Billions of blue blistering barnacles!!!

My first Tintin comic was happened to be “The Secret of the Unicorn”, when my aunt passed her legacy of Tintin collection to me back in the early 90's. As a huge fan of Tintin, too bad she will no be able to see it in the big picture (she passed away this year, may she rests in peace). Since that first experience with Herge comic series, I became hooked up and starting collecting them all. I remember I read the Unicorn continuation, “Red Rackham Treasure" years after, since I was not able to find it anywhere (by then, I managed to complete my Tintin set).

And it was a very exciting news to see this legacy and one of the world most celebrated character (outside US of course) to be transferred into the big screen. The names involved are no small feat, Spielberg and Jackson, (they'll take turns on directing) along with WETA and a bunch of great writers ranging from Steven Moffats ("Sherlock" TV series), Edgar Wright ("Shaun of the Dead", "Hot Fuzz", "Scott Pilgrim"), and Joe Cornish ("Attack the Block"). To use live actors and animation has always been a conundrum into how to appropriately put Tintin in the big screen, although previous attempts was made (and it was awful). Seeing the trailers was already giving me some worries, especially in the CGI and story department. Firstly, I was afraid this will turn to be another "Polar Express" or "Beowulf" catastrophy, where they missed out the inhuman facial and eye emotion. Secondly, how they can make Unicorn to be a great and exciting movie and won't end up be a total boring and flat storytelling still remains a big question from me. Lastly, most important thing, how they will be able to design and put 'personality' into all the virtual/3D cast, plus a white dog.

Fortunately, it turns out that Spielberg and the team did a truly great and satisfactory job! The CGI (using famous motion capture technique ala "Avatar") was splendid, awesomely rendered, flawlessly and sharply animated, even Snowy is believable and you'll like him a lot (too smart in many several scenes, and easily lost control because of a cat and sandwich). Spielberg geniously opens the movie with 2D silhouette (remember "Catch Me If You Can"?) with amusing John Williams' piano music background introduction to transfer the viewers from the comic into his animated world. Then, the most clever part was revealed (I won't spoil it here) when he seamlessly changed the 2D into 3D. Tintin and Snowy, in almost 'real' life condition. Well done, Steven, I fell in love with the movie already. 

Now onto the next part, story telling. I must tell you upfront, this Tintin is a combination of at least 3 stories, Unicorn and Red Rackham Treasure for the main plots, and the injunction of Crab with Golden Claws as a mean to properly hook up Tintin and Haddock. Tintin loyalist might be well dissapointed, but for others, I think it turns out to be decent, especially with he very fast pace of story telling, these different plots were placed one into another appropriately. You'll get lots of action, crazy chasing scenes, awesome ship battles (way much better than "Pirates of Carribean"), and not to mention Bianca Castafiore tries to rip off both Haddock and Snowy eardrums (yes, she is in the package).

From casting point of view, Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis did a marvelous job on portraying the main characters, especially Serkis, where he made Haddock is the main star and scene stealers, as in the comics, complete with all the swearing and drinking issues. Serkis is truly an expert on making virtual characters into a 'personality', and with memorable and strong performances from Gollum, King Kong, Caesar, and Haddock, he should have an Oscar already!

Daniel Craig is a good addition as the main villain, while I have some dissapointments with the world most bizzare Interpol twins. No offense for Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, they are both talented and super funny comedians. It's just that the jokes and slapstick acts from Thomson and Thompson have only 50% hit rate, leaving only few memorable funny lines. Calculus, a more bizzare persona, is absent on this one, a sign which Jackson will attempt to exploit him for the next installment.

“Secret of the Unicorn” does no wrong as a family and entertaining flick, especially for the fans. Some parts were a bit bland, and common viewers might expect more action and explosions. Yet, this is Tintin, no superhero, no superpower, no hot chicks, no gadgets, just a young fella with common sense and thirst of adventures. A fairly good role model for kids, don't you think? This one also boasts technical innovation in animation, yet still lack of better storytelling. Nevertheless, Spielberg and Jackson will have no trouble on selling out the sequels, since they have done a marvelous job on capturing our Tintin imagination into the big screen. 


My Review: 8.5/10

His name is Atom. Get'em a fight.

Plot:

Ex-boxer Charlie Kenton just had one of his bad days: owing too much money due to robot boxing bad bets on, his ex-girlfriend has died leaving him with their eleven-year-old son Max. Thankfully, the ex’s sister wants the boy, and he wants to get rid of him (convincingly). After making a deal with the sister’s husband, Charlie takes his son for the summer. Max, while at first resentful of his father, begins to appreciate the wild life (involving robots) his dad leads. He soon becomes involved in the rough and tumble world of robot boxing with a robot that he discovers named Atom. Get ready to rumble!

Review:

Adults loves Rocky, kids are crazy about Transformers, so I guess combining them was not such a bad idea, wasn’t it? Apart from the cheesy and corny script, plus the unimaginable and non-existent notion of replacing humans with robots on boxing, Real Steel is a fun, enjoyable, and entertaining family movie. Frankly, I did not expect it to be this good, even much better than the Transformers series (yes, you read that correctly).

Everybody loves the underdog story, especially in boxing flicks, where most of its famous movies have the similar plot, from ‘Rocky’, ‘Cinderella Man’, ‘The Fighter’, etc. Even better, Real Steel added the robots, father and son bonding, and video games. Its robotic premise would appeal any boys and men, and the drama (plus cheesy parts) surely would attract the girls and women. It’s amazing that Shawn Levy is able to connect the dots adequately and making Real Steel actually a good flick, considering his last movies such as Night at the Museum 2 and Date Night did not perform that well.

