Oscar: Winner or Long-Overdue

The Oscar has been spawned with controversies for as long as it has been held. There would always be spark of arguments between film buffs even weeks after the award show. Subconsciously, it helped to buffed the Oscar's popularity that it now being claimed (and called) as the most prestigious award for film in the planet, though that many film buffs claimed that he/she doesn't care about Oscar, you could safely bet that they would goggling over the results and made a sarcastic or an approval comment to the list.

Ever since 1999 Academy Award (when Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture), this year's Academy was probably the year when i had less, even closer to no refusal tantrum over the winners. Yeah, some occasional inevitable ripple sure to be happen. After all, it was SOMEONE ELSE's taste not mine. There would be some disagreement here and there. Alas, there also has been known that Oscar often gave award to those who had accomplishments in the past years (or long overdue Oscar) rather than gave award to the Real Winner of the year. I, personally think that this was the case with the recent winner for Best Director and Best Picture, Martin Scorcese and his The Departed.

And the question remains, was Mr.Martin deserved his Oscar?

Ask film-mania everywhere. Ask those who had seen at least six films from Martin Scorcese. Ask them, whether The Departed was his best film or not? If you asked me, i would firmly and quickly, at that, said no. Not even close. From the top of my head, here's the list of my favorite films from Mr.Scorcese.
1. Goodfellas (1990)
2. Raging Bull (1980)
3. Gangs of New York (2002)
4. Mean Streets (1973)
5. Taxi Driver (1976)
6. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
7. The Departed
8. The Aviator (2004)
9. Kundun (1997)
10. The King of Comedy (1983)
11. Cape Fear (1991)

All i'm saying is, it was on a rather rare occasion if you ever heard that someone said, The Departed was Mr.Scorcese's best work that it finally earned him an Oscar. It was said that the Academy just given him an Oscar long overdue. Goodfellas should have been won. And so did Mean Street. And what the hell? Gangs of New York loses to Chicago!. For over 40-years of his career, Mr.Scorcese has been nominated six-times in directing category. Thus earned him a title which he could finally undone, "One Great Director who has never won an Oscar".

Well, that's Oscar, you don't give an award to the very best of that year. Many tids and bits which often not that significant in the art of film-making comes into play. After all, the members of the Academy that gave their votes and ultimately decided who won, and who lose, were also human. All in all, i'm just glad that finally, after all these years, and these magnificent films, Mr.Scorcese finally had his golden statue.

The 79th Academy Awards

As usual, when it comes to the award show, i would only list the some of the awards that i personally considered as 'important'. Let's begin.

Best Make-up
Pan's Labyrinth - I'm torn actually. After watching Apocalypto, i had a very good reason that this film would win the best make-up award. On the other hand, Pan's Labyrinth was my favorite film of the year. But of course, despite the almost real tribe skin piercings, and accessories, it would easier to comprehend, appreciate and memorize the achievement in make-up in the presence of "Pale-Man" and "The Faun" from the Pan's Labyrinth.

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) - Hahaha, eat that, Eddie (Murphy)! No offense, but i dont like Eddie Murphy and after he had won in the Golden Globe for this category, it would seem that his train was en-route to the Oscar statue. So, imagine my delight when Alan Arkin of Little Miss Sunshine won this award at the Oscar instead. Fun Fact: If you know his character's name in Little Miss Sunshine, it would means that you're a very very attentive person. I myself, only knew him as "Grandpa" in that film.

Best Animated Feature
Happy Feet - As expected. The best animated film of 2006. Though to be honest, i want Monster House to win. Well because, at least of all the nominees, only Monster House that features animated human (not talking cars, nor talking penguins).

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Departed - All i could say is, Children of Men has been robbed.

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Pan's Labyrinth - Again, Children of Men has been robbed. But hey, again, i remind you, Pan's Labyrinth was my favorite film in 2006. So, no biggie.

