Late Summer

Quick reviews on three films from the summer, Ted, Savages and The Campaign. Like really brief and quick review. Bonus, two films from September.

Ted
The highest grossing R-rated comedy to date certainly has a unique premise, also a cute, irresistible teddy bear named Ted who happens to be alive because of John Bennett's wish. The movie is a nice one, although not that funny. I'd prefer The Hangover over Ted. However Ted's visual effects is quite good; better than Twilight or G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra. Seth McFarlane is truly a genius and Mila Kunis is difficult to resist. When you finished the movie, you might wonder, which one is cuter, Mila Kunis or Ted? The film has some good moments and funny moments, including an extended cameo by Flash Gordon himself. The ending is also touching. Ted: rated 2.5/4


Savages

Oliver Stone's new film marked his departure from the 'more serious' genre of movies, y'know, the political ones like his latest W. This is one is adapted from a book and has an ensemble cast which are led by John Carter, Kick-Ass and Serena Van Der Woodsen. The story is about a large cartel who wants to deal with independent weed growers but apparently failed in the negotiation. Therefore they kidnapped the growers' shared girlfriend and those growers tried to do anything to get her back. The one performance that was disturbingly good was Benicio Del Toro's. However, the rest of the cast did a great job too. The twist in the end was annoying because it doesn't improve the story at all (I can't talk much here to avoid spoilers). There's another thing that I was annoyed by which was the way Indonesia was associated with the words 'jungle' and 'savages'. You guys may be sadistic savages, but us in Indonesia, we are not savages who live in the jungle and doesn't have a Chanel shop. Thank you. Savages is worth a watch for the raw feel and the uniquely normal-but-strange story and its twist though. Savages: rated 2.5/4


The Campaign
For me this film is funnier than Ted because the jokes are more unpredictable and kinda random. While on Ted, you can expect dirty jokes from a teddy bear. The film's story is about two candidates Cam Brady and Marty Huggins who fights for the title congressman of North Carolina. While Cam Brady is always elected as congressman, Marty Huggins came out of nowhere because he's funded by businessmen who have a secret plan. Will Ferrell is playing in good comedy films, like Talladega Nights or Anchorman, and this one is another his of good ones too. Zach G is playing a different character albeit similar traits (dumb and stuff), he's already a typecast. One thing that the film lacks is bigger role on Jason Sudeikis bcos like in Horrible Bosses, he could be extremely funny too. While the jokes sometimes aren't that funny because it's already everywhere in the trailer, the film is smart in criticizing some of the politics routine and it makes the film interestingly funny. The Campaign: rated 3/4


End of Watch
A Chronicle-style buddy cop drama? With Jake Gyllenhaal? Count me in. The story is about two police officers who got tangled in cartel business while doing their daily job. The film makes use of the 'self-taping' thing and sometimes from the police cam while also infusing traditional cameraworks but mostly handheld. This method proves to be effective, not only because we get the gritty feel but also the dangerous and raw atmosphere of the film. Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena here is so good, their relationship is like very real. I enjoyed this film very very much. Although the one setback is that the opening is too slow to make way for the real conflict. Great film nonetheless. End of Watch: rated 3.5/4



Looper
My God I finally watched Looper. This film and Dredd are my most anticipated film of September. The story is about an assassin called Looper who have to kill his future version of himself. (please bear with me cos I'm about to have an outburst) JGL IS AMAZING. He doesn't look like JGL at all. I watched 50/50 trailer after I watched this and it's like I'm looking at a different person. Bruce Willis is also good here, which I didn't expect. The film is sooooo cooool, sooooo tense. I lost adjective to describe how cool this film is. The effects are just amazingly badass. Definitely the coolest film of the year. I also liked Paul Dano's brief appearance. But this film is Rian Johnson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's show. I can not complain about anything. Looper: rated 4/4.

See you December 2nd (or 3rd) for Skyfall.

