Tuesday, January 31, 2023

(TV SERIES) Lockwood & Co. Season 1 - Fun, Interesting and Witty Supernatural Thriller Series Based on Popular Young Adult Novels

I noticed about this going to be released on Netflix more than a week ago and was quite intrigued by it. But I did not realize it was actually a series and not a movie which I usually watch on Friday night. So I decided to postpone it till the weekend when I could watch more episodes, and managed to finish last night. OK, I will get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the alternate London after it experienced "The Problem" where ghosts would appear all over the city at night and attacking the living. To solve this issue, the government invoked night curfew and created Department of Physical Research and Control (DEPRAC). There were also independent agencies formed to assist and protect the people for a certain fee. The agents consisted of teenagers as only certain children and teens were able to sense and ultimately fend off the ghosts, although they would be supervised by adults.

Monday, January 30, 2023

(2023) Switch - A Pretty Heartwarming Drama Comedy for the Holiday Season

My wife and I were interested with this new South Korean movie released in certain Indonesian cinemas mid of last week because of its premise. Plus my wife is also a fan of the main cast. So after finishing our activities since morning till noon, we finally saw this film yesterday evening. All right then, lets get into it.

Brief Story Line

Park Kang (Kwon Sang-woo - The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure, Curtain Call TV series etc) was a famous movie star who seemed to be having it all, from successful career to vast wealth. He had a manager Jo Yeon (Oh Jung-se - Fabricated City, It's Okay to not be Okay TV series etc) who was also his best friend and always supportive of Park despite being treated poorly. However Park was not really that happy and always longing for his simpler life in the past as theater player and having relationship with Soo-hyun (Lee Min-jung - Come Back Mister TV series, Love On-Air etc).

Sunday, January 29, 2023

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre - Jason Statham's Action Comedy with Few of Guy Ritchie's Distinct Style

My wife and I found out about this movie starring Jason Statham sometime ago and we were immediately interested as usually movie with him on it tend to be full of action. But as we were quite busy when it was released few days ago, we only got the chance to see the film yesterday afternoon. OK, why don't I just get right to it?

Brief Story Line

When an important device referred to as "The Handle" was stolen by some thieves, the British government assigned Nathan (Cary Elwes - Black Christmas, Saw movies etc) to retrieve it immediately. Nathan subsequently hired their best agent named Orson Fortune (Jason Statham - Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw, The Expendables movies etc) who was supported by Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza - Child's Play, Dirty Grandpa etc) and JJ (rapper Bugzy Malone). However, they also faced competition from another team led by Mike (Peter Ferdinando - Ghost in the Shell etc).

Saturday, January 28, 2023

The Promised Neverland - Live Adaptation of Critically Acclaimed and Successful Manga Series

While people were talking about the latest Zombie series in HBO, I opted to watch this movie instead which was released just few days ago. I was interested in watching this as it seemed interesting from its trailer (not the synopsis as it did not hint anything at all). Anyway, let's get to it now.

Brief Story Line

In a special orphanage called Grace Field House, a lot of children were taken care there till they reached certain age and would be adopted. Emma (Minami Hamabe - Ajin: Demi Human, Love Me, Love Me Not etc), Norman (Rihito Itagaki) and Ray (Jyo Kairi) were the most intelligent of them and always scored high in their tests. This made them became the favorites of the caretaker known as Mum (Keiko Kitagawa - The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Your Home is My Business! TV series etc).

Monday, January 23, 2023

The Post-Truth World - An Interesting Murder Mystery Movie with Plenty of Twists to Satisfy Those Who Like Such Attributes

After finishing the latest season of another series on Netflix, I was browsing for movie that I could watch casually. Somehow I stumbled across this Taiwanese film that looked interesting. And besides, it was on Chinese New Year, so I thought it would be fun to watch Mandarin language movie (even though it was not a pleasant type of film). Anyway, I will get right to it now.

Brief Story Line

Liu Li-min (Joseph Chang - Love Contractually, Village of no Return etc) was working in an online news media called True Standpoint where he need to get more subscribers to keep his show. When a convicted former softball rising star Zhang Zheng-yi (Edward Chen - Your Name Engraved Herein, Mermaid Sauna TV series etc) somehow escaped from jail, Li-min was caught in the middle and tried to make the most of it to gain popularity for his show.

