(TV SERIES) Quantico - Season 1

This is another series that caught my attention when I saw the trailer to it more than 1 year ago. A story involving an FBI Agent who seemed to be framed for a bombing in New York city seemed interesting. So after I watched the series Blindspot and thinking which series I should see, I decided to watch this one. And boy was I delighted that I saw this. So what's it all about? Let's move on to the more interesting part. As usual, since there is mystery element in this series, I would try my best to avoid any spoiler and hence, I would put emphasis on the story in pilot episode rather than the whole series.

Brief Story Line

The first episode started with the scene of a woman lying in the debris of what seemed to be a result of a bomb that exploded in the city of New York. Then it flash back to the time of 9 months earlier with the introduction of the characters preparing themselves to go to Quantico, the place where FBI trainees went for training before they could become Agents and assigned to the various FBI headquarters all across the US. The first main character introduced was Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra - Bollywood mega star with Indian movie hits such as Krrish and Don) who was the woman shown in the early opening scene. Alex seemed to leave her mother without her knowledge of her going to Quantico. On the way there, she met with a charming guy on a plane named Ryan Booth (Jake McLaughlin - Safe House, Crash TV series etc). 

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - Or is it???

Resident Evil has been 1 of my quite favorite action movie with the war between human and zombies. So when I heard there was going to be another movie in the "series", I did not hesitate to decide in seeing this one when it premiered yesterday. As usual, for a weekday movie premiere, my wife was kind enough to spare some time to buy the tickets for me (thx honey). The time was 7 PM and it was in Lotte Avenue with the Dolby Surround 11.1 system which would quench my thirst for a good sound system when watching this kind of movie in theater. After having our light dinner, we arrived at the studio at almost the start of the movie.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with few minutes of background story of how the zombies were created, which kind of summed up the entire 5 previous Resident Evil series and continued with our main protagonist Alice (Milla Jovovich - Ultraviolet, The Three Musketeers etc) who arrived at Washington DC only to find out that there was no one to save. After fighting off a very large monster, Alice reached an Umbrella corporation old office where the computer was switched on, and the Red Queen (the hologram of young Alice) informed Alice that the cure to the T-Virus was already created. She convinced Alice that the cure should be acquired in 48 hours otherwise it would be released only to the Umbrella Corporation executives. The location of the cure was none other than the underground headquarters called the Hive in Raccoon City where it all started.

(TV SERIES) Blindspot Season 1 - The Mystery Surrounding A Woman with Body Full of Tattoos

It has been a while since I last posted a review of a TV series. In fact, the last time I posted was back in 2016, so this is my first post of a TV series in 2017. It was not the first series that I completed this year, but it is the first one that really made me want to complete it very fast and write it immediately. I think I saw the trailer of this new series in 2016 and it really intrigued me. So after some weeks of watching other series, I was looking for new series that I can enjoy, and I remembered about this one. Well let's find out what the story is all about. What I will write below was a brief story involving the pilot episode and few other subsequent episodes which I hope would not reveal too much spoiler.

Brief Story Line

The series started with the finding of a large travel bag in the middle of New York Times Square with lots of people walking around. A team of bomb squad had emptied the location and when a soldier was going to check on the possible bomb threat, something was moving inside the bag and it was opening from the inside, where a naked woman whose body was full of tattoos came out of the bag. She claimed that she did not know who she was or how she got there.

Hacker (aka Anonymous) - A Hackers Movie Without A Lot of Hacking

This week, it was quite surprising that only 1 major movie premiered in Indonesia which was xXx: Return of Xander Cage and I already saw and reviewed it earlier. There were actually 2 or 3 other movies that premiered on Friday in Jakarta but I decided to watch this one on my Saturday. I went to Cinemaxx Plaza Semanggi around 11.30AM and just I predicted, the cinema was packed with a lot of people. Reason was Cinemaxx theater was having free tickets giveaway unconditionally to audience only for the shows before 3 PM. I was actually waiting for my wife to complete her food tasting event but she told me she would not be able to make it for the 2.30PM show. So I took 1 free ticket for myself and I was really grateful for Cinemaxx for having this wonderful giveaway. 

