Friday, November 9, 2007

ScreamFest & JiFFest

have something planned at the end of this year? better cancel those, because Jakarta has something more interesting for you to do, especially movie lovers. yes, for the first time, two big film events will be held continuously on the same month.

the first event is ScreamFest Indo. it is the first horror and animation film festival to be held in Indonesia. for the start, it will be held in two biggest movie theatres, Blitz Megaplex Bandung (23-25 November) and Jakarta (28 November - 2 December). be prepared for the tickets from 15 November, as it will be sold in membership system. for more information on the program and the list of the films, go to www.screamfestindo.com

after being served with some haunting and screaming, then comes Jakarta International Film Festival for you to chill out, starting from 7 December, until 16 December. different from above festival, this one has been held for 9 years so far, and it is considered as one of the most prestigious film festival in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta. currently not much information have been given in the website, but feel free to go to www.jiffest.org for future updates.

so, vacation? what vacation? it's time for you to hold your breath and fulfill your movie craving. see ya.

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Saturday, October 27, 2007

Levi's Mobile

Levi's Mobile is a perfect blend of technology and fashion. when I first heard of it, I imagined the phone will be covered in jeans. clearly I was wrong. delivered in 5 different metallic colours with a chain attached as the ornament, Levi's® has brought a whole different perspective of lifestyle by the unique design.

unfortunately, according to it's official website, the phone will be available for the European market only. it's a shame, the design is very catchy, and Asians love this particular aspect in their phones, apart from the technology, considering that Asia is the largest mobile phone market in the world.

Customisation
1 graphic theme
8 embedded ringtones
7 wallpapers

Music
MP3 Player
FM Radio
User Memory: 64MB
Expendable Memory: up to 2 GB (Micro SD)

Photo and Video
262 000 colours TFT screen - 220 x 176 pixels 1.8" pixels
2 megapixels camera with flash and zoom (x4)
Video player and recorder (MPEG4/H.263)

Connectivity
Stereo Bluetooth®
USB 2.0
Built-in Modem

Messages
SMS / MMS
Image formats supported: JPEG / GIF/ BMP
Sound formats supported: MP3 / WAV / MIDI
E-mail client

Tools
Phonebook: 300 contacts
Handsfree
3 games
Calculator, agenda, calendar, alarm clock, currency converter, stopwatch, world clock, voice recorder.

Main characteristics
Dimensions: 96 x 55 x 11 mm
Weight: 98g
Volume: 58cc
Talk time autonomy: up to 3H30 *
Stand by autonomy: up to 200 H *

Battery: Li-Ion 780 mAh
Triband

Technical characteristics
SAR (W/kg): 0,722**
WAP 2.0
GPRS class 8
JAVA MIDP 2.0

In-Box
THE ORIGINAL handset, battery, charger, stereo
headset, case, chain, user guide, PCSynch and data cable

for more information, go to http://www.modelabs.com/levis/

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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

The Kingdom

honestly, the only thing that attracted me to this film when I first saw its promotional poster was the involvement of Jennifer Garner as one of the leads. I'm a fan of Jennifer Garner, especially with his role as agent Sydney Bristow in TV Series Alias, one of my favourites. however, after seeing it's long trailer, my impression to this film dropped down several levels, because I was not quite engaged by what I saw, especially after knowing that Garner has quite a little part in this film.

clearly, the phrase "don't judge a book by it's cover" does explain a lot in every situation, including this one. watching this film is just like an unforgettable orgasmic experience. I first compared this as 2007's Blood Diamond, but looks like this one is quite a hit; both of them are good in different ways.

