The Raid

I went to see The Raid (changed to The Raid: Redemption for whatever reason) at a cineplex on Sunday. The movie is rated R, I was aware of that, but what I didn’t know was that it was a blood porn—nope, not the kind of the so-called gore porn with hot sweaty babes in sweat-drenched tank tops running around jiggling their magumbos and screaming at top of their lungs before getting their throat slit or something, which is kind of a good thing ‘cause those screams can really get to you after two or three seconds. The Raid is a blessed adult entertainment filled with frame after frame after frame of glorious blood and spittle flying and dripping, sweat running profusely, bullets piercing just about any visible body parts and bodies slammed against the walls, tables, chairs, through windows, and other furniture the filmmakers could get their hands on.

The plot, which is as utterly ridiculous as any public officials’ campaign promises, failed to make me dislike this movie: It is a martial-arts action movie with martial arts and actions bumped up a notch higher than any action movies I have seen in the last, oh IDK, a more than a decade, mayhap (CMIIW, but there has not been an action movie in terms of rawness, like John Woo’s Bullet in the Head, The Killer, Hard Boiled or A Better Tomorrow II, or Ringo Lam’s Full Contact and Prison on Fire, just to name a few, and some crazy kickass action flicks, only Luc Besson or Robert Rodriguez of old could direct or produce). The acting of some of the cast made me cringe in my seat once or twice, especially knowing some of the them are regulars in Indonesian drama series, whose plot, dialogs, settings, acting—heck, everything—are more ridiculous than any politicians’ campaign materials.

The very simple premise of the movie—a SWAT team infiltrating a tenement owned by a sadistic crime lord to bring the said crime lord to justice gone awry due to some reasons or others which I cannot exactly grasp (All I know is that some corrupt officials are involved.)—paves the way to a long barrage of shot-em-up actions that starts before you can even pronounce the lead actor’s name. Aparently, just about everyone living in this building is working for Tama, the crime lord, so the members of the SWAT team don’t find it even slightly morally questionable to blow a kid’s head (Heck, them darned kids screamed out their presence and hit the frickin’ alarm, for crying out loud). And, from the moment the first bullet flies, it’s an all out carnage of blood and scream and, well, more blood, until the last bullet shell tinkling onto the floor.

What follows is wave after wave of beautifully choreographed fights that run from seconds to close to seven minutes. The movie, I’m sure, is inspired by the likes of Die Hard and many of its progeny, and many of the survival horror video games: People running or shuffling along the corridors with their bloodied hands on the walls leaving trails of blood and maniac killers (or creatures) following close behind with machetes in hands.

Iwo Kuwais, the lead actor, and Yayan Ruhaiyan, who plays the crazy, scary yet perversely lovable right hand man of Tama’s, Mad Dog, are both genuine article Pencak Silat martial artists, and they choreographed the intricate fight scenes in The Raid. They also did their own stunts so what we have here are my two new action movie stars. Okay, so Iwo may lack the commanding presence of, say, Jet Lee, Tony Jaa, or Dwayne Johnson, but damn if he doesn’t know his craft. Those of you who have seen and who enjoy Iwo Kuwais and the director, Gareth Evans’s first collaboration, a martial arts actioner, Merantau (2009), will fall in love all over again with The Raid. I know I do.

 The fights are visceral, ridiculously painful to watch and really bloody, yet with balletic precision which is just damned enjoyable for those who are into martial arts free from today’s Hong Kong and Hollywood heavily wired actions. Thinks Thailand’s Tony Jaa’s best action films and multiply that by at least three.

All the cast and crew involved in the production must share mutual love in what they do, especially the cast and the stunt people, waking up everyday and going the set knowing they may suffer from broken bones before lunch break, but the result is simply fabulous.

The cinematographer, Matt Flannery, has done a terrific job, adopting those jerky camera moves ala Jason Bourne series only for the dialog, but opting wide angle and steady camera shots for action scenes, so that all that carnage is splendidly clear to see and you know when to close your eyes if you can’t  stomach anymore of the violence actions. And the sound…man, (SPOILER ALERT!) when Mad Dog was torturing Jaka in a room, the sound of his fist hitting Jaka’s body is muffled with the camera representing Iwo’s character, Rama, running towards the room, but as the camera moves into the torture chamber the sound of the fist against Jaka’s torso just exploding is really out there. And the following dance these three people (Rama and Jaka against Mad Dog) do in that room may be one of the best fight sequences in movie history.

So, The Raid with all its flaws, notably the plot, story and some of the acting of, I regret to say, the senior actors in the movie thanks of years of experience they harvest playing Indonesian television dramas is one that pleasantly surprises me and one that I want to see more Indonesian film makers pour their blood, sweat and tears for making them.

Silliness:

• You may have a feeling that I truly hate Indonesian soap operas. Well.
• The audience cheered and clapped hands at the end of the Jaka-Rama-Mad Dog threesome. I didn’t. I was busy grabbing popcorn.
• Tama when grinning evilly close to the end of the movie with a little white powder on the face and blood red lipsticks could easily become the demoniac portrait of The Joker. Hot!

