Peter Rabbit - The Nice Adaptation of Classic Children's Stories

Last Friday, this movie premiered in Indonesian theaters. As my wife and I were having our weekend staycation from that day, we had to schedule the watching of the movie to Sunday after check out. We went to see this in our favorite theater near our home at Setiabudi One. So let us get on with this movie.

Brief Story Line

Peter Rabbit (voiced by James Corden - The Emoji Movie, Trolls etc) was a very naughty rabbit who loved to go to vegetable garden owned by Mr. McGregor (Sam Neill - The Piano, Jurassic Park etc) to "collect" carrot, tomato and so on. He always went there together with his cousin Benjamin (Colin Moody) and his triplet younger sisters Mopsy (Elizabeth Debicki - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Everest etc), Flopsy (Margot Robbie - Focus, Suicide Squad etc) and Cottontail (Daisy Ridley - Murder on the Orient Express, Star Wars: The Force Awakens etc). Mr. McGregor was bothered by these naughty rabbits and tried to capture them. But they were always saved & protected by another nice neighbor named Bea (Rose Byrne - Damages TV series, Neighbors etc).

DILAN 1990 - A Review by Yennymakanmulu

I gotta admit that I have not seen this movie yet despite being the hottest Indonesian movie till date. It broke a lot of record in Indonesia and by now it had the second biggest audience just behind Warkop DKI Reborn: Jangkrik Boss Part I. So why I am writing about this movie then? Well it's because my wife went to see the movie yesterday as she wanted to find out for herself why it was so successful (while I somehow was not feeling that interested to see it). When she finished it, she was so excited and wanted to write about the film. And I just want to share what she wrote. 

Review of the movie as written by Yennymakanmulu in Bahasa Indonesia

[MOVIE] Dilan 1990 – Kisah Cinta Anak Remaja Pada Jamannya *spoiler alert*

Hampir sebulan sejak film Dilan 1990 nongol di bioskop-bioskop tercinta di Jakarta. Gak tau deh ya kalo di kota lain. Sejak trailer filmnya diputar di mana-mana, gw kurang tertarik sebetulnya. Gw ngerasa aktor yang jadi Dilan gak bisa akting. Apalagi kesannya kok bahasanya lebay ya? Hahaha. Begitu filmnya main, semua orang teriak-teriak betapa bagus filmnya. Tapi gak sedikit juga yang bilang, “Ah biasa aja.” Dan akhirnya hari ini gw mencoba untuk menontonnya. Setelah buka jendela, ngecek cuaca di luar, gw buru-buru mandi, en langsung ngesot ke sebelah. Sampe Setiabudi One, langsung ke lantai 2 buat beli tiket. Tenang sih. Karena udah mo sebulan, jadi yang nonton juga gak antri gila-gilaan lagi. Oya, fyi, di hari ke-28 ini, penonton Dilan 1990 mencapai 5.942.000 yak. Makin penasaran donk. Hahaha. Ok, sebelum gw mencoba bikin reviewnya, gw mo sedikit bikin intro dulu ya.

To continue reading, please go direct to her blog:

Dilan 1990 Review by Yennymakanmulu

Hope you enjoy her review as much as I did. 

PS: You can also read her other reviews about food and travel in her blog.

Monster Hunt 2 - A Funnier Sequel to the Biggest Box Office Chinese Movie of 2015

During the Chinese New Year holiday, there was a bunch of new Chinese movies released. One of them was already playing in Indonesia cinemas since last Thursday, but alas it was only playing in very few cinemas in Jakarta and all of them were a little bit far from our home. So when another movie premiered yesterday, which not only played in 1 but all Indonesian cinema chains, it was much easier for my wife and I to see this. It was a sequel to the 2015 hit which we have not seen before but we knew it was funny movie. Hence we searched for the original movie online and luckily it was available. Now let us move on with the film.

Brief Story Line

Story started not long after the events from the first movie where Song Tianyin (Jing Bo Ran - Time Raiders, Love O2O etc) and Hua Xiaolan (Bai Baihe - Go Away Mr. Tumor, Love is Not Blind etc) were off to the world trying to catch bad monsters. During their journey, they also met with the Bureau of Monster Hunter with a senior member named Yunqing (Tony Yang - My War, The Founding of an Army) who were trying to capture all monsters. Both Tianyin and Xiaolan were of course still longing to see their beloved cute baby monster Wuba who was living with other monsters. However when Wuba was separated from his group, he was all alone trying to find his human parents. 

