Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it’s always tricky to come up with a sequel 30 years later, in fact, it is often a rather misguided idea. Anyway, in this case, to be honest, I really struggled to care about the damned thing. The first thing that really bothered me was the whole concept that Missy had first married Bill’s father, Ted’s father, and, for this movie, she was then marrying Ted’s brother?!? Sure, it was supposed to be funny but I thought it was actually seriously cringe-inducing. At least, it was a decent idea to send them to the future (but didn’t they already do it in the 2^nd installment? I seriously can’t remember it though…) but it’s too bad this future looked so lame and cheap. At least, I should praise Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter to be still completely committed to these characters after all these years but, as far as I'm concerned, moronic characters are almost never entertaining or funny. I have to admit that it has been years since I saw the previous movies and, while watching this new instalment, I was wondering how I could have ever enjoyed ‘Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure’ in the first place. I guess I should re-watch this 80’s cult-classic to see if it was indeed much better than anything else that came afterwards in this franchise. By the way, the idea of including their daughters also had some potential but they should have included them from the start and have them time-travelling with their dads, it would have been more entertaining and an interesting departure from the previous movies. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was harmless, I thought it was actually rather boring and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except if you are a die-hard fan of these characters. 

To be honest, 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, I have to admit that I had no idea what this movie was about before watching it and, at first, it did seem to be intriguing. Indeed, the title was mysterious, there was a cool soundtrack and the setup definitely had some potential. Unfortunately, these positive vibes didn’t last very long and even though it all looked very fancy, it turned out to be really empty after all. For starters , they basically repeated some supposedly revolutionary experiments which were very never really convincing. For example, they gave some drugs that made them having some crazy sex with whoever was in front of them and after that, they wondered why they didn’t feel the same way after the effects of the drugs was gone which was fairly stupid. Indeed, falling in love or even feeling attracted to someone doesn’t only involve some chemical reaction. By the way, it seemed rather unconvincing that Abnesti would run this whole thing with only one assistant. Eventually, it was probably the biggest issue, the fact that nothing was developed, neither the characters involved or the concept itself. I mean, sure, Chris Hemsworth did seem to have some fun with his character but who was this guy after all? The only bit of information you get is that he’d been dumped by his father when he was a kid but removing this bit of information might have made him actually more mysterious. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here, there are not many things which are more frustrating than a rather stupid Netflix movie which tries to be smart but I guess you might still check it out though. 

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Ashley Judd and Zoey Deutch, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be basically the same concept as in ‘Booksmart’ but it wasn’t a bad thing, in the contrary. Indeed, there is one thing that did bother me with ‘Booksmart’, which was a critical success when it was released while this movie barely got noticed, was the fact it took so damned long for these girls to finally get to a wild party. Here, they didn’t make the same mistake and, right from the beginning, this gang really got some fun which was a much better approach. Unfortunately, I’m afraid the damned thing still didn’t really work though. The first issue was that, even though it wa great idea that a girl was included in this group, Zoey Deutch was unfortunately completely miscast. Indeed, there is no way that such a cute, even gorgeous, girl would have never been noticed by her best friends but also any other guy at school or in her neighborhood. Another problem was that, instead of giving each one in this group some time and attention to discover themselves during this last summer, they focused mostly on Andy who got involved in such really far-fetched subplots. Sure, it was fine that he had sex with Ashley Judd’s character, why not? But having sex with every single member of his tennis club as a gigolo was rather moronic. It wasn’t the only thing, he also managed to get his superhot girlfriend coming from India which was another weird and underwhelming subplot. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, this group of friends did feel genuine so it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Even though it does have a decent reputation, I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of the ‘Insidious’ franchise but, since this 3^rd chapter was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the fact that I didn’t remember at all the previous installments didn’t matter much since it turned out to be a prequel which, by the way, has become apparently one of the most popular gimmicks in the horror genre. In this case, it allowed them to bring back Elise who died in Chapter 2 (I think?) which probably did please the fans. Anyway, I have to admit that it was not bad but, like the rest of this franchise, I will probably forget most of it within a couple of days. Coming back on Elise, it was fairly annoying that she kept saying that she wouldn’t use her psychic powers all along when these powers were the only reason why she was included in this story. Such an annoying approach… It’s like all these action flicks with some martial-arts master who refuses to fight. It was also rather weird that the main victim was basically crippled as it clearly limited their option narratively speaking. I mean, I have to admit that the fact that she couldn’t run away made her situation even more precarious and eve more spooky but how many scenes can you give with her being scared sh*tless in her bed? Finally, what was the deal with this demon with his breathing mask? Can demons get lung cancer? One explanation would be that Elise was actually mistaken, that it was a ghost after all and not a demon. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of it flaws, I have to admit that it was actually watchable after all and it is worth a look, at least, if you really like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have weak spot for Alyssa Milano and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, pretty much nothing worked with this movie, I’m afraid. Indeed, right from the start, they gave us the most unconvincing webcam show you could imagine. Sure, I have to admit that I have never seen a real webcam show but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t look anything like what was displayed in this movie. Anyway, the writing was just so damned lazy. I mean, a top homicide detective was living next door of the first victim and he was actually going on a date with the sister’s victim the very same evening she was killed without mentioning the fact that, somehow, Grace was also visiting her sister apparently just at the right moment. Basically, it was all too convenient. I mean, there were so many ways they could have spiced up this setup. For example, they could have removed the sibling connection between this writer and the victim and they could have moved the romantic relationship involving this writer and the detective way later in the timeline. Then, they could have said that this famous mystery novelist could have heard in the news about this webcam girl who was murdered and that this writer would somehow become obsessed with this murder, entering this dark and sleazy webcam world, and interfering with the police investigating the case. Instead, she actually got the greenlight from the police chief to actually be directly involved in this investigation which was just ridiculous. One of her great contributions was to replace her sister as a webcam girl, a idea actually supported by the police chief, as some kind of bait for the killer but the best part was that, without it, they would still have found out who was actually the killer. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was really weak and you should probably avoid it. 

As always with Adam Sandler, I had some rather low expectations with this movie but since it did receive some decent reviews and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I thought it was rather difficult to judge this movie. I mean, I have to admit it, back when I was a kid, even if I was (and still am) mighty short, basketball was hands down my favorite sport so it was really cool to have a movie trying to give a fairly believable picture on what happens backstage with the agents and the scouts looking for the next rough diamond. On top of that, for a Sandler vehicle, especially a Happy Madison production, I have to admit that it was miles better than what Sandler has given us, in fact, it was probably the best movie he ever made without a strong director involved like Paul Thomas Anderson, Noah Baumbach or the Safdie brothers. And, yet, I was still bothered by the fact that the damned thing was just really generic and predictable. Sure, it was quite entertaining and Sandler definitely deliver a solid performance but it was nothing I hadn’t seen so many times before. Ben Foster, probably one of the best character actors at work nowadays, was also completely wasted playing such a one dimensional bad guy. I also wonder if it was really necessary to have this great prospect playing three games to finally being discover. I mean, it did make sense that it didn’t work out the first time around but, by the second game, it should have been a done deal already. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe nothing really groundbreaking, it was still an entertaining feelgood picture and it is worth a look, especially if you are curious to see an Adam Sandler picture which is not completely lame.