Brief Story Line

Alex (Callan McAuliffe - I Am Number Four, The Great Gatsby etc) was a high school graduate who came from a Ukrainian immigrant family while he was still very young. With no proper expertise, his father had been unemployed since they moved to Canada and they had to rely on Alex' mother's small salary from her work at a bank. Alex spent most of his childhood time in front of his mother's computer and learnt to do few things in his computer. He was very adamant that he should go to college to learn computer programming. Using his little knowledge of making money from the internet, he was able to do "work" and start saving money little by little.

Unfortunately for Alex, when he was almost finishing his high school and saved enough money, his mother was fired from her work at the bank, leaving Alex no choice but to give up all his money for his mother to continue paying for the mortgage of their house. He saw in the news which was shown all over the TV and internet that some hackers who called themselves Dark Web had been doing cyber attacks on the business world. Alex was interested and start to introduce himself to this group with the hope of someday meeting with their leader named Zed and of course to learn how to get big money fast. Alex managed to do illegal business from this internet with the help from Dark Web and gained quite large amount of money that he was able to continue going to college.

Alex left his parents and went to college in another city, but there would be few months before the semester start. So he decided to use his free time to gain some more easy money. While trying to sell some watches in Chinatown, he came across with a soon to be his best buddy Sye (Daniel Eric Gold - Charlie Wilson's War, Definitely Maybe etc) who introduced him to the world of scheming, conning and illegal stuffs.

Alex still interested in seeing Zed and doing bigger things especially that could hurt the banking institution as he was so disappointed with the bank that fired his mother and left them with so much liabilities. After done with something quite big, he started to be noticed by Dark Web and a girl named Kira (Lorraine Nicholson - World's Greatest Dad, Soul Surfer etc) who wanted to know him better. She seemed to know about lots of ways to make more money through the internet & credit card scheming so Sye asked Alex to see if Kira wanted to join them, which she accepted.

So now the three of them started to do some heists together. During 1 of their heist, Alex and Sye did something to offend a Colombian cartel boss which would later have major impact in their lives. In addition, Sye started to feel that Alex trusted Kira more then him. Not to mention he felt suspicious with Kira's ability to always find major buyer for their items, which Alex always felt that it was because of Sye's jealousy. After an unsuccessful attempt on selling their biggest items yet, they offended a mafia boss and decided to run away to Hong Kong (as suggested by Kira) where supposedly good for hackers and also where Zed likely lived.

Could Alex continue his quest of doing big job that would make him meet Zed? What was Kira's actual motive and whether Sye's suspicion valid? What would happen to Alex, Kira and Zed's relationship? You will found them soon enough.

End of Brief Story Line

Well I was thinking that I would be seeing a movie with lots of hacking done throughout the movie (as per the title suggested), but instead we would be shown only few scenes of the actual hacking done. Majority of the movie was actually more on the heist and scheming done by the three main characters where the hacking was shown only very little in the background. The scheming itself was actually shown quite nicely and quite easy to understand. My guess was if the movie title was not "Hacker", audience may not be expecting this sort of stuff in the movie. In fact, the film was having another title called "Anonymous" which was coincidentally the name of a very famous (notorious?) hacktivist group. Even the poster seemed to suggest it. Perhaps for popularity purpose?

Anyway, as I said earlier, the hacking activity was not that much. You would definitely see them more in the popular TV series Mr. Robot that I had reviewed earlier. Now having watched that series I could not help but compare it with the movie. For those who have watched the TV series and enjoyed the hacking scenes and also the psychological thriller scenes involving the main character, then for your sure you would not like this movie at all as it would be considered very shallow to that one. However, if you are actually not a fan of too much serious deep thinking, then this might be more enjoyable to you.

