Short Reviews

Nightmare on Elm Street

When a horror movie stops being scary, you know that it stops being entertaining as well. The case here is true for Nightmare on Elm Street, the remake of the notorious horror featuring Freddy Krueger as the maniac kid killer. The plot does not change at all and it is really just a template to display Freddy’s gory brutal murdering spree. The movie was directed by Samuel Bayer who is a first time film director albeit has some experience directing music video clip. He was asked by producer Michael Bay to helm the project. This remake is surprisingly flat, silly and does not really have any entertaining aspect at all. You might as well throw your money into ocean watching this garbage. I wonder why most if not all product of Michael Bay is huge giant garbage.
Zero star out of Four (F)



Kick Ass

Kick Ass is a new kind of movie. It is not really a superhero movie, albeit it revolves around the mythology of a superhero. It’s not movie for adults, as most of the content is juvenile. And yet it is most likely not a kid movie due to its ultra violent, potty mouthed and sexual content. It is a blend of genres mixed by producer to generate the greens in their pocket. Although it doesn’t really work, due to sickening violent content displayed by kids, it is a new breath to have something fresh though not quite original. It is about a high school boy inspired to become a superhero to save the day, and inspiring other people to become superhero too. But you know the plot is thin as is the character. Nicolas cage must be in a great fiduciary problem, that he is willing to take this unimportant role of his career just to cash some checks.
Two stars out of Four (C )



Iron Man 2

Two years ago, I was not impressed by the big giant advertisement of the new superhero movie Iron Man when it hit the theatres in may. Three months later when I relocated in to a small town of Hickory in North Carolina due to job placement, I found a small movie theatre with admission ticket of $2 that plays late released movies. Iron Man was one of the movies playing at that time. To my surprise, it was one of the best superhero movies in recent years, and certainly is on my list of top 10 films of 2008. Now when the sequel hit the theatre, I am not necessarily able to wait that long since now being in Jakarta, no such movie theatre shows late released movie available. The sequel is nearly twice as fun and fantastic. But I don’t know why it doesn’t have the same kind of energy the first one had. Maybe because I grew tired of sequel that does not expand, or maybe due to a very high standard The Dark Knight had set up on sequels. Having said that, I’m just glad there is at least one new release this may that quite kicks
Three Stars out of Four (B)

Review Future X-Cops

Andy Lau is a veteran in Hong Kong film and music industry for more than three decades. As a kid I always consider him a hero, when other children idolize super hero and comic character. With such great film resume which mostly comprises of various genres like crime gangster, comedy, gambling, and period martial art movies, he was considered the most mainstream actor his generation. One notable film which I consider cult is Savior of the souls 1991. I watched the movie 10 times at the time. Twice in theatre and the rest I saw it on home video and it even played on television. When I was young, I considered him, Chow yun-fat, and Stephen Chow the king of all kings of the world of cinema especially when Hong Kong cinema was at its peak in late 1980s. As time goes by, of course I began to peek at the Hollywood movies which were much more superior at that time and sort of ditch Hong Kong cinema which hit all time low during mid 1990s with ubiquitous exploitation movies. But those three actors I mentioned above survive and now when cinema of Hong Kong is reviving, they remain the kings of Hong Kong cinema but of course no longer the kings in my eye.

Future X-Cops is the first foray of Hong Kong cinema in science fiction picture. Although, the visual effect is a bit clumsy, I really respect the effort of the filmmakers to do something different and refuse to stick to regularities. What I can’t accept though, is the ridiculous and poor storyline that really is silly and immature. Lau plays Kidd, Hong Kong cops in the year 2080. In the wake of his wife death protecting one Dr. Masterson, he then travelled back into the year 2020 to stop the evil power killing young Dr. Masterson. Enough said, I can’t even express how ridiculously bad the plot really is. The film which is directed by Jing Wong, who specializes in mainstream and commercial movies, had directed one of the worst movies this year. It does not really make sense for all the stars to join in this garbage even if big paycheck is involved, I would suppose Lau does not really need additional load in his account for risking his career in this picture. But the nationalism spirit did kick him in due to the fact that it is really the first bid budget Hong Kong movie in Science Fiction genre. Too bad, it though I revere the technical aspect, I despise the plot.

"Future X-Cops" is unrated but contain comic violence. One Star out of Four (D). -Mulyadi Tjoa, MIS officer @ P.T. Freeport Indonesia-