Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Catherine Zeta-Jones, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was actually surprised by how disappointing the damned thing actually turned out to be. It’s too bad because it really had some potential and it could have been some really neat female version of ‘Scarface’. Unfortunately, pretty much nothing worked in this movie, I’m afraid. Of course, you might wonder if casting a Welsh actress to play the most notorious female Colombian drug trafficker was a good idea but I think that Zeta-Jones was not so bad at all. In my opinion, she was the least problematic aspect of this movie. Above all, the whole thing was so poorly written. For example, the first scene (which was probably fictional) was actually pretty good but, then, they made this massive jump and Blanco was suddenly living in New York, married with 3 kids but what happened to her in the mean time? Instead, you get some lame voice-over from a random DEA agent, pretty much the most over-used gimmick in such drug related drama’s. Seriously, it felt as if the guy was reading the bullet points from her Wikipedia page. So, she was married 3 times, she had 4 boys, they sure managed to pass through all this information but all these characters and the relationship they had with Blanco were just barely developed whatsoever. Seriously, the whole thing was just so clunky but since it was a production from the Lifetime channel, I should have expected it though. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of some really strong material, it turned out to be just terribly disappointing and you should probably avoid the damned thing. 

To be honest, I have never been a fan of Formula 1 but since Michael Schumacher was such a legend, I was quite eager to check this new documentary on Netflix. Indeed, when I was growing up in the 90’s, Schumacher was the rising star in this sport facing such legends like Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna and he would then rule this sport for more than a decade. Well, it turned out that his career was actually quite fascinating, especially the first 9 years, until he started to win all these championships with Ferrari. Basically, he did pretty much the same thing Michael Jordan did with the Chicago Bulls, he turned a really moribund team into one of the greatest dynasties in the history of Formula 1. Of course, you could argue that they were not really critical but it is something rather expected with this genre and it didn’t really bother me. What was more bewildering was how they handled his tragic ski accident which occurred already 8 years ago. Indeed, back in 94, he did win his first championship but it was also the year during which Senna ended up in a coma and died after crashing during the San Marino Grand Prix. Eventually, almost 20 years later, after surviving countless Formula 1 races driving faster than 200 kph, Schumacher also ended up in a coma but not on the racetrack but while doing some seemingly safe skiing. However, even though the whole thing was constructed in a way that could make you believe that Schumacher did die just like his role-model Senna, he actually didn’t.  In fact, while they were shooting this documentary, interviewing his wife among other things, the guy was actually back home but you never get to see him (which was understandable) and you never get a clear idea about his current condition (which was strange). Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still an interesting documentary about a fascinating sports legend and it is definitely worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since it was starring Robert De Niro, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, even if it was maybe not the worst movie I have seen starring the legendary actor, it was still not far from it though. Basically, it was your typical cheap direct-to-DVD thriller, John Cusack’s speciality for about a decade, but you might wonder why De Niro would bother with this kind of movies at this stage in his career. Anyway, even if it wasn’t really a long movie, it still felt like it was lasting forever which is never a good sign. Concerning the cast, Robert De Niro was actually not bad but he basically showed up for only a few scenes. At least, De Niro seemed to have some fun but, on the other hand, Cusack seemed to be completely bored out of his mind and displayed the same conviction and commitment that you might expect from someone working at your local McDonald’s. Concerning Rebecca Da Costa, I have to admit that she was quite attractive and I can imagine that she hoped to get her big breakthrough by working with such big names. However, her character was constantly described and handled as a hooker and, while she did her best to convince the viewers that there was actually much more going on with this character, I was never convinced, or worse, I never really cared. Eventually, it’s basically the kind of movies which didn’t display a single original idea. Seriously, somehow, they even managed to squeeze in an ending directly lifted from ‘Seven’. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was really generic and terribly weak and there is no reason whatsoever why you should waste your time with it. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by [Link removed - login to see], I was quite eager to check it out. What made this movie even more interesting was the fact that, for the first time in his impressive career, Koreeda was working outside of Japan in another language than Japanese and, on top of that, he had a top cast at his disposal (Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Ludivine Sagnier). Unfortunately, even if it turned out to be a decent watch, it wasn’t much more than that, I'm afraid, and it is easily the least interesting movie I have seen so far from the Japanese master. First of all, the story was not bad but it wasn’t nothing really original and, to make things worse, there was just too much extra stuff going on. Just take Fabienne for example. Her ex-husband showed up suddenly for a single day but there was also her help/assistant who left after working for her for decades and also a guy cooking some Italian food and apparently also sleeping in her bed. Well, all these 3 men were just barely developed and you might wonder if it wouldn’t have worked better without them. In a similar fashion, Ethan Hawke was completely wasted playing some actor with some apparently alcoholic issues (another completely unnecessary and half-baked idea) who never gets involved because everyone speaks with French and he speaks only English. However, there is no denying that it was really cool to have Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, two titans of the French cinema, facing each other and they were both really at the top of their game. Seriously, they were both quite fascinating to behold and the damned thing could have been actually quite amazing if it would have been more focused on them by removing most of the other characters. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather half-baked, I still think it is worth a look, just to see Deneuve and Binoche working so well together. 

