Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I kept hearing some interesting things about it, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, to be honest, the circumstances during which I watched this movie were not really ideal. Indeed, I saw it on the BBC without subtitles but, even worse, even though I started to watch it rather early at 19:30, for some reasons, I felt exhausted and struggled not to fall asleep. Anyway, how was this movie after all? Well, its biggest asset (and probably its biggest issue) is that the damned thing was really all over the place. Indeed, if you were expecting a classic sword-and-sandal epic, well, you will probably get a big surprise here. Sure, you get some Greek mythology but, also, a lot of pretty girls, even a couple of nudes, Rocky Balboa’s coach, some weird owl-robot (apparently, they came up with this character because R2-D2 in ‘Star Wars’ was so popular at the time) and, of course, a whole bunch of monsters created in stop-motion animation by the famous Ray Harryhausen. Obviously, modern viewers might find these special effects terribly cheesy if they watch this movie 40 years later but, as far as I was concerned, the ambition displayed was quite impressive, a feeling I also had when I watched the first version of ‘King Kong’. Concerning the story itself, it’s strange that I didn’t get a better grip on this tale though because I actually saw the modern remake already a few times before. Eventually, I should probably check this movie again at some point in the future, hopefully, under better circumstances. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t blow me away, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Mel Gibson and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Unfortunately, the damned thing turned out to be so lame. Seriously, it was so bad, I wonder if it wasn’t the worst movie I have seen so far starring Mel Gibson. Basically, the end-result was some kind of mix of ‘Saw’ with ‘Mr. Robot’ and, even though you might think that this combination sounds awesome, I’m telling you, it was just really pathetic and, above all, not entertaining at all to behold. The funny thing is that I was recently watching ‘Mr. Robot’, arguably the best thing ever made about hacking, and to follow up with this movie was actually pretty rough. Indeed, all the hacking done by Kevin Dillon looked so pathetic and not convincing whatsoever. By the way, the actor really did sound like a cheap version of his brother Matt. Concerning Mel Gibson, it seemed that, like so many other veteran actors, he apparently needed some extra cash and decided to get involved in such awful cheap direct-to-VOD action flicks like this one. Eventually, as usual with the genre, even though he was displayed prominently on all the promotional material, he was actually involved only in a few scenes. In fact, I do believe that Gibson is a solid actor but it was actually almost funny to see him struggling with such abysmal material. Eventually, you might wonder which was worse though, the performances by the whole cast or the laughable dialogues they had to work with. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing turned out to be a big waste of time and you should definitely avoid it, even if you are a huge fan of Mel Gibson.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but I thought I might as well check one of these movies Shirley Temple made back in the 30‘s when she was hugely popular. Well, even though I was pretty sure that it would be some kind of saccharine tedious children feature, I have to admit that I was actually amazed by how much I actually enjoyed the damned thing after all. First of all, I have to admit that Shirley Temple was actually the real deal. Indeed, at just 7 years old, it’s just insane how charismatic and entertaining she was and she really impressed me. I’m not saying that she was a great actor but I have been disappointed by so many underwhelming child actors in the past. Fortunately, it wasn’t the case with her, that's for sure. The other thing that I enjoyed with this movie was that it was also a sweet tale of intolerance. Indeed, even though Colonel Lloyd, also very well played by Lionel Barrymore, was just a terrible racist southerner, it doesn’t mean that he didn’t deserve to be loved which was quite inspiring. Indeed, even if Lloyd Sherman would never share his views, she still loved him nonetheless and because of her love, he actually became a better man or, at least, a slightly less awful bigot. Sure, you might think that I’m naïve to believe in such things but I think it was quite touching. I shouldn’t forget to also mention the groundbreaking scene during which Temple danced with Bill Robinson, a black actor, which was something unheard of at the time. Concerning the rest of the movie, well, to be honest, it wasn’t really strong though. Indeed, even though the money trouble of her parents was just terribly generic, the whole concept of the bad guys trying to rob them was actually even worse and a real cheap way to reunite this whole family towards the end. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was not a masterpiece whatsoever, I have to admit that it was actually quite entertaining and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.  

