(TV SERIES) From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series - A Nice TV Adaptation of the Cool 1996 Movie

I could not remember how I came upon this series last time, but it was one that I had been scheduling for some time to watch. More than a week ago when I was confused what to watch, I decided to give this series a try. I was intrigued because it was based on a horror movie that I quite enjoyed long time ago titled From Dusk Till Dawn directed by the famous Robert Rodriguez (director of movies such as Spy Kids series, Sin City and its sequel, Desperado and many more). So here goes my views of the series.

Brief Story Line

Season 1 started of with Seth Gecko (D. J. Cotrona - G.I.Joe: Retaliation etc) and his brother Richard "Richie" (Zane Holtz - 7 Minutes etc) who just robbed USD 30 million worth of bonds from a bank and were trying to escape from the police chase. While taking a break in a convenience store, they had an altercation with a Texas Ranger Freddie Gonzales (Jesse Garcia) and his mentor Earl McGraw (Don Johnson - Django Unchained, Miami Vice TV series etc). Gonzales made it his personal mission to capture the Gecko brothers who managed to run away. Meanwhile, Seth was looking for ways to meet with his buyer Carlos (Wilmer Valderrama - From Prada to Nada, That 70's Show TV series etc) who was working for a vampire (referred to as Culebra) named Santanico Pandemonium (Eiza González - Baby Driver etc).

Solo: A Star Wars Story - A Wonderful Story of the Young Han Solo

When it was announced that there would be a movie featuring the young Han Solo in the Star Wars universe, I thought it would be interesting. So once the movie premiered yesterday in Indonesia, my wife and I were some of the early movie goers who had the advantage of seeing it on its first day. It was rather challenging to choose the best show time since mostly was around 6PM, which was our usual dinner time. Anyway, we decided to see the movie at 6.15PM in my favorite Dolby Atmos theater in Epicentrum. Well let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Story was set when a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich - Hail, Caesar!, Beautiful Creatures etc) left his childhood city in Correlia. His dream was to be the best pilot, gained enough money to buy a ship and have adventures with the love of his life Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke - Me Before You, Game of Thrones TV series etc). During his early adventures, Han became a member of a criminal gang led by Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Messenger etc) with his team of Val (Thandie Newton - Westworld TV Series, Mission: Impossible 2 etc) and an alien named Rio (voiced by Jon Favreau - Identity Theft, and as Happy in MCU).

Cold Skin - A Personally Better than Expected Sci-Fi Horror Thriller Movie

Yesterday there was a new movie premiered in the largest cinema chain in Indonesia. I did not know anything about the movie as I never saw the trailer previously. So I tried to find out a little bit more by looking at the trailer in the cinema website and reading its brief synopsis. When I found out it was a combination of science fiction and horror, I was immediately intrigued. But my wife was not really enthusiastic about it, hence I watched this by myself. OK, let's move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Set in the year 1914, a young man who would later on be referred to as Friend (David Oakes - Victoria TV series) was assigned to a remote island located in south Alantic to work as a meteorologist. There was no other people stayed there except for the lighthouse guard named Gruner (Ray Stevenson - The Transporter: Refueled, The Three Musketeers etc) who was living like a hermit. Friend noticed something odd as there were lots of sharp pointed woods surrounding the lighthouse and also the house Friend would stay in.

In his first night, Friend finally realized that the island was not as peaceful as he thought it would be. Some kind of creatures were trying to attack him and he barely survived. Friend had no choice but to seek the help from Gruner who was very reluctant to assist him. Later on Friend would also find a female creature (Aura Garrido) who was staying in the island. 

So could Friend and Gruner survive the multiple attacks from the creatures night after night? Find them all in this rather intense sci fi horror-ish movie.

End of Brief Story Line

This movie was actually quite surprised me. At first I was a little bit skeptical as the first 10 minutes seemed to be unclear on the direction of the movie. But once the creature started to appear, the movie pace immediately started to pick up. There were occasional slower pace scenes when the night turned into day, but most of the time, the movie was pretty intense. 

As the movie progressed, I do not know why but I sensed this was like something that came from a book. And apparently my feeling was correct, as I found out that the movie was based on a novel written by Albert Sánchez Piñol originally titled La Pell Freda in Spanish. From what I read in the internet, the movie seemed to be quite loyal to the novel which made me appreciative of the film maker (it was directed by Xavier Gens who directed the 2007 Hitman movie starring Timothy Olyphant). The language used by Friend felt very Shakespeare liked and I actually quite enjoyed it. 

This movie's main attraction at first was the intensity of the creatures attacks, but it later on evolved to something more of a mystery surrounding the female creature referred to as Aneris (played quite convincingly by Aura Garrido). And there was also the odd relationship between Friend and Gruner, and Aneris who came between these 2 main characters which were interesting to see. I personally felt that Ray Stevenson was brilliant in playing Gruner. Btw, this was not a brand new movie. It was actually a 2017 production and not a major blockbuster movie usually shown during this month.

Another thing that I liked about the movie was the beautiful scenery of the island, especially the very blue colored sea. There was not a lot of visual effects aside from the creatures effects which were pretty decent. But as a sci fi movie with a bit of horrific creature attacks scenes, I think this movie was not too bad. It was in fact better than I expected. I can say that I had quite nice moment watching this film. And I think people who loves this kind of movie where the main cast were like "trapped" in a remote place & must fight for their survival, should be able to enjoy the movie. I also felt there was a little similarity with the movie I am Legend starring Will Smith. For a rather small budget film, it should not be expected to deliver tons of action scenes with great special effects. So if you are OK with this kind of movie, then this can be an option. The choice is yours.

