Werewolf by Night - A Surprisingly Violent but Really Stylish & Entertaining TV Special in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

During the weekend staycation with my wife, I watched this TV special after finding out it was already released on Disney+. However, as I began rather late, I was unable to finish it then and only managed to do so this morning. Usually I would be writing it the next day, but I could not wait to do it immediately. All right, I'll get to it now.

Brief Story Line

When the monster hunter leader Uysses Bloodstone died, his wife Verussa (Harriet Sansom Harris - Desperate Housewives TV series etc) called other hunters including Jack Russel (Gael Garcia Bernal - Old, Mozart in the Jungle TV series etc) to join in a deadly hunt to find the next leader. The winner of this monster hunt would be given the powerful bloodstone weapon previously held by Uysses.

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).

The Adjustment Bureau - A One of A Kind Romantic Thriller based on Phillip K. Dick Short Story

While I was having a weekend staycation last week with my wife in a nice hotel famous for its strategic location in the middle of the city, we were just enjoying ourselves in its very big room and the cable TV options. It was kind of surprising that during that Saturday night, there were quite abundant movies to choose from and I set my mind on this movie which I doubt ever released in Indonesia 8 years ago. Anyway after watching it, I really thought it was something worthwhile for me to write. OK, let us get on with it.

Brief Story Line

David Norris (Matt Damon - Downsizing, The Bourne series etc) was a congressman running for senate and had very bright future. One night he met with a woman (Emily Blunt - Mary Poppins Returns, Edge of Tomorrow etc) that he never saw before and they instantly hit it off during that very short time. As he continued his political career, David was intrigued to find out the woman he was attracted to and somehow by chance he met her again & found out her name was Elise.

Peter Rabbit - The Nice Adaptation of Classic Children's Stories

Last Friday, this movie premiered in Indonesian theaters. As my wife and I were having our weekend staycation from that day, we had to schedule the watching of the movie to Sunday after check out. We went to see this in our favorite theater near our home at Setiabudi One. So let us get on with this movie.

Brief Story Line

Peter Rabbit (voiced by James Corden - The Emoji Movie, Trolls etc) was a very naughty rabbit who loved to go to vegetable garden owned by Mr. McGregor (Sam Neill - The Piano, Jurassic Park etc) to "collect" carrot, tomato and so on. He always went there together with his cousin Benjamin (Colin Moody) and his triplet younger sisters Mopsy (Elizabeth Debicki - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Everest etc), Flopsy (Margot Robbie - Focus, Suicide Squad etc) and Cottontail (Daisy Ridley - Murder on the Orient Express, Star Wars: The Force Awakens etc). Mr. McGregor was bothered by these naughty rabbits and tried to capture them. But they were always saved & protected by another nice neighbor named Bea (Rose Byrne - Damages TV series, Neighbors etc).

Wolf Warrior 2 - The Biggest Chinese Blockbuster Movie of 2017

I had read about this movie breaking so many records commercially and surely wanted to see what the fuzz was all about. But it did not play in Indonesian cinemas when it premiered last year. Few days ago I saw that one of the cable TV that I subscribed was going to play this movie during the Chinese New Year holidays and I already marked my calendar to remind me not to miss this one out on its premiere date. So last night at 9 PM, after we came back from our weekend staycation, I got myself ready to watch it on my TV (but not before I saw the original movie first). Let us get on with the movie now, shall we?

Brief Story Line

The movie started with Leng Heng (Wu Jing - SPL: Sha Po Lang, Invisible Target etc) the former soldier of special ops forces called Wolf Warrior, fighting off some pirates in African sea. It would be revealed later the reason why he was wandering around Africa and no longer working with the Chinese military. He befriended with a young African boy who referred to him as his god-father.  When a military coup against the existing government happened, all the Chinese people working or doing business there had to seek refuge in the Chinese embassy, including Leng Heng and his god-son.

Before I Fall - A Time Loop Movie from Teenager's Perspective

I was having the usual weekend staycation with my wife few days ago and on Saturday night there was a premiere of new movie on Fox Movies Premium channel which I happened to know from the comments of 1 of my reader in Happy Death Day. I was definitely intrigued to see this as it also had time loop element. So when I noticed that it would play at 8 PM, my wife decided that we should have our complimentary dinner at our room. Although she did not see the movie as she was concentrating on finishing season 1 of Riverdale TV series. Well let us find out more on the movie now.

Brief Story Line

A high school student Samantha (Zoey Deutch - Vampire Academy, Why Him? etc) was a popular girl and was best friends with Lindsay (Halston Sage - Paper Towns, Goosebumps etc), Elodie (Medalion Rahimi) and Ally (Cynthy Wu). It was Cupid's day (Valentine's day) where lots of girls in school were receiving flowers, including Samantha who got it from her boyfriend Rob (Youtuber Kian Lawley) and also from another boy named Kent (Logan Miller - Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse). Being part of popular and "mean girls", Samantha and the others were making fun of the less popular girls, especially when they picked up on an out of place girl named Juliet (Elena Kampouris - My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2). 

