Railroad Tigers - The Latest Jackie Chan's War Adventure Drama Comedy Movie

When a Jackie Chan's movie trailer was shown 2 or 3 weeks ago in the theaters, I immediately told my wife about it. And since we were both fans of his works, we would love to watch his movie, whatever the story/topic about. Originally we wanted to see this movie on Thursday at Setiabudi, however it did not have the 7PM show there as it was still sharing the studios with other movies. But on Friday, it had a 6.30 PM show so we were able to buy tickets for that time. Ok, let's move on to the story now.

Brief Story Line

In 1941 when China was still under the Japanese colonialism, there was a group of railroad porters led by Ma Yuan (Jackie Chan - star of so many action comedy movies) that included Da Hai the tailor (played by the singer former EXO member Huang Zi Tao) and Ru Yi, the porter who love to use small hammer  in his act (Jaycee Chan - The Twins Effect 2, The Invisible Target etc). This so called gang specialized in robbing trains passing the railroads of China. However, they were not the normal robbers who targeted the passengers but instead they focused on robbing the Japanese soldiers' weapons and uniforms. Their trademark was always putting a cartoonish picture of tiger on the body of the Japanese soldiers.

Cek Toko Sebelah - A Nice Drama Comedy from Ernest Prakasa

My wife and I have been eyeing to see this movie for a while ever since we saw the trailer few times before. In actual fact, we wanted to see it on the premiere date on Wednesday, but one thing led to another and we had to postpone it till yesterday. Despite being late by 1 day though, the audience for this movie was still a lot, as proven by its fully packed studio. As usual on a weekday, we watched it at the nearest location from my office at 7 PM. And after many many advertisements & few trailers before the start of the movie, finally it started at 7.05 PM. So let's get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

Ko Afuk (Chew Kin Wah - My Stupid Boss) was an owner of a grocery store where he had built his store from zero till it was quite a success. His store was next to another grocery store owned by Pak Nandar (Budi Dalton - Shy Shy Cat) who saw Ko Afuk as his competitor. Despite being in direct competition, Pak Nandar and Ko Afuk always respected each other. Ko Afuk had five store assistants who helped him during the day and aside from their daily routine, were always goofing around.

Passengers - Lovely Adventure of The Only Passengers on A Space Ship

This movie was already playing in Indonesian theaters since last Friday, but again due to various movies that premiered last week and were prioritized by my wife and I, and also due to other activities which we did during the weekend, we only managed to see this one on Monday noon. I took a 1 day leave from work as part of the Christmas holiday, so we could see this movie at the 2.50 PM show and we saw it at our nearest location in Setiabudi. 

Brief Story Line

The movie was set in a very distant future, where space travels had become a normal thing to do. A transportation space ship named Avalon, was on its way to a new planet called Homestead II with 5000 people/colonists on board the ship and they were supposed to build the planet and make it a good place to live. The distance of the planet was very far and it would take 120 years to reach the location. To enable the colonist survive the long journey, all of them were put to sleep in a sleeping pod and were supposed to be awake 4 months prior to reaching Homestead II. This also included the > 200 ship crews so the space ship was put on autopilot to reach the location.

Point Break - Remake of the 1991 Cult Movie

I did not had the chance to see this movie in theater last year. I could not remember the reason but most likely it would be due to some busy work days since usually an action movie would be a must for me to see in theater to enjoy the special effects and sound effects. Anyway, the movie finally premiered on Saturday Night in HBO TV cable. By chance I was having the usual staycation with my wife (who got another free 1 night stay at a hotel in South Jakarta) on Saturday and the hotel's inhouse TV entertainment included this channel. So I got myself ready to see this movie at 8 PM.

Brief Story Line

Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey - G.I.Joe: Retaliation, The November Man etc) was an extreme athlete who love to do various dangerous stunts and also very famous due to the huge publicity in youtube. After an incident happened 7 years earlier, Johnny decided to indefinitely stop his acts and continued his school & college and trained to become an FBI agent. Before becoming a full FBI agent, he was being thoroughly checked by FBI Instructor Hall (Delroy Lindo - Malcom X, Gone in 60 Seconds etc). He was then asked to attend a briefing about a heist done to a US diamond company on a very tall building in Mumbai, India by some people who escaped by parachutes.

In later stage, a similar heist happened in Mexico on a flying plane where the newly printed US money were then released from the plane. The perpetrators escaped seemingly into the jungle. Johnny was able to identify that the crimes were done by the same people who were planning to complete a list of extreme 8 ways to honor the nature called Ozaki 8. He believed that their next attempt would be to surf in France where the waves were unbelievably high and only happened many years once. Hall believed in this analysis and sent Johnny to France and to work together with Pappas (Ray Winstone - Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Sweeney etc).

