Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Matthias Schoenaerts, I was quite eager to check it out. I was actually wondering how Schoenaerts, a Belgian actor, did end up playing a character who could have been played by countless US actors. Eventually,  the main reason was probably that this movie was directed by a French woman who, liked me, must have been familiar with Schoenaerts’s career. Anyway, beside the casting, I did appreciate the parallels between this inmate and this horse who were basically both locked in a cage with nothing left than their rage against the rest of the world. Indeed, there was definitely something beautiful about these two wild beings somehow bonding with each other. However, I think they really pushed it by making the main character becoming seriously mellow after working with this horse. Maybe they should have slightly toned down the positive impact of this experiment but, still, there is no doubt that it is a much more positive way to handle prisoners and I’m sure it must be really therapeutic for them. On top of that, once again, Matthias Schoenaerts delivered here another intense performance. In my opinion, he is actually one of the very few actors who manages to be really charismatic but at the same time still feels completely authentic. To be honest, the other sub-plots, especially the one involving some Ketamine traffic in the prison, were all rather half-baked but as long they focused on this man and his horse, it worked just fine. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was probably not a masterpiece, it was still a solid watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Matthias Schoenaerts’s work. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Pierce Brosnan, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if it was nothing really amazing, I thought it was still a decent watch. The weird thing is that it was, in fact, not one movie but two movies combined together somehow. The first one was basically a ‘Taken’ knock-off starring Jackie Chan in the role that suddenly transformed Liam Neeson into action star overnight but Chan was actually really convincing. Indeed, I always loved Jackie Chan doing some crazy stunts but, even though they might be popular, I always dreaded all his jokes and it was actually neat to see the Hong Kong legend finally involved in some darker material. I was rather impressed how well he adjusted himself to the R rated stuff even if, for most of the duration, his character was actually stuck staying ‘Names?’ to pretty much everyone that crossed his path. The 2nd movie-within-the movie was basically a political thriller involving Pierce Brosnan who was also quite convincing as well playing a seasoned tough politician. I wish they did give more background information explaining how a former IRA terrorist somehow ended up being filthy rich during the 30 years after he quit fighting. Anyway, even though both stories worked fairly well as stand-alone, unfortunately, mixing them was turned out to be rather awkward. Basically, each side of the story constantly cannibalized the other one. For example, if they would focus on Pierce Brosnan’s character and his political intrigues for a while, Jackie Chan’s character would then completely disappear for too long. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

After all these years, I still have to watch ‘Waking Life’. On the other hand, I really loved ‘A Scanner Darkly’, so I was definitely eager to check this new animated feature from Richard Linklater, especially since it would be available on Netflix. Well, the damned thing turned out to be such a sweet nostalgic vintage slice of life and I thoroughly enjoyed it. To be honest, you might wonder if the animation genre was really required to tell this tale since it could have been just as well shot as a standard live-action feature but I think this choice made sense. Indeed, even if we think we have some clear memories from our childhood, it is actually always a heightened recollection of what actually happened and, with animation, there was no better way to convey this surreal feeling. Furthermore, I loved how Linklater looked back into such deep details into his childhood and it is really impressive how he managed to tell this story through the eyes of a young kid. I also really appreciate how he didn’t sugar-coat anything. Indeed, I think it’s pretty obvious that he loved his childhood but he was definitely not shy to show that not everything was perfect, even far from it, but it actually made the whole thing even more interesting to behold. Eventually, the only thing that didn’t really work for me was Stan pretending that he went on a secret mission on the moon a couple of months before Apollo 11. Sure, I do understand that the kid had a wild fantasy and was therefore fantasizing about taking part in this legendary mission but, as far as I was concerned, it didn’t really have any added value, especially since the main character was not apparently such a huge fan of the race to space or of NASA in general. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, I really enjoyed the damned thing and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Richard Linklater’s work or if you like the genre. 

Since I had seen so far all the movies directed by Guillermo Del Toro, of course, I had to see his last directorial effort at some point, especially since it had once again received some solid reviews. Everybody noticed that, for the 1^st time of his career, Del Toro finally handled a fairly realistic tale without some fantastic elements but there was an obvious connection between his usual work and this carnival world filled with freaks and misfits. Anyway, there is no denying that the damned thing looked amazing and Del Toro, with his first neo-noir, delivered a pitch-perfect mood. Bradley Cooper also delivered a strong performance as well, even if his character turned out to be not much more than a cheap hustler after all. Concerning the story, it definitely had some potential but, to be honest, I think it could have been even better developed though. First of all, even if it was always entertaining, it was also really long and it felt as if Del Toro tried to combine two movies into one. Eventually, I wonder if the first act during which Stanton Carlisle learned the ropes at the carnival maybe should have been shortened. To make things worse, in spite of the rather extensive running time, most of the other characters (Molly, Dr. Lilith Ritter, Zeena, Pete, Clem, Ezra Grindle) were all barely developed which was a shame since they were all quite fascinating. The biggest victim was probably Rooney Mara who was stuck playing another thankless part. I mean, what did Molly see in Stanton? And, the other way around, what did he see in her? Coming back on Stanton Carlisle, we spend so much time with the guy and, as a result, I was expecting him to come up with something exceptional at some point. However, after all, the guy went from being a hobo to be a cheap hustler, then a slightly less cheap hustler and he finally ended up as a pathetic drunk so you might wonder if the guy was really worth spending so much time with after all. On the other hand, I have to admit that the final scene was pretty much perfect. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t really a homerun, it was still a solid watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Del Toro’s work.

