Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but, since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the damned thing turned out to be so much worse than I expected though. I have to admit that it was only afterwards that I realized that this movie was actually directed by Dennis Dugan, a guy who has spent most of his directing career delivering some dreadful movies starring Adam Sandler. Well, even if it wasn’t his worst movie (pretty much nothing can be worst than ‘Jack and Jill’), it wasn’t far from it though. Basically, it was dealing with a whole bunch of romances intertwined with each other. Sure, there is actually nothing wrong with such a generic concept except that, in this case, everything single one of these little romantic tales turned out to be so half-baked, rather pathetic but, above all, not entertaining whatsoever. Seriously, even though I have to admit that Maggie Grace was actually quite charming in spite of the rather abysmal material, pretty much nothing worked with this movie though. Concerning the cast, I have become unfortunately used to see Diane Keaton showing up in such lame romantic-comedies recently but this movie was probably the worst of the bunch. To make things worse, she was really weak playing some blind woman but I have to admit that she wasn’t helped by the fact that none of the characters involved in this movie was properly developed whatsoever. On the other hand, I was much more surprised to see Jeremy Irons ending up here. Indeed, even if Irons might not have a perfect track record, he always managed to stay away from such drivel, at least, until now. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was just so lame and even if you have weak spot for the genre like I do, you should definitely avoid it.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Cédric Klapisch, I was quite eager to check it out. I don’t think that Klapisch is well known outside of France but I have been following his career from the very beginning with ‘Le péril jeune’ and I always had a weak spot for his work. Well, this movie was another interesting addition to an already solid filmography. Above all, as long as they simply hung out with these dancers and forgot the plot, it was actually quite fascinating to behold and the dancing scenes were very often spellbinding to behold. Unfortunately, it’s too bad the damned thing turned out to be narratively speaking rather weak after all. What bothered me the most was probably the fact that the main character met a famous choreographer earlier in the movie but then, somehow, she bumped into his dance company in the middle of nowhere in France at this artist residency which was rather ridiculous. I mean, by skipping their first encounter and having her meeting him for the first time in Brittany would have worked so much better. There were also a whole bunch of half-baked and rather unnecessary sub-plots. The one involving her physical therapist falling in love with her was the least problematic. In fact, I have to admit that it was actually almost entertaining thanks to a solid performance by François Civil but it still felt rather useless though. Another thread involving her relationship with her father played by Denis Podalydès was however so generic and a waste of time. Finally, even though Mehdi Baki is a fantastic dancer, I don’t think they ever had a single conversation so it was rather difficult to root for their new romance. Furthermore, she had to be reborn and found some new connection with dancing, that was the whole point of this movie, and I don’t think that she had to also hook up with a new boyfriend and fix up her cold relationship with her father on top of that. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject matter.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if it didn’t really work out, it was certainly intriguing to see Schwarzenegger playing in a drama for the very first time in his career. Sure, his performance was maybe not award worthy but it was still a really decent effort though. Eventually, I had more issues with the directing after all. Indeed, even thought the prospect of seeing the Austrian Oak going through such a traumatic experience was more than enough, they felt compelled to add a 2d point of view on this tragedy but I’m afraid this approach did backfire after all. Sure, I will have to admit that there was nothing wrong with the sad story of Jacob Bonanos and Scoot McNairy delivered, as usual, a solid performance. However, if both stories on their own definitely had some potential, combining them certainly deluded their impact. As a result, instead of going deeper into what was really going on with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character because there was simply not enough time, they gave us too many scenes during which the guy seemed to be constipated. It was also weird how the guy at first wanted someone to apologize to him but, from there, actually decided to kill the air traffic controller who was involved. Of course, you could argue that it was what actually happened during the true story on which this movie was based on. The issue was that they spent too much time showing that Roman Melnyk as some middle-mannered man and too much time showing that Jacob Bonanos was probably the least responsible in this tragedy. As a result, this ending felt rather bewildering since it didn’t match at all how these 2 men were portrayed during the whole movie. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it turned out to be a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you want to see Arnold Schwarzenegger doing something completely different for once. 

To be honest, it did seem to be a rather obscure feature but, since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the damned thing after all. William Powell has always been praised for his stellar performance while the rest of the movie has been discarded but I don’t agree with this assessment. Sure, Powell was awesome but, in my opinion, the movie itself was possibly one of the best movies about a con-man I have seen. First of all, the cons displayed were actually believable and not some completely far-fetched fantasies. And, indeed, William Powell was so just so fascinating to behold. Sure, his character was suave and cool, it goes with the trade, but he also added such melancholy to his performance which was quite spellbinding to behold. Basically, even if he would manage to get all the money in the world, this way-of-life would still be lonely and even rather pathetic for a man like him who had the brains to become someone really brilliant. To be honest, I wish they developed a little bit more Carole Lombard’s character which could have explained why Michael Trevor could fall so much for her like this. On the other hand, you could sense that, even before he met her, the guy was getting already fed up with his way of making a living and she was basically the last drop for him. I also loved how they concluded the whole thing. Indeed, in fact, it wasn't Irene’s threat which made him drop the woman he loved, it was the fact that he understood that he thought he would never be worthy of such a beautiful romance. Anyway, to conclude, even if this movie doesn’t seem to have a strong reputation, it turned to be really good and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I remember it very well, back in 2000, ‘Jackass’ was at the time a big hit on MTV but, to be honest, it seemed to be so stupid so I pretty much boycotted the damned thing back then. Eventually, it took me more than 20 years to finally watch these movies and you might wonder why I changed my mind. Well, the main reason why was because, back in 2022, ‘Jackass Forever’ was actually hailed as one of the best movies of the year by Indiewire, no less than that. This surprising critical praise really intrigued me and I thought I might as well check this franchise after all. Well, after all these years, I have to admit that I actually enjoyed the damned thing and this sequel worked as well. To be honest, they didn’t take some huge swings creatively speaking compared to the previous installment but, at least, it must have pleased the fans. As far as I was concerned, even if the intro did work this time, the intro from the 1^st installment was much wackier and I wonder if they will ever be able to top that in the following sequels. However, I must have admit that I was actually really impressed by the musical number at the end. Seriously, it was actually well done and a perfect mix of their humor with some classic musical shenanigans. Concerning the skits, it was as usual hit and miss but I have to admit that I was actually laughing much more often than I expected. The only ones which stood out because it didn’t like them was the first one involving a snake biting a disguised penis (yeah, seriously…) and the whole elaborate sequence during which one of the guys was disguised as a terrorist and was pranked by a fake taxi driver played by Jay Chandrasekhar. Anyway, to conclude, even if I still don’t think it is really amazing, I have to admit that the damned thing was actually really funny and I think it is worth a look, at least if you like the genre.