Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, since this movie had been a big flop when it was released, I had some rather low expectations but since it was directed by Clint Eastwood, I still wanted to check it out. Well, even though the old film legend is still productive, it has been more than a decade since he really impressed me and I’m afraid this new director effort was probably one of his weakest movies so far. I mean, even though I’m not huge fan of road-trips (I think it’s a lazy gimmick), I really like minimalistic features involving a few characters and I do believe that Rafo was actually a really interesting character. Unfortunately, well, pretty much nothing else did work in this work though. There was first the issue that the film was filled with some awkward clichés about Mexico and especially the Mexican people. Another big issue with this movie was that the fact there were only 2 characters involved and both actors were just seriously miscast. Indeed, like I mentioned before, even though Rafo was a complex character with a lot of potential, Eduardo Minett was actually really weak though. Concerning Clint Eastwood, sure, he is actually a solid actor but I still think he wasn’t the right choice to play this character. Indeed, even though it’s really cool that Eastwood is making movies focusing on elderly characters (something terribly rare nowadays in spite of the ageing of the Western population), I’m afraid it didn’t work in this case though. Indeed, at more than 90 years old, Eastwood was at least 20 years too old to play this guy. The fact Natalia Traven’s character would fall in love with him, when she is in fact almost 40 years younger than Eastwood, was also ridiculous and even rather pathetic. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather harmless,  it was still weak and I think you can pretty much avoid it, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of Clint Eastwood’s work. 

To be honest, ever since I saw the trailer for this movie, I had some mixed feelings about the damned thing but, since it was available on Netflix and since there was a solid cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Basically, the issue I had, even before watching the damned thing and only by even looking at the poster, was that it did seem to be a rather predictable forbidden love story. Eventually, I do have to admit that it was well made and the cast was really strong but I’m afraid it was still missing something to really blow me away though. The main thing I was thinking while I was watching this movie was that I will probably never join a religion myself. Indeed, even though I actually think a lot about God and religion in general, the way the biggest religions (not only Judaism but also Christianity and Islam) reject whole groups of people only because they are different makes it impossible for me to join any of these groups. Coming back on the movie itself, I still think that the story was too generic though. However, there is no denying that Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams were both really good here. From Weisz, I’m actually used from her to give some stellar acting but I was positively surprised by McAdams who completely disappeared in her character and I think she probably gave here the best performance of her career, no less than that. Concerning Dovid Kuperman, the character played by Alessandro Nivola, it was a nice touch that the guy didn’t become violent verbally or even physically and that even gave his wife her freedom but this character was never the focus here so I don’t think it really mattered much after all. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, for a very long time, I was completely oblivious about Harold Lloyd’s work so it was pretty neat to finally discover his movies. I wonder how many of his movies I have eventually watched but I think it will be the last one for the time being. Anyway, even if it might not be his best movie, I certainly enjoyed it though. One thing I did like was the fact that there was actually more or less a real plot this time so it did feel less disjointed than most of his other movies I have seen so far, at least, until the 3rd act. Furthermore, even though I apparently already saw a few silent features starring Jobyna Ralston, I thought she was super charismatic and charming here. One thing that didn’t really work in my opinion was the running joke of the main character constantly stuttering when he was nervous though. Indeed, a stutter is something more sonic than visual so I don’t think it worked well in a silent movie like this one. I mentioned that this movie did feel less chaotic than his other movies but it actually did change with the 3rd act though. Indeed, basically, the last 30 mins (and we are talking about a movie barely lasting 90 mins), it became some really wild non-stop chase during which the main characters kept stealing vehicles to prevent the love of his life to marry someone else. To be honest, I’m not so sure how I felt about this madcap sequence. I mean, sure, it was quite spectacular and fairly entertaining but, in my opinion, it was also a huge departure from the rest of the movie. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, it was still a really solid silent comedy and is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, since I had it been in my queue for years, I thought I might finally watch it after all. Well, unfortunately, as I expected, it turned out to be really terrible though. In fact, I think that this movie actually had some potential and there was also a solid cast of famous Dutch actors playing plenty of small characters. Sure, I wasn’t a big fan of the comedic approach, I think something darker and more serious would have been more interesting but something funny could have actually worked as well. Furthermore, Yes-R and Turk were not bad. Unfortunately, most of the jokes were just so pathetic though. The other thing that really bothered me was how completely random and disjointed the damned thing was. The best (or worst) example was when, towards the end, they went fetching some African Voodoo doctor at the airport. Indeed, if their gang killed someone, the victim was allowed to choose a clergyman of his religion which was supposed to be hilarious (obviously, it was not the case). The joke went even further though. Indeed, somehow, they managed to have him dying at an artificial ski slope (of all places?!?!), they then replaced him with some random black dude that they found. Not only this Voodoo doctor character was quite offensive (like most of the jokes in this movie) but, to make things worse, they didn’t even wait for him to proceed with this execution making the whole extended joke even more pointless than it already was. In fact, towards the end, it seemed that the makers cared even less than before and the end-result was just a total mess. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here, the damned thing was really lame and you should probably avoid it.  

