Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since this movie has a strong reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I didn’t know that, back in the 1910’s and 1920’s, such serial films were actually very popular. Louis Feuillade was apparently the master in this genre and this movie is considered as his magnum opus. Well, with 7 hours of running time, it is considered as one of the longest movies ever made but, to be honest, I don’t actually agree with this assessment. Indeed, it is not a continuous epic story like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ but it is in fact very episodic and, in my opinion, it is a more a vintage mini-series than a very long feature film. Anyway, to be honest, I think it must be quite a drag to watch it all at once and, in my case, I actually watched it the same way it was released, one episode each day over a 10 days period. Anyway, how was the damned thing after all? Well, in spite of its title, it turned out that this movie had actually nothing to do with actual vampires after all. Indeed, it was actually dealing with some bizarre underground gang called ‘The Vampires’. In this group, the most memorable character was definitely Irma Vep, such an intriguing character that it inspired Olivier Assayas not only to make a movie back in the 90’s but also a mini-series much more recently. On the other side, with the good guys, to be honest, I didn’t care much for Philippe Guérande but, on the other hand, Oscar-Cloud Mazamette was very often quite hilarious. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a very interesting watch and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in such vintage features. 

Since this movie had been very well received and since it was available on Disney+, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, even though I really liked the damned thing, I have to admit that I was actually surprised by the lack of information you actually get, regarding volcanos in general and but also regarding Maurice Krafft and Katia Krafft as indivuals and as a couple. Still, there is no doubt that the footage and pictures shot by the Krafts during their decades long career was just mind-blowing and only therefore you should definitely watch the damned thing. However, even if in the trailer and during the movie itself, they kept claiming that they had a ‘volcanic’ relationship but this statement was vastly exaggerated in my opinion. I mean, there were a few times that they mentioned that Katia was angry that Maurice took too many risks but it never really went further than this. In fact, it was probably one of the most harmonious romantic relationships I have ever seen and this movie was basically some kind of poetic tribute to them, especially with Miranda July’s nostalgic voice narrating the whole thing. Still, to be honest, at the end of the day, as I mentioned before, you learn actually very little about this intriguing couple. Basically, they met fairly young, they fell in love and they went around the world hunting 100’s of active volcanos, that‘s basically all the information you get. It’s also interesting that, with such a tragic ending, they could have gone for a thriller vibe but, instead, it felt like a logical and almost beautiful conclusion for these volcanologists. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was not really great after all, it was still a decent watch though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Al Pacino, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even if it was a slight improvement compared to what Pacino has been usually doing during the last 20 years, it was still not really great though. It was based on something that really happened to Steve Tilston, an English folk singer I had never heard of, who apparently did receive a letter from John Lennon more than 30 years it had been written. Well, to be honest, I’m not sure if it was really such a great concept to build a movie around something which was nothing more than a news item. In this case, this event pushed the main character to reevaluate his career but I think it was rather annoying to see this famous singer constantly complaining because he didn’t like the songs he had to sing on stage. I mean, sure, he didn’t like his job but so what? Most people have a job they don’t particularly enjoy either but a big difference is that they don’t get filthy rich in the process. Another threadline was how the main character tried to rekindle his relationship with his grown-up son and the family of his son and, even though it was nothing really original, I thought it was fairly effective. However, it had in fact nothing do with the Lennon letter though. Concerning Al Pacino, he was not bad but it was definitely one of his best performances. For example, it is a small detail but it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t playing the piano when his character was supposed to. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, at least, if you are interested in Pacino’s work. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the damned thing turned out to be so lame though. The issue with this kind of movies is that, in fact pretty much since ‘Bridesmaids’ became a surprise success, they keep making such raw R rated comedies starring women but, unfortunately, many of these movies turn out to just as bad as the similar R rated comedies starring men and this movie was a perfect example, I’m afraid. I mean, I don’t really mind that Tiffany Haddish delivered her usual full-mouth act or that, once again, Rose Byrne tried to prove that she came be really badass. In fact, I have to admit that I actually liked the idea of a movie focusing on two women who had been best friends for decades and who were running their own business. Unfortunately, these 2 mildly interesting characters were just stuck in such a generic predictable and tedious plot and, well, pretty much nothing else did work in this movie though. Concerning Salma Hayek, after all these years, in my opinion, she is still one of the most beautiful women in the world (and basically the main reason why I watched this movie in the first place) and I can imagine that it was must have been fun for her to play the bad guy for once but, I’m sorry, her character was just so boring. For [Link removed - login to see] who did direct at some point ‘The Good Girl’ which was pretty decent, it was another seriously low point in his career (the next year, he would also direct ‘Yes Day’ which might have been actually even worse). Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was really weak and you should probably not waste your time with it. 

