"The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" [fr="L'attaque du métro 123"] ~ 4/10

There was a time, back in the eighties, where action movies, although featuring worse special effects than today, were sometimes realistic enough to somehow deserve our appreciation. Even though it was a bit too spectacular to be realistic, for one cop on holiday (and without shoes !) to take down himself all of the bad guys in a skyscraper, a masterpiece like "Die Hard" had everything to please its audience (good actors, good story, good humor, and a very efficient direction).
Why, then, does a gifted director like Tony Scott (brother of the great Ridley) always use such bad screenplays for his movies ? I am still astonished to think that "Domino" was directed by him, and written by Richard Kelly ("Donnie Darko" writer and director).
Now, "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" is not completely bad but the story just doesn't fit any reality, and there are those unbearable moving camera shots which only prove the lack of inspiration of the director in some scenes... Too bad this one was not directed by one Andrzej Bartkowiak !

"G-Force" [fr="Mission-G"] ~ 4/10

Not a very interesting movie (except maybe for Bill Nighy and the voicing actors), although there are a few spectacular action scenes. The end tends to get a bit fast, as is the way they beat the bad guy.

"Bandslam" [fr="College Rock Stars"] ~ 4/10

Cinema always is a lie, in a way or another. However, a movie with good intentions about music cannot just make us believe that pop crap with no soul, nor rythm, nor even a good bass, might actually be called rock music (yeah, I know, that is most producers' and radio broadcasters' job to lie about this !), and make people rock or roll on it.
Like every Hollywood teenage movie, this one is featuring a dichotomy between who is popular and who is not in the high school, who has already a girlfriend and who has not, who is beautiful (thus void), and who is unable to socialize because they are way too smart and 'artistic' for the regular highschool teenager. The plot is unorignal and the story lame and obvious, like you could see it come without even watching the trailer of this shit.
Yet it is a shame, for there actually are a few very good things too ! Some good gags, some good dialogs, some good emotions...

But what about David Bowie watching the lame song performed by the young characters at the end and claiming he likes it ? There perhaps ought to be a limit to Hollywood foolishness, sometimes.

PS : how in the world did they come up with such a lousy 'french' title ("College Rock Stars", that is to say not even in french) ? It is likely that they made a confusion between "high school", "college", and "collège" (french for "secondary school")... Lousy translation for a lousy movie !

"La véritable histoire du Chat Botté" ~ 4/10

Despite the rather cool cast of voices, this movie is only funny for children, and somewhat lacks of what some animation movies often - ironically - lack : dynamics.

"Safari" ~ 4/10

Funny for children. Lionel Abelanski is still the same good actor.

"Marley & Me" [fr = "Marley & Moi"] ~ 4/10

Funny, and a good message about a dog's love.

"The horsemen" [fr = "Les Cavaliers de l'Apocalypse"] ~ 4/10

The regular psycho-serial-killer-investigation flick...

"Tellement proches" ~ 4/10

Nothing especially original in this completely "France Television"-esque family comedy.
Toledano & Nakache's first short films were way better, and their previous feature film ("Je préfère qu'on reste amis") too... The actors are good and funny also in this one, though.