diversen Reviews

2009: Lost Memories (2002)

Lost in Space

[23 August 2003]

This is interesting.

The movie got enough materials for a good movie. a gripping story, interesting twist of plot, strong casts, nice action sequences, and powerful ending.

Some weaknesses and plot holes can be tolerate, including some low cost special effects and camera manipulations.

But apart from that, the whole combinations succeed on giving full entertainment and just a simple moment for you to think of all the possibillites in this world.

If you have interest in asian movie, try this one. i strongly recommended this one for story telling and action-drama presentation.

Nice evening movie...

Children of Heaven (1997)

In God's Country

[13 August 2003]

Commenting this movie is total useless.

Because it holds so much beauty in it's simplicity.

The plot is simple, the actings, the casts, the musics, the cinematography, the arts.

And yet it hold us dearly. Bring us to the daunting passion of love and pain, laugh and tears.

As the movie ends, we left with a simple thought in our minds, a simple teaching of love. Simple love and simply love.

One of the best family movie for every occasion.

Rollerball (2002)

hardball

[10 August 2003]

i thought i give it a shoot.

john mc tiernan's starting to loose his light after die hard 2, dimmed in the medicine man, getting worse in last action hero, and keep on getting worse.

rollerball suppose to be another try out just to prove what potential can still be left of him.

nothing.

bad script, weak casts, not even a single interesting approach or style or even camera angle. the soundtracks sucks, the action blunt, it's such a blunder.

the characters undeveloped, even the rules of the game (which was suppose to be there) was not informed to the audience.

there's no connection between the audience and the characters, and seems the director fails to deliver any message or so whatever. such a failure. mr mc tiernan, you flunked big on this one.

a great weekdays movie to be watched whilst you're browsing or hang around with your lousy neighbour...

Returner (2002)

recruiter

[9 August 2003]

the beauty of japanese movie, most of them got different approach than holywood theme.

just the glance of it, we think that takeshi kaneshiro is the truly the hero in this movie. he's the returner. he's the one who determine the whole mission and plot.

don't be too sure.

interesting enough to see the plot twisted and revealed bit by bit and surprise us enough until the last moment.

the plot, the twist, in fact the whole movie has nothing new to offer. but alas, the way it is presented is indeed still amazing.

give yourself a break for this multi lingo movie, unstrain yourself from the usual americanism and settle for a japanese treat. you might see some of the matrix, mission impossible 2, transformers, i.d.4, etc. here. but still it's fun to see.

perfect weekend evening movie.

Monsoon Wedding (2001)

must see wedding

[9 August 2003]

it is either you love it or laugh it.

in it's simplicity line, there are many complexity stated in this movie. the beauty lies in its cultural background and the characters built upon one single event: the wedding. but you got to see many love and faces of family life here. love of a father, daughter, mother, sister, aunt, even in laws.

in it's simplicity, you simply fall in love with the family and ended up joins the wedding yourself.

the simple flaw of this movie however is off course due to its many characters, we're left with the red line of it. though it should've been more beautiful to see and learn more with the individual characters, though it might need more than additional 200 mins to cover all that.

but it was forgiven. we were invited to a wedding, and we see this lovable family interacts and intacts. and that's the universal meaning of a wedding. to celebrate love and love to celebrate.

a perfect sunday-family movie.

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

the truth and nothing but the truth

[9 August 2003]

a simple start and a simple ending.

but the way through the whole movie is indeed not simple. though not many flicks around, you stillbe able to enjoy the journey. interesting characters and setting makes powerful impression of this simple movie.

what interesting is how the coen brothers somehow able to put some unnecessary acts for built the characters and shapen up the show.

splendid weekdays evening movie.

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

breast and the bossoms

[4 August 2003]

two words: chicks and cars. more words: hot chicks and fast cars.

this is the movie at it's stupidest level. extremely low and basic.

but good.

and very enjoyable.

what else can you ask from an action movie? it has great angles, cool guys, hot chicks, and magnificent casts.. err... i mean cars...

watch it again and again, and you find yourself admiring the director's approach on making movie with such weak plot.

perfect all-time action movie!

Melody (1971)

marvelous

[4 August 2003]

Musical film at it's simplest.

With simple yet charming basic theme, melody strucks with the monkey love between 2 school pupils. also there's theme of friendship jealousy and students rebelious against teachers.

decorated with bee gees' songs, the movie blends easily and warmth our hearts with those old feelings, the feelings when love was at it's simplest forms and how beauty lies in simple things.

