Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I was at first rather annoyed that the only available version available on YouTube was colorized. However, I have to admit that, as soon as they got to Antarctica, the damned thing looked amazing with these vast white landscapes against this bright blue sky. I also expected these explorers to go straight to the South Pole but it was interesting that they first settled for a while in Antarctica when they arrived. Seriously, I forgot how long they stayed there but they definitely spent many months out there before finally starting their final journey to the South Pole. This way, it allowed Herbert Ponting to shoot so many interesting scenes displaying some incredible landscapes and some of the fauna that you can find in this remote region. While watching the damned thing, I actually forgot that it was the very first time that anyone shot this kind of images in this particular place which makes this movie historically incredibly valuable. Anyway, at last, during the final act, they did really go to the South Pole and the whole team who went there, well, they all died actually. Not only it was surprising because it was definitely a tragic outcome for an otherwise rather cheerful expedition but it was shot in a way that you (at least, I did) believed that Ponting also came along but it wasn’t the case so how did they come up with this footage? Eventually, it seems that a lot of it was staged, just like with ‘Nanook of the North, another documentary dealing with the Artic also released in the 20’s. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely blow me away, it was still a very interesting watch and it is definitely 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 Gerard Butler, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I have to admit that the damned thing was not bad after all. Sure, it is obvious that it was vastly inspired by ‘Heat’ (they even ended with a similar big shoot-out) but they could have used worst inspirations and it turned out to be a decent copycat after all. Indeed, the action and heist scenes were pretty good but, above all, both crews, cops and robbers, were really charismatic and, pretty much like with ‘Heat’, you were never know for which group you should root which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, even though it seemed that they already took care of the heavy lifting, I’m afraid they still messed up some other things. It didn’t mind the rather long running time, in the contrary, but there were plenty of rather useless scenes though. Some scenes like the one with 50 Cent’s having his daughter going to the Prom was a good example but, at least, it was harmless. On the other hand, it was a big mistake to include a couple of scenes involving Gerard Butler’s character struggling with his family situation. Indeed, they should have gone more in the direction of ‘Training Day’ showing that this team of ‘super’ cops was not badass but also simply bad and maybe even worse that this team of ‘super’ robbers. They also added a ‘Usual Suspects’ twist ending but it had actually very little added value and it was basically another rather pathetic attempt to make this movie look smarter than it actually was. And yet, in spite of its flaws, it turned out to be a decent action flick and I think 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 seemed to have a decent reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list among other things), I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, it’s too bad I saw this movie on YouTube without subtitles and I have to admit that I did struggle with the dialogues. Anyway, eventually, like the other movies [Link removed - login to see] would make in the 70’s, I have to admit that it was slightly too cryptic for my taste but, with his directorial debut, even if it was often pretty weird, it was always intriguing though. It was basically some kind of full frontal collision involving the dark seedy London gangster world and the dark seedy London bohemian world. I have to admit that, since Mick Jagger was displayed prominently on all the promotional material, I didn’t expect him to show up only during the 2^nd half. On top of that, his character was not really far from who he probably was at the time so you could hardly call it ‘acting’. On the other hand, there is no denying that the Rolling Stone singer was definitely charismatic and it’s too bad that he would only make a handful movies afterwards. In fact, I was above all quite impressed by James Fox who was really convincing in this role. However, I found out that the experience might have been quite traumatic for Fox since he then stopped acting for almost 10 years afterwards. Anyway, was it really clear what Roeg tried to achieve here? Not really but the end-result was still interesting and I think it is is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Nicolas Roeg’s work or if you want to see something slightly more experimental than usual.

To be honest, I wonder why I actually watched this movie. Indeed, I had this movie for almost a year in my queue and, seriously, through the whole duration, I kept wondering why I didn’t get rid off the damned thing at some point. I guess I was curious to see Shay Mitchell in her first leading role (she actually made only 4 movies including this one though). Anyway, the damned thing was pretty weak even if I have to admit that the concept did have some potential though. Indeed, there is something really creepy about morgues, especially at night. Unfortunately, they didn’t do anything interesting with this concept. Right from the start, the intro delivered your basic exorcism scene and not only it was rather tedious, on top of that, it basically spoiled most of the movie right from the start. At least, it was fun and surprising to see a Dutch actor, Gijs Scholten van Aschat, playing one of the priests, but it probably had to do with the fact that the director, Diederik Van Rooijen, is a Dutch guy himself. Concerning Shay Mitchell, sure, she looked lovely and she did what she could with this material but, to be honest, she wasn’t really convincing. In this kind of movie, instead of actually developing the characters, they spent much more effort on making sure that the leading lady has a casual look while still being really attractive which is always rather annoying. A bigger issue with this character was the fact that it didn’t make sense that someone obviously fragile mentally would be given such a mentally stressful job. Anyway, to conclude, the more I think about it, the more I believe that my rating was actually rather generous for this movie, I really struggled to care about the damned thing and you should probably avoid it.   