Tattoo You

The idea of adapting a book into a [good] movie has never been an intriguing one for me, as I have been disappointed with many screen adaptations, with just a few exceptions. Stieg Larsson’s highly popular novel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo—the first book in his Millenium trilogy—is destined for a big screen adaptation with the trilogy selling over 15 million copies worldwide. The setting of the stories in Sweden help pique my curiosity as I don’t get to read many books with that country as the principal setting. Stieg Larsson was a journalist and an activist for civil and woman rights, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo touches the subjects of sexual abuse and sexual violence. And computer hacking.

Stieg Larsson’s style (WARNING: Long, winding sentence ahead) of clinical writing to “report” the events and progression of the story using real locations described vividly along with his exposition and description of Sweden current history in politics, social and economy gives the story the investigative journalism feel that works well with the result that at present some tourism companies offer tour to Larsson’s fans to trace the steps the characters in the story take in the story.

Now, the movie—a Swedish-German joint production tries to stay true to the story, yet, some changes are unavoidable, mayhap, to make the movie more simple (which makes me like reading better than watching movies). Some characters are missing, notably the lead character, Mikael Blomkvist’s daughter. In the book she gives her father an important cue that helps Mikael discover a very important piece of important.

Mikael Blomkvist has been commissioned to investigate a locked-room murder mystery, and this becomes the center of the movie’s story, whereas in the book, other reasons and motivations spur him to tackle the mystery. The book’s Mikael Blomkvist the stud is replaced by a much tender one that may help the viewers to focus on the main storyline: murder mystery, and not when is the next time (in what pages) he jumps into bed with one woman or another—just like … this guy I know.

And computer hacking.

The book delves quite deeply into the world of hacking in which Lisbeth Salander (the character the title of the book and of the movie refers to) is an expert. The movie shows us Lisbeth tinkering with a program, hacking into some computers or others, having her notebook broken, feeling annoyed because of that, and that’s about it. We don’t get to feel her mastery in hacking, in how she obtains (read: steals) data, and hurts her enemies with this skill. We only get to see glimpses of her doing some hacking, and may need to use our imagination as to what effect what she does would do to her, or Mikael’s, enemies (And they say watching TV/films dulls your brain.)

Yet, overall, the movie is quite interesting to watch. Those who have not read the book won’t feel robbed of some events appearing in the book. Those who have read the book can see the characters they have come to know on paper come to life on screen. The story progresses in an even pace, and the twists are there to keep us pretty much guessing all the way till near the end of the movie.Michael Nyqvist, the actor who plays Mikael Blomkvist does a decent job portraying Mikael as an all-round good guy, and Noomi Rapace’s playing Lisbeth manages to catch Salander’s antisocial attitudes and awkwardness around people (or, is that wooden acting? Oh, well, think positive, they say… And her dragon tattoo rrraaawks!)

The topic of sexual abuse (The Swedish title Män som hatar kvinnor translates as Men Who Hate Women.) is present in many parts, and this helps me appreciate the late Larsson’s struggle for equality rights during his lifetime.

Hollywood’s intention to remake the highly successful novel/film into their own movie (to be released in 2011) has somehow made me cringe fearing the worst, as even though David Fincher is directing it (and Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, for that matter) the tweets I’ve been following about a month ago related to this movie are all about whether Rooney Mara (she is to play Lisbeth Salander) really has a nipple pierce for the role. Ouch! Computer Hacking Expertise: Keep your expectation very, very low.

