(TV SERIES) Emerald City - A Short Lived Interesting Reimagining of Wizard of Oz

During the past few days, I was looking for short new TV series to be seen via live streaming. My decision fell to this series which was telling the story about the classic Wizard of Oz. The first season was only having 10 episodes which was shown in US TV network in early 2017. So it was a real brand new series. Well what was it all about? Let us find out next.

Brief Story Line

Dorothy (Adria Arjona - The Belko Experiment) was a nurse who was living in a very small city of Lucas in Kansas, USA with her adoptive parents named Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. One night, while visiting the person who was said to be her real mother named Karen (Gina Bellman - Leverage TV series etc), a huge tornado hit the city. Though she managed to hid Karen inside the storm cellar, Dorothy who locked herself inside a police car was flown over by the tornado. When the tornado passed, Dorothy realized that she was no longer in Lucas city. With a police gun, some medicines and the police dog (later on called Toto) to accompany her, Dorothy started to wander around the area and look for a Wizard who supposedly could her return to her home.

Transformers: The Last Knight - The 5th And Not the Best Transformers Movie

Another Transformers movie? Definitely a must-see movie for my wife and I because we love those robots that can transform so much. After seeing the trailer a week ago, I noticed that the movie was promoted as shot in IMAX 3D. So we decided that we should see it in IMAX. I am a bit embarrassed to admit that for so many years I have been watching movies, I had never had the experience of seeing anything in IMAX. As I had something personal that I need to do, I have already applied my leave on 21st of June, which happened to be the premiere day of this movie. Such a nice coincidence, right? Anyway, we went to Mall Kelapa Gading as it was one of the only 2 cinemas having IMAX studio in Jakarta and watched the first show at 12.30 PM. Now let us get on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

The movie was told after the events of Transformers: Age of Extinction, where Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg - The Departed, Ted, Deepwater Horizon etc) was helping the Autobots from the chasing of a newly setup troops called TRF (Transformers Reaction Force). TRF was setup with the sole purpose of capturing all aliens whether they were Autobots or Decepticons and led by Santos (Santiago Cabrera - Merlin TV series). Commander Lennox (Josh Duhamel - When In Rome, New Year's Eve etc) who actually still believed in Autobots had no choice but be part of TRF as well. During one incident, Cade met with a young girl named Izabela (Isabela Moner - Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life) who would later on have some part in his future mission.

The Whole Truth - A Rather Interesting Drama Thriller Movie

I had not intended to see this movie which had been playing in Indonesian cinemas since last week. But my wife was intrigued by it and asked whether we should see it as some of her friends told her it was good while others say bad. So what better way for us to find out, other than seeing and judging it by ourselves? Well then it was decided that we would watch it last night and luckily there were some cinemas still showing them and one of them was one of our favorite place, i.e. at Lotte Avenue. Ok, let us move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Ramsay (Keanu Reeves - The Matrix trilogy, Speed and many more) was a public defender who was tasked by his good friend, Mrs. Lassiter (Renee Zellweger - Bridget Jones' Diary trilogy, Jerry Maguire etc) to defend her son Mike Lassiter (Gabriel Basso - Super 8). Mike was a high school student who was accused of murdering his father Boone (Jim Belushi - Red Heat, Jingle All The Way etc) with intent and hence he was tried as an adult rather than as a minor.

The Wall - Another War Thriller Cat and Mouse Kind of Movie

This was a movie that I had actually seen on last Saturday evening, but due to a Sunday brunch I had with my wife (more on that in her blog) and also feeling a little bit tired, I did not write my views of the film until today. It was only playing in the smaller cinema chains in Indonesia, so our options were a bit limited and we decided to see this one in Plaza Semanggi. Well what was the movie about? You can see more below.

Brief Story Line

Story was told in the year 2007 when the US declared that they have "won" the Iraq war and they were in the midst of leaving the country. Two men team of a sniper Shane Matthews (WWE wrestler John Cena - 12 Rounds, Trainwreck etc) with his spotter Allen "Ize" Isaac (Aaron Taylor-Johnson - Kick-Ass, Nocturnal Animals etc) were some of the few US armies who were still there. They were assigned to visit a pipeline construction location where it appeared to have been attacked as the workers and even some army were killed.

47 Meters Down - Another Movie of Survival from Sharks

During the week with no major Hollywood movie released in Indonesia, a movie about sharks would definitely be an interesting choice to see. It premiered on a Thursday which was kind of odd, but due to my feeling tired on that day, plus the fact that my wife also had an event she attended till night, we only watched this one yesterday night. Even that was also a bit worrying since after the tickets were bought, I was informed of a meeting which may end till evening. But luckily it finished earlier and I was able to reach the location at 6.30PM while the show was at 7.15PM.

Brief Story Line

Two sisters from US, Lisa (Mandy Moore - A Walk to Remember, Tangled etc) and her younger sister Kate (Claire Holt - The Vampire Diaries & The Originals TV series) were taking a vacation in Mexico. Kate who was much more adventurous was trying to get Lisa off her mind from her relationship with her boyfriend Stuart. So both of them met with two Mexican guys in a club named Louis (Yani Gellman) who seemed to be interested in Lisa, and Benjamin (Santiago Segura). Both of them challenged the ladies to try a dangerous exciting experience of diving in a cage with sharks circling them.

