Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Joko Anwar
Cast: Tara Basro, Bront Palarae, Ayu Laksmi, Dimas Aditya, Endy Arfian, Nasar Anuz, Muhammad Adhiyat
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Rating: PG13 (Horror and disturbing scene)
Released By: mm2 Entertainment and Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 18 January 2018
Synopsis: Rini (Tara Basro) lives in an old house on the outskirts of Jakarta with her grandmother Rahma Saidah ( Elly D. Luthan ), mother, Mawarni Suwono (Ayu Laksmi), father (Bront Palarae), and three younger brothers, Tony (Endy Arfian), Bondi (Nasar Annuz), and Ian (Muhammad Adhiyat). When the mother Mawarni dies of a strange illness, Rini’s father goes to a different town for work leaving Rini in charge. Terror begins when the mother’s spirit returns to the old house to haunt her former family. But this is only the beginning of the horror as the family’s dark history unravels. Rini later learns that her family was involved in an unholy pact in the past which threatens her family’s safety. Rini and her brothers have to uncover mysteries from the past if they want to stay alive.
Movie Review:
The 70s and 80s is having a great run in entertainment these days. From Stranger Things and Dark, to Ouija and It , the period serves itself well in the horror genre, most notably because there’s no mobile phones to the rescue.
Satan’s Slave is a remake of Sisworo Gautama Putra’s 1980 film of the same name, Pengabdi Setan. Director Joko Anwar has chosen to keep to that period and it works - mostly.
Rini (Tara Basro) is primary caretaker in a an old house on the outskirts of Jakarta. She manages her three younger charges, Tony (Endy Arfian), Bondi (Nasar Annuz), and Ian (Muhammad Adhiyat), along with her ailing mother Mawarni (Ayu Laksmi) and elderly grandmother Rahma (Elly D. Luthan). Her father (Bront Palarae) meanwhile tries to find ways to take care of the family’s finances that are being depleted by his wife’s mysterious illness.
After Mawarni’s sudden passing, Rini’s father goes off to town to salvage the family’s situation. But it seems Mawarni might not yet be done, and returns to haunt her family, leading her children to uncover a dark past and shocking revelations.
Anwar has kept his CG to a minimal, with respect to the authenticity of that period, and it’s an admirable one. I personally went in thinking that it would have a gritty effect, adding realism to the proceedings. Sadly, it comes across more as amateur mistakes.
I’m all for old-school tactics. Fishing line pulling objects, camera play to perform appearances, exaggerated makeup, all these can be good campy fun. But somehow in Satan’s Slaves , it looked out-of-place and more of a mistake, probably because the rest of the art direction and styling is so polished.
And even with the skillful design, it’s all a little... deliberate. In fact, that word keeps popping up in my mind throughout the screening, as Anwar stacks plot device after plot device in such a contrived manner, that even the most clueless viewer will be able to guess what’s going to happen.
There’s the gothic picture hanging at the corridor. The dank well. The summoning bell. Adding to that, there’s an obvious familiarity to the elements. The View-Master? The Forest. The picture and cloth sequence? Conjuring. The open-mouth twisted face look? Ju-On. It’s no sin to draw influences from other horror flicks, but when they are incongruent to the main story, they end up sticking out as copycats.
Beyond the actual scares, the lack of logic is a real pain. In one scene, when Bondi plays with the View-Master and sees something he shouldn’t, he drops it. After warily picking it up and looking through it again, there’s no reaction or indication of that same slide.
In another, where Hendra (Dimas Aditya) returns dead from an assignment, Rini picks up a fallen envelope, only to keep it, unread. Given that she sent him on the errand, this is a little hard to swallow. She then conveniently decides to wake up one night and head over to the bag where she kept it, to read it and discover the truth. Erm, awkward.
These obstacles stand in the way of Satan’s Slaves fulfilling its potential. It has reached over 4 million admissions in the home country and won several awards in local festivals, but when placed on an international stage, it has to be acknowledged as a worthy effort, but not exactly scary or riveting material.
A lot was lost when Anwar diluted the original film’s premise - that of a family opening themselves to evil when they turn away from God - and this makes 2018’s Satan’s Slaves a ghost of the former.
