Missing - The Entertaining Standalone Sequel to that Unique and Brilliant Mystery Thriller "Searching "

I have been meaning to see this movie with my wife ever since it was released on Wednesday, but due to busy period, we only managed to do so during the weekend. We saw it in the theater not far from our home after visiting several places earlier. OK, I will get straight to it then.

Brief Story Line

June (Storm Reid - A Wrinkle in Time, Euphoria TV series etc) was having fun during the weekend when her mother Grace (Nia Long - Look Both Ways, Third Watch TV series etc) went for a weekend getaway with her new boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung - Old, Industry TV series etc) in Colombia. However, on the day they were supposed to return to Los Angeles, Grace and Kevin never came. 

Bad Samaritan - A Better than Expected Horror-Thriller Movie

After around 2 weeks with only 1 Hollywood movie premiering in Indonesia, today there was not 1 or 2 or even 3 new movies, but 4 altogether. Quite amazing actually, as it gave us a variety of options to choose from. Since my wife was not really keen in watching the newest movie playing in US cinemas we finally opted to see this one in CGV. And with today being a public holiday, we were able to see it in the afternoon. Well here goes more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Sean Falco (Robert Sheehan - The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones) and Derek (Carlito Olivero) were a couple of best friends who worked as valet drivers for an Italian restaurant. Unbeknownst to the owner, they would sometime burglarize the car owners' house using the GPS system from the cars. Other than his usual work at night, Sean was actually a struggling photographer and had a college student girlfriend named Riley (Jacqueline Byers).

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).

Bullet Head - A Disappointing Supposedly Dog Terror Attack Movie

Yesterday a new movie premiered in only one of the Indonesia cinema chain. I noticed that it was not a brand new (from 2017) and not major Hollywood film, but rather a small budget kind of movie. I was thinking that usually such movie would not play in all the theaters or my favorite ones. But funny thing was it somehow played in Setiabudi which was very near my home. Well let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Three robbers who just finished robbing some place had to hide in a seemingly abandoned municipal storage facility while waiting for help to move the big safe. The robbers consisted of Stacy (Adrien Brody - The Pianist, The Grand Budapest Hotel etc) who was like their leader, Walker (John Malkovich - Being John Malkovich, In the Line of Fire etc) who was the most experienced one and last but not least Gage (Rory Culkin - Scream 4, Gage etc) the junkie & youngest of them all.

Unbeknownst to them, there was a dog that was used to do illegal dog fights earlier and was left in that warehouse. The dog was trained by the handler (Ori Pfeffer) and would attack on people that it was unfamiliar with. Meanwhile, the dog owner (Antonio Banderas - The Mask of Zorro, Evita etc) was also planning to return to the place on the night.

So could these robbers got out of the warehouse safely from the attack of this wild dog and his owner and also escape from the police? Find them in this crime thriller movie.

End of Brief Story Line

When I read the synopsis of the movie and saw the trailer, it gave the impression that the movie would be filled with the terror attack by the dog on these 3 people while trying to escape from the dog owner as well. But it turned out that the movie was more like a thriller with touches of drama. Movie's duration was 1.5 hour but the terror attack started only after almost an hour. The earlier part was more of introduction of the characters via their own story telling using a backflash mode.

At first the short story telling seemed nice (the one involving John Malkovich's character was quite amazing but sad), then I realized that everyone would have their own share of telling their story. Which made the movie felt losing momentum. Every time the movie started to feel it kept up the pace, then suddenly it slowed down with that story telling. Which made me disappointed with the way the movie was told.

Even when the dog was terrorizing these robbers, it was not so intense as I had expected, since the scenes were not so many. In the end the movie might be good in term of the story and characters development, but since the anticipation was to enjoy a suspenseful movie of a wild animal terror attack a la The Shallows, this movie felt short. However, there were some scenes which I think were quite unique when they were showing the dog's point of view. As for the sound effects, it was pretty good. The dog's roaring voices were very believable. Oh do not expect to see amazing special effects or brutal fight scenes. Some of them were not shown at all and we were only allowed to imagine them from the sounds/voices in background (like flesh and skin ripped off).

Overall, my personal opinion of the movie was that it was unclear the direction the movie was heading. Animal attack terror scenes were too few, while the dramatic moments despite not too bad were taking too much screen time. Perhaps if the movie was having a bit longer duration or having more of those terror scenes, I would be more satisfied. So if you are expecting to see a movie full of those terrorizing scenes or a survival drama movie, you would most likely be disappointed like I was. If you are thinking of seeing the movie in the cinema, better think twice. You might as well watch this through online streaming (Psst, it's already available in the internet). The choice is yours though.

Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

2:22 - A Uniquely Interesting Thriller Drama Movie

Today my wife had an event in Central Park Mall at 12 PM and I was thinking of catching up with movies that were playing in CGV. There were 3 options that I could choose but only this one that was not a horror movie. When I read the synopsis, it definitely raised my curiosity and so without hesitation, I opted to see this one at the 11.15AM show. The next show was at 3.30PM which was a bit tight for our next schedule. Once we reached the mall, we split ways as my wife got ready for her event and I went straight to the cinema. I was the first one to buy the ticket for the movie. So let us move on with the film.

Brief Story Line

Dylan (Michiel Huisman - The Age of Adaline, The Invitation etc) was an Air Traffic Control employee in JFK New York, one of the busiest airport in the world. Being a person who was able to see any type of patterns and loved regular things, he truly enjoyed his work there as he could keep the "chaos" of various airlines departing and arriving at the same time. However, after an incident occurred during one of his normally regular day at 2:22 PM, he got suspended until further notice. This was the time when he met with a girl named Sarah (Teresa Palmer - Lights Out, Hacksaw Ridge etc). They really hit it off with one another and felt (in a cliche way) that they knew each other for a long time.

Happy Death Day - How to Solve Your Own Murder While Reliving The Day?

Yesterday my wife and I got the chance to see this movie on its premiere day in Indonesia. I have been eyeing to see this one after I saw the trailer to it weeks ago as it was truly interesting. It was a good thing that I was not too busy and able to leave the office on time to see this movie as the rain was quite heavy and usually Jakarta's traffic would be hell. My wife also finished her food tasting event early and both of us reached the cinema location 1 hour before the 7.15PM show in Setiabudi. Ok, let us shall go on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

A college student named Theresa aka Tree (Jessica Rothe - La La Land) woke up in a male's dorm room occupied by Carter (Israel Broussard - Flipped, The Bling Ring etc) feeling the worst hangover and could not remember anything from the night before. She immediately rushed out of the room and went back to her own place where she met her friend Danielle (Rachel Matthews) and her roommate Lori (Ruby Modine) who knew it was Tree's birthday. She also went to the class where he met with her lecturer Gregory (Charles Aitken) and continued with her activities till night while ignoring calls from her father (Jason Bayle). Before she reached back home though, she was murdered by a person wearing mask and suddenly woke up in Carter's room again.

The Neighbor - A Better Than Expected Suspense Thriller Movie

It was a a day of election for Jakarta governor for the second round yesterday, and hence it was also a holiday in Jakarta. My wife and I were enjoying our free time after we cast our votes and I saw that this movie started to premier. As I noticed that it was a thriller movie with interesting premise, I asked my wife whether she would like to accompany me watching it. After she read the synopsis from a movie website, she decided to see it too. So I immediately bought the tickets in Plaza Semanggi and was lucky enough that I could still got them despite a very long queue, obviously for people to see The Fate of The Furious. Now let us move on to the film.

Brief Story Line

A young couple of John (Josh Stewart- The Finest Hours, Transcendence etc) and Rosie (Alex Essoe) were enjoying life at a small town called Cutter where they were working for John's uncle named Neil (Skipp Sudduth - Flawless, Ronin etc). John was thinking of doing one last assignment for Neil and then leave the city for good.

Get Out - A Psychological Thriller with Unusual Story Line

Finally this movie played in Indonesia after it already premiered in the US for almost 2 months. Not really sure about the reason for such delay, but I was already thinking of worst possible scenario that the movie might not play here. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear the information from Indonesian cinemas' social medias regarding its premiere date on 7 April. Yesterday my wife happened to be hanging out with one of her best friend from food blogging world, Hans, the man behind the famous @eatandtreats. And so the 3 of us went to see the movie at 7.15 PM. Well let us move on to the movie itself.

Brief Story Line

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya - Kick-Ass 2) was quite a brilliant photographer. He was having a girlfriend named Rose Armitage (Allison Williams - Girls TV series). They were planning for a trip to Rose's home to introduce Chris to her parents. Chris was worried whether Rose' parents would be shocked to find out that the man she was dating happened to be a black guy. But Rose was very confident that they would not have any problem. So off they went to Rose' house. During their trip, Chris asked his best friend Rod Williams (Lil Rel Howery) to take care of his dog Sid.  