Shock Wave - The Cool 2017 Action Movie Featuring Andy Lau

I have seen first half of this movie while on my way back from my family trip to Pontianak 2 months ago in the in-flight entertainment of Batik Air. I was having difficulty in seeing the second half and conclusion (perhaps as I was not serious enough looking for it). Luckily in the Celestial Movies cable TV, it was promoted that the movie would be playing in December. Last night was the day the movie premiered for the first time in that channel and it so happened that the hotel we stayed in during our weekend staycation have this channel so I could see it again till finished. Well without further ado, let us move on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

After almost completely stopping a robbery attack led by Peng Hong nicknamed Blast (Wu Jiang - Monster Hunt, 1911 etc), an undercover Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Bureau agent named Cheung JS (Andy Lau - Chasing the Dragon, The Great Wall etc) was highly appreciated by the police department. During his undercover assignment, Cheung's handler was officer Chow (Felix Wong - 1983 version Legend of Condor Heroes TV series etc) and he also worked closely with chief Kong (Philip Keung - Trivisa, Beast Stalker etc). 

Sully - A Heroic True Tale of the Pilot of the Flight 1549

It has been a while since I saw a movie on Saturday Night Premiere in HBO and it was a fortunate thing during the latest weekend staycation with my wife, the hotel we stayed in had this channel on its TV. Both of us did not see this movie when it premiered last year, perhaps due to combination of my reluctance to see heavy drama movie in theater and possible other more intriguing movies then. So when it finally started at 8PM last night and after our dinner at the hotel, my wife and I watched this one together. Here are some more info on the film.

Brief Story Line

A US Airways pilot named Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan etc) was flying an airplane from LaGuardia airport with his first officer Skiles (Aaron Eckhart - The Dark Knight, London Has Fallen etc). What started as a routine flight became a total disaster when just after few minutes of taking off, some birds flew inside the plane's machines and damaged them. With so little time to think and after considering the options, Sully landed the plane on the Hudson river. Miraculously everyone of the passengers including the air crew survived with only minor injuries.

(TV SERIES) Marvel's The Defenders - The Smaller Version of Avengers on TV

I have been watching the series from Netflix about the Marvel superheroes that consisted of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist for a while now and the prospect of having 4 superheroes working together was really exciting. So when I got the chance to see this series during our last weekly weekend staycation, I finished it off very fast, especially since it only had 8 episodes. Well to speed things up, let us get on with the series now.

Brief Story Line

Few months after the events of Daredevil season 2 and Iron Fist season 1, Danny Rand (Finn Jones) and Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) were trying to locate the people that could help them expose The Hand which was the organization responsible for the death of Danny's parents. Their journey brought them back to New York where supposedly The Hand had some secret agenda there. Meanwhile Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) was now concentrating more on his daytime job as lawyer working on pro-bono cases. He was still having mixed feeling on his decision to put off his suit as Daredevil. However, his good friends Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) were more relieved with such decision. 

Kingsman: The Golden Circle - Sequel to that Awesome New Kind of British Agent Movie

This was one of my most anticipated movie in the month of September, but as mentioned in my previous post, I was unable to see it on its premiere date. During our weekend staycation, we were lucky enough that the hotel we are staying in is located in the same block as a mall in Tangerang area (more on that in my wife's blog later). Hence it was very convenient for my wife and I to go and see the movie since we just need to walk inside the mall and go straight to the cinema location. I would be talking more on the movie now.

Brief Story Line

The film started not long after the events in Kingsman: The Secret Service where Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton - Sing, Eddie the Eagle etc) had become quite an agent in Kingsman organization. He was now having a serious relationship with princess Tilde (Hanna Alström) and still supported by the reliable knowledge-able and high tech friend Merlin (Mark Strong - Rocknrolla, The Imitation Game etc). 

Renegades - A Heist Movie with War Background

It was one of those very rare time that I decided to see a movie on a Monday night. This movie premiered in Indonesian theaters last Friday, but as my wife and I were having other plans and also we went for our weekly staycation during the weekend, we did not have the time to see it until last night. I was a bit doubtful earlier whether to see the movie or not, seeing that it had no schedule playing in US theaters yet. But as I remembered seeing the trailer once or twice earlier, and I thought why not? It seemed like a nice enough action movie. So what was the movie all about? Let us find out more.

