Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but sine there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, to be honest, I have to admit that I had never heard of Gloria Grahame before watching this movie and it took me a while to realize that it was actually based on a true story. Anyway, I thought it was pretty good but, above all, the true assets in this movie were eventually Annette Bening and Jamie Bell though. Indeed, they definitely delivered some solid performances and they had such a nice chemistry together. Eventually, it turned out to be a nice romance and, in spite the age difference, they really seemed to love each other which was really sweet. Unfortunately, it was actually maybe the issue with this movie after all. Indeed, I might be a big cynic but maybe the damned thing was actually too sweet. Basically, except for their love story, there was actually not much else going on with these two characters and, as a result, the whole thing felt slightly flat after all. I mean, while watching this movie and afterwards, I found out that Gloria Grahame definitely had an interesting career and a complex life but this movie decided to ignore must of it. Concerning Peter Turner, well, except for his relationship with Grahame, apparently, nothing really noteworthy happened during his life, at least, not according to this movie. The fact that it was based on a book written by Peter Turner himself probably played a role and it seemed that Turner didn't want to tell much about himself. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was not really ground-breaking, it was still a solid romantic drama though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since this movie seemed to have a rather lame reputation, I wasn’t expecting much but since it was starring Keanu Reeves, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. To be honest, you might wonder why, at this point in his career, Reeves would accept to be in such an ugly and dumb science-fiction flick. To make things worse, it has been a while since I saw this actor delivering such a wooden performance. At least, I hope that he did get a good paycheck. In fact, even though I might be in the minority, I actually think that the damned thing had some potential though. Indeed, if they had the guts to go for a really daft dark comedy or some ghastly horror tale, it could have worked. Unfortunately, they went obviously for the most generic approach possible and the end-result was therefore just seriously tedious. Indeed, instead of going for something daring or developing the moral and ethical dilemmas at stake, they focused on some pathetic and unconvincing high-tech gadgets. Coming back on the cast, concerning Alice Eve, I always had a weak spot for this actress and I think she probably had the most interesting character in this movie. Indeed, she did discover that she recently died during a nasty car accident and that she was actually a clone which was quite a lot to take in. Unfortunately, the makers really did nothing at all with this and, instead, Eve did end up with another completely half-baked character who just stood by and waited until her husband took all the decisions for her. It’s too bad because she actually has an interesting charisma but, unfortunately, she spent more of her career with such terribly weak movies. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here, the damned thing was indeed really weak and you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Anya Taylor-Joy, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though this movie didn’t make much waves when it was released, I thought it was actually pretty good. The first thing I enjoyed was the mood. Indeed, even if it was a directorial debut, the directing was actually really solid. Above all, I really enjoyed the fact that they never settled for a specific genre. Indeed, there was no music cue telling what you should feel and, sometimes, it felt like a dark comedy, but also sometimes like a thriller or even a teenage drama. Anyway, eventually, the main reason why you would like this movie or not mostly depends if you feel any connection with the two main characters though. Well, as far as I was concerned, I thought that these girls felt genuine but also quite fascinating because they were charismatic and multi-layered. Of course, it did help that the two actresses involved gave some really solid performances. Obviously, Anya Taylor-Joy, once again, didn’t disappoint for me, and during the last 7 years, she has developed such a spotless track-record, she might even be the best actress of her generation, no less than that. Concerning [Link removed - login to see], well, it was the first time she really impressed me but I will definitely check her other movies in the future. And, yet, I have to admit that the damned thing didn’t completely work though. The first thing that bothered me was the fact it seemed that there were some whole chunks which were either missing or cut. Indeed, I wish there would have been a proper intro showing who the characters actually were and what was exactly their relationship before the movie started. Then, the other mistake they made was to have them plotting to murder Lily’s stepfather. First of all, sure, the guy was a douchebag but killing him did seem rather excessive. I mean, how old was Lily? 16 years old, maybe even older? It means that, after a couple of years, she would simply go to College and get rid off him in the process. Above all, this storyline was just generic and even rather tedious and I wish they went into a completely different direction. Seriously, if they would have chosen to have these 2 girls only hanging together and having some weird conversations, that would have been already awesome, at least, for me. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn't a complete home-run, I still liked the damned thing and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Of course, ever since he got his breakthrough with ‘Snabba cash’, you might argue that it’s too bad that Joel Kinnaman is still stuck playing some similar character more than 10 years later but the guy is so good at playing such tormented souls. The rest of the cast was also interesting, even if they were all some B actors (Ana de Armas, Rosamund Pike, Clive Owen, Common). Concerning the story itself, sure, it was maybe nothing original but I think it definitely had some potential. Eventually, the only real issue with this movie was that it was just too much material to handle in less than 2 hours. Indeed, in my opinion, it would have been the perfect material for some mini-series, in fact, I can even imagine a whole TV-show going deeper and more in details into the adventures and obstacles faced by Pete Koslow. As a matter of fact, I was watching this movie with my wife and I had to pause a couple of times to explain to her what was going on because she thought she had missed something. In fact, she didn’t miss anything but, because they didn’t have enough time, the makers simply skipped on a couple of scenes. As far as I was concerned, it didn’t bother me and I was perfectly able to follow what was going on but there is no doubt that the whole thing could or should have been better fledged out. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing ground-breaking, it was still a decent B feature and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since it was starring Bruce Willis, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Obviously, it was another direct-to-VOD job for Willis but, to be honest, in this genre, it wasn’t the worst one I have seen so far. As usual, even though he was displayed prominently on all the promotional material, he actually didn’t play the main character but, at least, his character was more substantial than what he usually gets to do in such movies. Still, his performance was pretty weak though. On top of that, the damned thing was just so ugly with these typical green/yellow/blue filters but it’s unfortunately fairly common with these cheap action flicks (it’s hardly surprising that it took only 14 days to shoot the damned thing). And yet, even if this movie was weak, there were a couple of things that actually worked. Above all, the relationship between Danny and Levi was actually not bad. Indeed, it was actually neat how they were bonding over video-games and how Levi was candid about his line of work. Sure, you could argue that it was inappropriate but I thought it was an interesting approach. In fact, this connection between these 2 characters was more interesting than the relationship between Danny and his father. I mean, no offense towards Hayden Christensen, I don’t think he was so bad, it’s just that his character was not really interesting. Of course, the fact that the guy made the decision to take his kid on a hunting trip in order to get over some bullies probably didn’t help. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was slightly better than the recent action flicks starring Bruce Willis, it was still rather weak though and you should probably avoid it. 

