Reviews by johanlefourbe

I had no idea 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, I’m not surprised that this movie was released in the US three years after it was actually completed. Seriously, even if it might not be Renée Zellweger’s worst movie, it wasn’t far from it, I’m afraid. Back then, her career was not going so good and she would even take a 6 years hiatus soon after this movie was released. She would eventually come back with a completely different face (but that’s a different story…). Coming back to the movie itself, well, it was pretty obvious during the first minutes that there was something fishy about this kid. To be honest, I never really cared about the horror genre dealing with evil kids but this one was even harder to swallow than usual. Indeed, it really rubbed me in the wrong way that someone working for social services would suddenly be convinced that the little girl she was taking care of was apparently some kind of demon. Seriously, the whole concept felt really misguided or, at least, terribly distasteful. Basically, the conclusion of this movie was that her parents were actually right to put her into an oven, she apparently deserved it but I’m not sure if this is really how we should judge foster children and the parents who might have mistreated them. At least, the death scene involving Bradley Cooper (before he got his breakthrough with ‘The Hangover’) was pretty creepy but that’s probably the only scene that actually worked for me. Sure, you might argue that, since it is a horror movie, I shouldn’t take it too seriously but there was something rather unsettling, and not in a positive way, to see all these grown-ups suddenly trying to kill a foster kid. Anyway, to conclude, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing and I don’t think it is really worth a look.            

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since it did receive some decent reviews and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. I did watch the TV-show when I was a kid but, to be honest, it was definitely not one of my favorites so, as far as I was concerned, this reboot did seem at first to be a rather misguided idea. Well, eventually, in spite of my low expectations, I have to admit it that they actually made the most of it. Indeed, it was pretty obvious that their biggest inspiration was ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ but it was a neat way to approach this material. As a result, they gave us something really meta and it was actually quite difficult to keep track of all the famous characters displayed and mentioned during this movie. For example, I was constantly wondering who the hell this polar bear was supposed to be but, apparently, it was based on a popular series of Coca-Cola commercials involving such bears which shows how deep (and random) they went. Obviously, the most surprising and entertaining one was hands-down Ugly Sonic. Indeed, it was pretty awesome that they dared adding such a completely weird character and give him so much screen time. However, you wonder how long it will take before people will watch this movie and will have no clue about where this character was actually coming from in the first place. Eventually, I’m not sure who was the audience for this movie. I mean, the original material was clearly aiming for young children but I’m pretty sure they won’t get most of the pop culture references in this movie. Anyway, I did like this approach and the only thing that did bother me was eventually the story. Indeed, it was too convoluted and still too generic at the same time which is too bad because the rest of the movie was fine. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I actually didn’t know this movie had been a huge flop when it was released but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I have to admit that the beginning was actually not bad at all. Sure, it was really derivative, it mostly reminded me of the vastly superior ‘Ex Machina’, but I was fairly intrigued, at least, up until the psychological evaluation with Paul Giamatti’s character. In fact, even this scene was fine but only to a certain point. Indeed, this psychologist was dealing with a possibly aggressive AI and, yet, he kept pushing her buttons while there was no security at all. I mean, in the previous incident, she did attack Kathy Grieff for less than that so this scene was pretty much ruined by the really reckless and rather unprofessional approach of this so-called expert. To make things worse, from this point on, the damned thing basically went on auto-pilot and focused on some underwhelming action scenes until the very end. Obviously, it was a rather weak approach for this material and, to make things worse, it was just bewildering that everyone involved (except for the cook/nutritionist) would actually defend Morgan. I mean, it was an interesting concept, the idea that, to develop an AI pretty much like a human being, the people around him/her/it should try to be as friendly as possible. However, at this point, she had violently assaulted one of them and even killed someone else so it was rather ridiculous that ALL of them would go on full mutiny to protect her. There was also a twist at the end (that Kate Mara’s character was also some AI) but it was actually really predictable and they didn’t do anything interesting with this. Anyway, to conclude, I think I might have been generous with my rating here but I guess it might still be worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since it was starring Lieke van Lexmond, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be one of these typical Dutch romantic-comedies involving a dozen of couples and, even though it seems that my wife has a weak spot for the genre, I think these movies are just lazy and tedious to watch. Sure, it was fair game that they would release a knock-off of ‘Love Actually’ and, back then, ‘Alles is liefde’ was a huge success but it was already 15 years ago and I wish they would finally do something else with the rom-com genre. In this case, it was even worse since Johan Nijenhuis is probably one of the most underwhelming directors in the Dutch movie business. I mean, why would you call your movie ‘Skirt Day’ if this movie would have nothing to do with skirts in general or this day in specific? They could have just called it ‘Tapas Date’, at least, it would have made more sense. Concerning the little stories involved in this movie, even though 5 women were displayed on the poster, there were about a dozens of couples involved so you might wonder why they didn’t include more of them on the marketing material. Anyway, I have to admit that some of these romantic tales were actually not bad but there were just so many of them, as a result, none was probably developed whatsoever. Eventually, the story involving Lieke van Lexmond was the one which got the most attention but it was definitely not the best of the bunch. First of all, it was rather ridiculous that, during the opening scene, they tried to make us believe that van Lexmond, easily of the most beautiful Dutch women, would have any trouble to find a man. Then, couldn’t they find someone more charismatic to play the love of her life? Finally, it was never properly explained why on Earth her best friend would try to get the very same guy at all costs when she could have had any other guy who would have been much more suitable for her. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was harmless, it was still really weak and I don’t think it is worth a look. 

