Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Since I’m an immigrant myself, son of an immigrant, I’m always fascinated by such stories, especially when it is so perfectly handled as it was definitely the case here. Indeed, with this movie, you didn’t have 1 but 3 fascinating intricate characters and, as a result, it was probably the best love triangle I have ever seen. Indeed, there was no good guy, no bad guy, only some really realistic and convincing human-beings dealing with some complex feelings. As pointed out by Arthur himself, in a weaker movie, he would have probably been the evil jealous White husband doing everything he can to prevent his wife to see her childhood crush. But, even if he was a nice guy who really loved his wife, it doesn’t mean that his situation was easy though. Concerning his wife, Nora, she was probably the character who got the most screen time and it was just so fascinating to see her wrestling with her past, her present, her culture baggage, and, eventually, you don’t get some clean clear-cut answers but that’s how it goes in real life and that’s how it’s supposed to be. Concerning Jung Hae Sung, you get the feeling that he will never really manage to let go of this childhood romance but you spend enough time with him to see that, even if he cherished every minute he spent with Nora, he was so compassionate towards her, even towards her husband, it was quite inspiring to behold. Another interesting thing is that they argued that Nora made her choice to be where she ended up but, in fact, she never really made this choice in the first place. Indeed, it was her parents who took the decision to immigrate to Canada, she would have never made this choice at 12 years old, and you can only wonder what would have been her relationship with Jung Hae Sung if her parents who have decided to stay in South Korea. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was just so fascinating and it is easily one of the best movies I have seen this year. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring [Link removed - login to see], I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, it has been years since I saw ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ (I apparently did enjoy it though) and I can’t say I was really dying to see a remake of this movie. Still, I have to admit that I always had a weak spot for movies dealing with con artists and the idea of focusing on 2 female con artists played by Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson did sound actually pretty cool. Unfortunately, even if the concept certainly had some potential, the end-result turned out to be hardly entertaining after all, I’m afraid. Above all, it seems that they really messed up the script. For example, how many times did they go back-and-forth between having the two main characters working together and then competing with each other? Seriously, they should have made up their mind at some point and go in a specific direction instead. Another issue was that all the cons were rather disappointing and most of them were not really convincing. I mean, the whole ‘Lord of the Rings’ scam was rather pathetic and I’m not even sure if it was actually the worst of the bunch. The fact that Alex Sharp’s character also turned out to be a con artist was also terribly predictable and not interesting or entertaining whatsoever. Eventually, pretty much nothing did work in this movie, except for Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson themselves. Indeed, they were actually both not bad at all but there was not much they could do with this poor material. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing turned out to be pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was the only directorial effort from Céline Sciamma that I haven’t seen so far, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, if her approach was as usual really sober, the emotion going underneath all these girls turned out to be so intense, it was rather heartbreaking but also quite fascinating to behold. Indeed, all these young women were going through their sexual awakening and this process was hardly a picnic for any of them. Indeed, if they are attractive, they are basically constantly harassed by all men, younger, from the same age and way older than them and, if they are not traditionally attractive or are even downright ugly, well, they are completely ignored as if they didn’t exist at all. And, if they turn out to be gay like Marie, the situation becomes even more complicated and confusing. Hell, even the boys seem to be really confused but even though Sciamma’s focus on girls is always intriguing, she tends to really reduce the boys to some horny dogs whose only goal is to have sex as quickly as possible. Even if it might not be far from the truth, men are just as complicated as women are but that’s something Sciamma doesn’t care about at all. On the other hand, the vast majority of movies focus only on men and relegate women to either damsels in distress or to some rather passive love interests. Another interesting thing with this movie was the complete absence of parents. Sure, they were mentioned a few times but you never see them and they were certainly never involved but I think it did make sense. Indeed, around that age, you usually take your distance from your parents who are often reduced to nuisances who are only there to take care of the bills and the meals. Anyway, to conclude, even if I don’t think it was really a masterpiece, it was still a really solid directorial début and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

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, even though it was based on a very interesting true story, to be honest, the end-result left like a low-rent version of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. Concerning Emily Blunt, I always had a weak spot for this actress, she was in fact the main reason why I wanted to watch this movie in the first place and she was pretty good in here. It’s too bad I didn’t care much for the trajectory her character followed. On the other hand, even though Chris Evans is usually quite charismatic, I thought he was actually rather weak here and he never really convinced me playing a foul-mouthed sales representative. However, the biggest issue was probably that the damned thing was directed by David Yates. Indeed, even though he has probably been one of the most successful directors in terms of box-office results thanks to the Harry Potter franchise, he is not really what you could call an ‘author’ and he is certainly not Martin Scorsese. I mean, it’s not that it was awful, like pretty much every other movies delivered by Yates, it was competently made but not much more than that. Seriously, you might have more fun reading a Wikipedia page retelling these events. Sure, I’m not saying that they necessarily had to go for the same wacky tone displayed in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ but they clearly flirted with a similar approach. However, they never really committed themselves to this tone so maybe they should have gone for something else. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch but, to be honest, with such a strong tale, it should have been so much better though.  