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, it was definitely a weird movie, that’s for sure. Indeed, there was no real introduction and it apparently took place in some unnamed South American country (probably Columbia). Eventually, the whole thing felt like entering some strange parallel sometimes even nightmarish world but, in fact, some similar events actually do take place somewhere in our world right now. Indeed, it might all seem crazy and unbelievable but it is actually closer to reality than you might think. For starters, the guy who played the drill sergeant became an actual FARC soldier when he was only 11 years old and he remained in the FARC for more than a decade. In a similar fashion, at the beginning of the 2000’s, Ingrid Betancourt, a politician running for the Colombian presidency, was kidnapped and was rescued more than 6 years later. Seriously, can you imagine what ‘Doctora’ in this movie was going through and imagine this ordeal going for a such long period of time? However, even though they sometime focused on the US hostage, they mostly focused on this group of teenagers and their completely weird way of life. You can only imagine how terrible and/or hopeless their life must have been before joining the ranks of the rebels because there must be some reason why they have been sent away to become children soldiers. However, you’ll be never sure how they did end up there, in fact, you don’t even get to know their real name as most of their personality has been stripped out by a completely dehumanizing system. Still, it seems rather unlikely that these young kids would be left alone with a hostage without any adult supervision. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was pretty weird but quite intriguing nonetheless and it is definitely worth a look.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Robert Rodriguez and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I knew next to nothing about Billie Eilish before watching this movie but it turned out to be a pretty neat way to get acquainted with this new emerging massive pop star. However, to be honest, even though she definitely can sing and has a nice voice, you have to really dig her way of whispering her songs though and I think it is definitely an acquired taste. I was also intrigued by her rather unflattering outfit (it was really something else than Beyoncé who had a dozen of sexy outfits in ‘Homecoming’) but, apparently, it is on purpose, among other things, to avoid being sexualized which is actually recommendable. Indeed, most of the young female pop singers always focus on giving a sexy image so she should be actually praised for this choice. Concerning the rest of the movie, well, it turned out to be typical a ‘lockdown’ concert with no audience involved but even though the venue (the Hollywood Bowl) was impressive, the presentation was still pretty dry though. Concerning the animated character, she actually looked really neat (I’m not so sure about the fact that she wore a rather skimpy outfit and looked actually thinner than Eilish though) but, except for roaming around in her car to some, I suppose, famous LA landmarks, she didn’t do anything interesting whatsoever so she seemed to be a rather missed opportunity after all. Anyway, to conclude, it was a decent watch and a nice way to discover this artist but I think this concert movie will be enjoyable above all for the die-hard fans of Billie Eilish’s work.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since the TV-show was not bad and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, even though the title was pretty neat, there was actually no wolf involved in this tale or did I miss something? Maybe it was because the wolf is the symbol of the Witchers? Anyway, I have to admit that I was quite surprised by how violent the opening scene turned out to be, seriously, it was much more violent than anything displayed in the TV-show, but I guess it had been a while since I saw an anime and it is probably something rather usual in this genre. Eventually, the tone really worked and it was pretty neat to get to know Vesemir, Geralt of Rivia’s mentor. Just like Geralt, Vesemir turned out to be pretty cool but, even though they were similar, they still gave Vesemir enough charisma and personality to stand on his own. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure about the back-and-forth in time though. I mean, both storylines were decent enough but I wonder if it wouldn’t have better worked if they simply told the story chronologically starting from when Vesemir was living in this farm. Indeed, the jumps in time were jarring and narratively rather awkward. Still, the characters were rather well developed and I did appreciate the fact that the story was more complex than it might seem at first. Indeed, the Witchers turned out to be anything but flawless and Tetra was not simply your typical evil witch, there was actually some merits behind her accusations. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like this world. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Mary Elizabeth Winstead and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, this movie definitely had some potential. Indeed, the action scenes were very well done and quite entertaining, I really loved the Japanese setting and, above all, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was really convincing and completely badass. And, yet, I still struggled to care about the damned thing after all. The issue was that the story was just so generic and predictable. Basically, Winstead ended up playing some kind of female version of John Wick which probably sounds cooler than it actually was. To start with, sure, ’John Wick’ was decent action flick but I also think that it is also rather overrated. Basically, I don’t think that watching a seemingly invincible assassin killing in the most badass way possible an endless army of thugs is really so much fun. In this case, they added the fact that the main character was also slowly dying which seemed intriguing at first but this idea did backfire after all. Indeed, the movie then constantly switched between scenes during which the main character was barely able to walk and scenes during which she would kick some major asses as if nothing was wrong with her anymore. I won’t blame Winstead, in both modes, she was actually always quite compelling but you basically can’t have a character dying and giving some martial-arts masterclass at the same time, that’s just some very sloppy writing. Concerning her side-kick, once again, the character had some potential but they really pushed her sassy side and I think it is rather doubtful that a Japanese teenager would have such a flawless control of the English language. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch but I’m pretty sure I will completely forget about it within a couple of days. 

To be honest, after watching ‘Das Experiment’ and the US remake ‘The Experiment’, I wasn’t exactly dying to see a 3^rd movie about this story but, somehow, I still ended up watching this movie. Well, I have to admit that it is still such a fascinating tale and the fact that they took a different approach than the previous movies still made the damned thing really interesting to behold. Indeed, while watching this flick, I was wondering what was made up this time around but, apparently, nearly all the dialogues between the ‘guards’ and the ‘prisoners’ during the experiment were actually taken directly from the actual footage of the real-life experiment. Another intriguing thing was that, except for one event during which a guard did hit a prisoner with his baton, there was in fact very little physical violence involved after all. However, the psychological violence was again immense making the whole thing at the same time quite fascinating but also really nauseating to behold. However, while ‘Das Experiment’ focused mostly on how much power can corrupt people, this movie focused more on how much completely misguided this whole experiment turned out to be. Seriously, the damned thing had actually very little scientific value and it had after all not much to do with replicating the relationship between guards and prisoners in an actual jail. In my opinion, it became more a study on how much people can take if you basically torture them relentlessly hours on end. Of course, you could argue that prisons can be terribly dehumanizing but it is actually a tragic side-effect of these establishments and it was never their actual purpose. Furthermore, this whole experiment had some really shaky rules which were basically shattered pretty much right from the beginning. Finally, it was rather bewildering how Dr. Philip Zimbardo seemed to be considered as some bona fide psychologist when he got completely sucked in his own experiment. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie might seem rather unnecessary since ‘Das Experiment’ was already a masterpiece, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested by this subject. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, the damned thing was just so damned long, I think it was the longest movie ever made by Adam Sandler. Seriously, if there is no valid reason why some brainless action flicks like ‘Transformers’ or ‘Fast and Furious 23’ should last more than 2 hours, well, this rule should definitely apply also for all the moronic comedies starring Sandler. Still, I have to admit that it turned out to be slightly better than ‘The Do-Over’ but it wasn’t such a difficult goal to achieve. Indeed, the concept was not bad and it was not completely random. Still, even though they tried to sell the idea that the main character was a hilarious new creation, in fact, Sandler played his usual moronic cringe-inducing guy, basically, a talentless hack who was never funny whatsoever. However, only half of the movie was about his ‘exploits’ as a manager and the other half was about some really unlikely love story with one of his talents. Unfortunately, this romance was never convincing whatsoever and, eventually, the movie was never really about this manager believing in the talents of his protégé but, actually, it was the other way around which was just rather weird. Anyway, it was rather sad to see a lovely girl played by the gorgeous and talented Jennifer Hudson falling in love with this obnoxious man for really no reason whatsoever but, apparently, it is another rule that, in every Sandler movie, he has to get the nicest girls around even if his characters are borderline awful. To conclude, even if I have seen worse from Sandler, the damned thing was still really weak and I don’t think it is worth a look whatsoever.