Sunday, July 31, 2016

GHOSTBUSTERS - Remake of the 1984 Classic

Finally we have come to the last film of my movie marathon day experience which we saw at 7.15 PM. There was actually a reason for us to choose these 3 movies that we watched, as they were the movies which premiered since last week and we were worried if the films would no longer be shown in theaters next week since there will be new movies coming again. Anyway, let's get on with the story.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with the scene of an old mansion for tourists attraction with the guide telling a spooky story about a lady who was quite evil in her time and was locked in the basement until the day she died. At night, when the tourists have left, it appeared that the haunting was real and there were lots of supernatural activities which scared the life of the guide.

Scene moved to Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig - The Martian, Zoolander 2 etc) a physic professor who was approached by Ed Mulgrave and asking her help to solve the mansion's haunted problem since Erin was the author of a book about ghosts. Later she realized that it was due to her friend Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy - Identity Thief, Spy etc) who co-wrote this book had posted it online for commercial purpose. Erin tried to convince Abby to stop advertising the books as it would ruin her chance of tenure in the university. But Abby who now had Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon - Sisters, The Angry Bird Movie) as her new partner in scientific investigation on the ghosts matters would only stop if they were given access to the mansion.

So the 3 of them, using the equipments made by Jill went to the mansion and manage to capture the ghost on camera. After many hilarious moments involving Erin's boss as well as Abby's boss, Erin, Abby and Jill moved to a new place with cheap rent on the 2nd floor of a Chinese restaurant. They also recruited Kevin (Chris Hemsworth - Thor) as their new receptionist, and they were ready to start their business of catching ghosts.

Meanwhile, Patty (Leslie Jones) who worked at the subway station saw a ghost in the subway rail after she investigate a strange person who went down there. Patty with the help from the 3 ladies, went to the rail and found the ghost using the equipment Jill created. They tried to capture the ghost but the equipments were not fully tested yet so it got away.

Patty who now become interested in the ghost matter, applied to become member of the "club", where she provided a vehicle for the 4 of them. They were now known as "Ghostbusters" by people who saw them in youtube. But people were still skeptical, so they decided they must ensure a ghost was captured to prove doubters wrong.

Finally during a heavy metal concert where another ghost appeared, they did capture their first ghost. Unfortunately due to proving the famous skeptical paranormal activity analyst, the ghost got away. Things become even more complicated when the mayor of New York (veteran Andy Garcia) instructed the Ghostbusters to avoid panic in the city. They must agree to be seen as fraud and their ghost catching was actually hoax while the ghost catching would be done by professionals.

So can the Ghostbusters continue their work in New York? What was the actual plan of the person who seemed to be responsible in making the ghosts appeared? Find them all in this fun movie.

End of Brief Story Line

To our surprise, my wife and I actually did enjoy this movie. It was a funny movie and I think the audience love them too, as most of them laughed a lot during the movie. There were many funny scenes in the movie but perhaps the most memorable one for me was when Kevin was showing the possible logo for the Ghostbusters.

Despite the cast which consist of all ladies instead of guys from the original, I personally think they did the movie quite right. The story line was quite loyal to the original. In addition, the special effects were also good. There were more than 1 version of the Ghostbusters song played in this movie and I also love the song "Rhythm of the Night" by Debarge in the early part of the movie.

This was indeed a fun movie where the aim was to make us laugh. It gave us also the nostalgic feeling of the original with so many cameos from them such as Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson (3 of the original Ghostbusters). Too bad Harold Ramis has passed away in 2014 so he could not be making cameo performance. There were even the ghosts that appeared in the original movie such as Marshmallow and of course Slimer!

I think this movie maybe better suited for teens and above as the ghost characters even though they made them not too scary, but may not be good for younger kids. For those who loved the original, maybe can give this one a chance. It is not as bad as many people said. Oooh and there was a scene after end credit which would make sense if you have watched the originals. I guess the intention was to hint for a possible sequel. So be sure to remain seated on your chairs until the very end.

Happy watching!

