Moon: Review

Wow this was a very disturbing show. Moon kind of reminded me of Requiem For A Dream because right after the movie finished I was kind of depressed. But I liked this movie man. It was a really ballsy sci-fi drama and given the small budget it worked with, this film is almost as good as District 9. The only difference is, D9 was more of an action film.. Moon is more of a psychological drama.

 

Moon is a story of Sam Bell, a solitary man working on the moon for 3 years harvesting solar energy to be packaged and sent to Earth. Though he does have company in the form of GERTY, his robot assistant, the 3 years alone has taken a psychological toll on Sam. When Sam is 2 weeks from completing his working contract, strange things begin to happen that challenges the very fabric of his humanity and soul.

 

Sam Rockwell is fantastic in this movie playing multiple versions of his character who are slowly losing sanity and will to live after discovering terrible facts about his existence. I really wanna say what those facts are because it will make this review much easier to understand but I can't spoil it. It really is a shocker what goes down with his character in the movie and Rockwell is amazing in the role. He practically carries the weight of the film and he does it incredibly well. He should get nominated for an Oscar.

I liked Kevin Spacey as GERTY. A really nice homage to HAL 9000. What I thought would play out with his character didn't exactly happen here which was a nice surprise but I think Moon would have had much better suspense and tension if GERTY became like HAL and go all SkyNet on Sam Rockwell.

 

I love love love the art direction in Moon. The set pieces of the moon base is gorgeous, really well done and a great throwback to classic sci-fi films like 2001: A Space Odyssey. The cinematography and visual effects were impressive given the budget of the movie.

 

One thing I didn't like about Moon was that it took a bit too long to build up to the big reveal of the movie. So for a good 45 minutes I'm left thinking what on earth is going on and slightly bored. But damn, when it get's there it just blows you out of your seat.

 

Moon is going to be a cult classic I guarantee. It's just that not many people has seen this yet. It's going to get that same status as The Thing and The Fly which weren't popular movies but gained strong fan following after a few years. It's a very disturbing sci-fi drama with a fantastic performance by Sam Rockwell. Moon's worth checking out ya'll! I got the DVD who wants???

RATING: 8/10

The Lovely Bones: Review

The Lovely Bones! The latest love child from the man who brought us Heavenly Creatures, The LOTR series and King muthafuckin Kong ya'll! To bad this movie was shitty. Wait, WHAT? Peter Jackson made a shitty movie? Yes he did people! Yes he did!

 

Based on the Alice Sebold novel, Lovely Bones is about Susy Salmon, played by Saoirse Ronan  who was brutally murdered by her neighbor and is now trapped in a fantasy world between heaven and Earth. From this wonderland she watches over her family as they grieve and her killer as he attempts to hide all traces of the murder.

Interesting story, no? Really the premise is really creative here, so what the hell went wrong?

 

All the stunning visual effects in Susy's fantasy world served no purpose to the story and really threw off the whole focus of the film which is the family drama post-Susy's death. Just when the build up of this story of a family trying to stay together after the death of a loved one and the story of the murderer trying to stay under the radar gets good, the film cuts off to show some effects shot of Saoirse Ronan running around in the fantasy world.

 

And it would have been nice if the sequences in the fantasy world and the sequences in the real world connected with each other but it didn't. You'd think Susy might try to reach out from the afterlife to try and contact her family like in any other ghost movie but it never happens. Which really begs the question of why we are even seeing the whole fantasy world sequence at all. So great visuals, but ultimately served no purpose whatsoever.

 

Mark Whalberg who plays the dad should stick to playing foul mouthed characters like in The Departed cause he was really really annoying here. He overplayed his role by a long stretch. It was like he was talking to a baby throughout the whole movie. You know.. what with the goo goo ga ga tone and all. And when the story goes to when his character has a nervous breakdown following his daughters death, he was kinda one note pulling it off. But then again the mediocre script really didn't give him much to work with.

 

I liked Rachel Weisz and damn she's smoking hot. But she disappears through half the movie and almost with no reason at all. 