By the way, as an independent movie without overthinking about the fact not a lot of hacking scenes, the movie itself actually had some nice moments. The attraction was the relationship between Alex with Sye and the interruption with the inclusion of new girl Kira. It was a classic bromance interfered with a woman. Among these 3 characters, I kind of rooted for Sye and could understand his frustration. There were not a lot of action or special effects as it was more like a thriller drama. The movie was told in a flashback kind of model where it started with the important moment then move back to the Alex storyline where we would reach the start of the movie.

My biggest flaw in this movie was not the lack of those hacking scenes, but it was more on the lousy ending. It was truly a WTH kind of ending that really did not serve the purpose of the movie. I am sorry but I could not find any satisfaction on the ending of this movie. It was like the writers really did not care anymore whether the ending would give closure or understanding. I know that people like ending that sometime made you think and conclude by yourself, but again this one sucks big time, at least according to me.

So if you are interested in seeing the movie like I shared above and you are willing to take the risk of seeing such ending, then by all means you can definitely try and watch it. But if you are interested in seeing more deep analytical thinking film, then I would recommend you see Mr. Robot TV series. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

xXx: Return of Xander Cage - Another Franchise Revival Emphasizing on Mind Blowing Action

Finally after many years, a sequel to xXx had come back to the cinemas. I was excited to see this one as I remembered that the earlier movies were full of action and therefore should provide an exciting change to an otherwise months filled with more serious/heavy movies in theaters. Since my wife had returned from her trip on Tuesday night, she would be able to accompany me to see this on its premiere date yesterday. She even helped me to buy the tickets at Kota Kasablanka which was my first experience watching movie there. My wife had a friends gathering there and I thought it would be a good experience to try a different cinema for a change, especially since the 7PM show was in a cinema with Dolby Atmos. Alas, before the movie started, it showed that the sound system was Dolby Surround 7.1. I was a bit disappointed as the 21cineplex website clearly indicated that the 7PM show was in the cinema with Dolby Atmos. If the cinema operator could not show movie using such system, the website should not have put up this info. I know that most people do not really care for such things, but it mattered to me. Anyway, let us move on to the movie.

Patriots Day - The Horrifying True Story of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing

This movie already premiered in Indonesian theater on last Friday and I was tempted to watch it on that day itself, but I changed my mind as the time did not really suit me. Then I wanted to watch it on Sunday, but the appeal of spending my off day just to sleep around all day was too tempting and so I did not go out that day. I continued watching a TV series (which I may write about it sometime later) till completion and only finally did go to see the movie last night. It was quite a long movie with over 2 hours length and hence it started not the usual 7PM but at 6.35PM instead. Since my wife was still in Singapore for her vacation trip, I went to Setiabudi and bought the ticket for myself. There were still a lot of empty seats despite I reached there at almost 6PM. Not sure about the reason coz I strongly believe the movie would be attracting lots of attention. Anyway their loss was my gain as I still managed to get quite a nice seat. Well, enough of my rambling above and let's get on to the movie.

Live By Night - Not Your Average Gangster Movie

It was a week full of work in my office and I was very busy even after office hour that I was unable to spare time to see new movies premiering during this week. There were 2 movies that premiered on Wednesday (if I am not mistaken) and this was one of them. The other one was a huge winner in Golden Globe Awards earlier, but since I was not a fan of a musical film, I chose to concentrate on this movie instead. I am sure you know which movie that I was referring to. Anyway, after I finished doing something relating to my work at around 3 pm today, I went to the cinema in Plaza Semanggi by myself (as my wife was having few days vacation trip to Singapore) and bought the ticket for 4.45PM show. Not a lot of audience to see, which was understandable as the movie did not get a lot of hype in Indonesia. So let us move on to the story. As I am unable to provide the brief story line without revealing the plot, I would advise you to skip this part and go direct to my conclusion if you are like me who despise the facts or spoilers shared by "irresponsible" persons. 

Brief Story Line (spoiler warning!)