Come Fly Be Draygons

Those ancient Vikings sure have been around.
So, in the Viking village, Berk, we have Vikings speaking with Scottish accent, Vikings talking with Irish accent, Vikings talking like American teenagers with stutters (blame it on their parents’ stealing words from their kids’ mouths and their inability to understand their kids’ struggling to find their bearings in the world turning complicated around them (Read: girls/boys, zit, teachers’ demands ("What?! Homework??! Again???! But you gave us, like, homework, like, last week????! Bummer…."), girls/boys, BlackBerrys, B.O., girls/boys, and so on with lots more girls/boys in between), complete with a falsetto of a boy growing up to be a man in a man’s world. This is how we are introduced to Hiccup, the protagonist in Dreamworks Animation’s newest offering: How To Train Your Dragon.
How To Train Your Dragon excels in ways that soar high into this writer’s deep subconscious (no pun intended), as flying (on the back of your dragons) is the highlight of the movie (Guess I dream of flying, then. Better than (last Tuesday’s) dream of cracking peanuts and feed them to bats, I guess). And watching it in 3D (with those ugly 3D glasses on) helped.
Hiccup is your average misunderstood below average teenager (who happens to have a soft heart, a crush on the village’s tomboy—Astrid, and a knack in mechanics) in a Viking village of Berk—A village where architecture and house building are thriving businesses, thanks to dragons attacking their village every other week, shooting fires and brimstones against the houses and macho fully-muscled (and bearded and braided) cool-looking horned-helmet wearing Vikings who all fight gallantly with their catapults, spears, swords and everything else they can throw at those dastardly dragons.
All.
But one.
And that one is Hiccup.
And from this point on you can guess the direction the movie is heading.
So, in terms of story there is nothing original really in How To Train Your Dragon. But I like the way the movie makes an effort to stir away from silent agreement shared amongst Hollywood’s CG animated moviemakers: use as many splashy colors as possible, show everything off on the screen (it doesn’t matter if they don’t necessarily move or if they look bad compared to some matte shots used in movies in the 60s, 70s or 80s), have some cool shadowing effects yet still show everything off. Oh, and, of course, cute talking animals.
Yup, How To Train Your Dragon does NOT have cute talking animals. The dragons don’t talk. Instead they growl, they have their tongues lolling out and smack their lips, and show their teeth, and they looove it if you scratch their belly or neck, and they purr. Like a dog. Or cat.
But by God, they do NOT talk.
And, sure there are a lot of colors flying around on screen, but compared to some other CG Animated movies (UP springs to mind. And AVATAR), How To Train Your Dragon shows less of these.
The dragons in How To Train Your Dragon come in various shapes and sizes, each having its own distinct qualities (Power, Speed, Stamina, Weakness—get your Compendium sticker book at the nearest expensive bookstores that sell expensive imported books in your city), and knowing their statistics will help the villagers in their never-ending (SPOILER ALERT: until at least the last 15 minutes of the movie) enmity against the dragons.
Hiccup is one unlovable character in the movie. From start to finish, I couldn’t stand hearing his voice and his meek demeanor. So he’s supposed to be a softie. So what? It shouldn’t stop him standing upright, should it? Should it? And although his "friends" are so generic you can find them in most all movies with teenagers in them, they are still interesting to see (the twins—Ruffnut and Tuffnut’s continuous bickering is fun to see)
But the flying sequences, dragon-fightings and the aerial battles on the dragons? Those rock! From simply flying and maneuvering in the air (training Toothless, Hiccup’s Night Fury (love the name!) dragon) to the fights on land and in the air, the actions come fast and furious (No. I didn’t have that movie in mind when writing that. I had Tom & Jerry’s The Fast and The Furrious, instead), and glorious with thunderous explosions that literally rocked my seat, debris flying this way and that, big, big fires and billowing smokes that I could almost smell inside the movie theater. And that slow falling soot after silence finally regained had me and my kid reaching out to touch it. Watching it in 3D (with those ugly 3D glasses on) helped.

AVATAR Review (SPOILER on HIGH ALERT!!!!)

Storywise…

Well, about this movie I saw just last night?

So there is this island, y’see, … nope, not an island, a planet, yeah, a planet.

Papua is the name—Planet Papua (darn nice name, if I do say so mesself, got them nice ring to it, so to speak). Now, this Planet Pandora. … Did I say, Pandora? Papua? America? Nah, that’s entirely different film, that one is. Iraq? Aw, no. Whoever heard of Planet Iraq... Mmm, Afghanistan? Heck, no, that was Rambo 3 movie, that was (damn fine one, at that). Okay, let’s just call the damn place Planet Pandora. Howzzat?

Now, this planet is here is sooo … beautiful. And I don’t use this word lightly, you mark my word. It’s got all these purdy flowers and such. Darn purdy flowers… The darnest purdiest flowers you ever did see, you mark my words. This planet here—look like that island, Papua—also has got all them strange-lookin’ plants, and them big, big trees. And they glow. Boy, how they glow. They glow when you touch ‘em, y’see. Just poke ‘em a little and see them glow. So, at nights, why, you won’t need no torch or fire or nuthin’. You won’t need none of them, no sirree. Nope. U-uh. So if guys wanna see where you wanna plant your feet in them forest, why, just touch one of ‘em flowers, or leaves, or whatever please ya, thank you very much, and you get your light, and you can just walk in that forest clear as day. And if you touch enough of ‘em leaves, flowers, whatever, why, you can have your disco night right there in the forest. Woo-hoo, yeah, yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh…ehm, so anyways, the animals in this planet also look damn great and alive. Boy, the way they move, as if they ain’t got no bones or joint, so graceful, if I do say so myself, unlike they way you or me move, no way. When they land on their six feet, my, as if there ain’t no impact between them feet and the hard soil. Damn graceful.

And, this planet has this thing called, don’t laugh now, coz it’s a darn hard name to say, this one, un-ob-taain-niuium. That’s what that is: Unobtainiuium.

Now, this Planet, Pandora, has got this Unobtainiuium aplenty, down in the eart— …err, soil. And this Unobtainiuium will get you mighty fine price here on Earth. Why it’s damn pricey, they have this gazillion dollars equipment sent from Earth to dig out this unobtainiuium, yessiree, that they do. So, even tho’ they have all these gazillion, gazillion pricey equipments, why, with them price that high, they’ll get more gazillion, gazillion dollars more from selling them unobtainiuium, so that’s okay—sending them pricey equipments.