Hugh Jackman is pretty good at his rare parent role (is it the first time he was cast as a dad?), where he was pretty much hateable during the first half, and transformed into a ‘perfect’ dad near the end. A good casting, he’s likeable, charismatic, and women are craving for him (that’ll do). But the scene stealers has to be the Jackman’s long lost son, newcomer Dakota Goyo (remember the little Thor?) And like any other kids in Hollywood movie, he was ‘blessed’ with advanced intelligence, likes video games, and has DNA for customizing robots (who does that, anyway?). I bet everyone must be fall in love with Max and his antics, although in latter parts during the big boxing matches, he tends to scream a lot, and that was kinda annoying. Nevertheless, the heart of the movie lies in these two pivotal characters, and added by other splendid cast such as Evangeline Lily and Anthony Mackie, not to mention the robots, Real Steel’s corny script was propelled by the terrific cast.

Technical point of view, the fighting scenes were amazing, and I actually prefer this kind of thing rather than the shaky or quick editing ala Transformers kinda thing (you barely see who’s punching who). In Real Steel, the boxing scenes were well choreographed (Sugar Ray Leonard handled the thing), the robots movement were logical, easy to follow, and as intense as the real human boxing. And also, they come in cool names as well which you can use for  your avatar nick names, from Noisey Boy, Twin Cities, Midas, Six Shooter, Ambush, and last but not least, the great Zeus. Every one of them has its distinctive feature, easy for the audience to actually remember them. Especially for Atom, I guess Spielberg gave some advice from his E.T experience, just give it a pair of humble blue eyes. Conclusively, it is a budget well spent by the CGI department.

Nevertheless, Real Steel is not that fully polished movie in the end. One of the major low downs is that the ending was quite premature, and I believe it should have been concluded even further than the current version. I felt disappointed since there are still many question left unanswered, and I bet after you see the credit title, you must be asking, “What about this, what’s next?”, and so on and on. Added to that, 127 minutes running is kinda long a straightforward plot, some scenes were actually safe to be excluded. With no major surprises or even twisted plot, it is a happy-go-lucky movie after all. Of course it sounds totally unfair to compare this Disney theme flick to calibre movies such as ‘The Fighter’ or even ‘Cinderella Man’, but still watching Hugh Jackman and the robots is a celebration of joyful and fun entertainment despite of the rusty script writing, coupled with a good dose of genuine heart. In the end, you’ll root for Atom.

My Review: 8/10

the 1st full AVENGERS trailer...

Okay fanboys, here's what you've been waiting for...a full 2 minutes AVENGERS trailer. This time, you can see clearly all the members in full action, unlike the short several seconds preview from the CAPTAIN AMERICA ending. Nevertheless, I think this flick can be huge, I really really hope it won't suck...

PS: I want more Hulk...

Don't Talk to Anyone, Don't Touch Anyone

Plot:

Mitch (Matt Damon) found her wife, Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) fell sick and died with unknown symptoms after just got back from work trip. Soon within the same time line, other people from different locations randomly also died with more or less same symptoms. Afterwards, number deaths are increasing. It is inevitable, a lethal virus breakout has spread throughout the world. An international team of doctors contracted by Central for Disease Control (CDC) to deal with the sudden outbreak. Each person has different agenda but together they are mixed up to survive. 

Review:

Watching the trailer of 'Contagion' brings memories of the 1995 hit 'Outbreak', starring Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman (it was a very good movie). But, Steven Soderbergh provides a different taste, a more realistic and drama, and less Hollywood approach for 'Contagion', compared to 'Outbreak'.  Soderbergh is quite known on assembling A-list cast, remember the 'Ocean's Trilogy' and 'Traffic'? 'Contagion' is a mix of those movies with a mouth-watering cast from Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Marion Cotillard. Not many directors who can do this, but Soderbergh always able to bring out the best from his cast selection, and 'Contagion' is a proven one!

 

I can't say 'Contagion' is a thriller; it's a more drama for me, and part semi documentary you've seen on TV, but minus the interviews of course. The pace is quite steady, not too fast nor slow, it was okay for me since I was hooked after the first 10-15 minutes. But the great thing is, 'Contagion' manage to provide the 'fear effect' halfway through the middle. It's pretty scary to see how the virus managed to spread sporadically, without knowing how to contain it. Trust, you'll get paranoid for a while, even I felt uneasy when somebody coughed in the cinema. What makes it even more scary is that Soderbergh put all the plots as if this thing a real deal, talking about realistically creepy. A world-wide scale panics, socialization becomes your worst enemy, people are separated from their lovely ones, and even the President has to go hiding in his bunker.

Laurence Fishburne plays the role of Dr. Ellis Cheever, the head of international team to handle the outbreak. I like the way his story evolves that he’s just a normal human being, not Superman or has special power, but spend most of the time, scientifically, medically, and not to mention politically to put an end to the issue, and at the same time he has to take care his loved ones. As his team member, Kate Winslet has different role as Dr. Erin Mears, who has to go to the contaminated city, collect data, interview patients, and arranging countermeasures to keep the sick people contained. However, dealing with the sick people directly proved to be the most dangerous task she has ever been handed. While Jude Law is Alan Krumwiede, a famous blogger who tries to dig up conspiracy theories about pharmacy industries who tries to hold up the cure for the disease. What makes his role is believable, is that in this modern era where people can be easily connected, it is scary to see how an unknown persona can reach millions of people and could ask them to do stupid things. While Marion Cotillard plays a WHO officer, Dr. Leonora Orantes, who goes to Hong Kong, where it was assumed the location of the ‘first patient’. However, she has to deal with some unrest from local officers, and mixed up in a desperate attempt by these guys, which by the way (no spoiler!) could happened in the real world.

And this brings us to the last main cast, Matt Damon as the husband of the first known body count caused by the deadly virus. Almost half to the storyline tells us about how to deal with the outbreak from the government perspective, while Damon’s character tells us the story from the normal people, how he has to go through daily life activities, and protect his daughter altogether.