The Girl on The Train - An Interesting Movie of A Mystery Seen from The Moving Train

After playing in Indonesia for over a week, I finally got the chance to see this movie yesterday. It was playing only in 2 cinema chains, so it was a bit challenging to search for cinemas that are still playing. Even in Cinemaxx, it is currently playing only in 1 theater in Plaza Semanggi and just 1 show per day. Anyway, my wife who was having an unusually free Saturday wanted to accompany me for the movie. So off we go and see it at 1.45PM. Let's find out more on the movie now. I will try my best to keep the story line as brief as possible and avoid any chance of spoiler. However, if you are worried of such risk, and just want to know my views of the movie, then you can just go direct to my conclusion below the End of Brief Story Line.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with the introduction of Rachel (Emily Blunt - Edge of Tomorrow, The Huntsman: Winter's War etc) who always commute from her house to her workplace on daily basis. From her narrative, it was revealed that her train always passed a house lived by a young couple who seemed to lead a romantic lovely life. She even imagined many good things about the couple. It was revealed later also that she ever lived in a house 2 doors next that couple's house. During these introduction scenes, we would see that Rachel was an alcoholic and unstable woman, with highly active imagination and was having too high curiosity, especially towards this young couple.

Arrival - An Unusual Story of the Arrival of Aliens On Earth

It was a bit late for Indonesians to see this movie as it had already played in the US for quite some time. I was not sure for such delay as normally movies would start to premier in Indonesia same day or sometimes even earlier than in US. But anyway, it was a good thing that it still premiered in January 2017 (rather than say mid of the year), since we had the chance to see it before the Golden Globe award was announced. Yes, this movie was nominated in Golden Globe. So should be good, right? Anyway, let's get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

Louise Banks (Amy Adams - Enchanted, Man of Steel etc) was a very good linguist who taught at a university. One day while she was giving a lecture to her class, news were spreading around about some Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) which landed in the Montana, US. Apparently there were altogether 12 similar UFO in other countries like China, Russia, Pakistan, Sudan and so on. Class was then dismissed for security reasons.

The Great Wall - The "Legend" Behind the Wall's Creation

This movie was one of my most anticipated movie for the early 2017. Its trailer had been shown many times in previous weeks and the movie itself started to have the midnight show on the New Year's Eve. However, since my wife and I had a weekend staycation and wanted to enjoy our room for the night, we decided not to see the movie then, but on its premier date yesterday. So off we went to see it in our usual favorite cinema location on a weekday, i.e at Lotte Avenue at 7 PM. Well let's get on with the movie, shall we?

Brief Story Line

A group of European mercenaries were circling around the desert in the North of China while looking for the rumored black powder which supposedly can create explosions. After escaping from the chase of the local tribe, they were spending the night at a hidden place while determining their next action plan. During their rest, they were attacked by something in the dark where William (Matt Damon - The Bourne Identity, The Martian and so on) was able to kill one of it and asked his friend Pero (Pedro Pascal - The Adjustment Bureau, Game of Thrones TV series) to bring along the remaining hand of the monster.

Why Him? - A Comedy of Overprotective Father Relationship With His Daughter's Boyfriend

This movie looked to be very hilarious from the trailer that I had seen in the past 2 weeks or so. And I needed to see something funny to lighten my mood, so my wife and I decided to see this on the first day of the year 2017. The fact that it was the only movie playing in Lotte Avenue which we had not seen, certainly made the choice easier. We went to Lotte Avenue since on the new year's eve, we spent another weekend staycation at the Ascott hotel in the same complex. They had this nice access door direct from hotel to the mall. Anyway, after our lunch with my brother in law's little family, we watched this movie at the 2.30 PM show. Well, let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston - Godzilla, Get A Job etc) was a middle aged family man who started and built his own printing company to become quite a success for many years. He was adored and trusted by his employees that included his right hand man Lou (Cedric The Entertainer - Barbershop, the voice of Maurice in Madagascar trilogy etc) and Kevin the IT guy (Zack Pearlman).