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

ANON - An Average Science Fiction Thriller with Nice Idea but Lacking the Thrill

Yesterday, there were 2 new movies that premiered in 2 Indonesia cinema chains. One was a French movie while the other was a movie that I decided to see last night. There were not a lot of theater options to see this one but it did play in a cinema not far from my office at around 7 PM. This time I chose to watch this by myself as my wife was occupied with other things. So we shall move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Set in the future, everyone was implanted with some kind of "chip"? (not really detailed in the movie) which gave access of information to everything through their own eyes. The information were so detail that we could see the name, age & profession of a person, or a make & model of a car, even a dog's breed & its name and other info. A police detective named Sal Frieland (Clive Owen - Valerian and City of Thousand Planets, King Arthur etc) was able to resolve lots of cases with the help from accessing information recorded in the database of that "chip" which were all connected through the "Ether".

Deadpool 2 - A Very Very Entertaining Sequel to the Wise Cracking Superhero

Finally after a little over 2 years, sequel to the "crazy" superhero movie that was very successful then, premiered in Indonesian cinemas yesterday, which was a bit earlier than in the US itself. So we could count ourselves quite lucky to have seen this movie first. It was also rather odd that the film was shown on a Tuesday rather than the usual Wednesday. But for us, it is better since we need something to relieve our stress after few days of horrifying news in the country. So did the movie deliver? Let us find out below.

Brief Story Line

Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds - The Hitman's Bodyguard, Green Lantern etc) was making huge name by killing lots of criminals throughout various countries. Meanwhile in his private life, he was having a serious relationship with his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin - Gotham, Homeland TV series etc). Later on Wade was approached by Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) to join the X-Men and become a trainee. During a mission with Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Wade would meet with a young mutant named Russel aka Firefist (Julian Dennison - Paper Planes) who created a lot of trouble.

The Son of Bigfoot - A Rather Average Comedy Drama Animated Movie

Yesterday, there was a new movie premiered in Cinema 21 chain where its trailer had been shown since few months ago. It was a computer animated film that looked fun but not from major Hollywood production. As I mentioned in my earlier post, the Indonesian cinema chains opted to show the less blockbuster movies this week since there would be a huge superhero movie Deadpool 2 to premiere next Tuesday. Nevertheless, due to no other movies that really interest me, I decided to give this one a try. More on the movie below.

Brief Story Line

Adam (Pappy Faulkner) was a teenage boy who was always being bullied in school by other students and seemed to be out of place. He lived with his single mother Shelly (Marieve Herington) as his father Dr. Harrison (Chris Parson) has passed away since he was still a baby. One day Adam found something that hinted his father might still be alive and decided to look for him by himself.

The Titan - A Science Fiction Thriller Movie Without the Thrills

There was no major Hollywood movie playing in Indonesian theaters this week, as Deadpool 2 looming to premiere next week. But there was a new movie shown only in Cinema 21 chain which started since yesterday. Not a lot of theaters playing it, but at least the movie did play in 2 of my favorite theaters. I saw this one by myself as my wife was doubtful about the quality of it. So let's see if her doubt was justified, shall we?

Brief Story Line

Movie was set in the year 2048 where it was revealed that due to over population, the earth would not be humanely inhabitable in the near future. And the idea to resolve this was to move the people to the biggest moon of Saturn planet, called Titan. However, since the planet's atmosphere and condition was impossible to live, a group of scientists under NATO, led by Professor Martin (Tom Wilkinson - In the Bedroom, Michael Clayton etc) and his assistant Dr. Freya (Agyness Deyn) wanted to enhance the people's body to adapt to Titan's condition. They experimented on several candidates who volunteered for this project.

Truth or Dare - A Pretty Enjoyable, not too Scary Supernatural Horror Movie with Original Idea

After a week of a major awesome mega movie in the form of Avengers: Infinity War, I was a bit wondering what we can expect to see this week Apparently the Indonesian cinema chains decided to show a horror movie that was already playing in US cinemas since mid April 2018. When I saw the thriller to the film few weeks ago, I sensed it would be an interesting horror movie. So we thought it would be nice to see the film (despite my wife's hesitance to see a horror movie). Hence we bought the tickets in Kuningan City, which proved to be a little challenge of its own to find a nice nearby cinema since many of them still playing Avengers: Infinity War. And to my surprise, when I peeked at other studios playing that movie, they were still packed with audience. WOW! Anyway, let us move on with the film now.

Brief Story Line

A group of college students went on a spring break holiday in Mexico where one of them named Olivia (Lucy Hale - Sorority Wars, Pretty Little Liars TV series etc) met with a mysterious guy named Carter (Landon Liboiron - Hemlock Grove TV series etc) who asked her to join him for drinks in an abandoned church. Olivia asked her best friend Markie (Violett Beane - The Flash TV series etc) and Markie's boyfriend Lucas (Tyler Posey - Teen Wolf TV series etc) to come along. The rest of their friends also joined her, including Brad (Hayden Szeto - The Edge of Seventeen etc), Tyson (Nolan Gerard Funk - House at the End of the Street, Riddick etc) and his girlfriend Penelope (Sophia Ali) with last but not least, Ronnie (Sam Lerner - Project Almanac etc).