The funny thing with this franchise was that both Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards would claim after each installment that they were done but, at this point, it was so successful that kept making those and Edwards would keep on making more of them even after Sellers passed away. At the time, Peter Sellers’s mental and physical state was so bad, it made the production of this movie apparently extremely chaotic but that’s not something you would really notice when you watch this movie. Concerning the movie itself, well, to be honest, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing. The first really weird thing was that, even though Chief Inspector Dreyfus threatened the whole world and even disappeared/died in ‘The Pink Panther Strikes Again’, he was still released (once again) from a psychiatric hospital as if the events in the previous movie never took place. I mean, I can imagine that the comedic interaction between Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom had always been a favorite among the fans but this approach was just so lazy. To make things worse, this time, it was the French mob who wanted to kill Clouseau which was just way too similar to what happened in the previous movie. At least, Dyan Cannon was a really lovely lady and they did give her more to do than the other female characters involved in this franchise. However, how she got entangled in this whole affair was just way too random. Even worse was this character Claude Russo. Maybe I missed something (I doubt it though) but the guy showed up completely out of nowhere and was killed within a few mins. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here but I guess it might be still worth a look, at least, if you really like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list, I was really eager to check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I had a rather hard time to get into this movie. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was very late when I watched it so I might re-watch it at some point. Well, even though Carl Theodor Dreyer himself was Danish, this movie really felt like it belonged to the German expressionism. It was also pretty obvious that it was produced at the end of the silent movies era as there were very few sounds and dialogues and most of the story was told through some (rather massive) cards with caption and some whole pages of a book dealing with vampires. I don’t know, maybe the damned thing was too random for my taste but there is no doubt that the atmosphere was grim and quite mesmerizing at the same time. Indeed, it’s rather difficult to imagine a vampire movie nowadays without either a rather heavy script or some huge action scenes. This one was actually much more straightforward and, when you think about it, really simple and, yet, its stripped-down aspect was really intriguing. Concerning the actors, they were apparently almost all non-professionals but even though they all had a striking look, I had a rather hard time to connect with any of them. It probably had to do with the fact that most of what we learned about them was through some title cards and not through the dialogues or their performances. Anyway, to conclude, even if I wasn’t completely sold, it was still a solid 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 I have a weak spot for Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I thought the damned thing was not bad at all. Indeed, I really liked the realistic approach they chose regarding the Bonnie and Clyde myth. For example, instead of glamorizing them, you never see them in close-up and usually even from afar which gave them such an ominous aura which was such a refreshing approach. Indeed, there is always a tendency to glamorize the famous crime couple (as displayed in this movie, they were apparently even some huge stars at the time) but, here, they felt more like some coldblooded psychopaths which was probably more accurate. It was also quite interesting to focus on the two ex-Texas Rangers who tracked them down and eventually killed them. On top of that Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson were some perfect choices to play these characters and they both gave some solid performances. There was also the intriguing fact that, even though Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow did kill about a dozen of people, Frank Hamer and Maney Gault apparently did kill many more during their respective careers. Eventually, it was probably the biggest issue, the fact that even though the material was pretty dark, the whole thing should have been even darker and while John Lee Hancock is definitely not the worst director in the world, I wonder what a stronger director could have done with this material. It’s too bad because with such an extensive running time and only 2 major characters, there was plenty of room to go deeper in this direction. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not really ground-breaking, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.