(TV SERIES) Shadow and Bone Season 1 - Fantastic and Fascinating Fantasy Series based on Popular Novel by Leigh Bardugo

There was this new series that was released on Netflix on Friday, but as I already set my mind to watch the finale of another series which happened to be shown on the same day, I decided to watch this only during the weekend. I managed to finish it in short time as it only got 8 episodes. All right, I'll get on with it now.

Brief Story Line

Set in the world where countries were separated into 4 areas in the North, East, West and South by the mysterious and dangerous dark fog called The Fold, Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) was given an assignment as cartographer in the first army together with her childhood friend Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux - Gold Digger mini series etc). As they had been very close since the time in orphanage, Alina decided to accompany Mal going through The Fold to avoid separation. However, things took an unexpected turn for her when something happened to Alina that would change her life forever.

Superintelligence - Nice Enough Combination of Rom-com with a bit of Science Fiction

This is a movie that was released on HBO Go yesterday, although it has been released on HBO Max in November 2020. So it's still quite new and nice to have the chance to see it from the comfort of my home. Now let's see if this movie can entertain me.

Brief Story Line

Carol Peters (Melissa McCarthy - Ghostbusters 2016 version, Identity Thief etc) was just an average woman who used to work in a technology company with her best friend Dennis (Brian Tyree Henry - Child's Play 2019 version, Hotel Artemis etc). But when an Artificial Intelligence who called itself Superintelligence (voiced by James Corden - Peter Rabbit, Smallfoot etc) somehow decided to learn about humanity from her in the next 3 days, Carol became completely overwhelmed by the things it did for her.

(TV SERIES) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - Entertaining Superhero Series with Spectacular Action Sequence but Having a bit too Heavy Social Political Message

For a series that has garnered a lot of publicity due to being part of the phase four Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), obviously I was not going to wait for too long to watch it. I started the first few episodes 3 days ago so I could watch the finale on the day it was released. OK, I'll just head straight to the series now.

Brief Story Line

Set few months after the events in Avengers: End Game, Sam Wilson aka Falcon (Anthony Mackie - Outside the Wire, The Hurt Locker etc) was still going for missions as part of the Avenger, where he was supported by US army, Lieutenant Torres (Danny Ramirez). When he was not out saving the world, he would return to his home town and stay with his sister Sarah (Adepero Oduye - Pariah etc) solving everyday problems like any other normal family would have. But his biggest challenge has been the burden he felt due to the Shield passed on by Captain America.

The Soul - A Truly Complex Murder Mystery Drama with a bit of Sci-Fi Element

One of this weekend's new movie on Netflix was this intriguing movie that I originally thought would be supernatural horror. But after looking in more details of the synopsis, I realized it was more like mystery thriller drama. So I decided to give it a try yesterday. And let us find out more on this now.

Brief Story Line

Set in the near future, a prominent prosecutor Liang Wen Chao (Chang Chen - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Red Cliff etc) was having brain cancer and looking for treatment to prolong his life, together with his pregnant wife, a police detective named Ah Bao (Janine Chang - Detective Chinatown 3, Here to Heart TV series etc). As his health started to deteriorate, Wen Chao decided to focus on the major murder case of a wealthy billionaire named Wang Shi Tung (Samuel Ku). 

The Kid Detective - A Delightful Dark Comedy Murder Mystery Movie

There were actually quite a lot of new movies released this week. I have written one or two of them while the rest I was still thinking of whether to write a full post or not. But this movie that I saw last night on Catchplay+ (even though it was already released few weeks ago) was so fascinating that I could not wait to write about it. OK so we'll get on it now.

Brief Story Line

Abe Applebaum (Adam Brody - Ready or Not, Jennifer's Body etc) was working as a private detective in the small town where he lived in, Willowbrook. Since he was a child, young Abe (Jesse Noah Gruman) has been known for his intelligence and ability to solve minor/trivial cases and considered a local celebrity. However, he was unable to solve the missing of his friend Gracie which he never seemed to recover from and made him lose the respect from the town folks.

Love and Monsters - A Nicely Done Post Apocalyptic Adventure Comedy Movie

I cannot remember where I saw the news about this movie before, just that it was one that I hope would be available in Indonesia soon due to its quite high critical and audience ratings. And so I was very excited when I found out it was going to be released through Netflix. Last night I immediately watch this movie as soon as I have the chance. Well now let's dive into it. 

