Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! - The 20th Pokémon Movie

Pokémon movie coming out in theater? Definitely interesting to see, right? My wife and I had the opportunity to see this one on its premiere date yesterday. Movie only played in 2 smaller movie chains in Indonesia, so we have limited choices to see this one and we ultimately chose to see it in CGV Grand Indonesia. Now let us move on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with the story of how Ash/Satoshi (voiced by Rica Matsumoto) came to encounter his first pocket monster (Pokémon) named Pikachu (Ikue Ōtani) and became such good friends. After their first adventure, Ash and Pikachu saw a legendary pokémon called Ho-Oh, flying through the sky and dropped its feather which was picked up by Ash. Ash vowed that he would one day fight against Ho-Oh. Later on Ash and Pikachu would go on travelling to compete with other pokémon trainers so Ash could become the world number one trainer. 

Murder on the Orient Express - A Good Adaptation of Agatha Christie's Iconic Detective Poirot

On the premier date of this movie which I had been aiming to see since I saw its theatrical poster few weeks ago, my wife and I decided to see it in Plaza Indonesia mall (PI). It was not our usual place to see a movie, but I was having a Cinema XXI voucher from my credit card which can be used only in few theaters (PI was one of them), plus my wife had a meeting in Grand Indonesia that was very near the mall. So without further ado, let us get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the year 1934, where the very famous detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh - Henry V, Dunkirk etc) had to take the Orient Express train from Istanbul to London for an urgent case. Due to the last minute requirement, the Orient Express director named Bouc (Tom Bateman) had to put Poirot in a normal carriage together with other passengers instead of the usual first class carriage. He met with various people in the train such as the American woman who was previously married more than once named Mrs. Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer - What Lies Beneath, The Fabulous Baker Boys and many more) and seemed to be looking for her future husband. In this carriage, Poirot and the rest of the passengers were served by Pierre Michel (Marwan Kenzari).

COCO - A Lovely Family Movie (Disney Pixar Done It Again!)

Yesterday, this movie premiered in Indonesia and I urged my wife to see this one immediately. It was a Disney Pixar movie and I believed it would be a good one so I definitely would want to see it at the earliest. We went to see this at Lotte Avenue and the theater was not too full, but almost half of them were children. Well let us move on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

Miguel Rivera (voiced by Anthony Gonzales) was a 12 year old Mexican boy who lived in a small village and was really into music and he wanted to be like his idol Ernesto (Benjamin Bratt - Miss Congeniality, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs etc), who was the greatest musician in Mexico. However, he came from a family who honored tradition but totally hate music since it was believed to have ruined the Rivera ancestors. Miguel had to conceal his dreams in front of his family, especially from his grandmother Abuelita Elena (Renee Victor - Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones etc) who was the daughter of Mama Coco (Ana Ofelia Murguía). 

Duckweed - A Unique Comedy Drama of A Man Going Back in Time to Meet His Young Parents

I was aware about this movie playing in Celestial Movies channel since beginning of the month, as it was promoted as part of their weekly premiere of new movies. The synopsis of the movie seemed very interesting as it suggested some kind of time travel and I know the main lead's comedic appearance earlier which should be fun. So I told my wife that I wanted to see this one last night and we had to be back before 9PM when the movie started. Well let us get on with the movie then.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the year 2022 when Xu Tailang (Deng Chao - The Mermaid, The Breakup Guru, etc) won his first ever trophy of China Rally championship. Lang invited his father Xu Zhengtai (Eddie Peng - Rise of the Legend, Operation Mekong etc) to witness his triumph but he also had hidden personal agenda with his father. When Lang asked Zheng to accompany him in the car and experience first hand how it felt inside the speeding car, they had an accident where Lang would later be transported back to the year 1998 in the small town where his family lived. This would be the start of something very fun for Lang as he could explore and find out his family history.

Marlina Si Pembunuh dalam 4 Babak - A Unique Movie Specialized for Festival

I was looking for a movie which I could see this Saturday while my wife was having an event and I decided to see this Indonesian film which premiered since last Thursday. It was a thriller movie that was promoted in Cannes Film Festival. The premise seemed interesting and it was categorized as thriller movie. So when my wife was being a host to the event at Grand Indonesia mall, I went by myself to the cinema there and saw this one at 11.30 AM show. Well let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Marlina (Marsha Timothy - The Raid 2, Nada untuk Asa etc) was a woman who just lost her husband and having huge debts to settle. She lived in a house in the middle of a dry land in Sumba. One day a person whom she owed to named Markus (Egy Fedly - Pengabdi Setan, Ular Tangga etc) came to her home to gather Marlina's cattle for paying her debts. He warned her that there would be 6 more persons coming to collect her debts and the seven of them would also enjoy the pleasure of her body. Marlina was shocked to find out about this fact and she thought of a way to escape from these bandits.

