The Shape of Water - A Beautiful & Lovely Drama Movie, Winner of 90th Academy Awards Best Picture & Director

This was a movie that won the Best Picture category in the 90th Academy Award but somehow did not play in Indonesian cinemas until tomorrow. I am not sure why it was so late when the movie already premiered in the South East Asia region since February 2018. But anyway, Indonesian audience should be grateful that it still played here so we could still got the chance to see the movie in our theaters. I myself was pretty lucky as it was already shown in the inflight entertainment during the holiday trip my wife and I were enjoying. Now let us go on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

Movie was set in the 1960s where the US and Russia (Soviet Union at the time) were still competing against one another in various areas. In a secret research facility in the US, a mute cleaning lady named Elisa (Sally Hawkins - Paddington, Blue Jasmine etc) was having a very routine life everyday for years. She lived in a flat above a cinema and had a very kind neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins - The Visitors, Burn After Reading etc). Until one day Elisa's life totally changed when a new finding, a male amphibian creature (portrayed by Doug Jones - Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth etc), was brought into the facility to be researched. The person who managed to capture the Amphibian man or referred to as "Asset", was a tough military officer, Colonel Strickland (Michael Shannon - 12 Strong, Nocturnal Animals etc).

Kenapa Harus Bule? - A Review by Yennymakanmulu

This movie was already playing in Indonesian cinemas for almost 1 week. I honestly thought this would be just like any other not really funny Indonesian comedy movie and was not really interested in seeing this one. Furthermore, since the movie did not play in a lot of cinemas (even the nearest cinema to our place only showed this film at noon), so there was no time for me to see this after office hour.

Then my wife was told by her older sister that the movie was directed by her favorite director Andri Cung (3sum, The Sun, The Moon & The Hurricane etc) and she immediately decided she must go and see this one. So yesterday, when she was not busy with her activity, she went to see it in Setiabudi and she wanted to share her views of this movie.

Review of the movie as written by Yennymakanmulu in Bahasa Indonesia

[MOVIE] Kenapa Harus Bule? – Kisah Pencarian Suami Bule *spoiler alert*

22 Maret 2018, Kenapa Harus Bule? tayang di bioskop Jakarta. Sedihnya, gw gak tau sama sekali ada film ini. Padahal sutradaranya, Andri Cung, favorit gw banget. Kenapa? Karena Andri itu satu-satunya sutradara yang bisa dibilang udah jadi temen hehehe. Tapi berhubung gw udah gak berkutat di dunia film lagi *emangnya dulu pernah???* jadilah gw kurang update tentang film-film buatan Andri. Anyway, untung aja gw akhirnya dapet info dari kakak gw tentang film ini. En gw langsung bikin jadwal buat cari waktu nonton nih film.

Pertanyaannya: Kenapa gw tertarik nonton film ini? Pertama, gw harus support Andri Cung donk. Secara doi sutradara paling humble yang pernah gw kenal. Kedua, tema ini pas banget gw liat di IG story salah satu selebgram dan gw juga ngerasa kalo bule itu di-anak-emas-kan di Indonesia. Ketiga, gw dulu juga pengen punya cowo bule. Hahahahaha. *digampar sekampung* Anyway, gw gak perlu perkenalin satu2 ya siapa aja yang maen, gw langsung aja ke filmnya yes. Ntar di bawah gw mention aja yak.

To continue reading, please go direct to her blog:

Kenapa Harus Bule? Review by Yennymakanmulu

Hope you enjoy her review as much as I did. (After reading her review, I am truly intrigued and would want to give it a try if I have the chance).

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

Sherlock Gnomes - An Unfortunately not the Best Sequel of Gnomeo & Juliet

I saw the trailer to this movie I think 2 weeks ago and I thought the movie looked cute with many gnomes alive. Then somehow I remembered a movie also about gnomes few years ago titled Gnomeo & Juliet. So I browsed through the internet and found out that this movie was a sequel to that one. My wife told me that the first movie was very funny and cute and she thought I had seen it. But after looking at the trailer, I realized I never did. Lucky for me the movie was already available through online streaming and I immediately see it on Thursday. Now let us move on with this sequel.

