Review Fire of Conscience

Cinema of Hong Kong has changed a lot over the past two decades. One thing remains unchanged is the genre Hong Kong moviegoers would never ever getting tired of, the crime-gangster or cop drama. This genre is pioneered by two great street-crime movies in 1980s i.e. John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, and Wong Kar Wai’s As Tears Go By. The style of the latter is actually heavily adapted from Martin Scorsese’s Mean Street (1974) which depicted New York’s street crime gangster in a realistic fashion. At that time, gangster movies were still, by many, considered taboo. Nowadays, there are literally hundreds of them produced annually and unfortunately most of them are junks. This movie is not an exception, albeit it has some interesting noteworthy points.

Man (Leon Lai), and Kee (Richie Jen) are two cops from different units. They both coincide one another when the cases they handle are related. Man, an almost degenerate cop still mourned his wife’s death, cares one thing and one thing only: beat the hell out of bad guys’ asses. Kee, on the other hand is much less of an idealistic cop, who is actually abusing his authority to get money to pay off his debt even it conflicts his own responsibilities. The two initially were in a brief partnership until Man found out the rat behind the escape of a bomber criminal. And the two collide face to face.

I remember the last time, a very good Hong Kong thriller of this genre was out almost a decade ago in 2002, Infernal Affairs played very satisfyingly by Andy Lau and Tony Leung and was directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak.  It even caught Hollywood’s eyes and manifested with a remake The Departed in 2006 by Martin Scorsese who is literally the king of this kind of films. If only Hong Kong can maintain a crime thriller like this, I would be happy to sneak out to theatre every time Hong Kong releases this kind of film. Of course in reality, movie business is just.. well .. like any other business. The producers care about profit more than any artistic motivation. Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to that. As a matter of fact, the fact that movies of this genre are consistently produced every year means there are a lot of built-in audiences anticipating them. But they are way too many produced arbitrarily without any notion of creative craftsmanship. And instead of relying on clever, intriguing and apt story telling, this movie relies heavily on mindless noisy actions and some bloody scenes too. This is never good. The performances of the actors don’t really help much. One plus point is that the cinematography of the picture was really good !, but the editing was like a work of an amateur.

 “Fire of Conscience” a Media Asia releases was not Rated, but contain bloody and brutal violence, strong language. Two stars out of Four  (C)

-Mulyadi Tjoa, MIS officer @ P.T. Freeport Indonesia-

Review The Ghost Writer

What makes a good thriller ? A good thriller commences from an intriguing start and maintain audiences’ embraces with a consistently engrossing plot But then it starts to build the suspense until the moment of revelation is unfolded. The Ghost Writer does exactly that. If you haven’t read the novel, you might keep guessing what it is all about. But the problem with this movie is that even after the end credit roll, you will still keep guessing as you are never sure what was that about anyway and who the bad guy was.

The movie starts with an introduction to our main character which is the title role played vaguely coherent by Ewan McGregor. He is a single british auteur with style that can engineer even a lousy life story of renowned people to become intriguing memoir.  His masterpieces caught the eye of Ruth Lang (played by Olivia Williams), the wife of ex British prime minister, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) to continue to write the prime minister’s memoir in a month, equipped with the uncompleted manuscript left by the writer’s predecessor who committed suicide before the memoir get done.  Then we have this meeting with the prime minister (who doesn’t seem to possess adequate aptitude in political career) for the ghostwriter to interview him and turn all the answer into prose for the memoir. We are also learned that the prime minister has unsettled political conflict due to his involvement in a war crime. But then, something else strike our hero, he began to suspect nothing is what is seemed and since he found a secret document he realized that his predecessor might actually be killed, and start to ask himself the mystery surrounding the big man.

