Reviews by johanlefourbe

I already saw this movie but since I just bought a brand new awesome TV, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, unfortunately, even after rewatching the damned thing, it is still pretty much one of the most disappointing movies coming from the MCU which is such a shame. Indeed, from the 4 MCU movies released in 2021, this one seemed to be the most interesting. How awesome it would have been that Chloé Zhao, after scoring a Best Picture Academy Award, would follow this up with a massive blockbuster which would also turn out to be one of the most challenging MCU instalments ever made? So, I was really rooting for this movie but, to be honest, I'm afraid it turned out to be rather weak after all. I mean, it’s not that it was bad, far from it, in fact, it did have quite some potential but this potential was unfortunately pretty much completely untapped. Indeed, this group of characters was quite intriguing and the fact that they lived for thousands of years could have opened so many doors, especially on a metaphysical level. Sure, they did scratch this idea but it was really superficial and, eventually, they were stuck facing the usual monsters threatening our planet. On top of that, within 5 mins, I had already figured out that Arishem had some ‘secret’ agenda and it was rather disappointing that, after thousands of years, these ancient seemingly wise characters didn’t figure this out on their own at some point. Eventually, it is rather disheartening that Chloé Zhao claimed that Marvel gave her plenty of freedom but I wish they gave her instead a better story to work with. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was not a bad MCU instalment so it is still worth a look but there is no denying that it could have been so much better.

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this flick but, somehow, I still ended up watching the damned thing. At least, it was not worse than its predecessors. On the other hand, I have to admit that I didn’t remember much about them except that they didn’t really impress me at all. However, it was definitely not an improvement either. Indeed, if some of the jokes were actually fairly amusing, most of it was still completely forgettable. On top of that, the plot was just so generic and hardly entertaining and, after 10 mins, I lost most of the interest I might have had at the beginning. Apparently, the plot was also almost identical to the 1^st instalment which was rather lazy but, on the other hand, you could argue that all the James Bond flicks pretty much all look alike. Still, in this case, it didn’t help that the bag guy was rather lame. Jake Lacy was also hardly intimidating with his puppy eyes and he would be the last guy I would hire to play a nefarious villain. On the other hand, Olga Kurylenko was a perfect choice to play such a femme fatale. Indeed, Kurylenko was as usual quite gorgeous to look at and she did what she could with this material but it is rather sad that, exactly 10 years after getting her breakthrough with James Bond, the only gig she could get was to show up in such a lame James Bond spoof. Eventually, even though the idea of turning Mr. Bean into an incompetent spy had some potential, it’s too bad they never managed to properly develop this idea into something really entertaining after 3 instalments. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse (the Mr. Bean movies are pretty much unwatchable for example), it was still rather weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Anya Taylor-Joy and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if it turned out to be a decent watch, to be honest, it wasn’t much more than that though. Basically, the main idea was to show that Barack Obama at such a young age was already so much deeper and thoughtful than his peers but, to be honest, I never really bought it. Indeed, in my opinion, it was leaning too heavily on the mystic mythology around the former US president and to keep giving us some shots of Barry lost in his thoughts was definitely not enough. I’m not saying that the idea didn’t have some potential though. Indeed, it was quite interesting to see that, even though Obama was full of swagger and confidence during his presidency, in his younger years, the guy was actually really struggling with his identity and his fairly complex background. However, during one of the (very few) really strong scenes, it was pointed out by another completely random character that, basically, all Americans have a complex background but it would take many more years until Obama managed to grasp this concept and accept who he actually was. Furthermore, I’m not sure if it was the right move to focus on his relationship with this white girl. Obviously, why shouldn’t Barack Obama date a white girl? It was definitely not the problem and they spent quite some time to display that she was a very nice bright girl and that they were a good match. However, we all know that this relationship would eventually lead to nowhere so, after spending so much time arguing the merits of this union, they made it crumble rather unconvincingly. As a result, it made the whole thing seemed like a waste of time not only for Obama but also for the viewers. Anyway, to conclude, even though the damned thing did struggle to be more than just an infomercial, it was still not bad though and I think it is worth a look. 

Well, I’m finally done with my Tarkovsky cycle (I still have to watch ‘Offret’ and ‘Nostalghia’ because they were unfortunately not included in my Blu-ray box set). To be honest, this journey has been just as fascinating as it was frustrating and I actually ended up somehow with arguably his most challenging movie. Can you imagine this? Watching the most difficult movie from the most difficult director I know? The funny thing is that, with a running time of less than 2 hours, it was rather short, at least, for a Tarkovsky movie. Basically, the main difference with the other movies directed by the Russian master was that, even though they were all also extremely opaque and intricate, they were at least linked to some genre (WWII drama, medieval epic, Science-Fiction), even if Tarkovsky didn’t care much about the usual trademarks linked to these different genres. In this case, he went this time for something completely freewheeling and I can imagine that it can be quite fascinating and exhilarating if you manage to get into in his flow and state of mind but, to be honest, I really struggled with the damned thing. Seriously, through the whole duration, I was scratching my head wondering what the hell was happening in front of my eyes and it was only afterwards, much later on, that I finally managed to get more or less some understanding about this movie. Basically, it was about a man that you never see and sometimes hear talking reflecting on his youth and his relationship with his mother and reflecting on his present and his relationship with his ex-wife. The fact that both women were played by the same actress probably didn’t help to make the whole thing less opaque and confusing but this casting actually somehow made sense since, on a subconscious level, all our partners are somehow some kind of reflection of our mothers. I also wonder if the black-and-white scenes were dealing with his past and the color scenes were dealing with his present but it sounds way too easy and conventional for this director. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was probably one of the most difficult movies I have ever seen, it was still quite fascinating and it is definitely worth a look but only if you really like the genre though. 

