered me was the fact that, pretty much like in the previous movie, there was just too many people involved in this quest. For example, why on Earth was Barbossa involved again in this adventure? Sure, he is a pretty cool character and Geoffrey Rush is a fine actor but they could have done fine without him. Indeed, Salazar was a very strong villain but he didn't get much screen time since there was just so many people involved. Another annoying thing was the way they forced a family connection between most of the characters. Sure, we live in a small world but it feels as if the makers were scared somehow to add someone completely new to the mix. Anyway, to conclude, Ā even though I didn't care much for the damned thing, I have to admit that it was still a well made blockbuster and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.Ā
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Posted : 7 years, 9 months ago on 25 May 2017 08:36
(A review of
Taken 3)
To be honest, Ā I wasn't expecting much from this movie. I mean, sure, I have to admit that 'Taken' was a solid action flick but I don't think it was anything really mind-blowing and it definitely didn't provide enough material to launch a franchise. Anyway, since the two previous installments turned out to be quite successful at the box-office, of course, they had to come up with another sequel but, seriously, Luc Besson was even lazier than usual here. Indeed, basically, the whole thing turned out to be a really weak and boring copy of 'The Fugitive'. Sure, they could have taken some worse inspiration but what made 'The Fugitive' so entertaining was the fact that the main character was just some average guy. Here, you had a heavily trained killing machine with a way to easy access to some high-tech gadgets so most of the fun was gone. To make things worse, Liam Neeson looked seriously bored and even rather out of shape. In fact, he clearly stated that I didn't really want to make another one and the main (and maybe only) reason he still got involved was the 20 millions dollars paycheck they gave him. To conclude, I have seen worse but it was still a rather weak final installment and I don't think it is really worth a look.
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Posted : 7 years, 9 months ago on 24 May 2017 08:15
(A review of
The Invitation)
To be honest, this movie was not really a high priority but since it was on Netflix and since it was suggested by one of my favorite listal members, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a nice watch and I was above all surprised by how much it resembled 'Get Out', so far one of the biggest critical success released in 2017. Well, even though I did like 'Get Out', to be honest, Ā it didn't really blow me away though and, in fact, I thought that this movie was actually slightly better even if it was apparently barely seen when it was released. Indeed, I really enjoyed how ambiguous they managed to keep the whole thing and, as long as it remained so ambiguous, it was really quite captivating. Unfortunately, as soon as the truth was revealed, the whole thing went into auto-pilot and it became really generic.The fact that I figured out what they were up to rather early on didn't help either. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that the characters seemed slightly too young. Indeed, the main character had been married, got a child who died when he was about 10 years old, got divorced and finally met again his ex-wife after 2 years. Well, it seemed quite a lot for someone in his late 30's. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, I thought it was still a solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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Posted : 7 years, 9 months ago on 23 May 2017 09:22
(A review of
Spring Breakers)
To be honest, I thought it was rather difficult to judge this movie. Indeed, on one hand, half of it was fairly interesting but, Ā on the other hand, the other half was pretty much some exploitative garbage. And, yet, maybe that was the whole point of Harmony Korine, to make a movie which was really trashy and even pretty bad. In this case, the damned thing was actually successful but was it really something interesting to watch? I'm not so sure. It is like the title, I thought it was rather misleading. Indeed, at least a 3rd of the movie had nothing to do with spring break as it was about the girls getting acquainted with some gangster played by James Franco who gave here his weirdest performance so far. Concerning the 3 most famous girls of the group (Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson), I thought it was pretty obvious that they didn't care much for the material and that they got involved mostly to shake up their squeaky clean image. Would it have been better if they had made something more straightforward? Once again, I have my doubts. Furthermore, it didn't help that the characters would keep repeating their lame dialogues as if they were some kind of mantras. Anyway, to conclude, I'm still not sure what to make of the damned thing and even though I didn't care much for it, I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you don't mind to watch something really trashy.