A Ghostwriter is an author who specializes in writing any form of literature products without addressing the credit for him/herself. Famous people (or even writer) wanting to write a book or novel (or even a screenplay), due to their strict activity and their apt limitation for the technicality of writing, will hire a ghostwriter to do the job for them. For bulk sum of money for a job well done, the ghostwriter will not get the credit for the book. The same happens in this movie where the name of our main ghostwriter remained unmentioned throughout the film. I was not too gung ho about all the cast in this picture, but they have proven to be just right (not over the top) especially Ewan McGregor whom I think play it to the heart and you can actually believe that this guy really had what he had in the picture.

The film was directed by Roman Polanski, a director who knows how to make a thriller movie as can be witnessed thru his past body of works such as Chinatown (1974) and The Pianist (2002) where he won academy award for best achievement in directing. Now, Polanski again show off his uncanny ability to make a wonderful thrilling picture, which, without much action in it can build and maintain the suspense level from start to finish and make audience embrace it. But like I mentioned earlier, it was not so satisfactory because some questions never quite answered, or maybe it is the intention of the director to an open interpretation. I admired his craftsmanship making this film while he is at a hard situation concerning the accused felony he conducted 3 decades ago, and with the thrilling political issue surrounding this movie (which  I love so much), he stands out to become one of those filmmakers you just can’t ignore. I also admired his decision to choose Ewan to become the leading actor where the actor was not traditionally Hollywood’s leading actor much in the same way as Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks. This might not be quite a satisfying thriller, but yes it is an enticing one.

"The Ghost Writer" a Summit Entertainment releases, is rated PG-13 for language, brief nudity/sexuality and a drug reference. Running time: 120 minutes. Three and a Quarter Stars out of Four (B+). 

-Mulyadi Tjoa, MIS officer @ P.T. Freeport Indonesia-

Review Shutter Island

Since 1976, when he directed Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese has stood to become one of the most influential and the greatest filmmakers in the industry. Most of his body of work deals with guilt, angst and sudden rage. From Mean Street, Raging Bull, Last temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, and Cape Fear, all sums up pictures painted beautifully depicting human character who often refuse to forgive themselves. Marty won his first long overdue oscar in 2007 with The Departed which is not his best work per se but the truly deserved the statue after being snubbed by the academy 5 times before. This time he is back with what is known as his fourth collaboration with Leo Dicaprio since Gangs of New York, each is getting better than the previous one. But Shutter Island is an exception. It is a misopportunity.

Shutter island sets back in 1954 Boston, where two U.S Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leo Dicaprio), and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) were sent into Ashecliffe a mental hospital for the criminally insane in Shutter island to investigate the missing of a mentally ill female patient Rachel Solando (Emily mortimer) . They met Dr. Cowley (Sir Ben Kingsley) who is the director of the institution to give them the briefing of the institution. Teddy feels there is a dark secret that is kept by the staff and the doctors that might be related to wrongdoing and illegal practice of human experiment in the island. He then starts to hallucinate his past especially his dead wife and child. All of these mysterious events lead up to a big secret twist ending which is really not particularly engaging.

With such weak a plot, Shutter Island becomes the worst Scorsese’s body of work over the past 20 years. It is not a movie that Scorsese was born to make. It is a bit promising in the beginning, but after several hallucination scenes it became more and more obvious and it plays off like any other psychological thriller with too much unnecessary verbose scenes. And Dicaprio, boy did he need a new material. We have seen his nervous breakdown performance since The Aviator and it’s getting better in Blood Diamond. But it then continued to become stale and the actor cannot tell when enough is enough, ok we get it. He needs to find some new material because an actor is judged by his versatility to take on multidimensional characters. Scorsese operated on a full hitchcockian mode in directing this movie. It was by far his most commercially successful and mainstreamed endeavor ever, but it is too bad for a legend like him to make this simple and lack of depth material become part of his amazing resumes of his glorious filmmaking experience over the past four decades. If it were not directed by Scorsese, I would say the picture is just fine, but in the hand of a master filmmaker, this movie is just disposable although some part of it is still worth your time and my mild recommendation.

