Friday, September 29, 2017

Pengabdi Setan - A Scary Horror Movie from Joko Anwar

After weeks and weeks being "tortured" by the trailer to this movie, finally it played in the cinemas from yesterday. As I was having some work schedule out of the country, I could only see the film today. I chose to see this in a cinema not too far away from home and managed to get 1 seat at the last row in the middle of lots of audience (which was my intention since I would rather not see this alone and sitting by myself). Yes I mentioned in my other posts earlier that my wife would rather not see a horror movie, especially when it was a supernatural horror movie from Indonesia. Anyway, let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

It was the year 1981 when handphone and internet was not available yet. Bahri Suwono (Bront Palarae - Halfworld TV series, Anak Jantan etc) was a father of four who had to endure financial difficulty due to his wife's continuous illness for 2 years. His eldest child was Rini (Tara Basro - 3 Srikandi, A Copy of My Mind etc) who Bahri could rely on to take care of the mother (Ayu Laksmi - Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka). The second child was a 16 yeard old high school student named Toni (Endy Arfian - Brandal Brandal Ciliwung) who loved his mother very much and was willing to put the family's welfare first. The third child was a 10 year old primary student named Bondi (Nasar Annuz) and very close with the youngest one, Ian (played nicely by newcomer Muhamad Adhiyat).

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

(TV SERIES) Marvel's The Defenders - The Smaller Version of Avengers on TV

I have been watching the series from Netflix about the Marvel superheroes that consisted of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist for a while now and the prospect of having 4 superheroes working together was really exciting. So when I got the chance to see this series during our last weekly weekend staycation, I finished it off very fast, especially since it only had 8 episodes. Well to speed things up, let us get on with the series now.

Brief Story Line

Few months after the events of Daredevil season 2 and Iron Fist season 1, Danny Rand (Finn Jones) and Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) were trying to locate the people that could help them expose The Hand which was the organization responsible for the death of Danny's parents. Their journey brought them back to New York where supposedly The Hand had some secret agenda there. Meanwhile Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) was now concentrating more on his daytime job as lawyer working on pro-bono cases. He was still having mixed feeling on his decision to put off his suit as Daredevil. However, his good friends Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) were more relieved with such decision. 

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Kingsman: The Golden Circle - Sequel to that Awesome New Kind of British Agent Movie

This was one of my most anticipated movie in the month of September, but as mentioned in my previous post, I was unable to see it on its premiere date. During our weekend staycation, we were lucky enough that the hotel we are staying in is located in the same block as a mall in Tangerang area (more on that in my wife's blog later). Hence it was very convenient for my wife and I to go and see the movie since we just need to walk inside the mall and go straight to the cinema location. I would be talking more on the movie now.

Brief Story Line

The film started not long after the events in Kingsman: The Secret Service where Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton - Sing, Eddie the Eagle etc) had become quite an agent in Kingsman organization. He was now having a serious relationship with princess Tilde (Hanna Alström) and still supported by the reliable knowledge-able and high tech friend Merlin (Mark Strong - Rocknrolla, The Imitation Game etc). 

Thursday, September 21, 2017

The LEGO Ninjago Movie - Another Movie Based on The Popular Lego Bricks

It has been almost a week since the last time I saw a Hollywood movie on its premiere date. I have been on a short "hiatus" from watching new movies in theaters as I could not bring myself to do so due to the new movies were not that new and exciting. Anyway yesterday there were 2 movies premiered in Indonesia which was quite surprising considering both were truly new and were not even scheduled to play in US theaters till Friday. Actually my wife and I were looking forward to see another movie, but the cinema where we wanted to go to, did not show that one at our usual preferred schedule 7PM. So we went to see this movie instead. And what was the movie all about? Let us find out more.

Brief Story Line

In the city far far away called Ninjago, there was a boy who just turned 16 named Lloyd Garmadon (Dave Franco - Nerve, Now You See Me and its sequel etc). He was not feeling excited on his birthday due to his father was the most notorious evil villain Garmadon (Justin Theroux - The Girl on the Train, The Leftovers TV series etc) who tried to conquer Ninjago all the time. Lloyd's mother nicknamed Koko (Olivia Munn - X-Men: Apocalypse, Ride Along 2 etc) tried to convince Lloyd to enjoy his day but it was very challenging with everyone being so judging to him.

Friday, September 15, 2017

American Assassin - Just Another One of Those Standard Special Agent Fighting Terrorist Movie

It was a rather slow week in the Indonesian cinemas and the only new movie seemed worthwhile to see was this film that premiered on Wednesday. As I had to go visit my friend whose father just passed away on that day, my wife and I went to see this one only yesterday. Despite choosing the time of 7.15 PM, I think my wife was a bit worried if she could not make it as she had an event earlier, so she decided to use different mode of transportation and ended up reaching home very fast. I myself reached home a little while after her and we were able to be in theater before the movie started. Anyway, we shall go on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

After having a life changing experience, Mitch Rapp (Dylan O'Brien - The Maze Runner, Deepwater Horizon, Teen Wolf TV series etc) decided to try infiltrating a terrorist cell and kill its leader who had ruined his life. Based on his wit and several useful abilities such as martial arts, weaponry and language fluency, he was recruited by a CIA deputy director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan - The Best Man, Now You See Me 2 etc) to be a special ops agent. He was being trained by a very tough veteran and experienced former agent named Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton - Tim Burton's Batman, Beetlejuice, Spider-man: Homecoming and many more). He would be trained with other potential agents that include the more experienced person named Victor (Scott Adkins) who thought that Mitch was reckless, cocky and dangerous for the team.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Renegades - A Heist Movie with War Background

It was one of those very rare time that I decided to see a movie on a Monday night. This movie premiered in Indonesian theaters last Friday, but as my wife and I were having other plans and also we went for our weekly staycation during the weekend, we did not have the time to see it until last night. I was a bit doubtful earlier whether to see the movie or not, seeing that it had no schedule playing in US theaters yet. But as I remembered seeing the trailer once or twice earlier, and I thought why not? It seemed like a nice enough action movie. So what was the movie all about? Let us find out more.

