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All reviews - Movies (7507) - TV Shows (9)

An average movie

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 16 February 2024 10:13 (A review of Huisvrouwen bestaan niet)

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but my girlfriend was eager to check it out so I thought we might as well check it out together. Well, it turned out to be one of these typical Dutch romantic-comedies and, to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the genre. At least, I have to admit that it wasn’t the worst of the bunch but it was still nothing really remarkable. Concerning the cast, even though I have heard about Eva van de Wijdeven, it was nice to finally see her in action as she is really charismatic and it would be really neat to see her in a more interesting project. Concerning Jelka van Houten, I have to admit that she can be pretty funny but, to be honest, she does feel like a cheaper and less charismatic version of her famous sister Carice. Concerning the rest of the cast, there were some decent actors involved but they were all stuck playing some really poorly developed characters. Coming back on the movie itself, not only the concept (what was the concept actually?) was barely entertaining, they developed some rather dubious ideas. For example, the sister and the mother of Gijsje kept telling her that there was nothing wrong about the fact that she cheated on her boyfriend and it should all be fine as long as he didn't find out the truth. By the way, this turn of events came seriously out of nowhere. I mean, sure, it was pretty obvious that Gijsje needed to chill but having sex with a co-worker was a huge stretch though. The way the two sisters were apparently flirting with some other men was definitely awkward and it is definitely something I don't really enjoy in such average romantic-comedies. Anyway, to conclude, I really didn’t care much about the damned thing and I don't think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you really like the genre. 


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A bad movie

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 15 February 2024 11:20 (A review of Love, Weddings & Other Disasters)

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but, since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the damned thing turned out to be so much worse though. I have to admit that it was only afterwards that I realized that this movie was actually directed by Dennis Dugan, a guy who has spent most of his directing career delivering some dreadful movies starring Adam Sandler. Well, even if it wasn’t his worst movie (pretty much nothing can be worst than ‘Jack and Jill’), it wasn’t far from it though. Basically, it was dealing with a whole bunch of romances intertwined with each other. Sure, there is actually nothing wrong with such a generic concept except that, in this case, everything single of one of these little romantic tales turned out to be so half-baked, rather pathetic but, above all, not entertaining whatsoever. Seriously, even though I have to admit that Maggie Grace was actually quite charming in spite of the rather abysmal material, pretty much nothing worked with this movie though. Concerning the cast, I have become unfortunately used to see Diane Keaton showing up in such lame romantic-comedies recently but this movie was probably the worst of the bunch. To make things worse, she was really weak playing some blind woman but I have to admit that she wasn’t helped by the fact that none of the characters involved in this movie was properly developed whatsoever. On the other hand, I was much more surprised to see Jeremy Irons ending up here. Indeed, even if Irons might not have a perfect track record, he always managed to stay away from such drivel, at least, until now. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was just so lame and even if you have weak spot for the genre like I do, you should definitely avoid it.



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An average movie

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 14 February 2024 09:25 (A review of En corps)

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Cédric Klapisch, I was quite eager to check it out. I don’t think that Klapisch is well known outside of France but I have been following his career from the very beginning with ‘Le péril jeune’ and I always had a weak spot for his work. Well, this movie was another interesting addition to an already solid filmography. Above all, as long as they simply hung out with these dancers and forgot the plot, it was actually quite fascinating to behold and the dancing scenes were very often spellbinding to behold. Unfortunately, it’s too bad the damned thing turned out to be narratively speaking rather weak after all. What bothered me the most was probably the fact that the main character met a famous choreographer earlier in the movie but then, somehow, she bumped into his dance company in the middle of nowhere in France at this artist residency which was rather ridiculous. I mean, by skipping their first encounter and having her meeting him for the first time in Brittany would have worked so much better. There were also a whole bunch of half-baked and rather unnecessary sub-plots. The one involving her physical therapist falling in love with her was the least problematic. In fact, I have to admit that it was actually almost entertaining thanks to a solid performance by François Civil but it still felt rather useless though. Another thread involving her relationship with her father played by Denis Podalydès was however so generic and a waste of time. Finally, even though Mehdi Baki is a fantastic dancer, I don’t think they ever had a single conversation so it was rather difficult to root for their new romance. Furthermore, she had to be reborn and found some new connection with dancing, that was the whole point of this movie, and I don’t think that she had to also hook up with a new boyfriend and fix up her cold relationship with her father on top of that. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject matter.



