Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since it was starring Nicolas Cage, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, from all the cheap action flicks Cage has been making during the last 20 years, even if it might not be the worst, it was still pretty weak though. The main issue is that the whole idea of an old gangster getting out of jail and seeking revenge against his former partners was just so derivative and, on top of that, they didn’t do anything really interesting with this tired concept. To make things worse, the directing was pretty weak and the whole thing was not much better than a very average TV movie. The writing was also pretty lazy. For example, at some point, Frank Carver visited an old acquaintance to get some intel on 2 guys he was tracking and, at the time, the conclusion was that ‘Q’ didn’t know where they were but would look into it. However, in the following scenes, the main character managed to find both them as if he knew all along where to find them. And, yet, the damned thing was not a complete disaster though. Above all, it was actually fun to see how much Nicolas Cage managed to squeeze out of such a rather abysmal material. Sure, he didn’t manage to turn sh*t into gold but the process was actually interesting to behold. I also have to admit that I didn’t see the ‘Fight Club’ gimmick coming and it was fairly well executed. On the other hand, I think they should have skipped the whole insomnia thing since it was rather poorly developed and had actually very little added value after all. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was rather lame and you should probably avoid it, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of Nicolas Cage. 

Since it was Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond, of course, I was quite eager to check this movie at some point. For some reason, I didn’t see it in the movie theater when it was released whereas I did see all of the other 4 Bond movies starring Craig when they came out. Anyway, even if I don’t think it was a huge improvement on ‘Spectre’, it was still a decent watch though and the one thing that I enjoyed the most was probably Anas de Armas. Indeed, she was pretty much pitch-perfect playing Paloma and it was just so refreshing to see a female spy who didn’t fall right away for Bond’s charms as she chose to focus instead on her mission. However, the character was involved for such a short time that you might wonder if it was really necessary to include her at all in the first place, especially if the running time was already quite extensive. Indeed, the main issue with this movie was that it was just way too long and, in my opinion, it is ridiculous that an action flick like this one should last almost 3 hours. Eventually, that’s something that could be said about all the Bond movies starring Daniel Craig, expect for ‘Quantum of Solace’, as they were all among the longest Bond installments ever produced. By the way, I saw this movie with my wife and she was so surprised that James Bond got killed at the end. She was then convinced that the franchise was over and I tried to explain to her that they will just reboot the whole thing with a new actor but she seemed to have a hard time to grasp the concept. Anyway, eventually, there is no denying that Daniel Craig turned out to be extremely successful during his tenure and he will always be remembered as one of the best James Bond. To conclude, even if it didn’t really impress me, it was still a decent farewell for Daniel Craig after a whopping 15 year playing the famous British spy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Apparently, this movie was a huge flop when it was released but the title did sound intriguing and, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but I thought it was not bad after all. Eventually, I think the main issue was that they tried to tackle too many things and, as a result, this movie was pretty much a scattered mess. For example, most of the movies was actually a solid but still pretty basic depiction of modern high-school girls facing the usual obstacles but, then suddenly, in the 3^rd act, the whole thing turned into ‘The Purge’ with all this random people wearing some masks and playing vigilante. I also wonder if it was a good idea to have a group of 4 friends. I mean, they were all charismatic and intriguing but, except maybe for Lily, they were all barely developed. For example, it took me forever to figure out that Em and Sarah were actually sisters but, seriously, these 2 characters were given pretty much nothing to do (I have noticed that the charming Suki Waterhouse did spend pretty much most of her career playing such thankless characters which is a pity). It was also interesting that they inserted a transgender character played by Hari Nef but it was the same issue, there was just not enough time or space to properly develop such a complex character and you can imagine that they could have made the whole movie only about her. Still, some of their ideas were not bad though and I did appreciate how Sam Levinson managed to deliver an interesting dark edgy and energetic mood. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I guess it might be worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was a critical success, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it is considered as a dark comedy (it is actually rather difficult to pinpoint the genre of this movie which is a good thing), I thought it was above all really nauseating to watch. Maybe it was due to the fact that I saw only a couple of months ago ‘Luckiest Girl Alive’ which was already dealing with a similar story but in a completely different way. Above all, it was a huge reminder how f*cked up men have been treating women pretty much every since the dawn of time and I can’t imagine how a guy could watch this movie without feeling any amount of guilt or disgust, no matter how many pop-songs they might throw into the mix. Even if it was probably not the original goal, I think that it was also a good reminder that, even though many Americans