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but I kept hearing about Charlie Chan, I thought I might as well check one of the movies starring this character. Back then, they made a whopping 47 installments and it was in fact the 11^th movie starring this character. However, for the completists, I'm afraid the first 2 installments are lost. Anyway, it’s too bad the video I saw on YouTube was of very poor quality but, beside this, I have to admit that I was actually surprised by how entertaining the damned thing turned out to be. Indeed, the directing was rather average but there was something nicely pulpy about the story. Concerning Charlie Chan, he turned out to be some kind of Asian version of Hercule Poirot but the guy was definitely entertaining and Warner Oland, who played the character in 16 movies in total, was pretty good, even if he was actually Swedish and not Asian at all. Eventually, the only thing that really bothered me was the sometimes awful racist stereotypes they displayed, especially with Snowshoes. It was just weird and even nauseating to see all these White characters being played straight and, suddenly, this Black character being played as a completely dim-witted and slightly hysterical coward just to have a good laugh. Seriously, it was awful and it did actually ruin the damned thing for me. It’s as if, because the only smart and interesting character was Asian, they had to make sure that the most stupid character was not White, to make sure the White audience was not offended. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I really loved ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’, of course, I was eager to see the other shorts delivered recently by Wes Anderson for Netflix. Indeed, if you are a fan of Wes Anderson’s work, it will be quite a year to remember as the indie master will release no less than 5 movies (1 full-length feature and 4 shorts). Even if I have never been a fan of Roald Dahl’s books film adaptations, I really did love ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ which is, as far as I’m concerned, Anderson’s best movie so far. Well, the famous writer and the indie film director seemed to be once again a match made in heaven even if, in this case, this short was the weakest one of the bunch though. Visually, it was once again quite reminiscent to ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ which was pretty cool. Concerning the tone, it was much darker than the other shorts, even downright sinister, but it wasn’t an issue. What bothered me more was the fact that the story was not really amazing and the approach was, this time, slightly chaotic. For example, a rat was at first not displayed at all, then displayed as a puppet, then played by Rupert Friend himself which was maybe original but, as far as I was concerned, the end-result was just too messy for my taste. At least, the whole thing was certainly a nice one-man-show from Ralph Fiennes, even if the guy was already playing Roald Dahl but it was apparently something Wes Anderson was keen on, that the actors involved play several characters. Anyway, to conclude, it was still pretty good though, I really enjoyed all these shorts and they are all definitely worth a look, especially if you are a fan of Wes Anderson or Roald Dahl.

