Friday, April 28, 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 - The Sequel to Those Unusual Marvel Superhero in the Galaxy

After premiering for 1 day in Indonesia (which was still 1 week earlier than the US premiere date), my wife and I saw this movie last night. Just like during the premiere week of The Fate of the Furious, most theaters were showing this movie. We saw it in Lotte Avenue where it was playing in 4 out of 6 theaters. It was amazing how the Indonesian cinema chains pampered us with this kind of arrangement. I guess there were more and more people coming to see movies nowadays. Anyway, let us get on with the movie. 

Brief Story Line (Spoiler warning!)

Movie started with the Guardians led by Peter Quill (Chris Pratt - Jurassic World, Passengers etc) and his partners Gamora (Zoe Saldana - Avatar, Star Trek trilogy etc), Rocket (Voiced by Bradley Cooper - American Sniper, The Hangover trilogy etc), Drax (Dave Bautista - Riddick, Spectre etc) and last but not least baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) were tasked to protect some important batteries for the Sovereign people. After completing the task, the Sovereign's leader Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki - The Great Gatsby, Everest etc) was quite happy and released Nebula (Karen Gillan - The Big Short, Doctor Who TV series etc) to their hands. In case you do not remember, Nebula was the half sister of Gamora who was one of the villain in Volume 1 and was always competitive with Gamora.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

(TV SERIES) Scorpion Season 1 - A Team of Geniuses To Save The World

As I was accompanying my wife while she was writing her blog during the last long weekend holiday, I went through some TV series that I could watch via online streaming and I stumbled into this one. I remembered seeing a list of series that would be returning in 2016 and I read about this series with its premise of a team of geniuses that had to save the world. Sounds promising, right? So why don't we go direct to the series now?

Brief Story Line

The pilot episode introduced us with a genius person who was working on some wireless problem in a diner named Walter O'Brien (Elyes Gabel - A Most Violent Year, Body of Proof TV series etc). The diner was a place that he would regularly goes where he noticed a waitress named Paige (Katharine McPhee - The House Bunny, Shark Night 3D and runner up 2006 American Idol) who was taking care of her quiet boy named Ralph (Riley B. Smith). 

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Aftermath - An Arnold Schwarzenegger Drama Movie Inspired by True Events

A film that had Arnold Schwarzenegger playing usually quite interest me. He was one of my favorite action star in the 1980s and 1990s but since he became the governor of California, there were very few of his films. And unfortunately it was no longer action movies. The premise of the movie was drama, so I was not sure whether to watch it or not. But since it was the only film premiering yesterday and after I asked my wife to see if she was interested, she was quite convinced that the movie would be to her liking. And so we went to the cinema nearest our home in Setiabudi and saw it at 7.15 PM. Well here goes the movie.

Brief Story Line

Roman Melnyk (Arnold Schwarzenegger - Terminator series, Commando, True Lies and many more) was a construction worker who was looking forward to meet his wife and daughter to come home from their trip. He left work early so he could pick them up in the airport.

Friday, April 21, 2017

(TV SERIES) Legion Season 1 - A Very Unique X-Men Superhero Series

I had seen the promotion trailer to this TV series few weeks ago and I noticed it was based on X-Men from Marvel. So it should be interesting to see it. Two weeks ago, I found out from my wife's nephew that the series was already completed as it was only having 8 episodes. I decided then it would be easy to finish off the first season and see what the fuzz was all about. Here goes.

Brief Story Line

The pilot episode started with the introduction of David Haller (Dan Stevens - Beauty and the Beast, Downton Abbey TV series etc) from the very young age till the time he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to nervous breakdown and diagnosed as schizophrenic. He was sometimes visited by his older sister Amy (Katie Aselton - The Gift) who obviously loved him very much and wanted him to be healed.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

The Neighbor - A Better Than Expected Suspense Thriller Movie

It was a a day of election for Jakarta governor for the second round yesterday, and hence it was also a holiday in Jakarta. My wife and I were enjoying our free time after we cast our votes and I saw that this movie started to premier. As I noticed that it was a thriller movie with interesting premise, I asked my wife whether she would like to accompany me watching it. After she read the synopsis from a movie website, she decided to see it too. So I immediately bought the tickets in Plaza Semanggi and was lucky enough that I could still got them despite a very long queue, obviously for people to see The Fate of The Furious. Now let us move on to the film.