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
The Lives of Others (Germany) - Argh! Of all the things that Pan's Labyrinth has swept in the evening, the main category that i would very much expected Pan's Labyrinth to win was in this category. But yet, it would seems that post-apocalypse Nazi regime during World War II still has its charm. And yet again, the Academy seems still reluctant to recognize a genre called fantasy.

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls) - I still dont understand all the hypes that accompany her and her film, anyway, if anything, this was a true ultra-rare case of American Dreams. From a regular Jane, to an American Idol contestant, to an Oscar winner. It would've been a dream to many. And to actually realize it, well...

Best Original Screenplay
Little Miss Sunshine - Yes

Best Actor and Actress
I wrote this before the announcement even begin to show that these two spots has been reserved for the King and the Queen. Yea. No surprises. Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland and Helen Mirren in The Queen won the best actor and best actress in a leading role award respectively.

Best Director
Martin Scorcese (The Departed) - Finally. So many years, so many great movies, his first Oscar. And the Academy was grateful enough to present the award via Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola. Each was known as director with great achievements. It would seems that these three was a family of high-rank directors (remember, i'm not agree with this statement. I personally would put Mr.Scorcese higher with names like Robert Altman, Stanley Kubrick, and Alfred Hitchcock) and they were welcoming the newest family member. *Sob* My heart was swelling.

Best Picture
The Departed. Rather perfect closure? Though i had expected some surprise to see Little Miss Sunshine win, i liked this film, even more than its original conception (if only, Andy Lau wasn't in it, it could be different) and to see this film win best picture and best director, it would seem that i was on a mission, and it has been accomplished.

Well, the party's over, follow the green light to your right to head for an Exit, and see you next year. It was a good year for film, and in my opinion, far better than 2005, and 2004. Hopefully that this year would be a yet another better good year for film.

Film Review: Ghost Rider (2007)

My first film of 2007 release.

There were two kind of heroes, a hero in the path of true good fighting a true evil with ultimately a good nature. Example to this kind of hero was Superman, and in a certain extent, most of comic heroes, such as Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, whoever. The second one was my preference, an anti-hero. Those who thread the thin line between good and evil. These anti-heroes usually had a desire to do something considered as not-good such as revenges, grudges, ignorances, and so forth. Many may not agreed, but i considered Batman as an anti-hero. Thus, Batman Begins was my favourite superhero film. My second favourite film was another anti-hero, Hellboy. And i've been busy bashing those who for some unknown stupid reasons dont like Hellboy.

Ghost Rider has a potential to be another anti-hero film that i would like. But no, i merely give it a nod. Give it to the hand of capable of good writer and it would fare better. But instead of choosing some capable writers, the Marvel's mastermind, Avi Arad, chooses Mark Steven Johnson who has been proofed himself - at least to my eyes - that he's not so good a writer. Consider Daredevil or Elektra. This film has a similar repetition to Daredevil or Elektra (from little that i had remembered), corny dialogs, MTV-style zoom-in zoom-out, fast-forward-slow-mo shots, uneven pace, and corny dialogs (yes, i wrote it twice).

The only thing that i considered good in this film was the special effects (cheesy but enjoyable to watch), and Nic Cage. Mr. Cage has been a huge comic fan. His name (Cage) was taken from another Marvel's superhuman Luke Cage and he has been waiting for his chance to land in a role of superhero. And of course he would delivered Jhonny Blaze with passions. And as everything done in passions, the result would usually good. If you liked special effects, this film won't disappoint. Your kids might like it too, just be sure to accompany them because Eva Mendes was so sexy and desirably inviting.

Speaking of Eva Mendes, this girl would add another name to a list of failed superhero's female sidekick (or love interest). Not since Kim Basinger (Batman) or Selma Blair (Hellboy) had i seen these female roles delivered rather nicely.

All in all, this is just another B-class superhero film. Certainly not one to get craved into memory despite all the nifty special effects. The story would look good in comic book, but it was certainly laughable on screen.

