Monday, December 31, 2018

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas - A Heartbreaking Romantic Drama Anime Movie

I saw the information about this movie in the social media of one Indonesian cinema chain. Apparently it only played in that particular cinemas and it proved to be a challenge to see it as the options were limited. I was intrigued to watch it especially since it seemed to be having positive views and it had been a while since last time I saw an anime in theater. Anyway once we got the chance on Sunday, I managed to convince my wife to accompany me seeing it together as I thought it would be something she like. Well let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Movie was narrated through the eyes of a high school boy who referred himself as Boku (voiced by Mahiro Takasugi). Through some coincidence, Boku found out that his classmate named Sakura (voiced by Lynn) was having a pancreatic cancer. Sakura did not want to reveal this fact to her childhood best friend Kyoko (Yukiyo Fujii). Sakura somehow felt that she could be open up to Boku and immediately decided she wanted to spend the rest of her days with Boku.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

(TV SERIES) Bodyguard - A Heavy Political Thriller Drama with some Mind Blowing Twists

I saw somewhere earlier about this series being very popular, and then my wife's brother-in-law mentioned he was told about how good the series was, though he had not seen it. So few days ago I started to watch this one which only got 6 episodes and I thought would be easy to finish. How good was the series? Let us find out more below.

Brief Story Line

Police Sergeant (PS) David Budd (Richard Madden - Live version of Cinderella, Bastille Day etc) who was an Afghanistan war veteran was given a new assignment to protect the British Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes - Death at a Funeral, Line of Duty TV series etc). Having a strong political view with a controversial idea, made Julia became a rather unpopular figure and attracted the unnecessary attention. It also made her become target of threats from some people, thus requiring such protection.

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Mary Poppins Returns - An Overdue Sequel to the 1964 Classic Disney Musical Movie

When this movie's teaser trailer was shown few times earlier, I did not have any excitement yet, but I did know it was a sequel to a very famous movie from Disney many years back. As it was a family movie and my wife seemed to be very interested in watching it, we decided to see it on the first day it premiered which happened to be on Christmas holiday as well. We saw this at a cinema not far from our home. Well let us get on with the film now.

Brief Story Line

Set in the 1930s in London, Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw - Paddington, The Danish Girl etc) had to take care of his young 3 children: the twins Annabel & John and the youngest Georgie by himself. He only got help from his sister Jane (Emily Mortimer - Shutter Island, Hugo etc) and their housekeeper Ellen (Julie Walters - Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Harry Potter series etc). It was difficult for Michael to take care of them while having to work at the bank under his boss Mr. Wilkins (Colin Firth - Kingsman: The Golden Circle and its predecessor Bridget Jones trilogy etc). So when a nanny named Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt - A Quiet Place, The Girl on the Train etc) came and offered herself to work with the Banks, Michael & Jane accepted her immediately.

Friday, December 21, 2018

Milly & Mamet: Ini Bukan Cinta & Rangga - A Review by Yennymakanmulu

For the past few weeks, we have been shown the trailer to this movie many times and it really seemed like a fun film, especially with the name Ernest Prakasa as the writer & director. Ever since Cek Toko Sebelah, I have been quite a fan of his works. This time around the movie was set in the universe of Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? which was a very popular film back in the early 2000. The story was told roughly at the same time as the 2016 sequel that was equally successful, where we got the chance to see more of the two main characters of this movie. As usual, I would let my wife write her own views of the movie which I thought was the best option since it really touched her heart.

Review of the movie as written by Yennymakanmulu in Bahasa Indonesia

[MOVIE] Milly & Mamet: Ini Bukan Cinta & Rangga *spoiler alert*

Begitu gw tau bakal ada spin-off dari AADC dengan judul Milly & Mamet, semangat banget gw nungguin filmnya nongol. Siapa yang gak kenal Milly dan Mamet? Hmm coba nonton deh AADC 1 dan AADC 2. Ntar jadi kenal siapa mereka. Kemaren itu gw beli promo BOGO mereka di tix-id, lumayan masi dapet kursi, tapi bukan kursi favorit. Telat belinya huhuhu. Tapi masi untung lah dapet paling belakang. Gw paling males duduk di depan orang, suka ditendangin bangku gw. Heran, mereka nonton pake mata apa pake kaki sih? Jadi inget iklan XXI belakangan ini featuring Milly, Mamet, Sakti dan Yongky. Lucu banget. Tapi sayangnya bener semua. Dari yang ngerekam film, angkat2 kaki, ngobrol berisik sampe maen hape bikin silau. Dan mereka bikin iklannya dengan sangat menarik. Gemash deh. Semoga aja yg liat jadi bisa sadar diri ya. Trus gimana filmnya? Yuk terus baca sampe bawah. Oya, film ini diproduseri oleh Mira Lesmana, dengan sutradara Ernest Prakasa.

