Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the damned thing but since it did win the César of the Best French movie of the year, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that I’m usually not a huge fan of costume dramas but this one looked really good and, above all, the story was really neat. Indeed, it didn’t read the book written by Honoré de Balzac but it was certainly dealing with a fascinating time period in French history. Back then, for a rather short period of time, there was apparently some kind of complete freedom of speech which apparently didn’t lead to enlightenment but to even more disinformation. Eventually, I thought it was a great parallel with today with our influencers and fake news. Eventually, the end-result was super interesting and entertaining and I think this movie actually did have the potential to be some kind a French vintage version of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. Unfortunately, it did fall slightly short, I’m afraid. It could have had to do with the running time even though Scorsese’s modern classic was actually even longer though. I think it had more to do with the fact that, even though this movie had a decent flow and vibe, they didn’t really manage to sustain this energy. Furthermore, even though the main character was interesting enough and [Link removed - login to see] was charismatic and his performance was pretty good, the trajectory of the main character was probably too predictable. Another issue was probably also the love triangle involving the main character which was rather underwhelming especially compared to his professional life which was much more intriguing.  Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn't a complete home-run, it still turned out to be a really neat French costume drama and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Rosamund Pike, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I have to admit that I was really positively surprised by the damned thing. Indeed, it turned out to be a bold and dark movie dealing with something quite real, I’m afraid. As far as I was concerned, the most intriguing thing was that there was no real main character in this movie. Indeed, Marla Grayson was definitely the antagonist but there was no protagonist in this movie and I can imagine that, for many viewers, this idea that you have only bad or even seriously rotten people to behold might have been alienating but I actually really liked this approach. Still, to be honest, even though Marla was a convincing con artist, I don’t believe she could swindle so many elderlies on such a scale without anyone except this one guy trying to stop her. On the other hand, even without someone so nefarious like Marla involved, if the system is convinced that you are unfit, especially mentally, then you will have a really hard time to convince them otherwise, as perfectly displayed in this movie. Another thing that bothered me was Marla’s stubbornness to keep on going against a seemingly way too powerful opponent. Indeed, she was maybe a successful con artist but not much more than that so, the way she gambled everything, especially her life, against the Russian mafia seemed to be rather unlikely. However, how this conflict was eventually solved (Roman, the Russian gangster, was so impressed by Marla demented skills that he decided to work with her) was pretty neat and it actually did validate Marla’s seemingly reckless and misguided approach. Even the fact that she got killed at the end did work, not because she got what she deserved as many righteous viewers might think, but because she was taking so many risks antagonizing so many people in the process, I wasn’t surprised that someone really pissed off would eventually get rid of her. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was missing something to be really great, it was still a pretty good flick and I think 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 available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Not to be confused with the classic directed by John Carpenter or the other recent remake by David Gordon Green, this is another version directed by Rob Zombie and it seems to be rather forgotten nowadays, even if it was actually fairly successful at the box-office when it was released. Well, I thought it was not bad at all. Indeed, what I really liked was the fact that Zombie took a really different approach, at least, during the first half. Indeed, for once, they focused on Michael Myers’s childhood which was a nice idea. However, it turned out to be only a very long introduction and the rest of the movie was basically a rather faithful remake of Carpenter’s classic. Eventually, the only thing that bothered me with this remake was that they made the same mistake that they already did with ‘Halloween II’ (and maybe with the other sequels but I haven’t seen those) which was to give Michael Myers some kind of super powers. Sure, at first, it was impressing that that this little boy became this huge menacing mountain but this effect unfortunately wore off rather quickly. Indeed, to reach such a muscular figure, it would mean that the character would have hit the gym almost on a daily basis which obviously didn’t fit at all his reclusive temperament. Furthermore, by making him super strong and seemingly invincible, it makes the character so much less relatable. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was probably another pointless remake, I have to admit that it turned out to be a decent watch and it is actually worth a look but probably only if you really like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation (it is included in the ‘The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made’ list selected by the New York Times, among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. Well, after watching a few rather underwhelming movies released in 1940, it was really neat to finally watch something really enjoyable. Indeed, the introduction was just amazing, arguably one of the best intro ever put on the silver screen, and from this point on, I was basically hooked. However, to be honest, everything happening afterwards turned out out to be fairly generic and predictable after all. Indeed, it seems that this movie never managed to top its amazing opening scene but, fortunately, the damned thing still worked fine though. First of all, William Wyler was such a fine director and, even if the story was rather pedestrian after all, it was rather impressive how much he managed to get from it. In fact, he was even praised by Bette Davis who was usually rather dismissive towards her directors. Concerning Bette Davis, I have to admit that I discovered her work only recently but, once again, she was quite fascinating to behold. The funny thing is that she actually plays always pretty much the same character and usually the same way in all her movies and, yet, she is always interesting to behold. Concerning the rest of the cast, James Stephenson was also really solid and I was grateful that his lawyer character didn’t fall in love with his client which is too often the case in this genre. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, it was still a really solid film noir 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 I always had a weak spot for the Who, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I have to admit that I actually had a hard time to really care about the damned thing after all. Indeed, it was such a mess and, in fact, as far as I was concerned, it was actually borderline unwatchable. Unfortunately, when such famous bands or singers indulge themselves in making music pictures like this one, the end-result is usually quite pretentious and this movie was not an exception, I’m afraid. I was also disappointed by the fact that, even though I was expecting at least some kick-ass soundtrack by the legendary British band, except for a couple of classic songs like ‘Pinball Wizard’, the music didn’t really impress me after all. At least, there were some nice cameos by Tina Turner (before she made her come-back in the 80’s), Elton John and Eric Clapton (I have to admit that I didn’t recognize him right away). Furthermore, as pointed out by other critics such as Roger Ebert, you can't deny the fact that this project did give Ken Russell a good excuse to go really wild which he obviously did. It was also the first movie I saw starring Ann-Margret and I have to admit that she was definitely charismatic. Eventually, I can understand why she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance, even if she was slightly too hysterical for my taste but, with a supercharged movie like this one, it’s not like she had so many choices. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t work for me, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the Who.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Val Kilmer, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I noticed that this movie had a solid reputation on IMDb and I would have to agree on this. Indeed, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a grim realistic and convincing jail drama. The first thing that they did right was the introduction. Indeed, I don’t think it’s was unjust that Wade had to go to prison for what he did and his sentence actually seemed to be fair. I mean, the guy meant well and wanted to protect his family but he could have just as well let the guy go and call the cops. Basically, he was just an average guy who made a terrible decision and everything happening to him afterwards actually made sense. Indeed, somehow, he got entangled into the prison gangs system against his will which was obviously sad but also quite believable. Unfortunately, the whole thing got slightly derailed from the moment he got involved in some kind of Fight Club. Sure, I can imagine that some disillusioned and/or sadistic prison guards would let the inmate fight with each other but the way it was presented in this movie seemed to be too far-fetched. The fact that it led to a really unlikely happy-ending probably didn’t help. Still, most of it worked really well and I can’t remember the last time I saw Val Kilmer delivering such a solid performance in a movie which was actually watchable. On the other hand, even if he was never one of the worst actors I knew, I was never really impressed by Stephen Dorff but I have to admit that he was actually fine here and he probably delivered the best performance of his career. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not the best movie in this genre, it was still pretty good and I think 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 there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that I have a weak spot for the genre but there is no denying that the damned thing was extremely derivative. Indeed, I have seen during the last 10 years already so many SF flicks dealing with a bunch of astronauts looking for a new planet because we pretty much destroyed our own planet and, to be honest, this movie didn’t have new interesting things to offer about the genre. On top of that, there were also some plot holes, For example, before Colin Farrel’s character decided to join in, how all these kids/teenagers were going to handle themselves without any kind of supervision? Still, I thought it was an intriguing setup and, with a better script and a better director, it could have been actually a fascinating philosophical science-fiction feature. Unfortunately, the approach was pretty weak after all. Indeed, the whole plan to subdue these group of teenagers with some drugs was flawed from the start. I mean, you can’t have them being super smart and also willing to go through this really hazardous adventure with a rather bleak outcome for them and also ask them to be completely docile, even apathetic, at the same time. Eventually, I think it’s rather sad and frustrating that the conclusion was that, if you leave teenagers unsupervised, they will act like some wild animals and have some constant random sex with each other. Concerning Lily-Rose Depp, like her parents (Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis), she is really charismatic but it was the only thing she had to offer so she didn’t really impress me. Sure, you could say that none of the characters involved was really properly developed but, in her case, Sela was still extremely flat, even if she was actually supposed to be a main character. Anyway, to conclude, even though I have to admit that I was probably too generous with my rating here, I thought it was still a decent watch though but it is probably worth a look only if you really like the genre.