Brief Story Line

Movie was told in the year 1995 during the Yugoslav wars where a group of peace troops were assigned by NATO to be based in Sarajevo and consisted of armies from different countries. A US Navy SEAL team of 5 people with their leader Matt Barnes (Sullivan Stapleton - Blindspot TV series, 300: Rise of an Empire etc), his 2nd in command Stanton (Charlie Bewley - Bachelor Games) and the rest J.P (Dimitri Leonidas - The Monuments Men), Duffy (Diarmaid Murtagh) and the mathematical "genius" (Joshua Henry) were deployed to the conflict area to do a simple supposedly silent assignment but managed to leave the location in a bang. This resulted their boss the General (J.K Simmons - The AccountantPatriots Day, Spider-man trilogy etc) very upset and suspended the team.

Friday, September 8, 2017

IT - The Great Adaptation of Scary Stephen King's Novel

On its second day premiere in Indonesia, my wife and I went to see this movie last night. It was rather challenging to arrange the time to see the movie, considering it has > 2 hours duration and the option was either to see at 6.35 PM which was very tight due to my office hour and my wife's event or 9 PM which was too late. Anyway we decided to go for the earlier one and both of us actually almost could not make it. I arrived during the trailers of other movies while my wife arrived just before the movie start (so lucky of her). Anyway, let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

It was the summer holiday of the year 1989 in the small town of Derry where a group of young boys nicknamed Losers' Club that consisted of Bill (Jaeden Liberher - St. Vincent, The Book of Henry etc) who was like the leader, the foul mouthed Richie (Finn Wolfhard - Stranger Things TV series), the tidy Jewish boy Stan (Wyatt Oleff) and the boy who was always paranoid Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer). They plan to go to a location which according to Bill's calculation was the place where supposedly his younger brother Georgie might have ended up since his disappearance back in 1988.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Colossal - A Bit Depressing & Too Weird Monster Movie

When this movie's trailer was shown many times during 3 or 4 months ago, I was rather intrigued to find out what it was all about. But then the trailer was never shown again and it seemed to be put on the shelf by the cinema chain in Indonesia. Until suddenly last week while my wife and I were on our staycation, I noticed in the cinema 21 website that it was already playing in some theaters. So yesterday we decided to see the movie at the 7.15 PM show. The cinema was a bit crowded but not fully booked. Anyway, we shall move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

After having her relationship broken, Gloria (Anne Hathaway - The Devil Wears Prada, Brokeback Mountain and many more) returned back to her hometown where she met her childhood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis - The Angry Birds Movie, Horrible Bosses etc). With no money and no job, Gloria accepted the offer from Oscar to work at his bar as a waitress where she would meet with Oscar's 2 best friends Joel (Austin Stowell - Stratton, Bridge of Spies etc) and Garth (Tim Blake Nelson - Syriana, The Incredible Hulk etc). 

Monday, September 4, 2017

Baby Driver - A Unique and Stylish Getaway Driver Story

Few days after this movie premiered in Indonesia, I finally got the chance to see it yesterday after one of our weekend staycation in Serpong area (more on that in my wife's blog). We did plan to see the film then but due to various locations we visited, we decided it would be best to just see this when we were back in Jakarta. Though our favorite seats have been taken for the 2.45 PM show, we thought that waiting for the 5PM show would not be a good idea, seeing that we were both rather tired and wanted to take a rest in the evening. So off we went and saw this at Setiabudi. Now let us get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

A young man nicknamed Baby (Ansel Elgort - The Divergent series, The Fault in Our Stars etc) was working as a getaway driver together with a crew of 3 robbers. The crew was working for a boss called "Doc" (Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects, Superman Returns etc). Baby was a very excellent driver who was able to escape from the police chase using his expertise. His unique way of driving was to always listen to music and follow the rhythm of the songs. It would be revealed later on the reason of his unique habit as he almost never took out the earphones from his ears.

Friday, September 1, 2017

Warkop DKI Reborn: Jangkrik Boss Part 2 - Sequel to That Wonderful Remake of Iconic Indonesian Comedians

Last night, I had the chance to go and see the premiere of the highly anticipated sequel of that crazy funny movie in 2016 Warkop DKI Reborn: Jangkrik Boss Part 1. I was very fortunate that despite advance tickets sale available since more than a week ago, due to the high demand, the cinema chains added some more studios to show the movie which happened to be opened only yesterday. So in the morning my wife immediately bought the tickets for the 7.30 PM show. Well without further ado, let us move on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

The movie started with some flashbacks from the first part to remind us how our favorite trio Dono (Abimana Aryasatya - Negeri Van Oranje, Sabtu Bersama Bapak etc), Kasino (Vino G. Bastian - 30 Hari Mencari Cinta, Bangkit etc) and Indro (Tora Sudiro - Arisan!, 3 Dara etc) plus Sophie (Hannah Al Rashid - Critical Eleven, Jailangkung etc) were in Malaysia to do a treasure hunt. They were unable to continue their search due to the map that was put in their bag was accidentally taken by a lady in red in the airport.