Brief Story Line

After the events in the original movie, all the blue and red gnomes were moved to London by their owners. Red's leader Lord Redbrick (Michael Caine no need for introduction) and Blue's leader Lady Blueburry (Maggie Smith - Harry Potter series, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel etc) were thinking of retiring and intended to appoint Gnomeo (James McAvoy - Split, X-Men: First Class trilogy etc) and his wife Juliet (Emily Blunt - The Girl on the Train, Sicario etc) to be their new leaders. But this new task, seemed to make Juliet too much focusing on making their new garden as the most beautiful garden and lose sight of Gnomeo.

Meanwhile a lot of gnomes in other gardens across London were missing. The famous gnome detective Sherlock Gnomes (Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean series and many more) and his partner Watson (Chiwetel Ejiofor - Dr. Strange, Triple 9 etc) believed that the missing gnomes might have something to do with Sherlock's nemesis Moriarty (Jamie Demetriou). So both of them decided to investigate this case. When Gnomeo and Juliet's family & friends were also kidnapped, they managed to join together with Sherlock and Watson in searching and saving all those missing gnomes.

So could this small group find them all through the clues left behind by the kidnappers? Find them all in this rather funny animated movie.

End of Brief Story Line

OK, after seeing this movie, I felt that it was inferior compared to the prequel Gnomeo & Juliet. In that movie, the story felt like an adaptation of the very popular Shakespeare work Romeo and Juliet, but it was a lot more fun and not having the tragic ending. And that movie was having many cute gnomes with lots of silly fun moments, romance & a little bit of emotional touching scene. But in here, the movie felt a lot less of those. 

To my personal opinion, the movie seemed unclear of its direction. Was it supposed to be a movie about Sherlock Gnomes, or was it a sequel to Gnomeo & Juliet? If it was a Sherlock Gnomes movie like its title, then Gnomeo and Juliet's portion should probably be lessen a bit. But if it was a Gnomeo & Juliet's sequel, the focus on Sherlock Gnomes was too much, as it was having the characteristic of a Sherlock's movie with his deductions & investigations, his personal fight with his nemesis & having his love interest as well. Personally I think since the title was Sherlock Gnomes, the movie should be focusing on him & his investigations rather than having Gnomeo and Juliet's personal matter be sharing the spotlight. 

The problem is, the lovable characters from the original movie was actually Gnomeo and Juliet. Those who loved that movie, would rather have more of their screen time. Which is why I think that the movie would be better if it was a Gnomeo & Juliet part 2, where Sherlock and Watson were the additional supporting characters. I felt that this sequel did not resonate with the audience as the funny scenes were not as much as the first one (I loved the scenes of the gnomes had to freeze themselves whenever there was a human, but there was only 2 such scenes in here). With the focus on Sherlock's investigation, the movie did not feel a good one for all ages as I think the children would be having a hard time understanding the multiple twists. Though for adults, we should have been able to guess them.

The good thing about this movie was definitely the animation. I really think they were done very beautifully. Especially the lips movement were really life like. It was as if they were really alive and speaking the things voiced by the actors and actresses. It might have been better had I saw this one in 3D as the effects would have been wonderful. One thing that I did not enjoy was the song sang by Mary J. Blige in the middle which I felt a little bit out of place and seemed to be added just to accommodate her great singing talent. But the end credit scene was fun to see as it was having some funny animations, especially the final scene which you could see at the very end, plus it was accompanied by nice songs.

