20160830

Sa-buah ulasan filem: 'Kala Malam Bulan Mengambang'

Asal: Malaysia · Bahasa: Melayu, Jerman
Pengarah & penulis: Mamat Khalid
Genre: Film noir, komedi, fantasi · Rilis: 10 Januari 2008

Pelakon:
Rosyam Nor, Umie Aida, Farid Kamil,
Avaa Vanja, Bront Palarae, Kuswadinata, Soffi Jikan

Info lanjut: IMDb

Beberapa tahun lepas cubaan pertama nak ulas filem ni dan bulan kemudian selepas apresiasi filem ni di Content Pitching Centre, Platinum Sentral bersama-sama sutradara Mamat Khalid (siri Kampung Pisang dan spin-off filem-filem ni iaitu siri Hantu Kak Limah dan Usop Wilcha Menghonjang Makhluk Muzium) dan pelakonnya Avaa Vanja dan Rosyam Nor, barulah tiba-tiba rasa nak ulas eksperimen menarik bagi industri filem kita ni: sebuah filem komedi gelap dan alam ghaib yang dirangka dalam... gaya film noir, setelah lama bersarang dalam draf blog aku. Ya, film noir. Penerangan yang mudah bagi genre ni ialah filem detektif kuat merokok yang kelam dan ada perempuan suka menyemak dan hitam-putih warnanya, tapi perisanya memang perisa tempatan; yelah, kata karya Mamat Khalid!

Nak tau tak apa yang menarik? Aku pernah tonton satu filem Indonesia dulu, tajuknya Kala arahan Joko Anwar. Yang pelik tu nama dia nak dekat dengan Mamat Khalid punya Kala. Lepas tu dua-dua ambik pendekatan noir dan supernatural. Keluar pun waktu dekat-dekat dalam tahun yang sama! Cumanya, bagi aku, elemen supernatural dalam Kala Malam Bulan Mengambang ni biarpun melampau-lampau merapunya, aku rasa perlaksanaannya lebih kena digayakan di sini berbanding dalam filem Kala; sebab dia tau konsep tu mengarut, jadi dia betul-betul tak ambil serius tentang dirinya! Kalau korang perasan, deskripsi bawah poster tu kata filem ni ada Bahasa Jerman! APA?!

Oh. Aku rasa reviu ni ADA SPOILER. Kalau tak kisah, bacalah terus! Dan maafkan aku kalau pandangan ni cetek je rasanya; sebab pendekatan yang digunakan agak rawak bagi aku dan aku kurang fasih pasal rujukan-rujukan yang Mamat Khalid utarakan dalam filem ni... dan sebab aku tak terus ulas filem ni selepas tontonan semula tu.

20160825

Sebuah reviu filem: Korang jangan buat 'Pekak' ye! Debik kang!

Asal: Malaysia · Bahasa: Melayu
Pengarah & penulis: Mohd Khairul Azri Md Noor
Genre: Drama · Rilis: 1 September 2016

Pelakon: Zahiril Adzim, Sharifah Amani, Zaidi Omar,
Sharifah Sakinah, Amerul Affendi, Iedil Putra, Joe Flizzow

Info lanjut: IMDb


Jujur cakap, aku tak tau dari mana aku dengar pasal filem ni. Pendek kata, aku pekakkan telinga aku pasal kewujudannya. Tapi, tetiba ramai pula yang melobi aku untuk tonton filem ni sebagaimana Joe Flizzow melobi dirinya selama ni untuk menjadi seorang ahli 'kartel' sepanjang karier solonya. Sekali, ambik kau dia jadi pengedar dadah dalam filem ni! Kartello, hello! Okay, mukadimah yang merapu, tapi ada sebabnya kenapa aku sentuh pasal ni. Jauh sikit dalam reviu ni aku habaq na?

Nak ditakdirkan, aku dua kali dijemput untuk tonton filem ni sebelum dikeluarkan untuk orang ramai 1 September depan (yang juga hari pertama aku makan gaji tetap bulan-bulan!); kali pertama sebagai sesi soal jawab bersama dua orang pelakon dan pengarahnya dan kali kedua pula sebagai tayangan perdana atau nama poyonya 'Malam Gala.' Yang kedua aku dapat pergi, dan semua pelakon dan para tunjang belakang filem ni datang mai (kecuali Zaidi Omar). Aku bersyukur sebab dapat berkenalan dengan pencinta filem ni sampai dapat mingle secara kasual dengan para pemain industri like nobody's business. Sungguh. Sepertimana aku juga jatuh cinta pada filem yang fokusnya sepelik terbitan Tengku Iesta sebelum ni pasal orang nak bunuh diri: filem Pekak  ni pasal orang pekak yang terpaksa menjual dadah. Lolwut?