Now, the problem with Halliburt—er, the company doin’ all them diggin’ is that, why, this planet has its people living on it, y’see. Not just some animals, small and big, no sir, uh-uh. The people there, why they have their own tails, yes, they do. And, they look kinda cute, as a matter of fact. But, they’re tall… Man, ain’t they tall… And they speak, and they sing, dance as you please… Damn fine lookin’ people they are, damn fine…whooeee…

Now, this company, Freeport-Halliburton-McMorran Ltd., had this, whaddayacallthat…charge de affair, sumthin’. This young charge de affair looks damn young he shouldn’t be in the movie, y’know what I’m sayin’? He’s damn too young. That director what directed the movie oughta get someone else playin’. Someone older. Now, I’m not against them younger actors, nosirree. But that guy, Ribisi, I think his name was, is just damn too young to play this Palmer guy. He got all worried about them Pandora people not liking one bit their diggin’ in their land, no sir, no ma’am. So Freeport here … wait, wait, did I say Freeport? Damn, that’s just plain wrong…There ain’t no Freeport up there on Pandora. No way.

…

What? I said Halliburton also? What’s Halliburton? I know nothin’ ‘bout no Halliburton, no way, uh-uh.

So, anyways, this company then hire these ex-soldiers, y’see. Toughest lookin’ sonsofbitches you ever did see. Hell, yeah. This Blackrock Company—they’ve got all these cool equipments, heavy artillery, crazy weapons, grrrrreat lookin’ choppers, and they have this leader, Colonel Miles Quaritch, with none-of-your-BS attitude. He’s all military and stuff, he’s all busy-like, barking orders, checking up all them fancy electronic computer equipments with them flashy lights and monitors—he forgets wearing shirt, this fine colonel.

Heck, this colonel is also damn smart, he could operate some of them fancy electronic computer equipments. He’s that smart. And this guy is one tough mutha, tough as nails, only even tougher than the toughest nail you can get down in them buildin’ material store. If this Colonel Quaritch looks at you wrong, why, you’d best crawl back into your mama’s belly, that’s what you gotta do. Yeah. Just crawl back in there you pansy, sissy pretty boy, you… Yeah, yeah, that’s right, don’t let me see your damn fine looking pansy face right there in front of me, you…

…Okay…

So these big boys (from Blackwood Company) with them big guns and big choppers, and cool looking robots—just like those in a movie I saw years ago, ALIENS, I think the movie was called, only here, them robots are all covered and closed up tight so as the people operating them can breath mighty fine, ‘coz, y’see, here in Pandora, we cannot breathe as we’d like to, no sir, uh-uh, so we gotta wear them fancy oxygen mask—are hired to make sure them fine company boys can do their important diggin’ to dig all them unobtainiuium out happy and safe as can be. Whooee, that’s one long sentence, that one. Yeah. Anyways, so as them engineers can do them diggin’ and singin’ them happy songs, all at the same time, they can.

Now, these Papuans—only they are called Na’vi here in this fine movie, I saw just last night, don’t take too kindly these white folks—with some blacks thrown in for good measure—diggin’, and fellin’ their precious shining trees. No way.

So they fight with them cool, cool looking bows and arrows, only since these Papuans are so darn tall, their arrows are like spears to us. Now, you won’t want no spears run thru’ your chest, no sir, no ma’am, thank you very much.

So this cunning people from this Halliburton-Blackwater Company get together, y’see, and talk about how they can solve this damn problem. So they decide to get someone into this Na’vi people. Damn, that was just brilliant, if I do say so mesself. You won’t see that kinda trick pulled here anywhere on Earth. No way. Not in Aceh, not in Afghanistan, not in America, not in Iraq, not in Palestine, not in Zulu, not anywhere. Only in Hollywood, people, only in Hollywood.

So this guy, this spy, this Jake Sully (that’s this guy’s name), get into the tribe, and pretend to wanna be one of ‘em Na’vi people, only at nights he’d, hush-hush, report to this tough-as-nail-only-tougher Colonel With No Shirt On.

Then in the morning, why, this spy, this Liutenant Dunbar, Dances with Wolv—er… learns them Na’vi ways: Hunting, running and jumping from trees to trees like monkeys, catching them fine looking horses that look suspiciously like seahorse, and learn to ride them so damn fine lookin’ birdie with no feathers, y’see, so they look like them dinosaur birds in that Spielberg movie about them dinosaurs. Whooee… Only, of course, he still acts like white boys, debating everything, touching like they are already close, like, comparing with what they know, etc, etc.

Now, the darnest thing is that this Dunbar guy, this spy guy, can’t keep his eyes off his mentor, this fine looking Na’vi lady, Stands With a Fist … that’s ain’t right. It should be shorter…

…

Damn, I was wrong. The name should be Pocahontas, yup, that’s it. Shorter.