Mike's Movie Moments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

SKIPTRACE - Jackie Chan's Latest Buddy Cop Comedy

As I indicated in my earlier post, I was having a rather wild movie marathon with 3 films in a day with my wife. What I am about to write would be the second movie of the day. We almost could not make it to this one due to so many people flocking to the cinemas to watch movies, making the queue very long. I guess with 5 new movies since last week to this week, there were so many options for people to watch any kind of movie they want. Anyway, with less than 5 minutes to the start of the movie, we finally managed to buy the tickets for this one which started at 5.05 PM.

Brief Story Line

Movie began with the scene of police detective Bennie Chan (Jackie Chan - no introduction required) unable to help his partner Yung who was strapped to a bomb with less than a minute before detonation. He was able to pass his watch to Bennie and asked him to take care of his daughter Samantha before throwing himself to the water where the bomb exploded. Feeling devastated, Bennie continued to try capturing "Matador" the villain responsible for his partner's death for the next 9 years. He suspected that Matador was actually a powerful and very rich person, Victor Wong (Winston Chao - The Wedding Banquet). With the assistance of 2 more junior detectives, Bennie were trying to capture Matador's right hand man, Handsome Willie (Korean star Yeon Jung-Hoon). The operation went haywire and Bennie was instructed by his captain Tang (Hong Kong star Michael Wong) to take personal leave for 1 month.

Star Trek Beyond - 3rd Installment of Star Trek Reboot

After quite some time of resolving personal family matters, I finally had the chance to start seeing some movies. In a way, it served as a refreshing for me and especially my wife who had to endure a very challenging past few weeks. We decided ourselves to just go and have some wild movie marathon day with not only our usual 2 movies in 1 day but 3 movies in roughly 8 hours span. Our first movie of the day was this one that started at 2 PM.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with the scene of Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) unsuccessfully trying to make peace between 2 alien races by providing an artifact as offering. He returned back to starship USS Enterprise where the artifact was kept in a storage place. All the previous crew were still around such as Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto), Leonard McCoy/Bones (Karl Urban), Lt. Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Sulu (John Cho), and Chekov (late Anton Yelchin).

It was highlighted that Kirk was feeling a bit confused of his future particularly when his birthday is nearing where he would be a year older than his late father (captain George Kirk/Chris Hemsworth) and perhaps bored with the life in the space as he had been out for 3 years of his dedicated 5 years assignment. He applied for a position as vice admiral in the space city Yorktown. However, when Enterprise was making a short stop in Yorktown, the Federation received a distress call from a small ship with Kalara (Lydia Wilson), the only survivor of her crew stranded in a planet inside Nebula galaxy. Enterprise being the only capable ship to make such trip to the unchartered location in that galaxy, was assigned with Kirk hoping to do 1 final assignment before settling down at Yorktown.

Ultimately Enterprise went to Nebula but when they reached the location near a planet, Enterprise was ambushed by a swarm of spaceships and it literally fell apart. Kirk had no choice but to ask all his crew to abandon ship. Unfortunately the enemies have been ready and they captured all the pods with the crews. Only very few were able to escaped.

Kirk managed to leave Enterprise with Chekov and Kalara. While Spock and Bones escaped using 1 of the enemy's space shuttle. Uhura, Sulu and the rest of the crews were captured by enemy who were led by Krall (Idris Elba - Thor, Pacific Rim, The Jungle Book etc) with his right hand man Manas (Indonesian Joe Taslim - The Raid, Fast & Furious 6). Meanwhile Scotty also barely escaped by himself and lucky for him, he was saved by a survivor on the planet, Jaylah (Sofia Boutella - Kingsman: The Secret Service). Knowing Scotty was an engineer, she asked Scotty's help to repair her house, which turned out to be the starship USS Franklin from more than 100 years before.

When Kirk and Chekov were trying to find out the reason for the attack, Spock and Bones were trying to find the rest of the survivors. Uhura and Sulu were also plotting to make escape plan.

So can all of the crew who were separated found each other? Can everyone be saved? What was the plan of Krall all along? Find them all in this interesting 2 hours space adventure.