might argue otherwise, College is actually not so great after all. Indeed, the so-called amazing College life seems to be a lot about getting drunk out of your mind, resulting in young girls being raped by young boys and young boys rapping young girls. Coming back on the movie itself, I think it was a mistake that the only guy Cassandra would accept to go on a date with would be someone who went to the exact same school around the exact same time period as she did. As a result, even though they mentioned a whole bunch of people who went to school with them (the thing that actually triggered her to start with her vengeance plan), they never discussed or even mentioned this tragedy which didn’t make much sense. As a result, even though it was definitely shocking that Ryan was actually involved, when you think about it, it was not surprising after all and you might wonder why Cassandra should have expected otherwise. Still, there is no doubt that Carey Mulligan was really good and she probably delivered her career-best performance here. Anyway, to conclude, even though I had a rather hard time to watch this flick, I still think it is worth a look because this subject is really important. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a little film with a very basic storyline after all. Indeed, it was basically about some random guy randomly running into a group of nuns and ending up building a chapel for them. Seriously, nothing else really much happened through the whole thing. As a result, there was no bad guy and hardly any conflict between the few characters involved, and, despite a clear lack of dramatic tension, even if the damned thing was rather quaint and old-fashioned, I thought it worked actually well. Basically, it was a movie about decent people doing decent things and, even though I’m usually a cynical guy, I think it was really refreshing. The fact I enjoyed this movie was  even more impressive if you take into account that I’m as Atheist as you can be. If nothing else, this movie was a great reminder that I should watch many more movies starring Sidney Poitier. Indeed, the guy was just so charismatic and he pretty much carried the whole thing on his shoulders. I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed that he didn’t actually sing the ‘Amen’ song which was just so damned catchy but, even so, the guy was still really entertaining. To be honest, I’m not sure if he really deserved an Academy Award for his performance but there is no denying that his win was such milestone and it is really sad that, 60 years later, they are still talking about the lack of representation regarding the nominees and winners chosen by the Academy. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Even though I should have probably given up on Ridley Scott a couple of years ago, the guy keeps coming back with some projects which sound too intriguing to pass on and this movie was a perfect example. Well, even though the material definitely had some potential and even though there was a really cool cast involved (Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, Jack Huston, Salma Hayek), to be honest, I wasn’t really impressed by the damned thing after all. Eventually, I’m not sure what was the biggest issue between the directing and the writing. Concerning the directing, sure, the whole thing looked fine but it also felt terribly flat with no tension whatsoever. It seems that Scott didn’t really know how to tackle this material which was rather surprising coming from such a seasoned director. However, the writing was probably even less convincing though. Indeed, even though they had more than 150 mins at their disposal and had therefore plenty of time to properly develop Patrizia Reggiani and Maurizio Gucci, it was most of the time rather unclear what was actually going on with these characters. For example, at first, Reggiani was introduced as being only interested in Maurizio because of his last name and, yet, she seemed rather unfazed when he got kicked out of the Gucci family by his father. Furthermore, when she started to loose her grip on Maurizio, she was just way too passive and it is rather bewildering that her only move was to consult a psychic which didn’t seem really effective. With Maurizio Gucci, it was even more problematic though. Indeed, he was first introduced as a young gullible law student who was easily manipulated by some attractive gold-digger. However, he became somehow super ambitious, super business savvy and dropped his wife in the process which was quite a U turn from who he was at the start but this evolution was never explained or even actually displayed on the screen. Anyway, to conclude, like many other Ridley Scott features, the damned thing felt like another missed opportunity but I still think it is worth a look, if only to see Lady Gaga showing once again that she has some really solid acting chops.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though I saw years ago ‘Miss Potter’, the biopic starring Renée Zellweger, to be honest, I knew pretty much nothing about Peter Rabbit before watching this movie so I have to admit that I didn’t have much affinity with the material. Anyway, it seems that they took once again a beloved quaint children book and gave it a modern twist which is usually such a misguided approach. In this genre, the hybrid CGI animated/live action features, the only exception would be ‘Paddington’ which was a big critical and commercial success (I didn’t care much for it though). The other issue with this movie is that the full length feature format was not adequate for this material. Indeed, back in the 90’s, there was a TV-series which seems to have a really solid reputation, not only because the animation was really similar to the illustrations in the original books but also because the episodic nature of Peter Rabbit’s adventures was much more suited for this format. As a result, in this case, they had to stretch the story and the characters to make sure they reached at least 90 mins but everything that they added, such as some modern pop songs, was usually pretty