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Apocalypse la 1ère Guerre mondiale (2014)
The worse side of humanity
Amazing images, great presentation, awesome music, effective narration and excellent colorization job. A bit confusing here and there (unlike "Apocalypse: la 2eme guerre mondiale") due to the complexity of that war i guess, but i'm not an expert in politics or historical facts, so it was expected somehow.
The music is really efficient and the sound effects are well made but i was surprised by the bad audio mix from time to time; the level of the narrator (Mathieu Kassovitz) is unequal and sometime buried by the music.
I will watch it a couple times because there's a tremendous amount of information. The horror of the war and the worse side of humanity is very well pictured and of course some scenes are quite disturbing.
Really fantastic images, it's definitely a "must watch"!
Vertical Limit (2000)
A Pop Tart Without Topping
I've been "forced" to watch this so called movie and it was so bad i could kill a kitten with my teeth right now! It's not every day that a generic product for the masses can make you feel dumber scenes after scenes but this one does it brilliantly; after 2 hours i feel like a Pop Tart without topping.
Not dramatic, not original, not funny, not exciting, not realistic, not entertaining, not well written, not well directed, no nothing!! Even the music is cliché and boring as hell!!
Everything i hate about cinema is in this pile of predigested dog food. Even if you haven't seen it, "you've seen it" many times before without knowing it, if you know what i mean... Sooooooooooooooo unoriginal and boring!
Martin Campbell, you are now on my blacklist, give me back my 124 minutes!
In two words: Generic & Stultifying.
L'eau chaude, l'eau frette (1976)
Odd and unequal
In the category "What the hell did i just watched?", this movie have a place of choice.
I honestly can't tell what this flick is about but one thing is for sure, it is odd, drab, disjointed and vulgar; like every André Forcier's movies i saw. It seems like the director wanted to shock just for the sake of shocking. The story is kind of dumb and infantile in my opinion, but at least there's great actors to save it from complete boredom; some characters are very interesting, some others are just... Meh. It's labeled as a drama but to me it's more like an unfunny comedy written by hippies on cheap LSD. Not a piece of trash but not that great either.
I'm glad i saw it, but i could have lived without.
In three words: Odd, childish & vulgar.
High Plains Drifter (1973)
A True Classic!
I'm not a big fan of westerns at all! But "High Plains Drifter" must be one of my personal favourite of all Eastwood movies. (I've seen them all except two: "Paint your wagon" & "Le streghe".)
I don't know if it's the overall badass attitude, the story, the characters or the cinematography that makes this film special but one thing is for sure, it's a true classic! I prefer this film to "Unforgiven" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales" by far.
It's ambiguous, eerie, cliché, violent and politically incorrect. Even the music (and sometime the lack of music) is awesome, you won't find any banjos, dobros, harmonicas or fiddles gigue of any kind; almost an horror movie soundtrack if you will.
In two words: Classic & Badass!
Lenny (1974)
A _______ good movie!
The first time i've heard about Lenny Bruce, it was from my hero George Carlin and i must say right off the bat that i haven't heard or saw much material from Lenny before this film, (yeah i know, shame on me) but at least i didn't had any expectations whatsoever.
Factual or not? Once again i couldn't care less, it was a great entertainment. If i want facts about an artist i'll read a biography or watch a documentary, i will certainly not document myself on somebody through Hollywood for obvious reasons, if you can't figure them out, get off my review right now...
Great performances, great story, amazing cinematography and editing, i really loved that movie. The "interview style" approach was brilliant and the jazzy/black & white atmosphere was delightful. That one shot scene near the end is astonishing and very sad, that scene alone worth the movie.
Censorship, obscenities, anti-conformism, power of words, drug abuse and freedom of speech could resume quite well this movie in my opinion; and it makes me realize that i can't _______ write whatever i _______ want (at least not here) even in 20 _______ 13 can you _______ believe that?!
In one word: Entertaining.
...And ____ censorship!
Ben X (2007)
A cartesian prison for the mind
I am not a gamer at all, so when i first saw the intro; Ben (Greg Timmermans) logging in his RPG account, picking up some cloths and weapons while narrating with his troubled and stuttering voice i thought: "Oh man, this is gonna be lame and boring as hell". I couldn't be more wrong!
If you don't know how a guy suffering the Asperger syndrome (a form of autism) feels, this is THE movie by excellence. The actors performances are simply flawless, even breathtaking, the scenario is absolutely brilliant and the story, heartbreaking!