 

After a series of bombastic summer movies, it’s nice to see a change of menu, and ‘Contagion’ deserves an appraisal on its effort to bring us a realistic survival story, without zombies or end of the world disaster. It’s damn spine-chilling, thrilling, and makes you a bit paranoid at least (use Purell all the time, and avoid Hong Kong, perhaps!). ‘Contagion’ is perhaps the best epidemic/pandemic movie to date. It begins with a high tense moment, and it stays there right until the end, with no breaks or happy moments in the middle. The downturn, is that, it ends up in a loose end with no clear conclusion or direction, leaving audiences craving for a more definite and purpose. Nevertheless, it is still a great movie, something like an adult movie that makes you not want to touch any adults near you when it’s over. In short, ‘Contagion’ is a disaster movie with brains involved. 

My Rating: 8/10

"The Raid" trailer will blow your mind!!!

It's been some time, or maybe a very long time since the last time I was totally excited to watch an Indonesian movie on the big screen. If I can recall, perhaps "Berbagi Suami" was my last one, and even I watched it on DVD (bought original one, of course).


Suddenly, when I was following the movies screened at the Toronto Film Festival, I read the hype on the web, people claimed that they just saw 'the best action movie' of 2011, and it happened to be....surprisingly,  Indonesian movie...


I immediately gave it a look, and damn man...it was like blew my brains out! Not just that it was cool, but it was ass-kicking altogether....Similarly, I remember I was quite interested also when I saw "Killer Elite" trailer...but this one totally nailed it...


Brought by the same team who created "Merantau" (another martial art / silat fighting movie back in 2009), Gareth Evans and his team (including the main man, Iko Uwais) are back and take it to the next level...


you can check the link below for the trailer...reminder, it's kinda violent, but I guess it's better than to see any  'pocong' or anyone 'ngesot'.

Seriously!? It’s like you’re photoshopped!

Plot:

Cal (Steve Carrell)  just received a divorce request from his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore). Even worse, she even told him blatantly that she slept with her colleague, David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon).  Heartbroken and devastated, Cal has to deal with his marital crisis and manage his relationship with his children. Then, he met Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a super cool dude who is an easy going man with any women he met. For pity sake, Jacob decided to help Cal out of his misery, by changing his looks and alter the personality, and especially how to approach women better. Afterwards, Cal has to juggle with too many balls: handle the new ‘Cal’, get Emily back, grow confidence in his kid, and has to decide which ‘Cal’ is the best for all.

Review:

I used to be big fan of rom-com-cheesy and full of cliché flicks (read: romantic comedy), especially the 90’s ones. I grew up with Nora Ephron’s “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail”, I enjoyed also particularly “When Harry Met Sally”, “Before Sunrise”, ”Before Sunset”, and not to mention, the cheesiest and my favourite, “Serendipity” back in the 2001. But then, I found it difficult to enjoy any rom-com especially for the past decade. Only some titles worth mentioning, let’s say “Love Actually”, “Definitely Maybe”, and “500 Days of Summer”.

Nowadays, there is a new ‘breed’ kind of flick, which is the R-rated one (my favourite would be “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”). Especially in this year, we have seen some of the successful examples, from “Friends with Benefit”,”No Strings Attached”, “Bridesmaids”, and “Bad Teacher”. But somehow, I still miss those 90’s PG-13 rom-com which could be watched by a wider range of audiences. And fortunately, “Crazy, Stupid, Love” happens to be a good one.

Although the whole movie didn’t live up the expectation of the title’s first word, “Crazy, Stupid, Love” is one of the most enjoyable rom-com I’ve seen since “500 Days of Summer”. With a title like that, I was expecting harsh reviews or bashing from the critics. Apparently, “Crazy, Stupid, Love” was reasonably smart, and remarkably sane. Surprisingly, this is a good and enjoyable rom-com flick, with a lot of surprises on the menu which you don’t see in the trailer. Plus point, I’m quite glad to see the ‘cheesy’ level does not go over the top. Plotwise, is kinda similar with things we have seen in “Love Actually” and “He’s Just Not That In to You”, with several plots mixed up altogether to show how different characters are related to one another. Added up with nice soundtracks, “Crazy, Stupid, Love” is a good example how perfect cast chemistry can determine how good your movie is.

Carrell and Gosling are the definitely the frontmen, where each performance is as good as what you expect from them. I really enjoy Carrell’s character, since I think he’s way better to deliver this kind of thing rather than slapstick crap such as “Dinner with Schmucks”, “Get Smart”, or “Date Night”. Although he’s pretty good as Cal, a more rather serious character, he’s still one of the funniest guy alive. On the other hand, Jacob’s character perhaps is an easy play by Gosling, especially after his emotionally drowning act in his previous “Blue Valentine” (it was depressing really) or “the Notebook”. With Jacob, Gosling seems to fit in seamlessly as one hell 6-pack womanizer dude.

For me, the real traits must be the women cast, ranging from my favourite hottie Emma Stone, Julianne Moore and Marisa Tomei, which both seems to become hotter and hotter in their 40s. As Gosling’s love interest, Stone always seems to be a perfect cast in any kinky, independent, and ‘smarter than blonde’ role (although she’s originally blonde). Big green eyes, freckles, sultry voice, and fetching overbite, I simply adore her. Moore did okay as dilemmatic wife who didn’t have any grip on moving forward, while Tomei was involved in a ‘very surprising plot’, which looked nothing in the beginning, but will leave your mouth open halfway through.  

Another scene stealer performance came from the little kid, Jonah Bobo playing Robbie, Cal’s kid, who fell in love with his babysitter, and just can’t stop saying it out loud. For the rest, it was kinda disappointing to see Bacon’s character did not develop too much apart from Cal’s marital threat. But again, I think the cast ensemble worked pretty well.

