Do You Miss Me?

what life? I've been away (grins)

Just when you thought that Elementary is hitting all the right notes and after wondering to myself whether Elementary is a good adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story or not, something arrives and reminds me that above the sky, there is another sky (this is an Indonesian proverb, so go figure). Sherlock is finally back after two years! And this morning/yesterday (depends on where you are), it wrapped its too-short season of three ninety-minute episodes. The series of course sees the return of now-international celebrities Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in their respective roles as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. And here I am reviewing the episodes of series three. Mind you, they don't come as brilliant as The Scandal in Belgravia but offering their own different merits. According to me, this series' theme is mind palace. What is mind palace exactly?

guess who's mind palaces are these?

By the way, this post is spoiler-free!

The Empty Hearse
This episode offers the best first 3 minutes of television, thanks to Anderson's wild imagination. The return of Sherlock Holmes from the dead is celebrated with this hilarious episode, a different take from the more-serious previous episodes. There's a brilliant scene where Sherlock takes on his clients while Watson takes on his patients. It is clear from this episode that this season's direction is more to the emotional and psychological aspect rather than just action. And that paid off, with a perfect take on Watson's future wife, Mary along with a superbly adorable Amanda Abbington (who's even more likable that she is Martin Freeman's real life partner!). What's even best is that this episode doesn't even provide us with a definite method on how Sherlock faked his death. And this is the first time the term 'mind palace' is spoken. Perfect beginning to the series.

The Sign of Three
Initially, for like the first 45 minutes or so, I hated this episode. This episode might came off to audience as unimportant and unintelligent. But then again I must be underestimating the very high-level intelligence of the writers, because it came out as the best episode of series three. To make an episode out of  Sherlock's best man speech isn't easy and this apparently became something really really unexpected. The story is so clever. I have no higher praise than that. The fact that Irene Adler briefly cameoed is another high point in this episode. I loved seeing Sherlock more than just a consulting detective and just a geek, in this episode he was shown to have a really great human interaction. His way of defining himself as high-functioning sociopath is almost irrelevant. This episode is actually really really really funny as well! And for the first time ever, Sherlock welcomed us to his mind palace.

His Last Vow
This was a return to basic after the previous funny episodes. We finally got a full look at this series' big baddie, Christian Magnussen. Different from the rock-n-roll, Staying Alive-hating Jim Moriarty, Magnussen is real creepy. And in this episode we got a big surprise reveal..... that Sherlock Holmes is sleeping with a girl! No, not that. A big surprise..... about Mary, which I won't disclose, especially that the US still has to wait for another 3 weeks to end series 3. Once again, this episode is a character and relationship-driven one, but also giving the punch at the plot as Sherlock's past and character is starting to unravel. I loved how the series approached John as an adrenaline junkie and how Sherlock is becoming even more human and becoming a best friend for John. This episode shows how Magnussen, a man of similar intelligence as Sherlock, misused his exceptional mind palace for bad things.
And guess who's back at the end of the episode?

Series 3 is yet another amazing series of Sherlock. Cumberbatch and Freeman gave their all. Particularly Cumberbatch in the last episode. The writing is top-notch. The music is eargasmic. Would it kill people if we have at least five episodes per series? And don't make Sherlock a once in two year event! Don't you dare and torture us fans like that again!

I See You

Hey there! This is my own tradition and I have done this since 2009 (I didn't even realized it has been 5 years). It started as notes on Facebook until 2012, then I decided to move the list to this blog (therefore aiming for a smaller audience). 2014 is starting and of course, 2014 is nothing compared to the upcoming mega monster movie year of 2015. But still, let's take a look at what the chef prepared for appetizer. And I, as the restaurant manager, have filtered the choices so that the only movies that we see would only spell quality. That was a confusing sentence. As always, this doesn't include 2013 award season films and perhaps doesn't include 2014 award season films too (because unlike tentpoles, they don't have a definite release date from now). Plus, bold titles mean must watches and unmarked means negotiable.

JANUARY
- Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit with Chris Pine and director Kenneth Branagh

FEBRUARY
- The Lego Movie with Chris Pratt, Morgan Freeman, and directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller
- The Monuments Men with Matt Damon and actor director George Clooney
- RoboCop with Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman and director Jose Padilha
- Killers with Oka Antara, Luna Maya and directors The Mo Brothers
- Winter's Tale with Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe and director Akiva Goldsman
- Pompeii with Kit Harrington, Emily Browning and director Paul WS Anderson
- Non-Stop with Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and director Jaume Collet-Serra

MARCH
- 300: Rise of an Empire with Eva Green, Rodrigo Santoro and director Noam Murro
- The Grand Budapest Hotel with Ralph Fiennes and director Wes Anderson
- Need for Speed with Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper and director Scott Waugh
- Divergent with Shailene Woodley, Kate Winslet and director Neil Burger
- Muppets Most Wanted with Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and director James Bobin
- Noah with Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and director Darren Aronofsky
- The Raid: Berandal with Iko Uwais and director Gareth Evans