The Invitation - An Overrated Overly Long Psychological Mystery Thriller

Yesterday noon after dropping my mom to the airport and accompanying my wife to a food tasting function, we moved to another mall in Central Park which coincidentally having 1 of the only few remaining cinemas that still showed this movie. I was interested in seeing this one but it was so difficult as it was only playing in 2 cinema chains and even those were only at a few theaters. It had been playing for a little over a week now, and I was very fortunate I still managed to get the ticket for 3.30PM show at 3.35PM (I think the ticket purchase model where audience could also buy food at the same booth was not too efficient. I believe a separate booth for buying tickets and snacks would be much better. But that's only my opinion). Anyway, let us get on to the movie itself, shall we?

Brief Story Line

After 2 years of separation, Will (Logan Marshall-Green - Prometheus etc) went back to his old house where he used to be married to his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard - Moneyball, Into the Woods etc). He got the invitation from her who wanted to have a reunion with a group of their best friends. Will went together with his current girl friend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi - Middle of Nowhere, Addicted etc).

Don't Breathe - An Exciting Original Horror Movie

At first I thought this movie would be a supernatural horror, but after watching the trailer few weeks ago, I realized it was more of a thriller horror kind. Hence my wife should be able to watch it as she was more "allergic" to the supernatural type (read: ghosts). So when this movie premiered 2 days ago, we already set our sights to watch this one. Yesterday after her food tasting event, she went back to the nearest mall to our home and bought the tickets for 7.15 PM. This time, I was able to reach home quite fast and was not in a rush to go to the cinema. Well what was the movie about? Let's start with the story line.

Brief Story Line

Three good friends consisted of Alex (Dylan Minnette - Goosebumps), Rocky (Jane Levy - Evil Dead) and Money (Daniel Zovatto - It Follows) broke into an empty rich person's house and somehow able to disarm the house alarm. Alex reminded the other two to only took items where the total would be less than USD 10k as it would make it as petty larceny instead of grand theft. It was clear that Alex was the brain of these three. After finishing, Alex purposely threw a rock to the door, resulting the house alarm to switch on, prompting the idea of the robbery being done by some random outsider.

Rocky was thinking about getting enough money from these robberies so she could get out of their home with her younger sister, away from her mother who had a jobless boyfriend. Meanwhile Money was the one having access to a fence who could buy their stolen goods. He was upset having a very low return of their latest robbery and was offered the idea to rob the house of a war veteran who was given a lot of money when his daughter was accidentally killed in a car accident by a rich person's daughter. He never left the house so the money would definitely still be there. Alex opposed to this idea and rejected it as robbing cash would make it major crime. However, Money was able to convince him to go ahead.

After scouting the house which was located in Detroit for few days, they concluded that the houses nearby were all left empty so they can easily rob the person's house at night. They also noticed that the house owner was actually blind, but he had a dog guarding him. The three of them decided to rob the house that night. They also prepared themselves with a drugged meat to make the dog asleep. 

They managed to get inside and switched off the house alarm despite some difficulties. While Alex and Rocky were looking for the place where the money could be hidden, Money drugged the blind man (Stephen Lang - Avatar). They also noticed a door to the basement where it was locked with a padlock and suspected this would be the place to hide the cash. Money was unable to open it using his equipment and wanted to use a gun to open it. Alex was very upset since bringing a gun would make it a breaking and entering and the crime would be too huge so he decided to leave Money and Rocky. 

When Money finally managed to open the door to the basement after shooting it, suddenly the blind man was there fully awake. And this would be the start of the suspense through out the movie.

So could Rocky & Money got away from the blind man? Could they find the cash and got out of the house safely? Would Alex return to help them? And would the blind man who was a war veteran capture them instead? Find them all in this suspenseful thriller movie.

End of Brief Story Line

After watching this movie for almost 1.5 hour, I believe the general audience were having a sigh of relief when it was finally finished. The movie was having constant suspense scenes where we were literally holding our breath at certain points. The movie premise was so simple that no hard thinking was required. It was a simple game of cat and mouse in a confined space of a large house and mostly done during the night. 

There were quite a number of twists in this movie as well to provide us with some good old surprises. There seemed to be 2 or 3 occasions where we thought the chase was finally over only to found that the story was not finished yet. This is a low budget movie without so much special effect, but without such budget, the movie was still able to provide us a satisfying story and suspense. Having an original story certainly made this movie a recommended one to watch, as it was not the sequel or prequel or reboot/remake of an old movie that had flooded us the past few years. 

