Change Your Image
ngiuphobia
Reviews
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
Repetitive plot, nicely executed
This movie is somewhere beyond hopes, and somewhere below it. Of course it would lack the surprise & first-time excitement factor that gives the first movie its charm. Some of the plots are expected, heck, the plot is even as repetitive as the first one. Hiccup is just so self righteous it almost feel forced. On the other hand, it's packed with great visuals. More mature ambiance and surprisingly fun battle. I love Stoick and I hate what happened to him. Toothless is adorable as usual. Valka is beyond my expectation, glad she didn't turn into cliché animation character that would actually kill the movie. Alpha's fight too short, I would really love to watch more of it. Overall, a fine movie for the holiday with your kids. So much worthy than any other kids-flick this week.
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
boring, too many stiff dialog
Transformers AoE is boring. I think the plot is promising, but the writing sucks. Many dialogs wasn't done right and feel forced. Actions is okay, so long as you don't expect any climax. There's no awe moment here. For the last 30min, I lost interest and wish the movie will over soon. Characters weren't boldly written...so I can hardly feel for any, even for optimus prime. I kinda miss the bond between autobots and people, which are not shown here. Too many missing links between the incident at third movie and AoE.
However, still a flick to watch in your spare time especially if you're into robots and story doesn't matter much. Like those new dinobots, which i believe was part of the canon.
Surrogates (2009)
How do you save humanity when the only thing that's real is you?
Remember i-Robots or The Terminator franchise? movies where robots rule our world? Well, this movie is nothing like those. Okay, a bit. but not robots-going-bad stuff you like. Surrogates is what I thought would really happen next decade. It's about creating something you thought would be useful but in the end keeps you away from real life society. Surrogates are robotic-clones made to represent ourselves in society. It's like a persocon which looks exactly like us. Owning a surrogate means you can have whatever body you ever wanted, being places without ever leaving the house, doing whatever you want without the consequences of getting hurt physically. Imagine playing The Sims in real life. That is Surrogates.
Story begin when a policeman named Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is forced to leave his house for the first time in his real body to investigate a murder of other's surrogate. What strange about the case is the fact that its user was found dead exactly as his surrogate got killed. That is not supposed to happen when you use a surrogate, for it is originally created to make you safe. Juggling between solving the case, finding the truth and coping with his own emotion and passion of being a real human in an unrealistic world. The needs to feel and being attached to each other, even knowing that his wife is trying to hide herself from the pain of losing their child, making Surrogates more emotional and touchy than typical sci-fi. Watching the movie also make you aware of what technology can possibly turn us into.
Ain't focused on who the bad guy is, Surrogates really wanna tickle your humanity. Wheter to life flawlessly in a surrogates world or dealing with your problems and be fully human. Just like its tagline: How do you save humanity when the only thing that's real is you?
Shutter Island (2010)
Scorsese successfully made us questioned our own sanity, like it could happen to any of us is many ways.
Bite me for watching it only to fill my Loe-hunger! haha. And...for the fact that Leo paired with Martin Scorsese always made a good movie. Since Gangs of New York to finally set an Oscar in The Departed. Now another psychological thriller, breath-taking journey in an asylum scenes. Leo plays U.S Marshall Teddy Daniels who was in 1954 went to Ashecliff Hospital with his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Rufallo) to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), a patient who vanished from a locked room. The hospital itself located in a cluster island called Shutter Island. There they meet the head psychiatrist, Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley), who's suspicious enough to make our Marshall suspect him of doing something unusual to patients inside the hospital. Later soon they claimed they've found Rachel, but Teddy insisted they must have hid something else inside the place. So he continue his investigation, along with his strong will to find his wife's killer who was said already sent there, but nothing related to him was ever found in the hospital. Emerges to uncover the conspiracy, along with fear and the urge of finding his wife's killer, bring Teddy to the edge of his sanity itself.
At the end, Scorsese rewarded you with a beautiful twist which I already guessed ^^'. But as an adaptation from a famous novel of same title by David Lehane, this movie sure worth to watch. Leo's act, as usual, never failed me. He plays this fragile Marshall even more than just 'very well'. And Mark Rufallo as a sidekick isn't bad at all. In fact, almost all casts played beautifully here. One thing, I admire how Scorsese put the first person point-of-view into a great visual adventure for us. He even successfully made us questioned our own sanity, like it could happen to any of us is many ways. But I think it will be just perfect if he also develop its mysterious surrounding area a lil'bit more, or bringing even greater thrill to our throat by taking a little attention to the doctors and workers around them. But I guess since it is indeed Teddy's own journey to follow, I can take it nicely.
