Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

To be honest, 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, it wasn’t really good, I’m afraid. I mean, I did like the idea of a set of twins who were completely different and Owen Wilson and Ed Helms were a good match, even if they both played exactly the same characters that they always play in all their movies, but it was probably the only thing that was slightly interesting. Indeed, pretty much nothing else was really entertaining. I mean, the whole search of their missing father was just an excuse to get them involved in a road-trip which is such a tedious and generic gimmick. To make things worse, the concept was pretty weak and even rather messed up. Indeed, what was the deal with their mom? For starters, she told them all kinds of fake stories while they were growing up but, sure, why not? It’s easy to judge while you’re sitting on your sofa watching this flick. But then, instead of finally coming clean and tell them what they were yearning to know their whole life, she just sent to meet a random boyfriend she had 40 years ago while she perfectly knew he wasn’t their father at all? That was a rather weird move. And of course, after they met Terry Bradshaw after just 15 mins, you already know he won’t be the guy so they go to the next possible candidate and so on but this whole process was never really fun to behold. Basically, the whole idea was to have these two brothers spending some time with each other and finally bond which wasn’t a bad idea at all but I wish they found something else than this rather underwhelming wild-goose chase. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look.