Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I had no idea what this movie was about but since I have a weak spot for Georgina Verbaan, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I’m pretty sure that my wife didn’t expect this movie to be so heavy when she picked it up yesterday evening. Indeed, as far as I’m concerned, with its title and poster, I was actually expecting another harmless average Dutch comedy. Well, it turned out to be something entirely different, that’s for sure. Indeed, it was in fact a really hardcore psychological drama after all and, for a while, I thought it would be some sort of Woody Allen kind of situation (which would have been already messed-up enough) but, eventually, this nightmarish situation turned out to be so much worse than I anticipated. Still, to be honest, the way the whole thing was constructed actually slightly bothered me. Indeed, this back-and-forth in time, probably the most overused and annoying gimmick nowadays, had very little artistic merit and was obviously used here to delay this huge revelation. As a result, Sonne, the adult version of Willemke, was a rather frustrating character not because of Abbey Hoes who did deliver a solid performance but because she refused to talk about what actually happened to her to anyone. Of course, you could argue that it made sense for this character because she was so heavily traumatized but I think the main reason she didn’t talk was because they wanted to keep this secret as long as possible. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I won’t deny that the whole thing really did hit me like a sledgehammer, it was a powerful, even heart-breaking, drama and it’s definitely worth a look, at least, if you can handle such heavy material. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since the topic did sound intriguing, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, even though the material definitely had some potential, I’m afraid it never really worked though. I think the main issue was that Lone Scherfig had just too much contempt regarding the guys involved in this club. Indeed, even though I understand why she would despise them, I think a more subtle approach would have been more interesting or, at least, more rewarding. As a result, you never really rule for any of them and I never had the feeling that their club was anything amazing. I mean, basically, they went to a restaurant and they got massively drunk which is something anybody could do without being part of such supposedly ‘elite’ club. In fact, Scherfig went further by emasculating these characters even more by bringing their sex exploits to zero as they didn’t go further then humiliating 2 girls. By the way, they spent way too much time on the romantic relationship involving Miles Richards and Lauren. Indeed, it was just too generic and, if they really wanted one of them to have a girlfriend, sure, why not? But then he should have had this girlfriend right from the start. There was also the ending scene which displayed that the shenanigans happening within the club didn’t actually matter. Indeed, what really mattered was that these f*ckers would then eventually look out for each other and, in fact, would rule over Great Britain, no less than that. Eventually, this turn of event turned out to be more intriguing than watching a bunch of spoiled brats getting endlessly drunk and made the whole thing even more pointless. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing never really worked, it was still an interesting watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since this movie had been rather poorly received, I had some rather low expectations but, since it was directed by Judd Apatow and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, I’m afraid I will have to agree with the critics on this one. First of all, it’s such a pity that so many interesting directors like Apatow, when they finally get to work for Netflix, pretty much always deliver their worst or, at least, their most underwhelming directorial effort so far (see also Duncan Jones, Joe Wright, David Ayer, Matt Thompson, David Michod, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini). Anyway, in this case, the damned thing was so lame, it was seriously pretty much unwatchable. It’s too bad because it was the very first movie I saw which was actually really acknowledging the Covid pandemic so there was definitely some potential. Eventually, you might wonder if it was too soon to make a comedy about this worldwide tragedy but I don’t think it would have made any difference if this movie would have been released 10 years later. Indeed, it has been a while since I have seen such a comedy during which 99% of the jokes fell completely flat. To make things worse, all the characters were so uncharismatic and so tedious to behold in spite a decent cast involved (Karen Gillan, Leslie Mann, Pedro Pascal, David Duchovny, Kate McKinnon). There were even a couple of cameo’s which were more weird than actually entertaining involving Daisy Ridley and James McAvoy. Eventually, the only one who managed to do something slightly interesting with her character was Iris Apatow and her first TikTok video was actually pretty cool. However, if the only thing you can enjoy is a random TikTok video involving the characters of this movie, well, it is pretty obvious you are watching something pretty bad. Anyway, to conclude, even if the concept was actually  neat, the damned thing turned out to be so weak and you should probably avoid it.

