Review The Social Network

When David Fincher, a filmmaker who indulges himself portraying anti social behavior as witnessed in his early body of work such as Se7en (1995), Fight Club (1999) or the recent serial killer in Zodiac (2007) was chosen to direct The Social Network, the film is at the top of my must-see list of 2010. The result is beyond my expectation. This is the best picture of 2010.

The Social Network was adapted by Aaron Sorkin based on successful Accidental Millionaire: The Tale of Money, Sex, and Betrayal. It tells the story behind the early founding of the most renowned social networking website, Facebook. From the story we know that the term was coined based on a simple webpage Mark Zuckerberg (played by the brilliant Jesse Eisenberg) built in fall of 2003 in Harvard University to ask the visitors to choose girls based on their look. He was upset having being dumped by his girlfriend due to his constantly obnoxious attitude. He was warned by the university board, but his act caught the attention of other Harvard students who planned to hire him building a social networking website. Instead of taking the job, he secretly built his own with the funding from his roommate, Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garfield). The first launch of the website was restrictive only for some ivy league schools, but with the help of Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake), the website move forward to become one of the greatest social networking website: a multibillion company which make Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire in history, and he did it accidentally. The Gung ho surrounding the thriving company was even escalated with some people from earlier time suing Mark for stealing their idea, and even Saverin sued him due to cutting off his share. The prosecution and the deposition of Zuckerberg marks the third act of the picture.

The movie is all dialogue, but they are never tedious or tiresome. The reason is twofold. First the screenplay by Aaron Sorkin was so brilliant, that we as audiences were time-travelled to witness the history behind Facebook with all actors playing straight, all of whom has their smartest dialogue in cinema since Pulp Fiction (1994) or Good Will Hunting (1997). Second, director David Fincher was able to wrap up this potentially boring movie to move in a fast pace that even a seemingly simple premise like this feels like heart pumping thriller. For the sake of goodness, I think he should win his overdue Best Director award for this directorial effort. Jesse Eisenberg is my pick for the best actor this year. His fast talking persona and nerd looking quality along with great attitude made him the best choice to portray Zuckerberg. Justin Timberlake also plays a strong Sean Parker which according to some source, the real Sean Parker is exactly portrayed by Timberlake on screen. All and all, I think The Social Network should at least scores nomination for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay in the dawn of Oscar nomination announcement coming January 2011.

“The Social Network” a Columbia Pictures release is rated PG-13 for sexual content, drug and alcohol use and language. Four stars out of Four (A)

Short Verdict

Here are my verdicts to many movies from august to early december

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part I (B)
Unstoppable (B)
Due Date (B)
Going The Distance (B-)
Piranha (C)
Legend Of Chen Zhen (D)
The Other Guys (C)
Red (C-)
You Again (F)
Aftershock (B+)
Detective Dee: The Mystery of Phantom Flame (B+)
The Social Network (A)
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (A-)

Review Inception

In the year 1994, Quentin Tarantino rocked the world of cinema presenting his overly celebrated Pulp Fiction. He was considered a master genius filmmaker being able to pull off street crime thriller in a bravura of more than 150 minutes of joyful entertainment. In the year 2000, Christopher Nolan came on the map with Memento, a reverse backward psychological thriller that was a genuine first time idea of his. Of course, being an independent film with a rather laid back story, it did not enjoy the same kind of celebration Pulp Fiction had. Nevertheless, like said before, it put the dual citizenship writer-director Nolan on the map of Hollywood visionary filmmaker. With great resumes such as Insomnia, The Prestige and two batman movies rebooted from his vision of Batman with David S. Goyer, Nolan was able to convince Warner Brothers Studio to film one of his own penned original script over the past 8 years.

Inception, though being original, was heavily adapted from alternate-virtual reality films like The Matrix, Thirteen Floor, Dark City, and Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind. It is the notion that the reality surrounding us might not be real that drives Nolan to come up with a story about dream engineering. Leonardo Dicaprio plays Dom Cobb the master extractor in a heist whose target is to steal ideas instead of money or jewelries. He accepts a project from Saito (Ken Watanabe) to plan inception of ideas as opposed to steal one to Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) to earn his leeway back home in The U.S. He then assemble a team for the operation consists of the point man Arthur (Joseph Gordon Levitt), the impersonator Eames (Tom Hardy), the architect Aridane (Ellen Page), and the chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao). During the operation, Cobb was distracted by an enemy inside of his own subconscious that endangers the accomplishment of the task.

After I watch the movie, I was almost sure that no one short than a NASA system analyst will be able to articulate the plot with full detail. I did not even realized what actually going on until the second viewing. I always have this kind of consensus toward any Nolan’s films. The first time you see the film, you will be amazed by it, but the second time is paying attention to detail. This was also the case for Batman Begins, Memento, The Prestige and even The Dark Knight. The movie is 148 minutes long and it does not feel that long as the direction of the auteur will keep you glued to edge of your seat assuming you still maintain your interest to the plot structure rather than just explosive action sequence or any other jaw dropping and eyes popping visual images that the filmmaker is offering to the audiences. The movie also employ old-school movie making technique combined with modern process. This is movie making at its best. But of course the most important element should always be the screenplay which Nolan scores a big triumph this time. Having said that, I actually think that this is not a masterpiece in the same way as The Dark Knight was. Though it feels genuine (it actually isn’t 100%) with the grand, infinite, and massive scale combined with all elements necessary for a modern Hollywood summer blockbuster, it really lacked the attachment of the character to how the story flows that really a minor complaint I have for this movie. If you remember The Dark Knight, you remember how Heath Ledger embodies Joker like no one else could play him. I thought Leonardo Dicaprio’s performance could easily be replaced by say George Clooney or Brad Pitt. Still his performance is a good one but too often he is engaged with a dark role that the versatility of his true acting capability cannot be appropriately and fully measured anymore. When all is said and done, while Inception is not a masterpiece, it is still a very good science fiction thriller with a very good story which I very much hoped that Hollywood will embrace for years to come and trash away any Transformers-like junks.


“Inception” a Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures releases is rated PG-13 for action violence. Three and a half stars out of four (A-)

Short Verdict

It has been a while since the last time i ran into summer run amok for movies. 2004 is the last time when i went to see just about any movies playing during the hectic summer blockbuster. Then it got stop since a lot of movies are just rotten bad. Since 2005 i just went to see only worthy ones. That is why i skipped a lot of popcorn movies like Angels and Demons, Terminator Salvation and of course Transformers last year. But this year, i feel like want inhabit the attitude of going to see many many summer blockbuster to see if any changes. It turns out that all haven't changed. Only 2-3 movies worth the money. The rest are junks. And as i predicted Toy Story 3 is the best so far this year. Can't wait for Inception and see if it really lives its buzz.


Here are my verdicts to many movies (most are junks) from may to early july


IP Man 2 (B)
IP Man: Legend is Born (D+)
Knight and Day (C-)
Prince of Persia (C)
A Team (D-)
Twilight Saga: Eclipse (B-)
Karate Kid (B-)
Toy Story 3 (A-)
Predators (C+)

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-

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-