Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what this movie was about before watching it but since it was suggested by one of my favorite Listal members,  I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I’m glad I gave it a shot because I really liked the damned thing a lot and, in my opinion, it provided one of the best depictions of a psychiatric ward I have ever seen. Indeed, I have both some professional and personal experience regarding such environment and what they provided in this movie was pretty much pitch-perfect (I have to admit that the patients were probably most of the time slightly too cheerful though). Furthermore, the main character was really good thanks to a solid performance by Keir Gilchrist and I was completely able to identify with this guy. Unfortunately, they were a couple of things that bothered me and prevented this movie from being really amazing. First of all, I was amazed that the main character would be allowed to have a romantic relationship with another patient without any reaction from the staff. Indeed, during and actually even after such therapy, it is strongly advised to not start any romance because you are far from being emotionally stable (for example, let’s say you were clinically depressed, if you would fall in love and eventually break up afterwards, it could push you down the hole again and ruined all the hard work done to recover). Well, to have a relationship with another patient while you are both in therapy, that would be a major red flag and I’m stunned that they could make out in front of everyone at the end.  Anyway, the biggest problem was in fact that his stay in the psychiatric ward was just way too short. Again out of personal experience, I know that someone who is clinically depressed, even suicidal, would need at least 3 months to get his sh*t together. I mean, within 5 days, you might get to the point that you have acknowledge that you have some major issue going on but that would be it. As a result, many viewers argued that the main character was not actually depressed because it was all solved way too fast and too easily and it would have been solved if the guy would have remained in therapy a little while longer. Anyway, in spite of these flaws, the rest of the movie was actually pretty awesome and I think it is definitely worth a look. 

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. In fact, even though it seems to be rather forgotten nowadays, I remember quite well when it was released. Indeed, back in those days, it became quite a cult-classic following the new hype around drag-queens at the time. Eventually, even though it was a decent watch, to be honest, it wasn't a really strong story. Above all, the road-trip formula was too generic for my taste and it made the whole thing too predictable. Still, those 3 character were quite entertaining thanks to a top cast. Indeed, at the time, I think I already knew who was Terence Stamp (or maybe I was too young) but it was definitely the first time that I ever saw either Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce and it took them many more years to finally breakthrough towards the mainstream audience. Anyway, all of them gave some really strong performances in this movie and without them, I'm not sure if I would have actually cared for the damned thing. Anyway, to conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested by this subject. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, after an impressive career going over more than 2 decades, Julianne Moore was finally awarded her first Academy Award and, after watching the damned thing, it is pretty obvious that she really deserved it. And yet, even if Moore was really good, I’m not so sure if the movie itself was actually so amazing. I mean, Alzheimer is a terrible disease and the makers gave a solid portrayal but the movie never went really beyond this portrayal, I’m afraid. Indeed, she notices the first symptoms, she gets her diagnosis, she tells her family and the disease starts to take its toll. Sure, all of this was rather well done but if you are familiar with this disease and, like me, you have already seen a couple of movies dealing with this subject, it felt rather limited and predictable. Furthermore, even though there was an interesting cast (Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth), all their characters were rather poorly developed and you wonder why they even bothered hiring such high-profile actors for such thankless parts. There was even a son but the situation was even worse for him as he had maybe 2 lines of text through the whole thing. The only interesting conflict was maybe with Alec Baldwin’s character who was still focusing on his career while his wife was terribly sick but even this aspect of the story was barely developed. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a good flick thanks to a very strong Julianne Moore so it is still worth a look but I was actually hoping for something better considering the very strong material. 

I already saw this movie but since it a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. I remember it very well, as a kid growing up in the 90’s, I noticed that people kept mentioning this movie saying that it was a hilarious cult-classic. With this in mind, I had some rather high expectations concerning this movie. Well, at some point, I finally watched the damned thing but, to be honest, I thought it was quite entertaining but not much more than that, I’m afraid. I mean, I always had a weak spot for John Cleese and I have to admit that he was very funny as usual but even though many might argue that Kevin Kline was also really awesome in this movie, I always thought that he was actually seriously annoying playing one of his typical hysterical characters. During the whole duration, everybody kept telling Otto that he was stupid, which was completely true, but I didn't see what was so funny about a guy who keeps doing and saying some really stupid things all the time. Furthermore, the plot and the characters involved were not bad but I never thought it was really hilarious and, even after re-watching the damned thing, I still ended up with the same feeling. Anyway, to conclude, even though I’m not a huge fan, it is still a decent comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

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.