Our Kind of Traitor - Not the Average Spy Movie

On the Independence Day holiday, my wife and I were having fun time of Pokémon hunting in Grand Indonesia mall. I believe those reading my post here would know the hype this game was creating in the world and would be able to appreciate our love for the game. Since we have the day to ourselves, we also decided to watch a new movie playing in the theater in that mall. We chose this one, since the other movies were either a sequel to a movie that I had not watched before, a horror movie that my wife would not want to watch in cinema, and a cartoon movie which we might watch on another occasion. So what was the premise of this movie? I would try my best to leave out important details of the movie to avoid spoiler. But as usual, if there is a worry of such thing, you can pass the brief story line below.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with a scene of documents signing in Moscow between the Russian mob leader called the "prince" and the mob member. We would later find out that the signing is related to an opening of a Bank in England which would be used for laundering Russian mob's dirty money. Subsequent to these events, scene moved to Morocco where Perry (Ewan McGregor - Star Wars episode 1-3, Mortdecai etc) was having dinner with his wife Gail (Naomie Harris - Pirates of the Carribean, Skyfall etc) in the hotel restaurant. Gail had to leave the dinner early as she was having work to handle but Perry seemed to had problem accepting it. In the same restaurant, there were some Russian guys having lots of fun and the "leader" named Dima (Stellan Skarsgård - The Girl with Dragon Tattoo, Thor etc) called Perry to join them which he accepted.

Dima and Perry seemed to hit it off and they went to a Russian party in another location. Dima asked Perry to play tennis on the following day and Gail was introduced after the tennis match to Dima and his large family with his wife, a daughter (Natasha) and 2 sons plus 2 twin girls. He requested Perry and Gail's presence to Natasha's birthday party later that night. Despite Gail's objection since it would be their last night in Morocco, Perry accepted the invitation. During this party, Perry was requested by Dima to pass a flash disc to MI6 when he returned to London. Perry somehow seemed unable to reject Dima's request.

When Perry and Gail reached London, Perry did pass the flash disc and was questioned by MI6 personnels consisted of Hector (Damian Lewis - Homeland TV series) and Luke (Khalid Abdalla). Gail was surprised about this and was very mad with Perry. It was found out later that the disc contain some Russian mob data about the possible bribes to certain British parliament members to approve the plan for opening of the new bank. Hector requested the operation to catch these people by agreeing to the terms demanded by Dima to his superior Billy Matlock (Mark Gatiss - Sherlock TV series). However, the request was denied since it involved Aubrey Longrigg (Jeremy Northam) who was a very senior politician. So Hector decided to go ahead with the operation by himself and aided by Luke and another operative.

Hector convinced Perry and Gail to meet up with Dima in France so as to acquire the complete information for him to build up the case. The meet up was becoming complicated since the "prince" assistant, Emilion was a little bit suspicious of such coincidence and assigned his thug Niki to try and investigate. In addition to the suspicion from the prince, Dima was not willing to give the complete information until all his family members could be brought to safety in England.

So can Perry and Gail complete their "assignments" being accidental spies? Can Hector convince his superiors and the British governments to approve the asylum request from Dima? What would happen to the prince and the bank he intended to open with the help from British corrupt officials? Find them all in this different kind of spy movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I have to admit that I was having a little bit doubt watching this movie as I never saw the trailer before and I was not sure if this would be a good one or not. My wife and I saw this one on the basis that the rating was high in 1 of the famous movie critics website plus Ewan McGregor's movies are usually quite interesting. 

The movie was moving at a very slow pace but the story and the curiosity of what would happen next was the one making it intriguing. Please do not expect the cool gadgets, lots of fighting and car chases cause this is not that kind of movie. As I said above, this is a spy thriller so not your average spy action movie. It involved lots of dramatic moments and great characterization.

By the way, the movie was having some scenes that were censored by Indonesian censorship board. Though they were most likely scenes that would not have major impact on the story line, they do tend be a little bit disturbing. Therefore it would not be a good idea to bring children to watch this movie.

My most memorable moment would be the surprise ending which provided some good closure for us audience. Even though the movie was considered a good one, but for me the pace could do a little bit faster. But overall the story was indeed good and it was adapted from a novel by the same name written by John le Carré.

For those of you expecting to see those full action movies, you would not be satisfied with this one. But those that are looking for a thriller drama movie, then this one would likely be a good entertainment.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Standoff - A Cat & Mouse Psychological Thriller

I watched this movie while I was spending the night in a hotel during the 1st weekend of August 2016, when my wife was given free 1 night stay at that hotel (as I kept on saying earlier to her, this was definitely 1 of the perks of being husband of a foodblogger LOL). Anyway, this movie was playing in 1 of the cable TV channel in the evening, so it was not the usual premier of a new movie. Since it was the only one that I have not watched before, I chose to spend the next 1.5 hour watching it. In fact, funny thing is I am writing this review in another hotel where we are staying this weekend. What lucky life! Thanks to @yennymakanmulu ...

Brief Story Line

The movie started with a scene where a young girl named Isabelle (Ella Ballentine) was visiting her parents' grave where she took some pictures of the surrounding. There was a lady who was attending funeral in the graveyard and suddenly, a hitman named Sade (Laurence Fishburne - The Matrix trilogy etc) came and started shooting on the lady and her bodyguard. Isabella (who preferred to be called Bird) was hiding in the shadow and took all the pictures while Sade was killing and trying to bury the corpses.