Since I’m a huge fan of Pixar and since this movie had received some really good reviews, I was seriously eager to check it out. Well, once again, Pixar didn’t disappoint, that’s for sure and it is impressive how far ahead they are still in the overcrowded CGI animated features market. Sure, the damned thing looked amazing, I wouldn’t expect less from these guys, but it went so much deeper than that. Indeed, even though it might seem at first to be about a girl suddenly turning into a red panda, it was actually about puberty and it was really neat how well they tackled such a tricky subject. Indeed, after watching so many movies, I think I could count on a single hand all the movies which actually managed to do something interesting and/or believable on this topic. In this case, their biggest asset was the main character, Meilin, who was so convincing, so pitch-perfect, I think she was hands-down one of the best characters created by Pixar. I also loved her tight group of friends. Eventually, even though the whole thing was entertaining, they always took these characters and what they were going through seriously and the end-result was just spellbinding to behold. To be honest, I wish they made her struggle a little bit longer with her ‘curse’ and, eventually, she got it under control too fast in my opinion. Furthermore, I didn’t care much about the whole scheme of making money with her ability of becoming a red panda but these were some really minor flaws. Anyway, to conclude, even if it might not belong to Pixar’s best efforts, it was definitely not far from it though, I really loved the damned thing 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 Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even if the damned thing looked great and even if Ronan and Robbie both gave some solid performances, to be honest, I was never really convinced by this movie. It’s too bad because this historical tale had a lot of potential but, eventually, there was so much ground together and you might wonder if a miniseries might not have been better. I mean, it was a great idea to show the parallels between the 2 queens but I wish they gave us more scenes involving Margot Robbie who, except looking stunning as Queen Elizabeth I, didn’t have much to do after all. Another thing that bothered me was that they kept arguing that Mary Stuart was a formidable woman and an amazing queen but what did she achieve after all? Not much and, if you would believe this movie, her rule was constantly and successfully undermined by most of the men around her. In fact, they did such a great job that Elizabeth didn’t have to bother too much about her after all. The fact that her 2^nd husband, Henry Darnley, turned out to be a drunken promiscuous idiot didn’t make her look much smarter either. It’s too bad that they also tried to shoehorn a meeting involving these 2 women. Of course, I can understand the temptation of bringing these 2 major historical figures into the same room, to have them exchange thoughts, ideas and feelings. However, it was pretty obvious that such meeting never actually took place and the whole scene felt terribly phony. Still, there is no denying that these women were quite fascinating. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though the damned thing definitely had some potential, it still turned out to be rather weak. Apparently, it was supposed to be some kind of revisionist Western, a genre rather popular in the 70’s, but it turned out to be mostly wacky after all and not in a good way, I’m afraid. Indeed, on a regular basis, there were some really random silly jokes and, of course, you had Marlon Brando. Basically, Brando improvised most of the time and delivered a really gonzo performance in the process. Well, no matter what was exactly Brando's agenda here, the end-result was definitely dubious at best. To be honest, at this point, you might wonder if Brando still really cared about acting anymore and I can imagine how frustrating it must have been for Jack Nicholson to work with this legend and his infamous cue cards. And, yet, I’m pretty sure that without Brando’s really wild and weird performance, the damned thing would have been terribly flat and, at least, it made the whole thing seriously unpredictable. Is it possible that a more traditional approach would have been more effective? I’m not so sure. I mean, Harry Dean Stanton did manage to do a lot with very little with his character but everyone in this gang was not developed at all and the whole romance involving the main character and basically the only female character around was hardly convincing. Anyway, to conclude, even if it turned out to be disappointing, I still think it is worth a look but there is no denying that, with such actors involved, it could or should have been so much better. 

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Jean Cocteau and since it was on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that even though I had heard of Cocteau, it was actually the very first movie he has made that I have seen so far. In general, I wasn’t familiar with Cocteau’s work at all, the guy was mostly a poet but his Art was very diverse including poems, novels, plays, essays, drawings and, of course, films. This movie was basically his directorial debut and, well, it turned out to be a pretty wild surrealist picture, that’s for sure. Indeed, it was basically a succession of rather intriguing but also sometimes disturbing scenes and, to be honest, it was rather difficult to see what Cocteau was getting at exactly. Basically, it was some kind of visual poem which was interesting but I was also seriously random and I was rather relieved that it was rather short. In fact, it could have been even shorter in my opinion. Indeed, such surrealist wild movies are interesting but, even though I love Art, I don’t feel like watching the same painting for 50 mins. By the way, with the current CGI technology, can you imagine what such directors like Jean Cocteau or Luis Buñuel could have come up with? It’s too bad that, even though this modern movie technology is such a great tool box, it’s mostly used to create some monsters or huge explosions in your average blockbuster popcorn flicks. Anyway, to conclude, even if I wasn’t completely sold by the damned thing, it was still an interesting watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.