Brief Story Line

After an incident that wiped most of the human population while at the same time creating monsters on earth, the remaining survivors were hiding in various bunkers and created small colony. Joel Dawson (Dylan O'Brien - Bumblebee, Teen Wolf TV series etc) who has been living with one colony for 7 years was separated from his girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick - Underwater, Game of Thrones TV series etc) and decided to go on a journey to find her, despite his lack of survival skills.

(TV SERIES) Big Sky Season 1 (Part 1) - Fast Paced, Intense and Suspenseful Series Adapted from Best Selling Novel Series by C. J. Box

As I said in one of my earlier post, last week was full of new movies and series that were available on various platforms. This interesting series was actually released on Disney+ more than a month ago. But it was customary for them to release only few episodes first and the rest were released once a week which finally completed last weekend. So without further ado, let's get into it.

Brief Story Line

Set in Helena County, Montana, private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury - Brave New World TV series etc) was having strained relationship with her friend Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick - The Dark Tower, Wu Assassins TV series etc) due to some problem relating to Jenny's husband and Dewell's partner Cody (Ryan Phillippe - I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions etc). However, when the girlfriend of Hoyt's son, Danielle (Natalie Alyn Lind - The Gifted TV series etc) and her younger sister Grace (Jade Pettyjohn - School of Rock TV series etc) were missing, they all set aside their differences and worked together to try and find them. 

(2021) Tom & Jerry - An Amazing Blend of Live-Action and Animation of Iconic Cartoon Characters, though Lacking Interesting Story

There were so many new movies released in the past few days in various platforms that made me a bit confused of what to watch first. It was such a nice problem as compared to having only one or even worse no movies that intrigued me. Anyway I had my eyes on this movie as it was based on cartoon characters that I liked as a child. Plus it was quite brand new. So let's get on with this.

Brief Story Line

Kayla Forrester (Chloë Grace Moretz - The Addams Family 2019 version, The 5th Wave etc) was a young woman doing odd jobs and tried to convince the GM of The Royal Gate hotel, Henry Dubros (Rob Delaney) to work there. Despite the disapproval from the event manager Terence Mendoza (Michael Peña - Fantasy Island, 12 Strong etc), Kayla was given the chance and she really thought she was getting the job of her dream. That was until Jerry Mouse & Tom Cat managed to sneak into the hotel wreaking havoc.

Thunder Force - Sadly a bit Disappointing & not Hilarious Superhero Comedy Movie

Last night there was finally a new movie that really looked interesting. From the moment I watched the trailer and noticed the lead cast, I decided it was a must watch movie on its premiere date. So after finishing my work and gone home, I spend the night watching this. And let's get right on it now.

Brief Story Line

Lydia (Melissa McCarthy - Life of the Party, The Heat etc) and Emily (Octavia Spencer - The Shape of Water, Doolittle etc) who used to be childhood best friends were living in a world where sociopaths had super powers and wreaking havoc. Emily who has become a very successful & rich woman manage to create something that would give powers to regular people. Due to some mishaps, Lydia somehow acquired the power and together with Emily they trained to be super heroes to fight against the villains who were called Miscreants.

(TV SERIES) Outer Banks Season 1 - Better Than Expected Teenagers Treasure Hunt & Love Story

Last weekend there were not too many new movies/series on various platforms that I was really interested in, so I turned myself to the "not so new" series which I thought would be worthwhile to invest my time. After browsing through the list, I decided to give this a try as it seemed to have intriguing premise about treasure hunt. All right, I'll just head on with it now.

Brief Story Line

In a town located in the string of islands along North Carolina (known as Outer Banks), a group of local teenagers that consisted of their leader John B (Chase Stokes), his best friend J.J (Rudy Pankow), the smart kid Pope (Jonathan Daviss) and the only girl Kiara "Kie" (Madison Bailey) loved to hang around and surf all day. As locals who lived in the working-class neighborhood (referred as Pogues), there was a lot of tension with the wealthy people who lived on the other side of the town (referred to as Kooks).

Trolls World Tour - A Larger Scale Sequel but not Much More Enjoyable than its Predecessor

This movie was supposed to be playing in cinemas last year but due to the pandemic, the producers decided to release only in limited US theaters and Video on Demand. After a year though, I finally got the chance to watch this on HBO and HBO Go application. OK, let's have some fun now.

Brief Story Line

After the events in Trolls, Poppy (Anna Kendrick - A Simple Favor, The Accountant etc) has become a queen and living a fun and peaceful life with everyone including her best friend Branch (Justin Timberlake - In Time, Bad Teacher etc). However, it turned out there were other tribes in the Trolls kingdom who prefer their own music where Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom - The Angry Birds Movie 2 etc) wanted to unite all tribes under Rock while eliminating other type of music.