Reviews by johanlefourbe

Following the truly dreadful ‘The 15:17 to Paris’, easily his weakest directing effort so far, Clint Eastwood didn’t waste time and released this movie the very same year. Since it had received some solid reviews, I was quite eager to check it out and see if the guy managed to redeem himself somehow. Well, eventually, even though it was indeed miles better than ‘The 15:17 to Paris’, it was only a decent watch though. I mean, it was a strong story but I was missing some tension, some suspense. For example, it was refreshing that the main character would get along fine with all these cartel gangsters but this approach did have its drawbacks. Indeed, not only it turned the whole thing unintentionally into a pro-drug trafficking commercial (seriously, if you would believe this movie, to be a drug mule is actually a pretty easy job, with some nice colleagues and lots of easy cash) but it also created a lack of a real threat through the whole thing. Same thing with the police investigation, it felt pretty generic and didn’t generate much excitement from my side. This movie eventually reminded me somehow of ‘A Perfect World’, another flick directed by Eastwood, also dealing with a criminal being chased by the police and the damned thing was just nail-biting but it was definitely not the case here. However, it was a great character for Eastwood who really nailed it and, as usual, you might wonder if it will be his last acting job. On top of that, you might wonder if there was something autobiographical about this story as Eastwood has fathered at least 8 children with 6 different women and probably neglected most of them while becoming one of the most famous actor and director that ever lived. Anyway, to conclude, even the whole thing was nothing really amazing, it was still fairly entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Clint Eastwood’s work. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was available on Netflix at some point, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, how much you will enjoy this flick will really depend on how much you will like its concept. Indeed, basically, pretty much like with ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, they went for some kind of meta concept around your typical slasher flicks but, even though the makers probably though it was really original and clever, to be honest, I wasn’t completely convinced. First of all, the beginning was rather awkward. I mean, somehow, they had to manage to get all these characters end up in this vintage slasher flick but the way to get there was rather cumbersome, I’m afraid. Above all, it was a rather awful idea to think that, a year after her mother died in a terrible car accident, the main character had to watch a movie during which her mother would be butchered by some random psychopath. On top of that, if the characters in the slasher flick were stereotypical and fairly moronic, it did make sense, but the modern characters were not really much better which was rather disappointing. The worst one was probably Nina Dobrev’s character who completely changed maybe 3 times through the whole duration. On the other hand, I really liked the relationship between the main character and her mother (in fact, I was expecting/hoping them to survive at the end, after all, the damned thing was called ‘The Final Girls’). Anyway, to conclude, even if I wasn’t completely sold, I have admit that it was still fairly entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since I enjoyed ‘The Conjuring’, I was quite eager to check this sequel. Well, to be honest, I have to admit that I was actually quite impressed by this flick. Indeed, horror sequels are notoriously bad but  this one was actually really good, in fact, I think I liked it even more than its predecessor. First of all, even if the whole thing was nothing really groundbreaking, it was actually quite spooky with some rather basic but very effective scary moments. Furthermore, the fact that the victims were some young children made the whole thing ever more thrightening. Finally, James Wan managed here to mix one of the most notorious ‘real’ case of paranormal activities with some good old fiction and I was amazed by how effective this mix was. One of the best assets of ‘The Conjuring’ was also the vintage look and feel and it was obviously back with this sequel  and even though Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga didn’t look anything like the Warrens, they were again so charismatic and they had again such a nice chemistry together. To be honest, I don’t think that the intro with the famous Amityville house was a good idea as it felt superfluous and the Enfield Haunting did provide plenty of material already. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, I really enjoyed the damned thing, it was easily the best horror flick I have seen in a very long time and it is definitely worth a look.