To be honest, it seemed to be a rather obscure flick and I had some low expectations but since it was starring [Link removed - login to see], I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I was definitely not impressed by the damned thing, that’s for sure. And yet, I don’t think it was really so bad though. Above all, this movie felt really useless. Basically, it turned out to be a terribly generic science-fiction movie with such a low budget that they basically only had 2 characters. To make thing worse, these 2 characters basically did nothing through most of the duration, except going to some satellite dish. The low budget probably also explained why they gave us the ugliest and most pathetic robots I have ever seen. And, yet, I have to admit that I do have a weak spot for such post-apocalyptic feature involving only 2 characters. On top of that, with Bérénice Marlohe and Lee Pace, they definitely had two charismatic actors at their disposal. Unfortunately, the makers did absolutely nothing original or interesting with the genre so, thanks to the two actors involved, I still think it was watchable but not much more than that, I’m afraid. Concerning Marlohe, following her breakthrough with ‘Skyfall’, she only made 5 movies during the following 10 years and I’m afraid this movie is a good example of the kind of movies she chose to do afterwards during her career. It’s too bad and, in this case, I won’t blame her or Lee Pace, they did what they could with the material that was provided to them but, unfortunately, their characters were not developed whatsoever and therefore they were barely interesting at all. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was harmless, it was still really weak and you should probably avoid it.     

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but sine there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, to be honest, I have to admit that I had never heard of Gloria Grahame before watching this movie and it took me a while to realize that it was actually based on a true story. Anyway, I thought it was pretty good but, above all, the true assets in this movie were eventually Annette Bening and Jamie Bell though. Indeed, they definitely delivered some solid performances and they had such a nice chemistry together. Eventually, it turned out to be a nice romance and, in spite the age difference, they really seemed to love each other which was really sweet. Unfortunately, it was actually maybe the issue with this movie after all. Indeed, I might be a big cynic but maybe the damned thing was actually too sweet. Basically, except for their love story, there was actually not much else going on with these two characters and, as a result, the whole thing felt slightly flat after all. I mean, while watching this movie and afterwards, I found out that Gloria Grahame definitely had an interesting career and a complex life but this movie decided to ignore must of it. Concerning Peter Turner, well, except for his relationship with Grahame, apparently, nothing really noteworthy happened during his life, at least, not according to this movie. The fact that it was based on a book written by Peter Turner himself probably played a role and it seemed that Turner didn't want to tell much about himself. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was not really ground-breaking, it was still a solid romantic drama though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since this movie seemed to have a rather lame reputation, I wasn’t expecting much but since it was starring Keanu Reeves, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. To be honest, you might wonder why, at this point in his career, Reeves would accept to be in such an ugly and dumb science-fiction flick. To make things worse, it has been a while since I saw this actor delivering such a wooden performance. At least, I hope that he did get a good paycheck. In fact, even though I might be in the minority, I actually think that the damned thing had some potential though. Indeed, if they had the guts to go for a really daft dark comedy or some ghastly horror tale, it could have worked. Unfortunately, they went obviously for the most generic approach possible and the end-result was therefore just seriously tedious. Indeed, instead of going for something daring or developing the moral and ethical dilemmas at stake, they focused on some pathetic and unconvincing high-tech gadgets. Coming back on the cast, concerning Alice Eve, I always had a weak spot for this actress and I think she probably had the most interesting character in this movie. Indeed, she did discover that she recently died during a nasty car accident and that she was actually a clone which was quite a lot to take in. Unfortunately, the makers really did nothing at all with this and, instead, Eve did end up with another completely half-baked character who just stood by and waited until her husband took all the decisions for her. It’s too bad because she actually has an interesting charisma but, unfortunately, she spent more of her career with such terribly weak movies. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here, the damned thing was indeed really weak and you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Anya Taylor-Joy, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though this movie didn’t make much waves when it was released, I thought it was actually pretty good. The first thing I enjoyed was the mood. Indeed, even if it was a directorial debut, the directing was actually really solid. Above all, I really enjoyed the fact that they never settled for a specific genre. Indeed, there was no music cue telling what you should feel and, sometimes, it felt like a dark comedy, but also sometimes like a thriller or even a teenage drama. Anyway, eventually, the main reason why you would like this movie or not mostly depends if you feel any connection with the two main characters though. Well, as far as I was concerned, I thought that these girls felt genuine but also quite fascinating because they were charismatic and multi-layered. Of course, it did help that the two actresses involved gave some really solid performances. Obviously, Anya Taylor-Joy, once again, didn’t disappoint for me, and during the last 7 years, she has developed such a spotless track-record, she might even be the best actress of her generation, no less than that. Concerning [Link removed - login to see], well, it was the first time she really impressed me but I will definitely check her other movies in the future. And, yet, I have to admit that the damned thing didn’t completely work though. The first thing that bothered me was the fact it seemed that there were some whole chunks which were either missing or cut. Indeed, I wish there would have been a proper intro showing who the characters actually were and what was exactly their relationship before the movie started. Then, the other mistake they made was to have them plotting to murder Lily’s stepfather. First of all, sure, the guy was a douchebag but killing him did seem rather excessive. I mean, how old was Lily? 16 years old, maybe even older? It means that, after a couple of years, she would simply go to College and get rid off him in the process. Above all, this storyline was just generic and even rather tedious and I wish they went into a completely different direction. Seriously, if they would have chosen to have these 2 girls only hanging together and having some weird conversations, that would have been already awesome, at least, for me. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn't a complete home-run, I still liked the damned thing and I think it is 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 there was a decent cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Of course, ever since he got his breakthrough with ‘Snabba cash’, you might argue that it’s too bad that Joel Kinnaman is still stuck playing some similar character more than 10 years later but the guy is so good at playing such tormented souls. The rest of the cast was also interesting, even if they were all some B actors (Ana de Armas, Rosamund Pike, Clive Owen, Common). Concerning the story itself, sure, it was maybe nothing original but I think it definitely had some potential. Eventually, the only real issue with this movie was that it was just too much material to handle in less than 2 hours. Indeed, in my opinion, it would have been the perfect material for some mini-series, in fact, I can even imagine a whole TV-show going deeper and more in details into the adventures and obstacles faced by Pete Koslow. As a matter of fact, I was watching this movie with my wife and I had to pause a couple of times to explain to her what was going on because she thought she had missed something. In fact, she didn’t miss anything but, because they didn’t have enough time, the makers simply skipped on a couple of scenes. As far as I was concerned, it didn’t bother me and I was perfectly able to follow what was going on but there is no doubt that the whole thing could or should have been better fledged out. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing ground-breaking, it was still a decent B feature and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since it was starring Bruce Willis, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Obviously, it was another direct-to-VOD job for Willis but, to be honest, in this genre, it wasn’t the worst one I have seen so far. As usual, even though he was displayed prominently on all the promotional material, he actually didn’t play the main character but, at least, his character was more substantial than what he usually gets to do in such movies. Still, his performance was pretty weak though. On top of that, the damned thing was just so ugly with these typical green/yellow/blue filters but it’s unfortunately fairly common with these cheap action flicks (it’s hardly surprising that it took only 14 days to shoot the damned thing). And yet, even if this movie was weak, there were a couple of things that actually worked. Above all, the relationship between Danny and Levi was actually not bad. Indeed, it was actually neat how they were bonding over video-games and how Levi was candid about his line of work. Sure, you could argue that it was inappropriate but I thought it was an interesting approach. In fact, this connection between these 2 characters was more interesting than the relationship between Danny and his father. I mean, no offense towards Hayden Christensen, I don’t think he was so bad, it’s just that his character was not really interesting. Of course, the fact that the guy made the decision to take his kid on a hunting trip in order to get over some bullies probably didn’t help. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was slightly better than the recent action flicks starring Bruce Willis, it was still rather weak though and you should probably avoid it.