Reviews by johanlefourbe

This year (2024) has been so far rather disappointing regarding the movies. As usual, I try to watch 50 movies, I have reached 35 but nothing really blew me away so far and this movie was a pretty good example. Indeed, since it was apparently well received and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out but, to be honest, even though it turned out to be a decent watch, it wasn’t really much more than that. It was basically a similar story to ‘Nyad’ which was released last year and, even if it was slightly better, I can’t say it was really impressive though. The fact that they took some liberties with what actually happened probably didn’t help. For example, women have been a part of the Olympic swim program since 1912 and American women have been going to the Olympics for swimming since 1920 where they won several gold medals. Even Trudy Ederle brought back a gold medal when she came back from the 1924 Paris Olympics when, in the movie, her campaign was described as a complete failure. She also didn’t swim right away for her 2nd attempt and there was actually a year between both attempts. Sure, I’m not saying that such true tales are not allowed to deviate from what actually happened. However, in this case, the whole idea was to show how discriminated women were at the time but, after all these alterations, I’m not sure how true it really was. Still, there is no denying that it was a really inspiring tale, Trudy Ederle was an impressive women, apparently a much better swimmer than most men at the time and Daisy Ridley delivered here a really solid performance, probably her best so far. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, I have to admit that it was not bad at all and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since this movie seemed to have a solid reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list, among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I thought it was rather hard to judge this movie after all. Indeed, on one hand, it was a huge box-office success at the time, it was also the first time that a war epic of this size was made (we shouldn’t forget it was made already 100 years ago) and it was really influential for all the war movies that came afterwards. However, on the other hand, I have to admit that I actually struggled to really care about this movie though. Indeed, first of all, there was the fact that, with a running time of 150 mins, it was pretty damned long. Then, another thing that bothered me even more was the fact that it took them forever to finally get involved in this worldwide conflict. Eventually, I’m not sure if I really cared about these 3 soldiers bonding about the most random things that you could imagine. The war scenes came therefore fairly late but these were the reason why this movie became pretty famous. However, to be honest, even these scenes left me rather unfazed. That’s the tricky thing when you watch a movie so old, it’s sometimes difficult to forget all the movies you have seen in the same genre that came afterwards which were technically obviously superior to this one. However, none of these other war movies would have been possible if this movie wasn’t made in the first place. Anyway, to conclude, even if he didn’t really blow me away, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was starring Jim Caviezel and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if I’m not religious myself, I always thought that religion is actually a fascinating subject. In this case, it was especially interesting since I have seen plenty of movies dealing with Jesus Christ but it was the first one I saw focusing on one of the apostles. So, the material definitely had some potential but, to be honest, I didn't care much about this movie after all though. First of all, focusing on the last days of a famous figure is usually not a great gimmick. Indeed, even though it might sound interesting, the final days are usually not the most interesting or productive period and it was definitely the case here, I'm afraid. I mean, I’m sure that Paul must have had some wisdom to share and I wonder what was his thoughts but, eventually, you just him see rotting in his jail and not really much more than that. Concerning Luke, it was a similar issue but even if he was definitely more active, I wish he was given something more interesting to do  or, even better, something more interesting to say. At least, Jim Caviezel and James Faulkner were both not bad and they both gave some decent performances. I wish I could say the same about Olivier Martinez though. Seriously, what an awful performance… The most bewildering thing about this dude is that he has been working in the US for more than 20 years so how come he still have such a thick French accent? Anyway, to conclude, even though the material definitely had some potential, the damned thing was still rather weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except if you are really into religious movies. 

