The movie started quite "seriously", with a girl being haunted by voices coming out of no where. The girl was totally being “controlled” by the voice and she suggested to her teacher to produce a time-capsule. This is for her friends and herself to put letters and aspirations for their future generations to open it later.
She then wrote a long string of numbers on a piece of paper and her teacher, perplexed with what she saw, took the paper away and put it in the time capsule.
That was in 1959 and today, in the year 2009, the time capsule was re-opened. Prior to that, viewers were introduced to the Hero of the movie: Nicolas Cage. Old and serious in nature, he is quite suitable for the role as a father, a Physic Professor and an agnostic.
At the ceremony of the time-capsule’s opening, the letters were distributed to the schoolchildren and Nic Cage’s son got the letter with numbers on it. From that moment, the movie has gotten crappier than ever.
Nic Cage, a “professor” by his own right, try to solve those strings of numbers by relating it with accidents that killed a lot of people for example the 9/11, Madrid bombings und so weiter…
Then he predicted that another accident is going to happen and it did. And then another and then another.
The one thing that I like about this movie is its graphics. The plane crash, the subway accident and the earth being eaten up by the sun, excellent works of art!
Long story short, the aliens (where the voice originated) were actually not the bad guys. They were “angelic” in nature and tried to salvage the human’s generations by taking a pair of boy and girl into their large spaceship, in this case, Nic Cage son. And the funny thing is? Nic Cage, who solved the riddle of the numbers was being left behind by the aliens. He almost got into the space ship with his son but the aliens made gestures saying “NO, you cannot come with us, though you solve the problem, but you cannot, maybe because you are so hideous, we don’t like that in the new planet.”
So that’s was it, Nic Cage drove back to his home to be with his family for the last time before being eaten up by flames from the Sun. The End.
Makdi and I laughed away as the movie ended. Poor you Nic Cage. Hahaha..
This movie got 3 out of 5 stars? Hehehe..
Viewed on 11th April 2009
This time around, I am alone in watching the movie and it is a story from our neighbouring country, Thailand. It was about a nation named Langkasuka, located on the northern part of present Malaysia, which was ruled by a woman and her sisters during the 16th century or so. They were typically Malays in outlook but they spoke Siam (I once had this feeling went the last time I’ve visited Bangkok last year, Malay looking but cannot speak Malay, it was weird).
The storyline goes along love, magic and war. The state of Langkasuka were given two large artillery guns from the Dutch but the ship bringing it was sunk after a daring attack by the pirates. The pirates tried to retrieve them from the sea bottom but it was guarded by “magic” obor-obor.
They were also a group of sea gypsies living at the nearby island to the Langkasuka state. They helped the state by fending off attacks by the pirates against the state. In this group of Gypsies, came the hero of the story that was quite an “eye-candy”. He tried to learn the magical art of “Du-Lum”, an art that involved the sea creatures und so weiter. He got married to Bintang and one day Bintang was killed by the pirates and thrown into the sea. That made him “mad” and proceeded by learning the art of Du-Lum, the wrong way from the Du-Lum master on an island somewhere in South China Sea.
One of the surviving artillery guns designers stayed for years with the Sea Gypsies. This Chinese guy was eventually being captured the pirates and helped to them to built a few small powerful cannons. He was saved by the Langkasuka warriors and was brought to the state to built two powerful cannons and some other inventions.
Also throughout the story, there were “skirmishes” by the Langkasuka warriors as well as by the Sea Gypsies themselves against the pirates. One thing is there was no continuation from one plot to another and that sucks. Almost at the end of the movie, the pirates assembled a large army and tried to invade Langkasuka. The Queen of Langkasuka also prepared for a defensive position with her high-walled city. At one point, the pirates successfully destroyed all of the state’s small cannons but the attack was staved off by the two large cannons built by the Chinese inventor. The story ends with the defeat of the pirates after all the magic and bombs being used.
It was a total waste of time for anybody expecting a good Thai movie that involved history and actions.
As a whole 2 ½ stars out of 5.
Viewed on 8th April 2009
It was Wednesday. Makdi and I went to watch Fast and Furious and the hall was entirely “full-house”. No wonder, it was Wednesday Movie Day. Thunderous applause came as the movie started and though some of the viewers disliked such commotions,anyway, you don’t get that always right?
One thing is, I have never seated at the first line of seats, and those were the only seats that we could get. It was uncomfortable at first but as we go along the movie, it was still uncomfortable. So guys, buy ticket early, especially on Movie Day.
Frankly, I have never been an enthusiast of action movies involving cars. Starting on that note, the movie as a whole was quite average. The storyline is about a guy who involved in crime and one day found himself wanted to stop from doing it. His crime partner cum girlfriend was then found dead and he resulted in taking revenge on whomever the bad guy is, that is Bragas (really looks like a Bajau from Inanam).
Long story short, the hero teamed up with a policeman (the only nice thing to look at from the entire movie) and went up against Bragas. After a lot of killings and car chasing, Bragas was captured by the police and the hero ended up in jail. But at the end of the movie, the director gave a twist by giving the impression that the hero is to be rescued by his car-drifter friends. Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla…
The movie content great cinematic features with appropriate castings but the storyline was not that good. As a whole, 3 out 5 stars.
Viewed on 1st April 2009
For the 7th consecutive week, I went out to watch a movie at the GSC with Makdi. And now we went for the latest Yasmin Ahmad movie, Talentime.
As expected, Yasmin’s movie was about i) love ii) multiracial and religion Malaysia and lastly iii) family.
The movie espoused an almost totally unknown material of actors and actresses. Some are well known like Adibah Noor but most of them are unknown. The storyline was quite strong as it happens as it is expected to be but the “speed”, at times, can make you go to sleep. People called it “Artsy”. J
The settings were very “Malaysian”. It reminds me of my childhood in Johor Bahru, the old city with pre-war British architecture and the roads were filled with Malaysian made cars- the Proton and Peroduas. Even the school where most of the movie being filmed really looks like my school. If any Malaysians living outside of the country watched this movie, it was going to be very very syahdu…hehe.
Several mini-stories intertwined with each other that represent the feelings and aspirations of different races in Malaysia. The Malays- represented by the Azean Irdawaty (great acting!); Adibah Noor and Harith Iskandar family; The Chinese- represented by a Chinese schoolboy who was being pressured by his father and at first saw his Malay friend as being helped by the government but he was wrong; and the Indians- represented by the Jaclyn Victor family, poverty and killings.
The much anticipated scene where Azean died due to cancer, was not as sad as being said by other reviewers. (I heard my ex-lecturers Dr Noumie and Dr. Zaleha were “reportedly” cried, hehehe..)
So that’s it for Talentime and the OST was great!. 4 out 5 stars for this Yamsin Ahmad’s movie!