There’s a lot of great scenes in this movie, and you should watch it yourself, cause I’m not gonna spoil it for you. Some are funny, unpredictable, and some are quite touchy also. There is one memorable scene when Cal was sneaking in into his own home just to mow the lawn, he has to watch his family life without him, when suddenly Emily called her just to say ‘hi’ not realizing that her husband is just about 200 m away.

During a summer when every other rom-coms have R-rated scripts, “Crazy, Stupid, Love” provides a well scripted plot and sensible date-night choice. Overall, perhaps this does not have the same quality than those 90’s rom-coms I mentioned earlier, but clearly it’s a lot better and fresher and most importantly, less recycled than much of the available romantic comedy flicks in the current era. There is still some flaws, especially with the pace and the end conclusion, but nevertheless, it is still enjoyable, and worthwhile to spend this with your dates.

My Review: 8/10

movie trailer (courtesy of Youtube):

No. You’re not a pet.

Plot:

Will Rodman (James Franco) works hard to find a perfect medicine to cure Alzheimer, which his dad, Charles (John Lithgow) has suffered for some quite time. Using apes as test subjects, a female one showd a bright future and potential cure after showing an enhancement of intelligence, but not until she created havoc in the lab. Turns out, she gave birth, and indirectly the ‘intelligent upgrade’ was genetically transferred to the baby ape. Decided to adopt it, Caesar (Andy Serkis) grew up intelligently, and staying with Will. Can Caesar become both part of a family and society, or forever still being a pet and lab test?

Review:

The original 1968 Planet of the Apes was a cult classic, with several sequels followed afterwards which never came close both quality and money making compared to the original one. Tim Burton's remake in 2001 was even a disastrous one (starring Mark Wahlberg). So, when I read the idea of people try to bring this franchise again, in a prequel form, I was totally sceptical, it was doomed to fail big time!

Now, I have to eat my own words, Rise of the Planet of the Apes (RoTPoTA) is a great and superb summer movie, although I still think the title was silly. Story was good, stellar cast performance, plot pace was never boring and kept me on the hook, and what a brilliant CGI usage. Using an animals (in this case, apes) as test subjects is nothing new really, but the idea of make them smarter is a tough thing to deliver. Using real apes to perform many of human thingy convincingly of course can be totally difficult, but using a CGI to make them as real as possible is even more challenging. Apparently, RoTPoTA opted to go through the latter way, and it worked awesomely!

From the cast point of view, RoTPoTA actually has a stellar cast, ranging from James Franco, John Lithgow, Frieda Piento, Brian Cox, Tom Felto a.k.a Draco Malfoy, and lastly Andy Serkis as the magnificent Caesar. But halfway through, it was overwhelmed by the CGI apes. Overall, the movie is kinda divided into 2 halves, where the 1st one mostly filled up by the humans, before the apes took the whole scenes downturn on the latter half. This role maybe an easy job for Franco, but he is still mesmerizing and captivating as a young scientist whose goal was solely only to cure his father's Alzheimer. Even only as a supporting role, I think Lithgow's character is probably the scene stealer, as his performance was kinda heart-breaking one. While Piento didn't do much, only as Will’s love interest, nothing more...but she's cute, so I'm okay with it. On the evil side, Brian Cox as the nasty 'ape prison' warden, never fails me with antagonist roles, while surprisingly, Felton's character is much more hateable and irritating than his Malfoy's portrayal...let's hope he does not stick up with this stereotype (although he did a pretty good job on it).

The second part of the movie is like 80% dominated by the apes revolution. It was a well crafted plot, especially when most of the time the apes communicate through body language. Fast fact, the movie costs only $90M, and by looking the amount of CGI usage, I must say it's pretty damn impressive. The apes' motion capture, especially Caesar (thanks to the brilliant performance by Andy Serkis), and the fur rendering, even facial expression, was rendered perfectly, efficient, and most importantly, convincing! Andy Serkis' performance may not tops Gollum, perhaps on par or even better than King Kong. The best thing from him is that he gave a ‘personality’ to the character, which made us stick up with him. Caesar, being both the leader and smartest ape, shows lots of human emotions and intelligent body language, but still in the ape form. There will be some moments the distinction between CGI and real apes became undistinguishable...well done WETA, another good portfolio!

Stylishly directed by unknown Rupert Wyatt, he must be grateful to have a bunch of great artists such as Oscar-winning Cinematographer, Andrew Lesnie (Lord of the Rings trilogy), and of course the WETA team to render the whole magnificent motion capture CGI-apes. Storywise, I felt the third act was kinda rushed a bit, and the conculsion was not satisfactory (save for sequels, I assume). Half drama, half action, and partial moral message to save the apes. It’s far better than those mindless summer entertainment flicks, and although it’s not as grandeur and complicated as Transformers, the CGI is a technological marvel indeed. Pass on the banana!

My Review: 8.5/10

ONE DAY trailer...'Serendipity' wannabe?

ONE DAY starring Anne Hathaway (looking good with English accent, irresistible), and Jim Sturgess...it's a rom-com ala Serendipity I guess, combined with the idea of 'Friends with Benefits'...but this thing is a much more serious movie I guess. The trailer looks good and promising, and perhaps less melancholic or depressing compared with 'Like Crazy', similar theme but different plot...Directed by Lone Scherfig, she's the one who brought you 'An Education' (one of my 2009 favorites)...Make sure you don't watch this thing alone, bring ur loved ones!

Steven Soderbergh's CONTAGION trailer...

After some break, Steven Soderbergh is back with a new disease outbreak thriller....Soderbergh is quite famous on assembling great A-star cast (Ocean's Trilogy)...this one is no exception...Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne?

Looks good though! At first glance, I thought it's gonna be another zombie movie...and frankly I dunno whether I should be happy or disappointed...anyway, it also comes with a good looking poster as well...CONTAGION is coming out 9 September worldwide...and lucky me, it's premiering in Singapore a day earlier...

check the trailer below....

