Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Sofia Coppola, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, 20 years after ‘Marie Antoinette’, Coppola decided to tell the tragic story of another privileged white girl. Apparently, Lisa Marie Presley was actually seriously against this movie but she passed away soon after she made this comment before the movie was even released. It’s interesting because Sofia Coppola seriously glossed over how creepy this relationship was. According to this movie and Priscilla Presley herself, even though Elvis met her when she was 14 years old, they only started to have sex when they got married when she was 22 years old, a whopping 8 years later, but I found it hard to believe though. There was also the fact that Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi were almost the same age but, above all, Spaeny was around 24 years old when she shot this movie, 10 years older than Priscilla was at the time she met Elvis. Can you imagine if they would have cast a 14 year old actress? I think it would have been more accurate but it would also have been impossible to shoot the more intimate scenes. Another issue was the fact that, even though I have some doubts that Elvis, beyond his music, was a really interesting individual, it was even more so for Priscilla. I mean, she married one of the most famous persons in the world which was basically her only really defining feature according to this movie. And yet, I have to admit that the damned thing was still intriguing though. Indeed, like her father, at least when he was at the top of his game, Sofia Coppola is actually a really solid director with her own unique style. Above all, Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi were both pretty good, especially Spaeny who was quite fascinating to behold when it was actually a rather thankless role in my opinion. Anyway, to conclude, even though it won’t go down as one of Coppola’s strongest directing efforts, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick and I did actually postpone watching it a couple of times but, since it was leaving soon Netflix, I thought I should finally watch the damned thing. To be honest, I have to admit that I had never heard of Harriet Tubman before watching this movie so, only therefore, it was really neat to discover this amazing and inspiring woman. Seriously, I was on the verge of tears through most of the duration. Eventually, many viewers criticized the fact that they focused too much on the religious and mystical aspects of her life and it was definitely a ballsy move. Eventually, it didn’t bother me that much but you might wonder if it was really the best approach to tell the incredible story of such an important historical figure. Still, there is no denying that Cynthia Erivo gave such a strong performance and, also, a performance so completely different than what she did in her other movies such as ‘Wicked’. I might actually watch again ‘Widows’ and ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ just to compare her work in these various movies. To think that it was only her 3rd acting job is even more impressive and I’m not surprised that she was at the time nominated for an Academy Award. It’s too bad that they didn’t manage to do anything interesting with any of the other characters involved. The poster was a good example. Indeed, why on earth did they display Leslie Odom Jr. and Janelle Monáe when both their respective characters had actually so little impact on Harriet’s journey according to this movie? It did show the limitation of this whole messianic approach they took to tell her story. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested to learn more about this incredible woman. 

Already for a while now, the MCU has been struggling but, since this movie had received some better reviews than their last efforts, I became slightly optimistic. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it turned to be only slightly better but not really much more than that though. First of all, there was the issue that the concept of focusing on some team of misfits super-heroes was hardly original. I was also not convinced by how it was developed. I mean, the way they all got together was rather clunky and the ending was probably even worse. Seriously, John Walker already became a weak-ass version of Captain America and it was just a terrible idea to have him also end up in some weak-ass version of the Avengers. And was it supposed to really exonerate Valentina from trying to kill them, experimenting on Bob (and who knows how many more people) and being responsible for the destruction of New York? Still, they definitely got some stuff right this time around though. First of all, they did scale down the action which I did appreciate (even though they still ended up with some big 'climatic' fight with some bad guy which was just so generic and underwhelming). Even more interesting was how they tried to show the psychological tole of such a lifestyle and what could happen if a super-hero (or a super-villain) might become heavily depressed. Finally, once again, Florence Pugh completely nailed it and, even though it was supposed to be about a new team of super individuals, she actually did carry out most of it on her shoulders. It's quite impressive when you think that she had to take over from someone so badass like Scarlet Johansson as the Black Widow and actually pulling it off. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Eli Roth’s work but, since this movie was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. First of all, it’s interesting that, even though ‘Grindhouse’ was a flop when it was released, we are slowly getting full length features for most of the fictitious trailers (see also ‘Machete’,  ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’ and this movie). Coming back on Eli Roth, from all his projects, this one was probably the most stupid one so far and, yet, exactly because of this fact, it had the potential to be really awesome. Eventually, it was not bad and I especially enjoyed the opening lambasting the Black Friday craziness showing how a traditional national holiday became an insane capitalist circus. The rest of the movie was basically a typical slasher flick but like so many other projects from this director, even though it had some potential, the end-result was just adequate but not really much more than that. I mean, from the trailer, you had this feeling that you were watching some nasty creepy even depraved flick from the 70’s but most of it was gone here though. Indeed, he shot this movie digitally which had automatically a clean but boring look. At least, the murder scenes were usually quite gnarly and some of the jokes were decent so he still managed to keep that. Concerning the cast, sure, it was fun to see Patrick Dempsey in a gory horror flick directed by Eli Roth but the rest of the cast was rather unremarkable and completely forgettable. I guess they were not helped by the fact that Roth didn’t give their respective characters any personality whatsoever. Anyway, to conclude, even though I wish it would have been much wilder, darker and nastier, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Obviously, since this movie has a rather abysmal reputation, I didn’t expect much but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out, just to see if it was really so bad after all. Well, I’m afraid it did deserve its lame reputation though. Eventually, it’s just wild that it was written by Shonda Rhimes, only a few years before she came up with ‘Grey’s Anatomy’. Anyway, for her acting debut, Britney Spears went for a road-trip which is, in my opinion, the laziest genre ever, even if, I have to admit, I did like the idea of these 3 girls being best friends, drifting apart for years, and finally getting back together for this road-trip. Unfortunately, it was probably the only thing that worked here. The first thing that bothered me was how they constantly sexualized Britney Spears (seriously, within the first 15 mins, there were already 2 scenes during which she was wearing only her underwear). Then, I have to admit that Zoe Saldaña and Taryn Manning were actually not bad but Spears was just terrible though. To have her play a nerd/bookworm/model-student was also a huge mistake as she was not convincing whatsoever. I was also amazed by how weak the scenes were during which she was singing. I mean, it was already disappointing that she was lip-synching in all these scenes (in fact, it is pretty notorious that she might actually never sing live) but, to make things worse, it was also really poorly done. The funny thing was that, okay, she went to this audition in Los Angeles and then what? Well, nothing, the movie stopped there and you might wonder what happened to her character afterwards. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that it was rather harmless, the damned thing was just too weak and you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was starring Vince Vaughn and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Most of the time, before I watch a movie, I try to know as little as possible so, at first, this movie seemed to be a rather standard slasher flick (the intro was seriously generic) and it’s only when Millie woke up after being stabbed that I understood that they actually mashed-up the slasher genre with a body-swap comedy. I didn’t make the connection right away with the title and ‘Freaky Friday’ which was pretty obvious as well. Anyway, I have to admit that I was surprised this mix actually worked pretty well. Indeed, the slasher stuff was rather forgettable and barely interesting but I actually enjoyed the body-swap stuff which was surprising since I found most movies in this genre really tedious. Above all, I thought that Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton really nailed it as they both delivered some solid performances. I think the top moment for me was when Milie in Vince Vaughn’s body actually kissed Booker. Seriously, it was really wild and unexpected and I wish they made more bold moves like this one, in this case, this movie would have been truly awesome. It’s only after watching this movie that I realized that Christopher Landon also did direct ‘Happy Death Day’ which mixed a typical slasher with the time loop genre so the guy really likes mixing up random genres with his horror flick but I have to admit that he’s getting away with it pretty well so far. Anyway, to conclude, even though the concept might sound rather idiotic, the end-result was actually quite entertaining and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like horror-comedies.  