Scenes after scenes, layers after layers you discover the cartesian mind prison in which Ben is held, trying his best to look normal. But also the disquietude and pain his family have to bear; some bullying scenes are quite painful to watch. If you've notice how teenagers can be cruel to each others, specially with those who don't fit the mold, then you won't have troubles believing that this story is based on real events. It's a very humane approach of a complex and misunderstood mental illness with a lot of depth. It's also a reflection on bullying vs "sin of omission" in a way.
This movie should have way more exposure.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Some goods, some bads
You know, when i hear covers of my favourite songs, i expect them to be as accurate as it can be. You can play them in a different style, different keys, take some liberties, change the solos, but don't change the lyrics or the melodies because that's the core of the songs. Same thing with movie remakes.
I liked the crescendo of the beginning but it didn't took long before i started to frown.
Yes of course all visual aspects are very neat, the cinematography is interesting and the sound design is very cool but the whole wrecked family thing is boring as hell and does not help the story, it seems like they tried to put an unnecessary depth to this and the movie suffers in my opinion.
The acting is down to earth enough, i don't like Tom Cruise but i can recognize he's a good actor. Tim Robbins is amazing as always, i didn't expected him to be in this movie at all, great surprise. There's some epic scenes but sometime too much action for nothing and yes, that little girl with the strident voice screaming all the time was really annoying.
A lot of clichés in this movie like the single dad with a garage in his messy kitchen having trouble managing his anger and arguing all the time with his rebel and introverted son; it gets old very quickly. At some point Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) tells his daughter to «stay right here i'll be right back» (wow, really? How lame!) then another family took the girl with them by force because they didn't believe the girl's story, i saw that coming from miles away, so unoriginal.
There's a lot of incongruities too, like when Ray is looking in the fridge: no light, the next shot: he turn on the light switch to check if there's electricity. The crowd just staying there, staring at the first tripod emerging from the street instead of running like deers, etc...
They could have removed only 4 or 5 key scenes and nobody would have notice that this was "war of the world". The way they ended the film was so predictable it's embarrassing.
In one word: watchable.
The War of the Worlds (1953)
A bit dated but still very good
All right, here i am again on my "fed up with CGI & remakes" odyssey.
I can barely remember the first time i saw this film because i was 5 or 6 years old back then, in the 80's. The thing i remember very well though is that i had nightmares because of this film, waking up in the middle of the night rushing to the windows with apprehensions, great memories!
Of course the effects looks dated but the sounds engineering is very effective in my opinion. One thing i like from movies of this era is that everything is straight forward, fast transitions, extra flamboyant dialogues, no fluff, perhaps not enough i might add. The montage and editing seems rushed and rough compare to today's blockbusters but it didn't bothered me at all, i've even found it refreshing and it made me realize once again how generic most of the movies are these days.
The acting is a bit stiff but it was totally expected considering the standards of the epoch, everything is black & white including the emotions, no place for ambiguity. Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) always have the answer to everything right away, no doubt ever, he knows all and i've found that hilarious and even charming.
I had a great time watching this classic and i'm now ready for the 2005 version. That's very big shoes to fill so i have low expectations...
In one word: classic!
Les rois maudits (1972)
It took me by surprise
Oh, i should have seen this colossal piece of classic theater style drama much sooner. This 616 minutes felt like 2 hours and i was ready for another 616, it really took me by surprise because it looked dated and boring at first.
There's some really original scenes like those family portraits in which nobody moves for several minutes while the narrator do his job. The sets and costumes are well made and the acting level is very high. If you are a "long take fan" like me you will be pleased, really amazing actors, great cast and well directed. Jean Piat (who plays Robert d'Artois) steals the show and he's by far my favorite character in this series, what an artist!!
I've learned a lot of historical facts with this, even if some scenes are obviously fictionalized a bit.
The plot is quite complex and i was lost from time to time because there is a lot of characters in this historical saga and they are almost all important. The music is discrete and takes more and more place as the series goes on. Don't expect too much physical action though, if you don't like long dialogues in a theatrical-flamboyant style you may have some boredom problems along the way; even if there's always a spectrum of brutality and sadism around. But if you like to watch good actors performing as i do, there's an "all you can eat" buffet waiting for you on Youtube, just saying...
MythBusters (2003)
Something Happened
The first three seasons were excellent. Two brilliants guys putting legendary myths to the test and blowing things up if they fail. Simple, efficient, entertaining and informative with few irrelevant myths and some sloppy executions here and there, but overall a very good show!
Then something happened...