In France, Pappas who was a much senior agent accompanied Johnny to the sea where there were already lot of surfers. Johnny also tried to go and surf, despite he was not very good at it. While attempting to surf on one of the highest wave, Johnny interrupted another surfer's flow and he fell into the water. The other surfer had to stop and help to get him out of the water. It was revealed later that his name was Bodhi (Édgar Ramírez - Carlos, Zero Dark Thirty etc) and he was also a rather extreme athlete accompanied by 3 friends, Roach (Clemens Schick), Chowder (Tobias Santelmann - Kon Tiki) and Grommet (Matias Varela - Assassin's Creed). They were sponsored by a very rich person named Pascal Al Fariq (Nicolas Kinsky) to do those extreme acts.

Despite some suspicion from Chowder, Johnny was able to infiltrate into this group and even managed to be very close to their friend named Samsara (Teresa Palmer - Lights Out, Hacksaw Ridge etc). After another wild stunt that they did together, Bodhi's whole group could finally accept Johnny. However, Pappas on the other hand was very upset as he thought that Johnny was only trying to enjoy glamorous undercover life.

Finally it was revealed that another heist would be done indeed by Bodhi and his friends which Johnny was trying to tell him not to. However Bodhi insisted that in order to complete the Ozaki 8, they had to give back to nature. 

So could Johnny stop this latest heist? Could he catch Bodhi and his friends who he had become so close in the past few days? Find them all in this full of wild extreme stunts movie.

End of Brief Story Line

As I mentioned on the title above, this movie was a remake from the 1991 movie with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze as the main characters and had gained a cult status ever since. Before I do any comparison to the original, I would like to share my thoughts first on this 2015 version. As a movie, we would be amazed with the suspenseful extreme stunts such as the wingsuit scene (jumping from the Alps and like flying stunt), or the snowboarding from top of a snowy mountain. Including the chasing stunts were also very cool (one scene kind of reminded me of the latest Jason Statham movie, Mechanic: Resurrection). In term of story though, this one was a bit complex. I think the writers wanted to make the characters had some depth, like the reasons of Johnny to become FBI agent, or the reason for Bodhi to do what he did.

I did regret one bit though that I did not watch this movie in theater, as I believed the sound effect and the beautiful sceneries and breathtaking scenes with those suspenseful stunts would be very astonishing and lovely to see on large screen. However, I did feel that other than those stunts, the movie did not offer something new (especially when it was a remake of something that was done 24 years before).

Meanwhile, if we compare to the original 1991 version, then it's a different ball game. I hate to admit (and a little bit embarrassing as well) that I had many chances to see it in TV or online streaming or even through DVD, but I never did. So I only saw the original version last night after I saw the remake version. Once I saw the original one, I could understand the reasons for that version to be a cult classic. It had all the ingredients of such movie, with a rather brutal fight scene during the raid of one group of suspects and a very youthful Keanu Reeves & Patrick Swayze (fresh from his role in the popular romantic supernatural movie Ghost) plus of course one of the craziest stunt back then, at the finale during the chase between Johnny and Bhodi. Btw, I remembered one scene that was quite popular also referenced by Nick Frost together with Simon Pegg in the very fun action movie titled Hot Fuzz.

For those who loved the original movie, I doubt that they would appreciate this remake as it changed too many stuffs and made the film from originally a straight forward story into an overly complex one. However, if you are a neutral person who never saw the original like me or perhaps you did not get the chance to see this remake version when it played in the theater last year, then you can give it a shot. It would be playing once or maybe twice a day in HBO till next week. For a movie that offered suspenseful over the top extreme stunt, then this can certainly provide you such experience. But if you wanted to preserve your image of the 1991 original version, then perhaps it would not be a good idea to watch this one. The choice is yours.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars

HANGOUT - A Cool Comedy Thriller Movie from Raditya Dika

It's been a while since I saw an Indonesian movie with my wife. So when this movie finally came out (as its trailer had been shown lots of times prior to the start of many movies in the past few weeks), we decided that we want to see this movie as early as possible. When it premiered though, we watched a different movie instead (Assasin's Creed which I just reviewed on Friday). Just like our last movie date of another movie directed & starred Raditya Dika (Koala Kumal), we also watched this one together with our nephews Ravel and Rimsky. But this time we watched it in Lotte Avenue since surprisingly Setiabudi did not show this movie. Anyway, the premise of this film was quite interesting and it starred not only him but also other quite well known (and senior) artists in Indonesian entertainment world. So let's get on to the movie now.