I had a totally enjoyable moment watching this. Just like when we were watching Train to Busan (which I posted earlier), the guy next to me was also screaming quite a lot. In fact I think louder than his girlfriend. LOL. But anyway it was a truly enjoyable movie for people who love this genre. You can watch together with your friends, spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend but definitely not with your children except if your children are > 17 years old. Reminder that this is not a supernatural movie, so no ghosts involved. My most memorable moment was definitely the chasing in the basement when the lights were switched off. 

Happy watching and hope you would enjoy it as much as I did!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

LIGHTS OUT - One Heck of Scary Movie!

I finally decided to watch this horror movie by myself, since I knew that my wife would never watch this one in theater in the dark. So Sunday evening while she was having her own food tasting program and after I dropped my mom to the airport for her trip out of town, I drove back home, parked my car, walked to the nearest mall and buy the ticket for 3.15 PM. I purposely bought the ticket for a seat at the back and hoping there would be people on my left and right side. But when the studio opened, I went inside and found out that those seats were still empty. So there I was, sitting by myself watching a movie of ghost in the dark. What have I gotten myself into???

Brief Story Line

Movie started with the scene of Paul (Billy Burke - The Twilight saga) having conversation through internet video with his son Martin (Gabriel Bateman - Annabelle) in the factory where he worked. It was mentioned that Martin's mother sometime spoke by herself. Paul's colleague Esther was closing down the factory and she noticed something that would only show when the lights were turn off. She felt scared and told Paul to be careful. After the usual scary scenes of a horror movie, we were introduced to Paul's stepdaughter Rebecca (Teresa Palmer - The Sorcerer's Apprentice, I am Number Four etc) and her "boyfriend" Bret (Alexander DiPersia). 

Scene moved to Paul's house at night where Martin was having trouble sleeping and heard his mother Sophie (Maria Bello - A History of Violence, Grown Ups etc) having conversation when there was actually no one else at their house. On the following morning, Martin who fell asleep for the 3rd time in a week was asked by the Child Protection Services to call his mother and pick him up. But she was not picking up the phone so Rebecca instead was called. Rebecca came together with Bret and dropped Martin back home where she would fight with her mother about their long separation since Sophie felt left alone and depressed when Rebecca went out of the house after her father left them. Rebecca told Martin to bring his stuff so he could stay at her house.

Later that night when Martin was staying at Rebecca's house, the spirit was coming there and appeared again only when the lights were out. After some scary scenes, on the day after, Rebecca realized she had to find out about the spirit. So she decided to go back to her mother's house with Bret and found some documents relating to that spirit. Due to her poking around, the spirit really felt disturbed and told Rebecca to stay away. After doing some digging, Rebecca finally realized why the spirit was haunting them.

However, can she help Martin and her mother get away from it? Can they all be saved if the spirit was not going to leave them alone? Find them all in this one heck of a scary movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I heard some comments about this movie being a very scary one, with people even comparing it as scarier than most horror movies such as The Conjuring. It happens that this movie was produced by James Wan who was the director of The Conjuring. So when I watched this movie, I was expecting that I would be feeling terrified during the whole movie. However it turned out that the scary moments were only occasionally shown. When the scenes move to the background story, the spooky nuance was not really there. Unlike other very scary movie where even the background story was having scary or moments.

But during the scary scenes, they indeed were truly scary, especially when the spirit only materialize whenever the lights were out. As the usual horror movie, we would never know when the scary moments would appear and especially in this movie, it happened only at night. The last 25 minutes or so during the so called finale of the movie, we would be shown many of those moments. My only confusion was the audience in the theater laughed few times during this final,e though I did not find it to be funny. Perhaps they were doing that to shake the scared feelings? Anyway, I had only a little disappointment that when the spirit was finally shown, it was not as scary as when we were still kept in the dark.

Overall, this movie was a good scary one. The sound effect was the best! It also had a surprise twist and possible sequel (from what I read in the internet). Those looking for such kind movie would be satisfied. But remember that this is not the possession kind of movie or the slasher type. The premise was something new and it was good that they could think of a new smart way of scaring people. Perhaps due to my very high worry of the movie being totally scary, I was able to enjoy the movie a bit better when I felt that it was not really that scary. My most memorable scene would definitely be the one in Martin's room with Rebecca during the few last moment before the ending.

So if you are ok to watch horror movie in theater and you are not worried of being scared turning off the lights after you watch this one, then be my guest and see this one while it is still playing in the theater.

Happy watching!

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