What Popcorn Really Do

What did popcorn do (beside high cholesterol)?

Popcorn is that nice little snack that you eat inside a movie theatre. Popcorn was taken from corns (of course it is). Popcorn consist of two types, “popcorn” and “mushroom.” “Popcorn” is made for straight consumption, like in movie theatres, it usually mixed with butter. “Mushroom” is made for package consumption, like Garrett.

So how do popcorn became the icon of movie theatres?

In the 1900’s popcorn became the cheapest snack to be bought - High to Low Class people can buy it. They are found in baseball competitions, parks, picnic recreation, and many others – but not in movie theatres, yet.

 In the 1920’s, The Great Depression strikes. Most of movie theatres became bankrupt and popcorn was the snack to be hidden behind a coat in cheap movie theatres. A man saw an opportunity of this. He began to put his popcorn machines in front of movie theatres. He made more money than the theatre did. So the theatre kicked him away. He vowed to make his own movie theatre so his popcorn machines weren’t taken away again. This man was known as Kemmons Wilson – the man who founded Holiday Inn.

Seeing all this, small movie theatres tried to raise their profit by selling popcorn inside their theatre. Some time later they made more profit from it. Many big theatres followed this path. So movie theatres - once again - can show amazing movies.

So what did popcorn really do?

Popcorn saved the movie industry. Without them, maybe we can’t show our movies today. Even though some countries ban popcorn from movie theatres, we must respect this small snack because it did a big role.

So when I’m watching a movie and you told me to stop eating popcorn, I want you to understand that I’m trying to save the movie industry.

Spectre (2015)

James Bond’s back again! Sam Mendes returned as well – this time he’s with Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema. This is what filmgoers are waiting for, Bond facing his long-time nemesis, SPECTRE. But, is this film worth watching? Is the $ 300 million budget finally paid off with great story and action?

I think…. NO!

Daniel Craig’s era is the most interesting and the most profitable among other Bonds era. But, Spectre showed me how the era can ran out of ideas. The film didn’t use new ideas, instead it seems that the franchise used the old formula from the previous era.

The old formula consist of James Bond being a superhero, I mean literary a superhero – doing what a normal human being can’t do. He is unstoppable. The other is the fancy gadget – we see some of it in the movie. And torture. And other clique things. You’ll see a lot of it in the movie.

The most iritating thing was the budget. They waste a lot of money to make what had been made decades ago. I don’t think it was worth the money.

The thing that I don’t like the most is the antagonist of the film. Chistoph Waltz played the character. When I first heard about his casted, I was so excited. Looking back, we see him played the most interesting villain of all time in Tarantino’s films. But, it turned out quiet disappointing. The exposition of the character was very frightening in the first ¾ of the movie, but in the end, he wasn’t so much as a villain.

But I have to say, I really like what Hoyte van Hoytema had done with the cinematography. I think it is really interesting to combine celluloid film workflow with digital workflow. It perfected each other. The lighting set-ups were really complex, but he knailed it!

The verdict:

There’s a saying, “With BIG BUDGET, comes GREAT RESPONSIBILITY,” this film doesn’t hold it.

Minions (2015)

This animated movie was made with the crew’s heart in it. I love how the director – Pierre Coffin – made a full contribution for the movie. He even gave his own voice to make ALL of the minion’s voices.

In Wikipedia, it’s said that this is an American movie. But in the rolling credits I saw a lot of French people – including the director himself. It’s an odd thing. Only the distributer was American. I think the movie should be called French-American Movie.

In the movie, I saw a lot of dark and funny reference. If you haven’t watch the movie yet, I dare you to look around for “small things” which were references.

Also – one more – look at the detail of every material. Kevin’s gloves were made of leather. You can see the crack of the leather.

The verdict:

The movie was made with “heart”, it was a great movie, but not too great because of the ordinary story, but again it was enough.

Ant Man (2015)

When I heard this movie was coming, I thought how being small was so boring. Ants are not so strong – just crush them with your thumb and they’re dead. But this movie defines that “size doesn’t matter!”

Edgar Wright – a great filmmaker – was appointed to be the director. But was only credited as a writer when he had a different creative idea with the producer – Kevin Feige. You can still see Wright’s comedy style in the movie, which was hilarious!