(TV SERIES) Lethal Weapon Season 1 - One of the Best Series Adapted from Wonderful Movies

Back in year 2016, I knew that there would be a TV series based on the quite popular movie franchise Lethal Weapon where the original casts were Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. After the first season was completed few months ago, I set my mind to see the whole season starting from around 2 weeks ago. Now that I have completed watching it, I would like to share my thoughts on this series. So let us move on to the story now.

Brief Story Line

Martin Riggs (Clayne Crawford - Rectify TV series etc) was a former police in Texas who was transferred to Los Angeles Police Department in the robbery/homicide division. He was partnered with a senior detective Robert Murtaugh (Damon Wayans - Bulletproof, Marci X etc) who just recovered from a heart surgery and should avoid having too much excitement. The partnership was initiated by their captain, Brooks Avery (Kevin Rahm - Desperate Housewives, Mad Men TV series etc) who was previously Murtaugh's partner.

Justice League - A Very Well Done DC Comic Movie Adaptation

I have been looking forward to see this movie for a while now. So when I found out that the movie would be playing on 15 November, I rescheduled all my plans to especially see this one on its premiere date. The tickets were already sold in advance since last Saturday and it was quite challenging to get the seats in my favorite cinema with Dolby Atmos system, but luckily we still got nice seats in the middle of another nice theater not far from our home. Well let's get on to the movie now!

Brief Story Line

Not long after the events from Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) found out that some kind of demon-like creatures seemed to be threatening the world. It would later on be revealed that those creatures were the armies of a very powerful demon god named Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Hitman: Agent 47 etc) who was looking for items hidden on earth. They seemed to gain courage after the death of Superman.

Paddington 2 - Sequel to that Cute Lovable Kind Naive Bear Movie

This movie was already playing in Indonesian cinemas last Friday and funnily enough, my wife and I did not really feel it was a very good one and we did not provide time to see this in the theater the past few days. Usually if we were serious, we would have seen it no matter what the condition was. Today finally we decided to see the movie in the theater nearest to our home, after I completed my work and my wife finished her event. The studio was filled with only around 10 people, which was probably due to weekday. Well let us move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

The story was told not long after the events in original movie where Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw - In the Heart of the Sea, Skyfall, Spectre etc) was now having a nice life with the Brown family. He was very friendly towards everyone around him and they all loved him for that. In order to celebrate the 100th birthday of her beloved aunt Lily (voiced by Imelda Staunton - Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, Vera Drake etc), Paddington was looking for the perfect present in antique store owned by Mr. Gruber (Jim Broadbent - Harry Potter series, Game of Thrones TV series etc). He finally found it in the form of a pop-up book with London's famous landmarks. However, the price was too expensive and hence Paddington had to work and start saving some money, which proved to be not as easy as he thought.

Meanwhile, a washed up artist/performer named Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant - Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill etc) somehow found out about the same book and he was really interested in getting his hands on it. He was even willing to do anything even illegally to obtain the book. Unfortunately it would implicate Paddington in ways he could not have imagine. With Paddington in trouble, the Browns stuck together just like previously to save Paddington. They would also be assisted by unlikely ally of Knuckles (Brendan Gleeson - Edge of Tomorrow, Assassin's Creed etc) and his friends.

So could the Browns save Paddington and expose Phoenix' plan? Could Paddington get the perfect present to his aunt? Find them all in this fun, loving adventure comedy family movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Just like in the original movie, this one was also truly a family movie. Almost the same formula was used in here where Paddington, being a naive, friendly kind bear caught in trouble due to the bad things done by the villain, and had to be rescued by the Browns. There was definitely a lot of laugh and love around in this movie. So get ready for some funny moments and of course some touching emotional moments.

The movie itself focused on the feel-good factor that you would experience when watching it and especially the happiness and emotional sensation after the climax scene in the end. However, this movie was not a very deep one filled with intelligent conversation. Instead it was a light movie filled with scenes where we would be feeling happy or sad for Paddington. Of course some of the things were also a little bit illogical and have a sense of absurdity in it, but we could still tolerate and just enjoy the movie. It was made purely to be enjoyed by the whole family and I think it would be nicer to see this one during Christmas period. I do not know why, but it had a Christmas aura in the movie.