Assassin's Creed - The Adaptation from the Popular Game from Ubisoft

I have been quite late in the recent few weeks in catching up with premiere of the newest movies. Just like this movie which premiered on Wednesday, I could only watch it yesterday. And it seemed that pattern might continue until next week when I am more able to juggle my work schedules with my after office private activities. Anyway, this movie seemed very interesting, especially from the trailer, the main actor and also the adaptation of the hugely popular action adventure game in various platforms. My wife who is a fan of Michael Fassbender was interested in seeing this movie as well since the action sequence looked cool. So yesterday she bought the ticket for our usual 7 PM show at Lotte Avenue. Well, what's the story all about? Let's find out.

Brief Story Line

The first few minutes of opening scenes were showing the ancient secret societies named Assassins in the year 1492 in Spain. It seemed to be an initiation of some sort to a member named Aguilar (Michael Fassbender - X-Men First Class trilogy, Prometheus etc). Scene moved to the year 1986 where a young Callum Lynch was instructed by his father (Brian Gleeson) who seemed to be a member of the Assassins as well, to run away as far as possible, since he was going to be captured.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Another Episode in the Star Wars Anthology Series

I was a bit late posting this movie as it had been playing in Indonesian theaters since Wednesday when it premiered the first time. It was a hectic week at the office and I only got the chance to see it on Friday. I was fortunate enough that my wife was quite free in the afternoon so she could help buy a ticket for me. She was not a fan of Star Wars series, so it was a bit easier to look for ticket for 1 person rather than 2. If it hadn't been for her, perhaps I would only be able to see this on Sunday. The studio was fully packed from top to bottom row and no empty seats at all, so it would be a challenge if I tried to look for tickets at the last minute by myself. Anyway, let's get a move on to the juicy stuff of this movie.

Brief Story Line

Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen - Doctor Strange, Hannibal TV series etc) was a very good scientist who was working for the Imperial under the command of director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn - The Dark Knight Rises, Exodus: Gods and Kings etc) to finish the completion of creating the ultimate weapon called Death Star which supposedly could destroy a planet. Meanwhile, Jyn Erso the only daughter of Galen was taken under the wings of extremist named Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland, Vantage Point etc) who fought against the Imperial and was based in the rebel city called Jedha.

(TV SERIES) The 100 Season 1 - The Survival Story of 100 Juveniles on Post- Nuclear War-Earth

What better way to put up my 100th post of my blog than to write about the series with the above title? A bit cheesy I guess, but hey, I like cheesy staff anyway. LOL. If anybody asked whether I had thought I could make 100 post within 1 year from the time I first started my blog, I would not have thought so. Anyway, I have watched this series for a while now, but did not have the time to write it up and I wanted to update my blog with the more recent movies playing in theater. As usual, I read about this in the internet while I was looking for some new series to fill up my time (as if my time was not already filled with TV series at the moment). Well let's move on to the story itself.

Brief Story Line

After a nuclear war on earth, it had became inhabitable by humans which forced a confederation of people from 12 countries to create outer space stations which jointly formed a single station called The Ark where people could live to avoid extinction. 97 years later, Clarke (Eliza Taylor - The November Man) who was in prison for something she did earlier, was instructed to leave The Ark. Clarke's mother, Dr. Abigail (Paige Turco - the 1991 & 1993 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles etc) informed Clarke that she was part of a team that was assigned to go to earth and see if it would be habitable for humans, together with 99 other juveniles who were in prison, forming the 100 (referring to 100 prisoners who were instructed to go to earth).

Your Name (Kimi No Na Wa) - Lovely Story of A Boy and A Girl Who Could not Remember Each Other's Name

This movie has been playing in the Indonesian theaters since last 2 weeks but I did not know what the story was all about and I had no rush to watch it. But then I saw some news/information on the internet that the movie seemed to be creating a lot of interests. So on Saturday I had made plan to watch it in Cinemaxx FX which played the movie only at 4.30 PM and 9PM. But due to some last minute change of plan, I had to do it only on Sunday. I was a bit doubtful about going due to the heavy rain after I watched Fallen earlier, however I thought that if I did not watch it then, there would be high probability I would not had the will to go and see this. So finally I reached the location almost at 4PM and to my surprise, the movie was almost fully packed. Since I was alone (my wife was having a nice event to Bali for few days), it was easier for me to pick a seat of my choosing. Lucky there was still 1 seat available on the top row. Well let's get on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

The movie was about two high school students who lived apart but always felt that they were looking for someone or something in their lives. The first one was a boy named Taki (voiced by Ryunosuke Kamiki - Spirited Away) who was living in Tokyo with his father and had two best friends in school Tsukasa and Shinta. He was quite a short tempered boy but had a good heart and he also worked part time at an Italian restaurant where he had a crush on a more mature and sophisticated co-worker simply called Ms. Okudera (voiced by Masami Nagasa - Our Little Sister etc). Taki always believed that his life started to change after the comet shower he had seen earlier.