So, this John Smith guy, this spy guy, start to get all softie with this Indian princess. And, yup, you know it. They fall in love….. oooh, pooey…. Heh, heh, that Donald Duck, he’s damn funny, he is, heh heh…

So, Pocaneitiri and John Sully-Smith, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-I-N-G, and them looking hardcase soldiers get bored waitin’ for them reports from this Sully guy, this spy guy, about them Indians, when are they gonna move? When are they gonna move? huh? Huh? And this young manager, played by this Ribisi actor, is also like that: When are they gonna move? When are they gonna move? Huh? Huh? I want them diggin’ done in their village there. They’ve got this huge load of unobtainiuium there. The hugest load in the radius of 200 kilometers. Sure, this planet is big (we ain’t talking about island like Papua, here), and we can go look for other motherlode anywhere in this planet, but if we do that, we won’t be able to kill them damn Na’vi then now, would we? Heck, no. There won’t be no damn cool looking battle then now, will there? No sir, no ma’am.

So, we go to war. Whooee… and that was some battle, that was. And this Colonel Quaritch lead the damn invasion with a cup of coffee in hand... And a shirt. Well, well, whaddaya know… It’s that damn caffeine, I guess.

And them arrows, whooee, in the beginning, them arrows can’t break them chopper glass windows, but finally…Yess… them arrows shot through them glass and kill them pilots, yeah, yeah…

Whooee… that was a fine movie I saw just last night. Damn, fine.

K-20: Legend of the Mask

K-20: The Legend of the Mask (K20: Kaijin niju menso den) is a Japanese movie (you can tell from the title. D'uh) adapted from the novel of the same name. It is one of the movies bawled me over with its slick overall production and tone and setting (by God, those sets!) and whatnots that got me all pumped up and excited and thrilled (see how I got all redundant, here? I was that pumped, excited, and--anyways...). AND, the movie stars that hottie Takeshi Kaneshiro of Red Cliff 1 & 2-fame, among others. The story is set in a 1949 fictional Tokyo(in the movie, it is Teito), with Zeppelins flying in the sky of te city. And police choppers bearing the legend POLIZEI flew out of it. Below, Teito is a city very much influenced by many post-apocalyptic or alternate-reality-set movies or comics. It is dirty. It has colors of rust dominating just about everything. It has buildings and vehicles fitting with the the year (1949). And rusty old Tokyo Tower is the tallest structure, majestic and horrific at the same time. And, boy, those rusts. The society comes in standard the lowest class and its opposite, with no place for the middle class (That only exists in the real world, apparently). And we see the the city's police (POLIZEI?) captain's engagement ceremony performed in a big beautiful building and guarded heavily by armed soldiers. City officials apparently have it extremely easy in this world. The technology this world apply is the craziest kind of techno-wizardry that only Nikolas Tesla could have come up with: The story opens with the demonstration of an attempt to send (electrical) energy nary all those troublesome wiring, followed by things going wrong: A bad guy, explosions, audience running this way and that, etc. etc. you know the drill. The lead character, Heikichi Endo, played by that breath-takingly handsome Takeshi Kaneshiro, is an unsurpassed magician and acrobat, performing for a struggling travelling circus. And, with his mentor's health failing, he gets an offer to use that acrobatic skill of his to get some real money. And that's where his adventure begins. The movie is powerful due to its strong human drama, for one thing, though some people might not like the cliches the movie is rife with. Poor kids, abandoned or orphaned, living in the garbage dumps are all over the movie, serving to strengthen the characters (especially those played by that cute hunk of guy, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tokoko Matsu's Yoko Hashiba) and help direct their relationship. But, this is not a drama, no sir, as when the actions start, they come fast and long and beautifully orchestrated. One fight scene that takes place in an small alley made me forget the fight happens in an alley: The two fighters move with so much ease, they seem like fighting in a big open ring. And the actions nod more to the direction of Hong Kong's finest action movies, rather than Japanese short-burst actions in Samurai flicks. CGI, of course, is on the table but, again, some CGI effects are so smooth, my jaw dropped (though some others are bleh...) The acrobatic actions on the rooftops (And walls. And streets. And alleyways) are blatantly parkour, so anybody who is into this, will have his wet dreams made real on screen. Yesss...the--er-- irony? antithesis?. Of course, the movie is Batman-meets-Zorro-meets-Blade Runner-meets-Steampunk (comics), and even the score takes some notes from Indiana Jones's and some others from Legend of Zorro's, but hey, when it is done this good, I'm all forgiving. So, with 137-minute runtime, the movie has its hits (the actions, characters, the story) and miss (the cliched drama), but it is a damn beautiful movie with crazy actions and cool stunts, and that gorgeous-even-when sulking cute-as-puppy-when-smiling Takeshi Kaneshiro really nails the character with his boyish looks but commanding on-screen presence. And some Japanese humors added to the mix may seem fresh for those not familiar with manga, anime or dorama. * * * What? The title? K-20 and all that? Oh, it refers to this Robin Hood/Zorro-like thief, famous for his mastery in disguises, that supposedly steals from the rich to give to the poor, but somehow or others, the public like their handsome police captain, who vows to catch the dastardly thief, more that they do the thief, and that astonishing looking-with-hot-bode-to-boot Takeshi Kaneshiro character thrown into the spiraling conspiracy related to K-20, and the plan for world domination using crazy gigantic cannon powered by nature's very own limitless electrical power of the the good ol' lightning.