I'm just a little kid from Brooklyn...

It was WWII, America was recruiting and rebuilding its military power to overwhelm Nazi's resistance in Europe. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a young kid from Brooklyn, had been refused to join the army because of his physical disability. Amused by his determination, Dr Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a German miltary scientist who crossed allegiance to the US, decided to admit him into a special group. Admitted into the 'Super Soldier' program, this was the point of no return for Rogers, a start of something heroic, in the name of America.

Finally the last piece of the Avengers puzzle has been thrown to the audience. Following the similar trend of previous Avengers member team (that being Iron Man, Hulk , Thor, Hawkeye, and Nick Fury himself), I found Captain America is quite fun and entertaining. but sadly that's all. In term of action, plot, characterizations, I hardly found something new and exciting. Previously, Iron Man's suit was awesome, Bruce Banner's Hulk was intense and emotional, while Thor was elegant and action packed. In short, Cap is not as mesmerizing or even captivating as a super hero icon. True he got the bulky body. agility, and the infamous shield, but what this movie offers is something that we have seen many times in many other movie. Nevertheless, this is a comic book adaptation, and I never read any of Cap’s comics, so who am I to judge whether the story sucks or not?

The action scenes were okay and entertaining enough. I was expecting Cap doing amazing things with the almighty shield, and it turned out to be quite good and versatile enough. Okay, perhaps it’s not as destructive as Thor’s hammer or as cool as Iron Man Suit, but the idea of a very strong shield which can withhold any projectile? Gotta see that in the Avengers for sure!

The plus point of the movie perhaps lies in the retro vibe feeling. I think Joe Johnston (director) is doing a good job at creating the 1940ish scenes, reminds me of ‘X-Men: First Class’ production. Perhaps that’s why some of the action scenes were kinda old-fashioned blockbuster movie. Although I must say, Red Skull hideout and war factory are a bit to modern for that era.

On the bright side, I think Chris Evans is a good cast for Cap, he embodies the physical character and embraces his patriotic attitude convincingly. Although I think his face is a bit to boyish, but nevertheless he delivers well. Sometimes I tend to think Rogers being both himself and Captain America is being too good-hearted and naïve. I like the his intention and determination before he was being submitted into the Super Soldier programs, which can be a great plot afterwards. Before the incident at the lab which costs (SPOILER!) Dr. Erskine lab, he made Rogers promised to still be the old himself. Too bad, I think the plot went haywire afterwards, until he jumped into the action to save his bestfriend, Bucky.

Every superhero needs 2 elements, the villain and the chick. In this case, we got Johann Schmidt/Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). As the main villain, Red Skull probably the worst from all previous Avengers movie. Poor in character and undeveloped, and not to mention it’s a waste of Weaving talent. His bad antics are not menacing nor intimidating, it’s like old school James Bond villain. I thought he built a good tension, by creating super weapons and a massive army, but how come they are so easily infiltrated, trespassed, and defeated. Give me a break, I cannot even remember seeing these bad guys in action let’s say, threatening the Allied forces or occupied important cities. All we got is their secret hideout maps, and one by one was taken down by Cap and the gang.

While on the counterpart, Hayley Atwell might be the strongest female character I’ve seen compared with Pepper Pots or Betty Ross, but lack of chemistry. As Peggy Carter, she was really captivating, I really enjoyed her presence in every scene (her appearance with the red dress made me drooling). But her love interest with Rogers was a bit rushed, or even forced in halfway through. But it turned out better near the end, which has lots of potential to be a tear-jearking moment (such in Star Trek opening), but it didn’t.

Tommy Lee Jones, in my opinion gave the best performance as Col. Chester Phillips. He’s both funny and not to be messed up with, especially with his one-liner jokes. The scene where he was interrogating Zola, Red Skull main scientist, was hilarious. It’s just that I can’t believe he really looks old, but I guess he has been that old since I saw him at ‘The Fugitive’, almost 2 decades ago. Another strong performance was delivered by Stanley Tucci. That man was the heart of the movie in the early part, and unfortunately his character didn’t last long enough. Dominic Cooper also made a short appearance as Howard Stark, but effective enough to bridge this movie with Iron Man.

As a conclusion, Captain America is a happy-go-lucky superhero thing, easily digestible, but nothing revolutionary. A lousy mid-part may prevent this thing being the best of recent Marvel adaptation, but with great cast and an attempt to take the character on faithfully and without irony works more often than not. In the end, the moral message we can get from the Cap is his undisputed determination, loyalty, and lastly never-run ethos. Finally, after a great run from all the Avengers member, I must say I’m a bit burnout by them. I’ll see you all in the next summer.

My Rating: 7.5/10

You're like the maid of dishonor...

Plot:

Annie (Kristen Wiig), a lovelorn just got broke, was picked up by her long time and soon-to-bride buddy, Lilian (Maya Rudolop) to become one of the bridesmaids. Seems to be problem-free thingy and Annie is quite confident on showing that she’s the best of the besties. But things are getting raunchier when Annie has to compete with Lilian’s other bridesmaid, Helen (Rose Bryne)who happens to be rich and love preparing big events with enormous level of detail (read: perfectionist). Let the catfight begins!

Review:

When I read 'R-rated comedies', people often relate 'em with: boobies, d*cks, and American Pie...Usually guys are the main target audience, too offensive for women, and mostly sex oriented. There's Something About Mary, Hangover, Hall Pass... see the trend?

Bridesmaids on the other hand offers something new albeit still using the same DNA, but smarter. For a start, it has lots and lots of adult and sex jokes, added with pretty much different propositions...one thing for sure, no boobies (sorry guys), and as I recall, there was only one awkward sex scene involving the guy from Mad Men. Actually, I don't even see the plus point on doing those stuffs coz Bridesmaids is already entertaining enough without having to show any nudity.