To continue reading, please click the link below:

Milly & Mamet: Ini Bukan Cinta & Rangga Review by Yennymakanmulu

PS: You can also read her other reviews about food and travel in her blog.

Notes:
To my personal opinion, this movie was wonderful in terms of combining the elements of drama and humor. I quite enjoyed the banter between the supporting characters (who were mostly comedians) and the chemistry between Milly and Mamet's characters which were performed very nicely by the two lead cast. And this time around, I think the drama and humor part were quite balanced, although I did feel the conclusion was a tinsy bit oversimplified, but overall it was indeed a fun & entertaining romantic drama comedy. Another great job by Ernest Prakasa.


Thursday, December 20, 2018

Bumblebee - A Family Friendly and Nice Fresh Take on the Transformers Series

I am actually one of big fans of Transformers series (and not ashamed of it). My wife and I really enjoyed the first movie and were really amazed and in awe when we saw those cartoon characters came into life for the first time. Back then I never thought they could pulled it off but they did (thanks to Michael Bay). But later the movies did decrease a bit in quality though I still enjoyed them, that is until I saw the fifth installment which kind of disappointed me. So when they said they wanted to make a prequel with the beloved Bumblebee as main lead, I was really excited. We immediately bought the ticket for its premiere date and last night we got the chance to see it in the theater nearest our home. 

Brief Story Line

Set in the year 1987, Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld - Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, The Edge of Seventeen etc) was a teenager who had withdrawn herself a bit from her family and really wanted to have her own car. With some luck she came across with a yellow very old Volkswagen Beetle and managed to get it started. Little did she know that it was actually an Autobot called B-127 (voiced by Dylan O'Brien - The Maze Runner trilogy, American Assassin etc) that had transformed himself into the car, to avoid capturing by Decepticons.

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Billionaire Boys Club - The Controversial True Story of 1980s Infamous Investment Company Led by the Young & Wealthy

I noticed that this movie was still playing in theaters and decided to give it a try. Movies based on true story and with an interesting subject, tend to intrigued me. But I saw this one by myself as I could not convince my wife it was a good enough movie for her to see. Anyway, here goes about the film.

Brief Story Line

Set in the early 1980s, two best friends since high school, Joe Hunt (Ansel Elgort - Baby Driver, Divergent series etc) a very intelligent guy worked in the finance area and Dean Carny (Taron Egerton - Robin HoodKingsman: The Golden Circle etc) who loved to hang out with some of the very rich young people decided to form a financial company called BBC and get profit by investing in various items. They attracted huge investments from various people including their high school friends as well. But their biggest investor would be a high profile ex Wall Street player named Ron Levin (Kevin Spacey - L.A Confidential, House of Cards TV series etc).

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse - The Unique Story Telling of the Many Versions of Spider-man

This movie premiered since last Friday and I only got the chance to see it last night. It was a movie that I noticed during the end credit of another movie few months back and quite intrigued me (if you have seen that movie and waited till the end, you would know what movie I was referring to). Good thing it played in the nearest theater from our home, so my wife and I could easily go the location. OK, here we go with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

In Detroit, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) was a normal teenager who was adjusting life in his new school where he met with a rather mysterious girl Gwanda (Hailee Steinfeld - Pitch Perfect 3, Ender's Game etc). Miles sometimes felt awkward with the way he was treated by his father, police officer Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry - Hotel Artemis) and would look for his uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali - Luke Cage TV series, The Hunger Games etc) for advice. Miles life would soon turned upside down when he got bitten by some kind of spider and made him have spider-like abilities.