Public Enemies Review

Following other DC's A-list storyarcs getting celluloid treatment, Superman/Batman--Public Enemies the Movie finally hit the DVD with all the WHOMP!s and UUMPH!s that will send the fans banging on WB/DC Studios doors demanding the powers-that-be to animate more of their favorite stories, and that they'd better be quick about it, or else...
The film is based on Superman/Batman--Public Enemies storyarc that DC ran from October '03 until March '04, with the creative power house of Loeb, McGuiness and Vines delivering what I felt when I read the story to be a very refreshingly jubilant joyride of slugfest, though there is still much darkness scattered inside the colorful panels (The event in the story did lead to one of the biggest projects ever conceived by DC).
Yet, as the film needed to be a standalone, avoiding much mucks that drag many serialized comics (and hurt this comic fan's wallet), we see pretty big changes that fortunately won't cause the viewers who might be unfamilliar with the source story or even with (horror...) the characters and the universe scratch their heads and, halfway through, decide to switch to America's Got Talent instead.
America was in the dumps (bet nobody saw that coming), the God-fearing weapon-loving Americans voted Lex Luthor POTUS. And, whaddayaknow--he seemed to be doing a pretty darn good job at it. But, as a big chunk of space rock the size of Brazil believed to be a part of Planet Krypton after its End Day (the planet exploded, not getting major shower, that's what leads to the End of Days, sheesh...) was ready to hit Earth and wipe out all existence, President Luthor saw this as the ultimate opportunity to show the Americans how his xenophobia had all those times been nothing short than prophetic, i.e. Superman-being from-Krypton-somehow-attracting-that-big-BIG-meteorite-to-Earth. And as Luthor was a certified ex-evil genius, who were we to argue?

And so Superman became a fugitive and the hunt for the Last True Boyscout (accompanied by the ever-cunning Batman) began; hence, the title.

The actions in the film (and in the comics) were superb and the people working on the film did some terrific job translating the comic panels to animation: Superman-Batman vs. Metallo; Superman-Batman vs. the whole damn army of supervillains; Superman-Batman vs. President Luthor federal sanctioned superheroes; Superman-Batman vs. Captain Marvel-Hawkman--the fights went fast but with enough details that can make you appreciate seeing just about everybody get the chance to try to rearrange the Big Blue's mug (sometimes I wonder if the people responsible for the story are also xenophobic. Those ba----ds!).

The biggest change made for the movie that I notice is taking away Captain Atom's big role and having Batman (again) replace him, to do what needs to be done--in the comics we get to learn quite a lot about Captain Atom from this part of the story.

The film's animation by Korean animators, and I like the way the characters move. Sometimes in the fights, fists flew pretty slow with the result that we can see that rearranging Superman's mug-thingie pretty clearly, so I guess those were intentional.
Many dialogs, utterance, one-liners abd jokes from the comics make their way to film, and that is nice.
The character designs tried a bit too hard to translate the clear artworks of McGuiness and Vines, resulting in the bulbous upper arms, chests, thighs and much of everything else, including chins...or are they jaws??
And Power Girl did a great job providing an, uh, ogleful.

"Flick it, baby. Fick it, I say." --A Nintendo DS Game Review--

It is known as Rhythm Tengoku Gold in Japan and it has finally been translated to English bearing the title: Rhythm Heaven.
And, boy, if it ain't heaven...

In this delightfully funny game, you get to hold your DS book-style, thus, you play the game totally using your stylus (and hearing).
Rhythm Heaven is a--as its name tels us-- a rhythm game. Ehm. You get to tap the touchscreen and also often times, flick the stylus on the touchscreen's surface, following the beat of 8-bit music or chiptunes, though sometimes there are some silly short cutie songs that you just gotta fall in love with after hearing them.

The game is divided into tens of short rhythm games each telling different "story," and Remix game where the short rhythm games are --err-- remixed.

Each rhythm game is funny, with many of them are so hilarious that they got me laughing so hard, I lose (There. If that's not one of the cheapest way to admit that the game beat you flat, I don't know what is); and each time we make a mistake, i.e. late to tap or to flick we'll get an evil eye from either a pair of monkeys, or a couple of ducks or whatever it is that accompanies you. You might even get a bird pooping on your mug. While you are an Easter Island statue. Now, THAT is funny.
And that's what I find as the biggest challenge in playing the game: Not to laugh and concentrate on the rhythm.
I sometimes find myself NOT looking at the screen and just use my hearing to get that "perfect-timing" to tap, and it often works.
The game is brought to you by the people that made Warioware games, so you know that wacky, crazy, insulting situation is the norm in this Gold.

