bladou Reviews

Child 44 (2015)

Good movie with a bad review

[22 July 2015]

Lets take a second here to ponder why someone would think it's OK to shoot a film in English with a fake Russian accent, if you want an "authentic feel" - as I've seen so many reviewers rave about - just shoot the damn thing in Russian and I'll praise the hell out of every single actor involved in this.

As such it does a great disservice to the actors, the story and, I might add, insulting to any Russian speaking audience.

I actually thought the movie was good which saddens me even more considering how the performances could have been without that idiotic idea.

Lucy (I) (2014)

10% is the rating of the movie

[4 October 2014]

I could go on and on how I used to love Besson's movies, his early work was nothing short of brilliant. This one feels like a second rate TV movie full of BS science every step of the way. If you decide to make everything up the least you can do is make it coherent but it's not even the case here.

They used references from a ton of other movies in the worst way possible and you even get a "Tree of life" kind of shot that doesn't look good while being obnoxiously useless.

Oh and .. it's like watching Taxi all over again. Luc Besson is now better as a producer and this tells a lot about his director skills.

Paranoid Activity 2 (2011)

Dear Director

[3 July 2011]

Hi there,

I have no doubt someone of the cast will read this as they all signed up on IMDb to rate the movie - a 10 nothing less. By the way very clever tricks using a name close to another movie (adding a "2" while there's no previous movie is neat too) to promote your movie, maybe an opening to a career in marketing, that would be a wise move.

So I watched ... this with a buddy of mine (in Skype Dual Watching or SDW for us experts) and we loved it ! Well to be fair we didn't like the "movie" itself of course, we loved the laughter it got out of us, literally, even on a very bad day, say, someone close to you just died you could still laugh while watching this, it's that powerful.

The story, well, there's none so moving on.

The actors are exceptional, they can convey any situation with the wrong attitude. It seems none of them are able to express something, such as the main "actress" who smile (in a very creepy way) while under total stress - the main fear I would personally have is about her career though.

I'm sure everyone who seen this movie were on the verge of suicide but my director friend, if you persist to make films here are some heads up :

• Night vision is NOT a green filter, a simple DV Cam would have been enough and you'd have a free night vision too. - 15 mins shot are a very effective way to make people want to cut themselves but not a good thing in amateur cinematography. - A cigarette is not a joint and you don't get high in seconds and while we're at it train your actors to smoke if they need to - not that smoking is the only thing they have to learn to act better ... - A vengeful spirit who spend its time messing with dishes isn't the best way to build climax.

The list goes on and would ultimately cover the whole movie, there's nothing to save... Overall this is so horrible that Uwe Boll would look Oscar material compared to that.

PS : PLEASE STOP MAKING MOVIES OR GO TO FILM SCHOOL. THANKS.

Hulk (2003)

A few years later...

[10 September 2010]

Let's be honest, almost everything has been written about this film for the worst. On the good side though, there are a lot of things unaccounted for.

This is a late review as we are now in 2010 and the reboot was already released two years ago with Edward Norton - who is a talented and experienced actor. Eric Bana is a decent actor but I do think he was under-performing in Hulk, he could have made an incredible character, if I may, and while it wasn't Uwe Boll-bad acting the movie suffered from the lack of character connection with Bruce Banner.

Having seen the film recently, I was surprised by a few elements I could not find in previous Marvel comics adaptations. First, despite Bana and Josh Lucas's performance the characters had enough depth, Ross is a caring father AND a harsh soldier for example; it might look light but remember this a summer blockbuster as well as a comic related movie.

The most interesting performance though, comes from Nick Nolte. If you can, watch the last scene where he stand in front of his son giving his random speech about military power over the world, total non-sense greatly delivered. I might having hallucinations but this particular scene makes me think of the Joker in TDK, on that detached craziness and strong will - have a laugh if you will but compare those and you'll see what I'm talking about.

This may not be a perfect adaptation, lines by lines and exact story from the comic book nor a "traditional" Marvel movie, but this is pretty close to a good movie about a superhero. Having no real villain is a great move and while the story is weaker on some parts (the boring dogs scenes), it shows a different approach on superheroes as we are more familiar with today with movies like Batman.

