Reviews by johanlefourbe

Like many other actors, Adam Sandler has been struggling lately so it is hardly surprising that he would finally come up with a sequel at some point. At least, you have to give him some credit that he didn’t try before to recycle all his previous hits like ‘Billy Madison’ or ‘Happy Gilmore’. In fact, I remember when ‘Grown Ups’ was released, even though it was rather successful at the box-office, many considered that it was one of the worst movies released at the time but, to be honest, even though I I usually don’t like Sandler’s work at all, I thought it was not one of his worst movies, far from it. Well, this sequel gave me pretty much the same feeling. Indeed, even though the concept had some potential, the whole thing was still rather underwhelming but, at least, it was rather harmless and some of the jokes actually did work. Eventually, the most disappointing thing about this movie was how completely random it was. The best example would be the very first scene. In fact, it wasn’t really awful but why on Earth did they bring up a deer?!? What did he have to do with the rest of the movie? To conclude, even if it wasn’t the worse movie starring Adam Sandler, it was still pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

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, first of all, I have to point out that I’m a huge fan of Pink Floyd, it is easily one of my favorite bands, and The Wall was one of their best albums so, obviously, I always had a weak spot for this movie. On the other hand, I have to admit that, if you are not into their music, there is a fair chance that this flick will be rather boring for you. Indeed, if you take the scenes one by one, there was some strong stuff.  I think my favorite parts about the young boy growing up without his father and the animated scenes were also pretty neat. Unfortunately to be honest, the way the scenes were all put together, it was quite a mess, I’m afraid. At best, it could be seen as a very long video clip or as some kind of dark feverish dream. It is interesting to note that, even though this movie has become a major cult-classic especially among the fans of Pink Floyd, all the members of Pink Floyd and Alan Parker all thought that this movie was actually rather disappointing. Anyway, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I still think it is worth a look and if you are fan of Pink Floyd like me, it is pretty much a must-see.

Following the masssive critical and commercial success of ‘Life of Pi’, many, including myself, were expecting a lot from Ang Lee’s next directing effort. This time, he was going for something even more experimental, a movie shot with 120 frame rate, the highest frame rate ever used in a movie (to give an idea, the previous record holder was ‘The Hobbit’ with 48 fps and a standard film has 24 fps). Unfortunately, when this movie was released, it didn’t get much love and the whole thing was pretty much considered as a failed experiment. Still, since I always had a weak spot for Ang Lee’s work, I still wanted to check it out. Well, eventually, I thought it was rather difficult to judge this movie. First of all, I have to admit it, I didn’t manage to watch this movie in its intented version, I actually saw it at home on a regular TV so the whole technical aspect was lost on me, I’m afraid. On the other hand, I’m not sure if this story really needed such a high-tech treatment. I mean, for such a huge epic blockbusters like ‘The Hobbit’ or ‘Avatar’, the material definitely could use some visual innovation but this was just a rather low-key drama. Eventually, except for the half-time show which must have been  interesting in this format, the rest of the movie was above all about the characters in some conversations involving usually only 2 or 3 people and I didn’t see how this format could have been an improvement. Anyway, as pointed out by many other viewers, the biggest issue with this movie was above all that the story was nothing really amazing. I mean, it was not bad and the cast was actually decent but it didn’t tell anything really fascinating or groundbreaking. To conclude, like everyone else, I think the whole thing was a rather failed experiment but I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Ang Lee’s work.