Fallen - Everlasting Love of An Angel Who Had Fallen to Earth

I saw the posters of this movie for quite some time in the website of Cinema 21 in the "coming soon" part and when I read the synopsis about love between a person an angel, I thought the premise seemed interesting. However, I did have doubts as there was no familiar names playing in this film. Nevertheless, as I plan to watch another movie that only played at 4.30 PM in another theater, I had some time to kill before I plan to go to that mall. So since this was the only movie that I had not watched, I decided to go and see this one at 1.15 PM at Setiabudi. I would have enough time to leave the place by 3 PM and see the other film in different location. Well what is the story all about?

Brief Story Line

Movie started with the narrative of the story of angels of heaven who had to take sides when Lucifer, the most loved angel by God was fighting with God. There were some angels who did not want to choose either side, but instead they stayed among the humans and choose the side of love. Later scene moved to Lucinda Price (Addison Timlin - The Town that Dreaded Sundown etc) being driven by her parents to a private school named Swords and Crosses. Just like any other private schools, there were a lot of activities that could be attended by Luce as mentioned by the headmaster. However, apparently the school is not just a normal private schools as it was revealed later that the students there were mostly having some personal troubles or when parents did not have any idea on how to handle their children.

Headshot - One of the Bloodiest Brutal Fighting Movie After The Raid

This movie has been intriguing me for quite some time due to its trailer that raised all sort of possibilities. And there was also the very smart marketing done, whereas the movie did not play in Jakarta until 8th of December but it did play in other cities from the past two weeks which created the anxiety of the big cities movie enthusiasts. I wanted to see this movie on that premiere date as well but due to some reasons I could only see it today. So what was the story all about on this film? Let's continue, shall we?

Brief Story Line

Movie started with the scene of some bad guy broke out of jail leaving trail of bodies of his fellow inmates as well as the prison guards. Scene later on moved to 2 months later when a young doctor named Ailin (Chelsea Islan - Merry Riana: Mimpi Sejuta Dolar, 3 Srikandi etc) was trying to nurture a coma patient to health. As she did not know the name of this patient, she came up with a name Ishmael which she felt suited him. He would soon woke up from his coma but he could not remember who or where he was and why he was injured. 

SING - Great Story, Tons of Songs, Awesome 3D Animated Movie

Finally I was able to catch up a new movie that just premiered on a Wednesday. It seemed like it has been ages since I did so with my wife. She happened to be having a function at Pacific Place mall at noon, so she managed to buy the ticket at CGV Blitz for the 7PM show. As it was the 7th of December and since my car's license plate ended with odd number, I could go through the Gatot Subroto area freely (this was due to the regulation in Jakarta to limit the number of vehicles passing through certain areas and avoid heavy traffic jam). So I headed to the mall from my office which took less than 1/2 hour and had a bite for dinner before we go to the cinema. To my surprise, it was not fully packed. Anyway, let's get on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey - The Wolf of Wallstreet, Interstellar and many more) was a koala who was the owner of an almost bankrupt music theater due to all his previous play productions failed commercially. He requested the financing from his best friend, the sheep Eddie (voiced by John C. Reilly - Wreck It Ralph, Guardians of the Galaxy etc) who was from a rich family, but he was not able to assist as Buster's track record was not too good. With the help from his assistant, the rather aged iguana Ms. Crawley, Buster sent many flyers to announce a singing competition he wanted to hold in his theater. Buster really needed this to be a success since the theater was going to be foreclosed by the bank due to unpaid loan. 

Underworld: Blood Wars - Selene Returns With A Big Bang!

After 1 whole very very busy week at work, I had no chance of watching this latest (fifth) installment of the Underworld series on the premiere date on Wednesday. I had to wait until Sunday to be able to watch it. Last week, as I knew this movie was about to play, I felt that I had forgotten the background story, so I decided to watch again from the 1st till the 4th installments. And I did not regret it as it made me realize that I had only watched Underworld and its direct sequel Underworld: Evolution. Apparently I have not watched the 3rd installment which was also the prequel, i.e. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and also Underworld: Awakening which was the sequel of Underworld: Evolution as well as the 4th installment. This movie is the direct sequel of Underworld: Awakening. Hence I was able to understand the story without scratching my head to remember the sequences. Well, let's get on to the movie, shall we?

Brief Story Line