It’s so funny, I realized it only later on, but I actually bought my ticket for this movie exactly on 05/11/2024. That’s right, I actually bought it on the actually US election day and, later on that very same day, Donald Trump became the 47th president of the United States. I know, it is f*cking unreal and it probably made me appreciate this movie even more. Eventually, how is it possible that this specific guy did not only become president once but even twice? But I think that’s what really worked in this movie. Indeed, they displayed really well that, in our capitalistic self-centered society, even if we pretend it, it actually doesn’t matter if you are a good person or even only mildly competent and average, at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that you have to be a ruthless killer, no matter your field. I think it’s also interesting how some Trump critics argue that the guy is even bad in business because he got bankrupt many times but I think it’s actually rather delusional. It’s like saying that Adolf Hitler was the worst politician ever, he obviously did some horrible things but, as a politician, he was actually really good (it doesn’t mean I cared for him or his ideology though). With Trump, it’s a similar thing and, no matter what you can say, the guy was (and apparently still is) incredibly successful. Was this success really worth it after all? That’s a completely different story and it was also very well displayed in this movie. However, once again, in our society, nobody cares about such things at all or, at least, I should say the majority doesn’t care at all (not only in the US but in the whole freaking world, by the way). Finally, I would have a hard time to choose between Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong who gave the best performance as they were both pretty much pitch-perfect here. Eventually, I do believe that this movie was too disjointed and unfocused to become really amazing but I still enjoyed most of it though. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, I thought it was really interesting movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject. 

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. The funny thing with this franchise is that, even though I seemed to find it fairly enjoyable, I always completely forget what happened in the previous installments (on the other hand, I saw ‘Insidious’ only once and it was more than 10 years ago). As you can imagine, I’m not a huge fan but I have to admit that this franchise is not bad though, even if it never really impressed me though. I have to admit that I did recognize Elise (don’t ask me what happened to her in the previous movies…. I think she did die at some point? Anyway, whatever…) and I understood that it was basically a prequel showing what happened to her before the previous movies so I wasn’t completely lost. I also understand why they would focus on Elise since she is a solid character and Lin Shaye is always pretty good playing her. However, I wish I could say the same about Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson playing her sidekicks… Sure, I understand that their characters were/are supposed to provide some comic relief but, each time, they are actually so lame and this movie was not an exception. By removing this so-called ‘comic-relief’, it would make the whole thing even more sinister and therefore more effective. Concerning the story itself, well, even if it was rather disjointed, it was still fairly entertaining though. Anyway, to conclude, like the other installments in this franchise, I will probably forget the whole thing within a few days but I have to admit that it was actually a decent watch and it is 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, to be honest, I wasn’t actually not the right audience for this movie. Indeed, my ex-wife was and still is a huge dog person and I think, during the 20 years that we have been together, we had around 10 different dogs, up to 7 at the same time. Even if she really loved it, it was actually seriously messed up to have so many dogs and, since we broke up, I realized I became rather traumatized and I will probably never have a dog again. So, as you can imagine, this movie was not for me. However, even if you really love dogs, you might enjoy this movie more than I did but, even so, it was still really weak though. Basically, they took the hyperlink gimmick and focused on dog owners and the end-result was just terrible. Indeed, instead of developing one fully-fledged story, they came up with 5 stories dealing with dog owners which were all really half-baked. I think the weakest one was the one during which they would make us believe that Vanessa Hudgens would actually fall in love with Jon Bass as they had together no chemistry together. At least, Nina Dobrev and Tone Bell were a nice couple but the dogs had actually so very little impact on their couple, it was just some standard romantic-comedy stuff so it didn’t work either. I do have to admit that some stories did have some potential, especially the one involving Walter and his dog Mabel and a movie focusing only on them could have actually worked. To