Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, 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, to be honest, I thought the damned thing was rather messy. In my opinion, it seemed rather foolish to try to cover 5 of his 6 marriages in just 90 minutes of running time. The fact that I saw this movie without subtitles probably didn’t help though. It’s weird because I actually saw every single episodes of ‘The Tudors’ so I was actually quite familiar with the material. It’s too bad because there has always been something quite fascinating about Henry VIII’s convoluted love life. Indeed, it did lead to England breaking from the Roman Catholic Church and the establishment of the Church of England and it’s complete separation from this Church which was something huge at the time. However, it didn’t care much for the approach they chose for this movie. Fortunately, Charles Laughton was so awesome though. I have to admit that I discovered Laughton only recently but the guy keeps impressing me each time I see him. Seriously, he has become one of my favorite actors, no less than that. In this case, he actually really looked like Henry VIII which was definitely not the case when Jonathan Rhys Meyers was playing the same character in ‘The Tudors’. But, above all, he once again completely disappeared in this character and he even won an Academy Award for this performance at the time. Even though none of the wives were really developed, Henry did go through a whole range of feelings, Laughton was definitely up to the task and the guy was quite spellbinding to behold. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, if only for Charles Laughton’s fine work.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a stellar cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, even though I have obviously heard of Fox News, I have actually never watched it, I’m not even sure if I have access to his channel. Anyway, the reputation of Fox News in Europe might be even worse than it is in the US. On top of that, even though I had heard of some of the names involved before, I have to admit I didn’t know most of them at all and, as a result, I did struggle to get a good grip on the whole thing. Still, it was a really interesting story and, while watching this movie, I was rather surprised that they never mentioned the #MeToo campaign but it was because Roger Ailes got fired following the sexual harassment cases about a year before the Weinstein scandal actually started. Jay Roach also managed to get such a strong cast (Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Kate McKinnon and many more) and they all gave some really solid performances. Still, I found out later on that the character played by Margot Robbie was actually fictional and it was, in my opinion, a rather bewildering artistical choice. I mean, most of the people involved were real and it felt weird and rather awkward that the only victim being actively harassed by Ailes at the time was actually fake. Anyway, even if I can understand the appeal to work in the television business, it was such a vile and toxic environment where the objectification of women was basically a business-model though. The fact that I don’t share the values of this network at all probably made it even harder for me to understand why all these women would choose to undergo so much abuse. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a strong story with solid performances though and I think it is worth a look.

Since this movie didn’t turn out to be a huge box-office success, I did lower my expectations but I still ended up watching this sequel in the movie theater after all. Unfortunately for DC, right now, everybody (myself included) are kind of fed up with the super-hero genre and it was probably not a great idea to release this sequel 5 years after its predecessor. To be honest, I have to admit that I  didn’t remember much ‘Aquaman’ but, apparently, it did like the damned thing at the time. Unfortunately, the only fun thing in this movie was the banter between Arthur Curry AKA Aquaman and his half-brother Orm AKA Ocean Master, everything else was just barely entertaining. Of course, there was the awkward fact that they clearly didn’t know what to do this time with Amber Heard. Sure, she wasn’t kicked out from the franchise like her ex- Johnny Depp was with ‘Fantastic Beasts’ but it seems as if they gave her so little as possible and, as a result, her character was seriously half-baked this time around. Visually speaking, it was probably one of the most interesting aspects with ‘Aquaman’, at the time, but, afterwards, we did get ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ which was from such a different level regarding under water footage. Anyway, this sequel was maybe not really ugly but, to be honest, almost. Concerning the story itself, well, it was again about some random villain with a plan to destroy the whole world which was just so generic. Seriously, they really need to do something else with the genre, that’s for sure, but since many super-hero movies failed at the box office in 2024, even from Marvel, I think it’s inevitable, at least, I hope so. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is actually worth a look but probably only if you really like the genre though. 

To be honest, I have to admit that I don’t know much about Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle’s work so I was quite glad to discover his work after all these years. In fact, Arbuckle was quite a huge star at the time but his career was completely derailed by some scandal at the beginning of the 20’s. Anyway, it was in fact the 2^nd short I saw with this guy and, even though I enjoyed more ‘The Garage’, it was pretty good as well though. Above all, it was pretty cool to see Arbuckle working again with Buster Keaton. Indeed, Arbuckle was actually the one who helped Keaton launching his career and this short was one of the earliest movies starring Keaton which was of course really neat. Coming back on the movie itself, sure, it was pretty entertaining and some of the gags were really funny but the damned thing was still too messy and random, I’m afraid. Sure, you can argue that it was inherent to the genre but, in this case, it was even more chaotic than usual. There was also a 3^rd guy in this movie who was involved in some rather acrobatic stunts but I guess he never managed to become as famous as Arbuckle and Keaton were. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch 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 was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that it has been a while since I saw ‘What Women Want’ but, if I recall it correctly, I thought it was a decent comedy and it seemed to be a no-brainer to make a sequel swapping the gender of the main character. Well, somehow, it took them almost 20 years and, to be honest, I did ended up with some mixed feelings about the damned thing. First of all, there was the issue that the thoughts of most men are just disgusting. Sure, you might argue I might be too negative or pessimistic but, being a guy myself, I think I know what I’m talking about. I also think that they kind of ‘cheated’ with the concept. Indeed, there were too many times that she suddenly either didn’t hear anymore their thoughts or only from some specific men. The best example would be the church scene during she should hear at least 20 men but, somehow, it was limited to only the boyfriends of her BFFs. And, yet, Taraji P. Henson is such a charismatic actress and it was really cool that she was playing the lead for once. By the way, Pete Davidson had also a small part and, while I was watching him in this movie playing a rather pathetic closeted gay guy, I was wondering how, during the following 4 years, the same guy did manage to date some of the most gorgeous women in show business (Ariana Grande, Kate Beckinsale, Kaia Gerber, Kim Kardashian). Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that the damned thing was rather harmless, it was still a rather useless sequel and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but, since it was starring Gabrielle Union, I thought it might as well check it out. Well, I’m afraid the damned thing was just as lame as I expected. Indeed, right from the start, the story was just so generic and boring and, to make it worse, the makers didn’t do anything new or interesting with this tired old concept. Eventually, the only redeeming feature was Gabrielle Union who was, as usual, really charismatic but she was also actually quite convincing as an average mother with some mighty survival skills. It’s too bad all the other characters (the thugs and her kids) were just so poorly developed and even rather cringe-inducing to behold. Seriously, I don’t think there was a single line of dialogues uttered by her kids which did sound true and/or entertaining. Concerning the bad guys, they were even more pathetic and the worst cardboard villains I have seen in quite some time. Concerning James McTeigue, it seems hard to believe that his directorial debut was actually the huge cult classic ‘V for Vendetta’. Unfortunately, the only impressive thing about his directing career after all is that each new movie he has delivered afterwards managed to be weaker than the previous one and this last directorial effort is definitely the worst of the bunch so far. Coming back on Gabrielle Union, who also produced this movie, I can actually understand the appeal for her to play in this movie. Indeed, this way, she was playing the lead which was also a resourceful and strong character but it’s just too bad that she had to pick such an underwhelming feature to showcase her potential. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, the damned thing was still really weak and you should probably avoid it. 

In contrary to Charles Chaplin or Buster Keaton, I haven’t watched so many movies with Harold Lloyd so I thought I might as well check this one out. Well, the first interesting thing with this movie was how much it clearly stood out from the comedies they made at the time, by Harold Lloyd himself but also by all his other colleague comedians. Indeed, there was in fact no visual gags, no slapstick, no elaborate seemingly hazardous stunts involved and, instead, they went for something dialogue-heavy. Fortunately, I thought that Lloyd did pull it off rather nicely. On the other hand, it was rather cringe-inducing to keep hearing Jake Mayo mentioning these ‘Chinks’ but, since the character was supposed to be a corrupt ignorant moron, I guess it was acceptable. Una Merkel was also pretty good as she had some of the best lines, even though I thought it was rather unlikely that Pet Pratt would decide to get married with Ezekiel Cobb. Eventually, even though I do believe that Harold Lloyd made the most of this material, the concept was still pretty thin and I wish it would have been slightly shorter. Concerning this satire of the politics in a small town in the US, sure, it was exaggerated but, on the other hand, I always thought that there was something bothering me about this country where you can vote only for 2 parties and 2 parties which are vastly similar after all on top of that. Obviously, it is not the same as the corruption displayed in this movie but the lack of choices between candidates did feel similar and hardly democratic. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, I thought it was a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Harold Lloyd’s work. 

