I watched a series of Indonesian movies in the past weeks and have some urges to write reviews for them (to rant, mostly). Since they’re Indo movies after all, I’ll write in Indo.

Eiffel I’m in Love

ARGH.. This movie is such a PAIN to watch! Nothing is done right! I say nothing! I have no idea that a teenage movie can be this BAD! (and I thought the novel was supposed to be good..) Everything is bad from unrealistic scenes, outrageous acting (like they’re reading from someone holding a board with the dialogue in the background), WHINNY voice (kenapa oh kenapakah cewe2 di pelm indo ngomongnya selalu seperti merengek2. and in this movie the girl MERENGEK for 180 minutes. my god..), the awkwardness of 15 years old couple (whose level of maturity is comparable to ones in primary school) - sebenernya suka tapi act all grumpy and play ‘hard to get’ (and I mean EXCESSIVE grumpiness up to being rude), mo minjemin jaket dengan NGELEMPAR ke kaki cewenya, udah ada di fancy resto malah NGAJAK MAKAN KE McD, sampe di bawah Eiffel cowonya keep complaining that he’s hungry malah ngedorong cewenya suruh beliin dia makanan kayak lagi ngomong ke sopir. ARGH. DISTASTEFUL.

Bener2 totally feel like watching 2 rich kids yang gak tau apa2. Spoiled brats. Paris and Eiffel were thrown out of nowhere for romance sake (maksa, in fact, there’s nothing even close to being romantic in this movie). The girl playing the movie looks so young, badannya ajah masih yang kurus2 gitu, and YET, she had kissing scenes numerous times. She’s like underage for godssake. And it’s not like the kissing scenes are even close to being realistic. One is at school under the MOST UNNATURAL RAIN in the movie I have ever seen! (It looks like a few people standing on the side with selang pemadam kebakaran showering the couple). One is at the airport! (And I thought it’s illegal to kiss in public in Indonesia?) The last time I was at the Jakarta airport, it’s weird and out of place to kiss openly like that. man.. One is in front of Eiffel Tower *roll eyes*. (Note to self: next time you make a story so helpless not even a divine being can make it better, just throw something to do with Eiffel or Paris, and BOOM, cross your finger it could turn out to be half-assed “romantic” movie consumed only by under-developed teenage girls)

I can go on and on about how unnatural and unrealistic all the scenes are. Even something as simple as the shoes of the main character. They’re bright pink! yeah right.. Where in heavens can you wear a bright pink pair of shoes di SMA Indonesia? I would’ve gone there. Not to mention the bags they’re carrying to school. All fancy and doesn’t seem to fit any book at all.

The only thing I quite enjoyed was the songs. I’m guessing they’re by Potret/ Melly Goeslaw, who I like. Too bad that she allowed a trashy movie like this to use her songs.

Enough said. I would save myself some self-inflicted pain by stopping here. I give this movie 1 out of 10. I gave 1 extra point for I cannot remember when was the last time I found a movie this unbearable and excruciating. The point is for that whole new experience. I finished the movie out of curiosity more than anything else. It’s almost interesting to see how much it can suck. And it sucks. It sucks bad. It sucks a long way. It’s suckiness to the max. Sucks.

Bintang Jatuh

Dian Sastro is in it. What else can I say? :) O well, in a way I think Distro is overrated. But sometimes I can sort of see why. I believe one of the reasons is her LIPS! She’s like Indonesian’s Angelina Jolie. Seriously. You can watch this movie and see, cuz they have a lot of her close-ups here. Well apart from that, she acts pretty good and somewhat has interesting face expressions.

I find the male main character is somewhat attractive. Although I feel that logically he’s not (cuz he’s like all skinny and doesn’t have nice face figure). But he has this charisma, I don’t know what and where and how. Anyway, I quite enjoyed the movie because of him too. Scenes and story are okay I guess. They’re believable to some points.

I give it 6 out of 10.

Vina Bilang Cinta

Ada Delon… He looks unbelievably nerdy here, but it fits his character in the movie well. Surprisingly, his acting was okay here (considering it’s his first movie and he’s a singer not an actor).

At first the main female character annoyed me a lot. She’s awfully and unrealistically grumpy. It’s unrealistic grumpiness. Who would be that grumpy all the time in real life? (kenapa oh kenapakah a lot of characters in Indo movies itu ketus dan sok jual mahal for no apparent needs nor reasons? It’s almost like a trend or culture.)

The scene that I like was this fighting scene between the two main characters outside a cafe (not fighting as in kung fu fighting, but arguing hehe). They can pull it off. Sampe lempar2 handphone. Walau bagusnya bukan karna lempar handphone nya sih. Tapi you can feel emosi yang naek dari kedua pemeran. Sampe treak2. huehuee..

