Reviews by johanlefourbe

Nowadays, Shia LaBeouf has arguably one of the worst reputations in the business but there was a time when the guy was considered as the new ’it-boy’ of the box-office. As a result, he made 5 blockbusters in a row and this movie was basically one of them. The first interesting thing about this movie, compared to his other blockbusters, is that it didn’t belong to a known brand and it was at least something original. However, after watching this movie, I still wasn’t really sure what to make of the damned thing. Indeed, on one hand, there were definitely some really spectacular scenes and I was quite entertained,  at least, during the first half of the movie. On the other hand, the story was seriously preposterous. In fact, it didn't really bother me at the beginning but, from the moment that you finally learned what the hell was actually going on, the whole thing became then pretty damned average, I’m afraid. Concerning D.J. Caruso, I always had a weak spot for this director but his follow-up, the ambitious ‘I Am Number Four’, turned out to be a commercial and critical flop and, since then, his career has been somewhat struggling which is too bad. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like such mindless blockbusters.

Even though I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie, I still wanted to check it out though. Honestly, there was loads of good stuff in this movie. First of all, it looked gorgeous. Then, the cast was very interesting as well(Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas, Juno Temple, Jim Sturgess, Mark Rylance, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Andrew Garfield...) and even though I had some doubts about Portman and Johansson portraying sisters, they actually pulled it off quite well. However, the damned thing was far from being flawless, I’m afraid. Indeed, they tried to make it look like a drama but the end-result was often more like a soap opera, a gorgeous soap opera maybe but still a soap opera. Also, I wasn't really convinced by the portrayal of the king. I don't think it was really Eric Bana's fault but I think this character was just badly written. For example, what were his motivations? It was not clear whatsoever and he seemed take some actions only to allow the plot to move along. Furthermore, during the second half, the only thing he did was basically sitting in a corner and looking pissed off. To conclude, it was definitely not a masterpiece but I think it was a very well made costume drama and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Nowadays, I use Netflix and Popcorn Time which means that I have access to a virtually illimited number of movies and, as a result, I have become slightly more picky concerning the movies I watch. Before that, I used to watch pretty much whatever was available on TV and, eventually, I ended up watching some rather obscure flicks for some rather dubious reasons. This movie was a perfect example. In fact, I have to admit it, even though the whole thing seemed to be really lame, the beginning was actually rather promising. Indeed, it was energetic, funny and pretty sharp. Unfortunately, it was only during the first 10 minutes then the whole thing became really underwhelming and really childish very fast, the damage was done and the movie never managed to recover. At the end of the day, it was just too predictable and not really funny at all. At least, it was pretty neat to see Paul Giamatti but he clearly made this movie when he was still struggling. Anyway, to conclude, it was pretty weak and I would suggest you to avoid it, except you're less than 13 years old then you might find it entertaining but, even so, there are so many better movies to watch out there with your kids. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since there was a top cast involved,  I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, I was really positively surprised by the damned thing. Indeed, I always thought that politics were a fascinating subject, I'm sucker for the movies dealing with this topic and this movie didn't disappoint me. Basically, even though it was a thriller and used some of the typical gimmicks in this genre (for example, there were 2 annoying twists at the end), the whole thing was still really interesting, realistic and pretty damned entertaining.  As I mentioned before, there was also an impressive cast involved (Gary Oldman, Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Christian Slater, William Petersen), especially, Gary Oldman who completely disappeared behind his character. Furtheremore, it is so rare to have a women playing the lead and Joan Allen was such a great choice (it’s too bad we don’t hear much from her anymore).  To conclude, even though it wasn’t really flawless, I thought it was a pretty good thriller and it I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you love movies about politics like I do.

To be honest, I had actually no idea what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might  as well check it out. First of all, even though I believe that golf must be one of the most boring sports ever created, it is actually one of the very few sports which actually work quite well in the movies (the other obvious one would be boxing).  Still, it is always tricky to make a golf game exciting since the whole thing has been scripted. Anyway, in this case, it was a rather typical sport biopic (it was apparently a box-office flop) with the usual clichés but I thought it was rather well done and fairly entertaining. It did help that the movie was dealing with one of the best golf players that ever lived. I have to admit it, before watching this movie, I had actually never heard of Bobby Jones before but the guy was just a fascinating character and Jim Caviezel gave a decent perfomance. To conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was still a decent watch and, if you like this kind of flicks, you will definitely enjoy it.