Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Matt Damon, I thought I should give it a try. Basically, it is a half-baked SF feature with a few interesting ideas here and there. Once again, they tried to tackle the whole predetermined thingy, the fake/parallel worlds and what not. Even though it is an interesting thematic, it is something tremendously difficult to make stick and only a handful of movies like 'Dark City' or 'Inception' did succeed (yeah, I'm still defending 'Inception' even though it is slowly becoming the most overrated flick ever made). Hell, even a so-called classic like 'The Matrix' didn't manage to make it right. The point is that, if you create such a world, not only you end up with some massive plot-holes but most of the plot becomes pointless or rather nonsensical. For example, it was difficult to care about the whole political plot since you know that it is not what the movie is actually about and you wonder how the main character keeps moving on in his life knowing that the world, his life and the life of others is not what it seems to be. Still, there were a few things I enjoyed. For example, it delivered one of the most charming meet-cute I have ever seen. Furthermore, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt both delivered some solid performances, they had some great chemistry and I really believed that those two characters were in love. Eventually, I loved this couple so much, if it would have been up to me, I would have just throw the whole SF plot by the window and focus on their romance. I mean, it remains watchable and I was entertained enough but the script didn't go deep enough into the various implications of the theories developed here. To conclude, even though it is a rather weak SF feature, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

Even though it is nowadays pretty much forgotten, when it was released, this movie received some huge praise, it became overnight an indie success and launched instantly the career of Catalina Sandino Moreno, even if we don't hear much from her anymore. Well, I think it completely deserved its solid reputation. Indeed, it is a really raw, almost documentary-like with no mercy depiction of those infamous drug mules. On a current basis, especially here in the Netherlands, you hear about those people smuggling drugs and the first typical reaction that we have is how can you be so stupid to jeopardize your life and future with such dangerous activities? Well, this movie gives you the answer. Because some people are really desperate and the drug organizations just take advantage of them. In this case, the mule was played by a young and cute girl, perfectly portrayed by Catalina Sandino Moreno in her very first role. Eventually, when she should be enjoying life like any other girl of her age, she instead makes some terrible decisions simply because she didn't have much choices. Basically, the whole thing seemed really realistic, completely grim from the beginning until the end. To be honest, when the two girls ran away, the whole thing did loose some steam and it felt as if the makers didn't really know what to do with them anymore. It is especially felt rather pointless when they, after all, called back the dealers to give the drugs back. I think they even got lucky that they didn't get killed and even got paid but I don't think that this part was necessarily unrealistic. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was a rather sad but stil interesting drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jason Statham, I thought I should give it a try. To be honest, I'm rather torn apart with this guy. Indeed, on one hand, he never gets involved in such lame comedies like any other major action star (Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone,...) which is really great but, on the other hand, all his movies look the same and he always ends up playing the same guy which is getting rather tiresome at this point. This movie was not different, I'm afraid. I mean, it was decent but after 5 minutes, I already knew where it was getting at and I was rather bored. Actually, I was more pleasantly surprised by Paddy Considine. I keep bumping into this actor rather frequently recently, he is always interesting and he really impressed me once again. For some obscure reasons, they decided to make him play a gay cop and he was really convincing. In the contrary to Statham who portrayed his typical tough guy, Considine was completely different than what I have seen him do so far and he was really good. The rest of the movie was about your usual omnipotent serial-killer and there were also a few very half-baked sub-plots. To conclude, it is basically your typical Statham flick, you either love them or you don't, and I guess it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since Keanu Reeves was starring, I thought I should give it a try. At first, it seemed like a very bad idea to cast this guy in such a romantic feature but, surprisingly, I thought it was not bad at all actually. First of all, Keanu Reeves always had a bad reputation about his so-called wooden acting (ok, he is not always convincing, I'll give you that...) but I think we should give him some credit for constantly trying various genres like here for example. Aitana Sánchez-Gijón was also really charming in this movie, a real shame that she never showed up in some other Hollywood productions. Furthermore, the setting and atmosphere were frankly really lovely and I have to admit that there was something rather mesmerizing about the whole thing. Of course, the story was way too light, pedestrian and predictable to make it truly remarkable but I have to admit that I enjoyed most of this flick. To conclude, even though it is nothing really amazing whatsoever, I think it is actually a decent romantic feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Wong Kar Wai is one of those directors which I admire even though I’m eventually I’m not really a complete fan of their work (Bergman is definitely one of those as well). I mean, concerning Wong Kar Wai, I have seen 7 of his movies and even though I enjoyed all of them, I only really loved ‘Chungking Express’. Anyway, this movie was more or less a sequel to his previous feature ‘In the mood for love’ but it was still a really different beast altogether and probably his least accessible directing effort, at least among the ones I have seen so far. I mean, ‘In the mood for love’ was actually pretty straight-forward which was probably its appeal but, this time, the whole thing was pretty messy, convoluted and really really hard to follow. Furthermore, the pacing was really slow which didn’t help either. Still, like everything directed by Kar Wai, there was still something mesmerizing about the whole thing. First of all, there was a great cast (Tony Leung Chiu Wai , Gong Li, Maggie Cheung), especially Tony Leung, what an amazing actor, even more impressive and fascinating when working with Kar Wai. Eventually, the biggest appeal with this feature was the directing. Indeed, even though I barely could follow what was going on, it was visually so striking, it was quite fascinating to behold. To conclude, even though the whole thing was rather alienating, I still enjoyed it and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Wong Kar Wai’s work.

Since it is a rather obscure feature, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it but since Jake Gyllenhaal was starring, I thought I should check it out. To my surprise, I actually really loved this flick. The funny thing is that I’m not a huge fan of those real-life based stories and I would never expect from Joe Johnston (‘The Wolfman’, ‘Jurassic Park III’, ‘Jumanji’, ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’) to make such a heartfelt and sensitive drama. It was also pretty neat to see Jake Gyllenhaal in his first major part and he did a pretty job good here but the other actors were not bad as well. Of course, the whole thing follows the traditional rules of your typical inspirational drama but, somehow, it did work very well , at least for me. I don’t know, maybe it has to with the fact that those boys were trying to be really smart, instead of becoming the next football/basketball/baseball/whatever star. I think that there is something awesome about those blue-collar kids trying to build something really neat, an endeavor which was seemingly out-of-their league. I mean, to think that this guy eventually ended up in working for the NASA was just, well, really inspirational. To conclude, even though it is really obscure and even though the whole thing was actually rather pedestrian, it was so well made and the story was just so neat, I really loved this flick and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I kept hearing good things about this flick, especially from my favorite Listal members (jaytoast’s rating : 4 stars, Xanadon’t’s rating : 4 stars, the giraffe’s rating : 5 stars), I was really eager to check it out. Unfortunately, even though it was indeed a decent feature, I didn't manage to see what was so amazing about it and, in my opinion, it was just another overrated horror flick directed by James Wan just like ‘Saw’. I mean, don’t misunderstand me, I thought it was a solid haunted house feature but they didn’t play enough with the rules of the genre and I thought that the whole thing was barely scary. Still, there were some nice elements. For example, I liked how, at least in the beginning, there was no background music at all. It was unexpected and a really refreshing approach and it’s too bad they didn’t keep this until the end. Furthermore, I thought that Rose Byrne was not really convincing. I mean, she was a little bit too young (31 years old) to portray a mother with already 3 kids but I have to admit that she did look really weary and exhausted which did fit the character very well. Furthermore, the last act was actually pretty good with some creepy moments. Still, there were enough misfires. For example, the way they decided to move houses was barely convincing. I mean, of course, one of the oldest clichés in this genre is that the main characters will refuse to move from the haunted house for no convincing reasons. However, here, they decided to move just like that, as if they just changed their pants. In my opinion, to move from one house to another is a huge hassle and, in this case, it didn’t change anything so it felt really pointless. Furthermore, the whole ghostbuster thing was also really bewildering. Indeed, the whole thing became somehow and really suddenly a comedy but it didn’t mix well with the rest of the movie. Eventually, the main issue I had is that the whole thing was fairly cliché and therefore a little tedious, at least to me. Still, it remains a well made flick and I have to admit that I was entertained throughout the whole thing. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent horror flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. Unfortunately, even though I did like it, I'm afraid I didn't really connect with the whole thing. I don't know, maybe I wasn't in the right mood or maybe it has to do with the fact that I saw it on the BBC without subtitles so I missed a bit of the dialogs. Still, like I said before, I still liked it and it is a very nice dark satire which must have been quite shocking when it was released. The thing I enjoyed the most was how sophisticated and articulate all the characters were. It was just a delight, especially compared to the abysmal figures we get nowadays. Of course, the other attraction was to see the great Sir Alec Guinness shining in no less than 8 different parts, including one woman. Man, the man was gifted, that's for sure. Still, I smiled a couple of times but I never find it really funny and it never really gripped me like I was hoping for. Maybe I should give it another shot in the future as it certainly deserves it. Still, it remains a really solid comedy, a classic, and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

At last, they finally got it right... Indeed, so far, all the installments in this franchise were, in my opinion, rather disappointing. Yes, even the 4th movie which was really successful and heralded by the fans was just a tiny improvement if you ask me. I must admit it though, there were many things to enjoy in this new entry but still, was it really a great movie? I don't think so. I mean, it was a really solid action flick, they provided the best story-line so far, the action scenes were simply phenomenal, the multiple cast was very well used and there were even a few funny bits so why am I still complaining? First of all, even though the story-line was indeed improved, there were still plenty of stupid stuff that bothered me ( the first example that pops up to my mind is the way Dwayne Johnson suddenly changes side towards the end but I could point out many other things). Furthermore, the non-existent acting was also rather painful, just like the abysmal cheesy dialogues. I know, you might argue that a movie like this is not about the acting or the dialogues but, in my opinion, an action flick doesn't have to let us down on that field (just check 'Die Hard', 'Lethal Weapon' or even 'The Bourne Identity' for example). Still, most of it worked fine and I enjoyed many things about this movie especially the spectacular action scenes which were just amazing. To conclude, it is in fact a really solid action movie and it is, in my opinion, the only installment in this franchise which is actually worth a look.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for romantic-comedies, I thought I should give it a try. Furthermore, Nancy Meyers had so far a pretty impressive track record ('Something's Gotta Give', 'What Women Want', 'The Parent Trap') and there was a really impressive cast (Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Edward Burns, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon, John Krasinski) so it seemed that it could be actually pretty good. Unfortunately, I didn't like it much. I mean, it was very well made, it was great to see all those actors together and it was slightly entertaining but, to be honest, I thought the whole thing was pretty lazy. I mean, in her previous movies, Meyers always managed to give us some full-fledged and rather interesting characters whereas here, I didn't care much for any of them. Furthermore, the plot was just way too pedestrian and predictable for my taste. I mean, I know, in this genre, there are some golden rules beloved by the fans but, in my opinion, a good romantic-comedy always manages to shake those rules a little bit or, at least, to provide some captivating characters. Well, it just didn't happen here, that's for sure. Still, like I said before, it remains a well made romantic-comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.