Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but, since it was starring Liam Neeson, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, unfortunately, it turned out to be yet another completely forgettable B action flick which Neeson has kept doing ever since ‘Taken’ turned out to be a surprise  success. To be honest, you would wish that, at 70 years old, he would finally be getting too old for this kind of movies. However, some other actors like Sylvester Stallone displayed that you can keep showing up in such movies pretty much forever. Anyway, coming back to the movie itself, it’s not that it was really bad after all, it was mostly terribly generic and derivative. Still, the story didn’t make much sense though. Indeed, if you would believe the movie which was actually never clear about that point, the cartel was chasing this woman and her son because one of their relatives had stolen money from the cartel and gave it to them. First of all, running with some stolen drug money was hardly a good plan but, above all, after this relative and this woman were killed fairly early on, why on Earth would this cartel keep chasing this little boy through the US? I mean, they did have indeed a bag of money but it didn’t seem that much though and, above all, it hardly seemed worth the trouble. Concerning Neeson, he was not bad but this material is just beneath him and I hope he will finally find something more interesting to do with his time in the foreseeable future. Concerning Katheryn Winnick, I have to admit that I’m not familiar with her work but it is the 2^nd movie I have seen with her recently and, even though she is quite gorgeous, I was amazed by how weak she was once again. I really hope she is better in ‘Vikings’ if I ever manage to watch this hit TV-show. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather harmless, it was still pretty weak and you should probably avoid it. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but, since I have a weak spot for [Link removed - login to see], I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I didn’t expect the damned thing to be so weak after all. Eventually, it seems that the makers watched too many movies directed by Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie but I’m afraid the end-result was more pathetic than actually entertaining. The very first scene was a perfect example as you get to see these 2 thugs talking about one of their romantic relationships just before starting a heist which seemed directly lifted from ‘Pulp Fiction’. At least, Olivia Cooke was really charming and charismatic but she was pretty much the only thing that did work in this movie. Indeed, she managed to do a lot with a character who turned out to be barely interesting after all. Still, even though I can see how it would be an interesting challenge for her to play an Irish character, you might wonder why they hired an English actress to play this part. On the other hand, they also ended up with Alec Baldwin playing an Irish drug-dealing homicidal priest which was probably one of the weirdest casting choices I have seen in a very long time. Coming back on the movie itself, the plot was terribly generic and barely entertaining and, even though they obviously tried to emulate Tarantino and/or Ritchie, the dialogues were terribly flat and hardly fun. To be honest, it felt as if the damned thing didn’t have any pulse whatsoever. It was the same thing with the characters, Pixie was not bad thanks to Cooke but all the other characters involved were just poorly developed but, above all, so boring to behold. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t a complete disaster, it was still really tedious and you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by D.W. Griffith, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that it’s only afterwards that it discovered that it was actually one of Griffith’s last movies but, even though it was a decent watch, I’m afraid it was a rather minor effort for this master after all. I mean, the topic was super interesting and it was a pretty neat idea to make a biopic about Abraham Lincoln’s whole life, going from his birth to his untimely death by the hand of John Wilkes Booth. However, for some reason, they took less than 90 mins which seemed way too short to cover such a complex and eventful life. It is even more bewildering when you think that Griffith did deliver before some silent epics which lasted more than 3 hrs. Anyway, the whole thing felt really episodic, dashing through some bullet points covering more or less the highlights of Lincoln’s life. As a result, it was also narratively rather clunky. For example, at some point, you see him mourning Ann Rutledge who was apparently the love of his life but then, during the very next scene, he was at some ball trying to woo Mary Todd. At least, even though he played an extremely romanticized version of the famous American president, Walter Huston was actually pretty good here. There were also a couple of battle scenes which were actually quite impressive, especially if you think about the fact that this movie was made more than 90 years ago. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was not bad though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in D.W. Griffith’s work. 