Movie Rating:
(Stylish and decent-enough acting cannot compensate for the deliberate manner in which all the scares are built up. Anwar’s effort bears international influence, but should have adhered to the more traditional for more impact)
Review by Morgan Awyong
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TRAILER WATCH - DEATH WISHPosted on 04 Jan 2018 |
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WHAT MOVIES DID YOU GOOGLE FOR IN 2017?Posted on 31 Dec 2017 |
Genre: Crime/Comedy
Director: Martin McDonagh
Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, Zeljko Ivanek, Caleb Landry Jones, Clarke Peters, Samara Weaving, John Hawkes, Peter Dinklage
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language And Some Violence))
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website:
Opening Day: 18 January 2018
Synopsis: THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a darkly comedic drama from Academy Award(r) winner Martin McDonagh (IN BRUGES). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award(r) winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, commissioning three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award(r) nominee Woody Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbate.
Movie Review:
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
That’s quite a mouthful for a movie title, if you ask us. With the award season well underway, presenters would have gotten used to reading it out loud by now. After making its premiere at the 74th Venice International Film Festival, the black comedy has gone on to win countless accolades. Most recently, it took home four awards at the 75th Golden Globe Awards, and we think the winning streak is not about to stop.
Past experiences have proven that there are truly good films, and there are those which are merely overhyped by the media. How does this crime movie written, produced, and directed by Martin McDonagh fare? Very well, fortunately.
Inspired to write the story after seeing billboards about an unsolved crime while traveling on the road, McDonagh’s screenplay puts an angry mother in the spotlight. The grieving woman lost her daughter to unsolved murder, and she decides to rents three billboards to call attention to the lack of progress in the investigation.
The three billboards read: "RAPED WHILE DYING", "AND STILL NO ARRESTS?", and "HOW COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?" Without a doubt, this catches the attention of the local community to different extent.
With this interesting setup, the story goes on to explore different characters. What makes this a heartrending watch is the fact that these personalities resonate with the frustrated, weary and fatigued side of human nature.
Frances McDormand (Hail, Caesar!) plays the female protagonist with gusto. Her portrayal is poignantly spot on and we are expecting her to take home more Best Actress prizes for the remaining award events. The fan favourite is the underrated Sam Rockwell (Moon). After delivering outstanding performances in supporting roles in Iron Man 2 (2010) and The Way, Way Back (2013), it is about time he gets recognised for his heartfelt portrayal of an angry policeman with personal issues to resolve. Woody Harrelson (War for the Planet of the Apes) is also wonderful in his role as a sheriff suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Elsewhere, John Hawkes (Everest), Peter Dinklage (The Angry Birds Movie), Abbie Cornish (RoboCop) and Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out) take on supporting roles and each actor brings an affectionately layered performance to the character.
McDonagh, who was born in London and son to Irish parents, has a strong background in theatre production. This explains why his film screenplay develops magnificently with complexities and in depth exploration of the human psyche. The 47 year old filmmaker is no stranger to the Academy – he was a nominee for Best Original Screenplay at the 81st Academy Awards for In Bruges (2008). Another notable film from McDonagh was the wacky Seven Psychopaths (2012) which Rockwell, Harrelson and Cornish co starred in. This is one filmmaker to look out for, thanks to his talent to tell a good story without resorting to gimmicks. There are no saints or villains in the movie, only human beings with dreams and regrets – like you and me.
This 115 minute film is a refreshing watch (when was the last time you caught a movie not based on a franchise, comic or true story?), and more importantly, it reminds us that at the end of the day, we are as good as the people who live their lives around us.
Movie Rating:
(First class performances and a profoundly moving story make this film a must watch)
Review by John Li
Genre: Drama
Director: Yojiro Takita
Cast: Kazunari Ninomiya, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Go Ayano, Yoshi Oida, Daigo Nishihata, Aoi Miyazaki, Yutaka Takenouchi, Wakato Kanematsu, Togo Igawa
Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 25 January 2018
Synopsis: Possessing the “Qilin Tongue”, Mitsuru Sasaki (Kazunari Ninomiya) has the unique ability to recreate any flavours he has tasted before from memory. After leaving the orphanage, Mitsuru sets up a fine dining restaurant with childhood friend Ken Yanagisawa (Go Ayano), but his business fails due to his extreme, perfectionist methods. To pay off his debts, he starts accepting offers to cook “last meals” for people at exorbitant prices. One day, he receives an offer and is flown to Beijing to meet Qingming Yang (Yoshi Oida), a renowned figure in the Chinese culinary world. Yang asks him to search for the missing the “Great Japanese Imperial Feast” recipe. Though sceptical, Mitsuru eventually agrees to the job after a lucrative offer, and begins to trace the footsteps of Naotaro Yamagata (Hidetoshi Nishijima), the Japanese Imperial Chef who created the recipe and who had disappeared along with it. As he meets one person after another who knew Naotaro, he arrives at an unexpected truth about both the chef and his recipe. Where is the recipe now? What was the secret that Naotaro had risked his life to hide in the recipe?