APRIL
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier with Chris Evans and directors Anthony and Joe Russo
- Sabotage with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington and director David Ayer
- Transcendence with Johnny Depp and director Wally Pfister

MAY
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and director Marc Webb
- Chef with Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau
- Neighbors with Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and director Nicholas Stolllr
- Godzilla with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston and director Gareth Edwards
- X-Men: Days of Future Past with Hugh Jackman and director Bryan Singer
- Maleficent with Angelina Jolie and director Robert Stromberg
- A Million Ways to Die in the West with actor director Seth MacFarlane

JUNE
- Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and director Doug Liman
- The Fault in Our Stars with Shailene Woodley, Willem Dafoe and director Josh Boone
- 22 Jump Street with Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill and directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller
- How to Train Your Dragon 2 with Jay Baruchel and director Dean DeBlois
- Jersey Boys with director Clint Eastwood
- Transformers: Age of Extinction with Mark Wahlberg and director Michael Bay

JULY
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with Jason Clarke and director Matt Reeves
- Jupiter Ascending with Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis and directors The Wachowskis
- Hercules: The Thracian Wars with Dwayne Johnson and director Brett Ratner
- Step Up All In with Ryan Guzman and director Trish Sie

AUGUST
- Guardians of the Galaxy with Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and director James Gunn
- Lucy with Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman and director Luc Besson
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Megan Fox and director Jonathan Liebesman
- The Expendables 3 with Sylvester Stallone and director Patrick Hughes
- The Giver with Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep and director Philip Noyce
- Sin City: A Dame to Kill For with Bruce Willis and director Robert Rodriguez
- Jane Got a Gun with Natalie Portman and director Gavin O' Connor

SEPTEMBER
- This is Where I Leave You with Jason Bateman and director Shawn Levy
- The Equalizer with Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua

OCTOBER
- Gone Girl with Ben Affleck and director David Fincher
- The Interview with the team of This is the End
- The Judge with Robert Downey Jr. and director David Dobkin
- Paranormal Activity 5 with some crew

NOVEMBER
- Interstellar with Matthew McConaughey and director Christopher Nolan
- Dumb and Dumber To with Jeff Daniels, Jim Carrey and directors Farelly Bros.
- Fury with Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf and director David Ayer
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 with JLaw and director FLaw
- Horrible Bosses 2 with Kevin Spacey, Jason Sudeikis and director Seen Anders

DECEMBER
- Exodus with Christian Bale and director Ridley Scott
- The Hobbit: There and Back Again with Martin Freeman and Peter Jackson
- Annie with Quvenzhane Wallis and director Will Gluck
- Into the Woods with Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep and director Rob Marshall
- Night at the Museum 3 with Ben Stiller and director Shawn Levy
- Unbroken with Domnhall Gleeson and director Angelina Jolie

Well, this list could still expand with more films but for me, here's my top 10 anticipated films of 2014 with reasons why!
10. The Raid 2 - nation's pride
9. Dawn of the Apes - because I need to speak with Caesar
8. Mockingjay Part 1 - Jennifer.
7. Transcendence - Depp in real life-not that real tho.
6. Gone Girl - Fincher.
5. The Hobbit 3 - because it's the last? duh.
4. Edge of Tomorrow - Tom Cruise and sci-fi is never wrong
3. X-Men: DoFP - you gotta be crazy if you're not excited for this
2. Godzilla - look at the spectacular trailer yo
1. Interstellar - Nolan in space.

The Sign of Four

Happy New Year guys! So sorry for taking a quite long hiatus for I have been holidaying for last year's winter break. Nevertheless, I still caught up to some films (like I always do) and one of them is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Yes, I know-that's so November 2013-but it's a recent release here in Japan. I watched it on the first day and got a free mockingjay pin from the cinemas. Lucky huh? I also included other reviews of Ron Howard's Rush, the Carrie reboot and Richard Curtis' latest About Time.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The film is incredibly faithful to the book and it is a definite upgrade from the already satisfyingly great first film entry to the series. The film has I Am Legend and Constantine's Francis Lawrence at the helm and the amazing cast that includes Academy Awards winners and nominees. Jennifer Lawrence is at her all best in this film and had this film is not a blockbuster and more of a awards season fare, Lawrence would've had a shot at Best Actress. The supporting cast is superb like Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland. The newcomers Sam Claflin and Jena Malone fit perfectly to the film. The scenes in the games are gorgeous and the pre-Games story is nicely done. It is a very promising entry to look forward to this year's Mockingjay. However, it should be noted that unlike the first film's great soundtrack album, this film's soundtrack album is so bad. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: rated 4/4.