The producers had the idea to introduce a new team (as if Adam & Jamie weren't cool enough) and they told them to act like if they were 4 years old retarded children on spring break. Yeah that's right, making car and gun noises WITH THEIR MOUTH all the time!! Stop that, you are not actors! Really annoying and almost insulting, get rid of that unnecessary embarrassment, the quality suffers.
The myths are less and less relevant and the show starts to look like a sorry excuse to blow things up. Not to mention that there's a big difference between a popular expression like "poop hit the fan" and "like taking a candy from a baby" and a proper myth. How low they will go to keep their jobs on TV is the question. "Making a cannon with bamboo", "curve bullet", "Airplane on a Conveyor Belt", "finding Jimmy Hoffa in a stadium"?! I mean come on, you call that science? I call that "Discovery ChSCIENCE" to be polite. An entertainment machine with a pinch of science is more like it in my opinion. And while i'm at it: what a huge waste of material and resources only to prove that they are not out of ideas...
Adam is still funny and Jamie is still cool though, but i'm afraid that there's no cure, they are victims of their own success.
Rock of Ages (2012)
The Shame of Ages (Radio Disney Version)
It wasn't in my plans to see a musical (which i hate, but i can make an exception for the sake of rock) this summer but i've been bored the other day and it was playing on "Super Écran" so why not suffer a little?
I've been into glam, hard rock and heavy metal since the late 80's and this piece of trash is an insult to anything related to rock and metal. Everything in this abomination is ridicule and laughable, i had a really hard time finding one single positive thing in this movie. If only they had used the original versions of the songs.
Tom Cruise is more convincing promoting his $cientology crappola than trying to be a blue print of Axl Rose (the indisputable narcissistic king of all time), please, kill yourself Tom! And while you're at it, kill yourself Axl...
Imagine "The Young and the Restless" with tattoos and piercings, maybe good for a 12 years old girl but still a mediocre sissy product "for the masses, by the masses". I don't remember the last time i saw an ABSOLUTE garbage such as this mediocre and stultifying disgrace.
Remember Cannibal Corpse's "They deserve to die", yeah, exactly!!
I've wasted enough time on this "thing that should not be", metal up your f______ a__ baby!! \m/
Incendies (2010)
Too much and not enough.
For the last 2 years i was saying to myself "you should see Incendies that everybody is talking about, it must be awesome" and i finally did...
The goods: great actors, great cinematography, some strong dramatic scenes, sometimes very realistic.
The bads: Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong, way to long, especially the beginning of the film. I didn't care about the characters and i've found myself fighting against boredom for the most part. Nothing really happens until the 48th minute, THE 48TH MINUTE!! I didn't bought the plot in the first place; a twin's odyssey in the middle-east to meet an unknown brother and understand the mystery behind the mental illness of their dead mother; and that's too bad because i wanted to like this movie very hard, but i didn't. The ending is twisted at a point it became ridicule and laughable, i didn't bought that either...
Yeah, i know, truth is stranger than fiction, but sometimes fiction pushed too hard is overkill.
In my opinion the music didn't fit for a middle-east movie, for the most part at least. I mean, why not include some Twisted Sisters, Bon Jovi and Justin Beiber in the soundtrack once you are there? A bit of "phrygian dominant" would have helped.
I didn't liked the structure either, i think they tried to make it too "artistical" or something, and it didn't helped the story.
If you want your vacation to last longer, that 2 hours and 10 minutes felt like 5 hours, just saying...
Not a bad movie, but not that great either. A lot of bones but a lack of meat. Maybe i had too much expectations but in one word : deception.
Omertà (2012)
Meh...
I didn't liked how the movie begins, i didn't liked how the movie ends. Maybe i had too much expectations because i was a huge, HUGE fan of the TV series "Omertà, la loi du silence", which had a realistic and down to earth approach with flawless performances and a vast range of emotions. The movie became interesting for me only 45 minutes before it ends and the denouement seems a bit rushed in my opinion. Not so well written, not so well directed but not enough to be called a piece of garbage.
The plot is interesting enough (it seems based on "real" events) but too complex for an 1:46:49 format. The casting is unequal (i was happy when Sophie, the beautiful Rachelle Lefevre from Twilight, disappeared from the screen). I read a few critics saying that René Angelil (Céline Dion's manager) was a very good actor in this. The reason he was good is because he had to play only one single emotion throughout the whole movie and he fails to act anger when he throws his cell phone at the end. Once again Paolo Noël (who plays Tony Potenza) didn't convinced me he was as good as the others actors. The characters didn't stop saying that Sam Cohen (Stéphane Rousseau) was a psychopath but he failed to convince me he was one, it takes me more than a mutilating scene and a tough face to be called a psychopath. Unfortunately for Rousseau, Ron Lea (Gino Favara in the TV series) played THE best psychopath i have ever seen on screen, he didn't act like one, he "WAS" one and it makes all the difference in the world! The result is i didn't care about the characters at all and i was happy when they died. A short range of emotions is what you'll get in this film, almost always in the same tones...