conclude, with such a generic title, I should have known what I was going into but, anyway, even so, the damned thing was pretty lame and you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it did have some decent ratings in IMDb and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I was actually rather surprised by how lame the damned thing turned out to be after all. I mean, I know that it was supposed to be a little quaint movie but, as far as I was concerned, not only it was terribly derivative and predictable but, above all, it was just so much more tedious than I expected. The most bewildering thing, at least for me, was the fact that it was a English Canadian remake of a French Canadian movie which was made only 10 years before. Seriously, are we now going to remake movies from the very same country but in a different language? Another intriguing thing was the fact that Taylor Kitsch went from ‘John Carter’ in 2012, one of the biggest blockbusters released at the time, to something so small only a year later. By the way, I have to admit that Kitsch was actually not bad at all here. Indeed, even though his character was actually pretty boring and thankless, he was charismatic enough and, above all, he did manage to bring some kind of melancholic tone to his performance which was neat. Concerning Brendan Gleeson, well, the guy was basically born to play such characters but he was pretty good as well. Still, no matter their efforts, I just didn’t care at all about the concept and, to make things worse, I don’t think they did anything interesting at all with the genre. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that it was really harmless, it was still rather boring and I think you can avoid it, except maybe if you really like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Steven Soderbergh and since it was available on HBO Max, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, like so many Soderbergh features, the damned thing had so much potential but, to be honest, the end-result was still rather half-baked. Still, I have to admit that I enjoyed most of it though. Indeed, it turned out to be some kind of modern riff on ‘Blow Out’ and ‘The Conversation’ taking place right after the Covid pandemic. The fact that the main character was agoraphobe was also neat. Finally, Zoë Kravitz was so charismatic, it was really cool that she was playing the lead for once and I think she actually gave her best performance so far here, no less than that. Unfortunately, even though the concept was interesting and Kravitz was really good, half of it was still barely interesting though. First of all, the main character was not some high-tech wiz, she was basically a simple analyst monitoring incoming some data streams so there is no way she could be able to afford such a fancy apartment. Her computer gear seemed to be also seriously overloaded for the kind of work she was doing but you might argue that she was some kind of hobbyist. However, the biggest issue was that, from the moment she left her apartment, the whole thing became so much less compelling. I mean, it was well made and Kravitz was really rocking this thing but, in my opinion, it all went pretty much on auto-pilot from this point on. The fact that a high-ranking individual from her company producing these smart speakers was involved in this crime was also terribly lame and unnecessary convoluted. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Steven Soderbergh’s work.

To be honest, it did seem to be a rather obscure movie from the 20’s but, since it was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it was impressive how much Lubitsch managed to do with such material which was after all really flimsy. Indeed, it was basically about the love life of the upper-class, something I usually find rather tedious but he always manages to make it compelling to behold. In fact, not so long ago, I also watched ‘So This is Paris’, I noticed that both movies actually had a similar plot and I’m not surprised that both movies were directed by Lubitsch. In this case, it was a rather simple romantic tale involving 2 couples and a 3rd guy and 2 love triangles and not really much more that but Lubitsch was so good at this stuff. I was intrigued by the fact that there was actually no real main character but I guess it was already the case with ‘So This is Paris’ and I think the character I enjoyed the most was Mizzi Stock. Maybe ‘enjoying’ was not the right word though as the way she acted with her husband, somehow, reminded me so much of my ex-wife (which is definitely not a compliment for a my ex-partner). By the way, Adolphe Menjou was pitch-perfect playing this character and I wish they gave him more to do in this movie. I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed when his character suddenly fell in love again with his wretched wife (and seriously, why exactly?) but, fortunately, it didn’t last for long. Concerning the Brauns, to be honest, they were less entertaining than the Stocks but the whole cast was fine though. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, I thought it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Ernst Lubitsch’s work.