In the end, the movie's intention might be good by having Sherlock Holmes' famous character adapted into the Gnomes universe. But sadly the execution and story writing was not done properly which resulted to an uneventful and unmemorable movie. What was supposed to be a wonderful movie for family was unfortunately falling rather flat and probably would make the franchise of these cute gnomes died before it had the chance to bloom. It might be difficult for them to have a profit from this movie as the ratings by critics and audience were not great. Although my wife and I could still enjoy the movie albeit not as much as the prequel. Now if you just want to see gnomes acting cute, you could opt to see this movie but it's advisable to see the first one so you could better understand it. However, if you are not a fan of such animated movie, or you are a super fan of Sherlock Holmes, better avoid watching this one as you might not like what you see. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Pacific Rim Uprising - The Lighter and More Robots Sequel of Pacific Rim

I have known about this movie for quite some time now and I also saw some news relating to this sequel which to the best of my recollection was having few challenges. That's why the sequel only came after 5 years from the original movie, which was considered longer than the usual 2 or 3 years time (although some sequels could also take a decade or two, but those were usually movies that people did not expect to see a sequel). Anyway since the tickets were sold in advance from last weekend, my wife and I had already bought them for yesterday's show in Epicentrum as I insisted to see this movie at a studio with Dolby Atmos system. Well we should go on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Jake (John Boyega - new Star Wars series, The Circle etc) was a man who made money from collecting items and exchange them with something more valuable, including Jaeger (robot built to fight the Kaiju monsters who came from another world through a breach of the earth) parts. During one of his usual "expedition", he encountered a teenage girl later revealed as Amara (Cailee Spaeny) who was able to build a Jaeger from the parts she collected. Both of them were later forced to join Jaeger program despite their reluctance. Jake would soon meet with his old ranger friend Nate (Scott Eastwood - Overdrive, Snowden etc) who was now a senior ranger and was the instructor for new cadets. Amara also met with her new team mates but she was having problem in blending in and learning to be the Jaeger pilot. 

Meanwhile Shao industries led by Liwen (Jing Tian - Kong: Skull Island, The Great Wall etc) were developing new technologies that would make Jaeger pilots no longer required. She was assisted by Dr. Newt (Charlie Day - Fist Fight, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia TV series etc) who was previously with Jaeger team. Newt's former partner Dr. Herman (Burn Gorman - Crimson Peak etc) found out a fact that might have some significance with Kaiju's intention of destroying the earth.

Soon after, the 10 years peace after the big war would be ruined, with the attack of an illegally operationed and powerful Jaeger which would be the beginning of something even worse. So could Jake, Nate and the rest of Jaeger teams be able to save the world again? Find them all in this cool sci-fi action movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Well it was just a movie that I expected. It was a sequel of the film that I quite enjoyed back in 2013 titled Pacific Rim, but with mostly different characters. The only ones who still have roles in here were Charlie Day, Burn Gorman and Rinko Kikuchi (Babel, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter etc). I believe it would be best to see the first movie before seeing this one to understand better on the war history plus the plot involving those characters. My personal view of the movie was it had a lot more action compared to the prequel. If you are a fan of those Jaeger fights in that movie, you would be amazed with the major screen time involving these fights. Especially since there were exciting Jaegers like Gypsy Avenger, Bracer Phoenix, Guardian Bravo and Saber Athena. Those fight scenes were totally amazing and intense and those who love to see big robots fight against other robot and big monsters should be satisfied.

The special visual effects of the Jaeger fights were totally awesome and looked amazingly real to me, obviously with a major budget of USD 150 million, it was really worth it. The sound effects of Dolby Atmos was very good, though at times (during conversations among the pilots in the Jaeger, sounded a bit too loud and seemed broken). And seeing those big robots and monsters in a large studio was certainly the right choice as it gave the feeling the robots were really enormous. I think seeing this in IMAX would be a lot better.

Aside from those cool actions and special effects, the plot itself was not really great. Basically the movie was focusing on 3 things, i.e the challenges Jake had to endure as the son of biggest hero, the Kaiju's plan to breach the earth again and Amara's personal struggle. John Boyega was able to portray his character brightly and he was surprisingly very charming and looked to have fun in here. Newcomer Cailee Spaeny was not bad either, while Scott Eastwood was pretty standard and not spectacular. The disappointing part would be the rest of the Cadets (and the supporting characters) whom I think did not have sufficient screen time to give us any sense of closeness and empathy towards them, including Jing Tian whose character felt a bit out of place. And the plot of Kaiju's re-appearance was probably a bit too short which did not give adequate room to absorb & understand. Maybe because the movie was not long enough as it was not even 2 hours including the very long end credit scenes duration to appreciate those wonderful visual artists.