My Rating: ** / ****

Film Review: Apocalypto (2006)

I need to revised my top 10 films of 2006 because this film would rank high on that list (though it shan't disturbed the top 2 positions - Pan's Labyrinth and The Departed). Mel Gibson was an eccentric character as an actor, director, and producer. Not my favourite, but he was literally everywhere. He was in a warm felt rom-com film, his geeky adventurer character was also one of my favourite, he's in one of my favourite trilogy quadrology inter-racial cop stories, and i also liked his Payback. That was him as an actor. As a director, Braveheart blew me apart as one of the earliest films that i've seen (with earnest) on the beginning of my journey in the path of film voyeur. As a producer and director, he had a huge, a huge, a huge financial success with his The Passion of the Christ. He must've been one of the richest man in the world when the The Passion of the Christ hit the theater. His followup (as a director, producer, and writer) to that film was another film that entirely devoid of English language dialog.

Apocalypto told about the beginning of the end of Mayan Empire. But, the main story of this film was the raging between one powerful tribe with the lesser tribes. This powerful tribe raids the villages, captured the citizens (alive, is possible) to be sacrificed in an high altar. This film was released by Disney. But there is nothing Disney-ish in this film. The film was bloody, brutal, and violent. And i love it. I can't tell you more about the main plot lest i would ruin your experience. All i can say is that the film was concluded with one of the most intense lengthy chase scene.

The film was (as with most film) clearly divided into three segments. The first segment begin slowly but effectively as we're introduced with the protagonist, and i'm sure that most of us would be effectively bond with him before the first segment ends. The second segment (the conflict) introduces us to the two main antagonist, also went effective as we wanted to see these two dead in the hand of our hero. Probably we wanted to see the dead of one of them more than the other, well, you get the point, we wanted to see them dead anyway. And the third segment as i told you, one of the most intense chase scene.

I had only one objection regarding this film, that the violences were most of the time happened off-screen. Understandably since this is not the film that focused on brutality. But, if we're talking about uncivilized ancient tribes, we should have seen more violence. However, there were some hinted off-screen tortures, rapes, or killings that made my imagination plays wildly which proofed that the approach taken by Mr.Gibson to shows the violent was effective.

All in all, this film is not for everyone, this film is a forceful, intense, and violent film which would please an action/adventure film fan. I really need to see this film in big screen.

My Rating: **** / ****

Capsule Reviews: February 2007

The Prestige (2006)
This film is a perfect example of how a superior personification - that is, acting - and an adept storytelling could really made up for an otherwise sloppy script and a big d'uh ending (which was a final showdown between two main characters who explaining the twist to each other but, in a manner that instead of telling each other about their respective secret, they are telling it to us, audience. It was a big no and a big d'uh in my part). Many respected viewers and critics out there who love this film, and recommended it as 'a must-see', 'one of the best film in 2006', bla-bla-bla. Me? I choose not to be treated as a dumb audience. It was the fact that i was a recent fan of Mr.Christian Bale that i deemed this film as a merely watchable. My Rating: *1/2 / ****

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Khazakstan (2006)
A lot of hype to this film, and for what? nothing. Let me spell it for you. N-o-t-h-i-n-g. I felt like am watching Jackass: The Movie masquerading behind a thin plot and a pretence of a self-important comedian who thought that he could delivers some smart sarcasm to its viewers. A lot of you may hate me for this, but Borat is not even funny. What's so funny about two men wrestling and play catch and chase through a hotel lobby naked
anyway? Hey, at least i could still had a few laughs with Jackass: The Movie. My Rating: 0 / ****

Clerks. (1994)
A film with no obvious purpose. It was just a chunk of life in a single day of the lives of two twenty-something clerks. One was a clerk at a small local convenient store, and the other was a clerk at a small local video rentals store a few feet away. The events of this film could easily happened to one of us (especially, if we're happened to be clerks). Well, not exactly. But given the right character and right time, it might. Anyway, the length of this film filled with daily conversations without any obvious intention of comedy. It just that some of the characters were wicked (or smart) enough to steer the course of 'daily conversations' into something that either laughable because it's simply funny, or because it's so smart it's funny. This is actually the first time i've seen Clerks even after it seems like everybody had enough topics to talk about the film especially during the release of Clerks II sometimes last year (which i would hope to get my hands on it soon), and i was in a good enough mood to do repeats. My Rating: *** / ****

Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
There's something i hate about current youth culture involving cineplex. Most of the youth nowadays felt that if they had paid some several ten thousands rupiah, they could treat the public place such as cineplex into their own private living room. During 'Curse', i had to suffer through such annoyances. These youths were munching their chips, popcorns with deliberate noise. I, for one, without any means to boast, only ate my chips during the trailers show. Well, anyway, not just those eating noises, there were also some inconsiderable parents who thought that it was okay to brought your infant (INFANT) to sit in the dark for an hour and an half. Moreover, some lovebirds who thought that it was okay to had a couple-conversations in the theater (there's a reason of why they had invented candle-light dinners! munchbunch!). Further, there were those teenages who can't appreciate the sight of a beautiful breast with inviting cleavage without any delusional illusions. Didn't they read that this film was rated R? which means that any kid whose not mature enough (those who's not mature enough to silently appreciate breasts and cleavages) shouldn't be kicked out of the theater. And need i tell you about teens and their handphones? All in all, i had made a note to myself: Never. NEVER go to the Detos' 21 Cineplex on a bright Saturday evening. The film was okay, by the way, not one i would expect from re-collaboration of Zhang Yimou - Gong Li after ten years apart. Aside from Gong Li's performance and Chow Yun-Fat's badass stellar performance nothing worth to mention from this film. However though, with those annoyances, i might can't appreciate the film from what it really was. My Rating: ** / ****

Capsule Reviews: Disturbing Movies

This post herein contains many disturbed scene imagery. If you had a weak spot for horror films (let alone a disturbing exploitative films), it's in your best interest to skip this post entirely.

Saw III (2006)
There was this kind of machine with mechanical hands that grip a woman's ribcage. When the woman's failed to meet the requirement to obtain the key that's going to release her from the machine, the mechanical hands swung outward, literally rips the ribcage from the woman, killing her instantly, and let us, audiences see the inner organs of the dead woman (this version - where the shot came from the front - was unrated, the theater version shows this process - rip the ribcage - from behind the victim). That was one of the machine featured in the Saw III, third and latest installment in the life of Jigsaw, a serial killer whose obsessions was to build a wicked mechanical device to conduct various torture to his victims. I had waited for several months actually to watch this film. Because with all the hypes that has been going around this film, i had thought that it takes a lot of courage to watch this film. I was wrong. Saw III's torture scenes were well done, but the actual shoots weren't. It was a MTV's styled zoom-in zoom-out, fast-forward that followed immediately by a slow-mo, or vice-versa, that rips-off the suspense. And though some scenes received a rather lengthy camera focus, it wasn't sufficient to made me hide behind my pillow - which i had to admit, was close at hand. In short, i was rather disappointed with the overall presentations. I had expected a gorier and more suspense. It was in par quality with Saw II but not enough surprise to surpass the first installment. Though i had to give thumbs to the script writers who were able to wrote a coherent timelines with the previous two installments. The fact that the idea of a trilogy hadn't occured until Saw I's surprise financial success was all but give more kudos to the team. It was interesting to guess (as it already happened) what kind of back-drop story to the fourth installment which consistently scheduled to release on October 2007.

By the way, Saw III hit the local theater this week. Though you can't expect much of it (some footage would clearly be censored), but i think that it would be a worthy experience.

Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh and Blood (1985)
Rather disappointed with Saw, i dare myself to watch this film. The result was, i hadn't been able to sleep with lights off for couple of days. This film has been infamous especially with the help of none other than Charlie Sheen. Rumor has it that after seeing this film, he called FBI, and said that in Japan some murder has take place, and the murder was well documented.

