Sunday, October 31, 2021

Voyagers - Interesting Enough for Space Adventure Thriller Movie

I just realized there was this new movie on Catchplay+ on Saturday morning. It was a movie that I read sometime ago which intrigued me, but I was unable to see it when it played in Indonesian theaters. OK, I'll dive right to it then.

Brief Story Line

When some astronomers found a distant planet in 2063 which was habitable for humans, the scientists decided to send some crew to colonize it as backup for the dying earth. However, as it would take 86 years to reach the said planet, they came up with a plan of sending young crews who would live inside a spaceship called Humanitas, where they would breed so their grand children would be able to reach the location. A crew of 30 young children were later sent in Humanitas and they were accompanied by one of the scientists named Richard (Colin Farrell - DumboAva etc).

Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard - Still Having Plenty of Cool Action and Absurd Humor as its Predecessor

On Friday, this movie was finally released in Indonesia after weeks of playing in the US theaters. It's understandable since the pandemic delayed the release of some highly anticipated movies everywhere. Anyway, I got the chance to see this one with my wife yesterday. All right, let's get on with the details now.

Brief Story Line

After the events on The Hitman's Bodyguard, Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds - LifeDetective Pikachu etc) was feeling depressed as his bodyguard license was under review and could not take any clients. While taking a break, Sonia Kincaid (Salma Hayek - Bliss, Desperado etc) requested Bryce help to save her husband Darius (Samuel L. Jackson - SpiralCaptain Marvel etc) from the mob.

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Army of Thieves - Fun & Interesting Heist Movie with Lighter Tone Set in the Army of the Dead Universe

Yesterday this new movie was released on Netflix. I have known about this one for several weeks now, which is a prequel to that interesting film Army of the Dead few months ago. It definitely was intriguing since the focus was one of the characters who I have grown attached to. So once I got the chance last night, I immediately start watching it. OK, let's get on with it.

Brief Story Line

Some time before the events of that earlier movie, Dieter who was still going by his old name Sebastian (Matthias Schweighöfer) was working as a bank teller and feeling bored with his life. That was until he met Gwen (Nathalie Emmanuel - The Fate of the Furious, Four Weddings and a Funeral miniseries etc) who noticed Sebastian's ability to crack safe.

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Hypnotic - Not Bad for a Psychological Thriller

Yesterday, this new movie was released on Netflix which made me truly intrigued, since it has an interesting premise. Without further ado, I'll get right to it.

Brief Story Line

After experiencing some heavy personal problems, Jenn Tompson (Kate Siegel - Hush, The Haunting of Hill House TV series etc) was feeling really stressed out. So her best friend Gina (Lucie Guest) introduced Jenn to the hypnotherapist that she had been seeing named Dr. Collin Meade (Jason O'Mara - Departure TV series etc) to feel better. Despite her early reluctance, Jenn still gave it a try and it looked like the treatment was working.

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Halloween Kills - Just a So So Sequel in the Halloween Series

I was planning to see this movie with my wife last weekend at one of the cinemas, but the urge to spend my weekend at home was stronger then. So I ended up watching other movies through online streaming. Last night though, we felt it was a good time to see this movie. OK, let's get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Right after the incidents in Halloween, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis - Knives Out, My Girl etc) who was hurt badly together with her daughter Karen (Judy Greer - Jurassic World etc) and grand daughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), went to the hospital thinking that Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle) was already dead. Meanwhile Deputy Frank Hawkins (Will Patton - Swamp Thing TV series, The Forever Purge etc) was also brought to the same hospital.

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Free Guy - Very Fun and Enjoyable Action Comedy Movie

I have seen this movie being promoted frequently in the internet and I also saw its trailer few times in the cinemas before. Obviously this kind of movie was very interesting for me, but due to some reasons, I only managed to see this yesterday with my wife few days after its release in Indonesia. All right, I'll head on to it now.

Brief Story Line

Guy (Ryan Reynolds - The Hitman's Bodyguard6 Underground etc) was just a regular person working as a bank teller in Free City and was best friend with the bank's security guard Buddy (Lil Rey Howery - Vacation Friends, Judas and the Black Messiah etc). Guy's life changed drastically when he met and fell for Molotovgirl not realizing that he himself was just a Non Playable Character (NPC) in an open world online game and she was just an avatar played by Millie (Jodie Comer - Killing Eve TV series etc).

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Boss Level - A Nice Combination of Time Loop, Good Old Fashion Action and Dark Humor

It's been a while since I watched an interesting new movie on HBO Go platform. This time I found out there was this action movie that I was intrigued and it was a 2020 film that did not make it to Indonesian cinemas. OK, will get straight to it now.