Brief Story Line

Movie was told in the year 1995 during the Yugoslav wars where a group of peace troops were assigned by NATO to be based in Sarajevo and consisted of armies from different countries. A US Navy SEAL team of 5 people with their leader Matt Barnes (Sullivan Stapleton - Blindspot TV series, 300: Rise of an Empire etc), his 2nd in command Stanton (Charlie Bewley - Bachelor Games) and the rest J.P (Dimitri Leonidas - The Monuments Men), Duffy (Diarmaid Murtagh) and the mathematical "genius" (Joshua Henry) were deployed to the conflict area to do a simple supposedly silent assignment but managed to leave the location in a bang. This resulted their boss the General (J.K Simmons - The Accountant, Patriots Day, Spider-man trilogy etc) very upset and suspended the team.

Baby Driver - A Unique and Stylish Getaway Driver Story

Few days after this movie premiered in Indonesia, I finally got the chance to see it yesterday after one of our weekend staycation in Serpong area (more on that in my wife's blog). We did plan to see the film then but due to various locations we visited, we decided it would be best to just see this when we were back in Jakarta. Though our favorite seats have been taken for the 2.45 PM show, we thought that waiting for the 5PM show would not be a good idea, seeing that we were both rather tired and wanted to take a rest in the evening. So off we went and saw this at Setiabudi. Now let us get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

A young man nicknamed Baby (Ansel Elgort - The Divergent series, The Fault in Our Stars etc) was working as a getaway driver together with a crew of 3 robbers. The crew was working for a boss called "Doc" (Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects, Superman Returns etc). Baby was a very excellent driver who was able to escape from the police chase using his expertise. His unique way of driving was to always listen to music and follow the rhythm of the songs. It would be revealed later on the reason of his unique habit as he almost never took out the earphones from his ears.

The Battleship Island - A Korean Emotional & Patriotic World War II Survival Movie

With a record of ticket admissions on its first premier day in South Korea on the last week of July 2017, it was certainly an easy decision for my wife and I to see this movie when it officially premiered in Indonesia today. As it happened, we were having plans to have another one of our staycation, but due to some reasons, it was cancelled. Since I already applied for 2 days leave earlier and having lots of free time, we could see this one in the afternoon which was nice as the cinema was not too full. So what made this movie so appealing to audiences? Let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Movie was set in the year 1945 during the era of Japanese occupation in Korea. The Japanese military was having a location on Hashima island where the Koreans were forced (or conned) into working as labors to mine coals. The situation was very bad for the workers as even though they were being paid some small salary, there was never enough balance due to various deductions. The work conditions were also very bad for them as the mines were dangerous with leaking gas and lack of healthy food, while the women were forced to become "working ladies" to serve the Japanese.

Flipped - A Lovely Romantic Coming of Age Movie Set in 1960s

During my latest weekend staycation in Karawang last Saturday (more on that in my wife's blog), I was waiting for our dinner time at 6PM and stumbled into this movie playing in HBO Hits. I was not really interested to see this one at first but since there was no other movies that I have not seen at that time, and seeing the start which seemed funny, I continued watching this till finished. So what was the movie about? Let us get on to it, shall we?

Brief Story Line

It was the year 1957 when a very young Juli Baker met with her neighbor Bryce Loski for the first time. She immediately "fell in love" to Bryce. Few years later, Juli who was now already in the 8th grade (Madeline Carroll - The Spy Next Door, Machine Gun Preacher etc) was still having a major crush on Bryce, but Bryce (Callan McAuliffe - Hacker, I am Number Four etc) was always trying to avoid her. He felt that Juli was a bit too pushy and he also shared this with his best friend Garret (Israel Broussard).

DUNKIRK - The Amazing Story of Soldiers' Evacuation from the Battle of Dunkirk in World War II

I have heard about this movie for few weeks now and at earlier stage when I saw the trailer to the movie, it felt like a war drama movie. Then I did not see anyone that I knew off in that trailer. So I had to admit that it did not create an excitement to see this film, apart from the fact that it was directed by Christopher Nolan who was famous for directing amazing successful movies such as The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar and even the low budget but fantastic movie Memento. When the movie finally premiered in Indonesia last Friday, I did not go to see it since my wife and I already had plans to have our weekend staycation (also to celebrate her birthday). We only saw this one yesterday after we checked out from the hotel and had our lunch. And we decided to see this one in Epicentrum due to the cinema having large screen and also nearby our lunch location. 

Brief Story Line

During the World War II, the British and ally troops including the French army lost to the Germans in the battle of Dunkirk. More than 400,000 soldiers were stranded in the island with the Germans on their tail and were sometimes attacked by the German bomber planes. Dunkirk was not too far from England and even the soldiers could see the islands, but because of the condition, they could only wait for the British army to evacuate them.