Secondly, it shows that raunchy and sex jokes do not always come out from guys' mouths. Hey I think even girls hanging around together also get the chance to spill out dirty jokes from their heads, doesn’t it? As far as I concern, I've seen enough Hollywood movies which exploiting women as mere object of sexuality purpose, but not giving them bigger portion to stand out and say 'd*ickhead' and still looking good. Thirdly, why women can't have their own 'Hangover' moment? Guaranteed, this is not your ordinary chick flick, this has lots of good femme-fatale moments.

Kristen Wiig (a regular Saturday Night Live cast) has been the heart and soul for the entire movie, since she's both the front runner and the girl behind the screen. Her script is not just daring, but also provides something different from the popular and usual Hollywood menu. I mean, c'mon guys, a story about couple of women, bridesmaids, runaway bride...perfect recipe for a damn boring one (esp. for guys). Turns out, Wiig made an excellent script by combining some of those chick flick clichés and makes them into a smarter and better story line (not to mention, hilarious). Okay, perhaps the 'bachelorette party' thingy might be borrowed from the Hangover, but nevertheless the women’s version has never been done before, at least in the modern era. Added with Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, 40-year old Virgin, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Superbad, etc) sitting as the producer, Bridesmaids maybe one of the best flick with his name associated with it.

A well round up cast is also the pivotal element which keeps Bridesmaids never lost the charm. She assembled a well-balanced strong cast consisting different types of women. Annie’s and Helen’s competitive rounds were always tear-jerking (in a funny way). I can’t stop laughing during their take turns in the bridesmaids’ speech session, top notch hilarious moment. Apart from Annie and Helen, we still got Becca (Ellie Kemper from ‘the Office’); Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), and my favorite, Megan (Melissa McCarthy) as the other bridesmaids. Each has different character and personality, and they complement each other jokes. One particular funny scene involving all these women was when they had the bachelorette dinner, and then went to try up the dresses, when suddenly the dinner ‘re-appears’ again, in the worst nightmare that women can’t imagine.

But hey, even a good cast of women still need guys rite? Notably, there’s only lead 2 actors, and both related with Annie. One is Ted (Joe Hamm), her f*ck buddy with no strings attached, and the other one is officer Nathan, (Chris O’Dowd) Annie’s love interest with love-hate relationship. The chemistry works fine between Annie and these two guys, it’s just that Nathan is being too good and generous on some parts, but hey, chick flick does need a prince charming somewhere, rite? Only this time he does not have a big house, sports car, and 6-pack body.

It's quite uncommon for this kind of movie has 2-hour running time. Fortunately, the story is rich enough with several sub plots which kept people stay on their seats. Sharply written and performed well by great cast, Bridesmaids brings laughter more than any comedy I’ve seen this year. Although, the second half of the movie is more like exploring self loneliness and poignant turning point. Nothing revolutionary perhaps, but it has genuinely funny laughs out loud moments. Give the crown, ups tiara for this one, best comedy of the year!

My Ratings: 9/10

Enchanting Farewell for Harry...

Without a doubt, The Boy Who Lived has become a phenomenal figure for the last decade. Millions of books sold, translated into billions of box office from 7 movies, and uncountable fans and readers, including me. If you happens to be an outsider, you may want to skip this thing. Otherwise, no worries, I'll try to make it as spoiler free as possible...but what the hell, you guys knew the story at least 4 years ago.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 is the top of the giant pyramid of J.K Rowling enchanting wizardry tale, the final culmination and conclusion, not to mention the end confrotation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldermort. This final installment wastes no time, starts right where it left us, bad-ass You-Know-Who, Voldermort got his strongest weapon, The Elder Wand right from Dumbledore's grave, while Harry, Ron, and Hermione are still grieving from Dhoby's loss. Still have to find several Horcruxes, Harry has to break in Gringotts to obtain one of them, and of course, Hogwarts itself to prepare for the final between battle with Voldermort's army.

This second part of Deathly Hallows appears to be a totally different movie from the first one, with the story now is focusing more into the big action battle scenes in Hogwarts. The infamous school falls into ruins and all hell breaks loose. The Great Hall grandiose, the warmth of Gryffindor house, all the memories of how Hogwarts used to be a safe haven for Harry has been replaced with the great scale of destruction by The Death Eaters army. Lots of people died, both bad guys and our loveable characters. At least not until the final fight aftermath, there was none of that cheerful moments similar to the early years of Harry Potter’s journey.

While Rowling may not provide an epic the battle scenes described in words, I can tell you, David Yates did a magnificent job on creating a suspense battlefield (some articles even compared this with LOTR's Pellenor Field battle scene). Apart from long and intense battle, Yates added the value by slow-mo fighting, landscape and bird eye view camera movement, and of course, lots and lots of destructive scenes with great detail.

Harry Potter may be the lead character in the previous movies, but usually, his colleagues and other supporting characters used to have more screen time to show up their faces. On the contrary, this last movie can be deemed as Harry's sole movie, since he is so pivotal in every scene, complete all his depression, struggle, and triumphant moments. Daniel Radcliffe may just gave his best performance of Harry's characterization. He appears to be very comfortable and attached to Harry, which doesn't surprise me at all, since he has been playing Harry for almost 12 years. The same thing can be said also for Rupert Grint as Ron, and the loveable Emma Watson as Hermione. Due to the in-movie romance, they are inseparable and always appears in pairs. But that alone does not deter their performances on-screen, the chemistry was there, and finally, they have their own moment (yes, the long-have-been-waiting-for kissing scene). Too bad for Harry, his romance moments with Ginny (Bonnie Wright) was quite minimal.