Homecoming

You have to know. You gotta know. You gotta acknowledge this. I just watched a film in the cinemas today! After 6 weeks of not going to the cinemas, I finally got to go to the cinemassss. so happy man. I traveled all the way from my small town Beppu to a much bigger city Oita by train, taxi and bus. The mall that has this movie theater is located quite far from the actual city itself, but the location and the building kinda reminds me of Mall of Asia in Philippines. The mall is called Tokiwa Oita Wasada Town or idk, something similar to that. I wish there are better films for my going-again-to-the-cinemas event, but actually Paranormal Activity 4 would do just fine. Through this, I learned that may be patience is really a virtue because that feeling of comfort in the cinemas is unbeatable even by the most expensive sofa or sound system in some ridiculously enormous mansion. Anyway, in this post I would like to review PA4 but also include a quick review of one of the nicest films I've seen, Ruby Sparks.

Main event: Paranormal Activity 4
I have to admit that Paranormal Activity series is my favorite horror franchise, although calling it a horror film may be an insult to some of the real horror films. If you've read my last post, you'd understand why I chose this particular film to watch in the cinemas. I watched the film alone, since my friends isn't that interested in watching this film. Paranormal Activity 3 is quite thrilling albeit its lack of footage that was shown in the trailers and also its (kinda) disappointing ending so I was quite intrigued about where does this fourth installment going to take us. The story have sort of moved from Katie's family to a neighbor's family 5 years later after Katie took Hunter from Kristi's house. Apparently this family adopted Hunter and that creepy guy Toby was tagged along. And someone in the family taped this whole affair and the paranormal activity started to happen, as always.

To be honest, the film is disappointing. The film is a bit boring unlike the other three films and the 'activities' isn't memorable or really scary. It's just random objects moving without anything happening. Sometimes something really good comes up and was kinda scary but it ended up being nothing. Everyone would remember that the most memorable 'activity' in PA2 is the afternoon bit where suddenly the kitchen just blowwssss. and the one in PA3 is the levitating kitchen. And in PA4......nothing. And they make surveillance cameras out of laptops and Kinect, which, to me, is amazingly ridiculous. There is a homage to The Shining though but not good enough to cover the big hole created by the whole film. The amount of ghost violence is also reduced due to strange editing, which is a bummer. The people in the family are not likable enough for us to root for (the Alex girl is cool but it's largely because of her being so cute). I wish they go back to the sequel quality of PA3 or PA2 for the fifth one and make it a more interesting story that's more cohesive the whole series. (I'm still waiting to see that burning house). I'm not going to compare the sequels with the original because the original is just the most effective without the legend and the cult stuff. It's quite safe to say that Paranormal Activity 4 is the worst of the series*. Paranormal Activity 4: rated 1/4

*I didn't regret watching it in the cinemas though

Side dish: Ruby Sparks

Ruby Sparks is a new film from the directors of Little Miss Sunshine and it stars Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan and also famous supporting casts. It tells the story about a struggling writer who by accident bring his fictional character from his book to life. Most interestingly, this character is the girl he always dreamt of to be his girlfriend. I like this kind of film, a romance blended with fantasy but not too much. Paul Dano is amazing as usual and Zoe Kazan is brilliant as she also wrote the story herself. You may think that this is a weird film, but it's like (500) Days of Summer's realism meets Stranger Than Fiction which equals to a nice, sweet, heartwarming film. The film is a study to relationships much like (500) Days and the film made you realize something important, which can vary to each person. If you like Little Miss Sunshine and (500) Days of Summer then you'd like Ruby Sparks as much as I do. Go see it! Ruby Sparks: rated 3.5/4.


I may review some other films, or just post random posts but just to be sure, I'll be back on early December with the review of Skyfall. Until then, さよなら.

