Friday, March 31, 2017

Ghost in the Shell - Another Adaptation of Popular Japanese Manga Series

I saw the trailer to this movie since more than 2 weeks ago and it truly intrigued me as an interesting futuristic kind of science fiction action movie. Originally my wife and I planned to see this on its premiere date on Wednesday. But due to my work related matter, we were only able to finally see it yesterday. We decided to see this one in one of the nearest cinema from my office at 7PM and as usual still managed to have our light dinner first. Well let us get on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

The film was set in the future where everything in the world seemed to be using technology that could enhance the body with whatever needs required, such as enhancing liver (just to be able to drink lots of beers), or implanting other body parts. There were also robots used for various purposes including servings in the form of geisha. In this period of time, Hanka Robotics was one of the leader in such technology. 

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Smurfs: The Lost Village - The First 3D Animated Movie of the Cute Smurfs

As usual, when a movie related to the very cute smurfs would be playing, my wife and I would definitely allocate our time to see this one in the theater. Especially since we have watched the previous 2 Smurf movies in cinema as well. It was a good thing that the movie premiered on a public holiday in Indonesia so we were able to see this one without the challenges we usually faced when watching on weekday due to my office schedule's unpredictability and my wife's busy food tasting events. After spending some time going to a new coffee shop that my wife wanted to try, we went to Senayan City to see the movie. So let us start with the film itself.

Brief Story Line

Smurfette (Singer Demi Lovato) was feeling unsure about her role in the Smurfs village. Each and every smurf had his own specialty, such as Brainy smurf (Danny Pudi - Community TV series) obviously the smart smurf, Hefty smurf (Joe Manganiello - Magic Mike, True Blood TV series etc) who was very strong, or Clumsy smurf (Jack McBrayer - 30 Rock TV series) who was very clumsy, even other smurfs like Jokey, Nosey, Grouchy, Farmer and so on. But Smurfette did not have any clarity of her specialty.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale

Yesterday, after having my weekend staycation with my wife, we had some vacant time at around 4 pm and were juggling between going home to spend our evening or to go and see another movie. This anime movie had been promoted in the social media for few weeks but since I was not familiar with the series, I was a bit doubtful of whether to see it or not. However, when I saw the positive reactions of various people (and also the high rating), I was a bit intrigued. Therefore, we decided to go see this movie at CGV in the 4DX theater. Apparently there was some kind of promotion where the ticket for this cinema was almost half the normal price. Naturally we wanted to try experiencing the 4DX effects (we only tried that once when it first open many years ago). Anyway, let us get on with the story now, shall we?

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the year 2026 with brief explanation on the history of Sword Art Online (SAO) game played by many gamers using a NerveGear equipment to enter into the virtual reality world where the players can fight monsters, get to know other gamers and so on. Kirito (voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka) was the number 1 player there but semi retired to the gaming world after that game was shut down. He did however still get together with other "survivors" like his love interest Asuna (Haruka Tomatsu), Lisbeth (Ayahi Takagaki) and Silica (Rina Hidaka). 

Saturday, March 25, 2017

LIFE- A Good Old Fashion Alien Kind of Movie

The trailer to this movie had been shown in the cinemas for a couple of weeks now. When the movie finally premiered on Wednesday, it coincided with another movie that we had been wanting to see for quite sometime, i.e Power Rangers and we decided to see that one first. As we would be busy with our staycation this weekend, we only have the time to see this yesterday and my wife bought the ticket for 7.15 PM show at Setiabudi. After finishing my work which took longer time than I anticipated, I was able to reach the location 20 minutes from time. So let us start with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

In the most expensive international space station in history which was orbiting outside the earth, its six crew members were given the task of handling and analyzing the life form found in planet Mars. This life form was the first proof of an extraterrestrial life and therefore it garnered the attention from the whole world. 