Brief Story Line

A young couple of John (Josh Stewart- The Finest Hours, Transcendence etc) and Rosie (Alex Essoe) were enjoying life at a small town called Cutter where they were working for John's uncle named Neil (Skipp Sudduth - Flawless, Ronin etc). John was thinking of doing one last assignment for Neil and then leave the city for good.

Friday, April 14, 2017

The Guys - Another Raditya Dika's Heavier Comedy Movie

Yesterday night, my wife and I were invited to a food tasting event by a very nice couple who owned a famous restaurant in Bali (more on that in my wife's blog). As the event started at 9 PM, we had some extra time prior to that so we decided to see this movie first which started at 7PM in the mall very near the location and happened to be easily accessible from my office. We have actually noticed that the movie started to premier on the 13th of April and it was just nice timing that we could see it then. Now what is the movie all about?

Brief Story Line

Alfi (Raditya Dika - HangoutKoala Kumal etc) was an employee of a creative agency who had big goals in life, one of them being a boss. In the office, he had 3 best friends who lived together in a rented house. The first was Rene (Marthino Lio) who had an on and off relationship with his girlfriend. The second one was Aryo (standup comedian Indra Jegel) who never had any relationship with a girl. And the third was a Thailand expatriate named Sukun (Phongsiree Bunluewong) who was given a company car that he used to drive all around with all of them.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

The Fate of The Furious - Another Nonstop Action Movie and the Latest Installment of the Series

This is one of the must see movie of the year for me and my wife which was announced to be premiering on 12 April 2017. Due to the hype that the movie was having, all cinema chains in Indonesia informed that we could purchase the tickets in advance starting from 8 April. My wife and I immediately decided to see it on its first day. However, due to a seminar that I had to attend to on that day, I was worried that I could not make it to the 6 or 6.30PM shows in our favorite theaters. So we opted to buy the 9.15PM show in the cinema nearest to our place which would take least time for us to go home. Well now, why don't we go to the movie itself?

Brief Story Line

Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel - Riddick series, xXx and many others) were having his honeymoon with his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez - Machete Kills, Smurfs: The Lost Village etc) in Cuba. There, Dom met with a mysterious lady whom later on revealed to be called Cipher (Charlize Theron - The Devil's Advocate, Mad Max: Fury Road etc). She was able to convince Dom to help her doing something bad.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

(TV SERIES) Elementary Season 1 - Another Adaptation of Sherlock Holmes

As I was browsing through the TV series that might interest me, I noticed that I had not seen this one at all despite it has been running for the fifth season now. Which would translate to a good series and attracted a lot of viewers (US TV producers tend to be very vicious when deciding which series to continue or stop, which would depend entirely on the viewership. The lesser it is, the quicker it would be cancelled). So anyway, another series about Sherlock Holmes should be interesting, right? Ok, now let's move on to the story.

Brief Story Line

Series started with the introduction of Dr. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu - Charlie's Angels, Kungfu Panda trilogy etc) who had stopped from her medical practice and instead opted to become a sober companion. Her scope of work as a sober companion would be to accompany a former addict and ensure smooth transition from rehab to everyday life, and also ensure the person did not relapse into addiction, be it drug or alcohol addiction.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Attraction - A Cool Russian Alien Movie

I saw the poster of this movie in the "coming soon" section of Indonesian cinema chains websites around 2 weeks ago. I was intrigued to see this one during the weekend as its premise seemed to be interesting, regarding Alien space ship that crashed on earth. So on Saturday, since my wife unfortunately could not accompany me to see the movie as she already had other engagement with her sister, I went to see it by myself at the 11.30 AM show. I was lucky enough I could still manage to get a nice seat despite being fashionably late reaching the theater (I arrived exactly at 11.30 AM). Well let us get on to the movie itself now, shall we?

Brief Story Line

During a rare meteor shower on the skies of Russia, an alien space ship somehow reached the atmosphere of earth very closely. The Russian air force was worried about the danger it might pose and tried to shoot it down. However, the shooting did not blow the space ship but only made it losing its balance and control and fell on the city of Russia, damaging buildings and killing hundreds of people in the process.