The CGI to create Paddington was as nice as the original film, but I especially love the scenes shown during the imagination of Paddington when he was looking at the pop-up book. It was very nice and wonderful to see it and I could actually experience what he was imagining. The Brown family affection and of course the whole neighborhood's appreciation towards Paddington was very lovely to see as well. And be reminded to see the warm feeling when you see the scene involving Brendan Gleeson and his friends. There was a fun mid credit scene that you could enjoy too, but no end credit scene.

In the end, this movie was just to be enjoyed and not to be overly thought. You would need to have good imagination and also better to have watched the original movie to have better appreciation of Paddington and the Browns relationship. But even if you did not see the first one, I think you could still understand the movie as it was not too overly complicated. My wife and I were pretty entertained with the movie, especially my wife who had some emotional moments in the touching scenes. We were definitely glad to have seen this one, even though a bit late. The only thing I quite regret was the scenes of the trailer were a bit too much and some of the funny scenes were already shown there. 

So if you are looking for a family friendly movie with some of those funny moments plus if you want to enjoy seeing that cute cuddly bear with his naivety and kindness to brighten up your day, this one definitely would be a good choice. 

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars 

Jigsaw - The Return of that Scary Creepy Horrific Villain of the Saw Series

I found out that this movie started playing in Indonesian theaters 3 days ago. But strangely enough it was not playing in all cinema chains. When my wife was having an event in Plaza Indonesia yesterday, I decided to see this movie in Grand Indonesia which was only few minutes walking distance. As usual I would watch a horror movie by myself. After so many commercials the movie finally started at 6.45 PM and the audience were quite a lot though not a full house. Now let us get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

Five people awaken in a confined room with their heads covered with a bucket-like mask and their necks tied to steel chains. All of them were given instruction to do a task so they could saved themselves from saws on the walls. The survivors from this first task was Anna (Laura Vandervoort - Smallville and Bitten TV series etc), Ryan (Paul Braunstein), Mitch (Mandela Van Peebles) and Carly (Brittany Allen). They would later be on be given more impossible tasks through tapes and TV from the person who seemed to know about each of their dark past.

Chasing the Dragon - Semi Biography of Crippled Ho, Hong Kong's King of Drug Dealers

This movie premiered in Indonesian theaters on Wednesday, but as I was already having plans with my wife on another location, we only saw this movie a day later. It was a very rare moment where a Hong Kong/Chinese movie had a wide release opening in Indonesia. But I guess the big name of Donnie Yen and Andy Lau were quite well known that the cinema chain decided to show this movie in quite a number of theaters as opposed to the usual previous limited releases. Since my wife had an event in Gandaria City, we decided to see this one there. So let us continue with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

The story was set in the 1960s where times were tough in Hong Kong and it was still under the British colonials government. A group of 5 immigrants with their "leader" named Ng Sek-ho (Donnie Yen - Ip Man trilogy, xXx: Return of Xander Cage etc) were doing lots of odd jobs in order to survive there. During a major gang fight where Ho and his 3 best friends were only there to earn some easy money, he was saved by a police detective Lee Rock (Andy Lau - Infernal Affairs, Running on Karma and many many more) who was accompanied by his trusted right hand man Piggy (Kent Cheng - Ip Man 2 and 3, Run Papa Run etc). Ho felt a real gratitude towards Lee since then. But Ho also made an enemy with a British chief inspector called Hunter (Bryan Larkin) who would be his nemesis in future.

(Special Screening) Message from the King - A Drama Action Movie Experienced in the Biggest CGV Auditorium

On the 8th of November 2017, my wife and I were fortunate to be part of a small group of people invited to the grand opening of new CGV cinema in AEON Mall at Jakarta Garden City (JGC) located in Cakung, East Jakarta area. We went to AEON Mall by bus provided by CGV team from their office in AIA Tower. Despite starting off late due to some people who were unable to follow the simple rule of coming on time, we managed to be there at 11AM and were given the tour of this latest cinema from CGV group. There were few nice photobooth areas and it also provided us new type of finger food in the Crunchy Zone. Furthermore, it was having 9 auditoriums which included 1 Velvet class and 1 Gold class auditoriums, while the rest of them were the standard auditorium. But, the best of it all, we were given the chance to experience watching a movie in the biggest auditorium in Indonesia from CGV. This Auditorium 1 was having around 670 seats and segregated into the usual seats as well as some of their Sweet Box type (special seats for 2 people without the divider in the middle and gave a different more personal & romantic experience). They even had separate doors to access the auditorium. After some introduction and slides presentation from CGV, we were finally shown the movie which I was about to tell you below. Btw, the more detailed info on the new CGV cinema would be available in my wife's blog soon. I will update link on that post later.