Since this movie is included in the ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?’ list, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, it didn’t turn out to be an easy watch after all. Indeed, even if it was supposed to be a ‘restored’ version, it was probably one of the nastiest versions I have seen on YouTube so far. Furthermore, for some long stretches, nothing much really happened after all. I mean, basically, it is a very simple story and you might wonder if it really needed almost 2 hrs of running time but Erich von Stroheim has always been rather notorious for overindulging himself (that some people would love to watch a 8 hrs version of ‘Greed’ remains rather bewildering to me). However, there is no doubt that von Stroheim was basically born to play such characters, even if he was probably too old to play this character (I was not surprised to find out that Maude George, who played his mother in this movie, was actually three years younger than him). On top of that, I have to admit that I was actually really caught by surprise by the ending. Indeed, even though most of the movie was really romantic, there were 2 scenes that really stood out. First of all, even though Nicky seemed to be head over heels for Mitzy, he still went to a brothel spending hours with countless prostitutes which wasn’t exactly what you would expect from such a romantic feature. However, it actually did fit the character after all. Even more surprising was the ending though. Indeed, I was so sure that Nicky would dump Cecilia to end up with Mitzi but, no, he actually went for the money which was so dark and cynical but that’s actually how people worked (and probably still do) and it was such a strong ending. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely work, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really 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, I have to admit that I didn’t know much about Ludwig van Beethoven so it was definitely pretty neat to see a movie focusing on this great musical genius. Unfortunately, the movie itself was not really amazing though. Indeed, instead of focusing on Beethoven himself, they told the story from the point of view of Anna Holtz, a woman who helped with copying his Ninth Symphony. I won’t blame Diane Kruger, she was lovely as usual and she did what she could with the material but her character was just not interesting enough (the fact that Beethoven didn’t work at all with a woman as a copyist back then certainly didn’t help). There was even a really pathetic and unnecessary subplot involving Hanna and her lover, some architect called Martin Bauer. Still, there is no doubt that Beethoven was a fascinating character, some kind of rock star of the classical music, and Ed Harris delivered here another strong performance. Eventually, the best scene was when the guy got to play for the first time his Ninth Symphony. Seriously, it gave me some major goosebumps so they definitely nailed it. It was such a historical moment regarding classical music but even music in general and to think that, at the time, Beethoven was actually deaf is just so mind-blowing. Unfortunately, after this amazing climax, the whole thing felt rather flat and the only thing left was to wait until Beethoven passed away at only 56 years old. 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 Beethoven’s work. 

Since this movie has a strong reputation like pretty much all the movies directed by Sergei Eisenstein, it is indeed included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list among other things, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, it’s the 3^rd movie I watched directed by Sergei Eisenstein and it was probably the most difficult one I have seen so far. While watching this movie, I tried to remember what I did learn at school about the 1917 October Revolution but it was more than 20 years ago and this movie certainly didn’t give any background information. Eventually, the end-result was some kind of endless feverish dream dealing with the uprising that took place at the time in Russia. Seriously, the damned thing was quite relentless and I don’t think they took a minute to breath and provide the viewers with the opportunity to absorb what they just watched. By now, I got pretty much used to the fact such Soviet propaganda movies actually never focused on the characters individually but, still, it was interesting that Lenin was mentioned only a couple of times (Vasili Nikandrov was a stunning look-a-like though). For Trotsky, the situation was even worse as, even though he did show up a couple of times, his name was never mentioned and, in fact, Eisenstein had to remove most of the footage dealing with him which shows how things can change in only 10 years. Eventually, what impressed me the most with this movie was the frenetic editing. Eisenstein’s idea was to edit together some shots of various things which apparently had nothing to do with each other to create an intellectual comparisons between them which was quite intriguing. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t an easy watch, it was still really interesting and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you’re interested in this genre.      

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jamie Bell, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though the material was quite strong and even though the damned thing definitely had some potential, I’m afraid it was still missing something though. Eventually, I believe that it was one of these cases when a mini-series would have been probably more suitable for this material. Indeed, this movie focused mostly on Bryon Widner but I wish they could have spent more time on the other characters involved such as Fred Krager, Shareen, Daryle Jenkins or Julie Price. Anyway, it still gave a pretty good look on how toxic such environments can be. In this case, they actually went further as they handled White Supremacy as if it was some kind of disease that could be cured which was an interesting approach, even if I’m not sure if it is actually accurate. On the other hand, any belief system based on hatred is obviously not worth it, for yourself but also anyone else interacting with you. Concerning the actors involved, Jamie Bell gave here a really solid performance as he completely disappeared in this character. It was also interesting how they tried to create empathy towards a rather despicable guy but, in fact, it’s often the issue with movies dealing with this subject. Indeed, they often tend to divide the characters into two groups, the good Nazis and the bad Nazis but the more complex the approach is, the better the end-result usually is and this movie was probably not complex enough, at least, not for my taste. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject.