ALLIED - Story of A Man Torn Between His Love for the Country and His Wife, Suspected as an Enemy Spy

I knew about this movie just few weeks ago when I saw the trailer and was a bit intrigued by the seemed to be interesting premise. But as I knew more and more, I became a bit doubtful as it did looked to be a more drama/romance kind of movie rather than the suspenseful thriller movie. Nevertheless, when my wife told me that she was informed about how good this movie was, we decided to watch it anyway yesterday noon at Cinemaxx in Plaza Semanggi since we had not been there for a while. Unfortunately, we did not have good experience due to the rather non-sympathetic way of security checking on our bags and asking us to keep our take-away lunch. Anyway our mood was a bit ruined so we may not have the best kind of image watching it. But, as the usual saying, the show must go on. So here goes my views about the movie.

MOANA - The Different Kind of Lovable Disney Princess and A Sure Classic Animated Movie

I have watched this movie's trailer again and again in the past few months till the point of me being irritated by the length of such trailer and rather disappointed that so many scenes were shown. I like to watch trailers, but when trailers revealing too much information, it kind of ruined the surprise for me and reduced the fun of watching some new movie. I am one of those guys that hate spoiler. Anyway, it just played yesterday and since my wife did not proceed with her function, she was quite free and I immediately offered her to see this movie. It was this or the latest Brad Pitt's movie Allied and no surprise there, she chose this one. So let's get on to this exciting movie.

Brief Story Line

A very young Moana was listening to the stories from her Grandmother Tala (voiced by Rachel House) about the history of Te Fiti, the island goddess who had her heart stolen by the demigod named Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson - Central Intelligence, San Andreas and so many more) but he lost it when he encountered the lava monster Te Ka. Maui wanted to steal the heart as he believed it would give the power of creation. Maui himself lost his weapon, a fishhook that he got from the gods and was gone for 1000 years.

(TV SERIES) Stranger Things Season 1 - One of The Coolest Science Fiction Series Set in 1980s

It's been quite some time since I last wrote a post of a TV Series. I have heard about this one few months ago but I cannot remember now where I first heard it. Anyway, when I got the chance to watch it, I finished this in just 2 days as it consisted only 8 episodes. In fact if I watched it during the full weekend when I was having nothing to do, I am very sure that I would have finished it within 1 day. Anyway, what is the story all about? Let's find out, shall we?

Brief Story Line

This series was set in the year 1983 in a town named Hawkins, where a group of 12 year old children consisted of Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Will (Noah Schnapp) were best friends and loved to play Dungeons & Dragons board game at the basement of Mike's house. One night after > 10 hours playing, Lucas, Dustin and Will went home by bikes where they split their ways in one of the crossroads. 

The Girl with All The Gifts - A Unique Zombies Movie

I have mentioned in my previous posts that I got some vouchers from Cinemaxx theater for winning a quiz they held and there was another voucher that I still need to utilize before it expired on 24 November. Since there was only 1 movie left that I had not watched in Cinemaxx (the other one was a supernatural horror movie that I did not want to watch if it was not a full house), I decided to watch this one yesterday. It was only playing in Plaza Semanggi and just 1 show per day at 2 PM. After reaching the location at 1 PM, I immediately exchange the voucher for the ticket and wait for a while until the theater was opened at 2PM (show started 15-20 minutes after that). Let's proceed with the movie itself.

Brief Story Line (possible spoiler)

Movie started with the scene of a young girl named Melanie (played by newcomer Senia Nannua) who was living in a cell block. In the morning, two soldiers would be taking her out of the cell block, in a wheelchair where her hands, feet and head were all strapped to the wheelchair, leaving no room for her to move around. She and 19 other similar type children were brought out of their cell blocks to another room where they were given lessons by a teacher named Ms. Justineau (Gemma Arterton - Quantum of Solace, Clash of Titants etc). It was shown that she was very fond of the children, especially to Melanie who seemed to be the smartest of them all.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Another Adaptation of J.K. Rowling's Novel

This movie has got a lot of buzz for quite some time and I was looking forward to see it as soon as it premiered. However, due to some practical reasons, my wife and I only managed to see it yesterday. We were lucky enough that we got the vouchers from Cinemaxx Theater for winning the quiz they held earlier and hence we were able to watch it for free. Yeaaaay, thanks Cinemaxx. Since the movie got Dolby Atmos option, for sure we choose the studio that was playing it with this sound system. Anyway, enough of that, let's get on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

This movie was happening during the year 1920s in New York city (so it's way before the Harry Potter times and also in different country). Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything, The Danish Girl etc), a wizard from England arrived at New York harbor bringing a suitcase full of various beasts which he captured previously. When he was walking around, he encountered Mrs. Barebone (Samantha Morton - The Messenger, John Carter etc) who was giving speech in front of a bank about the danger of witches living around them. Newt then realized that one of his creature, a niffler escaped from his suitcase and was stealing gold coins etc (as it was attracted with shiny objects). 

