Reviews by johanlefourbe

Honestly, I never really understood what happened with this franchise. I mean, sure, every year, ever since the success of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and the Harry Potter franchise, you have some high profile fantasy book adaptations and many flop terribly but, usually, when the first movie is very successful, they just keep releasing the sequels until the cow has been milked dry. Well, this franchise is the exception as while this installment was a huge box-office success, at the same level of the most successful franchises in the same genre, the sequels didn’t get much love and you wonder if they will ever release a 4th installment. One theory is that they took too much time to release the first sequel but 3 years seemed rather reasonable. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, I remember it very well, I saw it in the theater when it was released with my wife and my step-kids and I thought it was quite decent. Indeed, it looked quite gorgeous and it was fairly entertaining. The only major flaw, in my opinion, is that the flow was seriously off. Indeed, the first half was very slow which wasn’t necessarily an issue since you got then the chance to get into this fantastic world and discover it with the characters. But then, the 2nd half was really fast, there were some many scenes and things happening at once, it was rather hard to digest. To conclude, it is far from being an amazing flick but I think it is still worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Ewan McGregor and Eva Green, I was quite eager to check it out. As usual, I didn’t know what it was about, which is the best way to watch a movie in my opinion, and basically, it is a rather odd mix between a love story and a pandemic virus which attacks every senses one by one. Well, like I said before, I didn’t know what it was about beforehand so I thought at first that it would be an intriguing romance between those two gifted actors who had some great chemistry together but, suddenly, they started with this virus(es) which I thought would be a sub-plot, but no, it was something really major but I’m not sure if I really liked this turn of event. The point is that I have seen my share of virus related features lately and I wonder how the movie would have turned out to be if they just late this relationship developing itself without all the SF stuff. Still, it was definitely an interesting mix, almost elegiac sometimes, and I think it is worth a look, especially if you want to see a different approach to both genres.

Back in the 90’s, Harrison Ford didn’t make as many classics as in the 80’s (how could we expect it from him?!? His track record at the time was simply mind blowing) but he was still quite successful and many of his movies were still really solid. Personally, I always wonder why Harrison Ford decided to get involved in a franchise which he didn’t started but, in fact, he turned down the role in ‘The Hunt for Red October’, because he felt the script was more focused on Captain Ramius than on Jack Ryan. So, when Alec Baldwin couldn’t do the sequels, they went for Ford and, this time, Jack Ryan was definitely the main character. Obviously, it was a rather far-fetched thriller but it was so well made, Harrison Ford was so charismatic, I thought the whole thing was quite entertaining. ‘Patriot Games’ might have been slightly better but it is definitely a close call with this one. 10 years later, they would reboot the whole thing a first time around with Ben Affleck with ‘The Sum of All Fears’ and even though it didn’t get much love, I thought it was pretty good. And again, 10 years later, they made another reboot with an even younger Jack Ryan with Chris Pine in ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’ but it was again a flop. To conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing, I thought it was pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I still have a weak spot for Val Kilmer, I thought I should give it a try. Basically, it is quite typical of the recent work delivered by Val Kilmer, whose career has become even more pathetic than Nicolas Cage’s. Indeed, it is a really cheap flick, probably a direct-to-DVD release, and even though Val Kilmer is supposed to be the big star here, he was there only during a third of the duration. Instead, they decided to focus on some rather underwhelming students. Still, I have to admit it, the whole thing was rather watchable. I mean, of course, it was a rather unoriginal flick delivering the usual clichés about a possible pandemic virus but, in spite of the cheap budget, it looked pretty gruesome which was at least pretty fun. For once, the characters seemed to know more or less what to do in this case which was a rather different approach but the obligatory open ending made clear that their efforts were rather pointless. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, it remains a rather weak flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of the genre.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. To be honest, the second time around, I actually struggled not to fall asleep, that’s how bored I was by the damned thing. It also had to with the fact that these Transformers movies are just way too long for no good reason whatsoever. Seriously, why did they have to include so many bad guys? Anyway, it’s funny because, the first time around, I thought it was slightly better than the 2 previous installments but, back then, I probably did end up with this feeling only because they brought up so many new characters, not because the damned thing was actually better. It was actually pretty smart, they made us believe once again, by getting rid off the cast and bringing some new faces, that it would be something really different but the formula was still basically the same. There was also one detail that bothered me, it was the casting of Nicola Peltz who was basically there to replace Rosie Huntington-Whiteley who had already replaced Megan Fox. The issue with Peltz which was in fact pointed out by T.J. Miller was that she was a ‘hot teen’. It was therefore some seriously misguided eye candy but, on the other hand, it shows what kind of audience they were aiming for. The other thing is that even though it is a rather dumb blockbuster with some barely developed characters, the whole thing was actually rather hard to follow and lasted like forever (almost 3 hours!). Still, there were a few things to enjoy, Lockdown was pretty awesome, the Dinobots were pretty good too, there were some impressive action scenes (I wouldn’t expect less from Michael Bay) and there were some funny oneliners. Still, it has become such a boring franchise and I don’t think this movie is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Robert Carlyle, I thought I might as well give it a shot. On top of that, Nick, my step-son, is a huge fan of disaster flicks so we ended up watching it together. Well, honestly, it wasn’t really good I’m afraid. First of all, I didn’t notice before watching it but they actually broadcasted the longer version (more than 3 hours…) so that was a quite a bummer, even though the 2nd half was slightly better. Still, in fact, I don’t think it was a complete failure. Indeed, for once, the whole plot felt actually rather believable, at least compared to the usually preposterous plots developed in disaster flicks. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie was really weak. Indeed, you get the usual group of stereotypical characters, struggling with some underwhelming personal dramas and all the actors involved (even Robert Carlyle) gave some poor performances. The score was also really annoying and the directing with some gimmicky freeze frames all the time wasn’t really strong either. To conclude, even though I have seen worse, it still remain a really average flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