Movie Review (What a title...)

I saw a movie the other week,
It was a cartoon, and as I sat there watching I couldn't believe the technological breakthrough in computer animation making the characters and everything else in this cartoon looking so deliciously yet dangerously lifelike
It was a cartoon for adults as it was intensely pornographic:
I saw obligatory head blows, chests burst and a stripper's breasts getting worked up the way you just gotta see to believe ....*shudder (in a tingly way)*

I saw over-the-top violence, it was pornographic

I saw a couple doing the "usual," but with a tinge of suggestion of bestiality (Is there such a thing as a BIG tinge? Oh well...)

I saw Rockstar's GTA all over the cartoon:
Carjacks, the bad-guy-main character's plight running from/after the the even-badder bad guys, over-the-top postures of the guys and girls. And gays. Kungfu fighting, music-pumping, obligatory-strip-club-bar-fighting etc. etc.
I also saw Rockstar's Bully in the cartoon:
vandalizing and fighting on the field
A parody? A plagiarism? An homage? A plagiarism as an homage to parodize? "Hurm..." as only Rorschach could deliver.

I saw a man making a desperate effort to save his li'l man from getting castrated, and that makes that man a brother a mine...

I saw the film and I couldn't help playing again the movie "Shoot 'em Up" in my mind, and made comparison. And decided that "Shoot 'em Up" is the better one.

I saw myself enjoying the cartoon, tho' the cartoon--which is a sequel--fell short from its first film. I guess the directors (same people that made the first film) tried so hard to up 'everything' in the sequel with the result most things blew (tho' not necessarily in a bad way)

I saw sweet Amy Smart, going at it again with that bloke, Jason Statham, and got hot under the collar... The bastard...
I saw the application of Law of Physics that I personally loved so much to experiment when I was but a tyke (You remember when you used to just love to rub plastic rulers as hard you might on the wooden table at school to generate static electricity after which you then got your friend's hair stood with that electrified ruler? Aah, those were the days..). On an elderly lady. Natch.

I saw a plot so ridiculous, the film has GOT to be a cartoon...

I had 90-minutes guilty-pleasure fun, that I can't wait to watch Postal again.

Title: Crank: High Voltage
Writers-Directors: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor
Cast: Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Dwight Yoakam, Clifton Collins Jr, David Carradine(?)

Manusia Serba Tidak

Sebagian manusia memang makhluk serba tidak.
Kita tak bisa puas, tak bisa terima kalah.
Manusia tidak gampang melihat ke belakang, tidak rajin bikin rencana ke depan.
Kita tak rajin minta maaf, tak sungkan jegal belakang.
Manusia tidak boleh ngeliat yang lebih bagus, tidak terima ngantri di belakang.
Kita tak tahan dikasih cobaan, tak pernah brenti teriak ngeluh.
Manusia tidak bisa sekuat gunung, tidak pernah berkaca melihat lemahnya.