Brief Story Line

Roy (Frank Grillo - Reprisal, No Man's Land etc) was a former special forces soldier who was stuck in a time loop where he was constantly being chased and attacked by a group of mercenaries till he was killed. The day before the time loop, he met with his ex wife Dr. Jemma Wells (Naomi Watts - The Divergent Series: Allegiant, King Kong 2005 version etc) who was working on a secret project under her boss Colonel Clive Ventor (Mel Gibson - Force of NatureDaddy's Home 2 etc).

(TV SERIES) Only Murders in the Building Season 1 - An Enjoyable and Entertaining Mystery Comedy Series with Delightful Performance from Its Main Cast

I noticed this series available for streaming in Disney+ for few weeks now. But as usual, I hold on watching it till the completion of the season (or the series). Once I found out the final episode was going to be released last night, I started watching it on Thursday so I could finish it immediately. OK, why don't I get to it now.

Brief Story Line

In an apartment building in New York city, 3 completely different tenants became unexpected friends when they found out they shared the same passion of listening to True Crime podcast. First one was Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin - The Pink Panther, Cheaper by the Dozen etc) who was a fairly successful TV actor from the 1990s. Second one was Oliver Putnam (Martin Short - Innerspace, Mars Attacks! etc), a Broadway director. And the third was a young woman named Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez - Doolittle, Princess Protection Program etc).

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Night Teeth - A Vampire Movie Lacking the Intensity & Violence but Aided by the Charming Lead Cast

While I was enjoying the first staycation with my wife after more than a year of staying at home, I noticed there was a new movie released on Netflix. This time around, the hotel that we stayed in had a smart TV in our room, which enabled me to watch it on the large screen TV since I could connect it with my tablet easily. Well what was the movie all about? Let's find out more.

Brief Story Line

Benny (Jorge Lendeborg Jr. - Bumblebee etc) was a college student who like to take on part time jobs. So when his older brother Jay (Raúl Castillo - Army of the Dead etc) was unable to work on his shift as a chauffeur, Benny did his best to convince him to take over the responsibility. When he met with the persons who originally hired Jay, Benny was immediately attracted to Blaire (Debby Ryan - Insatiable TV series etc) although he did not really like her friend Zoe (Lucy Fry - Vampire Academy etc).

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

(TV Series) My Name - An Entertaining Revenge-Driven Series with Plenty of Well Choreographed Fight Scenes

I watched the trailer to this series few times on Netflix before and thought it looked very interesting. But I did not realize it was a series until my wife told me so. As I already had plans for other movies on different platform and in the cinemas, I only started to watch this one on Sunday night & finished it last night. So let's get started now.

Brief Story Line

Yoon Ji-woo (Han Soo Hee - The World of the Married TV series etc) was the daughter of a gangster who was murdered by an unknown assailant. She wanted to get revenge on the killer and sought the help from her father's old friend & a powerful gang leader Choi Mu-jin (Park Hee-soon - Seven Days etc). Despite the objection from his right hand man Tae-ju (Lee Hak-joo - Sweet Munchies TV series etc), Mu-jin still decided to train her. 

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Don't Breathe 2 - Not a Better Sequel in term of Story but Definitely More Brutal and Violent

I found out about this movie only few weeks ago and was surprised there was even a sequel of the 2016 hit Don't Breathe. But as I truly enjoyed the original film, my wife and I both thought it would be an exciting experience to see it in the cinema. The movie was only released in Indonesian theaters 2 days ago, while it has its wide release in the US in August. All right, here's more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Set few years after the events of the first movie, the blind man Norman (Stephen Lang - Braven, Public Enemies etc) now lived with a young girl called Phoenix (Madelyn Grace) who referred him as her father. Phoenix was given survival training and home schooled by Norman. She seldom get out except when Norman's acquaintance Hernandez (Stephanie Arcila) brought her to town.

(2021) DUNE - A Detailed Adaptation of the Popular 1965 Sci-Fi Novel with Spectacular Visual Effects but Slow Pace in the First half

I have heard about this movie being promoted and mentioned so many times in the past year or so. As it was highly regarded and said to be a great adaptation, I was definitely intrigued to watch this. Once I got the chance with my wife in the weekend, we went to a cinema with large screen to see the movie since I could imagine it would be a far greater experience than seeing it in small screen. Anyway, I'll head to it now.

Brief Story Line

Set in the very distant future, the planet of Arrakis also known as Dune was the source of the much required substance called spice. Dune had been under the occupation of House of Harkonnen for centuries. but the Imperial kingdom just appointed the humans tribe House of Artreides to take over the harvesting. The decision was not well received by one of its leader Rabban (Dave Bautista - Final Score, Army of the Dead etc) who was also the nephew of Baron of Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård - The Girl in the Spider's Web etc).