 

"Shutter Island" a Paramount Picture releases, is rated R for disturbing violent content, language, and some nudity. Two and a half Stars out of Four (C+). -Mulyadi Tjoa, MIS officer @ P.T. Freeport Indonesia-

Top ten films of the decade (2000-2009)

10. The Departed (2006)

Directed By: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Leonardo Dicaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg

This is the best remake of the 2002's Hongkong thriller starring Andy lau and Tony leung. Scorsese, my favorite film director , succesfully adapted the film into american movie rooted in Boston. It chronicles infiltration between the law inforcer and the very people they are after. Matt Damon plays the tricky villain, and Dicaprio plays the the good guy who is in undercover as the mob member. Jack Nicholson plays the head of the mob. This star-studed picture really is one of the best crime-gangster mean-street genre that Scorsese pioneered more than three decades ago in 1973. Within the information and disinformation, you are not really sure what's coming and by that fashion this thriller drama pumps your heart pounding harder than most action-driven movies. With the usual Scorsese style of extreme violence and foul languages, this movie is most definitely not appropriate for those under the age of 20.

 

09. Casino Royale (2006)

Directed By: Martin Campbell
Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green

This is the best James Bond film so far. Daniel Craig gave the performances that no other actors that play Bond can compete up to this point. He is cold and bloodthirsty, yet he is warm and compassionate. When there is chasing and fighting sequence between Bond and his enemies you are almost made believde that you don't want to be at the other end of the strike. The title Casino Royale actually refers to a spoof comedy in the 1967 which is also a James Bond film but in a comedic tone. Now the title is used once again to refer to a casino in montenegro where Bond must meet his nemesis to battle the evil using his black jack skill, a benefit skill in addition to skill to terminate life and to conquer women. Too bad the follow up of this wonderful picture is Quantum of Solace which is not nearly half as entertaining. 

 

08. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Leonardo Dicaprio, Tom Hanks

A con man film inspired by a true events in 1960s in which a teenager Frank Abagnale Jr posed as a doctor, a lawyer, and a pilot in order to bamboozle and steal a lot of money from the people he works for. This is one the most charming performances by Dicaprio playing a tortured teenager a victim of a broken family and must do whatever he thought he could to bring his family back together once again. Tom Hanks is also entertaining playing the a bit-goofy FBI agent who is trying to catch Frank. A lightweight drama of this caliber is also a proof that Spielberg is a brilliant versatile filmmaker of our time.

 

07. The Lord Of The Rings trilogy (2001-2003)

Directed By: Peter Jackson

Starring: Elijah Wood, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen

A great epic adapted from great book written by a visionary story teller and brought up to screen by a brilliant filmmaker. There is no doubt that LOTR is one helluva epic fantasy with beautiful tale and great visual achievement and always keep you unpatiently waiting one year before you can enjoy the continuation of the journey and the battle of the middle earth.

 

06. Kill Bill (2003-2004)

Directed By: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Uma Thurman, Michael Madsen, David Carradine

The proof that Quentin really loves movies is vividly painted in every frame of this movie. The best revenge movie mixing western cowboy and far east martial art can never feel so realistically enjoyable if it were not because of Quentin’s vision of how an action film should be in order to be engrossing, enjoyable and of course becoming one of the best films of this decade. Uma Thurman gave of her great physical performances that almost no other female actress can beat. She is sweet but she can also be deadly. You gotta think twice about screwing her up ’cause she really will stop at nothing to get you. This is also David Carradine’s last feature presentation before his tragic death last year.

 

05. Avatar (2009)

Directed By: James Cameron

Starring: Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington.

James Cameron proved again that he really is the king of the world. After a huge and successful Titanic, we would think that Jim is running out of juice to make a movie that is nearly as great as the love story about sinking ship. But we thought wrong. Avatar has just broken the record of Titanic by becoming the number one picture of all time worldwide in terms of boxoffice sales. The environment-friendly theme mixed with recollection of Jim’s knowledge about all science fiction stories he read in the past. The result is a magnificent picture that is one of the best films of this decade.