The movie also had some fun light moments, as well as the emotional moment in the middle which affected my wife a bit. It may not win the critics heart, but for my wife and I who love to see this kind of action movie, we thought it was intense, pretty awesome and we can still have fun by disregarding some of the obvious flaws mentioned above. I personally think that the movie might be appealing to certain type of audience, but definitely not all in general, which would be a sad thing if it's not successful commercially, especially since the ending hinted a third movie to complete the trilogy. There was no end credit scene if you are wondering, so you can hit the restroom immediately. 

If you are not a fan of this kind of genre, you might feel the movie to be too childish, light, illogical and so on. Especially if you do not like Transformers or Power Rangers movies. But if you are like my wife and I, then by all means, see this one and enjoy the Jaeger fights. The choice is yours.

Happy watching!

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

The Strangers: Prey at Night - A Good Scary Horror Kind of Thriller & Sequel to 2008's The Strangers

Now this is a movie that I was not really aware of its existence. I just found out about it last week from the tweet by two of Indonesian cinema chains. When I read in more detail, apparently it was a sequel to 2008 film that I felt a bit familiar. So I searched for it online, watched it and immediately realized I had seen it before, but I still watched it again to remind me of the movie. I was able to convince my wife to try and see this, so she would be willing to accompany me (against her better judgment). Well anyway, we should go on with the movie itself.

Brief Story Line

A family of four consisted of the father Mike (Martin Henderson - Torque, Grey's Anatomy TV series etc), his wife Cindy (Christina Hendricks - Bad Santa 2, Mad Men TV series etc), the son Luke (Lewis Pullman) and his younger sister Kinsey (Bailee Madison - Just Go with It, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark etc) were planning to drop Kinsey off to a boarding school outside their home town. But before that, they went to a trailer park managed by their uncle in a rather remote area.

(TV SERIES) Prison Break Season 5 - Another Michael Scofield's Prison Escape Art

I found out about the idea of making a new season of Prison Break last year and I am intrigued of how they were going to pull it off. So when I got the chance (albeit late by almost a year), I decided to binge-watch this one and finished it off in 3 days. Without further ado, here is more about the series.

Brief Story Line (SPOILER WARNING from earlier seasons)

The first episode basically told us what the rest of the gang who were still around from the fourth season was doing now. Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell - Blade Trinity, Legends of Tomorrow TV series etc) was back to his old shady ways, while Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies - The Walking Dead and Colony TV series etc) was now a house wife happily married to a college professor named Jacob (Mark Feuerstein - Royal Pains TV series etc) while taking care of her child Michael Junior. Meanwhile T-Bag (Robert Knepper - Hitman, Transporter 3 etc) was just released from Fox River prison and another former inmate C-Note (Rockmond Dunbar - The Path TV series etc) had become a religious Muslim cleric working on anti-radicalization in the US. And finally Fernando Sucre (Amaury Nolasco - Transformers, Telenovela TV series etc) who now worked as freelancer in a cargo ship. 

Game Night - A Unique & Hilarious Comedy Movie

I have very little information about this movie that I saw last night. I only found out that there was a new movie premiering on our usual Wednesday one day before. When I saw the synopsis, I immediately felt it would be an interesting film to see. Especially since the major Hollywood movie that was already playing in US last week would only be playing on Friday (yes, I am talking about A Wrinkle in Time). Although this movie did not get much publicity in Indonesia and I never saw the trailer earlier, it truly intrigued me. And my wife also happened to be available to join me this time. Well we shall move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Max (Jason Bateman - Horrible Bosses, Arrested Development TV series etc) and Annie (Rachel McAdams - Doctor Strange, The Notebook etc) were a suburban couple who loved to play any type of games and were very competitive. Every week they would have a game night at their house with their best friends Kevin (Lamorne Morris - New Girl TV series etc) and his wife Michelle (Kylie Bunbury), and also Ryan (Billy Magnussen - Into the Woods, Ingrid Goes West etc) who always brought different date on every game night. Max and Annie's neighbor Gary (Jesse Plemons - Black Mass, Fargo TV series etc) who was a divorced cop, always wanted to join them in those game nights but was not invited.

On one of those game nights, Max' brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler - Manchester by the Sea, Early Edition TV series etc) who was in town, asked them to have their game night at his house. But unlike the usual charade or board games, he suggested a different kind of game. It was going to be a kidnap mystery game where one of the players would be kidnapped and they have to solve the mystery in certain amount of time. However things went completely awry when the kidnap turned into a real one and the gang including Ryan's date for that night Sarah (Sharon Horgan - Catastrophe TV series etc) had to solve the mystery before anything really bad happened.

So could all of them solve it in time? How could a real kidnapping be happening? Find them all in this hilarious comedy drama movie.

End of Brief Story Line

OMG, this movie was amazingly funny. My wife and I had not had this kind of serious laughter throughout the movie for quite some time. Probably the last time we had these moments were when we saw Warkop DKI Reborn: Jangkrik Boss Part I or The Mermaid. The movie started off with some few smart jokes and continued with the more fun moments involving most of the lead characters. The major funny moment where we really laughed out loud was the scene involving Max and Annie in the back of an alley. My wife literally laughed till she cried and all the audience were having the best time as well during that moment. The rest of them were also fun as hell, like Kevin and Michelle's small "problem" or Ryan's unusual "naivety" or Gary's total weirdness.

Make no mistake though that behind all those funny moments, the movie actually had some drama about brotherly relationship or the issue of having kids and the mystery was quite real. But of course the main attraction of the film would definitely be the many hilarious moments. Even the end credit scene was having fun things to look at. Aside from those quality, the movie also had few unique way of showing things related to games, such as the tiny model houses, cars and characters figures or the nonstop scene of capturing the egg in the middle of the movie. 

I truly believed that the directors of the movie John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein were really great in making this comedy movie. No doubt it was due to their experience as co-writers of Horrible Bosses & its sequel, plus directing National Lampoo's Vacation. They even were part of co-screen writer for Spider-man: Homecoming. With such CV, obviously they have a bright future ahead of them and I would look forward to other movies that had these two's names on it. Btw, they did appear as cameo in this film as Carter and Dan (which surprised me coz I could not remember their characters, especially Daley since I should recognize his face from Bones TV series that I saw till finished).

Aside from the wonderful performance of the cast which I found very fun to see, it was also surprising to see there was a brief performance from Michael C. Hall (you would have known him as Dexter in that famous psychopath serial killer TV series) in this comedy movie. Although he did not provide fun moment, but he really suit the character he was playing. One thing that bothered me and my wife was the scene involving him and the gang that we believed was a bit non sensical, but it was very minor that we could totally waive it. And the multiple twists though could be guessed, but still quite OK.

So in the end, if you are looking for a funny movie with dark humor and you want to have a good laughs with your friends, family (but I am sure the jokes were more suitable for adults), spouse, co-workers basically anyone who appreciate good comedy movie, you would totally be satisfied. I am sure you would have enjoyed it as much as my wife and I did. But if you do not like this kind of comedy movie and you prefer the kidnap & mystery to be truly a brainy one, then this would not suit you at all. The choice is yours.

Happy watching!

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

Golden Slumber - A Good Action Thriller & Conspiracy Korean Movie

When a new Korean movie was promoted in the tweets from 2 of the Indonesian cinema chains, I was very excited. Especially after I read the brief synopsis of the film which hinted as an action movie. Usually a Korean action movie would be filled with high octane action sequence mixed with dramatic moments, which was a recipe for an entertaining movie. Hence it was not difficult for me to convince my wife to see this. As it happened, the movie premiered on Friday but we already had other plans, and we decided to see this today in Cinemaxx while we were in Pluit area. Well we shall move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with various news report about a presidential candidate who was dubbed as the most likely to be voted as the next president. The news were shown together with other news about a delivery man named Kim Gun-woo (Gang Dong-won - Secret Reunion, Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned etc) who saved a famous singer from a robbery and became an internet sensation & famous as the savior. While Gun-woo was doing his usual run of deliveries, the president candidate was assassinated not far from his location. He was informed by his old friend that he was being framed as the patsy for the assassination and he should not trust anyone.