The plot to this film was so simple that it could be well ignored (only 42 minutes running time, by the way). A woman walking home at night is attacked by some unknown stranger and as she wakes up, she found herself chained in a bed, and this stranger slowly, i repeat, SLOWLY dismembered and disemboweled her. During this 40-is minutes i kept telling myself that it's only a movie. It's only a special-effect. But my, it was very very well done. It's magnificent how much one could do with latex. And as i told you, i had nightmares after i've seen this film. I had this film from several years back, but i only managed to gather enough courages to watch it recently. For those of you interested go to this site. This film was available to download from the site. I was about to watch Cannibal Holocaust, but after i've seen this film, i think i would stick to regular movies for a little while for now.

New Job

I've got two simple choices to made during the last two weeks concerning of whether i should switch job or not. And of course, i had to list all the pluses and minuses of the two. The decisions, however was not that hard to made.

The minuses of new place:

• Ten kilometers further north, which took me a total of 90 minutes riding instead of the usual 45 minutes.
  
• The foods were rather pricey.
  
• The pressure was harder (i was immediately assigned as a team-leader slash project-manager).
  
• The working hours were significantly less flexible.
  
• No mini-market nearby (which means, no afternoon snacks).
  
• No TV!!!!!.
  

The pluses of new place:

• More opportunity to learn something new.
  
• Finally, started a project from beginning, and not merely fixing old projects written by someone else.
  
• Further exposing myself to the world of open-source technology with which i had had a terrible itch.
  
• Had my very own desk.
  
• A 30+% salary boosts plus benefits.
  

Well, it's not really a hard decision at all to jump from my lousy yet comfortable job to the more challenging and demanding job i'm in from now on.

Mood Swings

Sometime around 3 pm today, I was elatic, optimistic and smiling gaily. It took only several minutes to turn me into a grim, pessimistic and muttering angrily as i am right now.

I feel so sad, so alone, with nothing nor nobody to anchor my despairing feeling. And once again, i drifted alone, raging storm ahead and above, crushing waves below and behind.

Film Review: The Host (2006)

Unlike every other mosnster films out there, The Host didn't tried to obscure the monster. We see 'it' in a broad daylight right at the very beginning. Further, if anything, to label The Host with a 'monster film' meant to scare would be an over-simplification. While other monster film relies on gore, blooded execution of its victim, and surprise element, The Host relies on drama, the feeling of loss suffered by their main characters. And that's why, your reviewer here loved this Korean film. And oh yeah, did you know, that The Host was the most seen film in South Korea of all-time? However, I missed the screening of this film at the last Jiffest (it only screened once).

Park Gang-du was a dim-witted, not so intelligent father who worked at his dad's food store right beside the scenic River Han. He slept at work, lazy bum, and never quite do the right thing when it come to work. But one thing for sure, he loved his daughter, more than anything. And when the Host monster abducted his only daughter, he set himself on a voyage to the sewers on River Han to search of her whereabouts. He was not alone of course, his father, his brother and his sister, all of whom (the siblings) indicated to had nill respect toward each other, had broke down when little Park Sung missing. As it was certain, little Park Hyun-seo was one thing that kept this rather dys-functional family together.

Again, if you dont like being frightened or surprised by oh so-called 'horror' movies, this film was quite the opposite. As i've said earlier, i rather inclined to the drama side of this film. How we see Park family who dedicated themselves to find their loved one. But even so, there were some scenes that would surely made you chewed your finger nails and whispers, "Come on! come on! come on!", there were some black comedy which in my case made me laugh bitterly. Though the ending scene was rather - action-wise - dull and predictable, it - drama-wise - was also satisfying, that if i was in charge of the script, this is how i liked the film to end as well. It doesn't cheat.

I just heard that in Bandung, you'd get to see 'The Host' in big screen (oh, how i envy you guys!) via Blitz Megaplex. Rumors had said that Blitz Megaplex would arrive in Jakarta on October 2006 but i didn't see the whiffs or smell the whaffs of it until now. All in all, folks, this is a film that wouldn't dissapoint. And again, trust me, though it features a monster the size of a small-truck, this is not a horror-film, just a herartbreaking family drama with a little touch of thrills.

