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.
Brief Story Line
Raditya, the famous standup comedian and movie star (Raditya Dika - Koala Kumal, Malam Minggu Miko etc) was having financial difficulty and even got thrown out of his rented house. So when he was invited to a programme called Hangout, he decided to attend it as his manager told him that he was already given an upfront fee which could ease him of the financial pressure. The Hangout program was held in a house located in a remote island. Meanwhile Soleh (Soleh Solihun - Comic 8: Casino Kings etc) who was a host to a not so successful talk show also received the same invitation for Hangout and decided to attend it as well.
When Raditya went to the port to get to the location, he found out that there were other public figures invited to the same programme. The rest of the invitees were the senior actor Uncle Muchus (Mathias Muchus - Laskar Pelangi, Losmen TV series and many more), the actor Surya (Surya Saputra - Arisan!, Janji Joni etc), the actress Titi (Titi Kamal - Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?, Shy Shy Cat etc), the actress Dinda (Dinda Kanyadewi - Cinta Fitri TV series), the TV host Gading (Gading Marten) and the youtuber Bayu (Bayu Skak). When Raditya met with Soleh, he was given the very cold treatment by Soleh, even though they used to be very close and good friends. When all these people met, lots of funny stuff happen involving them, especially with Surya who seemed to be a very clean, stylish and a little bit girlish, and also Dinda who seemed to be very lazy in self hygiene.
Once they reached the location, they were informed that the boat would only be coming back to pick them up from the island 3 days later. While taking a little rest in an abandoned guard house, another public figure was already there earlier i.e. Prilly (Prilly Latuconsina - Ganteng Ganteng Srigala TV series). All 9 of them then went by foot to the house located in the middle of the jungle. However, the person who invited all of them to the programme never came out. One thing that everybody noticed was the fact that their handphones could not receive any signal and they were unable to communicate with people outside the island.
At night, when they were having dinner where the food was already prepared but was never revealed by whom, things started to become very scary. As you would have seen in the trailer, Uncle Muchus apparently was poisoned to death. The rest of the party now became so worried and confused on what they should do. Raditya who decided it would be best to immediately leave the location was having a different of opinion with Soleh who believed it would be best to stay put until the boat came to pick them up.
With the split decision, Raditya, Dinda, Bayu and lastly Gading went out through the jungle in the middle of the night, trying to find their way back to the guard house. Meanwhile Soleh, Titi, Prilly and Surya were still staying in the house, despite Surya started to regret this decision.
So could Raditya and his friends got to the guard house? What would happen to Soleh and his friends while waiting in the house? Who did kill Uncle Muchus? Find the answers through this funny, exciting, thriller movie and see if you can guess who was the real murderer among these public figures.
End of Brief Story Line
Well this was indeed an entertaining movie. Throughout this film, we were given bits and pieces of fun 1 liner or crazy stunts/moments involving the stars. It was real fun watching this movie, since we really felt that the public figures were not acting, but really just becoming themselves. This was what actually made the movie so successful (as I understand it had reached > 266k audience after 2 days) as the audience could really relate to these people in real lives. Of course some of the jokes involving them probably could only be understood if we know at least a bit about these public figures, such as if we know Bayu was a Youtuber, or Gading who was the son of the famous actor Roy Marten, or things like Prilly's famous TV series and so on.
The story line itself really reminded me of the very famous Agatha Christie's novel titled And Then There Were None (or in Indonesian, it was titled Sepuluh Anak Negro). And I understand that the story was indeed inspired by that story, which was amazingly managed to be successfully converted to a comedy movie by Raditya Dika. He really did a fantastic job on this one. Another point that probably was the reason for the movie so famous was the stars of the movie were so popular in real lives that lots and lots of their fans came to the cinemas to see them act. But then again, it may not have been a good movie either if Raditya Dika was unable to ensure the acting became natural and the story line became nicely told.
Another plus point of the movie was the location, which seemed to be really remote but beautiful. There was not a lot of special effects to the movie, while the sound effect was just so so (not sure why but there were occasions where some of the dialogues were too soft and made us having difficulty in understanding the conversation. Perhaps the background noise were to loud?). Apart from the above, few of the jokes were a little bit vulgar and probably not too suitable for the younger audience of pre-teens such as the scene involving Raditya and Soleh while they were packed in a very tight closet.
Oh before I forgot, there were some fun bloopers during the end credit which would also be nice and fun to see. It was surprisingly done till the end of the credit which made the audience stick to the very end.
Anyway, one thing that I really was a bit disappointed was the trailer which I think revealed too much of the funny moments. It made the supposed fun stuffs that we could have enjoyed while watching the movie have been revealed earlier in the trailer. Luckily the thriller moments were not shown as much as the fun stuff.
Overall though, the movie was a real fun one. I think it was a good quality comedy combined with thriller and would make us feel happy after watching it. Please be reminded though that this is supposed to be a light comedy movie, so there would be no need to over analyze the movie such as the motive of the killer. So if you are a fan of Raditya Dika, or a fan of any of all the public figures, then I think you would definitely enjoy the movie. For people who are not a fan of any of them, but you enjoy watching a funny movie and want to see how a serious mystery story from Agatha Christie can be translated into a comedy movie, then I believe you could also enjoy this movie.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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