(EVENT) Special Screening of Black Panther in ScreenX Studio at CGV Grand Indonesia

A couple nights ago, my wife and I were few of the fortunate people who were having the opportunity to join the special screening of the movie Black Panther (my review of the movie was already posted last week in here) at the very cool ScreenX studio. What is ScreenX? According to CJ CGV website, ScreenX is the first in the world multi-sides screening system jointly developed with KAIST where the three screens including the front and two sides offer maximum 270 degrees of sight to audiences.

After registering ourselves at 6.30 PM, we had brief dinner first till 7 PM where all of us were asked to go inside the studio. Before the movie started, we were greeted by Wisnu from CGV who informed us that the ScreenX studio in CGV Grand Indonesia, was one of only 101 such cinema in the world and the only 1 in Indonesia. So it was definitely a very special experience to try and see this.

Wolf Warrior 2 - The Biggest Chinese Blockbuster Movie of 2017

I had read about this movie breaking so many records commercially and surely wanted to see what the fuzz was all about. But it did not play in Indonesian cinemas when it premiered last year. Few days ago I saw that one of the cable TV that I subscribed was going to play this movie during the Chinese New Year holidays and I already marked my calendar to remind me not to miss this one out on its premiere date. So last night at 9 PM, after we came back from our weekend staycation, I got myself ready to watch it on my TV (but not before I saw the original movie first). Let us get on with the movie now, shall we?

Brief Story Line

The movie started with Leng Heng (Wu Jing - SPL: Sha Po Lang, Invisible Target etc) the former soldier of special ops forces called Wolf Warrior, fighting off some pirates in African sea. It would be revealed later the reason why he was wandering around Africa and no longer working with the Chinese military. He befriended with a young African boy who referred to him as his god-father.  When a military coup against the existing government happened, all the Chinese people working or doing business there had to seek refuge in the Chinese embassy, including Leng Heng and his god-son.

Black Panther - Not the Best Superhero Origin Movie Marvel Had Produced

This movie was getting a lot of hype in the past few weeks. Hailed as one of the best Marvel superheroes and with high interest especially from the US itself, it was certainly a movie to be sought for this weekend. My wife and I were lucky enough that we still had our last vouchers to enjoy the Gold cinema experience in CGV cinema chain, and we decided to use them for seeing this movie. Without further ado, here goes my personal views of the movie.

Brief Story Line

Movie started some time after the events of Captain America: Civil War where T'Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman - Message from the King, Marshall etc) returned back to his home country Wakanda together with his trusted confidante Okoye (Danai Gurira - All Eyez On Me, The Walking Dead TV series etc) and his ex girlfriend Nakia (Lupita Nyong'O - 12 Years a Slave, The Jungle Book etc). T'Challa would be crowned the new king of the surprisingly very advanced in technology of Wakanda which to the outside world only seemed like a small poor African country. He also had a younger sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) who happened to be the one in charge of technology development and the Queen mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett - What's Love Got to Do With It, American Horror Stories TV series etc).

Meanwhile at the other side of the world in London, Klaue (Andy Serkis - The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Planet of the Apes trilogy etc) together with his mysterious partner Erik Stevens/Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan - Creed, Fruitvale Station etc) were trying to rob an artifact from the museum, which apparently had enormous value and came from Wakanda. With the unexpected help from a CIA Agent Everett Ross (Martin Freeman - Sherlock TV series, The Hobbit trilogy etc), T'Challa tried to capture Klaue who apparently also had a history with Wakanda.

So could T'Challa capture Klaue and his partners? What was Killmonger's relationship with Wakanda? And could T'Challa be the king that Wakanda needed? Find them all in this origin story of Black Panther

End of Brief Story Line

This is an origin story of a superhero. I had to say that personally I do not know Black Panther before his brief appearance in Captain America: Civil War. So when I saw this movie, I was actually hoping to see a story of how T'Challa from his childhood could became the Black Panther. But this one was made differently as he was shown fully grown up already having the best abilities. And this was not a conventional Marvel movies either as usually origin story was made first before the superhero appeared in other movies. Regardless though, the story was made a bit short and went straight to the time when T'Challa would be made king.  

Other than those minor shortcomings that I personally felt, the movie definitely had some good moments. The action sequence in Korea plus the climax scene was awesome. The special effects (apart from few brief "a bit obvious" computerized scenes of Wakanda in the background during the time T'Challa was going to be crowned king) were very good. The visual effects of Wakanda country was also very good, which gave us an idea of how advanced the country was. And there were also a bit of funny moments which involved Shuri whom we truly believed as a teenager who happened to be princess, plus surprisingly from M'Baku (Winston Duke).