Saturday, October 16, 2021

Wrath of Man - Another Interesting Guy Ritchie's Directed Movie in Collaboration with Jason Statham

This movie played in Indonesian cinemas few months back when my wife and I were not ready to go to see movies in theater yet. So when I saw that it was going to be released on Catchplay+ in October, I was really looking forward to it, and even my wife wanted to see this together with me since she is a major fan of Jason Statham. Even though it was not a brand new film, I still want to write about it. OK let's dive in now.

Brief Story Line

Hill/H (Jason Statham - The MegFast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw etc) just joined the Fortico security and worked as part of the armored truck team under his supervisor Bullet (Holt McCallany - Monster TruckMindhunter TV series etc). His presence was not really welcomed by his fellow colleagues in particular "Boy Sweat" Dave (Josh Hartnett - Lucky Number Slevin, Penny Dreadful TV series etc). But when H managed to stop a robbery, the others started to respect them.

Friday, October 15, 2021

A World Without - An Indonesian Drama Thriller Movie with an Interesting Idea Set in the Near Future

Yesterday there was this new Indonesian movie released on Netflix which really intrigued me as it looked like a thriller genre. There was actually another new series on different platform that I was considering, but I prefer to watch this one first. So I'll just head down to it now.

Brief Story Line

Set in the year 2030 in the aftermath of pandemic, the world has changed a lot including the ban of dating and the legal marriage was set at the age of 17 years old. Three childhood best friends named Salina (Amanda Rawles - Dear Nathan, Jailangkung etc), Ulfah (Maizura - Tarung Sarung etc) and Tara (Asmara Abigail - Perempuan Tanah Jahanam, Abracadabra etc) were part of the girls who dreamt of the perfect married life and went for a retreat at an organization called The Light. 

Monday, October 11, 2021

(TV SERIES) What If...? Season 1 - Unique and Interesting Series with Some Well Animated Action Scenes

For around 2 months, this series has been playing on Disney+ which seemed intriguing and also set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with a bit of a twist. The first season finale was shown last Wednesday and I just started watching it during the weekend & finished it yesterday. All right, I'll get to the interesting part now.

Brief Story Line

The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright - No Time to Die, The Hunger Games movies etc) was a mysterious being whose main activity was watching over the whole multiverses. As a watcher, he never interfered at all and became the witness of everything that happened in the various universes.

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - Very Enjoyable and Entertaining Marvel's Latest Superhero Movie

After seeing a new movie that I highly anticipated earlier in the cinema, my wife was feeling adventurous and suggested us to watch another movie which had been released for a while now. As it was a Marvel superhero movie, and waiting for it to be released legally on streaming platform would take more than a month, we thought it would be nice to do it then. So we bought the tickets for the next show and ended up having an unexpected movie marathon. All right, I'll get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Shang-Chi (Simu Liu - Kim's Convenience TV series etc) was an under achiever intelligent guy who was best friend with Katy (Awkwafina - Raya and the Last DragonCrazy Rich Asians etc) and worked as valet driver. It was later found out that Shang-Chi was actually the son of Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung - Monster Hunt 2, Infernal Affairs etc) who was the leader of Ten Ring organizations and was trying to collect the jade pendants held by Shang-Chi and his younger sister Xialing (Zhang Meng'er) with the help from his right hand man Razor Fist (Florian Munteanu - Creed 2 etc).

No Time to Die - A Satisfying Finale of Daniel Craig's Era as The Iconic British Spy

My wife and I had not been to the cinemas for > 1.5 years due to Covid-19 pandemic. But sadly even though we had tried our best by following health protocol and keeping our outside activities to the very minimum, we still got infected. After our recovery and when the theaters re-opened, we decided to see movies in the cinemas again while our immunity was still very strong. However, due to some restrictions, only few cinemas that we could choose from. And finally we got the chance to see this movie in one of the cinemas, which I got to say was an unforgettable & emotional experience. OK, without further ado, here's more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Few years after his retirement, Commander James Bond (Daniel Craig - Knives OutThe Girl in the Spider's Web etc) was asked by his friend from CIA, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright - Westworld TV series etc) and his colleague Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen - Made for Love TV series etc) to retrieve a scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik - The Chestnut Man TV series etc). Despite his reluctance, Bond decided to help Felix where he would be assisted by Agent Paloma (Ana de Armas - Blade Runner 2049The Informer etc).