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, even though Maurice Chevalier was quite famous in the 30’s, it was actually the first time I saw a movie starring this guy. However, from the moment he started to speak, I remembered right away that he was the guy who actually sang the title song for ‘The AristoCats’. The funny thing is that I would usually never care for a character speaking English with such a heavy French accent, it is such a tiresome and annoying gimmick, the fact that I barely can stand it probably has to do with the fact that I’m French myself. However, with Chevalier, I have to admit that it actually worked so well. Indeed, this way of speaking of English was pretty much his trademark and the guy was just really charismatic. It is only afterwards that I discovered that Chevalier spent most of his career as a singer, which might explain why I didn’t see him before in another movie and, indeed, the songs here were not bad at all. Concerning the rest of the cast, they were quite entertaining as well and Chevalier definitely had some nice chemistry with Jeanette MacDonald (Myrna Loy was probably even more intriguing though). Concerning the story itself, sure, it was really feather-light and I have to admit that it is usually not my thing but I thought it was this time actually quite entertaining. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, 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 it was directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, once again, Koreeda has displayed here that he is one of the greatest humanist directors at work nowadays. Indeed, a lot of work has been done on the main character Shinoda Ryôta and the end-result was such a fine calibrated character. Sure, the guy seemed to be a deadbeat loser and he actually was. As a result, you might have a hard time to care about such a degenerate gambling addict obsessing about his ex-wife. I certainly did and, at some point, I was ready to give up on him. I’m not sure what bothered me the most, his gambling addiction or how he was stalking his ex-wife of how he neglected his son basically his whole life and, yet, time and time again, Koreeda would throw a scene or even a slight detail which would revive my interest in this rather hopeless character. Basically, the guy had some potential but he threw it away probably very early on but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t care for him. You might wish that he did manage to develop the other characters in a similar fashion but it was obviously not possible with such a running time, you would then need to develop this story at least as a mini-series. Still, the other characters were quite interesting, so well made and complex, especially the grand-mother. Coming back on the main character, it was also a master-move not to show what he did with this precious ink holder at the end and, eventually, you can make up your own mind. If you are optimistic, you can imagine that he will finally do the right thing. If you are pessimistic, you probably think that he will waste it with some more useless gambling. Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be a strong realistic drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Hirokazu Koreeda’s work. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since this movie seemed to have a strong reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. I had heard of René Clair before but it was the first movie I saw directed by this guy. Well, I have to admit that I was so impressed by the damned thing. I have noticed that this movie has been heralded as a great satirical comedy but, in my opinion, it is also a fascinating political manifesto displaying so many Anarchist concepts and ideas. Indeed, it was against so many things such as Capitalism, discipline, hierarchy, working, productivity, money, wealth,… pretty much following the Anarchist dogma which was so neat. What was even more brilliant was that the fact it was tackled in such a light manner with some cute little songs along the way. These songs didn’t bother me at all, in the contrary, which was even more remarkable since I’m far from being a huge fan of musicals. Finally, even though it might all seem frivolous and superficial, I thought it was narratively actually quite strong. For example, at some point, Emile became head over heels in love with some random girl he met. Well, in most movies, at the end, he would get the girl but, here, she actually rebuffed him. It was really unexpected but it completely made sense because , well, she didn’t know him at all and it was so striking because it went against the most basic narrative conventions. Finally, at the end, the two main characters had basically nothing, no money, no job, no women, no possessions whatsoever,… They only had each other and, yet, they had both never been happier which was just so awesome and inspiring. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

P.S: I forgot to mention that this movie was obviously a huge inspiration for Charles Chaplin when he made 'Modern Times', another massive classic. It didn't bother René Clair at all since he was a huge fan of Chaplin's work which makes this guy and this movie even more awesome than they already were.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Marlon Brando, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I’m rather surprised that this movie was at the time nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. It’s not that the story didn’t have some potential. Back in those days, more than 10.000 US soldiers did indeed married a Japanese woman but it was something more or less prohibited or at least discouraged by the US army which was quite intriguing. Unfortunately, they actually messed up the tone. Indeed, even if it should have been a tragic romantic drama, it was fairly often rather frivolous. Even more problematic was how they portrayed the Japanese people though. First, you had the fact that the only Japanese male character was played by Ricardo Montalban, the famous Mexican actor. At least, the Japanese female characters were played by some actual Japanese actresses but what the makers did with these women was rather appalling. Indeed, it turned the whole thing into some kind of male fantasy in which the Japanese women were reduced to some obedient submissive servant with no personality whatsoever. At least, Lloyd  Gruver could have seduced Hana-Ogi but, instead, he kept stalking her and after a single conversation, she was just head over heels in love with him for no real reason. At least, I did like the (probably unintentional) parallel between this movie and Brando’s own career. Indeed, from the 60’s onwards, he constantly defied expectations, making some rather bewildering choices, instead of doing what was expected of him, even if he basically torpedoed his career in the process. Anyway, to conclude, I think this movie didn’t grow old well at all and you should probably avoid it, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of Marlon Brando.

A couple of days ago, I saw ‘Ivan Groznyy’ so I was quite eager to see this sequel especially since it also had such a stellar reputation. Even though it was shot just after the 1^st installment, this movie was eventually released more than 10 years later because Stalin apparently hated the damned thing. It would be released only after his death (by then Sergei Eisenstein had long passed away as well). Basically, even though Stalin was positive about Eisenstein’s first movie, he didn’t care for this sequel because its portrayal of Ivan was too negative but, to be honest, I didn’t see much difference with the previous movie. In fact, I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed by the damned thing. It’s not that it was bad though, not at all. Indeed, once again, it was visually quite impressive and Ivan was once again a really interesting character. However, I was expecting more evolution from happened in the previous movie, above all, I thought that Ivan would evolve but, as far as I was concerned, it was all pretty much the same. Indeed, the Tsar had to face the Boyars who were once again complaining about him and plotting to get rid of him but, just like in the previous movie, nothing much happened after all. On the other hand, I have to admit that I really enjoyed how Ivan completely flipped around the plot to assassinate him. It was also really neat to see Eisenstein experimenting with color and one can only imagine what he could have done if he didn’t die fairly young and if he wouldn’t have been crippled by the Soviet regime for most of his career. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it is still a classic and pretty much a must-see for any decent movie buff.