Watched it where?
Senayan City XXI
Any snag(s) while watching?
Nope 
The first Night at the Museum was a surprise treat for me. It was a light family comedy that has certain scenes that was quite funny even for adults. The main purpose is obvious; to create interest to the younger audience about history. I don’t really how well it manage to captivate its young audiences, but it was quite entertaining. The second movie was also a very pleasant surprise because they manage to make it funnier and fun!
Although Robin Williams is in the cast, his screen time is far less than the first movie. Taking the spotlight though is the guy who gave many of the Simpson’s characters voice. Hank Azaria was remarkable in this movie, he is funny as hell and manage to actually out shine Ben Stiller. Even as an evil character bent on dominating the world, he manage to create a facade of a bumbling royalty. His acting was spot on and will probably remembered as one of the funniest bad guy ever.
Plot wise though the movie has taken a downturn compared to the first movie. But I believe because of this, they manage to give the actor and actresses room to improvise. I think it was a good decision because this movie is hands down a whole heck funnier than the first movie.
As a whole, even with the brain dead plot, if you like the first movie, I think this movie will entertain you. It has enough laugh to keep you on your seat while your kids may learn a thing or two about history.
Rating:
8.0
Watched it where?
Senayan City XXI
Any snag(s) while watching?
Nope
When The Davinci Code was published, the book caused quite a stir with the Christian community around the world. Many abolished it and some find it to be an intriguing view on Jesus’s life. For me it was an interesting book but, comparatively, Angel’s and Demons was a better book with a better plot and action.
Now, Angels and Demons is actually a prequel to The Davinci Code. But in this movie, they changed it and made this movie the sequel to The Davinci Code. Many scenes make note of this though overall it doesn’t effect the overall movie. What they did though, they pretty much removed most of the first part of the book. I won’t say they ‘butchered’ it because the first part of the book is a bit slow while the meat of the action actually starts in the Vatican; right where this movie starts. Some people may not like it, but I think it actually makes the movie has more tempo and the suspense never stopped to the end.
Of course, like I said, the plot of this movie is better than The Davinci Code. The first film takes you and the main character on a conspiracy tour. Angels and Demons though does the same and keeps you guessing who is the bad guy. Since I read the book, I already know who it is. But the screen writer changed a few facts and I think it makes more sense than the original book. Which makes people that read the book has something to look forward to.
If you love or hate the book for its controversial content, this movie is an entertaining and thrilling suspense dabbed with interesting facts about the Vatican and a tinge of conspiracy.
Rating:
8.0
May 19th,2009
Movies |
No Comments
A few month a go, I was playing World of Warcraft as usual when I notice the launcher has a promo for a special limited and signed Arthas novel that will be released next April. For you who don’t know what I’m talking about. Arthas: ROTLK is a novelization of the main character from Warcraft 3, Arthas Menethil and chronicles his journey from a young boy to adulthood. The book is written by Christie Golden who is my favorite WOW book writer. I checked the site and in a trance, I just entered my credit card number.
Flash a couple of month later, A little hitch happened (it was supposed to be sent on the 21st of April) and a very friendly and prompt customer service apologize for the late shipment due to the high demand for the book. She assured me that it will be sent soon. It was sent the next day (30th of April) and I received it 10 days later in good condition. I was using their air postal that has no tracking but there were no problem.
Read the rest of this entry »
May 17th,2009
Books |
No Comments
Watched it where?
Senayan City XXI
Any snag(s) while watching?
Nope 
When I made the decision to watch this movie, I was expecting a no brain-er, high octane action movie like the first movie. I like Crank though it was entertaining it was somewhat mediocre but just have enough nonsense in it to make it entertaining. For the second movie, I thought I would probably get the same treatment with a mediocre same formula from the first movie. Before all that, I’ve seen the trailer and I thought “What none sense is this? He’s still alive?”. Well that was a prelude to come because for the 90 minute of this movie, I had the time of my life.
Like I said, if you expect something a keen to the first movie, you are half right. From the first five minutes, you may notice a few difference in the way the director directs this movie. As the story prolongs, the surrealistic cinema was treated with hyperactive camera works that, strangely enough, worked and wasn’t nauseating. It creates a sense of fast paced and what I can describe as a visual cacophony that is delighting, intriguing and exciting.
The director/writer went all out in this movie and displayed a totally unorthodox way to portray an action movie character with a flair of surrealism and comedy that blew me away. The director manage to make the main character to become, literally, a mythical creature. (Chev Chelios > Chuck Norris) And like a Guy Ritchie movie, none of the character in this movie is a minor character. Each has a pseudo major role (Yes I made that term up) that manage to establish them selves in the story even though they are only minutes on screen.