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Get Out - A Psychological Thriller with Unusual Story Line

Finally this movie played in Indonesia after it already premiered in the US for almost 2 months. Not really sure about the reason for such delay, but I was already thinking of worst possible scenario that the movie might not play here. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear the information from Indonesian cinemas' social medias regarding its premiere date on 7 April. Yesterday my wife happened to be hanging out with one of her best friend from food blogging world, Hans, the man behind the famous @eatandtreats. And so the 3 of us went to see the movie at 7.15 PM. Well let us move on to the movie itself.

Brief Story Line

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya - Kick-Ass 2) was quite a brilliant photographer. He was having a girlfriend named Rose Armitage (Allison Williams - Girls TV series). They were planning for a trip to Rose's home to introduce Chris to her parents. Chris was worried whether Rose' parents would be shocked to find out that the man she was dating happened to be a black guy. But Rose was very confident that they would not have any problem. So off they went to Rose' house. During their trip, Chris asked his best friend Rod Williams (Lil Rel Howery) to take care of his dog Sid.  

Thursday, April 6, 2017

The Boss Baby - Another Lovely Cute Adorable Baby Movie

This movie's trailer had been shown for many weeks earlier and as usual when it involved cute funny moments, we definitely would want to see it as soon as possible. It was kind of surprising when the movie premiered only yesterday since it already played in US cinemas 1 week ago. I guess they switched it with Smurfs: The Lost Village which did premier last week but only playing in US this week. Anyway, my wife and I had been eyeing to see it and bought the tickets in the morning to ensure we got our favorite seats. So let us move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Movie was narrated from the point of view of adult Timothy Templeton (Tobey Maguire - Spiderman trilogy, The Great Gatsby and many more) regarding his childhood experience when he was 7 years old. It was very clear that he had great imagination when he told the story. That time young Timothy (Miles Bakshi) was having a happy life with his mother Janice (Lisa Kudrow - Friends TV series etc) and his father Ted (Jimmy Kimmel - host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! talk show). Until one day when his parents came back with his new baby brother. As a child who had been having all the love he had from his parents, Timothy obviously got very frustrated and a bit jealous when his baby brother was taking all the attention. 

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

(TV SERIES) Marvel's Iron Fist Season 1 - An Underrated Marvel Superhero

After my experience watching Luke Cage last week, I was excited to see the next superhero series from Marvel. I started to watch this on Saturday and finished last night as it was only 13 episodes just like all the other Marvel cinematic universe series in Netflix such as Daredevil or Jessica Jones. Without further ado, here is more on the series. 

Brief Story Line

Danny Rand (Finn Jones - Game of Thrones TV series) was a long lost heir to the large corporate Rand enterprises. He came back to New York after 15 years when he was presumed dead together with his parents on a plane accident. Ward Meachum (Tom Pelphrey - Guiding Light TV series etc) and Joy Meachum (Jessica Stroup - Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, 90210 TV series etc) who were now the leaders of the corporate were caught by surprise when Danny came to their office. They could not believe Danny's claim and threw him out of the office. 

Saturday, April 1, 2017

(TV SERIES) Marvel's Luke Cage - Season 1

After watching Daredevil and Jessica Jones (which I could not believed I had not written at all about that series), I was surely compelled to watch the 3rd superhero in this Marvel Cinematic Universe on TV. It was intriguing to find out if the series was also as interesting as the previous two. As mentioned in my earlier posts, I had been busy completing other series which I had started before and did not have the chance to watch newer series. That is until I saw the news that the 4th superhero Iron Fist already shown few weeks earlier. So I immediately allocate my time to watch this one starting from few days ago. What's the series all about? Let's find out, shall we?

Brief Story Line

After the events from season 1 of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage (Mike Colter - Million Dollar Baby, The Good Wife TV series etc) was now working in a barber shop owned by Pop (Frankie Faison) in Harlem. At the time, Harlem was "controlled" by a big bad underworld boss named Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes (Mahershala Ali -  Free State of Jones, Moonlight etc) who owned the largest nightclub there. Luke was working double in the nightclub as a dishwasher but he did not want to have anything to do with the nightclub's side business.