Since I have always been a huge fan of David Fincher, of course, this movie was a major priority for me and I was really eager to check it out. First of all, I respect the fact that ‘Mank’ was a critical success but, in my opinion, this story did sound so much more interesting. Indeed, I loved the concept and, since it had been a passion project for Fincher for about 20 years, I was hoping for something really amazing. Well, unfortunately , the damned thing turned out to be rather disappointing after all. I mean, it wasn’t a bad movie, I loved the 1^st chapter, Michael Fassbender was pitch-perfect and, as expected with Fincher, the mood was really neat. Unfortunately, everything happening after this 1^st chapter turned out to be such a generic revenge tale. Seriously, in spite of Fassbender’s solid performance and Fincher’s expert directing, nothing really noteworthy or surprising or really entertaining happened until the very end. In my opinion, there was also a major flaw in this story. Indeed, a major thing was that the killer had, so far, a 100% success rate which was impressive and actually possible. However, their logic seemed to be that ALL hitmen and women should have such a perfect killing rate, otherwise, they would have to be eliminated each time they would fail to complete their mission but it didn’t make sense. Indeed, in this line of work, sure, you have to be as efficient as possible but it has to happen sometimes that things go south ways, that’s inevitable. In fact, it doesn’t really matter, the end-result was just terribly generic, predictable and hardly fascinating to behold after all. Anyway, to conclude, even if it turned out to be slightly disappointing, it was a decent watch though and I still think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in David Fincher’s work. 

When I think about D.W. Griffith, I think about some massive epics like ‘The Birth of a Nation’ which lasted more than 3 hrs. However, before that, he made actually countless short movies like this one. By the way, I wonder how they came up with this poster in Listal since it had really nothing to do with the movie at all. Anyway, in 14 mins, it is actually rather hard to tell a full story and you could feel that it was not the right format for Griffith. Indeed, to be honest, narratively, it wasn't really strong, you get to see some random scenes with some farmers, some random scenes with some rich folks and the richest of them suddenly died seemingly by accident at the end. Still, it was an interesting watch though. Indeed, the visual contrast between the dirt-poor farmers and the filthy rich wheat traders was pretty neat. Eventually, I always believed that Griffith was super conservative (he was at least definitely racist, after watching ‘The Birth of a Nation’, there is no doubt about it) and it was rather fun to see him directing some kind of Communist tale during which the rich capitalists apparently meet their doom at the end. Anyway, to conclude, if you are into very old movies or if you are interested in D.W. Griffith’s work, you should check it out.

To be honest, I kept hearing that this movie was going to be a flop but, since I have seen everything from the MCU, even the mini-series on Disney+, of course, I was eager to check this movie. Well, since I didn’t have some huge expectations, I thought it was still fairly enjoyable, even if it was probably one of the weakest MCU instalments so far. The first thing that I enjoyed was that, after the Avengers, Marvel gave us their 2^nd team of super-heroes and they were really awesome together. On top of that, I really liked the connection they had between each other. The other thing that I enjoyed with this movie was that, finally, they gave us a movie which had some clear connections with the Disney+ mini-series (‘WandaVision’ and ‘Ms. Marvel’) which was pretty neat and quite rewarding if you are a long time fan of the MCU. Unfortunately, well, pretty much nothing else was interesting and/or entertaining enough in this movie. Indeed, the cool thing with Captain Marvel is that she is a really powerful super-hero who can travel through space so they could have given her any kind of weird intriguing new opponent to fight against. However, they went for the Kree who were already the same villain in her previous movie which was really disappointing. To make things worse, the whole revenge plot by Dar-Benn was just so generic and predictable, it was just a bore to behold. Eventually, it was just a really weak way to make sure that Monica Rambeau would then end up in other multi-verse at the end of the movie. One last thing it did appreciate though was that the movie was shorter than 2 hrs, in fact, it was even the shortest MCU instalment so far but it was a good thing as there is absolutely no reason why such brainless blockbusters should last around 150 mins. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look but probably only if you really like the genre. 