This last few years, I have been finally catching up with Buster Keaton’s work and this movie was apparently his 13th directorial effort that I have seen. To be honest, I think it will probably be the last one for a while. In fact, instead of one film, you actually get 3 movies but the gimmick was not bad though. The main issue was that they kept repeating the same jokes and setups in 3 different time periods. Still, the prehistoric period was pure gold though and it was probably the oldest movie I have seen dealing with this time period. Only for this, it is actually worth checking the damned thing. Sure, it wasn’t accurate at all but it was obviously not the point here and the end-result felt like a live-action version of the Flintstones but 100 times more satisfying than the dreadful version they delivered in the 90’s (the sequel was actually even worse). There was even some awesome stop-motion animation to show a living dinosaur. To be honest, I think they could have made the whole movie only about this segment. Still, the Roman period was not bad though (the way these black slaves stopped their work to play some craps was however really discriminating and pretty awful to behold). Concerning the modern period, even though it did make sense to add it to the mix, it did feel rather useless since it was basically your basic Buster Keaton’s romantic slapstick comedy. Another mistake they made was to constantly switch between the 3 different time periods and I think they should have completely played each segment the one after the other. Anyway, to conclude, even thought it was probably one of Buster Keaton’s best efforts, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure 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, even though it seems to be rather forgotten nowadays, it is actually a pretty solid ‘cancer’ drama. Indeed, it tends to be slightly cheesy but, fortunately, they took a realistic approach which I did appreciate. However, the main asset was Michael Keaton as he gave here one of his best performances. To be honest, I think there was something missing with his character but there is no denying that Keaton made the most of this material. I wish I could say the same about Nicole Kidman though. Sure, back then, I'll have to admit that she was quite gorgeous but, to be honest, when watching this movie, it was hard to believe that she would eventually become one of the best actresses of her generation. It’s not that she was really bad but her character was going through her first pregnancy and her husband was slowly dying at the same time which seemed like such a massively tragic ordeal and, to be honest, she seemed rather unfazed by all that. Basically, I thought she wasn’t really convincing and I never believed this woman was going through such shattering events. However, the biggest issue was that, as pointed out by the great Roget Ebert, even though this movie was a good starting point, it wasn’t enough, I’m afraid. Basically, the guy was dying which was obviously really tragic but what was really the impact on him after all? The only conclusion they could give us was that he was basically a nice but still pretty average guy but not much more than that. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

When I saw the trailer, I can’t say I was really impressed but since this movie was very well received, I thought I might as well check it out after all. Well, at least, I have to admit that it was probably DreamWorks most gorgeous movie so far. Still, even if I have to agree that it was definitely one of their best efforts, I think it was still too derivative though. Basically, it was some kind of mix of ‘WALL-E’ with ‘Big Hero 6’ but, to be honest, it wasn’t really much more than that though. Still, I can’t deny it, there is always something really powerful about a synthetic being like Roz slowly discovering emotions and love and it was very well developed in this movie. I still think it was too predictable but also too convoluted at the same time though. For example, one thing that bothered me was that Roz had to learn and adapt to this wild world and these wild animals which was pretty neat. However, at some point, they made a huge 180 degrees turn and displayed how these animals all became friends after Roz became some kind of messiah for this community showing them how they should actually treat each other but I think it was a mistake. The whole point was to show how this robot became wild so why should all these animals become somehow friendly with each other? Does this mean that they all became vegetarian then? I wasn’t sure about the ending either. I mean, there was this massive climatic battle to prevent Roz from leaving the island but, eventually, she still went anyway (by the way, how many times Roz did try to leave this island to go back where she was coming from?). Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, I have to admit that it was a pretty good animated feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it seemed to have a decent reputation and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that, because of some personal stuff, I had actually a rather hard time to focus on this movie. However, the fact that it was really random probably didn’t help either. Seriously, they would keep jumping from one thing to another without much cohesion and, to be honest, the end-result was rather jarring. For some reason, they also thought it would be clever to play some scenes in reverse but I have to admit that the effect was not bad though. Anyway, eventually, it was probably the most abstract Soviet documentary I have seen so far. The fact it was made 100 years ago and that the quality of the copy I have seen was pretty poor made the whole thing even more abstract than it already was. Of course, since it was a Soviet production, it was obviously some propaganda but, in spite of all the horrors that happened there at the time, I have to admit that, at least to me, there was something quite appealing about this ideology so it  didn’t bother me. This movie actually stood out from the genre as it was much less grim than what you usually get. Indeed, the tone was much lighter and even quite joyful (the Chinese magician was definitely an highlight for me). I think it also had to do with the fact that it was shot in the mid-20’s, the Russian revolution only took place less than a decade before and, at the time, they were all motivated and still quite positive about what they were trying to achieve. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still 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 there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it was definitely a strong true story but, to be honest, the movie itself rather bored me after all. I mean, sure, it turned out to be a decent cold war thriller but, in my opinion, I wasn’t much more than that though. The fact that Jessie Buckley, such a fascinating actress, was once again completely wasted playing the helpless wife waiting at home probably didn’t help either. I mean, it was pretty neat to see how much she was able to achieve with the material she was provided but her character was ultimately terribly dull after all, in fact, like all the other characters involved in this story. The only exception would be the character played by Rachel Brosnahan (unsurprisingly, the only fictional character in this tale) who was intriguing but even this spy was barely developed after all. Basically, even though the story was neat, it was maybe the issue, that the end-result was just too neat. You had this average guy who reluctantly became a spy and then he became really committed, so commited in fact that even became a hero seemingly preventing a worldwide nuclear conflict. However, while it might sound really inspiring when you read it like that, it was just terribly predictable and, to be honest, barely entertaining after all. Concerning Benedict Cumberbatch, I have to admit that he was perfectly cast and he did deliver a solid performance but, I'm sorry and I have noting against him, Greville Wynne was no Alan Turing. Sure, Turing was probably one of the greatest geniuses that walked the Earth so the comparison might be unfair but you get my point. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look but probably only if you really like the genre.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Erich von Stroheim and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, like all the movies directed by von Stroheim, there was something terribly decadent and yet fascinating about this movie. Indeed, from a technical point of view, the damned thing was really well made, especially when you think that it came out about 100 years ago. Still, even though von Stroheim was a strong director and even though John Gilbert and Mae Murray both gave some solid performances, I still struggled to really care about this movie though. First of all, von Stroheim always had a tendency to overstretch his directorial efforts (his previous movie, the classic ‘Greed’, was supposed to be 4 hrs long for crying out loud) and this movie was not an exception, I’m afraid. I mean, it was basically some kind of vintage romantic-comedy, nothing wrong with that but it certainly didn’t require more than 2hrs of running time. Furthermore, it is always striking to me that, even though the leads did have some charisma and did have some chemistry together, I was actually wondering why they actually fell in love with each other. Especially in this case, Prince Danilo had such a predatory behavior during the 1st half, seriously, I think he did molest Sally at least twice which was, to be honest, rather distressing to behold.  Sure, this movie was made about 100 years ago but still. Then, during the 2nd half, nothing much really happened after all, the fact that we all knew all along that the characters actually belonged to each other and would eventually end up with each other obviously didn’t help. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Even though this movie turned out to be a huge critical and commercial misfire, since I'm a huge fan of Joaquin Phoenix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, maybe due to the fact that I seriously lowered down my expectations but I don't think it was so bad after all. The fact that 'Joker' didn't really blow me away in the first place also probably helped. Anyway, it turned out to be a sweet love story involving two really messed-up up individuals and I really enjoyed that Arthur Fleck finally managed to connect with someone which was actually really sweet. Furthermore, Joaquin Phoenix was again really good, I wouldn't expect less from him, Lady Gaga also delivered a solid performance and they had a nice chemistry together. However, I have to admit that the damned thing still had some issues though. First of all, the musical angle was a rather useless gimmick to add some buzz and, this way, since they hired Lady Gaga, they had seemingly a good excuse to have her delivering some songs. Furthermore, it was fine to have Joaquin Phoenix destroying a song but to have him doing it again and again was more cringe-inducing than actually entertaining. However, what really derailed the whole thing was the approach they took for the 3rd act though. Indeed, sure, Arthur Fleck had pushed back his Joker personality and you had to wait for a while to see him again but it was fair game. However, when this demented personality was finally back, they should have gone all the way. Indeed, when he escaped, the city should have gone in flame and total mayhem and they should have given us the Joker and Harley Quinn holding hands and riding into the sunset, that would have been a nice ending. However, instead, they completely backtracked, Arthur somehow cancelled and even repudiated the Joker which was weird but, above all, seriously anticlimactic and, quite frankly, rather frustrating. Anyway, to conclude, the enormous bashing against this movie turned out to be seriously exaggerated, in spite of its flaws, it was actually a decent watch and I think it is worth a look.