End of Brief Story Line

I had quite enjoyable time watching this movie. My wife actually did enjoy it also but at some points, I noticed that she was quite bored, mostly during the conversations time. I understand that some of the action seeker would be hoping for more action scenes like in the previous 2 Star Trek installments. However, for me who was a huge fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series (not the original as I was not even born then), felt that the movie was more similar to the TV series (which was not full action, but more towards a mission to explore the new worlds, in a peaceful manner).

There were still some tense action scenes which was trademark of the director Justin Lin(Fast and Furious 3 -6), especially during the attack on USS Enterprise, and the escaping scenes, plus the finale scene. There were also few funny moments, usually involving Spock's very stiff style as the logical Vulcan, Bones and also with Scotty. We could also see the info on the demise of Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) which I believe was a tribute to him as the original Spock from original Star Trek TV series and movies. It also gave tribute to Anton Yelchin who just passed away few months before the premier of this movie. The special effects were also good.

My most memorable scene would be the attack on USS Enterprise which made it totally torn apart.

For those who are fans of Star Trek, I think this one is pretty good. While those who purely enjoy action, this may not be to your liking. There was no vulgar or sadistic scenes in this movie, so should be safe to be watched by younger generation, but it will definitely be too heavy for children.

If you want to watch a more loyal version of Star Trek in cinema, I hope you can enjoy this one. And I understand this will not be the final Star Trek movie as there will be a fourth one.

"Space the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its 5 year-mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before" : Captain Kirk.

Mike's Movie Moments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Koala Kumal - A Raditya Dika's Movie

It was exactly 2 weeks since my last experience watching movie in a theater. Due to some personal matter, I was unable to watch films in cinema. But last night, after reaching home quite late and going for dinner with my wife and her 2 nephews who live in the same apartment building with us, we decided to watch a movie playing there. It was a comedy film by Raditya Dika who was 1 of my wife's favorite book writer. Her nephew happened to be a fan of him as well. So let's get on with the story, shall we?

Brief Story Line

Film started with the scene of Dika (Raditya Dika) with his old friend (Tommy Limm) discussing about Dika's wedding plan with Andrea (Acha Septriasa). A lovely video clip was already prepared by Dika's friend showing Dika's love for Andrea, such as being ready to really fall for her, undying trust, even selling his own car to provide a pink mini cooper especially for her. All the wedding plans were also in place, including invitations given to friends and relatives. So it was very surprising when Dika was asked to meet Andrea in a restaurant, apparently only to be given a shocking news that she wanted to break up with him and cancel the wedding. And the reason was she was in love with someone else, James (Nino Fernandes), a rich doctor and a better looking guy than Dika.

One year later, Dika who was still broken heart and having writer's block was introduced by his mother (Cut Mini) to a woman. Dika escaped from her mother after he saw the woman was not his type. He later met Trisna (Sheryl Sheinafia), a college student who had her own book club and knew Dika as a book writer. She wanted him to be her guest in the next book discussion. After some "convincing" by Trisna, finally Dika agreed. There were some funny scenes during the book discussion. After accidentally meeting with Andrea and James in restaurant, Trisna decided that she would help Dika to get pass his broken heart condition cause she mentioned that she was also a person who was having a broken heart.

A lot of craziness happened when Trisna tried to help Dika, such as burning all the stuffs given by Andrea, going for a speed dating program where each man would be given few minutes to get to know each other, and then move to another person after the time's up. Last but not least, using an app in handphone to locate a woman who would be compatible to Dika. Needless to say, all the efforts failed spectacularly.

After all those efforts, Trisna was still adamant that she would help Dika to get "revenge" on James with few crazy stunts. Dika did not really approve of the stunts and later on regretted 1 thing which he felt was too much. Dika who was very upset of Trisna was very confused why Trisna insisted on helping him amend his broken heart. Dika's mother felt that it was due to Trisna has a feeling towards him.

So what was the real reason Trisna helping Dika? Can both of them amend their broken hearts? What would happen to James and Andrea? Find them all in this comedy and drama movie.