Harry’s dominant presence does not just make Ron’s and Hermione’s screen time lesser significantly, but also cutting down the importance of his Hogwarts friends. Perhaps, only Matthew Lewis stands out as the heroic Neville Longbottom. Mind you, this character was kinda blurry and dumb in the previous movies. But that is not the case on these last two movies, where his character has matured enough to wipe the dumbness into a hero. His essential scene involving the Sword of Gryffindor was quite captivating. Tom Felton has his Draco Malfoy character became less threatening and bound to be indecisive, which ended up with his family allegiance to the Dark Lord became immensely equivocal. I’m a bit disappointed to see the rest of the Hogwarts students do not have much more screen role apart from one liners or involved in several seconds during the battle scene. Although the Weasley twin do have their own moment halfway into the end (no spoiler, but u know what I mean, don’t u?). Undoubtedly, these kids have been the body and soul, the main and irreplacable ingredients for the whole Harry Potter saga. To be involved in this project for almost a decade really needs dedication, hard work, and a high degree of commitment.

What makes the big screen version of Potter even better for all these years is the supporting cast, which contains British best of the best. Ranging from Ralph Fiennes (Voldermort), Alan Rickman (Snape), Gary Oldman (Sirius), Richard Harris and Michael Gambon (Dumbledore),Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), David Thewlis (Remus Lupin), and the list goes on…

No one can deny the antagonist talent of Ralph Fiennes. I watched “Schindler’s List” not long before I did the Harry Potter marathon, and my gosh, this guy fits into Voldemort shoes naturally. I mean, even if he didn’t have the CGI-snake face on it, he would still be damn terrifying. Not to be left behind, Alan Rickman showed a more emotional Snape in this one, which I haven’t seen before. Well, if you know the story, this latest part is the moment of truth of Snape’s real allegiance. Heartbreaking and devastated, the scene involving the Pensieve and his past should have been a tearjerking moment. But, too bad that particular scene was a bit rushed compared to the book, but Rickman still did a pretty good job of transforming Snape into a loveable personality. Last but not least, I was hugely impressed by McGonagall valiant leadership during the Hogwarts siege. One particular scene where she fought Snape to help Harry gain control of Hogwarts was purely entertaining (Coming out from nowhere, she was just awestruck with the dragon-shaped fire magic to kick Snape out of the room).

Harry Potter saga is an incredible journey for its fans. No doubt, we all felt the same magical experience first time not from visual enchancement, but just by traditional storytelling with words. The translatation is a mere transferring the media into an audio-visual experience (not to mention the big franchise money making factory). A decision of cutting the movie into two parts may be questionable. A grand 3.5 hours long of the part 7 may be sufficient, but hey, if one Harry Potter movie can easily get 3 billion dollars, why not make two?

The journey finally comes to an end, and it has been a triumphant for Harry Potter production team. For the kids, these 8 movies have been a massive portfolio for their future reference, and I have no doubt, their journey do not stop here. While for the older cast, I believe their kids and grandchildren will be very proud with their involvement. David Yates’ final Potter movie is the way how the saga was meant to end. It has something that usually other Hollywood movies do not have, which is -- the power of goodbye, I mean, a really ‘the end’. Deathly Hallows part 2 is an example of how to give the audience the feeling that we all have been sharing the magical experience for the past 10 years, with a bittersweet farewell. The grand finale is truly epic, and enchanting.

My Review : 9/10

Super 8 is Superbly Good...

Plot:

Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) and his sci-fi gang freak are making an amateur zombie movie. Since they need a female character for the movie love interest, they recruited Alice (Elle Fanning), whose father was involved in a freak accident costing the life of Joe’s mother. Thus, this band of kids were shooting a scene in a railway station, when a train had suddenly derailed and causing havoc in the neighbourhood. Apparently, there is ‘something’ in the cargo which belongs to the military, and it was set loose in Joe’s small town. Accidentally recorded the whole train crash thing, these kids notice strange happenings going around, and begin to investigate it. Local deputy, Jackson who happens to be Joe’s father (Kyle Chandler) has to deal with the town anxiety and uncover the creepy truth behind all this catastrophe, after people starting to went missing.

Review:

It’s been a full year since that incredible train-crash trailer hit up the screens, left many people with imaginations on the new J.J. Abram’s project. Fear no more sci-fi and movie geeks! Super 8 is here, the waiting time is over! And believe me, it’s totally worth every damn penny and your time. Go to the cinema and catch it!

Foreword, J.J. Abrams is a truly gifted director and writer. I happen to follow some of his previous works, from TV (Alias and Lost), and his big screen flicks (M:I 3, Cloverfield – as producer, and most notably, Star Trek reboot), and I must say, he has a bright future ahead. Abrams seems like creates this thing from the heart, as if it’s a personal project from his childhood dream. Backed up by the maestro Spielberg, Super 8 is an emotional movie about friendship and characters dealt with love and loss, all wrapped up with the secretive creature as the backdrop story. Master of story-teller and quite comfortable with big special effects, Abrams is also capable of displaying the heart and arousing the audience with his ‘wow’ factor.

Watching Super 8 brings out the sci-fi memories of 80’s flick such as E.T, Close Encounter of the Third Kind, and the Goonies (one of Spielberg’s triumphant period). Using the children (unknown stars except Fanning) as the main character reminds me of the classic Stand By Me. The whole monster/alien character and the train crash is the engine for a greater emotional plot. There are many relationships between characters which are explored by Abrams, 2 single fathers with their children, a circle of besties, and not to mention a triangle crush affair between the kids. If you watched the incredible Korean The Host, I can probably say Super 8 got some influences from it, since The Host also focusing on the family issues, and even the monster didn’t show up early.

Abrams and Spielberg are people who are able to maintain the secrecy surrounding the whole movie. Even we don’t have a clear picture of what’s really happening on the trailer. I guess their objective is to gain people interest not just by showing off the monster/creature, but also they try to sell the story simultaneously. In the end, I got more than what I’ve expected, and trust me, Abrams still has lots of thing hidden in this flick to throw into your amazement.