Bullet Head - A Disappointing Supposedly Dog Terror Attack Movie

Yesterday a new movie premiered in only one of the Indonesia cinema chain. I noticed that it was not a brand new (from 2017) and not major Hollywood film, but rather a small budget kind of movie. I was thinking that usually such movie would not play in all the theaters or my favorite ones. But funny thing was it somehow played in Setiabudi which was very near my home. Well let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Three robbers who just finished robbing some place had to hide in a seemingly abandoned municipal storage facility while waiting for help to move the big safe. The robbers consisted of Stacy (Adrien Brody - The Pianist, The Grand Budapest Hotel etc) who was like their leader, Walker (John Malkovich - Being John Malkovich, In the Line of Fire etc) who was the most experienced one and last but not least Gage (Rory Culkin - Scream 4, Gage etc) the junkie & youngest of them all.

Unbeknownst to them, there was a dog that was used to do illegal dog fights earlier and was left in that warehouse. The dog was trained by the handler (Ori Pfeffer) and would attack on people that it was unfamiliar with. Meanwhile, the dog owner (Antonio Banderas - The Mask of Zorro, Evita etc) was also planning to return to the place on the night.

So could these robbers got out of the warehouse safely from the attack of this wild dog and his owner and also escape from the police? Find them in this crime thriller movie.

End of Brief Story Line

When I read the synopsis of the movie and saw the trailer, it gave the impression that the movie would be filled with the terror attack by the dog on these 3 people while trying to escape from the dog owner as well. But it turned out that the movie was more like a thriller with touches of drama. Movie's duration was 1.5 hour but the terror attack started only after almost an hour. The earlier part was more of introduction of the characters via their own story telling using a backflash mode.

At first the short story telling seemed nice (the one involving John Malkovich's character was quite amazing but sad), then I realized that everyone would have their own share of telling their story. Which made the movie felt losing momentum. Every time the movie started to feel it kept up the pace, then suddenly it slowed down with that story telling. Which made me disappointed with the way the movie was told.

Even when the dog was terrorizing these robbers, it was not so intense as I had expected, since the scenes were not so many. In the end the movie might be good in term of the story and characters development, but since the anticipation was to enjoy a suspenseful movie of a wild animal terror attack a la The Shallows, this movie felt short. However, there were some scenes which I think were quite unique when they were showing the dog's point of view. As for the sound effects, it was pretty good. The dog's roaring voices were very believable. Oh do not expect to see amazing special effects or brutal fight scenes. Some of them were not shown at all and we were only allowed to imagine them from the sounds/voices in background (like flesh and skin ripped off).

Overall, my personal opinion of the movie was that it was unclear the direction the movie was heading. Animal attack terror scenes were too few, while the dramatic moments despite not too bad were taking too much screen time. Perhaps if the movie was having a bit longer duration or having more of those terror scenes, I would be more satisfied. So if you are expecting to see a movie full of those terrorizing scenes or a survival drama movie, you would most likely be disappointed like I was. If you are thinking of seeing the movie in the cinema, better think twice. You might as well watch this through online streaming (Psst, it's already available in the internet). The choice is yours though.

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

Tomb Raider - A Reboot of the Movie Based on Famous Video Game Character Lara Croft

Yesterday a brand new movie which would not even play in the US until next week was already premiering in Indonesian cinemas. There was no convincing needed for me to see this one on its first day. As it happened, my wife and I had some personal matter to attend to at Lotte Avenue, so we saw the movie there. It was playing in 2 theaters but we chose to see it at Studio 1 with the Auro 11.1 sound system. OK let us move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl, Jason Bourne etc) was a young woman working as a bike courier in London. But she was in fact the heir to a large business from her father Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West - Money Monster, The Affair TV series etc) who had been gone missing for years and presumed dead. The business was being handled by an associate of Richard named Ana (Kristin Scott Thomas - The English Patient, Four Weddings and a Funeral etc) who was trying her best to get Lara to take over the business.

