Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by D.W. Griffith and since it is included in the ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?’ list, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, after watching so many vintage features on YouTube of dubious qualities which were barely watchable, it was pretty neat to see a movie which was made more than 100 years ago and, yet, it was still in pristine quality. The soundtrack was also pretty good. Unfortunately, it’s too bad I didn’t care much for the movie itself though. Indeed, the tagline for this movie was ‘The Story of a Plain Girl’ and, even if it was indeed a fair description, I’m afraid it didn’t make this movie sound really exciting. Even though D.W. Griffith became famous at the time with his ambitious epic features in the 1910’s, this movie turned out to be a much more minimalistic affair focusing on a love affair involving Susie, who wasn’t the brightest of the bunch (it was even confirmed by this tagline) and William who was wasn’t much smarter either, I’m afraid. Concerning Lillian Gish, she made many movies with Griffith and was one of the most famous actresses at the time but,  even though she did look lovely, she didn’t really impress me here. At least, Robert Harron was slightly better as he was pretty convincing playing the same character when he was a teenager and when he was a young adult. Still, it was rather difficult to care about these characters and what they were going through since they were both hardly interesting. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn't really work for me, I still think it is worth a look, at least, if you really like the genre or if you are interested in D.W. Griffith’s work.

I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but, since there was decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Seriously, even before I actually started to watch the damned thing, the story did sound so derivative and hardly entertaining. To be honest, you might wonder how they managed to get such a solid cast involved (Toni Collette, Anna Faris, David Duchovny, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kathleen Turner, Ron Livingston). I do think that they all tried to make it work and I have to admit that there were some moments when they almost pulled it off. But, unfortunately, only ‘almost’…. Indeed, even though their whole plan was rather mean and obviously unethical, I don’t think the characters were really unlikable, with the exception of David Duchovny’s character though. Sure, Kathleen Turner played your typical grumpy old lady, and she did it with gusto, but her character was just one-note and she had no personality whatsoever. In fact, it’s just weird that, even though she was dying, even though she was high on morphine for most of the time, she seemed to be sharp enough to see what the hell was going on but yet she said nothing about it. Anyway, even if I didn’t hate these characters, it doesn’t mean that they were really interesting or entertaining at all though. Concerning the ending, at least, it was nice that Aunt Hilda’s final words were ‘You are all bastards’ or something like that but everything else happening afterwards (including the two twists) was just predictable, it was borderline pathetic. Eventually, when it is so difficult nowadays to get the greenlight for a mid-budget feature, you might wonder why something so hopeless from the start like this managed to get made at all. Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be pretty weak and, even if I have seen worse, you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since it did win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, since it had a strong reputation, I was actually expecting more from the damned thing which turned out to be 2 movies into 1. Indeed, on one hand, they focused on Nan Goldin’s life and career and, on the other hand, her recent battle with the Sackler family who was behind the opioid crisis in the US but, to be honest, I’m not sure if this mix really worked after all. First of all, I have to admit that I had never heard of Nan Goldin before and it was neat to discover this really interesting artist. Indeed, her life and work were quite fascinating and I think I would have been perfectly content if they would have focused only on that. I mean, her fight against the Sacklers was also interesting but I had a hard time to see how it did fit with her life in general. There was also the fact that it was obvious that Goldin had been using (and abusing) recreational drugs for pretty much her whole adult life and, to be honest, I think there was something disingenuous about her complaining about the fact that she got hooked on some legal drug pushed by her doctor(s) and the pharmaceutical industry. I mean, there is nothing more hard-breaking then hearing all these stories about young kids who never touched any drugs and suddenly became addicts after getting this legal drug prescribed but I do think that it was a completely different story for Goldin. Finally, there was the fact that she was supposedly instrumental for the ‘downfall' of the Sackler family but, at the end of the day, sure, they paid a lot of money but it turned out to be only a fraction of their huge fortune and, to be honest, who cares if their name was removed from some fancy museums? I’m pretty sure that it didn’t bother the Sacklers that much and I’m definitely sure that the drug addicts overdosing on this stuff certainly didn’t care at all but I can imagine that it did give Golding a better feeling about herself. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a decent watch though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject matter. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but, since there were a few interesting actors involved, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, unfortunately, as expected, it did turn out to be one of these dreadful wedding comedies. I mean, for a half of the duration, one of the characters was displaying a Hitler moustache and haircut, and the other big running joke was dealing with some ram which was just so idiotic but it will give you an idea of the humor displayed here. In fact, the concept of having an English guy marrying with an Australian girl after they spent only 10 days together was maybe not really original but I think it actually had some potential. Unfortunately, they seriously did nothing interesting at all with this concept and, instead, they focused on some really half-baked characters and kept delivering some rather pathetic jokes or visual gags every 2 mins. Eventually, the only person who seemed to have some fun was Olivia Newton-John and I have to admit that she was actually fairly entertaining but all the other characters were just so boring. It was interesting that the most famous actors of the bunch ([Link removed - login to see] and [Link removed - login to see]) turned out to be barely used after all but, on the other hand, back then, both of them were practically unknown, especially Debicki since it was her very first movie. At least, Laura Brent was really lovely and I thought I saw here somewhere before but it seems that her career went pretty much nowhere after this debacle. Anyway, to conclude, I guess the damned thing was rather harmless but it was also terribly lame and you should probably avoid it, even if you really loved ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’, an actually really good movie also directed by Stephan Elliott. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Yasujirô Ozu and since it was on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. It’s only afterwards that I discovered that it was his oldest movie available. Indeed, the few movies he made before were apparently lost. Well, one of the interesting things about this movie was how modern it actually felt. Indeed, even though it is now almost 100 years old, it almost felt like watching a contemporary US feature dealing with college students. The other thing that I really enjoyed was the really neat body language used by the actors involved. Since it was a silent feature, there was obviously no dialogues involved (there wasn’t even some soundtrack so I ended up putting my own music). However, they didn’t rely too much on inter-titles and, instead, sometimes by just slightly moving their hands or their head, the actors would tell what they wanted to say which was really cool. Unfortunately, the narrative turned out to be rather clunky, I’m afraid. I mean, I really loved the first scene, how this young guy lured this young woman in his apartement but, what was exactly supposed to be his endgame? With the other student, basically his competitor, it was even worse, I really had no idea how he got acquainted with this young woman. Finally, they both ended up living in the same apartement but it seemed to be so random and even though it would make more sense if they actually knew each other before, I really have no idea if it was really the case though. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Yasujirô Ozu’s work. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if it was rather harmless, to be honest, I had a rather hard time to care about the damned thing though. Indeed, even if it was to be expected, the story turned out to be so fluffy and hardly entertaining. I mean, what was supposed to be fun about a bunch of young women chasing some guys just because they are rich? I’m sorry but it didn’t sound really inspiring to me and there is no way they would make a movie nowadays with such a storyline. If they would have gone for something darker and cynical, it could have been interesting but there was no way their approach would really work for me, I’m afraid. At least, there is no doubt that the three main actresses were quite charismatic and entertaining. Concerning Marilyn Monroe, it was the 8^th movie I saw with her but, even though I have to admit that she was indeed quite gorgeous, I still don’t think she was such a great actress, even if she was quite fun here. Concerning Betty Grable, she was apparently really famous at the time but it was actually the first movie I saw with her so it was pretty cool to discover this actress. Concerning Lauren Bacall, she was probably the best of the bunch but the whole gimmick of having her character falling in love with a rich guy while thinking he was just a ‘gas pump jockey’ which was just so predictable and rather lame. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really dazzle me, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a solid cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Unfortunately, I saw this movie on the BBC without subtitles and, to be honest, I did struggle to follow everything they said, especially with the southern accents used by the cast. In fact, it took me at least half of the movie to figure out that Clara and Eula were not actually sisters but it was actually Jody who was Clara’s brother after all. Anyway, concerning the movie itself, with such a fine cast involved (Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Welles, Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury), it could have been great but it was just fine, I guess, but not really much more than that. I mean, the concept was maybe not original but it definitely had some potential and I did like the characters and how they were interacting with each other. For example, I was first really smitten by Lee Remick who was really lovely but, slowly, Joanne Woodward did win me over and she might have been the best of the bunch after all which was no small achievement considering such heavyweights like Paul Newman and Orson Welles were involved. Concerning Newman, the guy was pretty much born to play such characters and he was really entertaining. Eventually, I think the main issue was with the tone. Indeed, it could have been or should have been much darker but I’m afraid that the end-result was just too light. It was especially obvious with the ending which was borderline silly as all the main characters managed to find bliss and happiness with their respective partners. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Obviously, since this sequel had been another major critical flop, I wasn’t expecting much from it but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, once again, even though the critics for this movie were rather abysmal, I don’t think it was so bad. Indeed, in my opinion, this follow-up was neither better or worse than its predecessor and, at least, you have to admit that Zack Snyder is actually pretty consistent. Above all, what amazed me the most was how Snyder managed to get 4 hrs of running time from this material? Once again, I don’t think it was really awful, it was more that it felt so empty somehow. In this case, this village and these warriors had 5 days before the enemy would attack them and, out of these 5 days (which was ridiculously low), they took like 2 or 3 days to harvest wheat but it was rather pathetic. I mean, the whole idea was that the harvest would supposedly protect them but it was certainly not convincing. Of course, at some point, Atticus Noble gave the order to blast this whole village regardless of the harvest making their whole plan completely meaningless. In a similar fashion, sure, in ‘Seven Samurai’, a handful of skilled warriors could win against an army of bandits, but, in this case, they were facing an intergalactic super power would could blast them from out of space so I’m afraid the whole concept eventually didn’t work from the very beginning. At least, I think that Sofia Boutella was actually better but I think it was mostly because she had so very little dialogues this time around (like everyone else actually). Eventually, the funniest thing is that they gave an open ending for a possible sequel but, to be honest, I wish that Snyder would drop this, even if it did sound quite promising at first. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was quite a waste and you should probably avoid it.