04. No Country For Old Men (2007)

Directed By: Coen Brothers

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin

A story about a drug deal gone awry, and one man is trying to take the advantage out of the situation but found himself trapped in to mouse and cat chase between him and the people who want to claim the money back. This madman, played insanely convincing by Javier bardem, was the cold-blooded killer

who would never stop until either the hunted of himself was killed. This very powerful thriller is the Coen Brother's best film since the 1996's Fargo which is also about coincidence and something gone awry. The ultimate scene which is also inconclusive or should i say open to your own interpretation, is the typical signature of the directors. I found that No country of old men despite of its slow pace (also typical of the Coen Brothers) is a very intensely heart pounding thriller of this decade.

03. The Dark Knight (2008)

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger

In world of prevailing gruesome injustice, one man decides to take the stand to fight them. Batman is rebooted in 2005 with an awesome upgrade after a disaster 1997 film Batman & Robin. It is the great vision of Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer who bring our lovely crime fighting superhero back to the big screen which was one of the most awesome films of 2005. The sequel was even better, with that memorable evil villaint the joker played by the late Heath Ledger who died untimely, was definitely one of the drive of this film. He is omnipresent even when he's not on the screen. His menace really thrilled us throughout the film and his terror really turn our head upside down. The plot is awesome the story is great, the action was heart pounding and the drama is thrilling. WIth the supporting casts who play equally convincing, the picture albeit set in a fantasy world really has root in our real world especially because batman doesn't really have superpower. He counts on great technological devices and gadgets to fight injustice and crime of Gotham city. You can't possibly disagree with me if i put this film as one of the best films of this decade.

02. There Will Be Blood (2007)

Directed By: Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano

This movie is about Day-Lewis performance. If it were not due to his involvement, it won’t be on this list, hell it won’t even make the cut for the 10 best film of 2007. His electrifying performance was uncanny and unbelievable. He plays a lonesome oil tycoon who cares about nothing but his wealth. He would stop at nothing to accomplish more wealth even it that means he has to take lives. The extent to which his character would dissolve to society was not clearly defined but that's what makes the film and Day-Lewis's performance (for that matter) is so good as hell. Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA) once again proves that he is not just another filmmaker. He is, much like Tarantino, a generation VCR director who gain his movie-making skill not by going to school professionaly, but rather by watching literally thousands of VCR  in his teenagehood. The result is a master of filmmaker who as also equally excellent in writing his own script be that original or adapted.

01. Minority Report (2002)
Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Ferrell

I have trouble of sleeping for nights after the first time i saw Minority report. This is not a horror flick, but the look of our future 50 years from 2002 really disturbed my state of mind. There is no sense of privacy left for us in society despite our safety is according to the film is more guaranteed by virtue of precogs who can see the future by gathering networked information which is digitally processed from raw data using advanced complicated technique and then generate the images out of the information . The advance technology show-off cannot get any better in other films this decade than in this very film. Spielberg's execution of film-noir style much like those of Hitchcock classic was perfectly blended seamlessly with the futuristic background. This is a very dark thriller with a setting in the future of our own world as we live it today, it is really an action-thriller futuristic drama if you like. The "Who's the killer" theme usually wears us off pretty easily, but not in this film.  This is one of the greatest science fiction film of this decade and of course is my choice for the best film of the decade 2000s.

Top ten films of 2009

10. A Serious Man (B)

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen direct this subtly funny yet a serious depiction of a man and his relationship with his religion and people around him. The dark comedy is one very special and unique presentation this year especially because it was played by a lot of  unknown actors and also the prologue is a nice touch. But the ending was too inconclusive even by the Coen Brother's standard. Starring: Mike Sthulbarg. Directed by: Coen Brothers

