Reviews by johanlefourbe

Apartheid was one of the darkests part of our world's history and it seems rather unbelievable and heatbreaking that it was still going strong in the 80's which was not really a long time ago. So, since this subject was quite interesting and since I have a weak spot for Philip Noyce, I was really eager to watch this flick. Eventually, even though it was rather well made with some strong performances by Derek Luke and Tim Robbins, the whole thing still turned out to be rather underwhelming. Im fact, it reminded me of another movie dealing with the same subject called 'Goodbye Bafana' and both movies could have been truelly awesome and inspiring but neither of them really impressed me after all. At the end of the movie, they did show the real Patrick Chamusso and those 2 minutes turned out to be actually the best part of the whole movie. Obviously, this guy had been through a lot in his life and he deserved a better movie than this one. I mean, it wasn't bad at all but it was rather short (90 mins) and you wonder why they decided to spend so much time on his extra marital activities. Furthermore, the fact that Nic Vos actually didn't exist but was an amalgamation of different people wasn't a smart move either in my opinion. Anyway, in spite of its flaws, it was still a well made drama, with some decent acting and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject.

Was it a prequel? A sequel? An hommage? A tribute? A reboot? Personally, I would say that it was a reboot to 'Alien' but who cares? The damned thing was visually impressive with some awesome directing by Ridley Scott and a very strong cast. Personally, I couldn't choose between Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron who gave the best performance, they were all very good. However, even if the story was definitely entertaining, it was still nothing ground-breaking like I was hoping for. Indeed, I always have some high expections from the movies directed by Ridley Scott but, even though they are all well made and a feast for the eye, the plot is usually kind of weak and this movie was not an exception. First of all, it was way too similar to 'Alien'. Secondly, Scott tried to go all metaphysical but he didn't quite pull it off. I mean, he is a fine director but he never gets to the depth reached by some directors such as Stanley Kubrick or Terrence Malick. Finally, even though the first half was tight and gripping, the second half was honestly pretty messy with some major plot holes (why does David infects Charlie?!? Even worse Shaw manages to get rid off of the embryo at some point during an awesome sequence but, after that, she gets back in the team as if nothing happened before...). To conclude, I did like this movie but it was a typical Scott feature (some awesome craftmanship displayed but, at the end of the day, nothing really challenging) still, it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

PS: Eventually, I re-watched this movie a few years later and, to be honest, the end-result was even more disappointing the 2^nd time around.

PSS : Five years later, Ridley Scott would come up with another sequel called ‘Alien: Covenant’ which was even more underwhelming  and, even worse, all the new ideas introduced in this movie were basically pretty much thrown out of the window which was just so lame in my opinion.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I kept hearing some interesting things about the damned thing, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, it turned out to be a seriously weird movie.. In fact, it had been a while since I saw such a bizarre flick. Visually, it was pretty amazing and it reminded me of the work of Terry Gilliam, Guillermo del Toro and 'The Fall' by Tarsem Singh. Basically, they gave us some wall-to-wall CGI with some impressive sets, strange costumes and excentric characters. Still, even though it was visually one of the most fascinating movies I have seen lately, the plot was actually nothing really mind-blowing, when you think about it. In fact, it was something I have experienced with many movies directed by Gilliam. Indeed, Gilliam’s movies are visually appealing but also sometimes, rather alienating. I had the same feeling here and, honestly, the story was decent but not much more. So, I did like the damned thing but it is a matter of taste as Roger Ebert admired its artistry but thought that the plot was really underwhelming. He also mentionned that the whole thing was rather foggy (he had a point, during the whole thing, I even thought that there was something wrong with my TV-set...). Anyway, in spite of its flaws, this movie was visually fascinating and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to watch something else than your typical Hollywood flick.

After booking some major success with 'Saw', it took about 3 years for James Wan to follow up with another flick and I was really intrigued about the damned thing. Eventually, it turned out to be a rather standard vigilante movie and, not surprisingly, an adaptation of the book called 'Death Sentence' which was a sequel to the book called 'Death Wish' which was adapted in the most famous vigilante movie ever made starring Charles Bronson. However, it seems that these movies didn't have much to do with the books, except that they were dealing with an average guy deciding to avenge his family. Anyway, I thought the whole thing was rather well made, very violent, with some decent performances by Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund and John Goodman. The main issue I had was that the movie never really knew where it should stand. I mean, from time to time, they would give us some family drama scenes explaining how violence is wrong and all, but then before and after that, they would give some adrenaline fuelled scene with some catchy songs when the main character goes completely badass killing a whole bunch of bad guys. So, I though it was rather uneven and sometimes, actually rather depressing to watch. Still, it was a well made and entertaining flick and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

What a nice surprise! At first, I was really wondering what the hell was Will Smith thinking... Indeed, he wasn’t involved in any movie for the last 3 years and he seemed to be linked to at least 20 different projects and the one gig he picked up was a sequel for a 10 years old franchise that nobody was actually expecting. Fortunately, the end result turned out to be actually pretty good. At first, they gave us a slow (and rather boring) introduction during which Smith argued all the time with Tommy Lee Jones but, if it was funny with the first movie, it had become rather annoying for the 3rd time around. But fortunately, Jones disappeared pretty quickly and then the movie finally started to get interesting. Indeed, first, you had a really spectacular jump from the Empire State Building (I saw it in IMAX 3D and it was pretty awesome). And then, J met the younger version of K, portrayed by Josh Brolin who just blew me away. Not only he physically really looked like a younger Jones, but he sounded just the same. From this point, I was just sold and enjoyed the whole time travel paradox. Of course, the rest of the movie was just made of preposterous action scenes and of some weird looking aliens but it was fun and I had a good time. To conclude, even though it was nothing amazing, it was still an enjoyable blockbuster, it displayed that Will Smith still rules the box-office and it is definitely worth a look.