lame. At least, there is no doubt that the CGI was quite impressive. The funny thing is that, while the critics didn’t care much for this movie above all because it did deviate so much from the source material, the damned thing was actually quite successful at the box-office (it even has a decent 6.6 rating on IMDb) and they came up with a sequel a few years later. Anyway, to conclude, even if this movie was rather harmless, I really had a hard time to connect with the damned thing and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To watch a M. Night Shyamalan movie is always a dicey bet but, probably because there was a pretty cool cast involved, I wanted to check this one out. With this director, especially nowadays, you can never be sure what you will get. Indeed, it could be a decent horror/thriller or it could turn out to be just so lame. In this case, this movie pretty much landed in between. Like many other Shyamalan features, there was a cloud of mystery around the whole thing which was fairly entertaining and the concept had some potential, even if it wasn’t as clever as Shyamalan thought it was. Unfortunately, there was just too little psychology involved and I think it was pretty obvious that the director had no idea how to handle the concept of having people living a whole lifetime within the span of a single day. Instead, you get one of them becoming homicidal with no real explanation, just to make sure that there was some random threat. Eventually, what saved Shyamalan this time was the fact that he had such a strong cast at his disposal (Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Ken Leung, Eliza Scanlen, Embeth Davidtz) and all of them managed to do quite a lot with the rather half-baked material that was given to them. And of course, as usual with this director, there was a supposedly ‘surprising’ twist but it is such a predictable trademark with this guy, it was hardly surprising at all and, on top of that, it was not really convincing or entertaining whatsoever. Anyway, to conclude, even if the end-result was rather half-baked, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what it was really about before watching this movie and I have to admit that I was actually expecting something like ’Good Will Hunting’ and that the story would be dealing with a child prodigy who was discovered by his kindergarten teacher. However, this movie turned out to be after all more about the teacher herself then about her student but I think this unexpected approach was quite intriguing. Indeed, even if this woman seemed to have it all together at the beginning of the movie, she slowly started to unravel when she discovered this genius kid. At first, she seemed to have the best intentions but, from the moment she started to recite his poems during her class without mentioning who actually wrote them, you could feel that something was off. However, the way this character was handled was really humane and she was more than a crazy psychopath obsessing about her student. Basically, the bottom line is that a kid should be first and foremost simply a kid, no matter if they are a movie star, a prodigy, just plain average or even really stupid and that’s something this woman apparently forgot at some point. This character also worked because Maggie Gyllenhaal delivered here another really solid performance and she basically carried the whole thing on her shoulders. It’s too bad we don’t hear much about her nowadays as she is actually a fine actress. Unfortunately, beside showing this woman acting weirder and weirder and more and more inappropriate, this movie didn’t have much else to offer than this intriguing character study and I’m afraid it wasn’t enough to really dazzle me. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was missing something to become really amazing, it was still a decent drama and it is worth a look, especially if you have a weak spot for Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Since I’m a huge fan of Paul Thomas Anderson’s work, I was really eager to see this movie. Unfortunately, pretty much like with ‘Phantom Thread’, ‘Inherent Vice’ and ‘The Master’, even though I admired the work done, to be honest, the damned thing never really grabbed me though. For some reasons, it did remind me of the last movie directed by Quentin Tarantino, ‘Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood’. Indeed, pretty much like Tarantino did, Anderson focused on a time and place which was really dear to him, the San Fernando Valley at the beginning of the 70’s. However, except for Anderson, did anyone else really care about this subject? Well, I didn’t, at least, not really. On top of that, there was something really awkward about this burgeoning romantic relationship between this 15 year old kid and a 25 year old woman. I mean, can you imagine if they would have switched around the genders? If a 25 year old dude was circling around a 15 year old girl? It would have been even more cringe-inducing. When I was around the same age, I have to admit that I was seriously fantasizing on my older sister’s friends so I could definitely identify with the main character but these girls were all 3 or 4 years older than me, not 10. There were also some details that bothered me. For example, what was the time line? How come Gary never had to go to school? How could a 15 year old teenager manage to open a shop selling water beds and later on some pinball palace? There was also the fact that the two main characters both looked really average and were hardly charismatic but I have to admit that it did make them really relatable. On top of that, there is no doubt that Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim, both with no acting experience, did deliver some really strong naturalistic performances. I think I will have to re-watch this movie in a few years to get a better grip on the damned thing but I doubt it will then blow me away. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work for me, it was still an intriguing watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Paul Thomas Anderson’s work.