(Special Screening) Green Book - A Remarkable Movie About Friendship of Two Completely Different Personalities

Two days ago I got information from my wife that there was a special screening event of the movie which got multiple Academy Awards nomination and won Golden Globes awards as well on Tuesday. As it would only premier in Indonesian theaters today, it was nice of us to catch a glimpse of this outstanding movie earlier. The event itself was held in CGV Grand Indonesia and scheduled to start at 7 PM. After few minutes of introduction and 2 movie trailers, it began at 7.15 PM. 

Brief Story Line

Tony Vallelonga aka Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen - The Lord of the Rings trilogy, A History of Violence etc) was an Italian-American bouncer who worked in a night club. But when it was closed for renovation, he had to look for various odd jobs to support his wife Dolores (Linda Cardellini - A Simple Favor, Daddy's Home 2 etc) and his 2 small kids Nick and Frankie. 

Instant Family - A Truly Heartwarming and Touching Family Drama Comedy

This movie was one that I wanted to see as soon as it's shown in Indonesian theaters. My wife and I were supposed to see it on last Friday but turned out it did not play at our most comfortable time in the theater near our home. We only saw this yesterday after my wife's events. And why I was eager to see the film? Will tell you more about it below.

Brief Story Line

Pete (Mark Wahlberg - Deepwater Horizon, Mile 22 etc) and Ellie (Rose Byrne - Peter Rabbit, Spy etc) were married couple who did not have kids. After casually discussing about possibly adopting a child, both of them went to a foster care course where they met with social workers Karen (Octavia Spencer - The Shape of Water, The Help etc) and Sharon (Tig Notaro) who encouraged and guide them to be ready.

The Kid Who Would be King - A Light Kid-Friendly Re-telling of the Legendary Excalibur Sword

This movie did not get a lot of publication (at least in Indonesia). I only saw the trailer twice earlier and thought it seemed like a nice adventure movie based on the classic famous story. Anyway as our usual Wednesday movie premiere, my wife and I saw this film in the theater nearest to our home. Well let's get on with it now.

Brief Story Line

Alexander Elliot (Louis Ashborne Serkis) was a young elementary kid who was raised by his mother (Denise Gough) and best friends with Bedders (Dean Chaumoo). Both of them were kind of outcast in their school and always bullied by Lance (Tom Taylor - The Dark Tower) and Kaye (Rhiana Doris). One night, Alex stumbled upon a sword in a stone which he could pull out and seemed to be Excalibur, which was the famous King Arthur's sword hundreds of years ago.

Glass - Another Proof of How Visionary M. Night Shyamalan in Completing an Unusual & Intelligent Trilogy

I read somewhere months ago about this movie being made, which was a sequel to Split that my wife and I saw two years ago. To be honest, I was not that enthusiastic at first because it was not really my favorite film and the ending was something which I thought a bit too weird. Only until I finally saw the movie Unbreakable which was said to be its predecessor that I could understand the ending better and more intrigued to see this third film, just to see how it would all be connected and resolved. Without further ado, below is more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Set 19 years after the events in Unbreakable, David Dunn (Bruce Willis - 12 Monkeys, Death Wish remake etc) still continued his vigilante act accompanied and supported by his now adult son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark - The Last House on the Left, Mystic River etc). On the other hand, Dennis with his multiple personalities (James McAvoy - Sherlock Gnomes, Atomic Blonde etc) was still terrorizing the city by kidnapping young girls. David and Dennis life would soon intertwine and became a lot more complicated when they also met with Elijah Price aka Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson - The Hitman's Bodyguard, various Marvel movies etc) in the psychiatric hospital under the care of Dr. Staple (Sarah Paulson - Ocean's 8, The Post etc).