A Love/Rant Letter

Week 6. Still haven't been to cinemas. Personally, my last record of not going to cinemas was only 3 weeks. Well, my schedule until early January only lists Argo, Paranormal Activity 4, Skyfall, The Hobbit and Looper. Recently I learned that Ben Affleck's Argo is only playing limitedly in Japan, so it's not going to reach my village-y place that's two hours from the nearest biggest city. It sucks yes. I didn't want to resort to torrenting films. I have always been a fan of watching movies in cinemas. Watching movies in the cinemas is simply indescribable by words; the sound of popcorn crunching, the cold light breeze of the air conditioner, the dark room, the blaring sounds, the (maybe) comfy seats, the fellow audience, the large screen, the stupid people playing their phones in the dark or maybe the couple making out in the corner. The laugh shared together with the audience or the thrill of everyone in the room holding their breath. I miss all that. Especially back home knowing that everytime I go to the cinemas it means that I'm going to share more or less 2 hours with the people I trust to be with me for that time being: my family, my brother, my friends. Going to cinemas is like spa for me. Going to cinemas is like going to a beach for me. Going to cinemas is like shopping for me. Going to cinemas is like every good thing in life. Every time I walked out of the theater after a film, I feel free, I feel happy, I feel a soft cushion of clouds with rainbow in front of my eyes (hyperbole alert!). No matter how bad or good the film is, my feeling stays the same. I miss going to an IMAX theater, the super large screen and the super loud sound system is unforgettable. I know I'm like someone who came from a remote village in a godforsaken land and go to the cinemas for the first time, but the feeling is like that. Although next week I'm bound to go to Oita for Paranormal Activity 4, I really want to be able to experience the joy of watching in cinemas every week.

Part 2 of this post is my rant about how retarded Japanese cinemas on releasing Hollywood films ON TIME. Japanese government have issued an anti-piracy law that was effective per October 1, 2012. To what extent does this law cover? Apparently every unlicensed material that's available on the internet. Not only downloading torrents of films and music but watching unlicensed videos on YouTube could be endangered by this law. Well, why do you need anti-piracy law on the first place? Because Japan is too arrogant. I know they are trying to protect their own film industry but come on, delaying films up until 2 years isn't the answer. For example, The Hunger Games was just released recently on September 28 in Japan while its DVD has already been released on August 18 everywhere else in the world which means that a Blu-Ray torrent of the film is already available on the Internet. Doesn't that hurt the film and cinemas itself? I understand if the delaying only takes 1 week or 2 weeks for dubbing and stuff in Japan, but like Daniel Craig & Rachel Weisz's Dream House that is just going to be released this November? Do you need a year to do dubbing and that other stuff? For the case of Argo, the film is released perfectly on time, but not getting a wide release. Rage rage rage. The world says that Japan is one of the developed countries but apparently my country Indonesia whose status is only a developing country is more experienced and excelled in handling this movie stuff. In Indonesia, Skyfall is getting an early release of November 1 whereas in Japan, December 1. In Indonesia, films are getting released on time and better yet, the films' selections are amazing. Japan did not have any certainty on recent films like Dredd or End of Watch but Indonesia already screened both of them. I puzzles me how Hollywood still sees Japan as one of the big markets as they are still coming and do press calls or premieres in Tokyo or other places in Japan. I tell you, nothing special here in Japan for Hollywood films. People here would still prefer watching anime than effects-heavy Hollywood films.

Let's see what happens next week.

Set of Skills

It's been ages since my last post. Sorry sorry apologies. For this post I'm going to review the sequel to the 2008 hit, Taken,which established Liam Neeson as an action star. Without Taken, there wouldn't be Unknown, The Grey, or even Taken 2 (obviously). Actually the premise is kinda stupid because being taken again? seriously? Now Kim's parents are taken? seriously? But Taken 2 promises full-action and new setting, Istanbul. Is it worth the shot then?

The story is that the Albanian family from the people Bryan Mills (Neeson) killed are seeking revenge. Mills himself is currently taking a security job in Istanbul, Turkey. Her ex-wife Lenore (Janssen) is having a marriage problem so Mills took her and her daughter to Istanbul for a holiday. The Albanian family, led by Murad, the father of the guy who got electrocuted in the legs until he died, knew they are in Istanbul and they wanted to bring Mills to Albania to kill him.

That's pretty much the story. The title itself is its own spoiler. The original Taken bravely took a serious story about human trafficking, this one doesn't. Taken 2 is just action action action without memorable story and scenes. The logic is also strange. At one point, Mills told Kim to use grenades in the middle of the city for the sake of showing off his set of skills of hearing sounds to determine location. Grenades man, grenades. Where were the bloody police in Istanbul where there's an explosion and no one cared? Not only once, but three times Kim threw grenades. The editing is also all over the place. It comes to a point where making a scene looks strange. For example, a criminal is killed because Liam Neeson facepalmed him? Makes perfect sense right? Well if you look at the film's Wikipedia page it was explained how he died, but we need visual explanation though. The Albanian is not that tough either, in one scene they let Mills make a phone call for such a long time. Are they not afraid Mills would call the police or someone else? Looking on the bright side, Liam Neeson is still as kick-ass as he was but lacking logic and rationalism. As Bryan Mills said, "I'm tired of it all", I hope there isn't Taken 3 somewhere near in the future. Taken 2: rated 2 out of 4.