Monday, December 17, 2018

Aquaman - A Fun Enjoyable Full of Action Origin Superhero Movie from DC Universe

It has been quite a while since my last post of a major Hollywood movie which was entirely due to my holiday trip with my wife outside Indonesia. I was actually looking forward to see this one on its premiere date, but the movie played while I was away. Anyway when we returned on Saturday evening, we decided to see it on Sunday in my favorite theater with Dolby Atmos sound system. OK, let's move on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa - Braven, Baywatch TV series etc) was the son of lighthouse keeper Thomas (Temuera Morrison - Moana etc) and the queen of Atlantis named Atlanna (Nicole Kidman - Lion, The Hours etc). Being a half Atlantean, he has unique abilities of under water breathing, super strength and good fighting skills, and used it to help people in need, including fighting under water pirates led by David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II - The Greatest Showman etc).

Saturday, December 8, 2018

(TV SERIES) Krypton Season 1 - The Story of Superman's Family Origin

After watching an action thriller series, I was in the mood for some series based on comic books. This time I wanted to give a DC comics adaption a try. I came across this one when I was reading list of all comic books adapted into TV series and I was intrigued by the premise. What was it about? Let's find out more below.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the planet Krypton many years before the events of Kal-El aka Superman was sent to earth. The series focused on his grandfather Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe) whose family House of El was stripped of their rank. It was all due to Seg's grandfather Val-El (Ian McElhinney - Game of Thrones TV series etc) persistence not to share important information to the government. Growing up, Seg had to work odd jobs and befriended with a bar owner named Kem (Rasmus Hardiker). 

Thursday, December 6, 2018

Mortal Engines - An Entertaining Highly Imaginative Full of Visually Stunning Special Effects Movie

This was 1 of the movies that probably did not appear in my radar, until the past couple of weeks when its trailer was shown few times in theaters. The thing that intrigued me was the name Peter Jackson. When it was promoted for advance ticket sales since last weekend, my wife and I decided to buy them for its first day. So let's find out more on the movie.

Brief Story Line (Warning Spoiler Alert!)

Set in the post-apocalyptic time, the cities of the world now were added with engines that enable them to move around and gather scarce resources & old technologies. London was one of those cities referred to as Traction which could capture smaller cities and collect their resources. Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving - Hacksaw Ridge, V for Vendetta etc) was one of London's respected leader and he had a loving daughter Katherine (Leila George). In London, there was a young historian named Tom (Robert Sheehan - Bad Samaritan etc) who knew a lot about old technology and loved to scavenge through stuff collected when London captured other cities.

Monday, December 3, 2018

(TV SERIES) Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Season 1 - An Awesome Action Thriller Series with Some Great Action Sequence

After finishing few TV series that I was catching up, as usual I wanted to try a new one. Since I did not want to watch a 20+ episodes/season series which would take a long time, I chose this one which only had 8 episodes and it seemed entertaining plus it had a good rating (though sometimes nowadays it may translate differently to me due to some differing opinions/taste). Anyway, I started and finished it only in 1 day. So here goes.

Brief Story Line

Jack Ryan (John Krasinski - A Quiet Place, The Hollars etc) was a former marine who now worked as an analyst at the CIA in the Terror Finance Arms Division (T-FAD). During his work, he spotted some transactions that maybe related to terrorist activity. However, his new boss Jim Greer (Wendell Pierce - The Wire, The Odd Couple TV series etc) was very skeptical and wanted to investigate the matter cautiously. It would later on be revealed that Jack's suspicion was justified and the terrorist referred to as Suleiman (Ali Suliman - The Kingdom, Body of Lies etc) was indeed real and dangerous.

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Hotel Artemis - A Rather Unique but not the Most Memorable Cyberpunk Thriller

This movie actually played in Indonesian theaters since Tuesday, but my wife and I opted to see another movie that we had been eyeing since weekend. And due to some movies that I saw in the past 2 days, I only got the chance to see this one last night. My wife did not accompany me as I was not sure of the quality. Anyway, let's get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Set in the year 2028, Los Angeles was in a riot due to fresh water being charged. Criminal brothers Sherman (Sterling K. Brown - The Predator, Black Panther etc) and Lev (Brian Tyree Henry - Atlanta TV series etc) were injured during a bank heist and went to a secret hospital especially for criminals named Hotel Artemis. The hotel was managed by Nurse Jean (Jodie Foster - The Accused, The Silence of the Lambs etc) with her helper Everest (Dave Bautista - Final Score, Guardians of the Galaxy series etc).