of Life Filled with Movies

Hello peeps. Singapore's very hot these days and I feel like dying :( It's crazy, I can't really deal with it. I have a feeling I fare better with colder weather than a hot one. So anyway, what have I been doing in Singapore these days? Well what do I do in Singapore usually? It's pretty much always filled with movies and let me just tell you about the movies that I managed to watch since the last time I wrote.

I watched Dark Shadows with la Gioia last week. I wouldn't have watched the movie if not for Johnny Depp. I didn't find the trailer to be interesting and indeed I think it's not a very entertaining movie. I think Johnny Depp is a good actor as usual. He's pretty weird especially with all the roles he's been chosing. I wish he would do something normal like a romantic comedy. Just to see him normal, you know. I thought Eva Green was gorgeous. Her witch-vampire sex scene with Johnny Depp was weird :P I really can't say much about the movie. I didn't like it much. I guess it's just not really in my area of interest. The climax reminded me of Bruce Willis' dark comedy long ago, Death Becomes Her.

Next was 21 Jump Street. This one was really really good. It got me laughing a lot and it made me feel so good watching it. Jonah Hill really lost a lot of weight. If you compare him in this movie and Moneyball, the change in his body is so crazy. Channing Tatum was actually funny. I was thinking it's a good thing that he did G.I Joe before this, lest people think he can't be serious and always goofs around. The cast were great, their captain in 21 Jump Street was really funny. There's James Franco's brother there as well and he's also handsome. Their parents must have some amazing genes. I think the story was well written. It's really funny. Johnny Depp was here as well and it really showed how great of an actor he was because he's on the screen for like 5 minutes and in that 5 minutes, he really commanded the screen. They killed his character thus closing his 21 Jump Street story. I want to see a sequel but normally it's hard to make a sequel that can top the first one because what else there is to explore which can bring something totally new and different? I hope if they do it, they'll do it good.

Then on Friday, I went to watch The Raid. Alright, if you wanna follow the international title (the title that Hollywood wants it to use), it's The Raid: Redemption or in the Indonesian title, Serbuan Maut. I've been so excited about this movie when I found out about it and was wishing that it would be released commercially in Singapore. It took longer to arrive in Singapore than some other parts of the world but then it's finally out this week. It was very coincidental how I found out about this movie. If you read my posts before, you'll perhaps remember that I talked about watching the Indonesian movie, Sang Penari. I like that movie and it got me googling about Indonesian movies and I stumbled into The Raid and its raving reviews from everywhere (though Roger Ebert hates it). It came from the same people who did Merantau which was the first Indonesian movie I've ever paid money for to watch in a cinema and I watched that here in Singapore. Merantau was pretty cool but the story was pretty much in an Indonesian style, which made me roll my eyes sometime with the "sinetron" dialogs. Anyways, I still thought that that movie's actions were awesome and it's remarkable that Indonesian talents can produce that. Yeah the writer and director is not an Indonesian but considering it's made in Indonesia with Indonesian casts and crews, it's still an awesome thing. So when I heard about the The Raid being made with the same team of people, I was excited to see what they came up with and with the great reviews it's been having, I was even more excited about it.

