Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some good things about this flick, I thought I should check it out. Eventually,  it was starring 2 really impressive performances by Peter Mullan (easily one of the most underrated actors at work nowadays) and Andrew Garfield (one of the most promising actors at work nowadays). I must say that the sober directing was really effective as well and the whole thing turned out to be a gloomy and pessimist flick which shows that there is basically no redemption possible for children killers. Actually, when you think about it, almost nobody would forgive anyone for such a crime and that's maybe the weakest point of this movie. Indeed, they displayed in details how twisted and damaged Philip was but Eric came up as rather innocent and, in my opinion , they should have shown what he did to that girl. By showing nothing, they gave him some kind of angelic qualities which he actually didn't have. And this effect was reinforced by the casting of Andrew Garfield, a rather awesome young man who portrays a character who seemed to be so nice. I think the movie would have been even more effective if the lead was, maybe not really despicable, but at least, not so 'charming'. Still, the story was really thought-provoking and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are curious to see how Andrew Garfield started his promising career.

To be honest, nowadays, I don’t care much for Jason Statham’s movies but since I kept hearing some interesting things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, I have to admit that I wasn't disappointed and that it really deserves its reputation., In fact, I would even go further and say that it is, in my opinion, one of the best action flicks made during the last 10 years. Indeed, at last, after the disappointing 'Transporter' franchise, there was a movie correctly exploiting the acting skills, charisma and humor provided by Jason Statham, easily one of the best action movie stars at work nowadays. Of course, the premise was completely preposterous and it didn't make much sense whatsoever but who cares? Everything, the plot, the action scenes, the dialogues, the weirdest sex scene ever, the characters were completely preposterous, over-the-top and unbelievable. Well, I thought the whole thing was a adrenaline filled riot and they perfectly managed to share with us Chelios’s disturbed state of mine. To conclude, of course, it was not a masterpiece whatsoever, but it was still a very well made and entertaining action flick  and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to watch some good old R rated feature.

In fact, I  watched this movie just a few days before Christmas. It wasn't on purpose at all but I thought the coincidence was pretty neat. Anyway, basically, it turned out to be one of those French dramas dealing with a dysfunctional familly. Indeed, it was really talkative, unfocused and rather chaotic (it took me almost 30 minutes to figure out who was who) but I really enjoyed it. In the contrary with similar flicks coming from Hollywood, there was no formula here, ending-beginning, just some genuine, flawed, messed up and realistic characters. It helped that you had here a top French cast (Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Melvil Poupaud, Hippolyte Girardot, Emmanuelle Devos, Chiara Mastroianni and more) and they all gave some strong performances. Above all, I thought that Mathieu Amalric was quite mesmerizing. Indeed, he portrayed here an obnoxious, destructive and honestly rather despicable guy but the guy was still really charismatic and it was therefore quite an achievement. I’m rather surprised that I noticed this guy only a few years ago but he is slowly becoming one of my favorite French actors. To conclude, it was an impressive drama with some really interesting characters, I really loved it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

First of all, I have to admit that I always had a weak spot for those thrillers dealing with some virus. In fact, most of the time, I actually enjoy those flicks more than their popular cousins, the zombie movies, because they are in my opinion more realistic. Anyway, even though I didn’t expect much from the damned thing, it turned out to be actually pretty good. Of course, it was still rather generic and it didn't add much to the formula but I thought it was rather well made and, above all, I appreciated the cold blooded logic behind it. Indeed, everytime I thought the whole thing would get soft on me, everytime, the plot would surprise me with its hard logic. I think many viewers didn't like the movie because none of the 4 lead characters was really likeable, especially the one portrayed by Chris Pine who was pretty arrogant on the surface but I thought he gave a good performance. The fact that those characters were flawed made, for me, the whole thing even better and more realistic. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing really original or mind-blowing whatsoever, it was still a solid and well made thriller, I really enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look.

Since shortly, I have a friend working for a cash transport company so I thought it would be pretty neat to watch a thriller about the subject. First of all, the whole concept was actually pretty interesting. Indeed, what would happen if the guys working for such a company would decide to pretend that they were hijacked and that they would keep the money for themselves? Finally, there was an interesting cast of B actors (Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, Jean Reno, Milo Ventimiglia, Fred Ward, Skeet Ulrich). Unfortunately, even though the damned thing definitely had some potential, this nice concept was not well developed at all. On top of that, there were many characters but none of them was properly developed either. Eventually, the last thing that bothered me was that those guys had just one hour to pull out their plan but it was pretty obvious that what actually happened lasted around 3 hours or at least 2 hours. Sure, it was maybe a smalll detail but it was a good example showing how half-baked the whole thing turned out to be after all. To conclude, it really had some potential but it was still rather disappointing and I don’t  think it is really worth a look.