A perfect family-nostalgic movie...

All Mine to Give (1957)

all what is left

[4 August 2003]

the tragic and sadness foresee in this family drama. as usual, started with this happy scenes, and then the movie gets bleak and darker... and the rest of the movie was a true effort to milk our tears out of our eyes.

what's left with the audience is an empty thoughts and a sense of frustation, watching the children's unknown future and their loss...

a family movie, just to enhance the family values and bounds. that's about it.

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)

chuckling angels

[5 July 2003]

dudes this movie's rocks!... hahaha... it's as light as a feather, as enjoyable as popcorn, sweet as an ice cream...

leave you nothing special but a supposedly enjoyable moment the whole show.

bear in mind, the positioning of the angels here is even more cheesy than the original charlie's angels. on the movie, especially this one, the angels will survive... will shine... and indeed eternal. well at least the present angels. so just sit back and enjoy the throttle.

it's like watching 100 minutes of music video. absurdities and impossibilities goes hand in hand with laughters and stupidities.

the visuals are great. the effects are fine. the girls are hot. and the musics are hype. if you're asking for a serious plot or some great insights from this movie you'd must be asking more than a mission impossible.

a perfect light movie for all time... my dad will love it.

We Were Soldiers (2002)

we were asleep

[5 July 2003]

braveheart shines. the patriot somehow glows. this one simply dimmed.

i probably missed something, but this movie really lack of grips and interests. it just tell a story about the soldiers suffering in vietnam. and somehow mel gibson doesn't fit there. younger casts might be more convincing. probably also because the charisma mel gibson has have distracting even before the movie starts.

there are still some enjoyable and memorable scenes. the message is there and it's quite loud. but fail to deliver any new messages.

so when the movie finally over, we gasp and blinked our eyes few times as we're trying to recall what we've just seen...

a sublime movie to be watch at night...

Shallow Hal (2001)

shallow all

[5 July 2003]

of all the crap given to this movie, i would like to make a note that this review is about the same.

so what's the purpose of giving another bad review of this movie?

just to point it out to you that this movie's really sucks...

ok. there are still some o---kaaay scenes but as the movie goes on, the story also goes off...

skip this if you can, just to encourage the movie makers to re-consider again from making such failure movie. and also to make gwyneth paltrow a second thought before receiving contract for doing this kinda crap anymore.

a perfect dvd gift to be given to the inlaws....

The Musketeer (2001)

must be missed

[5 July 2003]

unless you are a serious movie goers who willing to see ANY, i really mean any kind of movie, including the terrible ones, that you'd better not watch this show.

it is amazing how a good story and a potential elements can be combined to make such a mess. the whole thing is a mistake and the more you continue the story, the more mess you see.

expect nothing when you watch this movie. in fact, do not expect to see anything at all. it's much better to see the chris o'donnel version rather than this.

sorry if i sounded so bad, but peter hyams, as usual as he used to be, should be able to make this one better. you got the director, the script, the casts... and it leaves me wondering who fail to do the job in making this movie even watchable.

a perfect movie to be given to your nemesis...

Gangs of New York (2002)

Fangs of Big Work

[5 July 2003]

I feel sorry for this movie.

This is indeed an incredible movie, and fail to be the best picture for Academy Awards is beyond my imagination.

For a story with a vivid structure, and interesting twist of plot, grips you with the characters for around 3 hours of an exhausting process and a punching clymax.

Some casts are abit fail, not major. Personally, cameron diaz in too old, whilst leonardo de caprio is a bit too clean. but you SHOULD see liam neeson and daniel day lewis go hand in hand lightened up the screen. For everybody give way for daniel day lewis to glow brightly throughout the movie.

you can either like him or love him in this movie. and indeed he is the gangleader in this movie. he grips this movie.

a splendid saturday evening movie...

One Hour Photo (2002)

One Bleak Vision

[17 June 2003]

You couldn't get better than this.

The basic story concept is somewhat basic and raw. To be honest, nothing special in it.

As the story go along, the plot went stale, very usual, seen it. read it. know it. that's it.

The actor and actresses and also basic. Sure, sure, we got the famous Robin Williams with other supporting actors. but to be honest, nothing special to be noted here.

But the elemen of surprise is more towards the presentation.

Seen in a cyclop view, this movie is far more powerful in it's vision. And motion picture is about visual language, right? So there you have it.

All the scenes, especially the colour shading and tones are bleak and so rich. It's like looking at the bleak photograph. The way the main character sees his world. One bleak vision.