Undenying

Hello, I'm not dead yet. I just opted not to post anything because I haven't had any materials to write. Although I did watch Rodrigo Cortes' latest film, Red Lights, which I'm going to talk about later. Yes, this is my first Japan-based post. I'm already settled in a simple dorm room in Beppu, Oita. It's in the island of Kyushu. Far away from Tokyo and the cinemas is a train-ride away from ma crib. Anyway, this is my thought about Red Lights.

Red Lights is the newest film from the director of the claustrophobic, mini-budgeted, one-man-show, Ryan Reynolds-starring Buried. Rodrigo Cortes indeed has some uniqueness in his films, his themes are different. This time he digs about fraud in showbusiness, particularly those involving supernatural things or magic. The film stars Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro. This is my first Elizabeth Olsen film, by the way. Someday I'll get around to watch Martha Marcy May Marlene or Silent House. The story is about Tom Buckley (Murphy), an associate of Professor Matheson (Weaver) who makes a side job by revealing fraud in the 'magic' business. And there's Simon Silver (De Niro), a veteran magician  who's making a comeback after almost 20 years missing from stage. Buckley is somewhat compelled to investigate Silver, although everyone knows that Silver is dangerous.

The premise is definitely intriguing and by looking at the trailers, you can get crazy to watch it. However, Cortes didn't tell and communicate the story well. Sometimes you feel there's a vital part missing in order to tell the story right. The big twist in the end is also a bit underwhelming to my taste. Some important things are just left unexplained, leaving me with so much questions. However, this film does benefit from incredible acting by Cillian Murphy and Robert De Niro. Sigourney Weaver's just the same nowadays so, nothing to comment. I'd love to see Rodrigo Cortes make more movies. I think he has this promise of delivering good cinema to the world. And also I would love to see Cillian Murphy get bigger roles because he totally deserves it. I'd recommend 28 Days Later and Sunshine to see Murphy in full action. Red Lights: rated 2 out of 4.

BONUS:
There's this incredible article I just found by Sujan Patel about Batman quotes from Nolan's trilogy.
He picked 10 quotes that led him to successful career life. I'll attach the link to it but I'd be kind enough to include my own favorite that is mutual with Patel's choices.

"Harvey Dent: “You make your own luck.”

In The Dark Knight, Harvey uses this line in reference to a double-sided coin, but I see this principle paralleled in the way we talk about entrepreneurs.  Too often, we refer to successful business people as being lucky, or having “been in the right place at the right time.”

I believe it wasn’t an accident that put those people in the path of “luck” – it was the hours of hard work and dedication that were occurring behind the scenes.

Bill Gates is often held up as an extreme example of luck in the business world.  Not only was he born into a privileged family that allowed him to spend his formative years at private primary schools and Harvard (institutions that would have had access to computing technology not available in other programs), he was born at a “lucky” time in the development of microcomputing and had the good fortune of teaming up with fellow visionary Paul Allen at the right moment.

But despite these factors, to say that the entire success of Microsoft can be pinned on one man’s lucky break is extremely shortsighted.  Certainly, Gates wasn’t the only one born into these specific situations.  Any number of his classmates could have replicated his early successes – but they didn’t.

Really, for most successful entrepreneurs, a moment of good fortune is one of millions of other moments dedicated to hard work and drive.  Without the hundreds or thousands of other things done at different periods in their companies’ life cycles, they never would have been able to capitalize on the instances of luck that did happen to appear. "

Here's the link to the whole stuff, make sure you read it 
10 Batman Quotes Leading to Success!

Lastly, I kinda owe any of my readers this video 

*for the Thor bit, I know it's off topic to the rest of the vid but I just gotta do it when I saw the lightning.