09. Bad Lieutenant (B+)
A story about a crooked cop dealing with his problem of drug addiction and his ambiguous cooperation with the outlaw to make extra money ilegally in a dillapidating city of port call of new orleans after the katrina disaster. Not a movie for everyone especially due to its criminal-fueled theme. The movie is a loose adaptation of the 1992's version played by Harvey Keitel as the rogue detective but that version directed by Abel Ferrara has a stronger sexual content. This one has more violence and drug content. Nicolas cage plays very convincingly as the degrading detective who despite of his reckless and abusive behavior over his position can getaway with those illegalities and come out promoted. Starring: Nicolas Cage,Val Kilmer, Eva Mendes.Directed By: Warner Herzog

08. Inglourious Basterds (B+)

A come back of the super genious master of story-telling , Quentin Tarantino in a revised lesson of world war II history in a spagetti western style with stylish action violence that surely quench my thirst of awesome classy action adventure drama film. The downside is too many unnecessary dialogues among the characters which i am not nearly engrossed by as i was for Pulp Fiction. Starring: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz. Directed by: Quentin Tarantino.


07. The Informant! (B+)
A very engaging and engrossing dark comedy of the year with a brilliant performance by the bloat Matt Damon, this movie tells an odd based on true story of Mark Whitacre PhD, a top level executive at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) corporate who whistleblow the illegal price fixing practice of is company to the FBI when he himself embezzle money from his company. The man suffers from bipolar disorder of manic depression which impede him from telling the truth and distinguish the real world reality from the reality he created himself. Matt Damon performance was uncanny. Too bad he missed the award, probabaly because it is too comedic rather than a preferred dramtic role. Starring Matt Damon, Scott Bakula. Directed by Steven Soderbergh.

06. (500) Days Of Summer (A-)

One of the best romantic comedy of the decade. It tells a very honest story how skewed a perspective of viewing lightning-can-strike-only-once kind of love with let's-have-fun kind of "love". I love it... truly honest. Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Joey Deschanel. Directed by: Marc Webb.

05. The Hangover (A-)

A very funny comedy about Vegas trip gone awry. Not a typical bachelor party holocaust, it is smart and entertaining form the beginning until the end. If you like American Pie when you're 20, then defenitely you're gonna love this film on your 30s Starring: Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha. Directed By: Todd Phillips.

04. Up In The Air (A-)
With a clever theme and smart plot, this is the most personal and most honest film of the year. The film cannot be released at any appropriate time to depict U.S' most difficult financial times. Thanks to clever direction from Jason Reitman, the same person behind Juno (2007), this is one of the most embracable dialogue-oriented movie about life, job and being connected with people. The peformances are also well done. Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick. Directed By: Jason Reitman.

03. Up (A)

A very uplifting "Married-Life" sequence at the beginning alone has escalated this animated feature up into the sky amidst all other live-action movies despite of its children friendly theme, most adults will actually love this film than children do. Directed By: Pete Docters.

02. The Hurt Locker (A)

The best film about Iraq war. A very subtly intense drama that bring me back to the memories of such similar theme movie like Black Hawk Down in 2001. Only, this one is twice better. More human element of the movie. I can't nearly believed that this male-driven drama thriller was directed by a woman. But I have my two thumbs up for her work here. Starring: Jeremy Reiner. Directed By: Kathryn Bigelow.

01. Avatar (A)

There is no question that this is one of the best science-fiction movies of this decade. The groundbreaking visual effects and other technical-related accomplishment has eclipsed Titanic as the highest grossing picture of all time in the box office. It breaks the record that no other film has done in the last 12 years. Both films directed by the same man, James Cameron and he really has proven that he is the king of the world of box office once again. This is a must see picture of 2009. If you choose to see only one film in 2009, this is it. Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana. Directed By: James Cameron.

Review Bodyguards And Assassins

Bodyguards and assassins centers around a period in china's revolution in history when the Tang Dynasty collapsed and China was in a movement to tear down feodalism. Sun yat sen was one politician figure involved much in such movement. The movie was about protecting him by creating a diversion in order to protect his secret meeting in British occupied Hongkong in 1905. Then the movie gives us some fictional tale of ordinary people who live in the era surrounding that historical event.

