Inside Out (2015)

I waited… I waited… I waited.. I waited..

Almost 2 months of waiting for this movie to come out in Indonesia. In the other side of the world, this movie was already out. I began to lose hope.

BUT THEN IT FINALLY CAME OUT!

This is the best animation movie of the year. I’m sure it will win an Oscar – if not, two Oscars. The concept of the story and the world-building were very good. So good, you just have to love it only from seeing the trailer. Especially the cast, the entire cast are comedians. They are so great – because comedians make the best from their mouth. The tear-jerking moment was not cheap. When you hear the scoring, oh – how relaxing it was.

Pixar gave me an adversary for my expectation mind. They really feed its hunger. The hunger for good movies.

The verdict:

My only complaint is the time for this movie to come out in Indonesia, other than that, I could tell you, you wouldn’t waste your money on something THIS good.

Mission Impossible : Rogue Nation (2015)

This is a smart movie, both from performance and technical achievement. I adored the director’s and producer (also starred) Tom Cruise’s vision.

Tom Cruise knew what he was doing as a producer. Most of the decision was made by him. You can also see one of his extreme decision to perform all of the stunts with his own body. And yes all of the stunts were true. Tom Cruise really flew on a military aircraft!

Ferguson’s performance was also a highlight of the movie. From half of the movie we really don’t know whose side she was on.

I also like to note Alec Baldwin’s comeback in the acting industry. I think the last time he looked fresh as in the movie was in ‘The Hunt For Red October’ (1990). Now, he was also a key plot of the film (or SPOILER: the franchise in the future).

But from all of its achievement I would like to salute the movie because it was shot on film instead of digital. This type of filmmaking are very rare now. The traditional ways are always the best way to create the best movies.

Shooting on film is always my dream.

From all of the good things, there was only one thing I hated - the antagonist of the movie. They were not very iconic. Syndicate was the nemesis of IMF in the TV series. So, I was expecting a group of antagonist, which was very very very hard to take down.

Just like Benji said to Ethan, “Nahhh.. it’s not so hard.”

The verdict:

MI: Rogue Nation achieved many things that I hadn’t expected to achieve, it’s a great summer blockbuster movie and they keep the franchise fresh.

Pixels (2015)

Pixels was served with ideas that came from video games back in the 80’s. The film would give us many nostalgic feelings – especially for the elders. The ideas are fresh (in the trailer): entertaining, tempting, and unforgettable.

BUT (note: this is a big butt, sorry ‘but”)

The storyline was as easy as 1-2-3. You can predict every second of it - resembles the ‘Writer’s Journey,’ without even bother to change some of it. The target of its movie was for children, not adults (adults who was more familiar with the games in the movie). The trailer spoiled some of it also.

The jokes weren’t with us anymore. We have passed beyond a point of humor which was more intelligent than that. They think we are stupid. Even kids now days are better than that.

In the movie, everything IS a joke! Idiots, Idiots are everywhere!

When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I thought how they might thought about some developed ideas for the film. I was so excited. Then, there they are. Spitting at their own feet – told themselves they’ve done their best job and laugh. In truth, they just wrote it with no effort.

The joke was on the filmmakers.

The verdict:

Go see another movie!

Sicario (2015)

Denis Villeneuve’s next HIT film after the success of Prisoners (2013). With veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins, he made something suspenseful.

I like how this film brought a simple idea about the Mexican border drama into something scary and very satisfying thiller-drama.

Emily Blunt was right for the cast – as a person that can be identified as us, who always tries to do something “by the book”. Especially Benicio Del Toro, he made a comeback from playing some high-dude collector in Guardians of The Galaxy (2014). His mysterious character made the film looked more than a simple thriller. My dad, usually predicts what a character might do, but he couldn’t predict him. Watch the climax of the film, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Also the cinematography was great. The technical side of the film was very complex, but yet looked realistic. The old man really knew what he was doing since the 1980’s.

Besides that, I really like to hear the film’s sound design and foely, it sounded so realistic. It build more of the suspense.

As for the writings, there were plot twists all over the place, but the most surprising one was on the climax. We really don’t know what Benicio Del Toro’s and Josh Brolin’s character motivation for ¾ of the movie. Once we knew it, OH SHIT, this is fucked up.

I bet this film would be in one of Oscar’s nomination.

The Verdict:

Sicario is one of the most suspenseful film of the year, with strong cast, plot twists, and technical (cinematography and sound).

The Little Prince (2015)

Honestly, I didn’t really care about this movie. But the poster said it was the official selection on Cannes Film Festival. So this film wasn’t just any film. Adding it – my friend, Stefanie was really excited with the movie. She told me that the film was based on a novel or a children’s book (you choose) with the same title. Well I don’t really know the book, I already bought it but still waiting for it to arrive at my doorstep. Maybe I’ll make an updated version of the review after I have read the book. So as Stefanie told me, I’m was thinking about the book to be as smiliar as Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist – both book hit people on the dreamy-psychology side.

From the technical side, this film didn’t achieve many modern improvements. But what actually made me excited was the stop-motion figures vs the animation. They were fun to watch.

Well, from the writings. I have to remind you that I haven’t read the book. I only read the first paragraph of the book’s plot in wikipedia. I won’t compare it drastically.

The story was bookend with another story from outside the novel – the story of the little girl and her mother. The pilot was old, but still kicking. We learn much more of the book’s message from this point of view – making it simpler and easily identified. I don’t know if you will agree with me, I see this film as the sequel of the book.

I’m going to discuss the ending of the film so..

SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Elisa told me something depressing but yet interesting. We discuss the fate of the girl after she fell from the second floor.

Elisa brought up, that the film ended with the girl’s death and the conclusion of the film is the girl is in Heaven – living up her dreams with a simple good ending. We can see this by looking at some hints, we sometimes ignore them (even I). For example, the pages at the end of the film were not taped.

But, I don’t like the film if it has a bad ending. So I concluded that the film DID have a good ending. Because as a filmmaker, WE OFTEN TEST OUR AUDIENCE – either they are optimistic or pesimistic people.

Here’s my argument. This film is an animation film. So the movie used imagination rather than realism. I believe that anything could happen in animation. The filmmakers have more possibilities. I even believed that the ending of the film did happen: the girl search the little prince and restored the stars.

SPOILER ENDS HERE!

But, believe me, for someone who needs something to cope with the hardship of life, this is a film for you.

The Verdict:

The Little Prince (2015) is full of fresh ideas and rewriting the whole story into a new modern one with an ambiguous ending (you decide).