Reviews by johanlefourbe

Nowadays, Ron Shelton seems to be pretty much retired but back in the 90’s, he specialized himself in the sport flicks and I especially enjoyed ‘White Men Can’t Jump’. Later on, he directed also this flick about golf and, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was actually a decent feature in this genre. First of all, I know it is a rather stupid detail but it is not very often that I came across such a generic and underwhelming poster. Anyway, even though I don’t care much about golf as a sport, like most of the individual sports, it was fairly easy to provide some drama and to show some uplifting scenes. And that’s also the main issue with this kind of movies. Indeed, when you watch a game or any competition, the biggest thrill is that you (usually) don’t know what would be the outcome and this unpredictability creates most of the excitement. In a sport movie, most of this excitement is gone because everything is scripted and so there are no real skills involved whatsoever. Still, Kevin Costner and Rene Russo were both really charming and had some great chemistry together and the whole thing was rather fun to watch. To conclude, even though it was rather generic and pedestrian, I thought it was a fairly entertaining picture and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Even though I have watched many times the Spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood when I was a kid with my dad, I discovered his Dirty Harry flicks much later on in my life. Eventually, even though I still prefer his Westerns, I still enjoyed his famous cop features as well. The interesting thing with this franchise is that the sequels were actually pretty decent but, obviously, this first installment was the only one which became a real classic. Indeed, Harry Calahan must be one of the most notorious police characters ever created, very often copied but never matched. At the time, Clint Eastwood was pretty much in control of his career. He picked up 4 different drafts of the script (one written by no one else than Terrence Malick). made sure that Don Siegel was hired to direct this movie and he was also responsible for hiring Andy Robinson to play Scorpio. When it was released, it was a critical and commercial success but there was also some controversy as it displayed and almost glorified police brutality. Basically, the Scorpio killer was pretty messed up and, eventually, Harry Calahan was not much better, he just happened to be on the right side of the law. To conclude, I really enjoyed this flick, it is a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, when I heard about this flick, I wasn’t really interested but since it got some decent reviews and some solid ratings (it was even in the IMDb top 250 for a while), I was eventually quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, it reminded me of ‘The Blind Side’, another drama about a white woman helping a young black man which was a huge success at the box-office and, like this movie, was nominated for the Best Picture Academy award. Personally, I didn’t like much ‘The Blind Side’ and this movie didn’t really blow me away either. At least, it was dealing with an important part of American history. Basically, the main issue I have with this kind of movies, is that, unintentionally, it gives the idea that black folks are helpless until a white person comes to help them. This time, at least, even though Emma Stone was supposedly the main character, Octavia Spencer and Viola Spencer definitely stole the show. Indeed, as long as the movie was focusing on these black women, it was quite spellbinding to watch but it started to loose momentum everytime the white women had the main stage. For example, there were some half-baked plots about a romance involving Emma Stone, some murky rivalry involving Jessica Chastain (which was fine even though her character was poorly developed) and even though Bryce Dallas Howard was quite fearless a a villain, her character was borderline a caricature though. Anyway, to conclude, it was an important subject served by some strong performances but, at the end of the day, it remains a decent drama but not much more than that I’m afraid.

‘A bout de souffle’ is and will remain one of my favorite movies forever and I have been following Godard ever since his masterpiece really blew me away but, unfortunately, no one of his movies have reached this level of awesomeness, at least not in my opinion. The point is that, pretty soon in his career, his movies started to get pretty cryptic really soon and become harder and harder to follow and, nowadays, except for a few die-hard fans, we all pretty much agree that his work has become some incomprehensible pseudo-intellectual and political mix, a mix I always had a hard time to appreciate. This movie is a pretty good example. I mean, it was actually quite intriguing but it was so hard to follow, I can’t say I really loved the damned thing. Still, it was pretty nice to see the always awesome Jean-Pierre Léaud, the most popular actor among the French new wave. Basically, it is a meditation about politics and how the young people struggled with those ideas back in the 70’s. Or maybe it was something entirely different, it’s almost impossible to tell with Godard. To conclude, even though I don’t think it is a masterpiece whatsoever, it remains a typical Godard effort, I enjoyed it and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Back in 2004, Martin McDonagh made quite an impact with his directing debut with ‘In Bruges’ and, now it is the turn of his brother John Michael McDonagh to come up with this directing debut and it was once again a critical success. First of all, it is pretty easy to make the connection with those 2 movies since they are both filled with Irish characters with especially Brendan Gleeson playing the lead in both movies but, actually, a part from that, I thought that those flicks were completely different. I mean, once again, Gleeson really stole the show and I thought it was seriously hilarious and easily the funniest movie that came up in 2011 (yeah I wasn’t really impressed by ‘Bridesmaids’). Indeed, the dialogs were just great and continuously spot on. Furthermore, the messed up relationship between Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle was pure gold as well and it’s too bad they didn’t spend more time together. So, it was really good but, still, it was missing something to become truly remarkable. My main issue was probably the fact that, even though the characters and dialogs were very well written, the story was not really strong, I’m afraid. Still, there was a lot to enjoy here and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have always been a fan of Clint Eastwood’s directing work, I was really eager to check this flick. Basically, it is one of his more commercial and more accessible movies and it was quite entertaining but nothing mind-blowing whatsoever. The thematic is actually similar to ‘Full Metal Jacket’ (which would be released a year later as a matter of fact). However, even though Eastwood is a very good director, he is still doesn’t play in the same league as Kubrick, that’s for sure. I mean, if you put those 2 movies together, it is pretty obvious. All right, it might be unfair since this flick is obviously a weaker effort, at least compared to his better movies, but still. However, I was still rather entertained by this movie. Indeed, Eastwood keeps toying with the fact that he is actually too old to play those kind of characters but he still convinces us that he is one bad-ass SOB, tough as nail and quite able to beat up any guy half his age without breaking a sweat. Eventually, this convoluted character was quite interesting but I didn’t care much for the rest of story which was rather pedestrian. To conclude, even though it is a minor effort, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you are interested in Clint Eastwood’s work.