(Special Screening) Take Point - An Almost Nonstop Korean Action Movie with a Plot that could have been Simplified for Maximum Enjoyment

Yesterday morning my wife got a surprise email from one of her friends who works in CGV (Rivki) and it was an invitation to a special screening of a Korean movie officially premiering on 19 January 2019. It was an event in the new CGV theater in Jakarta, at FX to be exact. Registration started at 6.30 PM and by 7.05 PM we were able to enter the studio. After some brief introduction on the movie from Rivki, we were shown few trailers and finally the film started at around 7.35 PM. So let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

A group of military personnels led by a South Korean captain Ahab (Ha Jung-woo - Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days and its prequel, 1987: When the Day Comes etc) were sent by the US to infiltrate North Korea to "abduct" a general wanting to defect. Their point of contact in US was Agent MacKenzie (Jennifer Ehle - A Quiet Passion etc) who was also the one sanctioning Ahab's team on the mission. With the support of his team that included Markus (Kevin Durand - Robin Hood 2010 version etc), a rookie Logan (Spencer Daniels), the reliable Gerald (Malik Yoba - New York Undercover TV series etc) and few others, Ahab would go on to capture the target.

My Favorite All Time 80s TV Series

After watching Star Trek: Discovery, it brought back some memories of my favorite series from the 1980s. During that period, there were quite a lot of TV series that I watched and I would like to share some of those that truly captured my heart. To slim down the list, I have excluded the series which started from the 1970s till the 80s even though I also quite enjoyed them such as family drama Little House on the Prairie (1974 - 1982), sit-com Mork & Mindy (1978 - 1982) or the action comedy Charlie's Angels (1976 - 1981). However, series that started from the 80s which spanned to years beyond, would still be in my list if they really had major impact on my growing up. 

Below are the series in alphabetical order:

21 Jump Street (5 seasons from 1987 - 1991)

The series was about a group of police officers who looked young for their age and hence they could work undercover for cases which mostly involved teenagers or college students. Their headquarter was located at the title's address. The original cast consisted of Johnny Depp, Holly Robinson, Peter DeLuise, Dustin Nguyen, Frederic Forrest and Steven Williams. As the series progressed, the cast grow to more than double which include the character Booker (Richard Grieco) and was even made into a spinoff 1 season series. 

Sadly, towards the end, the series episodes grew too heavy for my taste and I lost a bit of interest, especially when few of the original cast were no longer playing. I cannot remember now if I ever watched it till completion (or if the TV did show the full series back then).

Reasons for being my favorite: Great premise, good action sequence, nice theme song and featuring Johnny Depp.

Airwolf (4 seasons from 1984 -1987) 

Series focused on a military helicopter which had a lot of capabilities such as stealth mode and was equipped with heavy weapons etc with a codename Airwolf. The crew consisted of the pilots Hawke (Jan Michael Vincent) and Santini (Ernest Borgnine) and the missions were given by CIA deputy director Archangel (Alex Cord) with his right-hand woman Marella (Deborah Pratt). 

When the series reached fourth season, the cast were completely changed and I also lost my interest since then. But for the first 3 seasons, every Thursday night I would always sit in front of my TV to watch this and never missed an episode.

Reasons for being my favorite: As a kid, I loved the story of super helicopter that could do a lot maneuvers and killing bad guys. It also had a memorable theme song.

Growing Pains (7 seasons from 1985 - 1992)

This was a comedy series about the Seavers family which consisted of the father Jason (Alan Thicke), the mother Maggie (Joanna Kerns) with their 3 children: Mike (Kirk Cameron), Carol (Tracey Gold) and Ben (Jeremy Miller). Starting from season 4, the Seavers had the youngest child named Chrissy and starting from season 5, played by Ashley Johnson. In the 7th and last season, they had a homeless teenager who lived with them named Luke (Leonardo DiCaprio). 

The story focused on the whole family's relationship with each individual's problem such as Jason's early difficulties in working from home or Mike's ladies problem and Carol's social issues being the bookworm, plus Ben as the youngest. The family's dynamic also changed a lot with the addition of the youngest, plus Luke's appearance.

Reasons for being my favorite: It was a really funny sit-com and all the characters were amazing plus the interaction among family members were wonderful to see.