It's been a while since i watch a mandarin film (The last one is in 2004, Kung Fu Hustle). When i saw that this film was playing in the cinema, with no further hesitation, i went to check it out. Turn out to be a very funny movie as i laugh several time on some scenes. That said, the movie is suppossed to be serious because of the nature of its subtle dark tone that involves history of revolution in china. It is indeed a serious action drama. So what to laugh about?

Ok. Here is the list of scenes i thought hillarious:

1. when Donnie yuen's character recklessly went on one-to-one collision with an ample horse.
2. when the tallest man character was able to resurrect himself despite of having been stabbed with knives several times from many directions in his body.
3. The appearance of actor Leon Lai as the beggar. I thought this was so extremely funny, because when i was little with friends and brothers, i persistently said things about Leon that he might just be the poorest (financially)actor in Hong kong due to his underappreciated style and appearance. So this scene is sentimental for me .
4. The main villain's character exposing his dreadful vengeful yet tickling face when he is about to summon his throwback to his enemy.
5. and many more

There were several things which i though to be ridiculous in our world nowadays but might be so common back then. One of them is when the businessman "buy" his collie a woman to marry. All and all, i think the movie is ridiculous despite of its serious intention to chronicle back an important historical event. It did make me laugh, however i was not supposed to, because this is indeed a serious drama. So , it's a mild thumbs down from me for the movie.

"Bodyguards And Assassins", a Media Asia releasing is unrated by MPAA, but containing gory action violence. Running time: 105 minutes. Two and a half stars out of Four (C+).

-Mulyadi Tjoa, MIS Officer @ P.T. Freeport Indonesia-

Review Avatar

James cameron is a director of vision. Ever since he made movies, his movies were always about human's interaction with technology. He was an inspired film-maker who left his job as a truck driver about three decades ago after amazed by Star wars films. His overachiever attitude in the filming location drawn subtle hatred from his fellow crew and casts. Nevertheless, the result is always breathtaking. From terminator, aliens, true lies and of course the oscar-winning Titanic, jim never show a bit crack in unseriousness in making movies. He always push the envelope when it comes to leveraging groundbreaking technology in cinema. His latest narrative feature, Avatar is one of the most anticipated movie of the year. I just saw it and i thought it was magnificent though inherently not without flaw.

It chronicles human in a not-a-distant future living in a place called Pandora where human race try to claim the land from to the native Na'vi. Several human race were sent through a "projection" in a machine called Avatar in order to blur with the natives only to have them changing side due to symphaty and one of them falls for a beautiful na'vi woman The movie has recently pick up golden globes nomination for best picture and best director for Jim, and now it is considered to be a front runner for best picture and best director in oscar race next march. It is a rare achievement for a science fiction genre. Watching Avatar is like experiencing somthing new because nobody has ever leverage the technology Jim uses solely in the purpose of filming this film. He even stated that sharing this experience with other people is how the business will slowly show success. "When people have an experience that's very powerful in the movie theatre, they want to go share it. They want to grab their friend and bring them, so that they can enjoy it," Jim said. "They want to be the person to bring them the news that this is something worth having in their life. That's how Titanic worked".

Avatar is so luxurious in its picture. The gung-ho surrounding its implementation of technical aspects of the film especially the special effect and the groundbreaking stereographic projection to create a live felt motion picture is once again justified itself that he would never have to care too much about others' negative doubt. I admit that the story and plot itself is actually not too compelling but cameron was able to concoct a reality on the big screen that matters. This is the man who in a way has surpassed a lot of many master director in Hollywood like Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in creating a magical masterpiece that is not just another popcorn flick like Transformers which i hate.... so much due to its perpetual "pots banging" and the ineptitude of its director to create an extravagant masterpiece like Avatar.

"Avatar" a 20th Century Fox releases, is rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking. Running Time: 160 minutes. Four Stars out of Four (A).

-Mulyadi Tjoa, MIS officer @ P.T. Freeport Indonesia-