Plots? Well if you are thinking about plots at this point, you are missing the point of this movie.
To call this an under the radar or a sleeper hit would be a gross understatement. What this movie is, is a new interpretation to the action movie flick with larger than life protagonist. What this movie did was reminding me how fun a movie can be.
Best fun I had this year. And I hope this will be the movie that will define Jason Statham’s awesomeness.
Rating:
9.0
Watched it Where?
Senayan City XXI
Any snag(s) while watching?
Nope
As Marvel studios plow through their old and established movie franchises, especially after X-Men 3, finally the X-Men has the reboot that a lot of fans has been looking for. Although it is a no brain-er why they put Wolverine as the poster child for this movie, it is also understandable because Wolverine has a long back story that would be pretty easy to develop for the movie.
A lot of comic fans will definitely scoff this and it is true that many scene in this movie either doesn’t follow the comic or is not in ‘character’ of Wolverine. I personally find some of the problem in the movie trivial because I try and see the comic and the movie as a different entity. I enjoy the comic and I enjoy the movie.
Considering this is a summer action flick, the story delves pretty deeply into Wolverine’s psyche. And they present the plot pretty through while keeping the pace fun with action scenes here and there. There are scenes in this movie that I deemed unnecessary but as a whole the plot wasn’t too slow and quite enjoyable. And the action scenes? Well I’ve seen a lot of action movie and some action cuts in this movie was quite surprisingly cool.
I had my doubts (especially after three), thankfully I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. And I did it because I consider this to be a different interpretation of the Wolverine character. That said, this movie still retains many things that makes the Wolverine character and packaged it in a fun way.
Rating:
8.0
John Dvorak wrote and interesting article regarding Twitter in pcmag.com. He compares this phenomenon with old CB radio on how it grew in popularity and then sizzle down to nothingness. Now I personally won’t compare it with the CB age but I do agree that Twitter will die out or at least lost its oomph soon.
So if you happen to live in a cave for the past year, Twitter is a micro blogging service that basically gives you the ability to send a ‘Twit’ or update via mobile texting service and limited to 140 character per update. The focus of this service is to give a user the ability to blog their activity anywhere anytime and hopefully many, many times at minuscule portions. People can subscribe to a certain blog (Or called a ‘follower’) and receive updates from the subscribe blog. Now that sounds an interesting concept but I just don’t find any merit to the concept in the long run.
The basic thing about blogging is that it gives the ability to anyone to express their paradigm. The ability for each blogger to attract readers is only limited by subject and their ability to write. So there are so many bloggers out there who are not celebrities or famous writer that became a net-celeb because of their interesting paradigm and/or witty and entertaining writing. Now I just don’t see that happening in Twitter.
With only 140 character limit I just don’t think you can define a paradigm and create interesting articles. I understand that Twitter’s point is to create micro blogs but my point is; I think that at the long run popular people in Twitter are not popular because of their Twitter entries, but because they are already popular in the first place. People like celebrities or with celebrity status can get benefits from Twitter. But for normal users I just don’t see how they can retain a continous interest with other people. And with Facebook available in mobile phones, it is only a matter of time before twitter becomes obselete.
So I think Twitter’s biggest strength and weakness is its ability to communicate people; Not everyone wants to know everything about anyone all the time.
Watched it Where?
Senayan City XXI
Any snag(s) while watching?
Besides the giggling brats on my left, none
First off, let me remind people that even if the poster shows stereotypical super hero movie let me warn you that you you will be in for a shock. Please do not bring your kids because this movie is absolutely NOT for kids.
Ok with that out of they way, you might be wonder how ‘un’stereotypical is this movie?
Well this movie is (I believe) basically a satire for the human race. If V for Vendetta is Alan Moore’s comic of showing his dissidence with the established government, this movie shows his misanthropic side very well. Oh don’t get me wrong, there are super heroes here. But they are all plagued with real life dilemmas and problems and such. Forget Batman’s wrestle with fear or Spiderman’s story of finding his true self. This movie breath real life in a super hero world. Like what happens if there are super heroes in this world? In this movie America won the Vietnam war and the cold war has reached a peak that has never before seen in real history. Alan Moore has created a spectacular and dark world in his comic and Zack Snyder manage to recreate this world on celluloid. Superb.
So to start off, the story is very heavy with the cold war as its background. If you do not understand the socio-political and the dooms day fear of the 80′s you might have a problem grasping the whole story in this movie. The most incredible thing is the director manage to cram the 400+ page comic book in a 2,5 hour movie. Sure it doesn’t show every nooks and crannies of the comic (that’s just impossible) but it shows the whole plot and the director even manage to recreate some scenes and make it more riveting in motion.