Detective Conan: Crimson Love Letter - 21st installment of Detective Conan Series

As mentioned in my previous post about the movie Mine which I watched yesterday, I originally wanted to see only this movie after my weekend staycation. But since we had the time, we considered to have ourselves another movie marathon which we had not done for quite some time. The show was at 7 PM and when we checked in the website until 15 minutes before start, it showed that only 3 of people (including my wife and I) who were planning to see the movie. But as the movie almost began, few more people came to the studio and we ended up with around 10 people. Perhaps it was due to the fasting period as usually it was having more audience. Anyway, let us get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

Story started with the murder of a champion of the Japanese Karuta card game with the culprit shown as black character like usually done in Detective Conan's comic books or TV series & movies. Later on, we were shown that Conan (Minami Takayama) and his kindergarten friends Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta plus his high-school sweetheart Ran (Wakana Yamazaki) with her father the well-known detective Kogorō Mōri (Rikiya Koyama) were in a TV station. They were looking at the preparation of the Karuta championship with the main star Momiji Ooka who seemed set to become the next champion. Conan and friends were there as invitees of Kazuha (Yuko Miyamura) and of course Heiji (Ryo Horikawa), whom Kazuha had a huge crush on, and also one of the very few friends of Conan who knew about his actual condition and identity.

MINE - A Suspenseful Psychological Drama Thriller

After checking out from the hotel during our weekend staycation (more on that in my wife's blog), we wanted to see the nice anime movie of detective Conan. But we noticed that there was also another movie playing in the cinemas which we had not seen. So we decided to have a movie marathon by seeing this movie first that had its last show of the day at 3.40 PM in Pacific Place. Now what was the movie about? Due to the nature of the movie, I would be providing a very very brief synopsis instead of my usual few paragraphs of brief Story Line.

Brief Synopsis

Sergeant Mike Stevens (Armie Hammer - The Lone Ranger, The Man from U.N.C.L.E etc) and his partner Tommy Madison (Tom Cullen - Downton Abbey TV series) were assigned to do some military mission somewhere in Africa. After the mission, both of them were being chased by the enemy's army and were later trapped in the dessert where people have put mine bombs. With the reinforcements more than 2 days away, lots of things have to be faced from the sand storm, hallucinations, the drastic change of weather not to mention the lack of water.

End of Brief Synopsis

The Mummy: Reboot of the 1999 Cool Movie

After seeing the trailer to this movie for few times in the last couple of weeks, my wife and I were pretty excited to see it once it premiered. However, as she had a food tasting event on the premiere day on Wednesday, we were only able to saw this movie yesterday. To my surprise, the studio was not fully occupied till the very front seats which was rather unusual to my opinion for such a major movie and starring Tom Cruise nonetheless (we watched this one in Lotte Avenue btw). Anyway, let us catch on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

The movie started with some background story of princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella - Kingsman: The Secret Service, Star Trek Beyond etc) of ancient Egypt who was being punished and buried alive in a sarcophagus due to her cooperation with the evil god Set. Before she could do the final touch of ensuring Set could enter into a human body, she was already captured and mummified.

Mr. Pride vs Miss Prejudice - A Chinese Romantic Comedy Heavy on Comedy Side

As I was waiting for my wife to complete her food tasting event, I had some spare time to use and thought of watching some random movie which might not be available in cable TV. So I did some browsing through the internet and looked for something via online streaming, where I stumbled across this movie. Once I saw the title, I was intrigued and was even more interested to see when I read the very brief synopsis which hinted that it was a romantic comedy and the genre that I have not watched for quite some time. So I decided to see this one.

Brief Story Line

After an incident in a crowded mall, Zhu Hou (Leon Zhang - Fall In Love Like a Star) who was a spoiled rich kid & whose mother was the owner of a very successful lingerie business, accidentally met with Tang Nan Nan (Dilraba Dilmurat - Hot Girl TV series, and cast member of Running Man China). Nan Nan was a struggling online writer who was having a bit of cash flow problem. Due to the incident, she demanded that Zhu Hou be responsible and compensate her. Nan Nan was able to acquire what she wanted through some hilarious moments and soon they parted ways. 

Wonder Woman - The Latest Adaptation of the Powerful Female DC Superhero

My wife and I had planned to see this movie for quite some time. As it happened, she was having an event that she had to attend to on the day it premiered yesterday. Luckily it was a public holiday on the following day, so we were able to see the first show at 1.15 PM at the Epicentrum mall. After having our lunch, we arrived at the cinema at almost 1 PM. Well let's get started with the movie then.

Brief Story Line

Diana (Gal Gadot - Fast & Furious 6 and 7, Keeping Up with the Joneses etc) was the daughter of Amazon queen Hyppolyta (Connie Nielsen - One Hour Photo, Stratton etc) who had been taught the ways to defend herself by the Amazon warriors leader, general Antiope (Robin Wright - Santa Barbara TV series, Forrest Gump etc) from a very young age. They lived in the island of Themyscira which was hidden from the outside world where the whole island was only inhabited by Amazonian women.