The movie leaves a dry stain of impression of visual enchantment there. Very vivid and impressive. But to be honest, the story just went by like rolls of undeveloped film. We remember the shoot but not the picture.

An interesting weekend movie...

Finding Nemo (2003)

Finding More

[15 June 2003]

What can I say? It's much better than Toys Story (ok, ok, Toys Story's still nice, but sometimes I think they've pushed it too hard) It's much more heartwarming than Monster, Inc.

From the animation, the visual, the story and the humor, this one exceed them all. I think we indeed got a winner here. I sadly said that Ice Age also get beaten by this one.

Infact, you can find lots more than just a comedy or animated movie, but also the hidden message of love and friendship in not a cheesy style.

Finding Nemo is more than what a family movie suppose to be. It is indeed a treat! All time favorites show for all occasion. Kudos!

The Pianist (2002)

The Pessimist

[15 June 2003]

Of all the holocaust movie, there's Schindler's List Of all the pianist movie, there's Shine

Up to the 1/3 part of the movie, I can still appreciate the life of the pianist. But not untill he started staying in the apartments trying to stay alive with nothing but luck.

It is somewhat interesting to see that someone so obsessed with music, somehow fails to see the danger lies around him. For instance, once you were faced with this kinda danger, the most logical thing to do when you were kept in an apartment or asylum is to find an alternate route or a hidden spot. (At least that's what I'll do). Infact, the pianist just carry on and believe that luck will keep him alive.

Not until he met the german captain and fail to return his thank to him. but also the ss jacket incident which keep me thinking what an obsession can make a person fail to see the surrounding life and logical threat around him.

But anyway,it is a good movie, especially if you love chopin's works.

Just Married (2003)

just nice

[12 June 2003]

dude, where's my logic?

this is a simple movie about complicated relationship made simple. the story is set up to be difficult but the solution is straight and ended up just nice.

the basic concept is a bit like 'cocktail'. but this one is far more sway than the latter.

anyway, it still got it's interesting points and messages. and still very fun to watch. it's like witnessing your own honeymoon...

a nice weekend movie for a date.

Dreamcatcher (2003)

alien chaser

[12 June 2003]

unless aiming for the matrix-last flight of osiris, you must be a serious stephen king fan to be able to enjoy this movie.

the beginning is very much like 'it'. but the story evolves to be a story of fart and crap.

but anyway, despite of the fuzzy logic there, we can tolerate few absurdity and still enjoy watching the imagination and friendship between the good guys.

after all, we're all trying to catch our own dream here.

a casual midnite movie (preferably with you date).

The Guru (2002)

the doofus

[12 June 2003]

and why should we expect a logic in this kind a movie?

this movie was made to be disastrous. so let it be! sit back and enjoy it's absurdity. anyway there are quite many hilarious moments to be laughed about.

the casts are nice and warm. the characters are simple and linear. so indeed apart from the logic and the story telling, its still a good movie after all.

casual movie to be watched anytime.

Black Hawk Down (2001)

purple heart

[12 June 2003]

Never before the tension was build intensely for this war movie. Ridley Scott, already famous for his story telling ability, march towards a war story. a reality war story.

We are a spectators, lurking towards the brutality of people caught in crossfire and peace. between fear and anger.

great movie indeed. i just wished they can do something about eric bana's statement in the final moment of the movie. it makes the movie less human. but apart from that, i rarely watch movie more than 8 times like this one.

a splendid war movie. for late evening tension.

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

playing god

[12 June 2003]

so we see it.

after knowing he's the one. now it's the time to be the one.

what was stated briefly in the matrix, was now widely used and exposed in reloaded. all those bullet time, those flying, those martial arts, in brief, this is an emphasize matrix with additional portion towards the real world and the other resistances.

i recommend you all to (also) watch animatrix, because it indeed contribute few important points which helps us to understand few characters and the history of the matrix.

indeed, this must be one of the most enjoyable movie this year. you should like it (regardless the weak architect conversation and how trinity now is weaker than she was in the matrix-give us back our tough trinity!!!)

in brief: satisfying show of neo playing god... harf...harf...!

Man on the Moon (1999)

star on the run

[12 June 2003]

once started to be an unusual show, then become one of my most favorite movie.

the movie interacts with the audience. and the casts enlightened it very much. it is an irony in reality. a cry in a joke.

milos forman able to present andy kauffman in another reality. and how tony clifton make a milestone in this movie...

a great movie. indeed a great one.

a reflective weekend movie.