In the end, I am not much of comics adapted films but this one is different, it might not be perfect - far from that - but it deserves more than actually credited for and in my opinion, it is still better than the rebooted one, even with Norton on board.

The whole Marvel universe will eventually become a movie but even if this one is considered "not Marvel enough", I still like it better this way on screen.

Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

A full picture

[10 September 2010]

It's probably safe to say if you watch this one with your kids, you won't be spending a bright full day. A lot of negatives feelings toward the film come from the idea that it should be a childish movie filled with dreams coming true and a happy future in sight.

Well just remember how it was to be a child. Have you forgot about those nightmares ? Or how often your imagination went out of control, bearing dark thoughts on life and people. Parents shouting a each others or at you and you would think it's the end of the world... Of course, now with maturity we deal with these things everyday and it's no big deal, relationship are still complicated but we somehow understand it, at least we accept it.

Childhood is a place where everything is possible, every creation brings destruction and so forth, the simple cycle of life we don't grasp at this age. Adults seems so different while being the same, their actions are strange and yet they won't explain why they do the things they do so you have to imagine, from a kid's perspective.

The simple idea of being acknowledged is a full time job as a kid and - as you do realize as an adult - it's hard, as you learn to control your emotions in relationships you will fall, and fall again until you find some satisfactory balance.

Every scenes in the movie convey the childhood we forgot about, all the violent emotions, the sadness, fears and the struggle to understand and be understood. While some scenes/allegories might appear gloomy or rough, it's just the way you experienced it not the way you wanted it to be in your memory.

Overall the film isn't "dark" but it's definitely not Disney-like bright which is refreshing with genuine touching moments.

The Yes Men Fix the World (2009)

Yes, they can !

[3 September 2010]

I know, I know, that was a lame review title. Get over it.

I could go on and on about these guys but the simple truth is : they are simply great people. As a regular dude, how many times do you find yourself watching TV filled with stuff you get sick of ? My lucky guess would be plenty and I'd be probably far off.

Those two guys did funny pranks but the most brilliants ones are those you feel deserved by their targets. Some major company loose a ton of money because of a fake statement that would grant due money to workers in India. In the end, they hit where it hurts the most, money.

And the beauty of this film isn't just the pranks, it's why it works in the world we live in. It doesn't mater if they bring a golden skeleton to describe profit over factory workers deaths, you realize that whatever they would bring, someone will be interested as long as it means money.

They might be crazy but the people they meet during fake presentations are sick, and they are powerful people. Thats world business grotesque at it's best for you.

I'd definitively put this on "must watch" list if you happen to wonder our state of evolution sometimes, just to be sure.

Four Lions (2010)

Expected laughs < Actual laughs

[3 September 2010]

I'm no easy viewer and too often do I find myself being bored while watching a movie, or just barely interested.

I wasn't expecting much from this one and after a quick reading of the synopsis, I just thought "say whaat ?". As a reminder you might check again the IMDb summary and try to picture it seriously, you would expect some "sofa talking action" - as a friend would describe movies that have more dialogs than action scenes.

Long story short : that is, without any doubts, the most stupidly funny movie I've seen this year and if you haven't seen it already ... just go (Ok to be honest, I would also put Revenge of the Fallen even if its last year, the level of stupidity is clearly enough for a couple of years).

Whatever you are looking in a movie this one will deliver, it is filled with dumb-touching characters despite their "mission" as terrorists. The acting is not only great as a comedy but just strait out great, any one in the movie have something special and memorable.

Hell, you could even try to get a social commentary out of it but that'd be a long stretch, it's meant to be a comedy with a soul not just the usual "a few scenes funny and forget me next week" kind of movie.

I was really pleased to find this gem completely by chance and hope you will too as this is how comedy films are meant to be.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Erm

[30 June 2009]

Lets be fair, summer blockbusters are meant for one thing only : watch stuff explode or have a sci-fi action flick.