Recently, I have re-watched ‘The Beguiled’ which must be the darkest and weirdest movie starring Clint Eastwood. Well, this movie is another really dark feature with Eastwood and I will probably re-watch it at some point in the future. Basically, it is a rather standard cop feature and many could think it is a just another Dirty Harry installment but it is actually something else. Indeed, it is a really sleazy thriller dealing with the sex industry and, pretty much like in ‘The Beguiled’, Eastwood plays once again a man with a dark side who treats women pretty badly.  So, you get to see some brothels, prostitutes, a SM dominatrix and a gay bar in the process. Obviously, it wasn’t really subtle but still pretty effective and it was interesting to see Clint Eastwood losing his shit as the killer keeps stalking him. In my opinion, Eastwood really took some risks with this flick and there were even some rumors at the time that he might get his first ever Academy Award nomination for this film but it didn’t happen eventually. To conclude, even though I’m usually rather critical about this genre, I thought this flick was pretty good and it is definitely worth a look.

Honestly, I really had a hard time with this flick. I actually had never heard of it and saw it above all because it it was included in the ‘1001 movies you must see before you die’ list. I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t in the right mood when I watched it. Basically, it is an uber-romantic tale about a doomed love story and, right from the start, they make sure you won’t have any hope that they would end up together one way or the other. At first, I was worried that they would never speak to each other and I thought ‘Girl, either you’re going to talk to that man or you’re going to do something else with your life’ but, at last, they got together so there was some hope but, then, he apparently forgets about her(!) and she gets pregnant in the mean time. Since they seemed deeply in love that seemed rather far-fetched but, well. I was ok with the fact that he didn’t recognize her the 2nd time they met since they barely talked to each other when they lived in the same building but it was fairly unconvincing that he wouldn’t recognize her when he meets her a 3rd time maybe a decade later. So you see where it goes, you either love that kind of story or you don’t. Personally, I’m not a huge fan, but I have to admit it, the directing was very neat, the actors involved were quite good so it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

When I was a kid, I used to watch the ‘Astro Boy’ cartoon and while I wasn’t a huge fan, I was always fascinated by the introduction when you saw this little robot come to life. Unsurprisingly, they decided to adapt this cartoon and since the animated market is rather saturated, it was pretty much a flop. Still, there were some interesting things in this flick and there was some darkness rather unexpected in such a familly friendly. Indeed, during the first half hour, it was pretty much a mix of ‘Artificial Intelligence: AI’ and above all ‘Frankenstein’. It was quite striking and almost unsettling the way Dr Tenma try to resurrect his lost boy through this robot and his rejection of this little robot was also quite heartbreaking. Since ‘Up’, I had never seen such a dark introduction but the makers didn’t care much about all this and threw us not one but two rather underwhelming plots. Indeed, there is first the evil and boring President Stone who desperately wants to be re-elected and another story involving the people downstairs in the slums (which shows once again that ‘Elysium’ was seriously not original whatsoever). Honestly, I thought I was watching maybe 3 movies crammed into one and I wish they focus on the whole ‘Pinocchio’ tale instead. To conclude, even though it was flawed, the whole thing looked pretty good, there was something really interesting about this main character and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Eventually, I'm surprised that I was expecting something more from this flick. The point is that it was not bad at all and definitely miles better than the previous version directed by Roland Emmerich but it was still nothing really amazing though. Basically, I was rather fooled by the awesome marketing campaign (they made some really impressive posters) and their convincing trailer. Still, it was far from being a failure. Indeed, it was pretty neat that they went back to the roots and started the story in Japan. I also always appreciate it when they kill some major actors right from the start (Indeed, Juliette Binoche didn't last more than 5 minutes and they got rid off of Bryan Cranston within 30 minutes). The main issue is how can you build up a compelling story with an invincible monster like Godzilla? I mean, with the Hulk, you have at least Bruce Banner to root for but, here, you have nothing much to connect with. At least, he looked awesome but, honestly, he didn’t much have much to do. The way they tried to put Aaron Taylor-Johnson in every single locations where those monsters were active was also rather awkward and he had the rather thankless job of being a rather useless main character who just stands there and watch the mayhem with us. To conclude, it was not bad and rather entertaining but I can’t say I was really blown away by the whole thing though.