Servis Ketik Nama

Sejak hampir dua tahun yg lalu, setiap bulan, gw menyetor sejumlah uang ke BNI. Rekening siapa ndak perlu tahu, yg pasti bukan rekening gw pribadi. Nah, sebelum gw kerja di daerah Blok M sini, gw melakukan kegiatan perbankan ini di BNI Cab. UI Depok. Gw inget, pertama kali gw nyetor, gw ngisinya di flip setoran tabungan biasa. Waktu itu ditanya sama teller-nya, "Mas, ada bukunya?", kujawab ini bukan rekening saya. Responsnya waktu itu, "Oh, kalau begitu pake slip kiriman uang". Ah, walaupun agak2 slip di logika gw (perbandingan, gw nyetor ke Bank Muamalat, bukan rekening gw pribadi juga, pake slip setoran tabungan biasa masih diterima), i mean, gw nyetor sejumlah uang ke rekening BNI di BNI, kenapa gw harus pake slip kiriman uang? Pun begitu, kuturuti maunya mbak teller waktu itu, dan udah jadi habit sampai sekarang. Terus tentu saja, ga lantas menyetor sejumlah uang bisa bebas langsung pergi, ada fee yg harus dibayar, which is sebesar dua ribu lima ratus rupiah. Ga terlalu mahal, misalnya kalau dibandingkan dengan servis serupa di BCA misalnya (duluuu banget, jaman masih mahasiswa, gw menyetor ke rekening BCA pribadi gw yg keluaran cabang Blitar, melalui kantor cabang Depok, di-charge tiga ribu rupiah, ga tau sekarang).

So, time flies, dan kepindahan gw dari Depok ke Blok M membuat gw memindahkan aktifitas perbankan bulanan tadi dari BNI Cabang UI Depok ke BNI Cabang Melawai yg within walk distance from my office.

Di BNI Cabang Melawai ini, ternyata fee-nya lima ribu rupiah! untuk servis yg sama. Waktu itu, gw mikirnya, ah, mungkin karena nominal yg gw setorkan lebih banyak jadi lebih mahal, well, oke lah. Jadilah, gw setiap bulan melakukan aktifitas perbankan tadi dan fee yg sebesar lima ribu rupiah pun sudah bukan jadi annoyance tapi udah jadi acceptance.

Kemaren, however, gw berangkat kantor agak siangan, dan mampir ke BNI Cabang UI Depok untuk melakukan ritual bulanan ini. Pas di depan teller gw udah menyiapkan sejumlah uang yg mau gw setor ditambah lima ribu rupiah buat fee service-nya. Tapi, alangkah terkejutnya ketika si mas teller-nya bilang, "Biaya-nya dua ribu lima ratus rupiah ya, mas." I was like, he? Terus, gw bercerita kalau biasanya gw setor di BNI Cabang Melawai dan biasanya dikenai biaya lima ribu rupiah. Mas teller-nya sambil menginput data transaksi berkata, "Oh, itu kalau misalnya mas mau setor tapi nama pengirimnya diketikin, kalo nggak ya, dua ribu lima ratus saja." Oke, tapi kenapa selama di BNI Cabang Melawai gw ga pernah ditanyain apakah gw mau nama pengirimnya diketikin atau tidak dan langsung diminta lima ribu? Gw tanyain lagi hal itu ke teller-nya. "Sebenernya, mas, itu kewajiban kita untuk memberi tahu pelanggan. Dan sebenernya mas pake slip setoran aja juga bisa." Yah, tidak menjawab pertanyaan gw sih, lagipula dulu gw make slip setoran disuruh ganti. Tapi nanti kalau gw ke BNI Cabang Melawai dan diminta lima ribu, gw akan minta supaya nama gw ga usah diketikin, lumayan menghemat dua ribu lima ratus. Lagipula, dua ribu lima ratus untuk mengetik nama R-H-A-M-A, hmm, lima ratus perak untuk tiap hurup. Bisa ga ya, gw minta dibayar per hurup?