Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but I have always been intrigued by Ennio Morricone’s work and since this movie was directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, the first 10 minutes were rather slightly annoying. Sure, I get that Morricone was amazing but I didn’t need around 20 people to repeat this one after the another. Fortunately, after going on and on about this, they finally let it go at some point and started to tell his life from the very beginning which was maybe a conventional approach but it was efficient enough. I still think that they were too many talking heads telling about their admiration of Morricone but, even though it was nice, their testimony had most of the time very little added value after all. However, as long as they were focusing on Morricone himself, the damned thing was actually quite spellbinding to behold. Indeed, like everyone else who’s interested in movies, I grew up watching movies with his soundtrack (he worked on a staggering 500 movies) and I have to admit that I always took his work for granted. However, thanks to this movie, I finally understood that, beside being monstrously productive, the guy was actually a great composer and it was awesome to get more acquainted with him. Eventually, this movie really made me want to re-watch Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western trilogy, if only to listen once again to Morricone’s amazing soundtracks. I mean, it might be a controversial statement but was the soundtrack maybe actually the best thing in these classic movies? Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a solid documentary and I think it is worth a look, especially if you have ever enjoyed one of the many soundtracks delivered by the maestro.       

To be honest, since this movie didn’t get much love when it was released, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from it but, since it was directed by Robert Rodriguez and was starring Ben Affleck, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. At least, it couldn’t possibly be worse than ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’. Well, even though it was indeed not worse, it wasn’t really much better either, I’m afraid. It’s too bad because it was something Rodriguez had apparently been working on for about 20 years and I have to admit that it did have some potential. Indeed, there were some scenes which did feel sometimes like an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ which was neat. However, it was pretty obvious that such a vibe was never what they attempted to do with this movie. Furthermore, in spite of some decent effort from Affleck, pretty much everything else was rather underwhelming with this movie. The first thing that you have to let go while watching this movie is that it didn’t seem to make much sense that a ‘hypnotic’ could take control of someone pretty much instantly, with barely any contact whatsoever. Eventually, it was basically the logic in this movie and, even if it was never really convincing, it didn’t really bother me that much. However, the concept was still rather half-baked and there were also too many twists which were obviously added to make this movie more complex than it was. In fact, I read some comments from some guy on the internet who described this movie as some kind of B feature which tried to emulate Christophe Nolan’s style and I think that this description was indeed pretty accurate. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was rather harmless, the damned thing was still pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

Recently, I have been focusing on older movies and, after watching Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, it was really time to finally watch something with Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. Back then, Arbuckle was actually the biggest star of them all but he was hit by a scandal at the beginning of the 20’s which crippled his career until his untimely death in the 30’s. Anyway, after 5 mins, I understood why the guy was so popular at the time. Sure, the damned thing was really random, there was no plot whatsoever and, instead, it was pretty much a succession of sketches. However, the end-result was seriously hilarious, in fact, it has been a while since I saw such a funny vintage short silent comedy. Of course, it did help that Roscoe Arbuckle was assisted by Buster Keaton (in fact, Arbuckle was the one who discovered Keaton and pretty much launched his career) and the two masters were quite marvelous together. Hopefully, in the future, I will watch more movies with and directed by Arbuckle (indeed, he also directed most of his movies, something really new at the time). Anyway, to conclude, I really loved the damned thing and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I’m not a huge fan of Adam Sandler so I had some rather low expectations concerning this movie but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it is always a rare (but nice) surprise when a movie starring Sandler actually turns out to be watchable and it was definitely the case here. Sure, some might complain about the nepotism involved since Sandler got his own daughter to play the lead (and also his wife and his other daughter in some supporting roles) but, fortunately, it wasn’t a debacle like it turned out to be for Will Smith with ‘After Earth’. Still, the acting performances from all these kids, not only the Sandlers, were not bad but, to be honest, it wasn’t really much more than that and none of them really impressed me after all. At least, it was a nice touch that Sadie Sandler was about the same age her character seemed to be and not 10 years older which is so often the case in this genre. Concerning the concept of setting a classic teen drama-comedy in a Jewish community which was obviously the whole point of this movie, it was intriguing and fairly well done but, to be honest, it was never really fascinating though. I guess, it was just too predictable and the fact that all the characters were all pretty basic and stereotypical probably didn’t help either. Still, it was refreshing to see a Sandler movie during which people were acting like some actual average people and not some hyper hysterical morons. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, I have tot admit that it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in watching something actually worthwhile with Sandler for once. 

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.