Reviews by johanlefourbe

About 13 years after the first serie started, they decided to finally make a feature length movie of this mythical TV-show. I have to admit that I have never seen this show but since it is one of the longest running movie franchises ever made, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, to be honest,  the damned thing was rather long and slow (it is actually the longest movie of the whole franchise, at least, when I saw this movie) and there was no action scenes whatosever but it was not really surprising since the whole thing took place mostly on the Enterprise. In fact, the lack of action was actually made on purpose to contrast with 'Star Wars' which was filled with action stuff. Furthermore, the acting was also rather weak and wooden, especially by William Shatner who was sometimes borderline ridiculous. Still, there was some fascinating stuff as well. First of all, even though the whole ting looked sometimes rather cheesy, there were also some really impressive scenes, visually speaking, and I enjoyed the fact that they tried to make something rather cerebral instead of something action oriented. Furthermore, I also enjoyed all those characters working as a crew and this concept obviously became the blue print for so many TV-shows and SF movies that came afterwards. To conclude, even though it was definitely flawed, it was still quite entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Following his directing début, Joe Wright deciced to make another high-profile book adaptation but even though I did like his version of 'Pride and Prejudice', I must say that I enjoyed even more this second directing effort. In my opinion, it must be one of the most ultimate romantic dramas ever made. First of all, there was a top cast involved (Saoirse Ronan, Brenda Blethyn, James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Juno Temple and Vanesssa Redgrave) and they all gave some really solid performances. Even better than the acting, the directing was just quite impressive and gorgeous with some amazing shots full of so many details (the color, the angle, the timing, the movement,...) . Basically, the story was divided in 3 parts (the discovery of love, the horror of war and the endless guilt) and I was quite fascinated by the first and last part,  I have to admit that I didn't care much about the middle section though, even though there was an amazing tracking shot who seemed to last forever on this French beach. I guess I have seen too many war movies and, as a result, I didn't care much about this segment but the rest of the movie was just spellbinding. To conclude, it was a beautiful and heartbreaking love story, very well made and acted, and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

This is a rather obscure movie starring Colin Farrell but I thought it was actually really intriguing. To be honest, the beginning was not really promising. Indeed, you had this 9 year old boy witnessing his older brother having sex and then, in the next scenes, you would see this older brother give him some an acid but the movie made it all seem as if it was the best thing in the world. I mean, I smoked a lot of weed and hash in my young years but what kind of hippie crap was that! So, at first, I wasn't really convinced but then, it wasn't a movie about drugs but a movie about love and, in this area, this flick was actually quite impressive. Indeed, the relationship between Bobby (played by Colin Farrell) and Jonathan (played by Dallas Roberts) was one of the most touching and genuine I have ever seen. With the addition of Clare (played by Robert Wright), it became even more fascinating to watch. Indeed, they were all some really fascinating characters and I have to compliment all three actors who all provided some strong performances. Who would have thought that Colin Farrell could deliver such a subtle and sensitive performance?!? Anyway, to conclude, even though it was flawed, it was still a very interesting and touching drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in watching Colin Farrell doing something totally different.

I already saw this movie but since I just bought an awesome brand new TV, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, first of all, I have to admit it, even though I had heard about him, I can't say I was really familiar with Thor before watching this movie the first time around. Anyway, what made this movie really intriguing to me was that they managed to get a very interesting director (Kenneth Branagh) and a very nice cast. Eventually, Asgard looked  impressive with some awesome special effects and they managed fairly well to mix the lyrical Asgard with our more pedestrian Earth and, of course, Chris Hemsworth was also very well cast. Still, the whole thing didn't really convince me. I mean, if you would remove Asgard and all what happened there, the whole thing took place only in a small city in New Mexico. So, the scope was really small and it wasn't what you could call a great and awesome adventure. Furthermore, I think it was quite a shame to have such a great actress like Natalie Portman playing such a thankless role. To make things worse, I didn't really believe in her relationship with Chris Hemsworth and there was frankly not much chemistry between them. Still, the story actually had some potential but, in my opinon, it would have worked much better if they would have split the whole thing into 2 movies. Indeed, the first movie would have taken place only on Asgard, showing how Thor and Loki grew up and how Thor became so cocky and arrogant. Towards the end, Odin would realize that Thor was actually unworthy of his powers and would banish him to Earth where he would meet Jane somewhere in the desert. The 2nd movie would have taken place on Earth with a powerless Thor who would then learn how to become worthy and, towards the end, against his expectations, he would finally earn his powers back, come back to Asgard and leave behind the love of his life. However, I have to admit that after rewatching the damned thing, it didn’t bother me that much anymore. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was actually really entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like this genre.

Before becoming a huge Hollywood star, Russell Crowe started his career in Australian productions and he actually gave his breakthrough performance in this flick. Well to be honest, I ended up with some mixed feelings about the whole thing.  First of all, I have to admit that it was an intriguing depiction of the Skinheads. Indeed, basically, they are some young white guys with some low self-esteem, no skills, no education, no social or financial leverage and not much hope for a bright future. Eventually, when they become skinheads, they finally find a sense of community, some companionship and an ideology which finally gives some meaning to their miserable life. However, the makers provided some rather ambiguous views on this movement as they made it look almost attractive with some catchy skinhead songs. Furthermore, those guys seemed to have usually a good time and even some pretty cool parties. On top of that, the directing and acting were honestly rather weak, except, of course, for the performance provided by Russell Crowe. Indeed, Crowe really stood out from the rest as he gave such an intense and powerful performance, it was really spellbinding to watch. To conclude, even if I think it was rather flawed, it was still very interesting and it is definitely worth a look, at least to see Russell Crowe shining in one of his best roles.

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that it wasn’t such a huge disaster after all. However, it is pretty obvious that Disney back then was still struggling to get its mojo back and, even though this movie was an improvement on the really abysmal ‘Chicken Little’, it was still pretty weak though. At least, the animation was decent enough but it was still clearly a step back from the stellar animation delivered by Pixar, even back then. Eventually, the main issue was that the concept was just really misguided and the end-result was pretty much a convoluted mess. On top of that, the Bowler Hat Guy was probably one of the most pathetic bad guys ever delivered by Disney (seriously, the guy didn’t even have an actual name, for crying out loud). And yet, I have to admit that the idea of a young teenager going back in time and becoming his father’s best friend was actually really neat. Furthermore, if Lewis was terribly bland and uncharismatic, Wilbur was actually an entertaining character and I wonder how the whole thing would have turned out to be if it had been told from his point of view instead. On top of that, even though all the jokes were seriously random, some of them were actually pretty funny. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t the worst CGI feature delivered by Disney at that point, most of it still didn’t work and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you have some really young kids to entertain.