Movie Review:
The Last Recipe is adapted from a Japanese novel of the same name. The movie is about a chef, Mitsuru Sasaki (Kazunari Ninomiya), and his journey of fulfilling one of his requesters’ last meal. It is said that Mitsuru possesses the ‘Qilin Tongue’, which allows him to recreate the taste of dishes from memory (when he tastes them). However, in order to recover the taste of the “Great Japanese Imperial Feast”, he has to embark on a search to trace the recipe and uncover what brought the generations together…
In all honesty, the narrative of the movie was not the most exciting. An unidentified stranger commissions Mitsuru for a job with a high payout, then leads him to several people to piece the story together himself, etc. The great revelation is then something which is not just about the recipe, but stories which bind the people across generations around the “Great Japanese Imperial Feast”, and uncovering the true meaning of the last recipe. Nonetheless, the story was unveiled with a touch of humour, and was heartwarmingly delivered, to say the least.
This movie is directed YojiroTakita, who directedthe Oscar-winning film, Departures (2008). If you were to watch the movie with that kind of expectations, you’re probably going to get disappointed. However, YojiroTakita stays true to his style in this movie – he makes no haste to story tell, and the emotions from the characters are accentuated by the camera work. For instance, the close-ups of Mitsuru towards the end of the movie has both top-down and bottom-up angles which brought out the differentexpressions of the character to life.
Further, there was attention paid to the intricacies of cooking – from the prepping of the ingredients to the different cooking methods. The efforts that go behind the dishes were charmingly captured.To help appreciate the little things from the movie, here’s a small trivia to share. Ninomiya (who plays Mitsuru) is left-handed and doesn’t cook. Yet, the team has helped him hone the craftso much that his right hand appears to be his master hand. The moves were really smooth and natural!
The cast of the movie is certainly a star studded one. Mitsuru is played by KazunariNinomiya, who won the Best Actor at the 39th Japan Academy with Haha to Kuraseba (2016). WhileNinomiya is notably a member of popular idol group, Arashi, the Japan Academy Prize is not simply a popularity award won by public votes. It was selected by a 4000-member movie association of movie affiliated professionals. In the past, he has also nabbed a role in Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), a testament to his acting skills.The other key character, the Japanese Imperial chef, is helmed by veteran actor Hidetoshi Nishijima. Bothof themhave breathed life into their respective characters and anchor the movie well.
An aspect that was lacking was the details in the set and filming locations. The story talks about 1930s and modern China and Japan, but you could easily tell that some were simply just taken in the studio. Also, casting non-Chinese actors to take on Chinese speaking roles feels rather out of place. In fact, Hidetoshi Nishijima spoke better Mandarin than the supposedly Chinese helper. In terms of soundtrack, there nothing impressive like the Joe Hisaishi’s score in Departures to look forward to.
Even so, overall the movie was well executed. For a narrative that doesn’t have that straight-up appeal, the production value of the movie and the cast has made this worthwhile to watch. The little details, coupled with a touch of humour make this human story a heartwarming watch.
Movie Rating:
(You may see it as #foodporn, but beyond that, it’s a charming, heartwarming tale which binds generations together)
Review by Tho Shu Ling
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NETFLIX CONFIRMS 'BRIGHT' SEQUEL WITH WILL SMITH AND WRITER-DIRECTOR DAVID AYERPosted on 04 Jan 2018 |
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TRAILER WATCH - SLENDER MANPosted on 04 Jan 2018 |
Genre: Comedy
Director: Lawrence Sher
Cast: Owen Wilson, Ed Helms, J.K. Simmons, Terry Bradshaw, Ving Rhames, Harry Shearer, June Squibb, Christopher Walken, Glenn Close
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language & Sexual References)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website:
Opening Day: 4 January 2018
Synopsis: Owen Wilson and Ed Helms are Kyle and Peter Reynolds, brothers whose eccentric mother raised them to believe their father had died when they were young. When they discover this to be a lie, they set out together to find their real father, and end up learning more about their mother than they probably ever wanted to know.