Knight Rider (4 seasons from 1982 - 1986)

Story was about a super car which was bullet proof and had lots of amazing gadgets with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and was called Knight Industry Two Thousand (KITT) based on the organization that created it named Knight Industry. The driver of this car was an ex police named Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) and he was given the assignments by Devon Miles (Edward Mulhare). The chief technician in charge of Kitt was Bonnie (Patricia McPherson - season 1, 3 & 4) and April (Rebecca Holden - season 2). In every episode, we would be shown how sophisticated Kitt was and also the fun interaction between Kitt (voiced by William Daniels) and Michael Knight.

Honestly I could not remember if the series was completely shown till 4 seasons, so I could not remember the ending either. Btw, there were some series and TV movies based on this series, but the only one that I ever saw was the 2008 1 season series which I thought was not a classic like the original.

Reasons for being my favorite: Who would not love to see a sports car that could speak (sometimes make jokes) and assist in capturing bad guys?

L.A Law (8 seasons from 1986 - 1994)

This was a legal drama with a large ensemble cast which included among others Harry Hamlin, Jimmy Smits and Corbin Bernsen. It focused on the law firm McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak in Los Angeles. It told us the stories about attorneys at the firm and various members of the support staff.

In each episode there would be 1 or 2 cases that need to be handled by one or more lawyers/associates. It also had some serious cases that provide us a lot of heavy thinking and sometimes the love story of the people, as well as some office politics.

Reasons for being my favorite: It was a great TV series that focused on lawyers fighting cases and the drama surrounding them. It was my first ever lawyers series that made me love the courtroom "fights". It had also won multiple Emmy Awards during its run. Till now, if I want to watch legal drama, I would always remember the time I watched this series.

MacGyver (7 seasons from 1985 - 1992)

This series focused on Angus MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson), an agent for US agency and also worked at the Phoenix Foundation as troubleshooter, under his boss Pete Thornton (Dana Elcar). 

With his intelligence, good luck and vast knowledge of applied science, MacGyver could solve problems using ordinary things around him plus of course his trademark Swiss army pocket knife. 

It was such a popular show that the term MacGyver could sometimes be referred to by people using ordinary things around them to create something useful. There was also a reboot/remake the series in 2016 (MacGyver 2016 version).

Reasons for being my favorite: A good guy who does not use gun but able to defeat bad guys using whatever normal things around him. We would always be intrigued of what case MacGyver would find and how would he solve it.

Miami Vice (5 seasons from 1984 - 1989)

Series was about two Miami police detectives Sonny Crocket (Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) who usually worked undercover in solving cases. Their superior was the tough Lieutenant Castillo (Edward James Olmos). There were also other cast such as Saundra Santiago, Olivia Brown, Michael Talbott and John Diehl as detectives in the same precinct.

Each episode would always have lots of gunshooting and car chasing scenes on the beaches of Miami. Unfortunately though, the series did not seem to run full seasons in our TV channel and I think I never saw the conclusion in the fifth season.

Btw, there was also a movie made based on this series with the same title, starring Colin Farrel and Jamie Foxx as Sonny & Tubbs which was directed by Michael Mann, but unfortunately it was not really well received by critics and was not a major box office hit.

Reasons for being my favorite: Great scenery, wonderful action sequences accompanied by nice music at that time. Sonny and Tubbs were also very stylish and created trends in my school. Plus it had a nice theme song as well.

Remington Steele (5 seasons from 1982 - 1987)

This was a series focusing on a female private detective Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) who had to create a fictitious male superior named Remington Steele in order to convince clients. But her plan was ruined when a con man later on claimed to be the real Steele (Pierce Brosnan). As it was impossible to prove otherwise, Holt and "Steele" would ultimately joined and worked together under the agency. In season 2 onwards, there would be additional character of Mildred Krebs (Doris Roberts) who worked as secretary.

In each episode, Steele and Holt would be competing against one another to solve the case and there was also some kind of possible romance between the two of them.

Sadly though, the series was never shown completely and I never got to see it concluded. Guess I would need to see how I could watch the rest of them.

Reasons for being my favorite: The premise of a really charming detective with a mysterious background and his relationship with Laura Holt was very interesting and fun to see. Plus the case solving at that time was also fascinating. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation (7 seasons from 1987 - 1994)

I admit that I probably have seen only few times the original Star Trek series re-run on TV, but this was the first real Star Trek series that really captivated me. The series focused on the starship USS Enterprise-D with the crew that consisted of a lot of characters including obviously humans, a Klingon, an android and a half betazoid. It was set around 100 years after the original.