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An average movie

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 13 February 2024 09:59 (A review of Aftermath)

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if it didn’t really work out, it was certainly intriguing to see Schwarzenegger playing in a drama for the very first time in his career. Sure, his performance was maybe not award worthy but it was still a really decent effort though. Eventually, I had more issues with the directing after all. Indeed, even thought the prospect of seeing the Austrian Oak going through such a traumatic experience was more than enough, they felt compelled to add a 2d point of view on this tragedy but I’m afraid this approach did backfire after all. Sure, I will have to admit that there was nothing wrong with the sad story of Jacob Bonanos and Scoot McNairy delivered, as usual, a solid performance. However, if both stories on their own definitely had some potential, combining them certainly deluded their impact. As a result, instead of going deeper into what was really going on with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character because there was simply not enough time, they gave us too many scenes during which the guy seemed to be constipated. It was also weird how the guy at first wanted someone to apologize to him but, from there, actually decided to kill the air traffic controller who was involved. Of course, you could argue that it was what actually happened during the true story on which this movie was based on. The issue was that they spent too much time showing that Roman Melnyk as some middle-mannered man and too much time showing that Jacob Bonanos was probably the least responsible in this tragedy. As a result, this ending felt rather bewildering since it didn’t match at all how these 2 men were portrayed during the whole movie. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it turned out to be a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you want to see Arnold Schwarzenegger doing something completely different for once. 



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A very good movie

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 12 February 2024 08:55 (A review of Man of the World)

To be honest, it did seem to be a rather obscure feature but, since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the damned thing after all. William Powell has always been praised for his stellar performance while the rest of the movie has been discarded but I don’t agree with this assessment. Sure, Powell was awesome but, in my opinion, the movie itself was possibly one of the best movies about a con-man I have seen. First of all, the cons displayed were actually believable and not some completely far-fetched fantasies. And, indeed, William Powell was so just so fascinating to behold. Sure, his character was suave and cool, it goes with the trade, but he also added such melancholy to his performance which was quite spellbinding to behold. Basically, even if he would manage to get all the money in the world, this way-of-life would still be lonely and even rather pathetic for a man like him who had the brains to become someone really brilliant. To be honest, I wish they developed a little bit more Carole Lombard’s character which could have explained why Michael Trevor could fall so much for her like this. On the other hand, you could sense that, even before he met her, the guy was getting already fed up with his way of making a living and she was basically the last drop for him. I also loved how they concluded the whole thing. Indeed, in fact, it wasn't Irene’s threat which made him drop the woman he loved, it was the fact that he understood that he thought he would never be worthy of such a beautiful romance. Anyway, to conclude, even if this movie doesn’t seem to have a strong reputation, it turned to be really good and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 



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An average movie

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 11 February 2024 08:07 (A review of Get Hard)

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, somehow, I stil ended up watching the damned thing though. Basically, it turned out to be some kind of awkward and misguided riff on 'Trading Places' but, even if it wasn't really awful, it was still pretty weak though. It also reminded me of Adam Sandler's work (which is definitely not a compliment) with this main character acting seriously offensive and discriminative all the time but, at the end, it turned out after all that he actually had a heart of gold which was supposed to make his previous appalling behaviour somehow suddenly acceptable. Concerning the humor, I really believe that Will Ferrel and Kevin Hart both can be really funny though. However, there was not much they could do with this material. Indeed, one of them was basically playing a really stupid white man and the other one was playing a slightly less stupid black man and, again, as displayed many times by Adam Sandler during his career, stupid characters are almost always more annoying than actually entertaining. Was there any possibility that this terrible concept could have actually worked anyway? It's difficult to tell. I mean, by getting a whole bunch of menacing tattoos and taking some actual real self-defence courses, maybe? It was also rather pathetic how, during the very last few days, they eventually took a massive U-turn and decided they would after all solve this case which they obviously did way too easily. Seriously, it made everything that happened before even more pointless than it already was. Anyway, to conclude, it seemed to be doomed right from the start and maybe we should be thankful that it didn't turn out to be even worse but it is pretty obvious that you should avoid the damned thing though. 


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A good movie

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 10 February 2024 01:20 (A review of Jackass: Number Two)

I remember it very well, back in 2000, ‘Jackass’ was at the time a big hit on MTV but, to be honest, it seemed to be so stupid so I pretty much boycotted the damned thing back then. Eventually, it took me more than 20 years to finally watch these movies and you might wonder why I changed my mind. Well, the main reason why was because, back in 2022, ‘Jackass Forever’ was actually hailed as one of the best movies of the year by Indiewire, no less than that. This surprising critical praise really intrigued me and I thought I might as well check this franchise after all. Well, after all these years, I have to admit that I actually enjoyed the damned thing and this sequel worked as well. To be honest, they didn’t take some huge swings creatively speaking compared to the previous installment but, at least, it must have pleased the fans. As far as I was concerned, even if the intro did work this time, the intro from the 1st installment was much wackier and I wonder if they will ever be able to top that in the following sequels. However, I must have admit that I was actually really impressed by the musical number at the end. Seriously, it was actually well done and a perfect mix of their humor with some classic musical shenanigans. Concerning the skits, it was as usual hit and miss but I have to admit that I was actually laughing much more often than I expected. The only ones which stood because it didn’t like them was the first one involving a snake biting a disguised penis (yeah, seriously…) and the whole elaborate sequence during which one of the guys was disguised as a terrorist and was pranked by a fake taxi driver played by Jay Chandrasekhar. Anyway, to conclude, even if I still don’t think it is really so amazing, I have to admit that the damned thing was actually really funny and I think it is worth a look, at least if you like the genre.