Movie Review:
Has it really been close to a decade since ‘The Hangover’? Oh yes, it’s been that long, and R-rated comedies haven’t exactly had an easy time at the box office especially in recent months. Part of the reason is audience fatigue, but equally responsible are drivel like ‘Father Figures’, which tries to replicate the formula of raunchy and sweet but ends up being neither funny or affecting.
The premise is simple: a pair of fraternal twins discover on the day of their mother’s wedding that their father, whom they were previously led to believe had died of colon cancer, is really still alive, hence triggering a cross-country road trip codenamed ‘Operation Who’s-Your-Daddy’ to try and find dear old dad. As formula would have it, these brothers Kyle and Peter aren’t exactly on the best of terms – Owen Wilson’s Kyle is a laid back beach bum living off royalties from a BBQ sauce bottle whose label bears his likeness; Ed Helms’s Peter is an uptight proctologist who is struggling to get over his divorce and has a teenage son that hates him. In truth, Wilson and Helms are simply playing into their types, but that isn’t at all why this comedy leaves much to be desired.
As is true for most examples of its genre, this one is structured as a series of comic set-pieces that may or may not add up neatly into a coherent whole; nevertheless, these narrative bumps would be quite easily overlooked if the gags themselves were worth the journey. Alas despite an impressive shelf of supporting talent including J.K. Simmons, Ving Rhames, Katt Williams, Katie Aselton and Christopher Walken, their respective sequences are not nearly as witty as they could and should be.
Except for Simmons’ unhinged act as a trigger-happy ‘repo man’, the rest of the encounters with the potential daddy candidates played by Rhames, Walken and Terry Bradshaw (yes, that Terry Bradshaw) lack verve. A midway sequence with Williams as a ‘black’ hitchhiker who doesn’t end up being a serial killer Peter originally feared falls flat; ditto a later one that has Aselton play a woman drinking alone at a bar who has an instant one-night chemistry with Peter and conveniently ends his three-year sex drought. And what to make of a scene that has Kyle and a young child urinate on each other’s legs in a rest stop bathroom?
Amidst the unfunny, dull and just plain stupid jokes, veteran cinematographer Lawrence Sher (who makes his directorial debut here) tries to cobble a movie that’s meant to be gross-out and uplifting at the same time. Not only does he fail to succeed on either count, the film’s denouement – which was the subject of reshoots and apparently the reason why this movie is only seeing the light of day after two years – makes the earlier two hours feel like an elaborate audience prank that’ll leave you feeling frustrated and even infuriated.
Really, ‘Father Figures’ makes it no wonder that audiences regard each new R-rated comedy with outright scepticism. Like we said, much of the blame falls to screenwriter Justin Malen, whose other genre effort ‘Office Christmas Party’ was just as, if not worse. Still, the fact that so much Hollywood talent is wasted in a movie like this reflects just as badly on the cast, who should have known better than to lend their star wattage to such terrible material. Go elsewhere for the laughs, go elsewhere for the sentiment, and in fact, just avoid this altogether and spend some genuine time with your dad, your mom and your family. You’ll thank us for it. .
Movie Rating:
(Lame, unfunny, dull, weird and just dumb, this latest blend of smutty and sweet is the reason R-rated comedies have fast fallen out of favour)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Horror
Director: The Spierig Brothers
Cast: Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook, Angus Sampson, Finn Scicluna-O’Prey
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: PG13
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: http://www.winchestermovie.com/
Opening Day: 8 February 2018
Synopsis: Inspired by true events. On an isolated stretch of land 50 miles outside of San Francisco sits the most haunted house in the world. Built by Sarah Winchester (Academy Award winner Helen Mirren), heiress to the Winchester fortune, it is a house that knows no end. Constructed in an incessant twenty-four-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week mania for decades, it stands seven stories tall and contains hundreds of rooms. To the outsider it looks like a monstrous monument to a disturbed woman's madness. But Sarah is not building for herself, for her niece (Sarah Snook), or for the brilliant Doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke), whom she has summoned to the house. She is building a prison, an asylum for hundreds of vengeful ghosts, and the most terrifying among them have a score to settle with the Winchesters...
Movie Review:
This show is proof that no actor is infallible, no matter how great their acting chops might be.
Winchester is the story of why the eccentric Sarah Winchester built one of the America’s most famous houses. Helen Mirren plays the grieving widow and purported mentally-unsound heiress to the Winchester firearm empire. Eager to unseat her from her share of the company, the other partners have used her feverish and meaningless project as excuse to hire Dr. Eric Price (Jason Clarke), a therapist with questionable values.