At last, I’m done with the Muppets movies! In fact, they have already released a new installment in the meantime but I guess I’ll have to catch it up later on. I have to be honest, even though I had a good time watching their movies, I can’t say I have become a huge fan but, still, I was quite eager to check their come-back, especially since it was a success at the box-office. Well, it was definitely a decent installment and the story, albeit not really original, was a good way to put them back in the limelight. I especially enjoyed that they introduced a new Muppet, Walter, and it was nice to have a new main character. Furthermore, most of the jokes were really good and the songs which usually annoy me were probably the best they have given so far. Still, even though this plot was an obvious choice, it was maybe a little too easy and rather weak but the stories were never really the strongest point of the Muppets flicks. On top of that, they gave a lot of cameos which is usually a way to improve artificially the status of a movie and a trick to hide the weaknesses of the story. Still, all in all, it was pretty good and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, it has been a while since I watched this movie and maybe I shoud rewatch it at some point to make up my mind for good but I thought it was pretty good at the time. I remember, when it was released, there was a pretty good buzz about it. Indeed, it was an epic periode drama directed by Anthony Minghella, previous oscar winner with ‘Shakespeare in Love’, there was an all-star cast and it was distributed by the Weinstein brothers who always had a very agressive campaign to make sure their indie productions got a lot of attention. Eventually, even though it did pretty well financially (from a 80 million dollars budget, they reached 170 million dollars at the box-office), it managed to get only some decent reviews when it was in fact clearly aiming for the oscars but it makes sense in my opinion (Renée Zellweger did win on oscar though but it was a minor one and, on top of that, her character was in fact the most annoying one in the whole flick). Indeed, it is a rather gorgeous epic with some great decors and costumes and there was a very nice cast (Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Donald Sutherland, Ray Winstone, Charlie Hunnam and even Jack White) . The main issue was that even though the story was entertaining, it was never really spellbinding enough. Still, I actually liked the damned thing and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

To be honest, it has been a while since I saw this movie and I was very young when I saw it and maybe a re-watch would change my opinion. The point is that, at the time, Emma Thompson was definitely one of the best actresses around and it was heralded at the Cannes Film Festival (it won the Jury Special Prize at the time) so I had some pretty high expectations but, somehow, I thought it was slightly disappointing. The fact that I wasn’t familiar with the real life figures involved didn’t help either but I had a rather hard time to care about the whole thing. Basically, it is about a loveless relationship so I’m not sure if it could be considered a real love story. Still, the actors shouldn’t be blamed. Indeed, Emma Thompson was really good as usual and Jonathan Pryce shouldn’t be forgotten as he had the rather unthankful task of playing a rather unlikeable character and he absolutely delivered a solid performance, probably one of the best of his career. To conclude, even though it didn’t really connect with this flick, it remains an interesting periode drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

It is once again a rather obscure French movie which not much people have seen here in Listal. It had been a while since I saw a movie directed by Claire Denis so I was quite eager to check this flick, even though it was a definitely obscure flick. Basically, it is rather simple movie, with only two characters, and even though it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was still pretty good though. Indeed, the French have a rich history of movies with no action whatsoever and with the only the characters endlessly talking to each other and, I’ll give you that, it is an acquired taste but I always had a weak spot for those flicks. To be honest, I have never been a fan of Valérie Lemercier who is a rather famous comedic actress in France. Indeed, I found her usually rather annoying but she toned down her usual hysteria this time and she actually delivered a decent performance. Vincent Lindon was also pretty good and he usually does when he is given some decent material like here. To conclude, it might not be the most memorable movie directed by Claire Denis but I think it is still a decent flick and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.