Get A Job - College Graduates Facing Their Biggest Test of Adulthood and Real Life

While I was waiting to see the newest major Hollywood movie playing in theaters on Saturday night, ie. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, I had to kill sometime off and decided to watch this film which seemed interesting enough. The premise was about the young generation's struggle on the real life after college, which kind of represent the current actual condition in working environment. So let's continue with a more detail information on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Story started with the narration by Will Davis (Miles Teller - Whiplash, Divergent, Fantastic Four 2015 version, etc) about the fact his generation were awarded for anything they achieved or completed, even if that was not the best. It continued to the scene where Will and his girlfriend Jill (Anna Kendricks - Pitch Perfect 1 & 2, Trolls, The Accountant etc) were having lunch with Will's father Roger (Bryan Cranston - Saving Private Ryan, Argo, Breaking Bad TV series and many more) and mother, celebrating Will and Jill's start of working life after college.

Keeping Up With The Joneses - Simple Suburban Couple Meet the Perfect Couple Neighbors

Finally I had the time to watch this movie last night, after it premiered for almost a week. I was so busy this past week and was looking forward to watch this one using the free vouchers from Cinemaxx and wanted to watch during the weekend, but since my wife and I were not in Jakarta, we have to postpone it until yesterday only. Anyway the movie was just what I needed after having long days at the office as it seemed to be a funny film based on the trailer. So let's find out more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

A suburban couple named Jeff Gaffney (Zach Galifianakis - The Hangover trilogy etc) who was working in Human Resource department in a technology development company named MBI and his wife Karen (Isla Fisher - Confessions of a Shopaholic, Now You See Me etc) who was an interior designer were having the perfect life with their 2 sons. When their children were sent away for a camp trip for 2 weeks, the Gaffneys were suddenly having free time from their children and they already had some  "bright ideas" on how to spend it. 

If I Stay - Not Your Standard Romantic Teen Drama

I initially watched first half of this movie during my plane trip home from business trip in KL few weeks ago when I used Malindo airline. As I mentioned last time, the plane was delayed for 2.5 hours, and due to this, I managed to watch 1 full movie which I already wrote last time (titled True Story) and also saw this one but not completed. This time, when I went back from my trip to Singapore last night using Batik Air, which was same group as Malindo (Lion Air group), I was fortunate that the movies in the inflight entertainment were exactly the same. So I immediately continued where I left off and managed to complete watching the full movie and can therefore provide my insights on the film.

Brief Story Line

Mia Hall (Chloë Grace Moretz - Kick Ass 1 & 2, Carrie etc) was a high school girl with very huge talent in playing cello. She had a wonderful family with very loving mother Kat (Mireille Enos - The Killing TV series, World War Z etc) and father Denny (Joshua Leonard - Higher Ground etc) plus a much younger brother named Teddy (Jakob Davies).

Bounty Hunters - A Korean-Chinese Comedy Action Movie

When I got a sudden 1 day assignment to go to Singapore last Friday, I asked my wife whether she wanted to join me and we could go for a weekend getaway trip there. My wife was a big fan of Singapore and after thinking for a while, she finally decided to go, even though the departing time was at 6 AM which meant that we have to get up like 3AM in the morning to reach airport. This was due to the fact that I had to have a meeting at 10AM and the earliest plane would be Garuda which flew at that hour. As usual, I would definitely enjoy the inflight entertainment from them. There were so many options that I could chose from, but mostly when I can choose, I would pick Asian movies rather than Hollywood produced, since Asian movies were more difficult to see in Indonesia compared to the Western movies. Anyway, there were more than 1 that I can see, but I chose this as it was not too long and the lead roles were played by famous actors & actress. So what's the movie all about? Let's continue, shall we.

Hacksaw Ridge - A Wonderful Tale of a True War Hero Who Managed to Save Lives Without Lifting A Single Weapon

When the huge demonstration was held on 4 November in Jakarta and did not have the peaceful ending as what was promised, the following day made majority of the people avoid going out. My wife and I were among those who decided to stay home on Saturday morning. However, after seeing that finally the demonstrators from out of town were transported back to their home town, and the situation was much more better, we felt that we can still go out in a nearby place to have some dinner and a movie. The movie that we chose just premiered on Friday only in the Cinema 21 chain and it was the only movie that interest us in Setiabudi XXI. So let's get on with the movie.