A Complete Review of McG's work

Cast : Judah Lewis, Samara Weaving, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, Leslie Bibb

What was it about?
Two years after Cole survived a satanic blood cult, he's living another nightmare: high school. And the demons from his past? Still making his life hell.

My two cents:
Maybe because I had such low expectations but, to be honest, I thought it was not bad after all and I actually enjoyed it more than its predecessor. Indeed, back then, I understood more or less what they tried to achieve with ‘The Babysitter’ but, as far as I was concerned, the end-result turned out to be rather lame. However, with this sequel, I thought that they finally nailed the tone though. Of course, some of the jokes were still pretty weak but some of them were also really spot-on and seriously funny. The best example would be when Cole went to Dr. Big Carl McManus advising him that getting laid would pretty much solve all his problems. I thought that Judah Lewis was also more fun and more convincing this time around. In fact, I have to admit that I thought the character had been recast and it was only afterwards that I realized it was still the same actor which shows how much ‘The Babysitter’ had left an everlasting impression on me…. Still, even if it better worked with this sequel, I still think that the concept was not really amazing or then it still needed to be more properly developed to become really interesting. For example, if the gang of killers with John, Max, Allison and Sonya was much more fun this time around, some of other characters like Phoebe and Bee didn’t work so well though. Furthermore, I understand that they wanted to bring some kind of closure during the 3rd act but it turned out to be a self-serious and barely entertaining drag.

My rating: 06/10

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Cast : a bunch of annoying kids

What was it about?
Four misfit campers must band together and conquer their fears in order to save the world during an alien invasion.

My two cents:
Well, that’s not with this movie that McG will improve his poor reputation, that’s for sure. I guess it might be slightly more enjoyable for kids around 12 years but I was just bored by the damned thing. In fact, I always hated summer camps so the concept actually had some potential but, unfortunately, they chose such a boring and generic approach. On top of that, the CGI was pretty ugly and it wasn’t much better than what you would get from a ‘Resident Evil’ video-game but that wasn't even the biggest issue here. Indeed, to make things worse, all the kids involved were just pretty weak, except for the black boy who was not bad but he wasn’t helped by the fact that his character was very often rather obnoxious. And what was the deal with these Chinese girl?!? I mean, she was very cute but, if I understand correctly, she was an orphan who came all the way to the US to join some summer camp but why?!? And how did she get the money for such a journey? Maybe I did miss something but, to be honest, I don’t really care.

My rating: 05/10

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Cast : Judah Lewis, Samara Weaving, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, Leslie Bibb

What was it about?
The events of one evening take an unexpected turn for the worst for a young boy trying to spy on his babysitter.

My two cents:
First of all, most of the promotional material on Netflix was focusing on Bella Thorne and since it took forever before she showed up, I was wondering if I was maybe watching the wrong movie but she had after all a rather minor part so it was rather misleading. A bigger issue was that it took this movie forever to really start which was even more problematic since it was actually rather short. Eventually, in my opinion, the concept was just too thin so most of the first half was some really slow and rather tedious introduction. Then, at last, the mayhem started but it was all rather generic and while this new set of characters was interesting, there was no time to properly develop them so all that was left was a succession of scenes supposedly gruesome and/or funny but it never became really entertaining. At least, I have to admit that I really liked the scene towards the end when the main character crashed his neighbour's car into his own house which was pretty awesome and completely unexpected but, unfortunately, that was pretty much the only scene that really worked for me.

My rating: 05/10

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Cast : Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen

What was it about?
A dying CIA agent trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter is offered an experimental drug that could save his life in exchange for one last assignment.

My two cents:
I didn't even know this before watching this movie but it was actually another action flick written by Luc Besson. This time, instead of working with his usual obscure French directors (Pierre Morel, Olivier Megaton, Gérard Krawczyk,...), he was working with McG, a fairly famous (but not very talented) US director. Well, I always had a hard time to care about those action movies produced and written by Besson but this might be the worse one I have seen so far. Of course, it would be easy to blame McG but I think the biggest issue is that it was just really poorly written. I mean, there were a couple of good ideas but most of it was really derivative or just didn't work at all. First of all, like many other Besson productions, most of the action was taking place in Paris and, yet, barely no one was speaking French. Concerning the plot, it was just too similar to 'Taken' which was already rather overrated in my opinion. Then, why Amber Heard's character kept changing looks throughout the whole thing? Seriously, it seemed that Besson spent even less this time than usual on this script as it felt all really random and poorly developed.

My rating: 05/10

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Cast : Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Til Schweiger, Abigail Spencer, Angela Bassett

What was it about?
C.I.A. operatives wage an epic battle on each other when they discover they are dating the same woman.

My two cents:
Well, even if this movie had slightly more potential than McG's usual work, it wasn't really much better, I'm afraid. In fact, it was even worse than that as there was barely anything that really did work here. First of all, it was really hard to believe that a girl like Reese Witherspoon would need a dating site to find a guy. Then, I felt really sorry for Tom Hardy, one of the most talented actors of his generation, as the guy seemed to be completely lost here (he himself admitted that he really regretted taking part in this movie). At least, Chris Pine did manage to find the right tone but it was certainly not enough to save this movie. I mean, it was more messed up than entertaining to see this girl dating 2 guys at the same time. And what about the fact that these 2 spies deciding to put all their agency's resources to actually spy on this girl? On top of that, to make things worse, she eventually chose the least worthy of them at the end.