And the ending, oh what an ending. Of course I won’t spoil you how it’ll end. Like I said, this is not a stereotypical hero movie and I’m very sure it will jar you. (Rorschach is absolutely my favorite character)
Now if you think this is a boring movie I can assure you there are a lot of action scene in this movie. If you like 300, you won’t be disappointed with this movie. It has stylish visual with stylish action scenes and awesome cinematography. I had the most astounding 2.5 hour of my life when I was watching this movie. Zack Snyder now is one of my favorite contemporary director. I will certainly look forward to his next movie.
Rating:
9.0
April 24th,2009
Movies | tags:
watchmen |
No Comments
Watched it Where?
PIM XXI
Any snag(s) while watching?
Nope
For some reason, this movie was release a bit late here in Indonesia. That usually means that the distributor here thinks that this movie is a minor release and how wrong they are.
Clive Owen plays an ex Scotland Yard that became an Interpol who in this movie is investigating an international bank that is believed to be using its fund maliciously. That is an interesting concept because with that amount of money, what do you think your bank is doing with your money? And how do they manage to keep paying your interest? Well this movie gives a good explanation: Money laundering and weapon distribution. I love it.
The plot line in this movie is moved at a pretty good pace with several action scenes scatered through out the movie. One gun battle scene in the guggenheim museum is so rivetting I would dare to compare it with the last gun battle in The Kingdom.
For me, The International has to be one of the biggest sleeper hit this year. With a smart story and great action scenes to spice up the whole movie, this is recommended for all who likes some twist in their action movies.
Rating:
8.5
Last Wednesday, a friend of mine called me and asked if I want to watch a “failure”; I immediately understood what he meant.
Watched it Where?
PIM 21
Any snag(s) while watching?
Nope
For many, many people the Dragon Ball series is the epic adventure that started their interest with Japanese manga/anime. I have the absolute adoration for Son Goku’s Odyssey from childhood to fatherhood and I am comfortable to confess that I am a DBZ fan boy. And to learn they are making a live action movie out of it, it scared the hell out of me. And after learning that Goku is a suburban white kid that goes to high school, I almost cried.
The movie has the exotic-eastern story that revolves around the same basic premise that recently became (sadly) popular and overused; the chosen one, an ancient evil and funky middle aged martial arts masters. Plot wise, the movie was totally choked to death with lackluster… no, bad… no, emm, is there a word for unintelligible, half hearted and STOOPID dialog? Well, that and the totally absent of character interaction and development. And top it off is a mediocre acting and directing AND an insult to the injury a ho hum fight scenes.
Is there really a reason to watch this movie? I did it for laughs (DRAGOOOOOOOON!!!11!!!!)
I think I understand the reason why they make this movie more palatable to the standard western tween. But even so, comparatively with other action movie, this movie is plagued with many problem that made the movie very frustrating to watch (I-wanna-stab-my-face-with-a-spoon frustrating). If they could make a decent movie, I may enjoy it a little more. So this movie is a definite 4 out of 10 for me.
Did I mention that I was a DBZ fanboy?
Rating:
Watched it Where?
Plaza Senayan XXI
Any snag(s) while watching?
Nope
Jim Carrey’s past offerings hasn’t been really good. Besides a stint as the jolly elephant in Horton Hears a Who, his past movie wasn’t either really funny or wasn’t fun at all. Now I wouldn’t say that Yes Man is a bad movie because, I think, the movie still has substance that kept me interested.
Yes Man is about Jim Carrey’s character (Carl) that has made a pact to say yes to everything that is presented to him to compensate for his very nihilist view of life. And every time he said No (NO MAN, NO MAN, NO MAN!) a divine punishment befalls him… or is it? The premise reminisce Liar Liar a whole heck a lot and minus the little kid, I would say it certainly is. Carl’s character is, well, very Jim Carrey so you will expect Jim’s patented menagerie. Sadly though, I didn’t find him to be as funny as his previous work. Often some scenes in this movie shows Carl babbles incoherently creating not a funny scene but what seems to be a failed improvisation (the bar fight scene just blows).
Pass all that though, the story of the movie shows a tale that is kin to your average white collared, 9 to 5, middle working class. The movie shows how different life is when you have an absolute optimism and how it can reward your positive spirit. Personally it’s a load of baloney so I thought it was a great escapism.
No, this is not the slam dunk movie that all Jim Carrey fans been waiting for (Darn). But the very least, it is the best Jim Carrey movie that he has ever produced. If you like silly movies that pokes life comically, this movie should be fun for you.
Rating:
7.5