To be honest, I didn’t have some huge expectations for this flick but, since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, with a murder right from the start and such a title, I pretty much knew right from the start what it was going to be. Indeed, it was basically one of these dreadful vigilante features. Obviously, the fact that I never cared about the genre probably didn’t help but, even if it was technically rather well made, the damned thing just never really worked, at least, not for me. First of all, Kiefer Sutherland’s character was such a cartoon figure. Indeed, he did have a rather fancy, seemingly expensive, lawyer who managed to get him out of jail for some technicality but he also looked like some white trash guy who was going in and out of jail so it seems unlikely that a guy like him would manage to have such a competent defense. What also bothered me was the total lack of psychology in the characters involved. I mean, the most interesting character was probably the one played by Ed Harris who pointed out to his wife that she was actually lying to him (there was also the fact that she was gone for hours almost on a daily basis during her basic ‘vigilante’ training). As usual, Harris was pretty good even though he was given a really thankless role but, above all, they absolutely did nothing with what he and this family in general was going through. The basic idea is that it was supposed to be impressive, even maybe inspiring, that this average woman decided to cook up a plan to kill the man who raped and killed her daughter, nothing else really seemed to matter and how much you might enjoy this movie will depend on how much you share this point of view (I obviously don’t). Anyway, to conclude, as far as I was concerned, the damned thing was a waste of time and you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I always had a weak spot for movies dealing with con artists and I can understand why Waltz could be attracted by this story and especially this character. I also liked how they displayed how really shallow this diplomatic world actually is. Basically, you just need a good story, a lot of confidence and being articulate enough and these guys will then believe pretty much anything. However, even though Mott was an interesting guy, Waltz pretty much refused to go too deep into his character and his background and focused only on his delusional schemes and I think this approach did backfire. Indeed, after all, it was never really clear how this scheme exactly worked or what Mott was really after. Another interesting point was that, even though it was obvious that Waltz had a lot of fun with Ulrich Mott, the real MVP here turned out to be Vanessa Redgrave after all. Indeed, Redgrave’s character turned out to be very well developed, so complex and actually quite fascinating to behold. Indeed, she wasn’t just some poor old lady who was getting swindled. In fact, she pretty much already knew from the start who was she was dealing with or, if she didn’t know, she was at least curious about what her relationship with this man could lead to. Hell, she was even coaching him at some point. Sure, she understood fairly quickly that he was actually a big fat liar but, with him, life was at least a little bit more fun. Eventually, the main mistake made by Mott was that he never took her seriously enough and lied to her like he did to everybody else which was not only heartbreaking for her but also unacceptable. Of course, there was also the issue that the guy, like so many other delusional narcissists, did seem to loose his grip on reality after telling so many lies to so many people. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by King Vidor and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it must be one of the most obscure movies I have seen so far (only around 100 people have seen it on IMDb) and, to be honest, I thought it was rather difficult to judge the damned thing. Indeed, for starters, the version I saw on YouTube was pretty bad, especially during the night scenes which were barely watchable. On top of that, the only version available, as far as I know, is missing at least 20 mins, probably even more. However, even if it would have been complete, I’m not sure if the whole thing would then completely make sense though. I mean, you had the main character whose mother was (apparently?) a prostitute but she wasn’t actually his mother and, at some point, he got married but his wife never met or even knew who is mother was all this time? Basically, it turned out to be a rather cheesy old fashioned melodrama and you have to really dig the genre. At least, there was a very spectacular train crash occurring half way through which was something terribly ambitious for a movie made more than 100 years ago. The funny thing is that, even though this scene was definitely really cool, in my opinion, it didn’t really have much added value narratively speaking and I think it could have been removed without impacting the story at all. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was really obscure, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in King Vidor’s work. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Daniel Radcliffe, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have noticed that this movie had been poorly received and, indeed, I would have to agree, it is definitely the weakest movie I have seen so far starring Radcliffe. As usual, I didn’t know anything about this flick before watching it and, during the first minutes, I was thinking ‘God, I hope it won’t be taking place the whole time in this plane because it looks so unconvincing…’. Unfortunately, it was in fact the whole point of the movie, to follow this man spending a few hours in this plane but it was such a terrible idea which was, on top of that, so poorly executed. Eventually, it seems that the makers had watched ‘Locke’ and thought they could pull the same trick with a plane. Well, this movie clearly displayed that the gimmick used in ‘Locke’ was not as easy as it might seem. First of all, you never had the feeling that Radcliffe was really in this plane flying above the ground. The fact that it was during a cloudy night which means that you didn’t see anything didn’t help either. Another issue is that, either something goes terribly wrong with the concerned plan or, if nothing really happens, which was the case here, a plane fight is actually terribly uneventful and boring. What also never worked in this movie was that it didn’t make sense that the main character would have some phones conversation with various people literally every 2 mins, especially with his wife. On top of that, most of these conversations were not convincing whatsoever. Finally, they didn’t even really commit to their concept as they added some flashbacks and the (really lame) conclusion was also taking place on the ground. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was really generous with my rating here, I guess I gave it a few extra points because I felt sorry for Radcliffe but the damned thing was really pathetic and you should definitely avoid it.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it had been fairly well received and since it was starring Hayley Atwell, I thought I might as well check it out. By the way, what the hell happened to Atwell? She used to have such voluptuous curves but it seems that she went through some kind of diet or something which is a pity, even if she is still quite charismatic though. Anyway, she eventually had a small and rather thankless part in this movie which was even more disappointing. Concerning the movie itself, sure, it turned out to be a decent watch but,  to be honest, it wasn’t really much more than that. Basically, like all the other movies delivered by Gurinder Chadha, it was based on something real, the culture clash in the UK which is always interesting, at least, to me. However, she always approaches this subject with some stereotypes and clichés and this movie was not different, I’m afraid. The fact that I know every little about Bruce Springsteen and his work probably didn’t help either. On the other hand, this movie perfectly captured this moment in life when you are around 15-16 years old and you discover some major music artist who will have such an impact on your life that his/her music will become pretty much the soundtrack of your whole life. Another thing that did work was Viveik Kalra who gave here a pretty much pitch-perfect performance. Indeed, you can clearly see the before and after Springsteen and the actor was completely convincing during both phases. Unfortunately, it was the only character which was properly developed. Indeed, all the other characters, except the father who was terribly one-note though, had basically just one or two scenes during which they had to work really hard to give their respective characters some kind of identity. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it was not bad at all though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.