Rush
It's a rare Formula 1 drama, mainly because the Americans are alien to this high-risk sports. The film chronicles the rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt in the 1976 Grand Prix where Lauda had an horrible accident. Ron Howard's direction is top-notch, Hans Zimmer's score is perfect and not too attention-grabbing, but the real star here is Daniel Bruhl. He played Niki Lauda amazingly and flawlessly. It is a gigantic question mark that Bruhl isn't a serious contender in the awards' season. This film could make you feel the pressure, tension and pride between Lauda and Hunt. I knew it would be great right from the trailer but this is beyond my expectations. Rush: rated 4/4

Carrie
Right from the first scene, it has already tried to differentiate itself from the superior Brian DePalma film. While it successfully inserted today's lifestyle with social media and cyberbullying stuff, Carrie still doesn't work mainly because Chloe Moretz's unfortunate casting. She's too good to be Carrie White. And the comparison between the original film is inevitable. Even the brilliant Julianne Moore-although here showed her best performance-still pales in comparison to Piper Laurie. The climactic prom scene is not as shocking as the original, it was too fast and too CGI-filled. The score for the film is cool and I loved Gabriella Wilde here (new crush!). And of course Chloe Moretz gave her all, but she's not Carrie. and what's up with the name Brian Cranstone among the prom king noms? Carrie is a unnecessary remake that shouldn't arrive here in the first place. Carrie: rated 2/4

About Time
ONE. OF. THE. BEST. FILMS. EVER. That was my reaction after finishing this film. It's currently up there with Gravity and The World's End for my top 2013 films (this is before the awards season, of course). And it's also up there with (500) Days of Summer for my all time favorites. This is a film that celebrates love and live, which could relate with everyone. Add that with a small dose of fantasy and you got your dream film. Add that again with casting Rachel McAdams and a handful of brilliant Brits and you got a perfect film. The film is pleasant, sad, and heart-pounding--just like life. Rachel McAdams is adorable as always and Domnhall Gleeson successfully carried his first leading man film. I love this film to death. It was such a pleasant film, albeit its strange rule-bending for time travel. About Time: rated 5/4.


The blog title refers to a Sherlock Holmes story, which relates to the recent BBC Sherlock episode and also the number four relates to 2014. Neat. Smooth. Strange. Anyway, next post would either be a late review of Ender's Game or a review of Sherlock's series three (whispers: I think it's the latter).

Big Epic Small Epic

This week I woke up the earliest of all time during my stay in Japan. I woke up before seven and got ready to catch a bus, catch a train, and catch another bus to get to the movie theater. Some sacrifice huh? The first film I watched today was Alfonso Cuaron's single shot-porn Gravity in 3D! This is the first time I watched a 3D film in Japan! The second is 47 Ronin, which makes this review quite special because this might be the very first few reviews of the film because it's released two weeks early in Japan (and it bombed in Japan).

Gravity
Gravity might be the most thrilling film this year, and possibly ever made. It is also might arguably be the most technically advanced film ever, beyond Avatar. Alfonso Cuaron has made a superb film that made you, almost literally, hold your breath. The film's decision to be super-realistic by using no sound in space is another point in awesome and an advantage too. The heroes in this film are Sandra Bullock who could carry the film almost all by herself, music composer Steven Price with his intense score, DoP Emmanuel Lubezki for his incredible shots from outer space, visual effects guys, and of course Alfonso Cuaron as the director. The 3D is also effective and might be the best 3D film I've ever watched. It's so great that the only thing I can comment is that if you haven't watched this, why haven't you? Gravity is intense, smart, thrilling, superb, and one of the best films of the year. Gravity: rated 5/4 TOO GOOD TO BE RATED.

47 Ronin
47 Ronin is a hyper ambitious film, with swollen budget and multiple delayed release dates. It stars Keanu Reeves and a flock of Japanese Hollywood graduates such as Hiroyuki Sanada (Sunshine, The Wolverine), Tadanobu Asano (Thor, Battleship) and Rinko Kikuchi (Babel, Pacific Rim). It also stars famous J-TV actress Ko Shibaseki and boyband member Jin Akanishi. Its decision to cast Japanese actors is commendable and deserves a standing ovation. It's a brave decision yet still they still feel the need to add Keanu's unimportant character. The film shows great deal of Japanese culture and honors them too. The bushido code of the samurais scenes are just perfect. It also improved the legend at some parts but it is plagued with cheesy lines, not a surprise coming from the writer who wrote Fast and Furious series and the writer who wrote the super minimum dialogue for Drive. The CGI is surprisingly not bad and the direction for a first-timer is quite okay. However, the other decision to add witchcraft and fantasy elements is also questionable. The film wanted to be an adventure epic but didn't explore the story too well that it actually came out like Clash of the Titans. We didn't get to invest much on the character, and they could omit some parts in favor of more important things but didn't do so. I'm not a fan of Keanu Reeves in this film, but the Japanese actors are great, particularly Hiroyuki Sanada, Rinko Kikuchi, and Min Tanaka. You could skip this film, but if you didn't it's not a bad thing either. Especially if you like Japanese stuff. 47 Ronin: rated 2.5/4

About the title, it refers to both Gravity and 47 Ronin. Gravity managed to be a great epic with a very little setting and story yet 47 Ronin just managed to be a small epic while it aimed to be a big one.

