Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I don’t really understand Matthew Vaughn’s obsession with this franchise as it was already the 3^rd movie he made for it. I mean, sure, I will have to admit it, ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ was a decent watch (I should rewatch it though since I don’t remember much about it) but, even 10 years ago when it was released, I had some serious doubt regarding its franchise potential. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, this time, they went for a prequel which turned out to be the most underwhelming of the bunch, I’m afraid. Sure, there was a really neat cast involved (Ralph Fiennes, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance, Alexandra Maria Lara, Harris Dickinson, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Daniel Brühl, Tom Hollander, Aaron Taylor-Johnson), it was apparently surprisingly accurate from a historical point of view and it was visually pretty neat but, still, most of it was actually pretty boring though. Of course, there was once again the fact that 130 mins was just too long for a spy action flick like this one but, above all, for some reason, they completely dropped the goofy tone which was the most (and possibly the only?) interesting trademark in this franchise. The end-result was therefore watchable but still rather dull and above all completely unremarkable. Since nobody seemed to care for this movie, Vaughn finally dropped this franchise after almost a decade and went on to direct ‘Argylle’, also linked to the spy genre, but it turned out to be an even bigger flop, I’m afraid. Anyway, to conclude, even tough I think I might have been too generous with my rating here, I guess it might still be worth a look though but probably only if you really like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since it is included in the ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?’ list, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a solid romantic feature and I have to admit that I really enjoyed the damned thing. It’s interesting because it is actually a very basic story and it does almost play like a romantic-comedy but the end-result was so much more subtle after all. There was also the fact the two main characters both came (literally) from the gutter and, as far as I was concerned, they were so much more compelling than the upper-class characters that you usually got with your typical romantic features delivered by Hollywood at the time. I have to admit that it did not recognize or remember Janet Gaynor (I actually saw her before in ‘A Star is Born’ and ‘Sunrise’) but she was really good here and she had such great chemistry with Charles Farrell (they would make 10 more movies together). Eventually, it is basically a really slow burn romance but I was amazed by how well it actually worked. Indeed, there was no gimmick or high concept here, it’s only because he was so kind with her and she was so kind with him that they eventually fell in love with each other. It’s difficult for me to pinpoint wat this movie was missing to become really great, maybe it was slightly too long, but it wasn’t far from it though. I wasn’t so sure about the ending as well. Indeed, it seemed rather cruel to make the viewers (and this poor woman) believe until the very last minute that the guy was dead when it wasn’t the case after all. Anyway, to conclude, it was still a fine romantic drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Even though this movie eventually didn’t get much love when it was released, since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that I haven’t seen the documentary it was based on but it was probably a good thing as it then allowed me to appreciate this movie more than it actually deserved. Anyway, it is definitely a nice little feelgood story but, to be honest, not really much more than that. You can feel that they, with such a director involved and with Michael Fassbender who was/is probably one of the best actors of his generation, they could have gone for something darker or wilder or stranger but, instead, they delivered something terribly generic and predictable. Seriously, even though Waititi tries to convince you by even narrating the damned thing himself that you are watching something super wacky, he actually used all the clichés you can think of regarding the genre. Indeed, you had a disgraced coach who shouts all the time and hates his team at first but, of course, he ends up loving them very much. Concerning their footballs skills, obviously, they suck at first but, at the end, they suck less and even end up winning a game. Well, how much you will enjoy this movie will depend on how much you will tolerate the fact that Waititi, a seemingly talented and funny director, completely refused to do anything interesting at all with this material. Concerning Fassbender, I’m still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, this guy is just too good but, damned, I can’t remember the last time he actually really impressed me though. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it was a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Since this movie has a really solid reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list, among other things), I was quite eager to check it out. I actually first watched the remake starring Nicolas Cage, possibly one of the most despised remakes ever made, but it was years ago and I didn’t remember much about it which was probably a good thing. To be honest, I have to admit that I was rather distracted when I watched this movie but there is no doubt that the damned thing was intriguing. Indeed, even though it is billed as a horror film, it never really feels like an actual horror feature though which was obviously really cool. What was it then? I don’t know, it is rather difficult to describe. I guess it was some kind of surreal nightmare (I do make it sound like a horror feature now, right?) . For example, one of the weirdest things was the fact that this cop would show up alone on this island. That just didn’t make sense but, since everything was so otherworldly in this movie, it still worked though. Furthermore, some scenes were so oddly put together and it might have to do with the fact that this movie has been cut to pieces several times since it was released but, even if it wasn’t intended, it just reinforced the weird vide of the whole thing. I also really loved the idea that this cop was the squarest man you could possibly imagine and to see this guy struggling with all the completely weird stuff going on this island was quite priceless. Anyway, to conclude, it is a really neat cult-classic, it really deserves its reputation and it is definitely worth a look, especially you want to watch something rather strange.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it was already their 3^rd attempt to do something with the GI Joe IP and, well, I’m afraid it might have been their weakest attempt so far. Even though I did watch the GI Joe cartoon when I was a kid, I have to admit that I forgot who Snake Eyes was and I thought he was actually the white Ninja but the the white Ninja was obviously Storm Shadow. Anyway, Snake Eyes has always been one of the coolest GI Joe characters but they definitely messed up his background here. The fact that he wasn’t played by a Caucasian actor was not a big deal. However, the main reason why this character was so cool in the first place was because he was so mysterious with his mask always on and because he was mute. Sure, it was a challenge to build up an action flick around a main character wearing a mask who doesn’t talk but these guys didn’t even try. To make things worse, he wasn't the only character they ruined here. Indeed, Úrsula Corberó (who did look really cool in ‘La casa de papel’) and Samara Weaving both delivered some really lame and pathetic versions of Baroness and Scarlet. Concerning the action scenes, I was convinced that I did see a really spectacular action scene in the trailer but it never happened. Afterwards, I did check 2 trailers but it wasn’t there either so I guess I got confused with some other movie. Anyway, with such cool characters like Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, you could have hoped for some neat action scenes but, even in this department, this movie was rather disappointing, I’m afraid. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t a complete waste of time, it wasn’t far from it and I don’t think it is worth a look.

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. I have to admit that I had actually never heard of the Lyle the Crocodile series before watching this movie but I’m pretty sure that this modern adaptation was hardly faithful, at least, from a visual point of view. Anyway, to be honest, the damned thing turned out to be seriously lame. Basically, there is currently some kind of new trend of adapting a classic quaint children book and giving it a modern twist (see also ‘Peter Rabbit’) but the end-result was here once again terribly misguided, I’m afraid. At least, I have to admit that the crocodile did sing very well and I’m not surprised that Shawn Mendes was the one behind this beautiful voice. Sure, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Mendes or that I’m aware of his career but, damned, the guy can sing, that’s for sure. Concerning Javier Bardem, it was pretty neat to see him in a such children feature and he was definitely the reason why I wanted to check this movie in the first place. Well, as usual, Bardem went all in and he was basically the only character who was slightly interesting and entertaining but, for some reason, he was actually gone for half of the duration. Unfortunately, even though Constance Wu and Scoot McNairy are some fine and talented actors, they played their characters so straight and were therefore completely forgettable but above all not entertaining whatsoever. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit it was rather harmless, the damned thing was still rather lame and boring and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list, among other things), I was quite eager to check it out. Well, it turned out to be an extremely minimalistic feature, it’s basically about a young child who wants to buy a goldfish and loses her money and, well, it was pretty much it. It was apparently done on purpose as Jafar Panahi wanted to display that you didn’t necessarily need millions of dollars to shoot a movie. Anyway, I always had a weak spot for such minimalistic features and this one was definitely pretty neat. Indeed, the end-result felt like a mix of Italian neorealism (I’m pretty sure that ‘Ladri di biciclette’ was a huge influence on this movie) with a nail-biting thriller and this mix worked really well. To be honest, it did feel strange, even quite terrifying, to see such a young kid wandering around in the streets on her own, that’s something you simply don’t do in Western countries nowadays (Maybe did we use to do it as well back then 40-50 years ago though?). However, there was one thing that bothered with this movie and it was the fact that this little girl was just so damned annoying. Sure, I know her portrayal was actually accurate, my ex-girlfriend had a young daughter around the same age and she displayed a very similar behavior. Still, it didn’t change the fact that her behavior was borderline cringe-inducing, especially when she was endlessly nagging her mother to give her some money to buy some goldfish, which was even more annoying when you think that they already had some perfectly fine goldfishes at home. Anyway, to conclude, even if I wasn’t completely sold, it was still a solid watch though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.