I have to admit that I never cared at all for the Spy Kids franchise but since this new installment was still directed by Robert Rodriguez and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I wish that the very first ‘Spy Kids’ had turned out to be a huge box-office flop when it was released because Rodriguez would have hopefully dropped the concept right away back then. Seriously, the guy has spent pretty much half of his career making such kids flicks which are just terrible and this new installment was not an exception, I’m afraid. The only interesting idea was the fact that spies have to lie all the time, that’s basically part of the job, but, in this case, how do you raise some children by telling them to be honest and to always tell the truth? I actually liked this paradox but, unfortunately, it was only quickly mentioned by one of the characters at some point but they really did nothing with that after all. The other thing that I enjoyed was that Gina Rodriguez not only did look lovely but she was pretty badass and she also managed to be a convincing mother at the same time. Unfortunately, all the other characters involved were just so underwhelming. I mean, Zachary Levi was not awful but he did really nothing interesting with his character at all. Even more problematic was the fact that, once again, they picked up some of the worst children actors I have seen. Seriously, they were both rather cringe-inducing to behold and it is in fact very often the case in Rodriguez’s kid flicks. Seriously, I’m rather flabbergasted that some critics actually praised these kids for their work on this movie. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was a big waste of time and you should probably avoid it. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a really solid reputation (it was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I thought it was rather difficult to judge this movie. Indeed, by then, it was already the 3d version of this story that I saw, after the 1957 version and the 2018 version (I still have to watch the 1976 version at some point but it seems to be the weakest of the bunch though). However, in this case, it seems rather unfair since this movie was actually the very first one. Anyway, even though it is undoubtedly a popular story, I’m still not sure about it though. Indeed, even though she was definitely a cute girl, they never displayed that Esther Blodgett had such impressive acting skills, she didn’t have any training and it didn’t seem that she had to work really hard to become a huge star. Basically, she bumped into Norman Maine at some point, the guy fell in love with her on the spot and he then launched her career. Nothing wrong with that but, in my opinion, it did rather diminish her achievements. On the other hand, Norman Maine was a strong character, probably more interesting than Esther/Vicky and I understand that some might think he actually stole the show after all. Still, Janet Gaynor was pretty good and, with Fredric March, they had some solid chemistry together. Anyway, to conclude, even if it might not be a masterpiece, it is still a classic tale, there is a good reason why they keep remaking it again and again and this first version 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 very well received and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, it was not bad with a couple of interesting ideas but, to be honest, it wasn’t really much more than that though. Concerning the animation, I have to admit that it did look pretty good but I didn’t care much about this futuristic medieval world. It’s not that it was bad, it’s just that it wasn’t really interesting, at least, not to me. Concerning the story itself, I guess it was entertaining enough but it was still nothing really dazzling. Indeed, at the end of the day, it was still fairly generic and predictable. Furthermore, even though Nimona herself was fairly entertaining, the rest of the movie did suffer from some severe ADHD syndrome. Eventually, the only element that did trigger me was when they finally revealed Nimona’s origins. Basically, 1000 years back then when Gloreth supposedly saved this kingdom from a huge monster, in fact, this monster was actually Nimona and, in fact, she wasn’t a monster at all. However, during the 1000 years that followed, it became a completely different story/legend. In my opinion, it was the most intriguing thing in this movie and I think there was an interesting parallel with Christendom. Indeed, 2000 years after Christendom started, some people are still convinced that all events linked to the Christendom, especially the ones told in the Bible, are exactly what happened but, as it was displayed in this movie, it is probable that it wasn’t the case. It was also a nice touch that Ballister Boldheart and Ambrosius Goldenloin were a gay couple and, hopefully in the future, we won't have to mention anymore when the main couple will be gay instead of being straight. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really impress after all, 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 wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Mila Kunis, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the concept might have seemed to be too lame and/or idiotic for my taste and, yet, it could have worked though. Indeed, Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon were both pretty good and they had a nice chemistry together. Unfortunately, pretty much nothing else did work in this movie, I’m afraid. Indeed, all the other characters were barely entertaining but, above all, they never really nailed the tone. Indeed, if they would have gone for either a dark comedy or something really daft, I think it could have been pretty neat after all. Unfortunately, they went for some weird mix of standard comedy with standard action stuff and this mix was just misguided and, above all, barely entertaining. I understand that, since it was a movie dealing with spies, some people had to get killed, sometimes even by their own hand, but it was just weird how unfazed the characters seemed to react to this experience. Basically, how can you make something funny about a job which implies that people (innocent or not) will violently die in the process? I’m not saying it’s impossible but it’s definitely a challenge and, in this area, this movie failed miserably. Concerning the rest of the cast, I think I read somewhere that Sam Heughan was a possible candidate to play James Bond at some point but it is now clear that this guy definitely wouldn’t have what it takes to play this iconic character. The fact that this movie was too long probably didn’t help either. Seriously, there is no way that this concept or this specific movie needed almost 2 hrs of running time. Anyway, to conclude, I really didn’t care much about the damned thing after all and I don’t think it is really worth a look.