Next two weeks: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Hellish Busy

I'm so sorry but this is going to be very short. I'm so busy out of nowhere and I have no time to write the blog and actually I had no inspiration to write the blog. So, almost two weeks ago I went and watch the new Paul Greengrass film starring Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips. That would be a short review and I'll add  late three reviews of some 2013 films.

Captain Phillips
It's Tom Hanks vs. Pirates, but not as glorious like Pirates of the Caribbean nor even it is that American-heroic. It's a tense thriller, seeing the sides of both parties. The story is about Captain Phillips who's a captain for a cargo ship that had to go through the Somali Basin, which is pirates' waters. The film did justice by showing the pirates' side as well, and it did more justice by casting Somali people. Barkhad Abdi is amazing, and so do the other Somali actors. Tom Hanks is even greater, by the final scene alone, he could get an Oscar nom. Greengrass' direction is indisputable as it has been his standard since The Bourne Supremacy. The film's so good and it's not even Greengrass' best three films. It kinda shows how the Americans are the evil ones, although there seemed to be no other option. It was a very realistic, intense film set only at the seas. The only downside is the film kinda drags too long in the middle and the final scene's music is a reminiscence of Hans Zimmer's Time for Inception. But all in all, a very good film. Captain Phillips: rated 3.5/4

Kick-Ass 2
Kick Ass 2's story revolves after the events of the first film. Kick Ass and Hit-Girl are trying to fit in like usual, not as superheroes and Red Mist swore to avenge his father's death by being a supervillain named The Motherfucker. Inspired by Kick-Ass, some of the people in the city braved themselves and put on costumes like superheroes too. The film is not a bad film on its own, it's actually pretty good. But as a franchise to follow the far superior Kick-Ass, this film sucked. And it sucked almost in all aspects, starting from CGI to story. The story is unworthy and kinda disgraceful on treating the deaths of important supporting characters. Some loose ends are not tied up too. The brilliance of Jim Carrey is wasted, unfortunately. No wonder he didn't want to promote the film. I bet it's not only the violence that turned him off, but also his own screentime. Now let's talk about the good parts, Aaron Johnson and Chloe Moretz are great. The story line for Mindy/Hit-Girl is superb and it deserves a film of its own. This film belongs to 'Films That Are Not Bad Yet Its Existence Is Questionable' along with The Bourne Legacy and The Amazing Spider-Man. Kick-Ass 2: rated 2/4

The Family/Malavita
Malavita boasts great cast and a pretty good director, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones with Luc Besson. It has a killer premise of a mafia family in a witness protection program living in Europe. However in reality this actually looks like a parody of Robert De Niro films. At one point in this Martin Scorsese-produced film, Robert De Niro's character watches a Robert De Niro film which was directed by Martin Scorsese. The story isn't interesting at all and the use of violence as comedy might be fun at first but bitter when it was prolonged. The only violence I support is when Dianna Agron's character beat up guys for her women rights. It's completely forgettable although it's kinda fun at first. The Family or Malavita whatever you want to call this film: rated 2/4.

Insidious Chapter 2
After the so-so but technically great The Conjuring, I was thirsty for some real, jump-scare-moment-filled, scary horror films, then this film came. I loved Insidious' ending that I really loathed the idea of a sequel but apparently it's also good. As a horror film you'd want to watch at the cinemas or with your friends during slumber party, Insidious Chapter Two wins at every aspect than The Conjuring. The story satisfyingly answered some questions raised in the first film, expanding Patrick Wilson's character and ghost. However, the first Insidious is still better for it's prolonged horror atmospheric scene and the characters while Chapter Two resolves the story with more action, losing the stakes of a horror film and also loses the interesting characters introduced in the first film in favor of jump scare tactics, and sometimes unintentional, strange humor too. But this film succeeded in making the super-kind looking Patrick Wilson as a scary figure. Insidious Chapter Two: rated 3/4


LATER THIS WEEK: ALFONSO CUARON'S GRAVITY 3D REVIEWED!
I'd like to do 47 Ronin but apparently it's not even that well-received in Japan. Mind you, the film is already out for a week but it only collected $1.3m. And I'm not even that interested in the film so, yeah, SKIP.