I have to admit that I had no idea what to expect from this movie and it did seem to be a rather obscure feature but since it was directed by William Wyler, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, it must be one of the most misguiding and unintentionally funny titles I have seen. Indeed, this movie had actually nothing to do with a gay man or woman deceiving someone else. Anyway, to be honest, I usually don’t care much about such vintage screwballs comedies but I have to admit that this one was actually fairly entertaining. Sure, as usual with the genre, the story was rather convoluted and, in theory, I usually wouldn’t care much for this kind of shenanigans. However, somehow, this one worked though, at least, for me. First of all, there is the fact that William Wyler was a top director and, even if he didn’t have a critical hit yet at the time, he definitely knew how to direct a movie and how to elevate such seemingly fluffy material. The thing that I enjoyed the most though were the solid performances by Francis Lederer and Frances Dee. Indeed, their respective characters were rather stereotypical and in fact hardly entertaining and, yet, they were both really charismatic and had some nice chemistry together. To be honest, even though it was quite clear why Sandro would fall in love with Mirabel, I wish they spent slightly more time explaining why Mirabel did fall for him. On the other hand, with not even 80 mins of running time, there was just no time to go really deep into the motivations of the characters and it was also obviously not the point of this movie. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was not a masterpiece, it was still a decent vintage comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that the story did have some potential and I really liked the mood. Indeed, I thought it was actually a solid vintage serial-killer thriller taking place in Victorian London. Eventually, it’s too bad that they went for such a messy approach though. Indeed, I have never been a fan of the random chronology and it certainly didn’t improve this tale here. They also went for some ‘Rashomon’ approach which had some potential but they didn’t really go very far in that direction. Still, it was fun that they included some real figures like Karl Marx, Dan Leno and George Gissing (even though I have to admit that I had never heard of Leno and Gissing before watching this movie). Furthermore, [Link removed - login to see], who was probably the main reason why I wanted to see this movie in the first place, was pretty good and so charming as usual. Eventually, they did end with a twist but, since it is so inherent to the genre, it was hardly surprising. Even worse, it was not really interesting and it didn’t really work out. Indeed, in my opinion, it did ruin Olivia Cooke’s and Bill Nighy’s respective characters. I mean, the whole point was to show that Kildare was a brilliant and underestimated detective but it made him look like an idiot who couldn’t identify the killer when she was actually in front of him the whole time. For Lizzie Cree, it was even worse as it so completely contradicted how the character was presented through the whole duration. 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 like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for such stories, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I had never heard of Diana Nya before watching this movie so it was pretty neat to get acquainted with this incredible woman and her impressive achievement(s) and the fact that I didn’t know anything about her probably help me to enjoy this movie even more. Indeed, I had no idea that it took her some many attempts to finally reach her lifetime goal. Of course, you know from the start how it will end and the idea of watching someone swimming seemingly endlessly might not seem really exciting but I think the makers made the most of this true story. It’s only afterwards that I remembered that it was directed by the same couple who made the amazing ‘Free Solo’ which was dealing with a similar topic. I mean, to see Nyad swimming for hours was maybe not as thrilling as watching Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan but they still managed to make it entertaining though. The other thing that really made this movie work was the relationship between Diana Nyad and her best friend/coach Bonnie Stoll. Maybe it’s too bad that we didn’t see them at all outside the context of this great challenge but I still think that they were 2 very interesting women and it was probably one of the best depictions of BFFs I have ever seen. It did also help that Annette Bening and Jodie Foster both gave some solid performances here and it was really neat to see such fine actresses at the top of their game. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was still a solid sports biopic and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but I still ended up watching the damned thing though. Well, even though the concept did sound rather lame, I have to admit that I was actually rather positively surprised by the approach they took. Indeed, against all expectations, all these college girls, except for one obligatory and unnecessary bad guy/girl, actually embraced and even loved this middle-aged mother joining them in college which was actually quite refreshing. Unfortunately, pretty much nothing else worked in this movie though. I mean, there is nothing really funny or entertaining about making a character loud and obnoxious and this movie was not an exception, I’m afraid. In fact, it was when they actually toned down the rather hysterical behavior of the main character, showing that she was a nice lady who actually cared for these girls, that the movie actually almost worked. I say ‘almost’ because the concept still remained pretty weak. To make things worse, beside a (really) few decent jokes, the vast majority of these jokes was just pretty lame though. For example, the main character did get involved in a sexual relationship with a college student who happened to be the son of her ex-man’s new wife which was supposed to obviously hilarious. However, it was neither really funny or really awkward but, to make things worse, they kept repeating it over and over again hoping that it will become entertaining at some point. Another thing that bothered me was that the fact that, sure, this middle-aged woman did indeed end up with a college degree in archeology at the end… but then so what? I really wonder if she would then manage to find a job afterwards in this sector but it was obviously not the point of this movie though. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was still rather weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look.