Detective Conan: Crimson Love Letter - 21st installment of Detective Conan Series

As mentioned in my previous post about the movie Mine which I watched yesterday, I originally wanted to see only this movie after my weekend staycation. But since we had the time, we considered to have ourselves another movie marathon which we had not done for quite some time. The show was at 7 PM and when we checked in the website until 15 minutes before start, it showed that only 3 of people (including my wife and I) who were planning to see the movie. But as the movie almost began, few more people came to the studio and we ended up with around 10 people. Perhaps it was due to the fasting period as usually it was having more audience. Anyway, let us get on with the movie.

Brief Story Line

Story started with the murder of a champion of the Japanese Karuta card game with the culprit shown as black character like usually done in Detective Conan's comic books or TV series & movies. Later on, we were shown that Conan (Minami Takayama) and his kindergarten friends Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta plus his high-school sweetheart Ran (Wakana Yamazaki) with her father the well-known detective Kogorō Mōri (Rikiya Koyama) were in a TV station. They were looking at the preparation of the Karuta championship with the main star Momiji Ooka who seemed set to become the next champion. Conan and friends were there as invitees of Kazuha (Yuko Miyamura) and of course Heiji (Ryo Horikawa), whom Kazuha had a huge crush on, and also one of the very few friends of Conan who knew about his actual condition and identity.

MINE - A Suspenseful Psychological Drama Thriller

After checking out from the hotel during our weekend staycation (more on that in my wife's blog), we wanted to see the nice anime movie of detective Conan. But we noticed that there was also another movie playing in the cinemas which we had not seen. So we decided to have a movie marathon by seeing this movie first that had its last show of the day at 3.40 PM in Pacific Place. Now what was the movie about? Due to the nature of the movie, I would be providing a very very brief synopsis instead of my usual few paragraphs of brief Story Line.

Brief Synopsis

Sergeant Mike Stevens (Armie Hammer - The Lone Ranger, The Man from U.N.C.L.E etc) and his partner Tommy Madison (Tom Cullen - Downton Abbey TV series) were assigned to do some military mission somewhere in Africa. After the mission, both of them were being chased by the enemy's army and were later trapped in the dessert where people have put mine bombs. With the reinforcements more than 2 days away, lots of things have to be faced from the sand storm, hallucinations, the drastic change of weather not to mention the lack of water.

End of Brief Synopsis

Resident Evil: Vendetta - A Very Cool CG Animated Movie Based on the Popular Video Game

I was intrigued about this movie when I saw the poster in the coming soon section of 2 cinema websites in Indonesia. At first I thought it was another sequel to Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, but when I read it a bit more, I realized it had got nothing to do with that movie. Anyway the movie premiered in some Indonesian cinemas starting from Saturday. As I was having another weekend staycation with my wife on Saturday, I only went to the cinema today after we checked out from the hotel. My wife was having various things to do at the time, and hence I watched this movie by myself in Plaza FX. Ok, I will proceed to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Chris Redfield (voiced by Kevin Dorman) was a member of BSAA, an elite unit specializing in killing the undead/zombies. He was given the task along with special forces from another unit to capture the notorious weapons dealer named Glenn Arias (voiced by Alexander Polinsky - Charles in Charge TV series). Though the mission was not successful, Chris did manage to find out that Arias was working on a new kind of virus to create the undeads.

Before I Wake - An Unusual Supernatural Horror Drama Movie

It was another weekend staycation in Bandung that I was enjoying with my wife in the past 2 days (More on that on my wife's blog). And as usual, if I got the chance to enjoy a Saturday night movie premiere in one of the cable TV channels, I would definitely allocate my time to see it. Of course it could happen only when the hotel was providing such channels. Lucky for me that the hotel we stayed in was having Fox Movies Premium channel that showed a film that I had not seen before. Though it was a horror movie, but I still wanted to give it a try. Now how scary was the movie? I will go straight to it now.

Brief Story Line

Jessie (Kate Bosworth - 21, Superman Returns etc) and Mark (Thomas Jane - Deep Blue Sea, The Punisher, Standoff etc) were a couple who had just suffered a very traumatic incident with the loss of their very young boy Shawn. Jessie had to go to a psychiatric group to share her loss, while Mark was not really keen to it and preferred to mourn in his own way.

LIFE- A Good Old Fashion Alien Kind of Movie

The trailer to this movie had been shown in the cinemas for a couple of weeks now. When the movie finally premiered on Wednesday, it coincided with another movie that we had been wanting to see for quite sometime, i.e Power Rangers and we decided to see that one first. As we would be busy with our staycation this weekend, we only have the time to see this yesterday and my wife bought the ticket for 7.15 PM show at Setiabudi. After finishing my work which took longer time than I anticipated, I was able to reach the location 20 minutes from time. So let us start with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

In the most expensive international space station in history which was orbiting outside the earth, its six crew members were given the task of handling and analyzing the life form found in planet Mars. This life form was the first proof of an extraterrestrial life and therefore it garnered the attention from the whole world.