Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since it is included in the ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?’ list, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I’m not familiar with Marlene Dietrich's work, in fact, I’m pretty sure it was the first movie I saw for which she played the lead. Well, within a few mins, I understood right away why she was one of the biggest movie stars at the time as she was just quite mesmerizing to behold. To be honest, the beginning was rather clunky though but, from the moment Lady Barker AKA Angel met Anthony Halton, the damned thing really started to take off though. Indeed, the cool thing was that, even though Dietrich was obviously the main draw here, the two other actors involved, Melvyn Douglas and Herbert Marshall, were both quite charismatic as well. I also loved the way Anthony Halton handled meeting Angel again. Indeed, even though I was expecting that he would expose her on the spot, he never lost his composure and his cool and just played along as if he had never seen her before which displayed how awesome the guy actually was. But her husband was also a swell guy too so the end-result was a really solid love triangle. Still, even though the characters involved were intriguing, the concept was still too thin, I’m afraid. The fact that Lady Barker’s intentions remained rather murky through the whole duration probably didn’t help either. Still, even if it was missing something to become really remarkable, I really enjoyed it and, in my opinion, it is actually much more enjoyable than the countless screwball comedies they used to make back in the 30’s but I guess it is a matter of taste. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing 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 Gal Gadot and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, from all the ‘blockbusters’ released by Netflix, it is probably the most disappointing I have seen so far, I’m afraid. I mean, Gal Gadot was as usual so charismatic, she was pretty badass and it was just neat to have her playing the lead in an action flick like this one. Unfortunately, she was pretty much the only thing that did work in this movie though. Seriously, the whole ‘Charter’ concept was just so tedious. Sure, I understand that it was supposed to be super fancy and high-tech but it looked actually rather lame but, above all, what was the added value after all? I’m fairly convinced that, without it, it could have been a fine gritty action flick. Obviously, the whole point was to have Gal Gadot’s playing a double-agent which was not a bad idea but why would you go for a fake and completely far-fetched organization like this one? To make things worse, they also gave us another completely lame twist revealing that Jamie Dornan’s character was the bad guy after all. Seriously, it has been a while since I have seen a movie featuring such completely tedious and uninteresting twists. You could also blame Dornan but the main issue was that his character was just weak, in fact, except for Rachel Stone, none of the characters involved was interesting at all. Concerning the action scenes, I guess they were not bad, Gal Gadot does have some nice fighting skills, but they were also quite forgettable. Anyway, to conclude, the damned turned out to be really weak and you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was starring Gerard Butler, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, in fact, it didn’t turn out to be what I expected but it wasn’t a bad thing though. Indeed, with this genre, especially during the last 20 years, you usually get some huge CGI set-pieces showing some vast destruction and it can be pretty spectacular. However, in this case, they went for a really different approach. Indeed, they stay instead very close to this family but I think it actually made sense. Indeed, they didn’t experience first-hand such comet fragment crashing on Earth so why should you actually display it and this approach was quite refreshing. As a result, it did become a survival tale, actually quite reminiscent of ‘The Walking Dead’ in my opinion, but it turned out to be pretty intense and effective. Concerning the intro, to be honest, it was pretty clunky though but, fortunately, it wasn’t a big deal. In fact, I have to admit that it was one of the very rare occasions that I believed that a couple might make it work after all even after one of them did cheat. Sure, it wasn’t at all the main point of this movie but it shows that the characters were actually fairly well developed. It's rather funny, that, only a few years before, Gerard Butler already played the main character in ‘Geostorm’, another disaster flick. The big difference was that ‘Geostorm’ turned out to be, well, a complete disaster but it seemed that Gerard Butler managed to redeem himself this time around. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it turned out to be a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I have always been a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix, of course, I was quite eager to check this movie, even if it apparently didn’t get much love when it was released. Well, at least, you can’t argue that André Benjamin AKA André 3000 was a perfect choice to play the most famous guitar player that ever lived. Furthermore, not only André Benjamin had the right look but I think he delivered here a really solid performance. Concerning the movie itself, they decided to focus on the few years before he got his breakthrough at the Monterey Pop Festival which was maybe not really original but it was effective enough. However, it was not really accurate though. Indeed, they made it seems as if Hendrix was really struggling up until that point but it wasn’t the case. Sure, pretty much nobody knew him in the States at the time but he was already quite famous and successful in Europe. However, what was even more problematic was that, instead of really focusing on Jimi Hendrix himself, they spent way too much time on several women that popped up randomly in his life. Sure, you could argue that Linda Keith and Kathy Etchingham had a major impact on his life but who the hell was Ida played by Ruth Negga? What was the added value of this character? Even more bewildering, who was this lovely black woman played by Clare-Hope Ashitey who showed up for only one scene? Well, she was apparently Lithofayne Pridgeon who was Hendrix’s girlfriend back when he was living in New York but I found this information afterwards, not while watching this movie. Anyway, you wonder what was the point of adding her since she had so very little impact on the movie as a whole. Above all, by giving so much attention to all these women, you never spend enough time on Hendrix himself who remained a rather opaque enigma. 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 Jimi Hendrix.