There's also a cameo of Michel Auger, a real journalist of the "Journal de Montréal" who's been harmed by gun shots in real life by the bikers or the mob (i don't remember) in a parking lot in September 2000 to shut him up.
There is a few unconvincing scenes like the second gun shot scene at the beginning; a deputy minister organizing secret meetings with the police boss in a factory; Pierre Gauthier's (Michel Côté) daughter screaming and crying because her friend was killed, etc... Unnecessary flamboyant dialogues, sometimes boring, with some laughable twists and turns only for the sake of surprises and suspense. Unlike the TV series, the music (i'm a great fan of Michel Cusson) was forgettable and relayed in the background for atmospheric purpose, but still have the Cusson's vibe. The legendary musical theme is used only once but barely recognizable and the "Denise Deslongchamps's theme" is used as the main theme instead. To me it's like a Star Wars movie without the intro music, something is missing...
The end of the movie is open for a sequel, i don't know if they will, but i hope they won't do another one.
An average blockbuster full of clichés with almost no depth whatsoever. It seems more like a recipe to make money than a work of art in my opinion. You take a fine cuisine dish, throw it in the oven for about 10 years and you'll get a Mc Donald trio. It does the job but i was hungry again one hour later. I regret but in one word, forgettable.
Omertà, la loi du silence (1996)
Go see it now!!
This series fascinates me since the first time i saw it. The acting level is incredibly high, well written, the casting is amazing (except for few exceptions in season 3, in my opinion) well directed and even the music, by Michel Cusson, is totally awesome!! I've heard few cops and criminal experts describing this series as very accurate in terms of how the organized crime, finance sector, secret service and rotten politicians works together in Montreal (you just have to read the news these days). Much more than an average mafia vs biker series.
An undercover agent risking his life in a prison to get informations, a pedophile cop selling informations to the mob, an undercover agent killed by ____________, impossibles and shredded love affairs, bad blood between police colleagues, bad blood between capos, corrupted politicians and police bosses are a glimpse of what you will find in this captivating and realistic story.
My favorite is season 2. The new godfather Gino Favara (Ron Lea) steal 115 millions (and steal the show too!) from the New York mafia boss Carlo Lombardo (Louis Di Bianco) to buy gold from the Russians. He also tries to grab the financial structure of the famous rock star Rick Bonnard (David La Haye) to launder his money but he needs the collaboration of the financial genius Paul Spencer (Marc Messier) who's not willing to collaborate. He also have to deal with his alcoholic and out of control brother in law who happens to be one of his capo.
Season 3 is also excellent but i had few problems with Tony Potenzza (Paolo Noël) & Victoria Sogliuzzo (Geneviève Rochette) performances from time to time to be perfectly honest. But the rest is so top notch it compensate for a few unconvincing scenes. The story is build around a love affair between Nicky Balsamo (Romano Orzary) and Victoria Sogliuzzo.
In conclusion, Omertà is never boring, very addictive, complex, always realistic and down to earth series. Almost impossible to be disappointed. I've read that there's an English dubbed version but the one i have is in french only, unfortunately.
Changeling (2008)
A high level of drama
Wow, that was a hell of a movie!! I don't remember being angry like that while sitting on my couch. I'm not an Angelina Jolie fan at all but the acting in this film is excellent. Great cast and well directed.
The plot is very disturbing and i would have killed almost every cops in this story except one. You may want to watch it with a punching bag or a stress ball. A whole lot of cold hearted characters you will love to hate in this film.
The police trying to convince a mother that a lying boy is in "fact" her kidnapped child, how crazy is that?!! Where is Dirty Harry when we need him?!
I'm not a horror movie fan like "Saw" or "Chainsaw Massacre" or anything like that; THIS is a horror movie, emotionally speaking.
The score composed by Eastwood is sober and effective without taking all the place. It's not the kind of movie i will watch twice though because i found it emotionally exhausting due to an high level of drama and realism. Knowing that is a "true story" makes it even more shocking.
Good until the last drop.
Thank you M. Eastwood for another brilliant piece of art!!