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A good movie

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 10 February 2024 08:04 (A review of Bodies Bodies Bodies)

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. I'm actually rather familiar with Halina Reijn and she had/has a decent acting career in the Netherlands. I even saw 'Instinct', her directorial debut, which was not bad but, to be honest, it wasn't really not much more than that and I'm actually curious how she managed to make this English-language sophomore directing effort in the US with such a cast. Even more intriguing was the fact that the damned thing turned out to be actually quite good. Seriously, it was probably the most satisfying slasher flick I have seen in years. Basically, most of the duration was shot in the dark which might feel gimmicky but it did give the whole thing a nice claustrophobic vibe. Apparently,  one of the messages of this movie was supposed to be about the fact that the Gen-Z is so addicted to their smartphone but, to be honest, I actually didn't get that at all from the characters. Basically, the power went off, they noticed that they didn't have any reception anymore but that was it, they didn't seem to freak out about not having any cellphone reception because, basically, they had some bigger issues to deal with like, for example, not getting killed. As far as I was concerned, I think it displayed more how we actually barely trust one another, especially when you are young like these characters and when a big chunk of your relationship consists in getting completely high, stoned and drunk. Finally, it was really neat how they managed to wrap this up. Indeed, I was expecting a twist but not this one and, for once, it was actually not something stupidly far-fetched but it was actually plausible which made the whole thing even more enjoyable. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was not really a masterpiece, it was actually pretty good and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.


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An average movie

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 9 February 2024 01:55 (A review of Vita & Virginia)

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. To be honest, I had never heard of Vita Sackville-West before watching this movie and, even though I did study English in College, I actually never read a book written by Virginia Woolf which is, I have to admit it, pretty shameful. At least, it did see ‘Orlando’, Sally Potter’s adaptation not so long ago which was definitely helpful. Still, their relationship was really intriguing so the damned thing definitely had some potential. On top of that, I thought that Gemma Arterton and Elizabeth Debicki were both pretty good. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was that Arterton’s best performance but, on the other hand, it was probably due to the fact that she never had the opportunity to play such an interesting character before. Concerning Debicki, she is really an interesting actress but, to honest, after watching her in ‘The Crown’, I kept getting flashes of Princess Diana while watching this movie (probably not her fault though). And, yet, even if the material was really solid, the damned thing still didn’t really work though and I think it mostly had to do with the directing. Basically, these 2 women were lovers for apparently 10 years but it was definitely not how their relationship was handled in this movie. Instead, even though Vita Sackville-West spent so much time to woo Virginia Woolf, even though they seemed seriously in love with each other, Vita started to ghost Virginia which was obviously not what happened at the time and she suddenly showed up with some other random girl. The issue with this approach was it came really out-of-the-blue and, above all, it really shortchanged their relationship and these two extraordinary women. Indeed, I’m pretty sure that they didn’t pursue a classic lesbian love affair which explained why they were lovers for a decade and why they remained friends for many years afterwards. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject. 



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An average movie

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 8 February 2024 10:04 (A review of Paradise Highway)

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Juliette Binoche and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Back in the 90’s, Binoche turned down some major Hollywood blockbusters like ‘Jurassic Park’ but, recently, you get to see her popping up in some US productions from time to time but, to be honest, she does make some rather bewildering choices (the ‘Ghost in the Shell’ live-action remake? Seriously?). Well, you might wonder why she bothered to show up for this flick as well. Sure, it was dealing with an important subject but the damned thing had seriously no pulse whatsoever. The fact that it was almost 2 hrs long probably didn’t help. Eventually, it seems that Juliette Binoche really wanted to get the opportunity to drive one of these huge US trucks and, at least, she did look the part but, to be honest, she wasn’t really convincing though. The fact that her character was from Canada but her brother was from the US was a completely unnecessary convoluted piece of information which was obviously added there probably because she couldn’t master a perfect US accent. I mean, on one hand, they mentioned that they got separated at some point but then, 5 mins later, they would talk about how he was protecting her through seemingly most of her childhood. I also thought it was rather lazy and poorly written. Obviously, Dennis turned out to be involved in this trafficking business after all but it did create some plot-holes like, for example, why did he get beat up in jail? The fact that the little girl did end up with the main character was also quite ridiculous since they were both involved in a murder case. I shouldn’t forget to mention that Morgan Freeman was also involved but, even though he wasn’t bad, it was pretty obvious that he got involved mostly for an easy paycheck (they even moved the shot from New Mexico to Mississippi where he actually lives). Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t the worse movie I have seen lately, the damned thing was still pretty weak and you should probably avoid it. 



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