End of Brief Story Line

The four of us quite enjoyed the movie. It was having some funny moments and some touching moments as well. It was a light movie with brief surprise in the end and a heavy message about broken heart. However, I cannot help to have a feeling that this is a movie with specific kind of audience, i.e. Raditya Dika's fans who happen to be a lot. Those who are not his fans may find it difficult to enjoy the craziness of this movie. This is not to say that the movie is not enjoyable for all people, but just that some people may not be able to accept the humor. I believe it depends on the mood of the people.

If you are into a movie with some slapstick humor, some touching dramatic scenes and you want to listen to the songs from Sheryl Sheinafia (my wife among 1 of those), then you definitely can watch this movie. During the long Idul Fitri holiday, all Indonesian cinema chains only showed new Indonesian movies. This was the only comedy movie, so it would be a good variation if you wanted to avoid the teary eyes drama movies currently playing.

The movie also have some cameos notably Dede Yusuf (who was famous in 80s and 90s but currently more in politics) and veterans such as Hengky Soelaiman and Lydia Kandou. Looking at the cast names in the movie poster, I also noted the names were a lot, and I believe they were quite well known in Indonesian entertainment industry (which I cannot say I have the pleasure of knowing since I do not watch Indonesian TV soap operas). Anyway, I believe that as a newcomer, Sheryl provided quite a good acting and she does not seem out of place playing in a comedy role.

My most memorable scene would definitely be during the speed dating where so many "crazy" characters were thrown into 1 place and created many funny moments.

So if you were not 1 of those 1.2 million audience (and counting) who watched this movie by now, you still have a chance to watch it now before a flock of Hollywood movies start to invade the Indonesian cinemas again next week.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Note:
Raditya Dika is an author of several novels which have been adapted to movies (and usually written & directed by himself). Among those were Cinta Brontosaurus, Marmut Merah Jambu and Manusia Setengah Salmon. He also writes and manage his own blog where he has lots of readers and fans.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

(TV SERIES) Supergirl season 1 - The Super Heroine from DC Comics

I have heard about the intention of making this series for quite some time and when they finally made it and the early rating was quite good, I became excited and wanted to see it immediately. However, I also heard that somewhere in the middle, the rating dropped and there maybe a chance the series would discontinue after only 1 season. Luckily, another TV network agreed to pick this series up from second season onwards and we will get to see it continued after all. Otherwise, I may not give it a chance if it was abruptly stopped after only 1 season. So what is the story all about? Let's find out, shall we?

Brief Story Line

The pilot episode showed the background story which I believe everyone is aware, about Krypton planet going to be destroyed and baby Kal-El was sent to earth. Apparently there was another pod to be sent together where 12 year old Kara Zor-El (Kal-El's cousin) was sent off by her mother Alura and her father. She was supposed to take care of Kal-El but due to explosion of the planet, her pod was thrown and stuck in phantom zone for > 20 years until it finally reached earth. At that point, Kal-El had become Superman and he brought Kara to a family consisted of Jeremiah Danver (Dean Cain), Eliza (Helen Slater), and 14 year old Alex. They promised Superman to take care of Kara.

More than 10 years later, Kara was already grown up (played by Melissa Benoist - Glee TV series) and worked as personal assistant for a media queen named Cat Grant (Callista Flockhart - Ally Mc Beal TV series). She had a best friend Winn (Jeremy Jordan) who worked in IT Dept. One day, a new guy was recruited as head of Art department and apparently he was Jimmy Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) who previously worked in Daily Planet and was a good friend of Superman. Kara had a huge crush on Jimmy who would rather be called James. 

During one of her trips, Kara's sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) was on a plane that was having engine problem & on the verge of falling to National city. In that moment, Kara had to choose whether to hide her true powers or to save the plane with many people inside including her beloved sister. Kara ultimately helped to bring the plane safely to the waters and some passengers took pictures of her, but were all blurry. Alex really opposed to Kara's action as it would bring danger to her. Luckily nobody knew who she was. However, Kara who felt so good after saving the plane, could not wait to share it to her best friend Winn. He eventually helped Kara to create the suit. Meanwhile Cat Grant was very excited knowing there was a superhero in their city. She created the name SUPERGIRL for the superhero, without knowing that it was her assistant all along.