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Power Rangers - The 21st Century Reboot of Popular 1990s Kids TV series

My wife and I got to know that this movie would be playing in Indonesia in March 2017. However, we did not have a clue when it was supposed to play as the Indonesian cinema chains' social medias did not clearly indicate when it would premier. Then suddenly a tweet from Cinema 21 mentioned it would start playing on 22 March. Apparently the movie only played in this cinema chain. No wonder there was not a lot of news surrounding it. Anyway, we decided to watch this film first rather than another movie that also premiered on the same day (which I would see that one probably on Friday). So we will go straight to the movie, then.

Brief Story Line

Jason Scott (Dacre Montgomery) was a high school student with bright future ahead of him. But due to some incident related to a prank, he was punished to go to detention class for the rest of the year and no longer allowed to play football. This made his father (David Denman - 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi) very upset. During his detention period, he befriended with an autistic student named Billy (RJ Cyler - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl). There was also another girl in detention named Kimberly (Naomi Scott - The 33, Terra Nova TV series etc).

Sunday, March 19, 2017

The Invitation - An Overrated Overly Long Psychological Mystery Thriller

Yesterday noon after dropping my mom to the airport and accompanying my wife to a food tasting function, we moved to another mall in Central Park which coincidentally having 1 of the only few remaining cinemas that still showed this movie. I was interested in seeing this one but it was so difficult as it was only playing in 2 cinema chains and even those were only at a few theaters. It had been playing for a little over a week now, and I was very fortunate I still managed to get the ticket for 3.30PM show at 3.35PM (I think the ticket purchase model where audience could also buy food at the same booth was not too efficient. I believe a separate booth for buying tickets and snacks would be much better. But that's only my opinion). Anyway, let us get on to the movie itself, shall we?

Brief Story Line

After 2 years of separation, Will (Logan Marshall-Green - Prometheus etc) went back to his old house where he used to be married to his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard - Moneyball, Into the Woods etc). He got the invitation from her who wanted to have a reunion with a group of their best friends. Will went together with his current girl friend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi - Middle of Nowhere, Addicted etc).

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Beauty and the Beast - The Beautiful Live Version of 1991 Disney's Classic Animated Movie

I have known about this movie going to play in Indonesia since early this year and my wife had been reminding me many times that we should watch this one when it premiered. Last week, we found out that the movie would be playing on 17 March onwards. It's a good thing that we already have the card that would allow us to buy the tickets online, so we were able to buy it since last week and chose our favorite seats in the nearest cinema from our home. After passing through some surprisingly heavy traffic, I reached the location almost at the start of the movie. Without further ado, let's continue with the movie.

Brief Story Line

In a small village in France, lived a young girl named Belle (Emma Watson - as Hermione in Harry Potter film series) who loved to read books and was being ridiculed by the village people for it. She lived with her father Maurice (Kevin Kline - A Fish Called Wanda, Definitely, Maybe etc) who was working as a music box inventor. The village's most famous bachelor Gaston (Luke Evans - Fast & Furious 6, The Hobbit trilogy etc) was very much interested in marrying Belle as he believed she was the only one compatible with his handsome looks. He was always accompanied by his best friend/sidekick LeFou (Josh Gad - The Angry Birds and as Olaf in Frozen) who was very supportive of Gaston.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

KONG: Skull Island - Reboot of One of the Most Iconic Monster of All Time

This is another film that has caught our attention for the past month or so. It was telling the story of one of the most iconic monster for many decades, i.e King Kong. In addition, the trailer to the movie that has been playing for many weeks added an element of excitement and buzz which made my wife and I very enthusiastic to watch it. Which is why when the movie premiered yesterday, my wife had immediately bought the tickets in the morning via online. It was actually the first time we used online mode to buy tickets to a movie. A little bit late, right? But better late than never. Anyway, we shall start with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