In the end, I suggest you to bring extra food as the movie is a bit slow and action-less. You who doesn't like drama or psychological thriller might get bored. But trust me, it's definitely worth the sacrifice. He's Leonardo DiCaprio afterall ^.*
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
it's a wonderful-fun-happy booster movie to watch. Total cuteness in visual (just look at those dragons, they're very cute!), and it also comes in 3D
Watched this dragonimated movie last Tuesday. I never read any review about it even though a friend told me it's a good movie. So when someone offered me a ticket, I was only say "uh? okay
". No, I'm not an animation hater. It just didn't catch my interest that some kid trying to pet a dragon. Well, at least, I thought he was
.
That is, until I get to see what How To Train Your Dragon really is. At first it all looks typical. A loser kid who wanna gain his fame through famous dragon-killing tradition. Hit a dragon, but ain't able to kill it. So what did he do? exactly! train it. In the end, he'll gonna save the day with his dragon he named "Toothless".
I was wrong. How To Train Your Dragon eventually gives you more than just classic animation story. There's no "I realize I was wrong, please forgive me" things going on (except for the father, once), no extremely good guy/bad guy, and no overrated drama. It's naturally fresh by the way it take us to the next level of animation-journey. Whereas we already gone through far-far away or just simply do a kick in Kungfu Panda, How To Train Your Dragon teach us about being ourselves and the meaning of friendship in a more fun, exiting way.
Ending was terrific. Though at some point we can still smell what's gonna happen next, the execution itself or how they bring the visual as well as the story is beyond my expectations. The loser did not magically become powerful or instantly popular. He take what he deserve and try to be the best he can be. Afterall, sometimes being different does make you the only one capable of making improvement.
Some people said How To Train Your Dragon is way much better than Shrek or Kungfu Panda. My friend even said "once you watch it, you'll want your own dragon for sure!" Well it didn't catch me that far, but yeah it's a wonderful-fun-happy booster movie to watch. Total cuteness in visual (just look at those dragons, they're very cute!), and it also comes in 3D. So what are you waiting for? Go watch it, people. :)
Yes Man (2008)
Yes Man, starred by the famous Jim Carrey -who's not gonna be too comical here - and the beautiful Zooey Deschanel
Yes Man, starred by the famous Jim Carrey -who's not gonna be too comical here - and the beautiful Zooey Deschanel. Story goes as Carl Allen (Jim Carrey), who was left by his wife years ago, suddenly lost his passion and keep saying 'no' to the world. he even forget his bestfriend's engagement party, take all the chances he got to the garbage can and spend his nights doin nothing
barely nothing
'til one day he meet a man who introduce him to a club where all the member just need to say 'yes man' to everything comes ahead. even throwing oneself out of the bridge! Well surrounded by doubt, he simply take it as a nice-treat but not to follow. All of course, before Terence Stamp, founder of 'Yes Man' club makes a 'covenant' with Carl to say YES at every opportunity and Carl hesitantly agreed. So just right after that, our 'no-man' Carl turns to 'yes-man' Carl who'd simply give his money away to a homeless man he met at the street just because the man ask for it.
overall i love the way Allison live her life and the way she presenting herself to the world
She take life as simple as she loves to make a jogging photograph and sing whatever song she likes, going somewhere clueless, just do whatever she likes. my fav Allison quote : "The world's a playground. You know that when you are a kid, but somewhere along the way everyone forgets it. "
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
my first impression is that Rachel Getting Married is a movie about reality.
my first impression is that Rachel Getting Married is a movie about reality. There goes the scene where Kym (Anne Hathaway) -who's apparently the main role here, not Rachel- return back home for her sister's wedding, Rachel. then it's gonna be just a common story if Kym wasn't a rehab-ally. it seems that she has been in and out of rehab for the past 10 years for drugs problem, but her major issue is her self-oriented attitude. and that's definitely a no no when the one should be getting all the attention is your sister. so here's where everything starts. Kym try to get along with her long-time-no-see family while her family tries to accept her as the way she is. but that's not all. as the story walk you'll see there's a deeper fact bring them to rise such a family-breakout.