On the other hand, it turned out that Alex was actually working as agent in Department of Extra-normal Operation (DEO) whose purpose is to protect earth from possible aliens attack. The director was Hank Henshaw (David Harewood) who was very strict towards Alex and did not really trust Supergirl to be able to handle the pressure. We found out that when Kara's pod reached the earth, it also attracted Fort Rozz, the prison in phantom zone which held up the most dangerous criminals in Krypton. And when it landed to earth, all the prisoners escaped, bringing danger to earth. One of DEO's task was to apprehend all these criminals who had great powers on earth. 

Apart from having to face villains, Supergirl also had the support of Martial Manhunter aka J'onn J'onzz and some other allies. Other noteworthy characters in season 1 included Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli), a wealthy billionaire who was skeptic about Supergirl and aliens on earth might be invading earth using their powers, Lucy Lane (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) the younger sister of Lois Lane and girlfriend of James Olsen, and of course Astra (Laura Benanti), the twin sister of Kara's mother with her husband Non (Chris Vance) who had the ambition to rule the whole planet.

The whole first season would show us the struggle of Kara becoming a superhero and how to juggle with her work as the PA to Cat Grant who was a great supporter of Supergirl but also suspicious of Kara as the alter ego. Supergirl also had to fight the criminals from phantom zone, and other super villains, even herself due to exposed by red kryptonite. So can Supergirl overcome all the challenges and become the good superhero like she wanted to be? Watch them all in this 20 episodes of 1st season with the season finale which would make us intrigued and cannot wait till the start of 2nd season.

End of Brief Story Line

Well I had quite fun watching this series. It really gave the feeling of comic book adaptation and the special effects were surprisingly good for TV series. There were also a lot of humorous scenes especially involving Winn and Kara's daily job at CatCo. However, I could not help to feel that the series was giving the aura of feminism coz it focused on Kara as super heroine, supported by kick-ass sister Alex Danver, and mentored by Cat Grant. Also the story focused quite a lot on their relationships and love triangles which made the series become even lighter. 

I felt that the introduction of another superhero from DC comics added a nice element of fun in episode 18. There were also some DC villains such as Livewire, Silver Banshee, Indigo (Brainiac 8) and others. In addition, I think it's cool for the producer to cast some of actors/actresses that previously act in DC comic adaptations like Dean Cain (Superman in Lois & Clark TV series), Helen Slater (1984 Supergirl movie), even Laura Vandervort (Supergirl in Smallville TV series). Perhaps later they can cast Tom Welling? Who knows?

Anyway, if you are interested in watching light super heroine series and if you want to see later potentially Supergirl fight alongside other DC superheroes from the other shows playing in CW television network, such as Arrow and The Flash (Arrowverse), then this one would certainly suits you. I even heard that the second season would have Superman in it, which would certainly makes the series even more exciting.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out 5 stars

Note:
Arrowverse is the term used to represent the universe where certain DC comics characters can crossover such as Green Arrow, The Flash, Atom, and of course their villains as well.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

The Legend of Tarzan - The Ape Man's Different Portrayal

Finally another night of watching new movie that premiered on the first day. After my wife and I finished our very hectic and emotionally draining day, both of us really needed to entertain ourselves. So it was decided we were going to watch this movie, despite having the seats at the most right position in the middle rows as opposed to our favorite location in top row and in the middle. After few trailers and commercials, the film started 10 minutes late, which seem to be the pattern nowadays for this cinema chain. Anyway let's get on with the story. For those who are still not accustomed to my blog, the story line is the part whereby some people can opt to read or pass as it may contain spoilers (though I always tried my very best to avoid putting up any).

Brief Story Line

The film started with narration of African Congo which was under the control of Belgium where King Leopold had assigned Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained, Spectre etc) to look for Opar stones, very worthy diamond found only in Congo. During this trip, Rom was accompanied by lots of soldiers and they were offered unlimited resources of Opar stones in exchange of bringing back Tarzan to the native's leader Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond, The Vatican Tapes etc).