The earlier part of the movie was a bit challenging to me as it was unclear who the people were. But it would be revealed later how the event would have great significance to what happened next. Therefore, I would really advise you to be fully concentrated from the start to understand better. To my personal opinion, the movie developed to be more interesting when the villains began to appear and the fights started.

I get the appeal of this movie to critics due to its rather complex character development of T'Challa plus the appearance/representation of the African people in a world where third world country were still looked down. I myself as a simple minded movie audience preferred a more intense superhero movie, which I thought I did not really get in here. Therefore, even if the movie was hailed as one of the best in Marvel Cinematic Universe, I personally did not feel that. It may be good, but certainly not the best. Again this does not mean the movie was bad at all, even my wife was able to truly enjoy it. But as I felt it was not the best superhero origin movie & the fact that the action sequence were not too much, I still prefer other such MCU movies like the first Iron Man, Ant-Man or Captain America. Oh another thing, there was not a lot of surprises here, even 1 or 2 supposed surprising moments could have been guessed by my wife and I. 

Anyway, since MCU have got their brand name so famous plus the fact that many people just want to see whatever Marvel throw at them (some just want to see the connection to other movies), this movie would still make it very big commercially. Btw, as usual, there would be end credit scene which was having 2 of them in this movie. So wait till the very end to make sure you see them. In conclusion, no matter what I say, people would still gather to see this one. But my personal view is that it was probably a little bit over-hyped.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

La La Land - The Lovely Romantic Musical Movie

During a month where the HBO cable TV was promoting Oscar, they showed various award winners until the day of Academy Awards on 4 March 2018. Two days ago, this movie was shown on the Saturday Night Premiere and since I had not seen it (unlike my wife), I already set my mind to see this on TV. So both of us went back home before 8 PM when the movie started. Well here goes my views of the movie.

Brief Story Line

A struggling young actress Mia Dolan (Emma Stone - Zombieland, Easy A etc) was working as a barista to cover her living cost while trying to get her big break in movie industry. However, she was not having the best of luck during casting process due to various reasons. One night while walking home, she heard a beautiful song played in the piano (titled "Mia & Sebastian's theme") by Sebastian Wilder (Ryan Gosling - Blade Runner 2049, The Nice Guys etc). But she did not get the chance to say too much to him.

Braven - An Average Jason Momoa's Action Drama Movie

Yesterday this movie premiered in one of the Indonesian cinema chains. No other major movie was released this week as they obviously save the date for one of the most anticipated Marvel movies this year, i.e. Black Panther, about to be released next week on Valentine's Day. My wife and I decided to see this movie for entertainment purpose and because we thought it would be a nice action movie. So here goes my views of the movie.

Brief Story Line

Joe Braven (Jason Momoa - Justice League, Game of Thrones TV series etc) was a logger who was having a happy life with his wife Stephanie (Jill Wagner - Road to Paloma etc) and his young daughter Charlotte (Sasha Rossof). Though he also had some problem regarding his father Linden (Stephen Lang - Avatar, Don't Breathe etc) who was suffering from some memory loss and would get into troubles. Braven also had a co-worker named Weston (Brendan Fletcher - Tideland) who was going to drive a truck full of lumbers that have been cut down earlier.

24 Hours to Live - An Assassin Seeking Redemption Within His Last 24 Hours

It was 1 of those rare Wednesdays where there were few new movies playing in theater but none of it was a major Hollywood movie. This was due to the fact that the one movie released in US was Fifty Shades Freed, the third movie of 50 Shades trilogy. And those movies certainly would not manage to get through the Indonesian censorship body. Never mind though, cause we got something else exciting enough playing in theaters yesterday. This was the movie that my wife and I saw at Plaza Semanggi. Since the plot was very well hidden and not too much shown anywhere, I would not provide too much detail except for few lines below.

Brief Synopsis

Conrad Travis (Ethan Hawke - Before Sunset, The Magnificent Seven etc) was some kind of a contract killer. He was given a new assignment by Jim Morrow (Paul Anderson - Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, The Revenant etc) which would affect an Interpol agent named Lin (Xu Qing - The Founding of a Republic, League of Gods etc). Jim Morrow was working for an evil organization called Red Mountain led by Wetzler (Liam Cunningham - Game of Thrones TV Series etc). It was during this assignment that Travis was killed and revived only for 24 hours. Travis has decided that he would use his last 24 hours to seek redemption.