My rating: 05/10

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Cast : Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Helena Bonham Carter, Anton Yelchin, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common

What was it about?
In 2018, a mysterious new weapon in the war against the machines, half-human and half-machine, comes to John Connor on the eve of a resistance attack on Skynet. But whose side is he on, and can he be trusted?

My two cents:
First of all, even though this movie has a rather lame reputation, I actually think it is easily, obviously after 'Terminator 2', the most interesting sequel in this franchise. Indeed, there were actually some good stuff in this flick. First of all, it was a really good idea to move the story in the future and remove the time travelling gimmick. Furthermore, the whole thing looked very good and there were some cool action scenes. And finally, there was a pretty neat cast. Unfortunately, I have to admit it, not everything did work though. Indeed, the main issue was that the story was rather confusing and it didn't really make much sense. In fact, it is not really a surprise because each time there is a Terminator flick, the story becomes more and more illogical and this last installment was really a mess, even after removing the time travelling concept. The other thing that really bothered me were the dialogues as they were rather lame and they made me even laugh a couple of times which was obviously not the intention. Anyway, even though they eventually failed because they focused way too much on the action scenes and not enough on the story and the characters, I still think it was an interesting attempt to try something really different with this franchise.

My rating: 06/10

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Cast : Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Anthony Mackie, David Strathairn, Ian McShane, Kate Mara, January Jones

What was it about?
When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.

My two cents:
Back in those days, pretty much like McG, Matthew McConaughey had a rather lousy reputation and this movie was one of the very few which wasn’t a lame romantic-comedies during which McConaughey would loose his shirt half-way through. Anyway, how was this flick after all? First of all, this story really had some potential as it was dealing with a huge trauma for this (American) football team, for this school, even for the whole town. Unfortunately, the makers barely went into the psychological turmoil involved and, at the end of the day, it was still a rather pedestrian and predictable sport feature. I mean, as usual, you had a multitude of characters with their own subplots and it gave an excuse for the makers to avoid spending too much time with one character and instead they kept jumping from one to another and eventually, all those plots were pretty much half-baked. The other thing that bothered me was that, even though it was a sport feature, it was not about competition, winning, trophies and that kind of stuff. It was more about a community and how they tried to deal with grief and yet, they felt compelled to add a big game at the end during which Marshall won as the underdog. Of course, it was uplifting and I must admit that McG directed some really nice football scenes but it wasn’t what the story was supposed to be about. Still, it remains a decent sport flick with indeed some uplifting bits.

My rating: 06/10

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Cast : Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Bernie Mac, Crispin Glover, Justin Theroux, Robert Patrick, Demi Moore, Rodrigo Santoro, Shia LaBeouf, Matt LeBlanc, Luke Wilson, John Cleese

What was it about?
The Angels investigate a series of murders which occur after the theft of a witness protection profile database.

My two cents:
Obviously, I wasn’t expecting much from this sequel but, to be honest, I thought it was not so bad after all. Actually, the most frustrating thing about this flick is that McG managed to make this sequel while he wasn’t able to make one after ‘Terminator Salvation’. I mean, of course, ‘Terminator Salvation’ was rather disappointing but there was some great potential to create a terminator story in the future and they could have developed this with some future sequels. Anyway, coming back to our main future, since the first installment was quite successful, of course, they had to come up with a 2nd installment and, in my opinion, it was not better or worse than the 1st movie. Indeed, it was pretty daft with some silly action scenes but, in contrary to the dreadful ‘Starky & Hutch’ starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, it was still watchable. At least, those 3 ladies (Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu) really seemed to have fun while doing this. For Demi Moore, it was back then only her 2nd movie in 7 years and I thought she was a good choice for this part.

My rating: 05/10

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Cast : Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Bill Murray, Sam Rockwell, Kelly Lynch, Tim Curry, Crispin Glover, Matt LeBlanc, LL Cool J, Tom Green, Luke Wilson

What was it about?
Three women, detectives with a mysterious boss, retrieve stolen voice-ID software, using martial arts, tech skills, and sex appeal.

My two cents:
To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie but since it was nothing really amazing, I don’t think it is really worth a 2nd watch. Still, I have always had some mixed feelings about the damned thing. Basically, on one hand, it has a rather lame reputation and it is a rather moronic action flick but, on the other hand, I have seen much worse and the over-the-top approach actually had some potential. Indeed, the TV-show was nothing really serious to start with so to have some fun with this concept was not a bad idea. As a result, you get to see Bill Murray who was really fun and the guy was just a perfect choice to play John Bosley. Unfortunately, even though Murray was probably the best thing in this movie, he had apparently a major argument with Lucy Liu during the making of this movie so he didn’t show up for the sequel. Indeed, even though this movie was trashed when it was released, they still came up with a sequel which would be even more poorly received. Still, since the recent reboot directed by Elizabeth Banks and the short-lived TV-show reboot made back then in 2011 were both some massive flops, I wonder if we shouldn't reevaluate this version since it was at least fairly successful at the box-office?

My rating: 05/10

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