In each episode, Enterprise would be visiting a location that require assistance or a place for conventions and other unique places in the galaxy. Each crew member would have their own specific story which may or may not have any relations to the particular visit.

Amazingly, The Next Generation also had 4 movies made and I loved all of them. 

Reasons for being my favorite: New planet or places with different kind of aliens in almost every episode, with wonderful special effects at that time, plus Jean-Luc Picard was such a charismatic character as the commander of Enterprise. Till now I still could picture him navigating and narrating those classic words: "Space: the final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise ...." 

The A Team (5 seasons from 1983 - 1987)

Series focused on a team of ex military soldiers who were sentenced for crimes they did not commit and flee from the prison. While trying to clear their names, they all worked as soldiers of fortune. Team was led by Colonel John "Hannibal" Smit (George Peppard), Lieutenant Templeton "Face" Peck (Dirk Benedict), Sergeant B.A Baracus (Mr. T) and pilot Lieutenant Murdock (Dwight Schultz). 

In every episode they would be hired by people who usually were oppressed by the strong (bad guys/villains) and help them free. They would also need to avoid capturing by the Military Police. In future seasons, there would be additional character (s) in their team.

There was also a movie made based on this series with Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton Jackson and Sharlto Copley as the A-team. The movie had a mediocre performance and thus no sequels made after that.

Reasons for being my favorite: Every character in this series was so lovable. Always nice to see the colonel's plan or Face charming people to get necessary equipment or the banter between Barracus and Murdock. Plus the fun preparation of major fight by creating special car or equipment to defend against the bad guys. I also loved Hannibal's favorite words: "I loved it when a plan comes together"

Aside from the above list, I also had great appreciation to other series which had accompanied me during those time, from the sit-com such as The Cosby Show (1984-1992), Mr. Belvedere (1985 - 1990), The Golden Girls (1985 - 1992) or the action/police procedural such as Moonlighting (1985 - 1989 which featured Bruce Willis) or the kick-ass tough police series Hunter (1984 - 1981 starring Fred Dryer).

So there you have it, a top 10 list of my most favorite 80s TV series. I would welcome comments or views about series that might be your own personal favorites but not on my list.

Cheers,

Mikenontonmulu

Escape Room - A Very Intense & Super Suspenseful Movie

I knew about this movie from the trailer that I saw once last week. Immediately I was intrigued by the premise which I thought would be a very suspenseful film. It was a good thing that when it finally premiered in Indonesia yesterday, it played in the theater near our home, coz I was not really in the mood to go for a ride that day. Movie started at 7.25 PM so we got plenty of time to get ourselves ready before it began. We should go on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Six different people consisted of a shy college student Zoey Davis (Taylor Russel - Down a Dark Hall etc), a normal shop worker Ben Miller (Logan Miller - Before I Fall etc), a major stockbroker Jason Walker (Jay Ellis - The Game TV series etc), an ex military Amanda Harper (Deborah Ann Woll - Daredevil TV series, True Blood TV series etc), a trucker Mike Nolan (Tyler Labine - Deadbeat TV series etc) and a fan of Escape Room games Dany Khan (Nik Dodani - Murphy Brown TV series etc) were all invited to play the game where the winner would be receiving some grand prize money.

All these people not knowingly enter into a game where apparently the Escape Rooms were all deadly and inability to escape would mean death. Racing against time, they all had to work together to find out the clue in each room and escape. 

So what would happen to these 6 people who each had their own secret past? Find them all in these exciting, intense & super suspenseful movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Wow, this movie was truly amazing in term of giving the suspense. Even from the start we already got a taste of what would come. And once all the characters were put in the first room, we would all be given nonstop suspense and thrill until the end. We were even given a surprising twist as well. In all the rooms, we got to see how smart the movie makers actually were in providing us this entertaining movie. All the rooms were amazingly created with the clues & hints that seemed genuine.