(TV SERIES) MacGyver Season 1 - Re-imagining of The Iconic Character in 1980s

I am a major fan of the original series back in the 1980s. So when it was announced that TV producers were going to make a new version of MacGyver in his 20s, I thought to myself, why not? It's about time we see him again in small screen, albeit a younger version. The series started in 2016 and I just had the time to begin watching it few weeks ago. Now I want to share my views about this series.

Brief Synopsis

Angus MacGyver (Lucas Till - Monster Trucks, X-Men: Apocalypse etc) was working for a US secret agency disguised as a think tank organization. In his missions, he was always partnered with another agent named Jack Dalton (George Eads - CSI: Crime Scene Investigations TV series) who supported MacGyver in the more physical part which required fights, gunshooting or car chases. The organization which later on would be named as Phoenix Foundation was headed by director Patricia Thornton (Sandrine Holt - Terminator Genisys, Once A Thief TV series etc) who was very strict to Mac and Jack.

The Beauty Inside - A Unique, Touching and Lovely Romantic Korea Drama Movie

It was a rare Sunday night when I was at home and suddenly got the urge to browse through the cable TV channels. I accidentally stumbled into this Korean movie in Celestial Movie where it just started. The very brief synopsis really intrigued me so I told my wife about this, but apparently she had seen it before. She said it was a lovely movie, and naturally I decided to watch this. What was this movie about? Let us move on to the story now.

Brief Story Line

Kim Woo-jin (voiced by Yoo Yeon-sook - Whistle Blower, The Royal Tailor etc) was a man who was having a very unique condition. He would wake up every morning in a different body, be it a male, female, young, old and even as foreigner. Regardless of the gender, age or nationality, he was still Woo-Jin inside. This condition was only known by his best friend Sang-baek (Lee Dong-hwi - Reply 1998 TV series, Confidential Assignment etc) and also Woo-jin's mother.

Flatliners - Not the Best Remake but Entertaining Nevertheless

This movie was making me quite curious. I knew it was a remake of the 1990 movie of the same title and when the trailer was shown few times earlier, it seemed to me like a good horror movie. So I was kind of looking forward to when the movie would be playing in Indonesian theaters. It was already playing in US for few weeks when finally this film premiered yesterday. Strangely enough, it did not open on a wide scale and instead only playing in several theaters. I guess the time was too near with the movie Thor: Ragnarok which was still occupying a lot of theaters. My wife who was actually not feeling really well was kind enough to accompany me seeing this movie. Thanks Hon! So let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Courtney (Ellen Page - Juno, Inception etc) was a medical student who was looking for answers of what happened after a person died. She asked the help from her friends Sophia (Kiersey Clemons - Dope etc) and Jamie (James Norton - Happy Valley TV series etc) to assist her in making her temporarily die (or in the medical terms: flatline) and then revived her again while recording her brain's activity. Despite the protests from Sophia and Jamie, they still went through with the experiment and brought the help from a bright student named Ray (Diego Luna - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Elysium etc) with Marlo (Nina Dobrev - Vampire Diaries TV series, xXx: Return of Xander Cage etc).

Beyond Skyline - Just Another Alien Invasion Movie

It had been exactly one week since my wife and I had fun watching Thor: Ragnarok. As there was no major movie playing in Indonesia theaters in the past few days, I was looking forward to another one of those Wednesday movie premiere day. Today this movie was the one I chose to see (the other one was an anime movie which I may or may not see later, depending on my mood). I was intrigued in seeing this movie since it had 2 Indonesian stars in it and some of the scenes were shot in Indonesia as well.  Anyway, let us get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

In the city of Los Angeles, a detective named Mark (Frank Grillo - The Purge: Anarchy, Wolf Warriors 2 etc) was heading home in a subway with his son Trent (Jonny Weston - David in Project Almanac, Chasing Mavericks etc) when suddenly their train seemed to be having power failure. The train machinist Audrey (Bojana Novakovic - Edge of Darkness, Generation Um... etc) was trying to restart the train but to no success. With the sounds of explosion outside, Mark decided to lead the passengers out to the surface, only to find out that the city had been attacked by aliens and people were taken into their space ship.