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)