The Kingdom covers an investigation of the bombing in Riyadh by an FBI team, consisting of Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx), Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman), and Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper). The whole film itself is fictional, but it is actually based on the true even.

overall, I love how this film represents itself. I love how the ending completes the whole journey by its kickin-ass' quotes. I love how Peter Berg set and moderated all of his crews and casts for the realistic values of the film. however, probably the overusing of the active and dynamic hand-held camera is not quite a wise idea. it's good for gaining such tense, but most of all, during the movie I felt quite dizzy and sick because of the quick movements of the camera, and not even once in that film the shot is steady and calm.

bringing up terrorism and jihad as a theme, this film really shows us the ignorance of how humanity involves in our lives these days. ok, probably that sounds a bit cheesy, but at least that shows how I feel after seeing the film. Humanity can easily be erased by a lot of thing.

the various Islamic terms used in this film might be a problem in third world countries. society won't easily accept this film because of the sensitive issue. especially in my country, where most of the civilians are Moslem, a lot of censorship might occur, and various protest acts might also happen. fortunately, it seems impossible that this film is going to be banned in Indonesia, as the trailer has been shown in the cinemas across the nation.

Cast: Jamie Fox, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman
Directed by: Peter Berg

Written by:
Matthew Michael Carnahan
Country: US
Runtime: 110 min.

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Saturday, September 8, 2007

Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly

yes, I didn't make that up. that's the real title for an upcoming Indonesian film. weird, huh? but I'm sure it contains something to think about, something deep and meaningful, but I don't know what it is.

looking at the premise, this film will talk about Chinese generations in Indonesia. quite provocative and sensitive, i guess.

according to several sources, Blind Pig is about 8 characters in mosaics, connected to each other. all of them cover the same racial issue in Indonesia, regarding Chinese in several different backgrounds. probably this kind of style may be compared with the award-winning Babel and Crash for the satirical and nonlinear film.

apparently, this can be described as an innovation in Indonesian film industries; the uniqueness of the theme, the courage of the filmmaker to raise the sensitive issue (salute to Edwin), and the use of the unique title. however, I'm a bit worried that the government will have a reason to ban this film, because of the controversies that can be made out of it. yeah, a lot of bad things have happened in Indonesia and the people are too hypocrite to let them out of the cage.

looking at the cast, probably some of us have already known Ladya Cheryl, the chick from the old AADC school. recently, she was seen in one of Edwin's older project, an award-winning short film entitled Kara, Anak Sebatang Pohon. now, in this film, she is one of the main characters, together with several names, such as, Pong Hardjatmo, Carlo, Clairine Baharrizky, Lisa, Daren, Joko Anwar (yes, that kicking-ass filmmaker), Wicaksono, and Andhara Early (the lady in red in the first Indonesian Playboy cover).

for the location, after looking at the trailer, some of you will probably notice that this film takes place in several Chinese spots in Jakarta and Surabaya, including the old-and-famous Glodok, Pancoran, and Jembatan Merah Surabaya.

because of its tight budget, according to the source, the film needs to be entered to several international film festivals first, so that the filmmaker will be able to get the money to promote the film.

right now the film is still in its post-production, and by the end of the year, the filmmaker (and also me) hope the film is ready to be released. for more information about this film, just go to this site.

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Selamanya (2007)

jangan kaget dengan nama production house yang menaungi film ini. gue sendiri sempet underestimate film ini karena melihat nama penulis skenarionya, Sekar Ayu Asmara yang melahirkan film sekelas Pesan Dari Neraka, dan juga produser film ini, Raam Punjabi, yang notabene adalah penjahat kelas nasional karena telah menghancurkan bangsa ini dengan memberikan tontonan televisi murahan dan tidak mendidik, di bawah bendera Multi Vision yang benar-benar tidak bervisi. namun setelah gue melihat reviewnya di website kebanggaan kita bersama, sinema-indonesia.com, yang dengan beraninya memberikan tiga bintang untuk rating film ini, gue jadi berpikiran lain lagi, oleh karena situs tersebut kebanyakan mencerca film-film indonesia, dan yang diberi bintang bisa dihitung dengan jari.

ternyata benar dugaan gue. bukan sekedar sugesti dari situs tersebut, film ini memang memberikan sesuatu yang lain, meskipun ceritanya cukup corny dan akting beberapa pemainnya betul-betul sinetron-ish dan tidak bisa dimaafkan begitu aja. lihat aja si Dimas Seto itu. bisa apa sih dia di film ini? sepertinya sinetron udah menjadi tempat yang terbaik buat dia.

