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The Night Comes for Us (2018)
This is smart....
Ok, every other reviewer has touched many things that rather good or bad about this movie. But it seems nobody cares much about the multiple languages spoken in this movie, which for me is smart. Well there are youtube reviews complaining about this tbf (all from the American audiences I think), so I think I want to explain why it's such a good thing. The movie tries to reflect what would happen in real life when these people from different nationalities/countries met and speak to each other.
First, there are four languages spoken in the movie. We got Indonesian, Chinese, English, and French. Indonesian is spoken when the Indonesians speak to each other, the Chinese is spoken when the Chinese people speak to each other, that's clear.
Now, the confusing part for some of the audience is why such a switching language when two characters speaking to each other. In real life, Chinese don't understand Indonesian and the Indonesians don't understand Chinese. Generally, they speak in English. But why Arian speaks some Chinese to Chien Wu (one of the Six Seas)? Arian is Indonesian, Chien Wu is Chinese. The movie explains it in the flashback, we see Arian learned Chinese while holding an Indonesian-Chinese dictionary. He wants to join the Triad so he needs to learn the language (Triad is basically a Chinese mafia). Still, Arian is not Chinese native speaker. His Chinese language skill is mostly average to basic conversation. The movie shows this especially in the nite club scene in Macau (Arian is the only Indonesian in that scene, the rest are all Chinese). This is why Chien Wu mostly opted to use English when he speaks to Arian to convey his messages.
Alma, one of the lesbian assassins who use garotte weapon, is Chinese. She speaks Chinese in a whole film. Elena, another lesbian assassin with a kukri blade, is French. She understands Indonesian and speaks in Indonesian a bit in Fatih's appartment "None will be spared", indicating that she will kill all the remaining people left. Why she speaks Indonesian? Because all the people left are Ito's gang and Yohan's men who are all Indonesian.
The director explains in his Twitter account that the operator (played by Julie Estelle) is a polyglot (person who speaks in multiple languages). In the movie she speaks Indonesian to the Indonesians, Chinese to Alma, and French to Elena. Her Indonesian is a kind of military-style tone so I believe she's from the Indonesian special forces or something.
Alright, it's too long now. Basically this movie tries its best to reflect what would happen in real life conversation in terms of language if these group of people from different countries/nationalities met and speak to each other. This might not be important for some audiences, and we see many examples of big movies even neglecting this, but for me this is a nice and smart touch. I mean this is basically a martial arts movie, the kind of genre that you'd never thought would put such effort in terms of language lol.
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Bond With Character Development
Do you feel the era is changing? Well in movies I do. It looks like this era that we're living now requires different habit, different way of living, different behavior, and perhaps different style of idols, compare to the past. Actually it's not even in the past yet. It's just around the corner.
That's what Hollywood recently kept doing. They feel that Bruce Wayne or Batman needs some refreshments. So they restarted the franchise with Batman Begins. It told the story of how Bruce Wayne began his life as Batman. We saw different perspective in Bruce Wayne character. It's more realistic than before. They continue their new style in The Dark Knight.
They also restarted the franchise of James Bond. Not only that they chose different actor, Daniel Craig, replacing Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. They also restarted the story with Casino Royale. James Bond with Daniel Craig at the helm showing totally different aspects of character compare to previous Bonds. Casino Royale showed us the darker and raw character of James Bond that never seen before.
I guess I can say that Daniel Craig represents James Bond that really fits in the new era. His charm is quite different compare to his predecessors. He's handsome, that's obvious. But he also has something different. He showed us how to play hard ball in a hard manner. And he's less flirty. It's now part of his unique character. It's not the thing that previous Bonds used to do or have.
Bond character setup in Casino Royale proved to be right in the next movie, Quantum of Solace. The audiences could see how the character is being developed in Quantum of Solace. Those raw and hard manner character from unexperienced Bond in Casino Royale eventually finds its lessons here. Bond learns how to get mature. How to deal with his emotional character. And the most importantly, how to walk the path to be a great and legendary 007 agent of MI6.
I'm not gonna say anything about the action sequences. Because there are too many standard action movies in the last several years sometimes it makes me wonder which one truly stands out to others. I will only say that Quantum of Solace has good action sequences. But not great. So it's not really special.
My most negative feedback about the action sequences is it seems that Hollywood use very fast editing technique too much. It's not enjoyable. Once you blink your eyes than you're gonna miss it. I believe Marc Forster, the director, better tried to approach these action sequences in more "old-fashioned" way. I'm pretty sure that the audiences love to see the "full frontal" explosions, chasing cars, and fighting sequences.
Another thing that made me bit disappointed is that the latest Bond movies tend to leave the historical known characteristic of Bond movies. In Quantum of Solace I felt like I was watching Bourne's movie instead of Bond's. I know that these 2 movies are the restart of the franchise. Different approach on the character is good. But hopefully different approach on the style of the movie will stop here in Quantum of Solace.
Still, for me Quantum of Solace is a must see movie. Not because it's a great action flick. But because it's a James Bond movie with character development in it. Bond character in Quantum of Solace is not a finished article. Not yet. Perhaps it's gonna be in the 3rd movie. But I really hope that the producers and director won't be in such a hurry to finish the "new" Bond character development in the next one.
Dreams (1984)
I wish there's a DVD version for this series :)
I watched this series a long long time ago when in my country we had only 1 TV channel called TVRI (maybe when i was at elementary school or 1st year junior high school). John Stamos was quite popular back then because of this and off course the sitcom hit Full House which follow at the same channel several years later. I still remember the leading actress names correctly until now, Valerie Stephenson & Jamie Gertz. I liked this series very much. Kiss Me Red, Boys are the Best, and obviously Alone still ring in my ear when I read or heard any news about John Stamos ^_^. Hopefully there's a DVD version of this series even though maybe i can only wish since it looks like this series is not even as near as known in IMDb.
Supernova (2000)
If you really really have nothing to do
Well, sad to say that the movie has to throw the opportunity to be better. The visual effect is quite promising eventhough not really amusing. The storyline is very predictable. Not much hope for the artistic design. Later, all I care about is only how can I finish the movie asap and replace it with other. Thank god I was watching it in video + I really really have nothing to do at that time.