Since I did like ‘Les petits mouchoirs’, I thought I might as well check this sequel. To be honest, it has been a while since I saw this movie and, in fact, I even proposed to my wife to watch it first but she didn’t mind watching only this sequel. In fact, I wonder if not rewatching the previous movie actually allowed me to appreciate more this movie. Anyway, it was pretty neat to see this group of characters eight years later and it was even more awesome to see them hang out together at this awesome holiday house. Indeed, I was amazed that, even though I saw ‘Les petits mouchoirs’ more than 5 years ago, I recognized this place with the very first shot. As a result, it was rather disappointing that they had to leave it to an even bigger house. Sure, I understand why Max was planning to sell this house, even if, narratively speaking, it was a rather lazy and predictable move (seriously, you pretty much know right from the start that he will never go through with this sell). However, I didn’t see the point of not keeping the characters there for the whole duration. Another issue was that, even though I liked all these characters, I think it was a mistake to give every single one of them some kind of angle, twist, sub-plot or hidden agenda. On the other hand, it was a great idea to focus more on Max and François Cluzet gave a really strong performance. Somehow, the guy reminded me of a strung-out f*cked-up French version of Woody Allen and it was quite amazing how the guy managed to be so tragic and so hilarious at the same time. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing ground-breaking, it really enjoyed spending more time with this group of friends and I wouldn’t mind watching another instalment of their adventures in 10 years from here. 

To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of Shawn Levy’s work but I have to admit that ‘Free Guy’ was actually quite fun. As a result, I was rather curious about this new collaboration with Ryan Reynolds, even if it was eventually not very well received when it came out. Anyway, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I will never understand why, when the Americans make movies about time-travelling, they are always so obsessed about their past. Indeed, as far as I’m concerned, I think it would be so much more interesting to go in the future to see some wild cool stuff among other things. I would be also the opportunity for the filmmakers to be really creative but, for some reasons, time-travelling make them apparently nostalgic. Anyway, sure, it did turn out to be a step down from ‘Free Guy’ but, in fact, I thought the damned thing was still fairly entertaining. Indeed, it was actually pretty cool to see this young boy meeting his future self, especially since his future version would turn out to look ripped like Ryan Reynolds and turned out to be a pilot of a freaking time-travelling jet. The banter involving these 2 versions of basically the same person was not bad at all and this part was probably the most enjoyable but the final act, when they got reunited with their deceased father, worked also well. However, I wish that this interesting set of characters didn’t have to save the world which was not only rather pretentious but also seriously generic and, above all, pretty tedious. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really amazing whatsoever, it was still rather harmless and even fairly entertaining so I think it is actually worth a look, at least, if you really 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 Paula Patton and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, first of all, I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie which obviously didn’t deserve at all to start with the words ‘based on true events’. Sure, millions of women in the US and in the rest of the world are victims of this awful business but it was basically the only true thing about this movie. Indeed, everything was completely made up and it obviously never happened that some journalist discovered a trafficking ring completely by accident, actually became an actual victim of this traffickers and managed to have the whole thing shut down, all this within only a couple of hours. Seriously, it would be like claiming that ‘Seven’ is actually based on true events because serial killers do exist. Anyway, even if the ‘based on true events’ claim was completely bogus and ridiculous, it wasn’t even the biggest problem with this movie. Indeed, the damned thing was just so slow, it took forever to finally get the plot started and everything happening before was just seriously tedious. Furthermore, even if Paula Patton was charming as usual, in spite of all her efforts, I never cared about her character and her group of friends was even worse. I mean, who cares that Darren is a hotshot sport agent doing some cocaine and is a major douchebag with his girlfriend and his best friend? What was the link with the main topic and, above all, what was the added value? Anyway, to conclude, even though it was dealing with an important topic, it is rather bewildering how weak the damned thing was and I think you can pretty much avoid it.