kalau mau jujur, sebetulnya plot cerita Selamanya hanyalah sebuah perpaduan sempurna dari film ternista Heart, dan slogan "Jauhi Narkoba!" (di Cianjur, bahasa Inggris slogan ini adalah "Hide Drug!"). namun yang membuat film ini lain dan terangkat derajatnya adalah kualitas penggarapannya yang rapi dan catchy, serta akting Julie Estelle dan Masayu yang sangat mencuri perhatian dan patut diacungi jempol.

sejatinya, Selamanya bercerita tentang sepasang kekasih, Aristha dan Bara yang telah terpisah lama, dan kemudian dipertemukan kembali dalam keadaan masing-masing yang bertolak belakang. Aristha adalah pecandu narkoba akut yang sedang berjuang mempertahankan hidupnya, sementara Bara adalah mantan pecandu yang kini bekerja sebagai konsultan di salah satu panti rehabilitasi narkoba dan sedang mempersiapkan pernikahannya dengan kekasih barunya.

mungkin sebagian dari kita setelah membaca premise tersebut akan berpikir, film ini jadinya terkesan menggurui dan cengeng. jangan salah dulu, karena setelah menonton, pendapat gue justru berbeda 180 derajat; film ini memang menggurui dengan 'slogan'nya tersebut, dan cengeng dengan segala air mata dan teriak-teriak umpatan Aristha, namun semua itu dikemas dengan sangat menarik sehingga elemen-elemen tersebut dapat dilupakan. untuk ini, sang sutradara, Ody C. Harahap, beserta tim kreatifnya patut berbangga. sinematografi yang ciamik dan editing yang oke banget (namun sayangnya di beberapa bagian terlihat putus-sambung, kemungkinan karena tindakan pemotongan oleh badan sensor kurang ajar itu) menjadi titik terang film ini.

gak hanya itu, kualitas akting Julie Estelle pun betul-betul mengalami penigkatan drastis di film ini. teriakan-teriakan umpatannya terasa begitu nyata dan gak dibuat-buat. beda banget dengan teriakan "babi loe!" milik Luna Maya di Pesan Dari Surga. demikian halnya dengan Masayu, aksinya sebagai penari striptease dengan berbagai kostum merupakan hal yang langka dan tidak dapat kita simak melalui layar kaca.

namun sayangnya, di film ini masih terdapat beberapa hal yang cukup mengganjal dan terkesan gak mungkin banget, seperti bagaimana mungkin dengan pekerjaan Bara sebagai konsultan narkoba dan kakaknya yang penari, mereka berdua mampu membeli rumah mewah dengan kolam renang? (mungkin rumah itu peninggalan orang tua mereka? atau sang art director tidak mampu menemukan lokasi yang pas, selain stok alamat rumah yang diberikan Raam yang biasa dipakai di sinetron-sinetronnya?), dan juga mengapa Bara yang awalnya hanya pecandu malah dipenjara, sementara Aristha yang pengedar dan seharusnya mendapatkan hukuman lebih berat malah hanya melewatkan beberapa jam saja di kantor polisi? oh well, kesan sinetron memang masih gak bisa lepas juga dari film ini. damn you, Raam!

kesimpulannya, film ini memang bukan film Indonesia terbaik untuk tahun ini, namun sepertinya film ini lebih patut dilirik ketimbang Bukan Beha Biasa (atau kami menyebutnya Bella Bagusan Bugil), dan film-film menyedihkan lainnya. at least film ini masih patut untuk ditonton.

Pemain: Julie Estelle, Dimas Seto, Masayu Anastasia
Penulis: Sekar Ayu Asmara
Sutradara: Ody C. Harahap
Produksi: Multi Vision Pictures
Negara: Indonesia
Durasi: 90 menit

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