End of Brief Synopsis

(TV SERIES) Mindhunter season 1 - The Background History of FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit

Finally I got the chance to complete writing my views about this series that I have binged watched few months ago. I was told about it by two people before I started to find out and seriously look for it online. The first person who told me was my wife's nephew who had a knack for quality, highly critical movies/series and the other one was a person whom we met during one of my wife's event some time ago. Both of them told us that the series was a serious and sort of mind blowing type. When I looked for the synopsis in the internet, I thought I would give this a try and with just 10 episodes in the first season should be easy to complete.

Brief Story Line

In the year 1977, an FBI agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff - Frozen, Glee TV series etc) was specialized in hostage negotiation and also a trainer for FBI trainees in Quantico. As he was really into the psychology of the criminals, his unit chief Shepard (Cotter Smith) told him to expand his horizon. Holden was instructed to partner with Agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany - Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Monster Trucks etc) who was in the Behavioral Science Unit to give training to various local police department about criminology. It was during these trips that Holden was made aware of some local murderer who had done multiple violent crimes. This would be the start of how Holden and Bill doing the interviews to learn more on the psychology of these people. 

Before I Fall - A Time Loop Movie from Teenager's Perspective

I was having the usual weekend staycation with my wife few days ago and on Saturday night there was a premiere of new movie on Fox Movies Premium channel which I happened to know from the comments of 1 of my reader in Happy Death Day. I was definitely intrigued to see this as it also had time loop element. So when I noticed that it would play at 8 PM, my wife decided that we should have our complimentary dinner at our room. Although she did not see the movie as she was concentrating on finishing season 1 of Riverdale TV series. Well let us find out more on the movie now.

Brief Story Line

A high school student Samantha (Zoey Deutch - Vampire Academy, Why Him? etc) was a popular girl and was best friends with Lindsay (Halston Sage - Paper Towns, Goosebumps etc), Elodie (Medalion Rahimi) and Ally (Cynthy Wu). It was Cupid's day (Valentine's day) where lots of girls in school were receiving flowers, including Samantha who got it from her boyfriend Rob (Youtuber Kian Lawley) and also from another boy named Kent (Logan Miller - Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse). Being part of popular and "mean girls", Samantha and the others were making fun of the less popular girls, especially when they picked up on an out of place girl named Juliet (Elena Kampouris - My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2). 

Den of Thieves - A Combination of Heist and Suspenseful Action Movie

As the second film of our movie marathon, my wife and I saw this action movie which was not playing in all cinema chains in Indonesia. The movie only premiered in the US just 2 weeks before, so it was relatively new. The movie started at 7.40 PM and after our first movie Downsizing, we still had sufficient time to have quick dinner at CGV's own restaurant in its Gold and Velvet class premium lounge. Anyway let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

A gang of thieves led by Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber - 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, A Gifted Man TV series etc), were responsible for the attack on an armored car in Los Angeles. Merrimen was supported by few of his buddies including Levi (Rapper 50 Cent), Bosco (Evan Jones) and a bartender named Donnie (O'Shea Jackson Jr. - Straight Outta Compton). 

Downsizing - A Surprisingly Rather Disappointing Flat Drama of A Wonderful Topic

Yesterday evening, my wife and I decided to have a movie marathon which we had not done for quite some time. It was actually due to our vouchers to experience Gold type cinema in CGV were expiring by end of the month. So when there were 2 movies premiered last week and both were playing in the cinema, we set our mind to do so during the weekend, after our weekend staycation. It was quite fortunate that when we arrived at Grand Indonesia mall, there were still few seats available. Now let us get on with the first movie.

Brief Story Line

A Norwegian scientist Dr. Asbjørnsen (Rolf Lassgård) had invented a process where he could minimize living organism to a much smaller size and it was called "downsizing". The only catch was the process was irreversible. 15 years after that first discovery, downsizing had become quite a popular process used at humans. Paul Safranek (Matt Damon - Jason Bourne, Good Will Hunting etc) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig - 2016 version Ghostbusters, The Martian etc) were an average couple living in Omaha and were having the usual average people's problem, i.e. financials.

12 Strong - True Story of Events After the 9/11 Attack

This week there were few new movies premiered in Indonesia. It was a nice problem to have to decide which movie to see as opposed to none that was interesting. Due to some location and time preference, my wife and I chose to see this movie at Kuningan City. Movie's schedule was at 6.25 PM so I had to leave my office quite on time to make it there. Without further ado, here are more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with some brief scenes on the news about 9/11 attack in the US. As the follow up action by the US and to avoid future attacks by Taliban who were in Afghanistan where it became the base of operation of some major terrorists like Al Qaeda, a team was being readied to be sent there. Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth - Thor in MCU, Snow White and the Huntsman etc) was able to convince his superiors to be deployed there with his team.