i think Rachel Getting Married is a beautiful movie. aside from the warm atmosphere gain from it's picture taking technical, their lovely and romantically written songs, the ground-breaking dialogue, and how they manage to put each characters into a human being itself, Rachel Getting Married is definitely a nice story about one family who's walking through a part of their life. it's about a relationship that hard to manage but sweet as we sees it. each time i saw it i burst my tears out, just like that. the connection between family, no matter how much you want to put it aside, it always come back to a path where there's actually love and need in one another.
so my final word is to say that Rachel Getting Married is a movie about us. about everyone. it's a story about life and a part of a lifetime. it's a story that teach us about loving, about accepting, about being brave and face our own mistakes and fears.
New York, I Love You (2008)
Strongly reflect their first phase, Paris Je t'Aime, New York I Love You move a little bit slow though drive a wider range of citizen and life within it's people.
Strongly reflect their first phase, Paris Je t'Aime, New York I Love You move a little bit slow though drive a wider range of citizen and life within it's people. Film itself built of several stories/segments, each written by different writers as well as directed by different directors (Fatih Akin, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, Shakher Kapur, Joel & Ethan Coen, etc.) Aside it's director, series been widely known for the big star performance. Just mention Natalie Portman, Elijah Wood, Steve Buschemi, Juliette Binoche, Nick Nolte, etc. in Paris Je t'Aime. So when the series brought in New York, there no question there would be twice as much to mention. From Hayden Chirtensen to Burt Young, Eva Amuri to Shu Qi, almost all cast are already a star of it's own.worth watching, no? Too bad I've late on it's show so I gotta skip the first story..or should I say, I dunno what's the first story after all *grin*. OK so my first story start when David, a young musicist (played nicely by Orlando Bloom), is making an agreement with a girl he used to talk by phone, Camille (Christina Ricci), who demand him to read a book in 5 days. David, however, been counting that it's impossible for him to finish the book even if he's not practicing his music. Just when David about to give up, Camille (who he never actually met) shows up offering him to read the book for him while telling him a nice story about a writer and his wife. Am I not telling it right? well it means you gotta have to watch it yourself :p Following segments are nice, some rather slow and boring. But mostly stirred our mind to New Yorker's life and atmosphere around it. Many are related to art or music and night life among the city. There's a husband wandering the night in cigarettes to avoid dinner with his wife, a call girl seeks for life of her own, a young schoolboy and his prom date (my favorite twist-ending story), and many others. From this many story my favorite is a conversation between a woman and a man having cigarettes outside a restaurant. The woman, firstly ask for a light for her cigarette, then tease the man, challenge him to sex with stanger. Just when the man is about to teased, she surprisingly refuse and say : "Married man are always blind of what they have in their own bed. To them, strangers are sexier, more passionate. but I'm about to change that. I'm changing everything. Now I'm going back to that restaurant, I will be sitting in front of my husband, who's gonna love his wife like never before." Turns out they're husband & wife! There's also segment about an old-couple walk in the city. Almost all of their time spent in argument but just when they reach a park and start silence, we can almost breeze by their feelings to each other. All sweet. The old revenue also filled in a hotel in which a singer retiree choose to stay. The 40th architecture's building boldly hold European taste is her silence witness to her glamorous days and also a perfect place to do one thing. But there's also a young room-boy, Jacob (Shia Lebouf) who shares her loneliness. One cold, sad story.
Anyway, I find New York I Love You a bit disappointing compared to it's previous, Paris Je t'Aime. All segments moving too flat, no jumping emotions, no climax, few twist,too many conversations....or is it already reflect how New Yorkers really live their life? :p Like Paris Je t'Aime, New York I Love You linked all segments together in the end, and there's only one thing to link them all, a woman named Zoe (Emilie Ohana) with videocam who kinda move around the city and often put her videocam unattended inside a coffeshop to record all things happen in New York.
Finally, don't rush to follow my judgment. As I always mention, it's only my immature opinion among things I found interesting....after all, New York I Love You is still a good choice to spend Saturday Night with your love one :)