My absolute favorite performance from Lovely Bones was Stanley Tucci as the creepy rapist neighbor. This man plays the very definition of a psychotic serial killer. What sold his performance to me was his eyes. On the outside, his character is incredibly silent and composed but when you look into his eyes it just sends a chill down you're spine. I can't really describe what I saw in them but there's just something off about them. If you saw his character in real life, you'd really feel unsafe around that person, that's how great his acting was.

 

So am I saying that Lovely Bones was a complete mess? No not really. I just wasn't satisfied with it coming from someone as great as Peter Jackson. There were some parts I liked a lot. Susan Sarandon gives great comic relief, parts of the Salmon family beginning to suspect their neighbor as the murderer were very well done and I loved the performances from Stanley Tucci and Saorise Ronan.

 

I blame it completely on the fantasy world sequence. It took me out of the really interesting parts of Lovely Bones just so that it can show me some nice effects, which are great eye candy but completely unnecessary. I thought they should have just stuck with the story of the family and the murderer with Saoirse Ronan's narration. Overall, nice idea.. poor execution. Please don't fuck up The Hobbit, Peter Jackson.

RATING: 4/10

The Spy Next Door: Review

Uhhh.. I feel kinda stupid. See I had a reunion with the uni mates, haven't seen them in weeks. We decided to see a movie. We missed Legion so we had no choice but to go for The Spy Next Door. And I was like okay lets be fair to the movie, cause mostly anyone who goes to watch this already has a preconceived idea that this movie is going to suck. So I thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt. Guess what? It still sucked.

 

The movie is about Bob Ho, who is this top spy on loan to the CIA from the Chinese Govt. on a mission to capture this Russian bad guy. In the suburban life, he acts as a pen salesmen who's dating his next door neighbor, a hot blonde chick who has 3 children from hell played by Amber Valletta. So when Amber Valletta gets called away, Bob volunteers to babysit the 3 demon kids as his Russian nemesis tracks him down for revenge.

 

Tedious set up, completely unoriginal, we've seen this a thousand times with other fallen action heros like Vin Diesel, Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Rock bla bla bla. The movie makes no attempt to cover giant plot holes. I almost felt embarrassed sitting in that cinema thinking to myself "How the hell did I wind up paying to watch this horrible movie."  And I really felt urges to slap the people behind me who were constantly laughing at the lamest jokes in the movie.

 

Spy Next Door's only saving grace was Jackie Chan. Which could make watching this turd of a film tolerable you if you like him. So yeah like Su YSW says. "Only watch it if you are a fan of Jackie" However I still want to punch him out cause that accent is really irritating. you know.. the I'm a Chinese trying very hard to speak good English accent.

 

 

On a positive side.. I think this is the first American film Jackie has done in a long time that actually has some good fight scenes in them. And when I say good, I mean really good. I missed the old Jackie Chan fight movies that were both intense and creatively funny at the same time and yeah Spy Next Door delivered in that. There were some points in the fight scenes that I found myself actually applauding.

 

 

Another thing I will give this movie credit is that it never stooped down to the lowest rung of children comedy. There weren't any fart jokes, poop jokes, pee jokes, baby vomit jokes or pet jokes. There were occasional out of place slapstick but were inoffensive and mostly happens during the fight scenes. But it's still not that funny. 

And damn the villain lady is hot. Her names Katherine Broecher. She was like in the tightest leather outfit with a push up bra and I was like Ooooooohh... I don't think she should have been in this film. Hello? This is a kids movie! You're too damn hot. Later some 10 year old boy will discover that his thing does more than pee hahaha.

 

And like in any kids movie, I really hated the kid actors in this. They were incredibly annoying and they weren't even acting annoying. They were just legitimately truly annoying. Why can't people get good child actors anymore?

Those good fight scenes aside, there's really not much reason why anyone should pay to see this movie.  Still can't believe you paid RM120 to watch this Su hahahaha.