Benyamin Biang Kerok - A Messy Remake of 1 of the Iconic Indonesian Comedian Movie

When my wife and I found out there would be a comedy movie about the famous Benyamin starring Reza Rahadian, we were pretty excited. This movie premiered on 1st March 2018, but we chose to see another movie that was already playing for some time and would be gone pretty soon. We finally got the chance to see the film yesterday when we were in North Jakarta area and we decided to see it in Cinemaxx theater at Pluit Village. It was our first experience seeing a movie in that cinema which happened to just opened few months earlier in that mall. So let us get on with the film.

Brief Story Line

Pengki (Reza Rahadian - My Stupid Boss, Critical Eleven etc) was the spoilt son of a very wealthy business woman named Julaeha (Meriam Bellina - Cinta di Balik Noda, Get Married etc) and her husband an old fashioned Betawi man named Sabeni (Rano Karno - Gita Cinta dari SMA, Roman Picisan etc) who distant himself from the glamour & luxurious life they were having. Pengki seemed to be having nothing to do except fooling around and he was good friends with Somad the hacker (Adjis Doaibu) and Achie (Aci Resti). They decided to help their friends who stayed in a flat which would soon be evicted, by going to casino to win some money to pay out and avoid eviction. Unbeknownst to them, the casino owner Said (Qomar) found out about Pengki's involvement and wanted to take him out.

Meanwhile, a famous singer named Aida (Delia Husein) somehow met with Pengki who instantly fell in love with her. Pengki would try his best to get her attention and be her boyfriend. Things would be a lot more complicated when it was revealed that Aida was actually related to the villain Said. Just when their relationship seemed to be hitting it off, Said would start to interfere.

So could Pengki be saved from Said's revenge attempt? And would Pengki be able to convince his mother that he was a good son? Find them all in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

When my wife and I found out about this movie, we thought that it would be like a biography movie about the iconic Indonesian comedian Benyamin. But when we saw the trailer, it seemed not the case. And after we saw the movie, it turned out to be completely different. This movie was a remake of 1 of the famous movie starring Benyamin titled Benyamin Biang Kerok, but with a completely different modernized story. However, this new take was a complete mess. The earlier part of the story in casino felt like a cheap remake of some casino heist a la Mission: Impossible. Every scene after that was a combination of some incoherent scenes compiled together with the hope that audience would be able to appreciate the whole story.

Not even Reza Rahadian's brilliant acting as Benyamin could salvage this sorry excuse of a remake which seemed to be trying too hard to make a smart comedy movie by adding some moral messages & critics to government but ultimately felt too forced. Apart from the messy story itself, there were other factors that truly disappoint us, like the plot of having multiple villains, the overuse of jokes on technology, the appearance of a robot (what the heck??), the unfunny appearances of supporting characters and some others.

My wife and I obviously could not have seen the original movie as it was released in the 70s but from the synopsis we read, the story of that original was a lot simpler and most probably had they made the remake having a similar plot line, it would have been a much much better movie. It was very sad to see a major name like Benyamin S (who was so legendary that the street near his old house was named after him) was made into this kind of movie. I think that the blame definitely should be put to the writers who had made such a story. It was also surprising to see Hanung Bramantyo (who was a well known movie maker of heavy drama movies such as Kartini or Rudy Habibie) could be chosen to direct a comedy movie. I personally think he should stick to drama movies as it was more of his forte. 

Another thing that disappoint was the fact the movie was having a cliffhanger ending. The producer probably think it was a good idea to make a sequel just like the original, but it might have been better had we been hinted earlier. Most likely they just want to try something similar to Warkop DKI Reborn, but what was good about that movie (at least Jangkrik Boss Part 1), we really got the essence of their movies and we already know Warkop DKI movies were usually a messy comedy but we loved them anyway.

