Change Your Image
CaffeineJunky
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Sisu (2022)
A Spectacle of Absurdity and Awe
At its core, "Sisu" is an unapologetic homage to the one-man-army trope, reminiscent of the over-the-top heroics found in Telugu action films. The protagonist, Aatami Korpi, is a force of nature, a man whose survival defies logic, much like the heroes who walk away from explosions unscathed. His invincibility is both the film's strength and its Achilles' heel, offering a narrative that is as indestructible as it is implausible.
Yet, amidst the chaos of its plot, "Sisu" stands tall with its stunning cinematography and special effects. The film crafts a visual feast that can only be described as mesmerizing. Each frame is a testament to the filmmakers' dedication to creating a spectacle that captivates the senses.
Troll (2022)
Hollywood monster template
This movie uses the typical hollywood template. It just have different characters and different monster.
An expert in a subject matter, check. A narrow minded country leader, check. Bureaucrats trying to prove they're right, check. Military first approach, check. Inspirational speech, check.
If you watch this, you'll realised you've seen it before. It's just in a different language and the monster is different.
Character development is shallow. The story is very predictable and filled with cliches.
The only good thing I can say about this movie is that it's family friendly. A lot of good movies these days are M18 or R21. Finding a movie that's suitable for family with kids where everyone gets to enjoy is hard and this one fills that void.
1899 (2022)
If you appreciate the journey to your destination
Season 1 is long, sometimes felt unnecessary but look closer and almost every minute are beautifully crafted scenes. Watching this in it's original audio (without the dub but with the subs of course) makes it feel authentic. It felt true to the setting of an immigrant ship in 1899.
The first few episodes made me feel suspicious about almost every character. When the plot thickened, it took me yet to another journey of wonder.
The main selling point of this show is not really the story. It is the storytelling and the experience of having that story visually and audibly presented to me in an artful and crafted way really gave me a whole new experience of consuming a story. Of course having a proper Dolby Atmos sound system took me to another level.
I love shows that makes me think, wonder and imagine and this one really satisfied my thirst for that.
Keep Breathing (2022)
A trip into a troubled mind
I can see that some of the reviewers expected this to be a shallow story but this series is a trip, going into the mind of an adult with a traumatic childhood.
This is less of a outdoor survival story and more of how Liv Rivera, a lawyer, try to survive in a remote forest after a plane crash. Alone, with no food & clean water, only now she have the tranquility & time to reflect on the struggles and hurt of her childhood.
All the while before the plane crash, she wasn't able to accept & forgive the things that happened. While reflecting on her childhood, Liv Rivera have to fight her 'demons'. Through those flashback and reflections, she began to wisen up and remembers things she learnt as a kid to help in her survival in the outdoor as well.
The outdoor survival aspect of the series is quite realistic and the cinematography is beautiful.
Wonderful writing, directing and cinematography.
If you like a mind-trip writing like Memento, then you will probably love this.
Mat Kilau: Kebangkitan Pahlawan (2022)
It has potential but needs depth, breathing space & texture
This movie is shallow, peppered with preachy scripts and cliches.
It needs a better writer...
Character building is almost non-existent. The protagonist appeared out of nowhere, was thrown into a leadership role and started preaching about nationalism and religion. This is followed by a cliche drama where another character is envious of the chosen leader.
The preaching doesn't end there. It kept reminding you that the British were evil and tried to convince the viewers how important nationalism & religion were to them. This was done over and over again
This makes the protagonist one dimensional and they wasted such a good talent on this. Some of the minor characters have better development than the protagonist.
It needs breathing room...
Some of the scenes jump around too fast, it seems as though they were rushing it in the editing room. Perhaps to include more preaching into the scenes?
Need some realism....
The costumes are inaccurate. Modern clothing and clothing items were used and its so obvious, it will throw historians & anthropologist into a fit.
The British soldiers are filled with entirely 'Punjabis'. Obviously, this wasn't the case in reality.
To create epic fight scenes, they have Yayan Ruhian. But it seems they wrote his character as an after thought.
Conclusion...
If you don't care about good storytelling, character development, screenplay and accuracy, you will most likely like this movie.
If you appreciate good filmmaking and who goes to film festivals, you will want to skip this.
Don't Look Up (2021)
Satire that targets the TikTok generation...
... but unfortunately the TikTok generation can't watch it since it's R21. At least that's what the rating is in Singapore. I love the fact that Leonardo Dicaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep go out of their comfort zone to do a satire comedy. For someone who loathe the TikTok generation, this is gold. If you hate the fact that too many people are narcissistic and run an ego driven lifestyle then this is the movie for you. It'll reassure what you believe in and you can have a laugh at what the current generation is bringing to the table.
Another Life (2019)
There's still some hope left
An alien craft visit earth and park itself in an open field. Not before it wraps itself in crystal with RGB lighting and just idle for months. Meanwhile an earthling scientist decided to have a chat with it but it doesn't respond. He even tried to use pigeon speak to no avail. Throughout all this, nobody is seen touching the craft at all which puzzles me.
Meanwhile, the government decided to send people to the mother planet of the alien. To do what, I have no clue. I'm at Episode 7 and still have no idea. The earthling spacecraft sent to the alien planet is crewed by a bunch of whiny late teen drama queens who don't seems to be qualified for a mission that's supposedly critical to humankind.
Of course the whole story revolves around how the mission crew tries to get from point a to point b but too many drama ensues and too many things break, making the journey a very slow process. Because things in the ship break so they land on an unknown planet to mine for resources while being extremely careless about it which causes problems on the ship.
There's still some hope left to repair this series but I'm not holding my breath.