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Posted : 7 years, 9 months ago on 23 May 2017 08:55
(A review of
One from the Heart)
Since Iām a big fan of Francis Ford Coppolaās work, I was really eager to check this movie and it took me many years to finally watch the damned thing. Well, I wish I could say it was worth the wait but, unfortunately, it turned out to be rather underwhelming. I donāt know, it seems that after ruling the 70ās by making back-to-back 4 masterpieces, Coppola didnāt think he should try so hard this time around. Actually, even though it seemed to be a rather simple movie, it eventually cost 10 times more than what was planned because, for some reasons, Coppola decided to shot the whole thing on stages and decided also to make some expensive technical experimentations. In fact, the guy lost so much money on this movie that it completely derailed his career and, as a result, all the movies he would make during the next 20 years, would be done to pay off the debts he made during the production of this movie. Anyway, it turned out to be something more jazzy and experimental than his previous movies but even though it wasnāt a complete failure, I still had a hard time to care about the damned thing. In fact, even though this movie was apparently inspired by the musicals of the 40ās and 50ās, it reminded me more of Felliniās work with its rather chaoctic structure. However, if Fellini was able to create some masterpieces in this genre, Coppola didnāt fare so well, Iām afraid. The biggest issue I had was that it must have been the most boring couple I have ever seen. Indeed, Teri Garr looked terribly plain but, at least, she did have a little something but, on the other hand, Frederic Forrest was easily one of the least charismatic lead actors I have ever seen. Anyway, this couple was just cringe-inducing and the movie would have been much more interesting if they simply dropped them and focused instead on Raul Julia and Nastassja Kinski who seemed much more compelling. To conclude, I think I have been rather generous with my rating here but I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you are interested in Francis Ford Coppolaās work.Ā
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Posted : 7 years, 9 months ago on 20 May 2017 08:16
(A review of
Nightcrawler)
Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was really eager to check it out. Well, eventually, it really deserved its solid reputation and it has been a while since I saw such a strong thriller. Indeed, it was basically a fascinating character study about a massive sociopath living Ā in a dark and nihilistic world. Eventually, the scariest thing was not Louis Bloom himself but the fact that the whole thing was just so damned realistic. Indeed, I was worried that, at some point, the main character would go even further and would kill someone just to get a good story but, fortunately, they never made this mistake. The interesting thing is that many people thought that Bloom was despicable but, to be honest, the guy didn't really bother me so much. Basically, he just did his job and nobody forced the TV station to buy his videos and nobody forced the audience to watch them afterwards. His job was however despicable, that's for sure, and our world, apparently craving for these kind of images, is pretty sick and it is definitely one of the reasons why I barely watch the news nowadays. Of course, I shouldn't forget to mention that Jake Gyllenhaal was once again really impressive in this movie. To conclude, it was a terrific directing debut for Dan Gilroy and the damned thing is definitely worth a look.
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Posted : 7 years, 9 months ago on 19 May 2017 10:31
(A review of
Alien: Covenant)
Even though I wasn't really expecting a masterpiece, at least, I hoped this movie would be an improvement on 'Prometheus'. Unfortunately, Ā I turned out to be even more underwhelming and I would go as far as saying that it is the weakest installment in this franchise Ā (of course, without counting the 'Alien vs Predator' crap). Indeed, if one of the biggest issues with 'Prometheus' was probably the fact that it was too ambitious, this time, it was the other way around as Ridley Scott didn't even really try. Seriously, the guy came up with the most generic plot you could think of and pretty much all the new ideas introduced in the previous movie were basically thrown out of the window and the only thing that remained was the fact that David was apparently a really psychotic and megalomaniac robot. The other thing that bothered me was the fact that the crew was actually so boring and uncharismatic. Seriously, was Katherine Waterston really supposed to replace Sigourney Weaver? I Ā mean, some criticized Noomi Rapace but I thought she did a fine job and her character was just miles better than Daniels. Concerning the rest of the crew, they were just all underwhelming and uninteresting as well. At least, Ā Michael Fassbender was pretty good playing 2 different androids but it was a huge mistake to focus the movie so much on him alone. Anyway, to conclude, Ā I have to admit that the whole thing was still rather well made and even quite watchable but, in my opinion, Ridley Scott was basically pissing on his legacy with this rather useless sequel.Ā
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