Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since Nick, my step-son, has a weak spot for such big disaster movies, we still ended up watching it together. Well, as expected, it turned out to be a big dumb loud blockbuster but, to be honest, I have to admit that I was actually fairly entertained. It’s too bad they never really figured how they should handle the material though. Indeed, they seemed aware of how ridiculous the concept was and they had fun with it but, unfortunately, the whole thing very often took itself way too seriously with some supposedly elaborate scientifical explanations which were really ridiculous. Another issue was that, while it made sense that they wanted to show the mayhem going on Earth, the group of characters involved in this group was just so poorly developed and uncharismatic. To make things worse, facing the destruction of the planet Earth was probably enough, they definitely didn’t need to bring some looters in the mix as well. At least, the trio of main actors (Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley) was not bad and I especially enjoyed Patrick Wilson who was solid playing the usual washed-up reluctant hero. And what about the ending? Well, it was probably a little bit too much and it was another example of they took themselves way too seriously. Still, I have to admit that it was actually pretty cool to see this loser conspiracy theorist who always dreamed to be an astronaut eventually getting involved in some mission in space to actually save the world. Anyway, to conclude, don’t take the reviews too seriously, if you actually like this kind of (nowadays) old-fashioned disaster flicks, you might actually give it a try, otherwise, you should probably skip it though. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I kept hearing some really good things, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, after watching a couple of movies directed by Chloé Zhao, I think I’m rather acquainted with her directing style. However, to be honest, even if I admire her work, I can’t say I’m really a huge fan though. Basically, like a documentary, you get to see some ‘real’ people but since they are actually telling a story, it is still a work of fiction. As a result, it seems that Zhao managed to harness the best qualities of both genres, documentary and fiction, to make something really intriguing. Still, even if I really like her approach, to be honest, I think it was a little bit too dry, at least, for me. Indeed, eventually, Brady Blackburn never really stated what he felt or thought so I had a rather hard time to really connect with him and what he was going through. The fact that I don’t feel much for this rodeo world probably didn’t help either. Still, there is no denying that Brady was a really intriguing character and the fact that Brady Jandreau pretty much played himself gave the whole thing some super realistic quality (it went even further since his actual father and autistic sister in the movie were also his family for real). Eventually, the actors were all playing some characters so similar to who they actually are and, as a result, you could barely call it actually ‘acting’ but it’s not a critic, in the contrary. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it was still pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.