Ombak Rindu (2011)
At least its a better quality cliché
I would have to say that this film contains the common cliché that most Malay or Hindi films have. For that, the director is not to blame because this film is based on a novel. But the directors did a great job at choosing the right talent for the 2 main casts and that stops me from watching it half way.
Aaron Aziz & Maya Karin did a wonderful job playing their roles. Their convincing and realistic acting makes me forget that the plot is similar to most Hindi films. Unfortunately, the rest of the casts are such a contrast that it can become comedic when its not supposed to be so.
Another area I would like to compliment is the beautiful cinematography. The choice of scenic locations just adds on to enjoyment of this film. Unfortunately, the close-up cameras reminded me of the awful sinetron that my grandma loves to watch.
Sorry but I cannot stop commenting until I get to mention about the most irritating part. What the hell is wrong with the soundtrack? First of, it is too loud!! And secondly, why the hell does the soundtrack keeps repeating itself? Why keeps repeating the same loud song over and over again? Why Why Why??
This film is not without its flaws (and there are a lot of them especially the part where Izzah was about cry even before the news mentions her husband's name) but Aaron Aziz & Maya Karin performance is the reason why I am able to watch it the whole way through.
Taken (2008)
Over rated mediocre action movie
This movie is about a father who used to be some kind of agent for the U.S government. He's retired and settled down somewhere near where his daughter is, so that he can make up for the 'lost time' with his daughter while he was still working for the government. Almost immediately through the film, his daughter got kidnapped.
Now this is were the movie captured the audiences with emotions, causing massive over rating of this movie. Father and daughter relationship then daughter got kidnapped. That is the only emotional hook this movie can offer. Another strength of this movie is the action although there's too many cliché moves around it. Reminds me of Steven Seagal. Compare this movie to Bourne, this movie is like a rat and Bourne is a horse.
Apart from all those strengths, the movie has some major weaknesses. Maggie Grace can't act. The script was badly written. The character building was too brief. If it wasn't for the fact that Kim is the daughter of Bryan Mills, I wouldn't care if she got kidnapped. Like how I didn't care that Amanda got kidnapped or raped too because who the is she? She just appeared for a few minutes and got kidnapped. That is why character building is important, which this movie is lacking.
Step Brothers (2008)
Stupid but entertaining comedy
At least its not as stupid as most teen comedy. I have to say this is some kind of a cross between adult & teen comedy. Much of the scene involves trying hard to make the audience laugh by inventing unrealistic acts. Fortunately the movie is all about 2 40 year old who behaves like a kid, which is very unrealistic already. So I don't expect this to be the kind of comedy which I can relate to in real life and laugh about it.
The sex part annoys me very much because the lady keeps screaming and moaning loudly even though they're supposed to be discrete and I don't find it funny at all for her screaming and loud moan.
Bad part aside, I like how the story evolved from weird to happy to funny to sad, back to happy + some weird feeling and then funny. Even though this is a stupid comedy, there are some scenes which are quite moving. And best of all, entertainment level is high on this one.
Knocked Up (2007)
Heard of Romantic Comedy? How about Beautiful Comedy?
I wouldn't want to emphasize this movie as being a romantic comedy because the romance part was too short. But I really do want to say that this is a beautiful comedy because it emphasize a lot on the 'beauty of nature'.
This is the kind of movie where you should bring your partner to and at the end of the movie, both of you might actually try to say out the intelligent dialogs in the show, which are very intelligently funny.
Seth Rogen, as usual put up a superb performance and putting his dignity on the air again. Katherine Heigl's acting wasn't so bad either. Her years of acting experience really paid off.
Overall, this movie is a very realistic comedy to the viewer. If anyone would've experience the same situation, it wouldn't be funny at all. Of course a movie can't be all so realistic. There are parts at Vegas and love making scene wasn't that convincing. But it could've been a very nice family comedy if not for the excessive vulgarities and some nudity.
The New Guy (2002)
DJ Qualls have the potential
I can't believe I watch this. Maybe I'm too old for this or I've been watching too much comedy with Seth Rogen in it. That, coming from someone who can watch Road Trip over and over again. Writing is junk, directing is mediocre, camera work needs to be worked on and acting is somewhere between bad and tolerable. To be pessimistic, maybe this can be a stepping stone for rising celebrities, writers and directors.
But I have to say that DJ Qualls does have the potential to make it big in the comedy genre. He might even make it big in Drama if he quits being cast in a comedy such as this.
Overall, if you're below the age of 18, you might enjoy this movie. Older than that, you might have to find a true honest comedy movie.
P.S: The 4 stars is for DJ Qualls.
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Its an interesting American movie
I mentioned that its an interesting American movie because 6 of my friends and including me don't find it very appealing. One of the main reason is because we're not Americans and we can't relate to most of the funny scenes being played. It gets really confusing for me when I start to wonder if such a kid like Napoleon really exists in America because I totally cannot relate Napoleon to anyone I know of in my country because such a kid would've been in some kind of special school or some sort. I don't remember meeting any geeks when I was in school either.
But then I rated it as 6. It lost 4 stars from me because I don't think it may appeal to Asian. The 6 stars I gave is for the intelligently written scripts, for its creative directing and especially for the superb performance by Jon Heder. Oh yeah I also like the filmography. And also the creative intro of the movie.
Overall, its a nice movie to watch but if you're not an American, don't expect to be laughing out loud.
Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)
Beautiful Picture
This is such a brilliant movie.
I'm not the type of person who appreciate paintings but this movie makes me realize how beautiful paintings can be. Each scene is like a painting. Most part, you can just freeze the frame and turn a video into a photograph or a painting. I don't know why this movie didn't win any award for best picture but I really think it should.
The movie is also directed in such a way that if I replace their dialogs with musics, I can still figure out what the whole movie is about. The performance of the actors and actresses helped a great deal to make me truly understands the emotions of the characters in the story.