One of his great skill is to bring out the unknown actors. Courtney, the lead kid, truly shines in all scenes (mind you, this kid has all the burden in order this movie to be successful). What even makes it better, the chemistry of Courtney and the so talented (and gorgeous) Elle Fanning is so spot on and astounding. I mean, after watching this, who does not love Elle Fanning? The scene when she faked the zombie thing toward Courtney was so cute. Who’s Dakota again? Another great cast must be the Joe friends of amateur movie maker team. The hilarious Riley Griffiths as the director and not to mention Ryan Lee as the pyromaniac/fake zombie kicks me out for lots of laughter. Probably the best kids’ movie since Stand By Me, I really amazed on how these kids acting look so real, natural, and so bound together despite the insanity of the situation they are trapped within. All I can say, it’s been rare since Hollywood is able to produce a mature movie with a bunch of kids with it.

On the technical side, I gave my thumbs up on how a $50 million movie can come up with a fantastic, net, and efficient CGI usage. The train crash is probably one of the craziest scenes due to its level of insanity. And Abrams’ trademark is back with his signature lens flare and shaky camera techniques. He uses them a lot, but don’t worry, you won’t be left nauseating or having glare issues. They worked perfectly and adequately well.

However, I mentioned above that Super 8 is kind of homage of 80’s flick. The lowdown, there’s nothing new from Abrams here, feels like he’s making a some kind of tribute (a proper one, of course) for Spielberg’s magnificent movies back on that 80’s era. All those emotions and experience of watching Jaws, E.T, or Close Encounters are brought back by Abrams. Suffice to say, if there’s anyone who is capable to fit in Spielberg’s shoes, look no more, Abrams is the perfect guy for it.

Super 8 perhaps is not a movie for all viewers, the first half-hour may bore some, and the weak ending may leave you a bit disappointed (like me for one). Abrams successfully builds up the tension and suspense, but pity the paying off doesn’t go well. But for me who have lived through 80’s movies, reminiscing the old era in this modern flick brings some excitement which I haven’t felt in recent Hollywood movies. It’s fresh, something different, and not your ordinary monster movie. Last but not least (not trying to be paedophile), I gotta say, I have a crush on Elle Fanning.

My Review: 8.5/10

Peace was never an option...

Plot:

X-Men First Class takes place around the 60's, set in the middle of Cold War and where racism was common. As both Jew and Holocaust survivor, Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) held a nasty grudge, and tirelessly chasing Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a former Nazi officer who exploited his mutant power. On the other side, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) just made a breakthrough in mutant study, and FBI made an approach to him in order to stop mutant-alike threats. Charles found Erik accidentally, and by mutual consent, together they formed a band of mutant people to team up against Shaw and his gang. The cold war culmination toward WW III is in the horizon, and only they can put an end to it.

Review:

X-Men was considered as gambling project back in early 2000, where comic and superhero movies were not money making business. 1st movie was received quife well, while 2nd one was, I must say, one of the best superhero/comic book adaptation. X2 has propelled the notion that superheroes are good for business (after $214 million US box-office). Unfortunately, the legacy was ruined by the disastrous X-Men: The Last Stand and the failure of Wolverine, first of many X-Men: Origins series (and the last one, indeed).

Then, X-Men: First Class came up as the solution on how to fix the whole mutant series. As in Star Trek, Batman, James Bond, and other remake projects, continuation was written off, a fresh new start began. Hopefully, this can clean up the tarnished image and open up new story line.

After 132 minutes (pretty long for this genre), I can only say, WOW!

Amazed, First Class is truly incredible, a top notch execution from Matthew Vaughn, who also did a pretty good job transferring Kick-Ass into the big screen. With Bryan Singer, now as producer, and Sheldon Turner (Up in The Air) developing the story, backed up with scripts from Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz (both did Thor), Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass) and Vaughn himself, X-Men: First Class has a great reboot story line, and magnificent start of something fresh.

As a summer flick, it rocks, and it delivers all the good ingredients: great action, humor, effects and a strong connection between heroes, villains and those developing in between. On the production side, the retro design is suave and making this a period piece gives it a cool and unique flavor, reminds me of Mad Men. Another good plot is that the way it seamlessly integrated with actual Cuban Missile Crisis back in the 60's (using Kennedy's memorable speech was awesome).

But, the true gems is the performance of both Fassbender and McAvoy. Each played his own part brilliantly, Fassbender who always looks menacing and ambitious, while Charles is the naive, light hearted, and the calmer persona (not to mention flirty also). Most of the movie reveals their relationship which started as friends, partners, and mutual coalition, until they explored each other vision, thus opens up the rift and in the end starts the eternal war of soon-to-be Professor X and Magneto. Xavier may not have shown exaggerating power on-screen, but he's cool enough every time he's touching the forehead, while Magneto really shows what he's capable of with all the metals. Not as exquisite as the previous movies, but one particular scene involving a knife was stuck in my mind.

No Wolverine (not yet), Cyclops, Jean Grey on the good side, but we get Raven a.k.a Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Angel (Zoe Kravitz), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones), Darwin (Armando Munoz), and Havok (Lucas Till). Each mutant possesses raw mutant ability, until Xavier trains them to control it. While on the dark side, we have Emma Frost (January Jones), Azazel (Jason Flemyng) and Riptide (Alex Gonzales). A decent supporting cast, where Lawrence, Hoult, and Jones who gets more screen time and lines. Thanks to the latest CGI technology and the proper and smart use of it, the mutant power is much more better exploited in this flick. Raven's changing shapes and Azazel teleportation is as good as the previous one, while Havok and Basnhee provides something new and cooler.

X-Men: First Class is not just a dazzling flick, but the serious tone and moral message is still relevant. To compile it into a whole package of superhero/comicbook translation shows that the team behind this movie are showing intention that they are not only making big budget crap. An effective reboot, strong script, backed up with powerful performances of the cast, the whole production was first class.

My Review: 9/10