Kevin Feige – the producer from all of Marvel’s movies in the cinematic universe – was good to keep the phase of the movie. But I think he limited every creativity from every directors. Their style was alternated every time. So we can’t really enjoy every director’s potential.

Alright enough with the crew, lets talk about the film.

The film was a heist film. I should’ve thought about it when I was still sitting in the cinema. The phasing for the film was too fast in the end (as a heist film). Like I said, Edgar Wright was to be the director. His style match with his writings. The replacement director - Peyton Reed  - can’t even matched Wright’s phasing.

Also, there was not much information to make the film more likeable. For instance, the antagonist. Just take a look how small his evilness – it was even smaller than an ant.

But in the end, I think Ant Man deserve more than just “this.” His character was more likeable throughout the film.

The verdict:

This is a bad heist movie, but sure it was a good movie as a superhero movie.

Terminator: Genisys

This movie deserves a review from me. Why? Because the movie sucked so much!

First of all, the originality of the movie was there, I mean, guys.. ARNOLD’S BACK! But – let’s do the math here – if Arnold’s only 10% of the originality then this movie just turned the other 90% into vomit. I don’t like that. In the prequels, the franchise defined “machines” as machines. Now they turned machines into a pet dog. Well that’s only 45% from the 90% I said before. The other 45% was the idiocy of the time paradox.  They’d spit on their own parents.

Second, was the director. I felt pity on him. The name is Alan Taylor. He said the franchise forced him to spill out the plot twist in the movie. I say, “BULLSHIT!” A director and a film are like a parent and a child. The parent must protect and teach the child at all cost to be as perfect as they can. But the franchise – or so I say the social service – wanted the child to be on their side. So, I raise you a question. What will you do if your child would be taken by the social service?

YOU FIGHT FOR YOUR CHILD!

Third, the cinematography made me dizzy. It was so awful, I didn't follow the story very well. So I had to watch it twice.

The verdict:

The movie lacks of originality and mixed them with the wrong ingredient, but if you like action, you’ll like it.

The Amazing East Java

I haven't post anything for awhile, sorry guys, I was having my holiday on June 5-7th. And I'm finishing my films that I had captured during my holiday. My films are called The Amazing East Java. I broke the films into 3 parts - with a side part 1.5 , 2.5 , 3.5, which I posted them on Instagram.

On June 5th, I took a flight to Malang in East Java. I went with my cousins, my aunt, and my grandmother. Our plan was to visit Batu, Mount Bromo, and Surabaya. I'm going to talk about the places in my films. Okay we will start from..

Part 1 : Jawa Timur Park 2 (East Java Park 2) - Batu.

As you see in the film, we went to a zoo called Batu Secret Zoo. The zoo was quiet - not much people visited this week, said one of the staff. We saw a lot of beautiful animals - even the ones that were not in Taman Safari. Their animals were much more unique. You can see the full film below.

Part 1.5 : 'I really forgot the place's name.' - Batu.

It was a high waterfall. We had to climb the mountains to see it. But this place was full of people - so noisy. I imagined what it would be like if there was no people there. Just alone, I with my beloved (including my camera).

Part 2 : Batu Night Spectacular (BNS) - Batu.

This place was more like Dufan or Disneyland. But it only opens at night. The tickets was cheap. We saw a lot of lights that night. Fluorescent with many different colours were everywhere. We caught a ride to see the whole place. It was energetic. See the place from the film below.

Part 2.5 : Museum Angkut (Transportation Museum) - Batu.

The museum was full of vehicles. From land to air to water transportation - they got it all. This place was fun at first but we got bored. So we headed back early to get some rest. We would have a journey in the morning.

Part 3 : Mount Bromo - East Java.

This place was the best place in the holiday. The active mountain, the savannah, the desert were all beautiful.

Part 3.5 : Omah Kayu - Batu.

Tree houses were everywhere in this place. It was amazing. You could see a whole village from the top of the tree houses.

Well this was an adventure. Again - sorry folks that I haven't post in a few days. There will be more coming about my holiday. On June 19th I'll go to Yogyakarta and I'll make films again.

I'll post something again every two or three days from now on.

Thanks for reading.

Good read, ladies and gentlemen.