It was 1973 when the US government had just stopped the Vietnam war and decided to pull out all their armies from Vietnam back to the US. Randa (John Goodman - 10 Cloverfield LanePatriots Day etc) an agent of Monarch which was a secret government body, and his colleague Brooks (Corey Hawkins - Straight Outta Compton, 24: Legacy TV series etc) who was a geologist, were able to convince the senator to have an expedition in a new found island in the Pacific ocean. The island was called Skull Island and was hidden all this time due to heavy rain and storm surrounding it.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Fabricated City - One of the Coolest Korean Action Movie

The second of my Asian movie marathon day with my wife yesterday was a Korean action movie which I saw the trailer online and got me very intrigued. As I have mentioned sometime ago, I am actually not a Korean movie fan and I only started to see few Korean movies from 1 or 2 years ago. Even then, I tend to be very choosy in determining what movie that I want to see. At the moment, I am more interested in seeing action movie such as this one. So let's move on to the movie itself.

Brief Story Line

Kwon Yu (Ji Chang-wook - Smile Again, Healer TV series) was a former Taekwondo athlete who due to some reasons did not continue his career in sports and ended up as an unemployed person. He still lived with his single mother who worked as a nurse. As he had got nothing to do, Kwon Yu always played online video game most of the time. He was very good in it and was like the leader of a team that consisted of few other people. 

Museum - Adaptation of Psychological Thriller Mystery Manga

Yesterday, my wife and I were having 1 of those movie marathon day. It was not like our usual marathon where the movies were Hollywood blockbuster, but instead, we watched a Japanese movie and another Korean movie (which I am going to write later) . So it was more like an Asian movie marathon. Anyway, based on the synopsis, the movie seemed to be interesting as it was a thriller mystery movie. Ok, we will move on to the story now.

Brief Story Line

Detective Hisashi Sawamura (Shun Oguri) of the Tokyo Police Department was being called to a crime scene somewhere inside a sewer. There he met with his young partner Nishino (ShÅ«hei Nomura) who was vomiting due to the gruesomeness of the victim's body. After looking through the location, it was found out that there was a piece of paper with some writing about punishment for stranding dog. 

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Max Steel - The Origin Story of Action Toy Figure from Mattel

After premiering for 3 days, my wife and I finally got the chance to see this movie. We never did saw the trailer to the film, but based on the very brief synopsis, and the poster to the movie, it seemed quite interesting. Furthermore, since we already saw the new movie LOGAN which was released on Wednesday, there was no other new movie that we have not seen in this cinema chain. As the movie only played in few theaters, we chose to see it in the cinema not far from our home. Well let us get on with the movie, shall we? 

Brief Story Line

A 16 year old high school student Max McGrath (Ben Winchell) had been moving around for many times with his mother Molly (Maria Bello - Lights Out, A History of Violence etc) and finally reached the town where he was born. It was shown that Max' hand was emitting some kind of energy that could disturb his handphone and his TV. In his new school, Max accidentally met with a girl named Sofia (Ana VillafaƱe - Broadway Musical titled On Your Feet!) who seemed to take an interest on Max.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

LOGAN - The End of One of Most Interesting Portrayal of Marvel's Superhero

This movie had been creating a lot of buzz since last year. My wife and I were looking forward to see this one since the past month when the trailer to the movie was started to be shown in the cinemas. When the movie premiered yesterday, I happened to be having a banking event at Kota Kasablanka. Therefore we decided to see the movie there and luckily enough, the movie was playing in the theater with Dolby Atmos sound system. Since the movie was having more than 2 hours duration, it started at 6PM instead of the usual 7-ish time that we would normally see a movie. So let's get on to the story now.

Brief Story Line

The movie was told in the year 2029 when the total of mutants seemed to be decreasing over the years and not even a single new mutant was heard for many years. Logan aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman - no need for introduction here) had aged significantly through out the years. He seemed to be sick and not able to heal himself as fast as he used to be. Working as a limousine driver, he tried to save enough money to buy a boat so he could go out and retire peacefully.