Saturday, January 21, 2023

Jung_E - A Sci-Fi Movie that Leaned towards Drama and could Use More Intense Action

I think I saw this movie promoted in Netflix since last year which made me intrigued. But it was not released till yesterday. Anyway as I am also a sucker for science fiction, I immediately watched it last night. So here's more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

In the year 2194, humans had to live in shelters as the earth was no longer inhabitable. Unfortunately there was civil war between the people. To end this war, scientist Seo-hyun (Kang Soo-youn - Juri etc) with her team and together with their head of research, director Sang-hoon (Ryu Kyung-soo - Hostage: Missing Celebrity, Glitch TV series etc) were given the task to create super soldiers. The experiment involved the legendary mercenary captain Yun Jung-yi nicknamed Jung_E (Kim Hyun-joo - Hellbound TV series, Trolley TV series etc).

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Sakra - The Latest Movie Adaptation of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils with Some Spectacularly Done Fight Scenes

I have seen the poster of this movie in the Coming Soon section of the largest cinema chain in Indonesia and also noticed it was going to be released before the Chinese New Year. As a major fan of Donnie Yen and martial arts movie, I was really looking forward to it. Which is why when the movie was released yesterday, I immediately asked my wife to accompany me seeing it. Well without further ado, let's get right on it.

Brief Story Line

Set in the Song dynasty period, Qiao Feng (Donnie Yen - Come Back HomeChasing the Dragon etc) was the famous leader of beggar clan and highly respected by everyone in the martial arts world. However, he was then accused of murdering official of the clan by Madam Wang (Grace Wong - A Fist Within Four Walls TV series etc). The situation worsened by news that he was said to be descendant of Khitan, the enemy of Song. Qiao Feng was later stripped off his position but vowing to find out the truth.

Sunday, January 15, 2023

Plane - An Entertaining Good Old Fashioned Action Movie without Relying on Heavy CGI

When I saw trailer to this movie in the cinema a couple of weeks ago, I thought it looked like fun and was interested because of the lead cast. But as we were unavailable on its release date, my wife and I decided to see it during the weekend. OK I will just get right to it.

Brief Story Line

On New Year's eve, the experienced Captain Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler - Last Seen Alive, Den of Thieves etc) was piloting a commercial plane from Singapore to Japan along with his co-pilot Samuel Dele (Yoson An - Mulan live version etc) and few flight attendants led by Bonnie (Daniella Pineda - Cowboy Bebop TV series, Mercy Black etc). There were only 14 passengers in the flight but among them was a murder suspect named Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter - Evil TV series, Carter etc) who was being transferred for extradition.

Thursday, January 12, 2023

(MINI SERIES) Kaleidoscope - A Unique Heist Series Where Audience can Watch the Episodes in Different Orders

After released on Netflix for more than a week, I finally decided to give this mini series a try. Aside from the interesting plot, it also promised something unique that got me intrigued. Since it only had 8 episodes, I managed to finish it in 2 nights only. OK, I'll get more to it now.

Brief Story Line

Story focused on Leo Pap (Giancarlo Esposito - The Mandalorian TV series, Maze Runner: The Death Cure etc) who wanted to do a heist job on some bearers bond worth USD 7 billion kept in the vault of security company SLS led by Roger Salas (Rufus Sewell - The Man in the High Castle TV series, Old etc). Leo enlisted the help of several people including the smuggler Stan (Peter Mark Kendall - Strange Angel TV series etc), the chemist Judy (Rosaline Elbay) with her husband the safe cracker Bob (Jai Courtney - The Terminal List TV series, Suicide Squad etc), the driver RJ (Jordan Mendoza) and the lawyer Ava Mercer (Paz Vega - Rambo: Last Wish, Acts of Vengeance etc).

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

(TV SERIES) The Rig Season 1 - An OK Mystery Thriller Drama Series though Lacked the Intensity to Make it More Interesting

I was quite intrigued by the premise of this series that was just released on Prime Video few days ago. Plus it only consisted of 6 episodes so I thought it would be very fast to complete. Anyway I started watching on Sunday and finished it in 2 nights. So here's more on the series.

Brief Story Line

Kinloch Bravo was one of the oil rigs located in the North Sea that was operated by a major oil company for twenty years. The crews were led by their Offshore Installation Manager Magnus (Iain Glen - Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Black Beauty etc) together with the company's representative named Rose (Emily Hampshire - 12 Monkeys TV series, Schitt's Creek sitcom etc). There were also the Safety Manager Dunlin (Richard Pepple), HR Manager Alwynn (Mark Bonnar - Unforgotten TV series etc), Cat Braithwhite the medic (Rochenda Sandall), Fulmer who was in charge of communication and equipment (Martin Compston - The Hunter's Prayer, Traces TV series etc), the senior crew Hutton (Owen Teale - Dream Horse etc) and plenty other people.