And actually its usually fun as long as it looks good but this one is just plain shockingly eratic at best. Basically its the same as the previous movie with a few profanities randomly thrown in along fast - like eyes bleeding fast - paced action.

Now, I like kitch but giants robots in the woods reminds me of a godzilla-type film made by bored billionaires... seriously ? Thing is I could have watched that kind of stuff in an anime 24 episodes long with a real work on the story instead a 2hrs mindless showdown, ID4 was pretty much the same but still there was people in it (I'd add lexomil acting but that's just me). In ROTF, characters are either robots or just a background to make you wait until the next bots fight. You've got a story going on but given the context, its worse than no story at all; it feels like being added from deleted scenes.

I love being entertained whatever kind of flick it is; that movie just looks too random for me but at some point choosing between full CGI or enhanced by CGI movies is a wise idea.

Still, kudos to the director for the best laugh I had during a "lord of the ring-matrix-stargate" story climax, having so heterogeneous plots in a single sequence is really impressive and needs to be noted. Though its not "Weng Weng" funny just yet.

Lastly, acting ... well no one expected good performance so at least, I've got what I though I'd have. Could have been worse I guess - with some rehearsal though.

Babylon A.D. (2008)

Sadly average

[25 August 2008]

I should say first that I don't know the book this movie is adapted from, so I just mean to give an opinion on the movie itself and the way it's handled.

Director Mathieu Kassovitz has been in the business for a while now and is a well complete actor as well and still something about this project went wrong. The story itself seems solid - and somewhat I can imagine the book being just great - but the movie looks rushed with only the most important and visual parts shown.

Actually, it's a kind of annoying experience as you can see how really good it could have been if they only did a better job on the background and the storytelling instead of mixing everything from the book in an action packed movie. Now being totally honest, the action isn't great at all thanks to the shaky hand cam effect (The Bourne Legacy I guess ...) and uninspired choreography. Same goes for the acting : Depardieu and Wilson are easily the worst : they would have read the script for the first time it wouldn't have surprise me.

Considering all the good material it certainly feels like a misproduction, someone said the director and actor Vin Diesel were having different opinions and I do hope the latter won because if Kassovitz did it the way he wanted I'd be really disappointed.

We've been awarded with such great movies around the same kind of subject (Children of Men to name one) that this one seems pale compared to those.

Dante 01 (2008)

Uncomplete movie

[11 August 2008]

Considering Caro's past work in the movie field, one can really look forward to see his latest film as director : Dante 01.

Well I have to say I was for one really eager to do so and as I watched the movie, even as a full open minded viewer, some scenes were feeling just ... incomplete. The thematic is quite fine, a deep space station used as a psychiatric facility is exiting knowing the visual taste of Caro and the cast is well done too, but in the end every way you look at it the movie never fully unfold his potential.

The story, as mysterious it can be, fail to be emotional or understandable at any level which is really disappointing considering you can't connect to any character at all - especially not with the main one - having a feeling of emptiness despite the solid material that could have been used in a much better way.

The budget isn't large for this movie, that's obvious and still the director pulled some extremely good shots and some solid acting while being uneven at times (considering the budget, I can only guess that some takes as to be done only a few times), still, beyond that there is nothing to properly think of. As said, the story was somewhat promising at the beginning ... and sadly looks still promising at the end, it's a tale with a slow beginning and no real end or ground to rely on - an etheral narration with some pretty visuals and scenes empty of meaning.

If I were to make a comparison, I'd pick "The fountain". They look alike in many ways, sharing a radical vision of movie-making and story telling but where the fountain kept me involved in the character development process and opened some thoughts, "Dante 01" just got me lost somewhere loosing the meaning of it's concept - or maybe I never got it in the first place.

Overall, the movie itself isn't bad and you can see it without regrets it's still a nice movie but it's nothing more and that is probably the most disappointing thing about it : you don't feel more than looking at an OK film. Now, I do hope Caro will be directing again and with a better budget and more freedom over his uncompromising style, making this one just a trial step for better materials next time.