Usually my wife and I were always able to find something good in a movie or we could enjoy something from it. But in here sadly the only thing that could make my wife and I enjoy the movie was the acting of Reza Rahadian who we believed was really convincing as Benyamin. It was amazing how his expressions, body language and even his voice sounded a bit like the late Benyamin. Not to mention he was able to sing the songs originally sung by Benyamin quite nicely here. It was just too bad that the story was not a good one, otherwise this would have been a remake that would make his family proud. Fortunately we saw this film in a quite brand new theater of Cinemaxx using a bank promotion that allowed us to only pay 1 for 2 tickets. So it was not a total loss.

Overall, this was a very disappointing attempt of a remake of a classic Indonesian comedy movie. My wife and I had planned to be entertained and having fun watching a comedy film but what we got was a messy, not funny movie unworthy of bearing the name Benyamin. If you want to see a funny Benyamin movie, try to find his original films, but if you want to go and see how Reza Rahadian portrayed Benyamin, then by all means go see this movie. Just remember that you have been warned about those disappointments that you might feel after seeing the movie. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Death Wish - A Remake of 1974 Cult Classic

In a week where several major new Hollywood movies were released in the US, we were quite fortunate that 2 of them were also released in Indonesia. The first one was Red Sparrow which played on Wednesday and the other one premiered yesterday. I convinced my wife to see this one as I knew this was a remake of a movie that was very famous in the 1970s and 1980s due to its heavy violence. We chose to see this movie at Kuningan City as we had to do some errand there. We shall go on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

A very successful surgeon named Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis - Die Hard series, The Sixth Sense etc) was having a wonderful life as ER doctor in Chicago hospital. He was having a perfect family where her wife Lucy (Elisabeth Shue - Leaving Las Vegas, Hollow Man etc) was also studying to be a doctor and their only daughter Jordan (Camila Morrone) who just graduated high school and was going out of Chicago for her college education. Paul was also very close to his brother Frank (Vincent D'Onofrio - Full Metal Jacket, Daredevil TV series etc) who seemed to be unemployed.

The Monkey King 3 - Another Adaptation of Journey to the West Stories

I was kind of looking forward to see this movie when it premiered in Indonesia a day before the Chinese New Year holiday. But as I mentioned in my review of Monster Hunt 2, the locations of the theaters playing the movie were not idealistic to me. Fortunately my wife found out that the movie finally play in one of our most favorite theater, and we immediately decided to see this one. So last night we set aside our time and went to the theater for 6.40 PM show. Well let us get on with the movie now. 

Brief Story Line

Movie started with our beloved characters Sun Wukong, the Monkey King (Aaron Kwok - The Detective, Divergence etc) together with his teacher Tang Sanzang, the Buddhist Monk (William Feng - Wolf Totem, Prince of Lan Ling TV series), and the other disciples Zhu Bajie the pig demon (Xiao Shenyang - Some Like it Hot, Detective Chinatown etc) and Sha Wujing the water demon (Law Him - Young and Dangerous: Reloaded, Your Class or Mine TV series etc) were passing through a river in their journey to the west.

Red Sparrow - A Unique and Dark Movie of a Different Kind of Russian Spy

Yesterday, there were few movies premiering in Indonesian cinemas and 1 of them was this movie. Its trailer had been shown quite a lot of times in the past month and seemed interesting as it hinted some kind of spy story. My wife and I were not really sure at first, where we should see this one. But when I noticed that it was not having Dolby Atmos sound effects, we decided that there was no need to choose a theater with such sound system. Hence we opted to see this in Setiabudi. Well we shall start with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Dominika (Jennifer Lawrence - Passengers, The Hunger Games series etc) was a professional ballet dancer who was forced to early retirement and had to find other means to support her mother. Her uncle Dmitri (Matthias Schoenaerts - Disorder, The Danish Girl etc) who was a high ranked officer in Russian intelligence, convinced Dominika that the country would be willing to cover her expenses in return for her services. The idea was her to be a unique kind of "spy" with specialty of seducing the target. In order to do so, she would have to undergo a training in the Sparrow school with the head mistress called Matron (Charlotte Rampling - Assassin's Creed, Babylon A.D etc).