As could be guessed from the title itself, the movie was actually based on the popular Escape Room games (available online as well). So people who had ever played this kind of game would be familiar with the premise and even my wife was a fan of such game as well. Although the game in this movie which was played by real people and could kill the unsuccessful player would definitely be a lot scarier. My wife jokingly said to me she would uninstall all such games from her tablet after seeing this film. 

Now back to the movie itself, I mentioned that it was very suspenseful because of the deadly rooms that the players have to escape. But one thing that I did not really like was the ending. My wife and I both thought that there were too much details at the end which made the ending felt overly long and kind of lost momentum a bit. Even though the final scene was pretty exciting and gave us a hint of possible sequel, but we believed that it could be better if the scenes were a bit shorter. However, that was just our opinion.

The intensity of the escaping was made possible by the appearance of the cast as well. Some of them were quite intriguing characters with their mysterious background. Of all the 6 actor and actresses playing in the movie, I was only familiar with 2 of them, i.e Deborah Ann Woll and Logan Miller. The rest were unknown to me, but all of them were pretty good in portraying their characters, with Jay Ellis in particular so convincing as a rather obnoxious yuppie and Nik Dodani was really believable as the very eager & enthusiastic player. 

The sound effects of this movie was pretty amazing. Even though they were the standard Dolby Surround system, it still able to provide the intensity for audience especially with the music and various sounds during the moments time was almost up in each room. Basically the main attraction of this movie was the suspense we felt during those moments which was quite continuous till almost the end. But the plot may not be the most original. I had a sense of similarity with a horror movie back in 2004 (directed by James Wan in his directorial debut) which had spawned into several movies, especially with the appearance of the main culprit.

Overall, to my personal opinion, this movie was a good psychological thriller movie, full of suspense, very intense but with an ending that was a bit overly long. It was one movie that would keep you at the edge of your seat, with so many breathtaking scenes throughout the film. It was one that surprisingly did not have any mid or post end credit scene. If you are looking for a movie that would provide you such intensity, then this could be an option.

Happy watching!

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

(2018) Unstoppable - A Supposedly Suspenseful High Intensity Full Action Movie Sadly Ruined by Unnecessary Comedic Performance

This movie actually played in theaters since more than a week ago but I only got the chance to see it last night. As my wife was having other plans, she did not accompany me seeing this. I was interested with the movie as the trailer suggested an intense very suspenseful full of action type. So let's find out more about it.

Brief Story Line

Dong-chul (Ma Dong-seok - Train to Busan, The Outlaws etc) was a rather simple minded family guy and was married to Ji-soo (Song Ji-hyo - Emergency Couple TV series etc). His life turned upside down when they both were entangled with a crime syndicate led by Ki Tae (Kim Seong-oh - Fight My Way TV series etc) and Ji-soo was kidnapped.

With the help from his friend Chun-sik (Park Ji-hwan - 1987: When the Day Comes etc) and a private investigator Kwon (Kim Min-jae - Psychokinesis etc), the 3 of them tried to find out where Ji-soo was being held as the police seemed unable to find her.

How would the story end? Find them all in this action thriller movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I mentioned above that I was impressed by the trailer as it hinted a totally suspenseful movie with lots of action. But unfortunately I felt that the movie's intensity was a bit inconsistent. The start of the movie was pretty standard with the introduction of our lead casts. The relationship between Dong-chul and Ji-soo was actually pretty lovely to watch. Then we were also introduced to the villain which I thought played amazingly convincing by Kim Seong-oh. But then after the kidnapping done, I thought it would be suspenseful throughout the whole movie, however when we got to a bit more serious & intense, the tone seemed to be made down a bit.

This inconsistency was apparent until almost the end of the movie. I believed this was entirely due to the appearance of the character Private Investigator Kwon. Personally I thought his characterization was a bit too comical. Perhaps the movie maker was keen to add more humor in this type of movie, but I honestly felt it actually ruined the moment. If the main attraction was the intensity of a kidnapping of the wife of an ex gangster, then those comedic scenes seemed out of place. I have no objection of the actor playing Kwon, in fact I think in another comedy movie or action comedy movie, he would be suitable, especially with his facial expressions. The investigation part was actually not bad, if only the PI character was more serious.