Friday, October 8, 2021

(TV Series) The Chestnut Man - Pretty Dark Mystery Thriller Series Based on Successful Danish Novel

This series was released more than a week ago but I just started to watch it in the last 3 days. The premise looked interesting enough about solving the case of mysterious killing. All right let's get more to it now.

Brief Story Line

Detective Naia Thulin (Danica Curcic - The Mist TV series etc) was planning to transfer to Cyber crime as she wanted to spend more time with her young daughter. But before she left, there was a new murder case in Copenhagen where the victim was a woman with one of her hand cut off and a small figurine made by chestnut left at the crime scene. Naia was asked to partner with Mark Hess (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard - A Perfectly Normal Family etc) to investigate the case where they were supported by the forensic guy Simon Genz (David Dencik - Chernobyl mini series etc).

Thursday, October 7, 2021

There's Someone Inside Your House - Not Suspenseful Enough for a Slasher Movie

When I was browsing the new released items on Netflix last night, I found this film which I think I did not notice earlier. It looked interesting and made me intrigued to give it a try. So let's get on with it.

Brief Story Line

The Osborne high school was shocked when one of its student was brutally killed and his dark secret was exposed. Makani Young (Sydney Park - Moxie, Instant Mom TV series etc) who was quite new to the city and her best friends Alexandra (Asjha Cooper), Rodrigo (Diego Josef), Darby (Jesse LaTourette) and Zach (Dale Whibley) thought it was just a one off incident.

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Reminiscence - A Science Fiction Movie with Great Idea but Probably Better Suited as TV Series

As I said in my previous posts, I looked for interesting new movies on various platforms in the beginning of the month. And this time, I noticed this film to be shown on HBO Go on 4th October 2021. It was definitely an exciting option since the movie itself was only released in the US theaters & HBO Max 2 months ago. All right, I'll get to it now.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the future, where people invented a machine which could help relive memories. Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman - LoganThe Greatest Showman etc) and Watts (Thandiwe Newton - Solo: A Star Wars Story, Crash etc) were operating a business using their own machine. When a young woman named Mae (Rebecca Ferguson - The Kid Who Would be KingDoctor Sleep etc) came to their place and wanted to use the machine, Nick immediately fell for her and started to develop relationship despite Watts' mistrust.

Monday, October 4, 2021

(2021) End Game - A Refreshing Andy Lau's Dark Comedy Movie

As new month approached, I always liked to see what new movies would be released on cable TV or streaming platforms. This time around, I noticed that on Celestial Movies channel, there would be a new Andy Lau movies to be released on Sunday. So I decided to watch this one last night. OK, why don't we get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Zhou Quan (Andy Lau - Chasing the DragonShock Wave etc) was a well known professional hitman known as Mr. Z. After his recent work, Mr. Z went to a public spa on his way back home where he briefly met with Chen Xiaomeng (Xiao Yang - Sheep Without a Shepherd etc), a failed actor who had lots of debts and just tried to kill himself. When a freak accident happened to Zhou Quan, he somehow lost his memory while Xiaomeng took his expensive personal belongings and resumed Mr. Z identity, not knowing that he was a hitman.

Sunday, October 3, 2021

Spiral: From the Book of Saw - Ninth Installment of the Saw Series

This movie was released on Catchplay+ on Friday together with few other films on various streaming platforms. I opted to watch it on Saturday as I already set my mind on another movie earlier. It was an interesting option since the movie was still quite new, released only around 4 or 5 months ago I think and it was from a pretty successful franchise. Well let's get on with it.

Brief Story Line

Detective Zeke Banks (Chris Rock - The Witches, Grown Ups etc) was a cop who always worked alone until his superior Captain Angie Garza (Marisol Nichols - Riverdale TV series etc) assigned him with a rookie cop William Schenk (Max Minghella - The Handmaid's Tale TV series etc). Both were tasked to investigate the brutal murder of a police detective with a clue left by the murderer who seemed to have resemblance with the notorious Jigsaw Killer.

Saturday, October 2, 2021

(2021) The Guilty - An Intelligent and Efficient Thriller Movie

I saw the promotion of this movie one or two weeks before and I thought it looked really interesting. So when it was released on Netflix yesterday, I set myself on TV immediately once I had the chance last night. OK will get right on it then.

Brief Story Line

A 911 officer named Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal - Spider-man: Far From Home, Nightcrawler etc) was working the night shift on a seemingly very stressful day when Los Angeles was hit by a large forest fire. He was having trouble concentrating due to personal reasons. When he got a 911 distress call from a woman named Emily (Riley Keough - Logan Lucky, The Girlfriend Experience TV series etc), Joe was a bit skeptical at first but he managed to find out that she was being abducted.