Dan ini mengingatkan saya kepada sebuah buku yang saya baca belum lama berselang. Buku yg menarik perhatian selain karena judul dan sub-judulnya, juga karena saya mendapatkan pertanyaan yang tak terduga, membuat jengah, tergugu kelu hilang kata.
Sepanjang membaca buku perasaan saya campur aduk: bete, marah, mahfum, jengkel, berusaha untuk mengerti, tanam simpati, korek empati. Semua perasaan ini tertuju kepada tokoh yang saya anggap adalah tokoh antagonis dari cerita: Seorang manusia muda diberkahi kesehatan dan rupa yang prima, bisa sekolah, punya teman dan keluarga.
Diawal dia menyibukkan diri berbagai aktivitas yang diyakininya bisa membawa kebaikan bagi semua.
Hampir di sepanjang cerita dia melakukan komunikasi dengan yang saya sebut tokoh protagonis dalam cerita: Komunikasi dalam bentuk aksi maupun dalam bentuk kata-kata--bersuara maupun cukup dalam sukma. Mereka dekat--mungkin lebih dekat dari pada antara saya dan Yang Serba Maha.
Tokoh antagonis dan tokoh protagonis muncul di setiap halaman cerita.
Memasuki babak kedua dari cerita, serbuan berat dia terima. Segala rencana dan persekongkolan yang sudah jadi tumpuannya, lenyap buyar digerus aparat.
Oleh kolega dan orang yang dianngap sebagai pembimbing, dia merasa tercampakkan dan dikhianati.
Cerita berlanjut dan dia mulai memandang heran kepada tokoh yang saya anggap protagonis dalam cerita tadi:
"Kemana kamu dikala aku tercampak?" Mau apa kamu ada di sana? tanyaku sementari jemari membalik halaman buku.
Lanjutan cerita semakin mengikis rasa simpati. Dia sibuk mencari kesana-kemari, sementara yang diperlukannya sudah jelas saya bisa melihatnya. Tidakkah dia juga bisa melihat? Tentu saja dia bisa. Dia toh pandai tak kurang akal.
Yang dicarinya selalu yang paling dekat, tapi kenapa dia harus merasa mencari selangkah lebih kedepan? Dia memilih merapat ke manusia yang lemah; dan ikutlah dia melemah. Dan apa yang dilakukannya? Keluh-kesah hingga serapah, serangan yang dia gulirkan ke tokoh yang saya anggap protagonis dari cerita.
Sebuah contoh yang bikin saya tutup hati: Serangan beruntun telah menerpa, teralamat ke salah satu orang yang dia paling hargai. Dalam gundahnya dia berjalan, dia melihat seorang kenalannya yang dia tahu adalah seorang dealer. Apa yang dipilih untuk dilakukannya? Mendatangi kenalannya itu dan terjun bebas ke dalamnya dunia.
Didekatinya orang yang dia tahu nanar dengan molek dan lezatnya masakan kamar tidur--lezat dirasa apapun kelaminnya. Dia mereguk dan minta direguk, dia nikmat tapi kembali menyumpah tidak terima.
Lemahkah dia? Ya.
Mengaku lemahkah dia? Dia menjerit dan dalam jeritannya ada keluhan, hujatan, cemoohan, hinaan. Dikemanakan semua logika, pengetahuan dari bangku sekolah sejak TK hingga PT yang diterimanya?
Mengaku lemahkan dia? Tidak.
Kenapa harus berlari ke yang lain dari jenisnya?
Untuk apa mengais-ngais selamat dari yang dia sendiri nikmat masyuk turut jerumus dan menjerumuskan?
Dan cuplikan Devil's Advocate membayang di pelupuk mata saya: Detik-detik akhir filem dimana Al Pacino's Devil diiringi seringainya berkata: "Vanity. That's gotta be my favorite sin."
Hidupnya berlanjut dengan keputusannya untuk perang melawan tokoh yang saya anggap protagonis dalam cerita. Ikrarnya adalah untuk untuk tidak mendekati tokoh yang saya anggap protagonis dalam cerita tapi 1001+ hujatan dan fitnahan terus dia lontarkan.
Lewat raganya dia bilang menghukumi dunia dan dirinya sendiri, sementara dia mengambil nikmat dan manfaat dari penghukuman diri ini; dan, tentu saja, fitnahan dan hujatan terus dia lontarkan.

Vanity is also OUR greatest sin.
Kita tidak bisa berhenti mengeluh tapi kita juga tidak berhenti sombong. Merasa punya disaat tiada. Merasa kekurangan disaat punya walaupun sedikit. Merasa lebih disaat punya jauh lebih sedikit.
Tidak pernah lepas pandangi orang lain; tidak pernah betah pandangi cermin hati.

Kita tentu saja termasuk saya.

Saya tidak mau memberitahu apa judul buku maupun siapa penulisnya sebab saya tidak merekomendasikan membaca buku ini. Membaca buku ini melelahkan karena isinya dipenuhi dengan serangan-serangan sumpah serapah, fitnahan dan hujatan walaupun tentu saja akhir cerita (setidaknya saya yakin seyakin-yakinnya) bisa disimpulkan dengan tokoh yang saya anggap protagonis dalam cerita mendapatkan kemenangan (dan saya juga yakin seyakin-yakinnya, kemenangan ini membuat tokoh yang saya anggap protagonis dalam cerita sedih).
Saya malah merekomendasikan membaca Crime and Punishment tulisan Fyodor Dostoyevsky:
Ada satu tokoh--Sonya, namanya--yang membuat saya jatuh cinta ketika membaca buku ini dimasa kuliah teknik komputer dulu (nggak nyambung ya...?). Dia hanya bekerja di dunia prostitusi.
Ada satu lagi tokoh--Dunya, namanya--yang membuat saya semakin dalam terjerumus cinta dalam dunia anak-anak: Begitu bersih, dan teramat terang. Dia hanya seorang anak yang menyayangi abangnya tanpa prakondisi.
Baca deh: Bagus, gila.

Who watches The Watchmen?

Do yourselves a BIG, BIG favor: Read Moore and Gibbon's WATCHMEN the book/the graphic novel/the comics or what-the-heck-ever you wanna call it.
How can you appreciate or catch ALL the multi-layered nuances, the secrets, the depths, the messages, the JOKES that you can find hidden in plain (and not-so-plain) sights in Mr. Gibbons's beautiful artwork if "it is being dragged through the experience at the speed of 24 frames per second"?
I'm not lambasting Mr. Snyder's hard work on the movie, mind you as I haven't seen it but this is about truly experiencing what the creators of the work wanted the readers to get/be indulged in/be aware of.
Watchmen is one BIG complex and multi-layered work/labor of love supplemented with excerpts from imaginary books, journals, articles. Now, how do you get/read those watching the movie.
There are stories within the stories which you can get or learn as you re-read the book, examine each panel, trace each line of dialog, study the facial expressions and gesture, flip to the next pages, then flip back back to the previous one. Watchmen gets you thinking... Now, ain't that fun?
So who reads the WATCHMEN?