Reviews by johanlefourbe

Even though it has nothing to do with this movie, in 2016, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie finally split up. My wife was actually cheering as, from the very start, she was convinced that this couple would never last and she always believed that Jennifer Anniston was a much better choice. Well, I don’t agree with my wife and even though I have to admit that Anniston is really cute, in fact, she must be one of the most boring actress out there. The main problem I have with here is that,  even though she has been rather successful, 90% of the time, she just plays the same character who happens to be ‘the girlfriend of <insert famous actor>’. This movie was a fine example and, this time around, she was just playing ‘the girlfriend of Ben Stiller’. The worst thing was that, for this movie, she was actually playing the title character who was supposed to be some kind of ‘free-spirited’ woman but the squeaky clean Anniston was just not convincing whatsoever in this really boring comedy. It didn’t help that I never believed that these 2 characters really belonged with each other. In fact, the only thing I enjoyed was the late Philip Seymour Hoffman who was, as usual, pretty awesome in a rather small part. To conclude, even though this movie was quite successful at the box-office when it was released, it is in fact one of the weakest movies starring Anniston and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I had no idea what this movie was actually about but since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a really daunting story with a really impressive breakthrough performance by Elizabeth Olsen. Furthermore, it has been a while since I have seen a movie which was actually enhanced by such jumps back and forth in time. Still, even though the subject was really interesting, even if the mood was quite fascinating and even though Olsen was really good, the whole thing didn’t completely convinced me though. The main issue I had is that the makers tried too much to remain ambiguous. For example, it is pretty obvious that the sisters did have a conversation at some point about what the hell happened to her but they deliberately decided to not show it which gave the feeling that the sister and her husband didn’t care much about the main character which wasn’t entirely accurate. Furthermore, how did they actually recruit their new members? I mean, this cult was seriously joyless and even downright nasty and evil so you might wonder why she didn’t take off right from the start. On the other hand, I really liked the fact that the life with her upper-class sister and husband with their big fancy house was not really an improvement. Still, was it really believable that, after only 2 years, she would have already lost touch with what was socially acceptable in our capitalist way of life? I mean, to go swimming naked was not really a big deal but to go lay in bed with her sister and brother-in-law while they were having sex was really pushing it. Another thing that bothered me was that, when they finally came up to the conclusion that she needed some professional help, their 1st option was right away to intern her which was much too drastic in my opinion. I mean, why not try first to talk to a therapist or a psychiatrist? And, of course, you had this open ending which was a perfect example of how ambiguous the whole thing was from the start to finish. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely work for me, there was still something quite mesmerizing about the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I already saw this movie (I think I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released) but, since it was such a long time ago, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, there is no denying that it was a fascinating story dealing with one of the greatest athletes that ever lived but, to be honest, this movie turned out to be only decent, I’m afraid. At some point, Spike Lee was also eager to make a movie about Ali and I wonder what he would have done with such great material. On the other hand, I think Will Smith did a fine job here. Back then, for more than a decade, Smith completely ruled the box-office and he even holds the record for the actor to star in the most consecutive movies grossing at least $100 million. Right at the middle of this Golden age, he made also this attempt for Oscar glory with this high-profile biopic. Obviously, you might wonder if Will Smith was the best choice to play probably the most famous boxer that ever lived since he never displayed some really impressive acting skills so far but I thought he was actually pretty good. Eventually, the main issue with this movie was maybe that it was directed by Michael Mann. I mean, back in those days, Mann was probably at the height of his career and I always had a weak spot for this director but the guy is/was above all a fine technician and maybe it wasn’t sufficient for this material. Eventually, most of the characters were barely developed whatsoever, even Ali himself, and the movie just goes from one milestone to another without really analyzing the impact it had on the boxer, on the people around him and even sometimes on the USA in general. Anyway, Ali was one of the most fascinating athletes and this movie was still a good starting point if you want to get more acquainted with his life. To conclude, even though it was maybe not a masterpiece, I still think it was a decent biopic and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Muhammad Ali.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw [Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see]and many hoped that it would finally break the curse on video-game adaptations but, unfortunately, it turned out to be only midly entertaining. This time around, I decided to check the over high-profile video-game adaptation that was released in 2016. Well, eventually, I thought it was actually not bad at all, at least, it was more satisfying than 'Assassin’s Creed’. Indeed, it was visually really neat,  this world of Azeroth looked quite amazing and those orcs were especially just really awesome. Concerning the story, in my opinion, the intro was rather weak and it took the whole thing at least 15 mins to finally take off. Of course, you might argue that the people familiar with the game didn’t have a problem with this but, for someone like me who actually never played the damned thing, the whole thing was a mess. Fortunately, as soon as the conflict between the orcs and the Alliance was clearly stated, then, the story became much more interesting. Above all, the intern struggle within the orcs was pretty neat. On the other hand, except for Ben Foster, most of the human characters were in fact rather bland and boring. Still, all in all, I thought it was a decent fantasy feature and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Unfortunately, it seems that Pixar has lost their magical touch as they nowadays focus mostly on sequels which might be profitable but also artistically rather boring. On the other hand, for about almost 15 years in a row, up until ‘Up’, those guys had an amazing track-record and they really spoiled us as they kept releasing one masterpiece after another. In this Golden Age, they still had a few misfires though and this movie was one of them. Indeed, to be honest, I never really cared about this flick even if I should probably re-watch it some day but I'm not really optimistic. Basically, back then, DreamWorks released their first CGI animated feature and it happened to be also about bugs so there was a big debate about which one would be the best. Apparently, Pixar's effort was slightly more successful but, personally, I always preferred 'Antz'. I mean, sure, it was not bad at all but this 2nd full length feature from Pixar was a little too childish for my taste. Anyway, to conclude, even though I think it was the first minor effort from Pixar,  the animation was still solid and the whole thing was still quite entertaining so it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie and I should definitely re-watch it at some point. First of all, I’m pretty sure that most people would think that ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest’ has been the best movie directed by Milos Forman but, the more I think about it, the more I believe that this movie might be actually slightly overrated (in fact, I need to re-watch this movie as well). In fact, in my opinion, this classic, which was released almost 10 years after ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest’ and which also managed to win the Best Picture Academy Award, was even better and I believe it is in fact the Magnum Opus of this director. Indeed, it is easily one of the most fascinating and original biopics ever made and, even though Forman would be making almost only biopics during the rest of his career (‘The People vs. Larry Flynt’, ‘Man on the Moon’, ‘Goya's Ghosts’), none of them would manage to reach the level of this masterpiece. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

When was the last time that Vince Vaughn scored a hit? Well, instead of wasting my time with one of his recent movies, I thought I should finally watch instead this movie for which he gave his breakthrough performance.  Well, since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I had some rather high expectations but, to be honest, I thought it was actually slightly disappointing. Sure, it was a decent watch but I never thought it was really hilarious. The best example would be the first scene involving Jon Favreau and Ron Livingston. Indeed, the scene was not bad and I understood where the makers were trying to go with this but I never thought it was really funny. Eventually, I think my favorite scene was the one when the characters were playing this hockey video-game on the Sega Megadrive. Indeed, not only I played and loved this game in the 90’s but, above all, it was one of the very few instances when a movie was correctly portraying an actual video game session which was pretty neat in my opinion.  Concerning the rest of the movie, it was not bad at all but it never really blew me away and, in fact, I actually preferred ‘Made’ also starring Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn and also written by Favreau because it was so much funnier than this flick. Anyway, even though the whole thing did’t really live up to my expectations, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.