Baiklah. Memandangkan filem ni masih lagi tengah chill sebelum bertemu penonton, aku cuba kasi ulasan TANPA SPOILER, di mana tujuan ulasan ni semata-mata untuk suruh korang pergi sokong satu lagi filem berkualiti bikinan anak watan kita. Ayuh! Iqra'!

20160824

A film review: 'Saving Mr. Banks' is a heartfelt rescue mission.

 
Origin: United States, United Kingdom · Language: English
Director: John Lee Hancock · Writers: Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith
Genre: Drama · Release: 2013; Nov 29 (UK), Dec 13 (US)

Casts: Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, Paul Giamatti, 
Jason Schwartzman, Collin Farrell

More info: IMDb



Hello, again! This was supposed to be a simple, on-the-nose review (a.k.a. a short review) which is a section within my Facebook page, but turns out I got a lot more to spew off my chest about my latest viewing experience.

This is a rather stellar companion piece to the more whimsical Mary Poppins, the case study of this period drama centering on the making of the said movie anchored by Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks as the backbones of the film, P.L. Travers (the author of Mary Poppins' source material) and Walt Disney (do I even need to tell you who this is?) respectively. You could say it's a prequel of sorts, but not in the traditional sense.

20160816

A film review: 'Whiplash' pounds!

Origin: United States · Language: English
Director & writer: Damien Chazelle
Genre: Drama · Release: January 16, 2014

Casts: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons,
Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser

More info: IMDb

My reviews are all over the place right now! Damn it! No matter. It's finally time to address about the worthiness of the hype that Whiplash have been buzzing amongst critics and filmgoers. The reasons why I wanted to watch this movie are as follows:

  • It bears the name of Iron Man 2's antagonist
  • I am fond of drums in songs even though I only touched the real thing once or twice in my life
  • The new Mr. Fantastic and that annoying hack in the Divergent film series is leading a universally-praised film together with J. Jonah-Fucking-Jameson
  • Finally as of late, because I learned of Melissa Benoist's (my current crush) involvement
However, as I watch this film, the second reason resonates more than the others and then some, with the final reason kinda reminds me of how sort of disappointed I was on the underutilisation of Samuel L. Jackson in The Goodfellas. But I can't be too mad at that, since they are not the focus here.

20160804

A film review: 'Suicide Squad' enters the uncharted Ayer Keroh.

Origin: United States · Language: English
Director & writer: David Ayer 
Genre: Superhero · Release: August 5, 2016

Casts:
 Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Will Smith,
Margot Robbie, Jay Hernandez, Jai Courtney,
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Karen Fukuhara,
Adam Beach, Jared Leto, Cara Delevigne

More info: IMDb

A Watchmen and The Killing Joke later, it's here.

The most anticipated film in the DC Extended Universe / DCEU (yeah, not Batman v. Superman OR the other movies, but JUST THIS) is finally released! Even though this team was out there for a while, I was hooked when Batman: Assault on Arkham was out. Why? It's because of the team's dynamics. Most of the members are incarcerated supervillains plus extra participants tasked by the ruthless head of the ARGUS program Amanda Waller. In exchange for a shortened time in their jail cells, they had to do covert operations for the US government that could kill them due to either getting wasted in the field or got their brains blown to bits thanks to a nanobomb implanted into their necks should they disobey; but the thing is, the US government will not be responsible for their deaths whatsoever. This makes for an interesting spin on the whole live-action superhero genre, right? Keep dreaming. And thanks to my regular movie-going buddy, he managed to wake me up to the atrocities that the film have before clouding myself into thinking that the film is good just because Cara Delevigne is barely clothed and Margot Robbie couldn't stop flirting with me. Oh, wait.

Thanks to Movie Addict again, I am one of the very few to preview the film before its release on Thursday, August 4, without spending a dime. And just like Snyder's previous DC outings, this is yet another polarizing film... and he's not even the director/writer of this one! His aura is strong in this cinematic universe! What is this Ayer Keroh you give to us (super inexcusable pun is definitely intended), David Ayer? I had high hopes when I saw Fury and Sabotage, two films with some elements that I think can totally be incorporated into Suicide Squad! What's up? Even an excellent casting and performances couldn't mask how choppy the movie really is! But there are some good things here and there. Follow me as I review DC's latest attempt at keeping up with Marvel's Hollywood dominance in this third installment of the DCEU.

I will try my best to do a SPOILER-FREE review, so bear with me.