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Olga Kurylenko and Gary Oldman, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be pretty awful, I’m afraid. Basically, it was some rip-off of ‘The Transporter’, except that they replaced the car with a nice bike and Jason Statham with Olga Kurylenko which actually does sound really cool. However, if you would be expecting some awesome actions scenes involving Kurylenko on her bike, well, you will be seriously disappointed though. Indeed, within 10 mins, she got off her bike in some average parking lot… and then, they spent the whole movie in this place which was probably the most underwhelming film location you could think of. Eventually, the end-result was a really tedious action flick during which you get to see Olga Kurylenko fighting some nameless goons for 90 mins in a parking lot which was as boring as it sounds. It must have been cheap, at least, it did look like it, that’s for sure. For Gary Oldman, who is considered as one of the best actors ever but, in reality, actually spent at least half of his career showing up in such garbage, it was probably his worst paycheck gig so far. Indeed, while Kurylenko was actually kicking some ass, his character basically did nothing as he was waiting at home, drinking some booze and listening to some music. I wondered if he got paid more money for wearing this ridiculous eye-patch. For some reason, his character didn’t have a wife but did have a daughter who was pretty but her lack of acting skills was just cringe-inducing. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was a big waste of time for myself but also all the people involved and you should probably avoid it. 

Of course, since I live in the Netherlands, I heard about the hijacking in the Apple store in Amsterdam, it was some big news at the time so I have to admit that I was intrigued by this movie. On top of that, my daughter was quite eager to see it as well so we watched it together. To be honest, even though I keep trying with Dutch movies, most of them are actually pretty weak, even rather pathetic, but I have to admit that I was positively surprised by this one. Indeed, the directing was solid, I could feel the tension through the whole duration, and the acting was not bad either so it didn’t feel like watching a cheap made-for-TV feature like it is usually the case with many Dutch productions. Concerning the approach, they went for something rather raw and straightforward without digging too much in the lives of the characters involved which was fine by me. I also did appreciate the amount of details they went to describe how it all went down and the end-result was realistic and convincing. The only detail that did bother me was how they obviously toned down how the hostage taker was deliberately hit by a police car at the end. In this version, it seemed to be a controlled and measured action showing how level-headed the Dutch SWAT team was. However, I also watched a documentary about the same topic and, in this documentary, they gave us the actual footage and it looked so much more brutal, like a deliberate action to kill the guy on the spot. I remember it very well, my daughter and I were quite shocked by this footage which left us with quite a bitter taste. Indeed, it felt like they executed a poor confused and disturbed guy who was walking around with a fake bomb and who didn’t kill anyone after all. Apart from this detail, everything seemed to be pretty accurate though. Anyway, to conclude, it was a decent watch 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 Alex Garland, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, after ‘Civil War’, Garland didn’t waste any time and came up quickly with another war feature but the approach was completely different this time around. Indeed, this time, he went for probably the most realistic depiction of warfare I have seen so far and the end-result was quite intriguing and instead of some bombastic action scenes full of CGI, they focused on the technical details involved when modern soldiers are at work. To be honest, I have to admit that I didn’t really understand what was their actual mission. I had to look it up afterwards and, apparently, they were performing what they call some ‘overwatch’ to support another US marines operation. Anyway, the whole thing went sideways and you spent then 90 mins watching what happened pretty much in real time. In this case, there was no room for politics discussions of this specific war was justified or not. The goal was to show the bond between these soldiers, without showing who were they were at home or even who they were outside their work during such missions (except for one scene at the beginning showing them watching a popular music video at the time). What I found interesting is that, even though they had access to the most advanced technical means available at the time, they still felt helpless against such guerilla warfare involving a dedicated local population fighting for their land. Eventually, the end-result was a little bit dry but also really raw showing the technicality, the skills involved but also how futile it eventually is when you are a hit by a massive IED explodes nearby. Anyway, to conclude, it was another intriguing directorial effort from Garland and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.