Since I’m a huge fan of ‘Borat’, of course, I was quite eager to check this sequel. Eventually, it obviously didn’t turn out to be such a pop-culture phenomenon like its predecessor was but it was to be expected. It’s too bad because the context when this movie was made and released was really neat though. Indeed, it was released when Donald Trump was still President of the United States and it seems that it was shot right in the middle of the Covid pandemic so the potential was huge. In fact, shooting this movie was apparently much more dangerous than when they made the first one but I don’t think it is really surprising considering the fact that the US became even more polarized when Trump was in office. Unfortunately, Cohen didn’t do much with this after all and, instead, he got too much involved in pranking some average clerks in some shops but such clerks were/are a rather lame target. Sure, some of them might get into an argument with some weird/insensitive/inappropriate customers but most of them will just play along with whatever they are doing because that’s their job. Indeed, they are supposed to serve their customers and not judge or criticize them and to play against this concept was, as far as I’m concerned, not only disingenuous but, above all, not interesting whatsoever. Unfortunately, such tricks were basically half of the running time. Concerning the addition of Borat’s daughter in the mix, it was a pretty cool idea and I’m not surprised that Maria Bakalova got so much praise for her work in this movie. I also liked the idea that Borat had become so famous that he had to disguise himself in order to be able do his ‘work’. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it was a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like this character. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Kristen Stewart, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I’m afraid the damned thing didn’t really work after all. First of all, even though I do have a weak spot for Kristen Stewart, I think she was miscast here. I mean, Stewart is attractive but she has a more edgy look whereas Jean Seberg was really a classic beauty and I think someone like Emma Watson would have been more suitable. A bigger issue was that, sure, Seberg was quite gorgeous but I don’t think she was such a fascinating woman. The fact that, beside ‘À bout de souffle’, her career didn't turn out to be really impressive probably didn’t help. Sure, it’s terrible how the FBI spend so much time and resources to undermine her career and her whole life in general but, to be honest, I don’t think she was the biggest victim at the time. Indeed, for all the black folks, especially the ones active in the Civil Rights movement, the situation was much more difficult and dramatic. Furthermore, obviously, she should have been able to have a romantic relationship with a black man, however, they were both married at the time so her whole act of acting like a victim was actually misguided and rather annoying. However, a subplot involving a FBI agent played Jack O'Connell who had a crisis of conscience was even more even more pathetic though. I mean, this character was obviously made up but, above all, who cares about what this guy might have felt and thought at the time? To make things worse, they also added his wife and some very generic and really half-baked domestic conflict involving this couple. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I might have been to generous with my rating here but still think it was a decent watch though and it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought it might as well check it out. Well, even if it didn’t seem to be much, it turned out to be even worse than I expected though. In fact, there was actually some potential as it could have been cool to follow Jeffrey Dean Morgan delivering some mysterious package from one place to another. Unfortunately, for some reason, they went for something so completely convoluted and boring which had nothing to do with his job after all. The most surprising thing was that it was directed by Hany Abu-Assad. I figured this out only afterwards when the movie was over and I looked it up on IMDb. Eventually, I wonder how a director could go from ‘Paradise Now’ to such a cheap and above all weak direct-to-VOD action flick like this one. It seems that, after the critical success of ‘Paradise Now’, Abu-Assad went to live in the US to further develop his career but it seems that he struggled and this movie was the only thing he managed to do after 7 long years. Fortunately, it seems that his career afterwards didn’t suffer that much from this blow. Anyway, coming back on the movie itself, well, it was definitely a rather unwatchable mess, I’m afraid. Another weird thing was to see Lili Taylor and Miguel Ferrer, usually some solid actors, showing up to play some random killers but even they couldn’t do much with this rather abysmal material. Concerning Mickey Rourke, who was probably the main reason why I wanted to check this movie, he was rather weak here as it was obviously another paycheck gig for him. Seriously, it was rather pathetic to have him play a supposedly mysterious character shot from the back when his voice is actually so recognizable. Anyway, to conclude, the whole thing was a big waste of time and you should pretty much avoid it.