I knew that the movie was gonna be violent. At the beginning of it, I was actually covering my eyes during the execution scene by the bad guy. I was sitting next to 2 guys and I think they may wonder why the hell I was there if I was going to cover my eyes. Seriously though, if it hasn't been an Indonesian movie, I wouldn't have gone to watch a movie in this genre with a lot of brutal fighting scenes. So anyway, I got rather desensitized as the movie went on that I didn't cover my eyes anymore. It was pretty gory at times but I do have to say it wasn't something which was given a lot of emphasis in. Well at least that's how I felt or perhaps as I said I was desensitized as the movie progressed. I thought the movie was good. It wasn't as fast moving as I expected it to be and in fact there were more dialog than I imagined to be. I guess from reading the so many reviews, I was building how the movie was going to be in my head. I didn't really get the story actually, it's weird :D Being in Singapore, I had the movie with an english subtitle but the subtitle didn't really match the Indonesian dialog. It was useful though because sometime I felt they spoke really fast or were kinda mumbling that I didn't really get what they're saying. Yeah, I know it's a worrying sign being Indonesian and not getting Indonesian completely. By the way my thought was proven true that Indonesian by nature don't really curse. We don't have a particular word to curse, as such for every "fuck" in the english subtitle, it was normally replaced with "anjing" which means dog. I guess even to curse in Indonesian, we go pretty mild. There are other things that Indonesian don't really say, for example hearing the Indonesian translation for "I love you" sounded really weird :P I'm really not sure Indonesian would seriously say "aku cinta kamu" for "I love you" :P Regardless, the movie was pretty cool, I actually want to watch it again to watch the action scenes again. They were fast and cool. I thought the best one was between the main villain fighter, Mad Dog, and the Sergeant, Jaka. I like Jaka actually because he was this nice decent leader. He reminded me of Daniel Mananta but too bad his character had to die :( Oh seeing him in the squad made me think of one thing that's not really Indonesian. I think it's pretty much non-existent to see Indonesian chinese in the army or any defence squad. I wonder if there are really Indonesian chinese in this position. I can talk about the whole cultural political reasoning behind it but I don't really want to go into that now. Back to the movie, I thought the fight scene was very cool because Mad Dog was much smaller than Jaka and so for me it was an impressive fight. Oh one thing that was true to Indonesian were the thugs. They could really come in small size and wield machetes crazily :P They're scary that way. It was well made and I wonder how they're going to top this in the sequel, especially with many of the people dead. I am looking forward for the sequel. There's news about a Hollywood remake and I hope it really happens. I will look forward to watching that one too :P

Today I watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (for the elderly and beautiful) and I like it. The premise of the movie was very interesting and the actors were of course these experienced wonderful famous British actors and they're amazing. I think Judi Dench was great and cute in her own way :) There's something about the travelling and the adventure that these people were having and the uncertainty they're feeling especially when they left England for India that was very relatable to me. Travelling to new places and to the unknown is always scary and it was really commendable and an inspiration that these people were brave enough to just go out and leave their world and explore a new world 'cause when you're in their age, you are perhaps longing for stability and predictable and relaxing things more than ever :P Well doesn't that what retirement mean? Anyway I think it's a nice movie. I like it though I have a feeling it's not for everyone. Some people may find it boring. I guess it's a matter of taste. I found Dark Shadows rather boring myself. Watching the movie, it kinda emphasizes my suspicion that I think India is more chaotic and crazier than Indonesia. Anyways, there was one part in the movie which I wonder if it reflects what it's like really in India. Dev Patel's character was shown making out with his girlfriend in the public and even having sex. I'm not saying that all Indians do not have sex outside marriage but I felt it's not as common and as easy as the movie made it appear to be. Well perhaps I'm too critical in this. I also wonder if the Indians really speak English that way, putting "most" before everything, like most definitely, most beautifully, most wonderfully :P One line that caught my attention ever since from the trailer was, everything will be all right in the end ... if it's not all right then it's not the end. It's like something that we have to keep on telling ourselves, isn't it? To keep the faith strong that all will be alright and fine.

So that's the movies I've watched recently. Except for Dark Shadows, I watched the rest of the movies on my own. I'm just in a real anti social mood now. I really don't feel like watching the movies with people though perhaps there are some in my world who are interested. I also don't feel like being asked for a movie and in the end having to be the one booking the tickets. I guess I find people to be quite boring these days. None really can come up with interesting conversation. So I would rather not spend some hours of my life wasting away hearing to boring stuff though of course as life is, I cannot help it many of the time :( These days, I am really most calm when I am in my room alone and be able to do my own things and not having to listen or answer to anyone. Life is not really a happy one for me right now and it's very hard for me to deal with it or to be more correct live in it. So as much as I can, I would just want to remove all unnecessary things which do not add to my happiness. None of this people actually bring something interesting or at least intellectual to my brain. If you argue, how about the comfort of friendship? Well yeah, not feeling that much as well. At the very least, I would appreciate intellectual, mind enlightening conversation but all I often got are people and their self centered issue :( I have issue too you know and did you hear me talk about it? No, because you are so absorbed in all the unimportant things in your life, even the tiny things. Ah I get all negative now. So I guess I'm gonna stop. Hope you guys have a great week ahead. Take care peeps!

:) eKa @ 9:27:00 PM •

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