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). Anyway, it was once again quite a delight, that’s for sure. 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. Indeed, it was visually quite reminiscent to ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ but it wasn’t an issue, in the contrary. The tone was also once again quite marvelous. The only thing which did differentiate this movie from the other short from Wes Anderson was that all the actors were playing only one character this time around (they were only 5 characters involved though) which was the only artistical choice I didn’t really care for in ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ (it wasn’t a big deal though). However, even though it was definitely quite fun and entertaining, the story was slightly too basic though and the fact that the outcome was so predictable probably didn’t help. Anyway, I can’t wait to see the other 2 shorts that Anderson has cooked up for Netflix. To conclude, I really enjoyed the damned thing and I think it’s definitely worth a look, especially if you are a fan of Wes Anderson or Roald Dahl.

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, even though this movie is considered as one of the best screwball comedies ever made, I have to admit that I had a really hard time to care about the damned thing after all. In fact, I think it probably have to do with some technical issues I had with the video I saw on YouTube. Indeed, visually, the quality was fine but, unfortunately, the sound was out of synch. Indeed, this movie became famous because it was mostly improvised and timing is crucial in comedy. In this case, since all the sound was out of synch, the timing was basically ruined and, as a result, it had a huge impact on my appreciation of the whole movie. It’s too bad because I always had a weak spot for Cary Grant and this was some perfect material for him. I have to admit that I wasn’t really familiar with Irene Dunne before watching this movie (she reminded me of some of kind of vintage version of Greta Gerwig) but she was pretty good here and she definitely had some decent chemistry with Cary Grant (they would eventually make 2 more movies together). Eventually, I should re-watch this movie under better conditions but, to be honest, I have some doubts that it will really dazzle me though. Indeed, I have been focusing lately on such vintage screwball comedies and I’m just not a fan of the genre. As usual, the plot was just so paper-thin here and, even though Grant and Dunne were both pretty good, their respective characters were hardly interesting after all. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work for me for various reasons, it is still a classic 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 Jennifer Lopez and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I really loved the concept and the damned thing definitely had the potential to be really badass. Unfortunately, even though it was easily one of the most interesting movies starring Lopez in years, it still turned out to be a rather average B action flick after all, I’m afraid. Above all, I thought the damned thing was rather poorly written. I mean, it seemed to be a no-brainer that they should focus on the relationship between this mother and her child who had never met each before but, instead, they gave us 2 bad guys and, obviously, neither of them was properly developed (seriously, I think that Gael Garcia Bernal had maybe 10 mins of screen time). The fact that Lucy Paez was rather annoying probably didn’t help either but I have to admit that she wasn’t helped by the poor script she was provided. At least, Jennifer Lopez was really convincing and she probably delivered here one of her best performances (sure, it doesn’t mean much since her track-record was/is pretty weak). Concerning the directing and the action scenes, [Link removed - login to see] did a decent job, even if it never really stood out from the multitude of similar movies you can find nowadays on Netflix. And, yet, I always had a weak spot for such movies dealing with a lethal female killer and, in this case, there was plenty of room to develop some complex psychological portraits of this parent and also of her child but it wasn’t meant to be and they went instead for some generic and only mildly entertaining action scenes. 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.