Monday, January 9, 2023

M3GAN - A Horror Movie that Felt More like Sci-Fi Drama Thriller

This movie was having plenty of good word of mouth as it showed many times in social media and on the internet that made me intrigued to find out more. So after 2 days playing in the theater, I finally managed to see this yesterday by myself, as my wife who is not a fan of horror movie unsurprisingly decided to skip it. OK, let us get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Gemma (Allison Williams - Horizon Line, A Series of Unfortunate Events TV series etc) was a robotic engineer at a large toy company called Funki and was responsible to design the latest advanced toys in the market. Without the knowledge of her boss David Lin (Ronny Chieng - Wish Dragon, Trust etc), she was working on a new model of toy with Artificial Intelligence called M3GAN, together with her friends Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez).

Sunday, January 8, 2023

(TV SERIES) The First Responders Season 1 - A Series with Intelligent Combination of Rescue Mission and Mystery Solving

After promoted by my wife frequently as she believed I would have liked this South Korean series, I finally started watching it few days ago as the final episode released on Disney+ just before the end of the year. Without further ado, here's more on the series.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the city of Taewon, South Korea where the police and fire brigade join forces to become the first responders on cases that required urgent and immediate response. Detective Jin Hogae (Kim Rae-won - Decibel, Love Story in Harvard TV series etc) was just transferred to the police station under Chief Baek (Seo Hyun-chul) and partnered with Sergeant Pil (Kang Ki-doong - Reborn Rich TV series etc). 

The people in the fire station such as the intelligent fire inspector Bong Do-jin (Son Ho-jun - The Light in Your Eyes TV series, Stellar etc) and Song Seol (Gong Seung-yeun - Bulgasal: Immortal Souls, Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency TV series etc), the kind hearted paramedic were not too thrilled with the appearance of Hogae (nicknamed Jindo dog) as he seemed to only concern with catching criminals and did not care about the victim.

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

(TV SERIES) Vampire Academy Season 1 - A Vampire Series with Rather Unique Story Based on Popular Novels by Richelle Mead

It has been a while since I watched anything on HBO Go as the new and old series were released one episode per week while the new movies mostly I had seen before. I was aware about this intriguing series for quite some time, but as usual I waited till it's completed before started watching. OK I'll get right on it then.

Brief Story Line

Rose Hathaway (Sisi Stringer - Mortal Kombat 2021 etc) was a vampire-human hybrid referred to as Dhampir and training to be guardian for Moroi, the mortal vampires who could do elemental magic. She was best friend with a Moroi lady, Princess Lissa Dragomir (Daniela Nives - Sex APPeal etc) and had vowed to be her guardian once they graduated from the Vampire Academy. After an incident, Lissa was now being guarded by experienced Dhampir named Dimitri (Kieron Moore). 

Monday, January 2, 2023

(2022) Shotgun Wedding - An Action Romantic Comedy that was Quite Fun but not a Memorable One

I saw the trailer to this movie probably 2 weeks ago and thought it looked like fun. So when it was released few days ago, I wanted to give it a try during the weekend. And finally my wife and I were able to do it yesterday after busy with other things. All right then, let's dive into it.

Brief Story Line

Darcy (Jennifer Lopez - Hustlers, The Wedding Planner etc) and Tom (Josh Duhamel - Jupiter's Legacy TV series, Life as We Know It etc) were getting married in the tropical island in Philippines together with their whole family. But they had to face some challenges, like Darcy's separated parents Renata (Sônia Braga - Kiss of the Spider Woman, Fatima etc) and her ex husband Robert (Cheech Marin - The War with Grandpa etc) with his new girlfriend Harriet (D'Arcy Carden - The Good Place TV series etc) who were at each other's throats. Or Tom's passionate parents Carol (Jennifer Coolidge - The Watcher mini series, Legally Blonde etc) and Larry (Steve Coulter - The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It etc) who sometimes overwhelmed Darcy and Tom.

Sunday, January 1, 2023

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - Light, Fun and Enjoyable Sequel of the Beloved Character from Shrek Universe


In the past few weeks, there were few new movies released in Indonesian cinemas where I had a bit of difficulty in allocating the time to see due to the busy periods. But yesterday my wife and I finally got some time and we decided to see this movie that was the only one playing in the theater near to our home that we have not seen. OK I'll get right at it then.

Brief Story Line

Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas - Uncharted, Dolittle etc) who had been going on various adventures in the past did not realize that he had used up 8 of his 9 lives. So when the bounty hunter Wolf (Wagner Moura - Narcos TV series etc) was trying to capture him dead or alive, Puss decided to retire and hide himself.