I give it 6.5 out of 10. A tad better than Bintang Jatuh. Plus points include funny one-liners. Ada bbrp bagian yang bikin gua sempet ngakak2. Jarang2 lho buat pelm indo.

Alexandria

Another annoying movie. Bad acting, unrealistic scenes, unrealistic story. The main female character looks totally boring. One main male character looks like Ashton Kutcher, which is supposed to be good, but I don’t like Ashton. So… Not to mention his character is really annoying. I mean, c’mon, nyatain cinta ke cewe koq kayak orang marah2. What the hell? Childish beyond imagination. Belon lagi kenyataan kalo dia supposedly udah suka sama cewe ini sejak lama banget, and all this time never even had the guts to say ANYTHING AT ALL? Setelah tau cewenya end up sama temennya, dia mulai panik sendiri dan MENEROR mereka? Characternya sepertinya minta ditonjok deh.

The other main male character, on the other side, is quite decent (guy with short hair). At least he’s a treat here. Also the songs by Peter Pan. I’m guessing that the movie got recognized because of the soundtrack more than anything else.

I give it 6 out of 10, because at least they tried to make the movie interesting by complicating stuff, although at the end the elements didn’t quite work. Some plus points includes the graffiti, Ashton’s room decor, some stages like the one beside the river/lake and the kids’ corner with all dry leaves.

Cinta Silver

Deceiving title. It sounds expensive. Cheap movie. The main male character is, again, ANNOYING (surprise surprise). He’s so fickle minded, confused, and doesn’t know what he wants. He got this super pretty lady next to him and he DOESN’T EVEN TRY to make her happy (all along he’s supposed to have strong feelings for her and they had long history together). I think they want to portray him as a guy who’s all successful and busy, and therefore has very little time for life or anyone at all. But he ends up being simply ANNOYING. He picked up a phone in the middle of important argument with his girl, cut her, and talked business! Then he got physically close to OTHER girl (deket2 yang jijix gitu kayak uda mo ciuman), his girl caught him doing that and ran away, and he’s the one COMPLAINED about how having a girlfriend itu ngerepotin. WTF? I hate this guy. Stupid movie.

I give it 5 out of 10, because of, again, the songs (by Glenn Fredly!), Bali looks pretty, and at least the main female character is alright here. She’s not whinny, she’s tall, pretty, and reasonable. Just the guy was ruining everything.

Other than these, I’ve watched other movies like 30 Hari Mencari Cinta (tapi uda kelamaan, jadi lupa. I probably give it 6.5 out of 10 just bcuz it’s quite funny in a konyol way), and AADC (that, I LIKE :) Distro! Nikolas! Woohoo!! Still the best of all Indo movies I watched. Give it 8.5 out of 10. Excellent songs as well!)

All in all, I found guys in Indo movies are absolutely shallow and annoying (how many times have I said this word just in the last hour or so?). The girls are normally okay when they’re not so whinny or grumpy. Stories in general still have long looong way to go. They’re all super simplistic, predictable, and again, shallow. Tapi belon kapok sih, I will keep watching Indo movies, and hope for better :)

On a side note, the soundtracks are normally GOOD. I guess that’s what Indo is famous for and good at, singing. I have never met any Indonesians overseas that don’t listen to Indo songs. We can rant endlessly on other aspects, menghina the trashy novels or low quality movies, but songs, songs we listen.

Right now I would really like to watch I Love You Om (because of the out of ordinary storyline. But the guy playing is the same one from Cinta Silver. Oo noo.. I just have bad omen for him.. Even if he’s a good actor, he was totally making a mess of himself by playing in Cinta Silver), Pasir Berbisik (Distro! What else to say?! :), Gie (Nikolas! Yay), and Berbagi Suami (interesting topic). Some others as well, but I don’t have them on top of my head. I will continue to post the reviews later. Till then, good luck watching!

Before I forget, I’ve made my reading list for 2007. Didn’t put that many books on the list so I can put more later. Less ambitious than last year. hehe..

Woo.. almost a full month without post. Well you know how it is, Christmas, new year, next thing you know, you’re at the beginning of 2007. A lot of things have been happening for me, which I will not go into details for one reason or another. Let’s just say, if you remember my post about dogs and cats (below), I have found my home :)

On a side story, my colleagues are all agitated about me having a blog. I said I can’t tell them the address because I usually write about them on my SECRET blog (this one you’re reading hehe). They have no idea how easy it is to find it. My name is so unique that just by googling my first name, this website appears on the FIRST page. I have no idea why though. The only place where I put my name is that copyright statement at the end of some pages - not even pages of this blog. And as far as I know there’s nobody else linking my website using my first name. How weird. Note that it is purely coincidental. I never intend my blog to be that easy to find.

Anyway, I’m just teasing them around. I DON’T write about something that I don’t want any of them to see laa. But it’s not like I want them to roam around too. Sometimes it’s good to have seperate corner for different group of people ;)