RATING: 2/10

Carlos Tevez Football Gallery

Carlos Tevez Poster

Carlos Tevez Celebration

Carlos Tevez Football Picture

Carlos Tevez Wallpaper

Carlos Tevez Action

Strategi Mobil Nasional, dari Desa ke Kota

Rencana pemerintah Indonesia untuk membuat sebuah mobil nasional sebenarnya bisa dilakukan dengan membuat sebuah mobil sederhana yang berharga murah sehingga mobil tersebut dapat diserap oleh para konsumen di daerah.

Hal tersebut diungkapkan oleh pengamat otomotif dalam negeri Suhari Sargo ketika
berbincang dengan detikOto, Jumat (29/1/2010).

Suhari beranggapan bahwa mobil nasional yang saat ini paling realistis dan strategis untuk dikembangkan adalah mobil sederhana dan murah untuk masyarakat pedesaan. Jadi seperti pepatah lama 'Dari Desa Baru Serang Kota'.

"Masyarakat pedesaan adalah konsumen paling strategis dalam pengembangan mobil nasional kita, karena di sana masyarakatnya lebih butuh sebuah mobil dengan teknologi sederhana namun kuat dan irit bahan bakar," ujarnya.

Faktor-faktor tadi lebih mungkin untuk diterima masyarakat desa dan daerah. Terlebih pasar di sana masih terbuka sangat lebar. Sementara untuk pasar perkotaan menurut Suhari masih sulit menembusnya.

Sebab pasar yang ada sudah lebih dahulu dikuasai prinsipal-prinsipal asing yang tentunya akan sulit didobrak oleh merek lokal. Terlebih untuk membangun sebuah mobil berteknologi yang layak untuk perkotaan, kita menurut Suhari sudah ketinggalan, karena sebuah teknologi itu butuh pengembangan dan riset yang tidak sebentar waktunya, belum lagi biaya riset yang dibutuhkan juga sangat besar.

Jadi kalau mau mengejarnya lebih baik dimulai dari daerah atau desa dulu. Pembuatan mobil untuk masyarakat daerah itu pun menurut Suhari bisa menjadi ajang belajar kita, entah itu dari strategi pemasaran, brand building dan pengembangan teknologi.

"Bicara otomotif itu bukan hanya bicara investasi atau kemauan saja, tapi juga bicara pasar. Nah yang paling realistis saat ini adalah membuatkan sebuah mobil murah untuk masyarakat desa dan daerah. Ini kan sekaligus membantu pemerintah melakukan pemerataan," jelasnya.

Mobnas Jangan Terjebak Eforia

Maraknya mobil karya anak bangsa atau mobil nasional, jangan sampai membuat Indonesia terjebak dengan kesenangan buta belaka, kalau Indonesia sudah bisa menciptakan mobil nasionalnya sendiri.

Hendaknya, tindakan tersebut pun diiringi dengan strategi dan perencanaan matang untuk jangka panjang, serta dukungan penuh dari pemerintah, agar kelangsungan mobil nasional bisa diperhitungkan oleh pasar.

Hal tersebut diutarakan Presiden Direktur Indomobil Sukses Internasional, Gunadi Shinduwinata. Menurutnya, sejauh ini ia melihat bermunculannya mobil-mobil nasional masih sebatas eforia belaka.

"Jangan terjebak eforia, kita juga harus pikirkan jangka panjangnya, agar tidak gagal lagi," ujarnya kepada detikOto di sela-sela peresmian Showroom Hino di Sunter, Jakarta, Sabtu (30/1/2010).

Sudah menjadi hak masyarakat setiap bangsa untuk membanggakan hasil karya bangsanya sendiri, termasuk bidang otomotif. Tapi, tambah Gunadi, eforia dan gembar-gembor semata tidak akan membawa industri mobnas tumbuh.

Akan lebih penting bila pemerintah pun turut ambil bagian bagi perkembangan industri mobil nasional. "Kalau finansial tidak mau, cukup keluarkan kebijakan yang membela mobil nasional," tambahnya.

Kebijakan tersebut harus jelas. Apa yang ingin kita kembangkan dan seperti apa nantinya konsep mobil nasional untuk Indonesia? setelah itu, baru pemerintah belajar untuk konsisten.