As for the action itself, I think it was pretty well done. Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee) was really good in playing kick ass tough guy especially with his huge body. He looked really amazing when fighting with the bad guys, and his face expressions were truly wonderful. I was really convinced with his looks of worry, or angry or love towards his wife. I had seen him more than twice now and each time I thought his performance was always convincing and natural. The fight scenes were well choreographed, and the car chase scene was breathtaking. The finale was also very satisfying. The movie's end credit showed some brief amusing and fun scene that you could enjoy.

Overall I thought this movie could and should have been better. The plot may not be original (the famous Hollywood movie starring Liam Neeson certainly came to mind), but this one to my opinion lacked the suspense & intensity consistency to make it a classic, especially with the addition of the 'too much joking' Private Eye character whom I personally thought out of place. However the action part did not disappoint, even if it was not too much for a movie with 116 minutes duration. So if you are looking for a full suspense, very intense full of action Korean movie, this one might not really satisfy you. But if you are a fan of Ma Dong-seok and want to see him kick some ass, then this one could be an option. The choice is yours.

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

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World - A Beautiful Conclusion to a Lovely Trilogy About Friendship

This is the 3rd movie of the How to Train Your Dragon series and it was kind of surprising when I checked the second movie was back in year 2014. As I tried to recall the second movie, I realized that I never saw it (which was very odd). So the night before this movie premiered, I took the chance to see that movie first through online streaming. And it was a good thing as I could easily understand this movie better. OK, let's get on with the film now, shall we?

Brief Story Line

Set a year after the events of the second movie, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel - The Sorcerer's Apprentice, She's Out of My League etc) and his Night Fury dragon Toothless have been coordinating attacks on the dragon trappers to free dragons. Together with his girlfriend Astrid (America Ferrera - Ugly Betty TV series etc), his mother Valka (Cate Blanchett - The House with a Clock in Its Wall etc) and his band of misfits friends, Snotlout (Jonah Hill - True Story etc), the twins Tuffnutt (Justin Ripple) & Ruffnutt (Kristen Wiig - Ghostbusters remake etc) and former dragon trapper Eret (Kit Harrington - Game of Thrones TV series), they had brought back a lot of dragons to their home at Berk.

(TV SERIES) Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 - A Surprisingly Heavy, Dark and Intense New Star Trek Series

After watching various action series & catching up some that I have been following for the past few years, I was in the mood to try something else. I cannot remember where I read about this, but suddenly I remembered few days ago and decided to watch this one. I am a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation series and also the various movies based on the series, so I really hope this would be something I enjoyed as much as that one. Without further ado, let us get on with the series.

Brief Story Line

Years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series, the United Federation of Planets were involved in a major war with the Klingons. Story focused on a Starfleet officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green - The Walking Dead TV series etc) who was a specialist on board USS Discovery trying to find solace from her previous actions by making sure Starfleet could win the war. USS Discovery was led by an unconventional & tough captain Gabrial Lorca (Jason Isaacs - Brotherhood TV series, Harry Potter movies etc). His First Officer was a species called Kespian named Saru (Doug Jones - The Shape of Water, Falling Skies TV series etc) and had a unique ability of sensing danger around him.

Master Z: Ip Man Legacy - A Nice Enough Spin-off from the Ip Man trilogy

At first when I read the title to this movie, I thought it was just some kind of film that used the fame of Ip Man and try to gain audience by adding his name. But when I saw the trailer, I realized it would be interesting. Will go into that more below. OK, so let's start with it.

Brief Story Line

After beaten by Ip Man, Cheung Tin Chi (Max Zhang - SPL II: A Time for Consequences, The Brink etc) decided to leave town and stop being teacher of Wing Chun martial arts. Together with his young son, they opened a small grocery shop. But his peaceful life would soon be ruined when he was involved in altercation with the gang led by Sai Kit (Kevin Cheng - Ghetto Justice TV series etc) who were trying to collect money from Nana (Chrissy Chau - An Inspector Calls, 29+1 etc) and her best friend Julia (Liu Yan - Badges of Fury, Martial Universe TV series etc).