Based on the actual house in San Jose, California, the film extends the mysterious whispered stories around the endless construction, that which created a 7-storey house with architectural oddities like doors that open into walls, staircases that led nowhere, and windows that did not open.
The Spierig Brothers directs Winchester with apparent manipulation. Casting Mirren for gravitas backfires, turning floppy script into a campy outing. So too are the deliberate choices of butlers Augustine (Bruce Spence) and Ben (Eamon Farren), cashing in on their odd features. Their stiff-upper lip performances are both dated and contrived, making their appearances a tiresome watch.
Maybe worse are the niece and grandson who are temporary guests at the house. Sarah Snook and Finn Scicluna-O’Prey acting as the duo Marrion and Henry Marriot, have more interesting names than their roles. Every scene in which they appear is a rehash of the previous, reducing their purpose to nothing more than puppets in a dollhouse.
As to why only a few brief “commercial-like” vignettes showcasing the house’s peculiar nature was featured, when clearly the house itself was the real legend people wanting to explore, one may never know. This made it such that the entire story could have taken place in any other house.
But perhaps worst of all are all the cliches that we are subjected to. Exhibit number one: the “fear is only in your mind” wisdom nugget that Eric often espouses to his patients. Maybe it would be a little less cringe-worthy if it was just a random line in the script, but no. It seems that the theme is centred around it, with the doctor frequently reminding the laughing audience of this presumably deep philosophy.
The real problem with Winchester is that it doesn’t know what kind of a horror movie it should be. There’s early 20th century Nosferatu schlocky macabre going into mid-century 13 Ghosts premise. There’s also more recent influences from Insidious jump-scares to Shyamalan twists. But if so, it falls on the wrong end on all those spectrums. Winchester is unimaginative and confused, and the audience were amused more than awed.
There’s no real surprise coming from Winchester, other than how cheesy the movie is. The amateurish predictability destroys any vestige of respectability, and the myth turns Mystery House into Clown House.
Movie Rating:
(The only thing legendary here is the lack of effort. A discombobulated film suffering from a terrifying identity crisis turns scares into mehs)
Review by Morgan Awyong
SYNOPSIS: Cursed with immortality, skilled swordsman Manji agrees to becomes a young girl's bodyguard, swearing to avenge the slaying of her family.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Not a surprise, Blade of the Immortal is based on a long-running manga series and most of all, it’s directed by Takashi Miike, the prolific filmmaker known internationally for his ultra sadistic and violent flicks.
Ex-SMAP member Takuya Kimura (Hero) stars as Manji, a swordsman with a tragic past who gained immortality after being implanted with sacred bloodworms into his body by a mysterious 800-year-old nun, Yaobikuni. You see, the bloodworms though disgusting in nature helps to heal his body for example a severed limb can simply be reattached in minutes without any pins and needles.
Fifty-two years later after being immortalized by Yaobikuni, Manji leads an aimless lonely life by the river in a broken hut. Until one day, he is persuaded by a teenager, Rin (Hana Sugisaki) to aid her in avenging the death of his father who is brutally slayed by Itto-ryu (Sota Fukushi). The ruthless Itto-ryu wishes to eradicate all forms of dojo and swordplay and his only worthy opponent in the end are none other than Manji (no surprise here again), the reluctant immortal hero.
For his 100th movie, Takashi Miike worked his cinematic magic liked an old pro. Blade of the Immortal is one stylish long fight after another that by the end of the first hour, you probably lost count of how many times Manji got himself bloodily slashed. There are plenty of severed torsos and limbs to go around though Miike expectedly infused every violent act with his trademark wicked sense of dark humor that no one is likely going to faint or go squeamish with the generous spraying of fake blood as well.
The weakest aspect of the entire movie has to go to the scripting. Takashi’s earlier samurai epic, 13 Assassins delved better into the characterisation and emotion while Blade of the Immortal is bloated with too many repetitive scenes. Luckily, the swordplay is engaging especially Manji’s long-list of colorful opponents come in all sorts of demented forms and the cinematography and production design is top-notch. Both Kimura and Hana Sugisaki are excellent as the tortured, long-suffering souls though Sota Fukushi’s villainous character isn’t given much to flesh out.
Blade of the Immortal certainly is no teens-friendly Rurouni Kenshin. While the long-running time can be exhausting to sit through for some, you should give this supernatural samurai epic a chance based on the reputation of Takashi Miike alone.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
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