Roger, Bird's aunt's boyfriend came from the car where he was waiting to see why she was taking so long. Sade realized that the girl could be a witness, especially when he saw Bird holding camera. So he killed Roger and tried to capture Bird. Bird ran so fast while being chased by Sade to the nearest house which was occupied by a guy who seemed to be a drunk. The man who was living alone in that house opened the door and was shot in the leg by Sade.

He immediately closed the door and brought Bird inside. He took a shotgun and barricade themselves on the 2nd floor hiding behind a room nearby the stairs. This was the best place with good vantage point to shoot if Sade decided to go up the stairs. Sade realized that he did not have the best option at that moment to go upstairs and kill the man who later on would be revealed as Carter Green (Thomas Jane - Deep Blue Sea, The Punisher etc). It was unfortunate for Carter that his handphone was left downstairs and he had only 1 bullet left in his shotgun. So Sade would start psychological warfare against Carter by doing all he could from threatening, reasoning including trapping him.

Meanwhile, one of the sheriffs was circling around the area and noticed few cars seemed to be abandoned near the graveyard. He stopped by and started to look around and was thinking of going by Carter's house and see if there is anything happening, since it was the nearest house in the neighborhood.

So what would happen to Carter and Bird who were trapped on 2nd floor? Can the sheriff make it on time to help them? Or would Sade be able to fish Carter out, kill Bird and ultimately took the camera with proof of his killing? You can find all the answers by watching it till finished.

End of Brief Story Line

This movie was not so bad as a psychological thriller. As such, there would be not a lot of actions or special effects. The psychological war between Sade and Carter was quite entertaining to see. For a while you could feel the tense scenes where Sade used all his wits to fish Carter out till the very end. However there were not a lot of those scenes.

As the movie progressed, the relationship between Carter and Bird was quite touching as well. I think Ella Ballentine performance as young orphan child who found protection in the form of Carter, the military griefing man was also quite good.

I personally had a so so moment watching this movie. It did not leave me a lot of impression, but it did give me something nice to enjoy for 1.5 hours before I ultimately fell asleep after it was finished. So if you are looking for some time to kill and want to enjoy Laurence Fishburne & Thomas Jane doing a cat & mouse game and fight each other, then you can watch this movie while it is still playing in Fox Movies Premium.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Shallows - Shark Attack Movie

This was 1 movie that did not get a lot of publicity. Unlike the other summer blockbuster movies with budget so large, this one only had a mere USD 17 million (though when converted to Indonesian Rupiah, it became a huge amount). From what I checked in some websites, it had already acquired income around 4 times its budget. So I guess people really loved to see this one. I was also quite fortunate to be able to see this movie on its premiere date in Indonesia, since my wife was having food tasting in the mall nearby my office and she was able to buy the tickets for us for 7 PM show. Anyway, what was the movie all about? Below is the very short version of the story.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with a kid playing football by himself on the beach and found a stranded helmet with a camera attached to it. He naturally opened the camera and watched some video of people surfing in the ocean nearby with the surprise ending. Scene moved to Nancy (Blake Lively - The Age of Adaline, Gossip Girls TV series, etc) was having a conversation with Carlos (Óscar Jaenada) in his car where they were headed towards some sort of secret beach. She was going to surf there. In this scene we would be shown that Nancy was supposed to go to surf with her friend but she could not make it. 

Once they reached the location, Carlos left Nancy there to do the surfing and remind her not to surf at night. There were also 2 more guys who were surfing. Then there would be some great scenes of the ocean and Nancy surfing for a while with those surfers. After taking a break, she went back to the beach and having short conversation with her younger sister and her father (played by Brett Cullen), where we would know a little bit more about Nancy's background. She later went back to the ocean and getting ready for surfing again while the other 2 surfers returning to the beach.

While Nancy enjoying the ocean by herself, she realized there was a dead whale floating nearby. Perhaps feeling uneasy she later tried to go back to the beach. However, a great white shark was following her and knocked her off. She fell and injured herself on the reef and got bitten as well by the shark. Threatened with the shark who already smelled blood, Nancy decided to swim to the nearest reef and get on top of it. Being a medical student, Nancy had to try healing her leg. Even though the reef was not too far from the beach, but she was unable to call for help since the 2 other surfers have gone back with their car. She was now practically stranded on this reef only "accompanied" by a seagull who was injured too with the shark circling around waiting for Nancy to come down. 

So can Nancy survived this nightmare? What was the reason this shark can be violent? Was there going to be other casualties? Find them all in this entertaining movie.

End of Brief Story Line

This movie was really exciting. Without having so much special effects, we would still be having the terrifying experience of watching the shark in close range. The sound effect was good, adding the tension effect, especially during the chasing scenes. The surfing scenes, the ocean and the beach scenes were also very beautiful. 

Despite the movie practically only having Nancy as the main character, it did not feel boring. Instead we could feel the frustration, the sadness, the strength and the survival instinct of her. It was great to see also a person's transformation from feeling helpless to having nothing to lose and do crazy stunts. 

I also believe that people who love beaches would enjoy watching this movie as I said earlier, the beach was actually very beautiful with white sand and very clean. Water was very clear from what we saw when the ocean was shown from above.

My most memorable scene would be the ending. Since it would be giving the spoiler, I would rather let you watch it by yourself.

So if you are interested in having yourself terrified of seeing shark chase with those big scary teeth, then this movie is definitely for you. I did not have the opportunity to watch the great shark movie long time ago (JAWS from 1975), which was a major success at that time and did scare a lot of people to go to the beach. So this one can definitely give you a fresh take in white shark attack. It's not as bloody as Jaws did, but it definitely gave the same impact on me and my wife (who was screaming most of the time the shark was shown. LOL).

Have fun and be terrified watching!

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