To be honest, since this movie had been rather poorly received, I had some rather low expectations but since I have a weak for Reese Witherspoon and since it was directed by Atom Egoyan, I still wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, even if it was an interesting true story, the movie turned out to be seriously weak though. I have to admit that I wasn't really familiar with the West Memphis Three case before watching this movie but I think it might have been a blessing since it did help me to slightly more appreciate this movie, at least, more than it actually deserved. However, it didn't change the fact that, even though Egoyan had a rather solid track record back in the 90's, the directing was here actually seriously clunky. Indeed, even though the whole thing should have been about the investigation on both sides (how the cops tried to pin these murders on these 3 teenagers without a single shred of physical evidence and how their lawyers tried to prove that there was no merit in these accusations) which seemed to be a no-brainer to me, instead, they kept focusing on Reese Witherspoon's character who, well, pretty much did nothing through the whole thing. I mean, sure, it must have been awful for the parents of the deceased kids but if this woman didn't have anything relevant to say or to do regarding this case, except being played by a A-lister, well, I wish they put their focus on something more interesting. Concerning Colin Firth's character, he did seem at first to be more promising but it didn't last long, I'm afraid. Of course, there was the fact that Firth was probably completely miscast to play an American with a southern accent but it didn't really bother me after all. What bothered me even more was the fact that, except making some moralistic statement about the death penalty, the guy didn't do much after all. Seriously, it would be fun to count how many meaningless close ups you get on these two characters. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was a strong story, this movie was just really weak and you would be wise to watch instead the many heralded documentaries about this topic. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Carice van Houten, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, even though the material was super interesting, to be honest, the damned thing turned to be rather half-baked, I’m afraid. Indeed, it was quite fascinating to spend some time in a TBS facility (in the Dutch Judicial system, it is possible, when a judge is convinced that the suspect, at the time of the offence, was suffering from a defective development or pathological disturbance of the mental faculties, that the suspect get interned in a jail functioning as a psychiatric hospital instead of a regular jail). However, it was just too murky what Halina Reijn was trying to achieve with her directorial debut. On the other hand, the poster seemed to be pretty obvious, but, whatever was her point, it took just too damned long to get there. I guess that the main idea was to show that relationships, especially romantic ones, can be really complex, even really messed-up, and that love can happen in the most unlikely and unhealthy ways. The problem, mostly with Nicoline (played by Carice van Houten) was that they never displayed her in another professional context during which was she was actually fully functioning. As a result, there was no point of reference to compare with what she was going through during this movie. With Idris (played by Marwan Kenzari), it was less problematic but his mohawk was a rather heavy-handed way to show that the guy was ‘trouble’ and I wonder if his character wouldn’t have been more intriguing without it. Anyway, to conclude, it’s too bad the whole thing turned out to be rather empty and pretentious but the material was still pretty strong and, in spite of its flaws, it still think it is worth a look. 

To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of Pokémon (on the other hand, I have to admit that I was at some point pretty addicted to the videogame ‘Pokémon Emerald Version’ on the Game Boy Advance during a summer vacation) but since this movie was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I'm pretty sure it was the first movie I saw dealing with these famous creatures but I think they made here the most of this material. Indeed, they created an interesting world and all these Pokémon creatures looked really neat with some cutting-edge CGI. It was also a master move to have the most famous Pokémon voiced by Ryan Reynolds and it was pretty neat to have this character involved in a detective story. So, the basic stuff was fine but, unfortunately, the story turned out to be pretty boring though. By the way, to turn these cute Pokémon’s into some wild creatures with some gas, wasn’t it exactly the same plot used in ‘Zootopia’? Well, I already thought this storyline was hardly interesting in ‘Zootopia’ and it didn’t change this time around. On top of that, in this case, I don’t think the ending made much sense (where was the body of his father all this time?!?) or maybe I missed something but, to be honest, I don’t really care. So, even though I really liked the detective angle, I wish they came up with a more entertaining and less derivative story and I wonder if the fans thought it was really satisfying. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was not bad and it is worth a look, especially if you are a fan of Pokémon. 

I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I had never heard of the damned thing before but it turned out to be so much better than I expected. Eventually, it’s too bad I saw it on the BBC without subtitles but, even though I did struggle with the dialogues, the damned thing was still quite impressive. Indeed, even though it did start like a rather conventional POW story, eventually, it turned out to be one of the bleakest anti-army movies I have ever seen. In fact, the story was not actually dealing with some regular POW’s but with a military prison with some British soldier convicted for some minor offences such as insubordination, being drunk while on duty, going AWOL or petty theft. So, everyone involved, guards and prisoners alike, were all soldiers on the same side and, yet, the treatment displayed went way beyond only ‘punishing’ the convicted soldiers. Indeed, they had to face such sadistic treatment that all the men sharing this cell slowly became pretty much mad. Seriously, towards the end, the situation got completely out of hand and the whole thing was just a massive chaos but it was actually quite fascinating to behold. For Sean Connery, this movie was the opportunity to show that he could do something else than James Bond and while you might expect him to play your usual tough guy, his character turned out to be slightly more complex and Connery definitely delivered here one of his best performances. Anyway, to conclude, even if it is a really obscure movie, it is actually really good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.